From 416 to 905 ...: July 2006

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Suckers at the MTO

I would like the announced that I passed my G2-exit test two days ago.

I am legally licensed to drive in Ontario with full rights and privleges.

To the fine people at MTO ...

What the fuck were you thinking?

Tags: MTO

Irony at my local bar

I haven't been inside Daybreak (on Finch, near Kennedy) since they more
or less kicked me out a few years ago.

I just got back from Kingston. My friends and I were looking to get
together for a drink. We went inside and the redneck regulars there let
it be known to us, in no uncertain terms, that we were not welcolmed.
The management, while they said nothing, looked on with a certain amount
of satisfaction. The bucktooth rednecks jeered on.

Basically, we weren't white. We never went back.

I went back again yesterday after my friend HC told me that it is a big
hangout spot for Mainlanders.... I was like, "what? mainlanders? What
happened to the white trash that used to hang out there?"

So we went. A super-hot mainlander asked me in three languages
(Mandarin, Cantonese, and English) whether I wanted a seat. The
bartender was this brown guy. I went out to the patio and it was packed
-- with colour people. There were even a few "interracial couples" on a
date...

This isn't the same Daybreak that kicked me out anymore.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Exile.ru

I have always felt very much inadequate around other "litteratti."

They always dressed better, have cooler places to go, and seems to have a supreme confidence in their aloofness that I found very alluring and at the same time envious. Why can't I be cultural snobs like these people?

Even now, I am intensely jealous of those people from school. I still remember never getting invited to those cool, "Free Tibet" parties at somebody's basement, where I was told, everybody ironically drank one Labatt's Blue, just so they can make fun of it later. Damn, those guys and their boutique, $180 handmade hemp khakis!

Anywho, after graduation, I never found out what happen to these people. I mean, while I am sitting on my big fat unemployed ass at home, what are those guys doing now? I hope they rot in some fat, American suburb, feeding TPS reports inside a stupid cubical waiting for the eventual layoff when they hit 40... but that is probably going to be my life if I am lucky....

Those guys probably has something cooler to do.

Well, I think I figured it out. They are in Russia.

I just found this thing one the web a few weeks ago. From their website: "The eXile is a Moscow, Russia-based English-language bi-weekly newspaper." A Russia-based English paper? Bi-weekly? Printed and freely given out, pretty much only in Moscow? And it has "120,000 readers" worldwide. Shit.

The best part about this thing is the scope of their writing. They do anything from political coverage, a column by a war nerd,satire, club reviews, to the editor-in-chief's occasional dalliance with Russian prostitutes, in a column neatly entitled, "Whore-r Stories."

There also that tone I really liked. They feel to be Westerner in Russia is a special privlege. They are cool and other Russians with the hots or cool cash can join them. The rest are "sovok" and therefore, worthy of being used. It's just so elitist ... therefore, cool.

This what being a writer is all about. That one can write about anything. And fucking hot Russian babes and getting drunk on cheap vodka while doing, isn't such a bad deal. But, I probably can't hack it. Maybe that's why all those fucking hipsters never invited me to their parties. I just wouldn't like doing snorting coke off a rented whore while contemplating my next joke article against some Russian oligarch who can kill me like squishing an ant.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Fuck the 80's

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/21/DDGA8K27571.DTL&type=movies

I think this 80's nostalgia thing has gotten too far. Ruthe Stein, SF Chronicle's "Senior Movie Writer," reviewed the recent "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and decided that it was a bad movie pretty much because:

The potential was there to make another "Splash," an unforgettable romantic comedy about the mating of two different species.

because the director "failed" to fullfill such a potential, she didn't like it.
So, this woman is upset because the director made a slapstick comedy about a breakup between a normal guy and a superwoman, instead of romantic-comedy about a normal guy and a fish.

Those of us in our mid-to-late twenties all grewup in the 80's. I think it wasn't all bad, but we were fed a lot of shit that fucked us up pretty bad. For me, it was "Top Gun," "Wall Street," and "He-Man". I guess for Ruthe, "Splash," was Western Civilisations crowning achievement in history.

No wonder people thinks she is crazy.

Sick.

I haven't been posting because I've been sick the whole week with bronchitis. (I magically know how to spell this word. I don't know why.)

It was a really strange and long weekend I had, and I kept telling myself I will write it all out -- in detail. But I just kind of laid around in bed. I didn't feel like doing very much. Lots of people called me. At one point, my phone recorded 12 missed calls, a new record for me.

Anywho, I hope to get better soon so I can start partying again.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Small time bandits

I just read this article about the fifteen year old stock manipulator.

I don't know if I should be scared or scared.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Why Dundas Square is ultimately good for Toronto.

Passed by Dundas Square tonight. BMW is promoting the SMART car by
having a series of Classic "Scary Movies" shown. Tonight's showing is
The Birds. A few hundred people showed up to enjoy an old movie on a
quiet Tuesday night.

Off nearer towards the corner, an old man is challenging pedestrians to
chess duels; he is drawing quite the crowd.

Many complains about Dundas Square. It is too small. It's too
comercialized. It's trying too hard to be Times Square but it isn't.
These are all legitamate complaints.

But Some of these elements are what's making Dundas Square work.

The downtown core always had a problem with a venue that can help bring
the city together. One that, despite the accolaids heaped upon Nathan
Phillip, it never managed to achieve. It was off-Yonge and too reliant
on the big bureaucracy at City Hall to fund and host events. Neither can
the Harbourfront or Mel Lastman. They are too inaccessable except their
respective local residents.

Dundas Square, because it is next to the Eaton Center can draw the kind
of casual crowd from the spillover and it ease of reach.

And because it is small, whatever happens there, it always feels like
the event is well-attended and therefore, successful.

I think one of the biggest thing is the corporate money. Corporations
have a bottom-line. They don't just throw an event because it seems like
a good idea. They do it because it will help make them look good and
therefore sell more product. They can pay to properly do an event and
have the people do things a little off-key. That's why you can have
drive-in night sponsored by BMW and not City Hall.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

So I went to Corsa Italia instead ...

It was fun. Italian guys kept grabbing because I was in a French shirt.
They kept trying to rip my shirt... Fun times.

France... lost. Zidane lost it.

While congratz are in order for the Azzuris, I think the talk of this match will be Zidane... what the hell?

Though, I wonder if it made any difference whether he had stayed in or not. He was hurt and getting tired. Henry was off with an injury and Trézéguet was cold. Most importantly, the italians were on. The French was attacking and doing it well, but the Italians defended really well....

Ahh... Zidane. I still have a lot of respect for him. He stayed on despite a shoulder injury and whatever was said between him and Materazzi... Who knows. It's all very French and confusing.

See the hit.

No sleep. World Cup running thru my mind.

I couldn't really sleep all night and instead spent all of it going thru Google News, reading anything and everything about the upcoming game. It's strange all the world's opinion for the game. Everybody would like Zidane to win but favours the Italians.

For my part, I have been cheering for France. So I will be cheering for France.

Come what may. Even if they lose, it will be a hell of a retirement party for Zidane.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Where did all these French guys come from?

Okay. I have been in Toronto for close to a decade and aside from a few
select places (outside of a Federal Buildind or some Franco-Ontarian
Conference) I have never heard French being spoken here.

Then World Cup rolls around and Les Bleues are in the Finals and all of
a sudden, all these French guys seem to crawl out of the cracks to shout
"Vive Le France!"

It weird. They are not even the Quebec-kind neither, but thick, Gaulists
red wine swiling French.

I am sort of glad that I am not the only guy in the city going for
Zidane's last shot at glory, but where were you guys last week when
France was playing Spain?

And the guy that have 8 Tricolors glued to his BMW, I say Bravo!

Even if you're honking your horn six hours after the game by yourself on
College Street with all those Portugese guys glaring at you. That's the
indefatigable French spirit.

Just next time, on Sunday, lay it easy on the Bordeaux and let me in to
those "private functions" you guys have afterwards for the victory
celebrations...