[Toronto] exciting.

Even though these subway cars will be delayed (quel surprise), the only thing I wonder about is business of the continuous subway car.  If I had to guess, there will be much more foot traffic throughout all cars during the trip.  People will go from the front to the back looking for a seat, no?  Could be more dangerous than people quickly sitting or hanging onto a germophobey pole.  Maybe I’m just boobing it up right now.

And good news for the germophobes – the poles now will have an anti-bacterial coating.  Creeps me out a bit, but I’m sure this helps the neurotic in their travels.

CityPoster : Toronto version.

From designers Beorkrem, part of the Ork poster series.  c/o Torontoist, read more about the artist and the project here. Looks like a good mix of GIS data and typography.

More stories.

Toronto

• Jane Jacobs says: go for a walk – [Eye Weekly]

• Toronto gets a new area code ’365′ – [Toronto Life]

• A new campaign for better TTC user etiquette – [BlogTO]

• 5 Reasons why Nuit Blanche 2010 won’t suck – [Toronto Life]

• Hot Docs Festival Preview – [BlogTO]

• Details magazine takes on Toronto culture – [Toronto Life]

Food

• Top Chef Canada – it’s happening – [Toronto Life] – let’s pray for no cardboard cut out sets and Canadian production quality.

• Organic farming: what’s next? – [Globe]

• A new food channel focusing on cooking and not on BS reality and 8 feet high diner burgers with a bleached-haired host – [Toronto Life]

• Meat isn’t as bad for the environment as previously thought - [Toronto Life]

• Why aren’t there female sushi chefs?  Blame warm hands and menstruation – [Toronto Life]

Science

• Apes found to suffer from self-doubt - [New Scientist]

• Fast food thoughts leads to general impatience - [Scientific American]

• Bacterial mat the size of Greece found on Pacific floor – [New Scientist]

• What is the memory capacity of the human brain? – [Scientific American]

• ‘Junk’ DNA gets credit for making us who we are – [New Scientist]

Music

• Stream Broken Social Scene’s new record right now – [NPR]

• Hear the new National LP, High Violet right now - [NYTimes]

• Sarah Harmer is BACK - [Chromewaves]

• RIAA and MPAA call for government-mandated spyware on computers to fight piracy – [BoyGeniusReport]

Environment

• Is smart growth the future of American cities? – [Spacing]

• The battle over bottled water - [NYTimes]

• Clean tech sector thriving, survey finds – [NYTimes]

• Polluting ships have been doing the climate a favour – [New Scientist] – turns out sulphur emissions cool the planet.

• Fluoridation in water may not do much for cavities – [Globe]

The spring classic.

In Montreal spring is like an autopsy. Everyone wants to see the inside of the frozen mammoth. Girls rip off their sleeves and the flesh is sweet and white, like wood under green bark. From the streets a sexual manifesto rises like an inflating tire, ‘the winter has not killed us again!

Leonard Cohen, from Beautiful Losers (1966).

Care of  a nice psychogeography (puke) article in this week’s Eye Weekly.

New design tweak.

Maybe you didn’t notice, but I think it looks better.  And sometimes change is good.   Was considering a 3 column job, but the posts looked too confusing.  Do you like/not care/virtually no difference?

You just spilled the milk.

Thanks be to Videogum.

Weekenders.

Asparagus/shallots/reggiano/pine nuts/lemon zest and juice/puff pastry/egg wash.

Finally using the scary mandoline slicer we got for xmas.  It’s amazing for juliennes and paper thin slicing, but it can kill you.  Got some beautiful halibut at Bruno’s.  Used the mandoline to crust the halibut with potato.  Made a beurre blanc to go with it with some rice and brussel sprouts.

After Food Networking on a Saturday afternoon, I decided to try my stab at “the perfect burger”.  Started with baking bacon (on a rack!) at 325 for 20-25 minutes.  Stretched paper thin, crispy like fried chicken skin.   Amazing.    Pan frying bacon is for suckers.  Then some onions caramelizing on low for about 30 minutes.  Slowly building the beauty.

Sorry for the gross flash.  But this is pretty much it – cheese blend of goat/reggiano/cheddar, thin crispy bacon, caramelized onions, 2 thinly sliced tomatoes, pickle, lettuce, mayo, mustard, ketchup.  I think if the burger was just a bit smaller, it would’ve been perfect.  But hey, another go at the goat.

Conrad Black’s mayoral endorsement.

[photo via limepunch]

From jail, Conrad Black discusses our fair city of Toronto.  Read the article here, it’s very interesting.  He talks about Toronto’s sheer lack of drama – no bloody wars, no hosts of genocide, no tea parties (real or bastardized).  Of course this is mostly a fantastic thing, but some would argue it makes Toronto seem forgettable, normal, bland.  Even as a modern city, it’s still up against some unforgettable players.

So Connie writes an article about  Toronto’s mayoral race… !  Who knew that the Toronto mayoral race was such a big deal.  This is as dramatic and scandalous as small-scale politics can be.  Local media covers the mayoral race multiple times each day.  They’ve been doing it for at least a few months and will continue until the end of the year (!!).  National elections get 2 months of coverage.  I get it though – this person is in charge of a multi-billion dollar organization.  A CEO’s pipe dream.  The intensity from such a local entity.  Only one debate has been staged, yet polls have been going for months.  We know nothing about these candidates, but somehow people have made up their minds months before the election.

I still am a Toronto outsider.  This city is funny.  One quickly realizes that the cosmopolitan stoplight has only been switched on this city for a small period of time.  Truly the understudy of Montreal in the 70s, eventually booming from manufacturing, and here we are.  Still in an imperfect state of city adolescence.  Numbing GTA sprawl, mediocre transit, the worst commute time in the world, impossibly expensive housing, and few memorable public spaces.  5 million people in a sea of grids and elegies to concrete.

But.  Amazing neighbourhoods, real diversity, life-altering food, some of the world’s best rock band exports, enlightening cultural events, and a growing sense that citizens can truly build a better city.   Yes bike lanes, yes Transit City, yes MaRS.  The one complaint I have about all of these great things is that most people don’t even think about these cultural amenities, let alone take advantage of them.  They take none of the good, and are forced to take all of the bad.  The lines, the rudeness, the congestion.  People are so driven to elbow through the masses just to get home that they’ve exhausted themselves, without the reserves to dust off and sharpen the elbows again to actually enjoy what the city has to offer.  That’s not just Toronto, I’m guessing that’s almost all big cities.

Anyway.  I have no idea who I’m voting for, and I’m very happy about that.

A good promise.

If/when I have investments and feel sustained, I want to be a lawn punk.

It’s definitely my lawn longing as an apartment dweller.  Grass is always greener joke ___here__ .  I can handle controlling my backyard with the regular chlorofluorogreenness grass lawn.  My kids gotta play.  But front lawn is going wild.  Native species, low maintenance choices, lots of local rocks.  My neighbours will hate me.   I’ll just bbq some burgers for them and have Sol in the summertime, and all will be well.

Adult talk media.

[photo credit: Megan O’Toole, National Post]

Canadian-borne conservatized talk media. Guilty pleasure. As an altruistic guy, this common sense revolution free-market individualism is a worthwhile exercise for my way of swamping through the centrism gray.

CFRB 1010 AM Talk Radio.  John Tory and his 5 pm rush hour show.  See some of his political errors online, and see one side.  Hear his 9-5, sensible conservative views for the other.  The key to hearing a reasonable conservative is when he or she is pro-transit expansion. I value having the conversation about limited government and privatizing almost everything.  We may disagree, but both sides get to learrrrrrrrrrn.  You want to have strong arguments for your beliefs, this is your life. !

I think the Michael Coren show is undoubtedly worth watching – not for his insufferable guests, but for him as the fibrous moderator.  Religious and (but?) often sound, except his distaste for Romeo Dallaire.  That’s a bit extreme, although one should question Dallaire’s new cushy senator job.  Coren asserts he doesn’t look left or right, but up… ?  Don’t get me wrong, everyone should like Jesus.  Just maybe not a whole powerful institution with infallible leaders and a very mixed track record.

Given that statement, it is unsurprising my favourite guest is Justin Trottier.  He’s the head of the Centre for Inquiry, a science/logic/reason/secular humanism organization.  He embodies the ethos very well, and he doesn’t overly judge agnostics.  Aggressively curious agnostics are the only reasonable ones in the religion debate anyway.  Maybe I’m just reflecting.

Toronto/Canadian media is funny to look at.  Even Classified mentioned amateur media in his awful O’Canada song.  Now being in Toronto and listening to local media for almost a year, I can start to feel the big city bubble slowly starting to smother.

The link assault.

Toronto

• Inside the Toronto Coffee Conspiracy – [Globe] – Indie cafes join forces.

• Toronto given strong credit rating: Miller dodges money management – [National Post]

• Renting in Toronto – from modest to magnificent – [Globe]

• Margaret Atwood’s Twitter Page

• John Tory to moderate first of three TTC town hall meetings – [Globe]

• Toronto’s water main mess – [Toronto Life]

• Subway etiquette primer – dos and don’ts of the TTC – [National Post]

• Toronto sewer explorers get arrested – [Toronto Sun] – I shouldn’t be sad about this, but I am sad about this.

• Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch – [Globe]

Food

• Unearthing the sex secrets of truffles – [NYTimes]

• Revolutionary modern kitchen eliminates the need for pots and pans – [MailOnline]

• Junk food and cocaine pretty much the same thing – [Toronto Life]

• Senegalese man given the title of making ‘the best baguette  in Paris’ – [Globe]

• The pros and cons of induction cooking – [NYTimes]

Science/Environment

• The science of climate change: the clouds of unknowing – [Economist] – Thanks be to Eric.

• Earth struck by most powerful space storm in years – [New Scientist]

• New “gene bandage” rejuvenates wasted muscles through mutations – [New Scientist]

• Coal fuels much of the “Internet cloud”: Greenpeace – [Globe]

• Incineration – a recycling killer? – [Star]

News/Politics

• I’m with the intolerant Quebecers – [Maclean's]

• Three lessons Liberals should learn from Montreal – [Globe]

• Mile End – Montreal’s neighbourhood – [Globe]

• Many homeowners should have rented – [Globe]

Music

• Hear Thom Yorke’s new band, Atoms for Peace – [Spin]

• Watch Wilco do a Take-Away Show – [Pitchfork/Blogotheque]

• Read an interview with The National and their new record, High Violet - [The Quietus]

Team Tree cooking.

It’s time for me to photograph some of C’s creations.  We are a sweet team.

Easter cupcakes, care of C.  Few get this excited about icing gun tips and boutique food dyes.

C also was clutch this evening – homemade beer bread.  Dense, sweet, perfect for soup.  So I helped make some homemade carrot soup (onions/celery/carrots/stock/fresh thyme/milk/S&P/cumin/paprika/cayenne/immersion blender).