The word of the day is: Traffic

Two traffic related stories from Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things.

Boing Boing: Video of a congested street in India:
A ballet of traffic in an Indian city, an intersection where even if there are signal lights, no one actually pays attention to them anyway. Watch the torrent of cars, buses, scooters and pedestrians all in fluid movement without killing each other, with zen-like precision.




YouTube link

Boing Boing: Man fined $50 for using device to change traffic signals:

A man from Longmont, Colorado was fined $50 when the cops caught him using a gizmo that supposedly changes traffic lights from red to green. he says he paid $100 on eBay for it. He had been using it for two years, and says the thing 'paid for itself' by saving him time spent waiting for signal lights to change.

The device, called an Opticon, is similar to what firefighters use to change lights when they respond to emergencies. It emits an infrared pulse that receivers on the traffic lights pick up.

Niccum was cited after city traffic engineers who noticed repeated traffic light disruptions at certain intersections spotted a white Ford pickup passing by whenever the patterns were disrupted.

(Buy your own "traffic control preemptive device" here for just $299.99.) Link

Karaoke at The Gladstone

It's 3 in the morning and my jaw is sore.

Stop giggling you pervs.

I was smiling most of the night. After work I was jonesing for a beer and a laugh, seeing as I how I wasn't working the next day. So I hit karaoke night at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street.

Lo and behold, I was expecting a beer, but the amount of laughter and cheers were unexpected, for I have witnessed karaoke at the newly reenovated Gladstone Hotel. I was just looking for a beer and some atmosphere, but I can't see how you can't have funsitting in on a karoake session at The Gladstone Hotel on Queen (unless you were Lesley's cousin from Calgary, who decided to balance a mike stand on his hand, which got him promptly booted and made his cousin Lesley leave before I got her digits. Thanks dude. By the way Lesley, your cousin's friend totally looked like Brian from My So-Called Life.)

The atmosphere of the bar is kind and communal, everyone is there to have a good time, and every performance, good or bad, was a lot of fun, especially when they incorporated some choreography. It's a social crowd; I made some new friends tonight. (Hi Lesley from Ryerson, Brendan and Jeanette. Word.) The selection of songs to sing is pretty wide (from Lauren Hill to Hank Williams, with plenty of 80s hair metal and reggae in between). I myself did not not rock the mike, but next time one of you kind readers is heading down, you call me and just try and stop me form hitting the stage. There was plenty of Johnny Cash to keep me on stage for a couple of tunes. If you've ever seen The Wedding Singer, you can go and BE THE WEDDING SINGER (seriously, they had "Love Stinks").

There was plenty of 80s nostalgia like WHAM and Journey, and hip-hop and R & B. Lots of Aretha Franklin and Elvis. The performers may not be Canadian Idols, but I'll be damned if they won't surprise you. Some local guy in a mullet totally ruled Meatloaf's "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad". And the host, Peter Styles, was fun and encouraging, and not easily rattled by all the drunken shenangians (see pervious reference to Lesley's cousin and the mike stand.)

If you want to book a session, let me know and we'll make a night at the Gladstone.


Karaoke Night @ The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto
Thursday thru Saturday evenings

Voted "best Karaoke bar" by NOW Magazine for 4 years running.
Come early for the best seats.
Karaoke at The Gladstone

Note to self: check for Joy Division's"Love Will Tear Us Apart".

Love/Hate T-Shirt

Took me a couple minutes to realize that the image wasn't photoshopped. Trippy. No details if it's buyable (I'm sure it will be out by the end of the week) but I'd like to see one printed on either side: turn it inside out depending on whether you're feeling the "Love" or "Hate":

{From Accordion Guy: Joey deVilla's Weblog : The Love/Hate T-Shirt:

[vis Russereous] Here's a T-shirt for those of you who are fans of Gödel, Escher, Bach, devotees of Scott Kim or have enough mileage to know that love and hate are often two sides of the same coin.

Get ready to slip into Kinky Boots

I caught the trailer for Kinky Boots a few months ago and I hope the film manages to give the same sense of fun and charm. Kinky Boots is a British comedy about a man who inherits his father's shoe factory and must turn to unconventional means to keep it running. Watch the trailer and you will see the quirkiness and heart of the film, two things that tend to appeal to me. Chiwetel Ejiofor (yes, the same actor who was such a badass in Serenity) stars as the crossdressing singer who brings a mix of hope and change to the small English town that relies on the factory.

I just found something sweetly funny about this movie, and I can't wait to see this offbeat film that reminds me of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Full Monty and The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.

Opening in April 14th (may be in limited release at first).

Apple - Trailers - Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots - Movie Info - Yahoo! Movies

Kinky Boots Official Site

like cats and dogs

sorry for the lack of new posts this week, feeling a little rundown, but I promise to be back up to speed tomorrow.

In the meantime:

Nature likes to throw me a curve ball sometimes, something out of the ordinary that makes me do a doubletake.

Last night as I walked home, I passed a fellow walking his German Shepherd dog.

The German Shepherd was walking his cat.

It wasn't an illusion. The dog would stop to sniff around. The cat, about two feet behind, would stop. The dog would start up again and the cat would keep pace.

Weird.

Also, after 30 years, I have FINALLY aquired the ability to make an omelette. Usually it starts as an omlette and ends up as a scramble, but I have got my technique down now. Sometimes it's the little accomplishments that make you happy.

3rd Annual Olympic Island Concert line-up announced

Woo-hoo! The 3rd Annual Olympic Island Music Festival goes on sale this week. This is a terrific day out, watching a day-long festival on Olympic Island (Centre Island ferry) set against the backdrop of the Toronto skyline. I've gone to the first 2 festivals, and it's a great way to see a concert, especially if you aren't a "concert in a club" type of person.

Bring a blanket, some food, some drinks (security was pretty relaxed as long as it wasn't glass - some guy had a hookah pipe system set up last year) and claim a patch of grass to lay down on. Looks like a stellar line-up, so come out and we'll make a day of it.

Once again curated by Broken Social Scene, on June 24th Toronto's Olympic Island will host its third summer Olympic Island Music Festival. The incredible day of music thus far includes:

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
BLOC PARTY
FEIST
J. MASCIS (of Dinosaur Jr.)
RAISING THE FAWN
and more

Gates 1pm
All Ages
General Admission
Show goes rain or shine, no weather related refunds

Tickets are available to 102.1 The Edge listeners at a discounted rate for 48 hours. Starting at 10 AM Thursday April 6th, 2006, 1021 tickets will be accessible through edge.ca with a password for $38.50 plus $6.00 ferry and applicable service charges.

Public on sale starts Saturday April 8th, 2006 @ 10 AM through Ticketmaster, Rotate This and Soundscapes for $44.50 plus $6.00 ferry and applicable service charges. All tickets include the cost of the ferry to Toronto Islands Park.

BlogTO | 3rd Annual Olympic Island Concert line-up announced

Clerks 2 Trailer Hits The Net, Supports YouTube

Check out the new trailer for Clerks 2 from director Kevin Smith, director of Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy. I think my friend Randy may implode with glee: a movie with Rosario Dawson AND Wanda Sykes. Not to mention cameos from Kevin Weisman (Marshall from TV's Alias), Ben Affleck and Jason Lee. And the return of Jay & Silent Bob.

Congrats to Kevin and the folks at View Askew Productions for using YouTube, among other places, to distribute the trailer. Unlike NBC, who had their lawyers bully YouTube into pulling the videos, Kevin Smith and other smart people like Comedy Central (who won't remove South Park's Scientology episode "Trapped in the Closet" from YouTube) see the benefits of YouTube and viral marketing.

The sweetness begins August 18th 2006. Not for the faint of heart. ("Mannequin Skywalker" - classic!)

Eight Sure-Fire Fiascoes That Unexpectedly Succeeded

The Onion's A.V. Club has a good read on their site about Eight Sure-Fire Fiascoes That Unexpectedly Succeeded. These are 8 pop culture artifacts that really had every reason to fail but went on to succeed.

1. Titanic (movie 1997)
2. The Passion Of The Christ (movie 2004)
3. Late Night With Conan O'Brien (TV 1993 to present)
4. Charlie's Angels (movie 2000)
5. Apocalypse Now (movie 1979)
6. Dances With Wolves (movie 1990)
7. The Office, (American TV version 2005 to present)
8. Steve Martin's Pink Panther (movie 2006)

I think I would tack on the Battlestar Gallactica remake that is such a success on TV and DVD. It could have been just another flaky nostalgia retread, but it seems to have become one of the best sci-fi TV ever. And The Matrix suprised me when it first came out. And anyone who caught the first couple of episodes of Seinfeld couldn't have seen the long term success that would come.

Any other films/shows that succeeded despite all odds?

Junos Still Feel Irrelevant to Me

I caught a bit of the Junos Awards, which I always assume are supposed to be for the best in Canadian Music. This year was notable for the high profile appearances of hostess Pam Anderson and bands such as Coldplay, who may as well be honourary Canadians given how much love they seem to have for us.

I caught Broken Social Scene win Best Alternative and they performed too. But I clicked back later to find myself watching the award for Album of the Year. The Sun, of all places, put it best:

What's up for album of the year, for instance? Surely The Arcade Fire's Funeral, which has sold half a million copies. No doubt Neil Young's Prairie Wind. Perhaps Jully Black's This Is Me, Blue Rodeo's Are You Ready, Stars' Set Yourself On Fire, K'naan's Dusty Foot Philosopher or The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema?

Nope. While Canadian indie music is selling out shows around the world, breaking the top of the charts everywhere, our best album nominees were a Diana Krall Christmas album, Michael Buble's (a Sinatra-esque singer) collection of retro standards, albums from Canadian Idol leftovers Kalan Porter and Rex Goudie and a bland release from a vanilla bland band, Nickelback's All The Right Reasons.

Fans have their favourites, but if you were to judge Canadian music by those nominees, we live in an easy-listening nation who don't like anything new. It's too bad the Junos don't reflect the banner year that Canadian musicians are having, recieving accolades throughout the world. Mainstream bands like U2 and Coldplay are always raving about Montreal's Arcade Fire. Metric and The New Pornographers were being touted as the next big things at the South by South West music festival. These are exciting times to be a Canadian music fan, it's just lame that we can't get up the support to acknowledge it in some grand way. We're Canadian: we need a little validation once in a while.

Slugs Beat Stone, All Is Right With My World

Ice Age 2 opened as the number 1 movie this weekend, with a mammoth sized $70.5 million. Number 2 was the Spike Lee heist flick Inside Man.

Basic Instinct 2 with Sharon Stone (not MILF-tacular at all) opened with a should-have-gone-straight-to-video $3.2 million, behind Slither, Larry the Cable Guy's movie and Failure to Launch. I can sleep peacefully knowing people would rather watch a slug than Sharon Stone.

Box Office Mojo

controller.controller play Lee's Palace

Finally caught controller.controller live in concert after 5 or 6 misses. Something always came up whenever I tried to check out this great Toronto band. The stars aligned, work ended early Wednesday night and I got to Lee's Palace to catch the band.

The word used to describe them usually is "death-disco". Driving beats, fast paced swirling guitar, get your energy up for any activity that involves sweating and heavy breathing. The drummer literally beat his drums to death as a drum broke off the kit. And I don't know what it is, but the pictures I've seen of lead singer Nirmala Basnayake don't do her justice. In person, very much a CBG (cute brown girl). Great set, shame it wasn't longer. The live set up is interesting as Nila sort of hangs back behind the guitairists, facing stage left, then works her way up to the stage. Different style from, say, Emily Haines from Metric, but it works for the show.

Check out controller.controller's myspace page or New Music Canada Artist: controller.controller for songs and bio info.The band I caught before controller.controller was Kids On TV, and they were crazy good, a great band I hadn't really heard of before. This is another band that bounces over a couple of genres, with house music, dance-electro beats, break dancing and some new-wave punk thrown in. This foursome could have beaten the stage to death, it was like Daft Punk on mescaline. I don't know if I'd buy the albums, but I am definitely there for the live shows.

top photo of Nila by A. Whitehouse
controller.controller band photo by Davida Nemeroff