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Contain Ur

Go as far back as you like in urban history – right to square-one if you want – there was always a square involved. I bet they even did temporary art installations at Sumer. Nuit blanche is an odd tradition in Toronto

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Soloists

One last series from the fan-expo, this time of stand-out individual costumes – soloists, if you will. I rather wish I had caught this first furry-bird in video, because even the walk had the exact right sort of cartoon surliness.  Not just

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It’s all history

Being an art-model is a strange gig – and there really is something very gig-like about it, because no two classes are ever anything like the same.  Of course the subject makes a difference, and the personalities even more so – but

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Carnies

I’ve got an amalgam of fairs in my head, exotic and local. The ‘Ex’ (Canadian National Exhibition) looms especially large – but Centreville on the Island (an old-time town, full of antique-themed rides) was always cheaper and ran a far longer season

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Thirty-Seven

As I’ve noted before, even a personal-sized slice of the universe is much too complicated for us to be able to perceive it’s true and total reality – therefore it is necessary for us to make up vastly simplified stories to tell

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Poles together

Some more images from the truly wonderful annual Polish festival on Roncessvalles in Toronto.  Though it is true that many have moved away from the old area over the years, this also means this party is unmissable – because it’s always full

The point of the exercise

Reductio ad abdurdum is a very old and well-tested method of logical PROOF.  It says that if the logic of your ideas inevitably leads you to something ridiculous, then those ideas which brought you there are also ridiculous – this is simply

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Yonge and Negligible

I honestly can’t for the life of me figure out what is going on around here – an experiment in INFINITELY increasing density?  Toronto is a big city, and there are many other areas with plenty of development potential, but the craze

Log tape

John Lennon said a lot of sweet and interesting things in his time, but one of my favourite clips had him talking about how strange it is to do creative work, because our friends often don’t believe that we’re working at all,

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For the kids

I am, you will likely have gathered by now, a very big fan of street festivals. Not only an excuse for extra fun (always a good idea), they are also a terrific way for one neighbourhood to tell those from other parts

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Practical Electronics

As a young avant-garde musician (think Mingus/Dolphy exuberant cacophony, only with infinitely less talent) who had nothing but a grade-two education on-paper, I had a heck of a time getting (or, to be fair, wanting) any sort of half-decent straight-job.  Ended up

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Albert’s Hall Line Up

The weathered letters are now gone, I figured I’d best grab this nostalgic ghost, while the brick beneath it still remembered them.  The Brunswick Tavern is no more – and honestly, it had been going downhill for quite some years, so it’s

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Denizens United

Here’s another especially lovely thing about Fan Expo – it always makes me think about how much the relationship of two figures can say in a picture-plane.  Also, about our youthful friendships, from a writerly perspective – that is, their psychological and

National Backhander

I mentioned before that I believe in judging people not by my philosophy of life, but by their own.  I feel the exact same way about countries.  What’s wrong with us as nations is about our betrayal of our best selves.  When

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Hit it again

One of the more intriguing characters I ran across at Fan Expo was this guy – I feel fairly confident in saying that he would like to be referred-to as duckman.  Energetic and prepared. Plus – (and for his business, it’s a

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Fan Expo – Nerd Christmas

There are a few different reasons I love this particular festival – one of them is the costumes one sees on proud display – ranging from the silly to the incredible – for nostalgia, hilarity and on-the-street cognitive dissonance, it’s among the

Mobile Operations

One of the best things about being a writer and a generalist, is that you have a great excuse to ask all sorts of questions about the world, representing everyone’s curious ignorance (rather than having to admit to your own).  If you

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Heterodyne In-place

Heterodyning is cool stuff – yes you do know what I mean – when you’re tuning one note to match up to another, and you get close, and you hear the difference-frequency showing up like a wow-wow-wow sound, beating inside those main

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Meaning-Full?

One of the biggest problems with politics nowadays, is that it is largely created using debates made out of words. At the best of times, individual perceptions of events, which words best described those perceptions, and the exact meanings of those words,

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Cybernetics 101

Visited the Ryerson Image Centre once again – again a wonderful (totally free) show. You’re going soon, right? As previously mentioned, there are four different display areas (sometimes five) all of which have been used well, every time we’ve gone. (And they’re

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Playground perfection

I hope my friends have gathered by now that I can be relied upon to offer cheer, in (roughly) equal measure to the heavy stuff (and neither, trivially). This is an example of recent wonderful achievement so nearby that we could almost

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