My new bebe.

Fender Rhodes Mark I Stage.  Loving the dirty.  Looking forward to learning more about the instrument, and how to clean/repair it as needed.   Sticky keys, noisy pots, and some cleanup.  But I’m pumped, eventually want to turn it into a hobby side biz – the demand for Rhodes techs in Toronto is always on the up.

People that know me well know that I talk about this instrument like it’s my Argentine lover.  Insatiable and unbridled enthusiasm.  The best thing my brother has given me since brotherhood.  Wuv woo Dave !

More of our news.

From Motown to Hoetown – rumblings of revitalizing downtown Detroit’s abandoned manufacturing buildings with urban vertical farming.  So deliciously socialist.  [Toronto Star]

A worthy incentive – Newark, NJ starts an incentive program to give low interest mortgages (and up to 5% of your down payment) if you live near your place of work. [Toronto Star]

Low-priced smiley faces replacing stars/stripes – American poll thinks Wal-Mart best symbolizes America.  Of course a sanctuary for economies of scale, competition, and low prices… but come on friends.  That could be even more sad than Canadians saying Tim Hortons symbolizes Canada. [Yahoo! News]

All day cookery.

Having some newly married friends over for a wedding gift dinner.  This will be my most elaborate yet methinks.

1st course – soup and salad – parsnip and cauliflower soup w pancetta garnish.  Arugula salad w pine nuts, pickled onion, parmagiano frico

2nd course – jumbo seared scallops with pea risotto

Dessert – homemade creme brulée with maple balsamic reduction, triple sec marinated fruit, Martini D’Asti.

My first time making creme brulee, it’s looking great so far.

The pic is from Pisces Gourmet, part of the Shops of Summerhill, famously known by locals as the Five Thieves.  Along with this amazing frou frou fishmonger, they also own Oliffe butchers, a fine food grocer, a flower shop and a french boulangerie, all to cater to the insecure and ultra-loaded.

Awful geeky photos will inevitably follow, clearly making myself less insecure by trying to show off.  Stay tuned.

Auto-tune the universe.

And you thought auto-tuning the news was worth your time.  I present Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking auto-tuning the cosmos (c/o YouTuber melodysheep).  It almost sounds like a Weird Al song, but deciding to follow in the footsteps of Bill Nye rather than a kindergartener’s fart machine.  Thanks to Trevor for the link.

Devendra vs. Phoenix.

Pitchfork just posted a beautiful Phoenix remix, by Neighbours and Mr. no fear Beard, Devendra Banhart.  A beautiful, down-tempo, well-arranged, non dancey (thank god for once) version of “Rome”, one of the best off Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Love the first minute and a half, mmm a lot.

Neighbours ft. Devendra Banhart – Rome (Phoenix remix)

Headstuck.

Two things on a Monday afternoon.

First, from HowStuffWorks.Com, why and how songs get stuck in our heads :

When we listen to a song, it triggers a part of the brain called the auditory cortex. Researchers at Dartmouth University found that when they played part of a familiar song to research subjects, the participants’ auditory cortex automatically filled in the rest — in other words, their brains kept “singing” long after the song had ended. The only way to “scratch” brain itch is to repeat the song over and over in your mind. Unfortunately, like with mosquito bites, the more you scratch the more you itch, and so on until you’re stuck in an unending song cycle.

Read the article here.

And my Monday contribution to the catchy song that’s been in my head for the last 5 days :

Ohbijou – Black Ice

AUX.tv

[via Torontoist]

When AUX TV launched online on November 24, 2008, it had an honest, simple mandate to support Canada’s exploding music scene, inclusive of genre and level of exposure. Right out of the gates, their programming included brand new music videos, exclusive interviews and performances, and full-length programs featuring some of new music and media’s foremost aficionados and figureheads.  On October 1, AUX TV will emerge from its nerd cave inside the internet and expand onto basic digital cable, where it will make instant Canadian TV history by being the first network to make a web-to-air transition and where it will deepen its still incalculable—but already promising—impact as it strikes while our country’s music-community iron is so very shit-hot.

Really, it’s a great DIY vibe music website that mainly features Canadian music.  Has some editorial input from Alan Cross as well.  Glad to see something just slightly different coming out of Toronto that actually seems successful.

I like TV.

This used to be an unpopular, almost shoegazing admittance.  Now it’s a much more popular point of view.  Many also think that we are currently in the (second) “Golden Age of Television”.  Something for everyyyyyyone!  I only felt this way recently too, when I realized that TV shows have done way more for me than movies have in a long time.  “Seen any good movies lately?”  No I haven’t thank you.  But I am watching Six Feet Under right now and getting thrown.  Still think almost all of the characters in The Office are great.  And you know how I feel about Top Chef.

Fall always brings TV freshness.  I just saw the premiere of Bored to Death yesterday.  Click that, because this is your new favourite show.  Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifinakis, New York, HBO, and smart comedy.  Told ya.  It was great.  Big networks are trying to copy HBO virtuosity but they automatically get watered down – NBC’s Community and Fox’s Modern Family.  Still good but not great.

My favourite show in the world right now is In Treatment.  So do you like characters ?  I really like characters, they’re the best.  You should really watch this show.  I’ve seen all of season 2 and just some of season 1, but mannnnnnn.  Talk about the most talented actors around, and the best writers to create these real human experiences.  1 on 1 for 30 minutes.  Gabriel Byrne vs. client of the day, and one day a week he visits his therapist to talk about himself and his clients.  Profound monologue vs. profound monologue.  Repeat.  Intensity, revelation, humanity, brilliance.  Who knew Gabriel Byrne could be this mind blowing ?  Truly.

So.  Shuck away my friends, shuck away.

Friends abound.

Band friends + school friend + small world Waterloo = mandatory M82 post.  KW champions Vacuity lend one of their best tracks to a mini-doc on the North House team, a group of university students and staff competing in the international Solar Decathlon project in Washington D.C. In a sentence, it’s an international competition where teams from all over the world compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient house.  Friend and UW grad student Ivan Lee is also an engineer for the project looking specifically at energy consumption/production.  Ivan has been nothing short of heroic working day in and day out (without credit !) on this.  Best of luck, have fun, allons nord !

TTC.

[via Toronto Star]

The TTC’s success has helped create a $17.4 million deficit.  Ridership is running at a record high, projected to hit 473 million rides this year, without even a recessionary dent. But revenue per passenger is lower because more people are buying cheaper, transferable Metropasses – at a loss to the fare box of about 3 cents a ride. Sales of discount senior and student fares are up as well.

So your books are millions of dollars short because ridership is up and loyalty is higher through increased monthly passes?  These $105 monthly passes are actually so popular that you’re relying on $2.75 single rides to keep you afloat because $105 isn’t enough money from the the hundreds of thousands of riders?  Really?  $105 a month from hundreds of thousands of people is giving you trouble ?

Montreal’s unlimited monthly pass for students (even university students can get one) is somewhere between $35-$50?  And TTC doesn’t even have a university student rate…. riiiight.  I’ll admit the TTC is better than STM, but $105 for a monthly pass is not a bargain, it’s nearing the maximum that riders would pay for monthly transit.  Guessing their primary cost is wages, as some TTC drivers and ticket-takers are earning over $100K.  Don’t get me wrong – they work hard, they take a lot of crap, and I believe that government is partially responsible for keeping the middle class stabilized.  $100K is not middle class.

And here’s what blogto.com has to say about it, and my stuffy brain agrees:

I smell a fare hike and a broken promise. Or a bunch of other broken promises. The TTC is really short on funds and the transferable Metropass is being singled out as the main cause of lost revenue… which is happening despite record high ridership numbers. How can this happen? They’re building new stations, increasing service, hiring a bunch of new staff, and… selling more Metropasses than ever? What’s worse is that one bloated, unionized city entity is likely to eat up the savings made when another unionized city entity went on strike this summer (and eventually was given wage increases and kept their sick day banking).

Some of our news.

• In the pursuit of cost effective desalination – public, potable water from the oceans – so… no more water problems ?

• Smart grid conservation/efficiency project cuts electricity usage by 20% – just some Googly software to reduce use by 1/5th

• Moving ahead on electronics efficiency rules – towards reducing wasted electricity from “always on” electronics

All from the New York Times Green Inc. blog.  That photo reminds me of the chemical plant that Superman saved in Superman III.

Cava.

Had an amazing dinner with C and Rochelle.  Cava is located just north of St. Clair on Yonge in the Delisle arcade.  It mainly does Spanish food, mostly tapas but some bigger dishes as well.  3 minute walks to quality – grateful.

Fried chili/manchego/white bean and weirdly textured salmon/avocado (fixed sic).

Had to get the charcuterie plate.  Wanted to get the prized Iberico ham, but will one day when I feel rich and special.  All meats aged/made in house.  Thuringer sausage, the best chorizo of the life, duck terrine, and duck bresaola (dry-aged/spiced duck breast).

Wild mushroom tamale and quail w pork belly and a corn/zucchini salsa.

Great birthday meal, probably the best.  Cava rocked, will definitely go again when feeling that aforementioned feel.

No blorg today, cause I’m so important.  No idea what we’re doing today, but hoping we end up at Cava.

Sweet technicalities.

Evidently, the CN tower is back in the Guinness Book of World Records.  As the world’s tallest tower, not the world’s tallest free standing structure.

TIFFtime.

One of the last evenings of the festival, C and I are going to see Road. Cara may or may not have thought the movie was The Road, and we got tickets for Road instead.  Hindi, not McCarthy.

So it’s this:

Not this:

Oh well, it’s still supposed to be excellent.  Happy Vendredis.  See you Samedi soir.  Yar!