Things heard while walking through the Gates

I'll be writing a longer post about the Gates when I get back to Toronto. But for now....

Best comment heard while walking through Central Park and the Gates:

"I hate this colour. I lived in Boston, Christo's turned Central Park into the Big Dig!"

Second best comment heard at the Gates:

"What's the weirdest question I ever got asked? Well last week someone came up to me and asked, 'hey where's this gate?'" - One of the guides at the Gates

Oh one more thing...

My friend David is a "reformed jerk" and a scientician. He also likes to give back to the community. Recently he went to an elementary school to judge a science fair, had the hots for teacher and tried really hard not to make kids cry. Read it here.

Kinda reminds me of a story I read in Canadian Business a while ago about competitive high school science fairs. A good story but I've excerpted what I think is the best part here:

"Science competitions are not just about winning. "Nobody sits in their hotel doing Rubik's Cube," says Lavrovsky. The kids have fun. They network their computers and tease each other for saying "obviously" a lot. But winning has its social benefits. Lavrovsky, for example, has gained lunchroom cred with the jocks at his high school, who reportedly stopped calling him "Enzyme Boy" as soon as his prize money started rolling in. The realities of gender equity don't hurt, either. As Lavrovsky likes to point out (with pictures), boys and girls compete--and even the football crowd is smart enough to see, he says, that "science-fair chicks are hot.""

Why oh why didn't the jocks beat him up for his money?! Maybe he paid for protection?

A long slow train ride

Because of financial considerations I'm taking the train down to NYC (and flying back up). That means I get to spend 12 hours hearing the clickety click of one of VIA or Amtrak's lovely locomotives lumbering its way down to the land of media kings and million dollar lofts.

I figure I'll spend a good chunk of that time starting my research on Colin McPhee, the Canadian composer who's responsible for introducing Balinese Gamelan music into the west. He started off as a jazz musician down in New York and somehow found his way onto the island of Bali in the 1930s and stayed there until the war. I'm trying to see if there's anything in his story that could be turned into a work of fiction (a novel, a play, a screenplay, anything).

When will the love stop?

One of the best things I did in recent memory is write an article for Spacing magazine. I'm proud to contribute to a magazine that's adding to the discourse around urban issues in Toronto. I'm also thrilled to share pages with writers like Sheila Heti and Ryan Bigge, who I'm big fans of.

Well there's more love coming our way. Maisonneuve's Christopher DeWolf gushes (that's Murmure in French!). I should also learn French. It's strange that I can't read a good chunk of Canadian literature because it's written in another language and that there's a huge swathe of Canadian pop culture that I can't access (although about Spacing, my friend's multi-city project MurmurMitsou is doing her darndest to help me). Most importantly I'm not about to put Val's writing through Babelfish. She deserves better than that.

Boy Reporter in NYC

I'm heading out to NYC for about five days. I'm taking the train down on Friday and flying back up Wed.

Things I plan to go see:
The Gates in Central Park
The new MOMA
The Whitney
Williamsburg
My cousins
An ex-girlfriend

Not in that order of course.

You Like Me... You Really Like Me!

I'm pulling a Sally Field and getting pretty excited about a cheeky little write up that media critic/Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias gave Torontoist. Apparently we're cute.... but really need a little more sass. Hmmm, that's like the girls I want to date, cute and with a little bit of sass.

Boy Reporter *hearts* Chicagoist

It's kinda like when your big brother or sister does something to make you proud. Chicagoist, kinda a big sister blog to Torontoist, has been teed off about a "ban" on photographers taking pictures of sculptures in Chicago's Millenium Park. Well after much haranguing the city realized what it was doing wrong and has decided to fix the problem and set the record straight! And of course they did this in style with their snazzy contemporary art inspired shirts as well! All we can say is "you go sis!"

And I almost forget... thanks boing boing for the link. And Andrew Peerless for the illustration of the 'bean.'

American Apparel, also like cancer

I recently referred to CanWest's soon to be launched youth daily, Dose, as similar to cancer. Despite the possibly insensitivity I believe the analogy to be accurate.

In the same bent I would also like to point out the frightening ability of American Apparel to metastize. They're opening a third location and a fourth will be opening soon. That's four stores in a year! Yikes!

Mixed Media Watch criticizes AA's fetishization of its mixed model employees. The ads are reminiscent of those Calvin Klein ads of yore. I still remember the backlash against those, but this time hardly a peep. Oh how things have changed. Image aside, I still think it's better to buy from a company that doesn't use sweatshops but may objectify its more attractive employees vs. Abercrombie and Fitch's rather problematic t-shirts. As if paying your asian workers pennies an hour wasn't enough.

Other things that are also like cancer, swedish clothing retailer H&M. I am now placing a moratorium on comparisons of anything to cancer!

Hobnobbing with artists

I'm heading out to the Untitled Art Awards tonight! I actually know a few of the nominees as well. Shawn and Gabe are nominated for murmur in the exhibition in a virtual space category, a few other people I know curated a few of the shows that are nominated and of course the very talented and whip-smart Julia Dault, who I had the pleasure to interview over the weekend.