Feel like crawling into bed and hiding from the world? Get in line: The Onion A.V. Club lists 12 Famous Living Recluses. Included on the list include Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Waterson and king of the 80s teen movies John Hughes.
Funniest follow-up comment belongs to the reader who asked "what about Joseph Heller? I haven't heard f*ck from that dude, like ever..." That would be because he died in 1999, and he did publish a half-dozen novels after "Catch 22".
Things are going to seem a bit dimmer around Bathurst and Bloor. Ed "Honest Ed" Mirvish passed away today. He was 92. Honest Ed's store has been a staple of Bloor and Bathurst with it's massive aisles full of everything you'd want for cheap. Mirvish Productions has also been responsible for it's contributions to Toronto's theatre scene, helping establish it as a world class city. According to Torontoist, it's likely that what would have been his 93rd birthday celebration this month will now be a celebration of his life.
The finalists for this year's Polaris Music Prize were announced yesterday. This year's finalists for the $20,000 prize awarded for Best Canadian album, judged on artistic merit regardless of sales or genre are:
Arcade Fire / Neon Bible (Merge/F>A>B)
The Besnard Lakes / The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse (Jajaguwar/Outside Music)
The Dears / Gang of Losers (MapleMusic Recordings/Universal Music Canada)
Julie Doiron / Woke Myself Up (endearing records/Fontana North/Universal Music Canada)
Feist / The Reminder (Arts & Crafts/EMI Music Canada)
Junior Boys / So This Is Goodbye (Domino/Outside Music)
Miracle Fortress / Five Roses (Secret City Records/Fusion III)
The Joel Plaskett Emergency / Ashtray Rock (MapleMusic Recordings/Universal Music Canada)
Chad VanGaalen / Skelliconnection (Flemish Eye/Outside Music)
Patrick Watson / Close To Paradise (Secret City Records/Fusion III)
Links via Chromewaves. Chromewaves also has the links to several articles on the nominees from Zoilus, Torontoist, the CBC Radio3 podcast and Public Broadcasting.ca. Also see Eye Weekly, Pitchfork, and NME. While it's easy to point to Arcade Fire and Feist as early faves, I think a "do they really need the money?" undercurrent will swing the vote towards one of the lesser known, but still quality artists. The compilation album for this year's nominees will be out August 28th, and winners announced.
Speaking of Torontoist, funny quote:
The World Conference on Disaster Management wraps up today at the Toronto Convention Centre. Torontoist would go but we’re locked in the basement with a tire iron and a two-year supply of Beefaroni. - Patrick Metzger
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5 comments:
Ed Mirvish is (yes, is) a legend. He will live long after Toronto dies in Al Gore's predicted apocalypse.
And people in this basement need to shower.
I've had Patrick Watson's "Lucious Life" on almost constant repeat on my iPod for the better part of the last two weeks. Dude sounds like the reincarnation of Jeff Buckley, which is a good thing!
Honest Ed's is such a constant in this city. You couldn't ignore his effect on Toronto, either through the bargain basement prices that helped alot of people stretch their dollars, or through the tourism dollars generated by Mirvish Production musicals like "Lion King" and "Mama Mia". There was a real "we're all in this together" spirit in all his endeavours.
You can't get more of a quintessential Toronto-ian than Honest Ed's.
And frankly, if there is a zombie apocalypse, I'm holing up in Honest Ed's. You could last a few years in there...
Hi blue haired girl (I presume that's you Jenelle; I don't think I've been fortunate enough to encounter more than one blue-haired girl).
I agree that Ed is a legend. If it wasn't for Mirvish Productions, Toronto would be awash in endless dinner-theatre runs starring former 80s sitcom stars: Loni Anderson and David Ogden Steirs in "My Fair Lady".
Hi Rebecca:
I'll be sure to pick up Patrick Watson's album. I wouldn't take "reincarnation of Jeff Buckley" as anything but a ringing endorsement. Now if you said "reincarnation of Creed", that would be another thing all together...
Completely unrelated - but somehow I think that fits well into the pepperpot.
I picked up an album of various artists today, and thought you might find it interesting.
The album - "Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay" - The label, Numero Group.
The album, an eccelctic mix of 70's Bahamian funk. Not something I would come across everyday.
That's where this label comes in - described on their website as follows:
"Founded by Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier, and Ken Shipley in 2003, the three self-proclaimed "record obsessives" decided to approach the record business backwards. No corporate hierarchy; no company stationary. Just a big pile of music that no one had ever heard of.
The mission was simple: to dig deep into the recesses of our record collections with the goal of finding the dustiest gems begging to be released from their exile on geek street. No longer would $500 singles sit in a temperature-controlled room dying for a chance to be played. No more would the artists, writers, and entrepreneurs who made these records happen go unknown and unappreciated."
For more info, check their site out at: http://www.numerogroup.com.
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