Sunday morning at the Dakota

A fantastic Sunday, starting out with a coffee at Clafouti, brunch at the Dakota, some great conversation at the Crooked Star, more than a few rounds of Bananagrams, some Ethiopian food, which was a first time for me, and finished off with a few new episodes of Flight of the Conchords.

Spectacle

Clips and full downloads of Costello's Spectacle.

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7087&start=350&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=1195f2a79093e0de2442d09f77916b12

Saturday night

Drock graciously invited me to the Venezuela vs. Italy World Baseball Classic game on Saturday night. Great game, until Italy decided to take out Mike Defelice after the 4th on 45 pitches. He was pitching a gem, and Grilli came in, giving up a homer to his first batter faced. Game over from then on. Still, great to watch some meaningful baseball in March.

Album of the day: Condo Fucks - Fuckbook

Yo La Tengo record under a different name. More straight rock than a traditional Yo La Tengo release.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/03/who_are_the_con.html

Album here.

Yo La Tengo: The band's name comes from a baseball anecdote. During the 1962 season, New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, "I got it! I got it!" only to run into the 160-pound Chacón, who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, "¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!" which is "I have it" in Spanish. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by 200-pound (90.7 kilograms) left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words "¡Yo la tengo! as a way to avoid outfield collisions.^[1] After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?".^[2]

Pictures from the other night...

Cloudy ski meant no telescope observations other than peering into the CN tower upside-down... they have a nice roof though, and I took a few shots. Here are some. Middle two photoshoped, obviously. I love how they look surreal. They are, I guess.


The black shadow at the bottom is actually cast by my lens... I love wide angle lenses!

Ok...one last post. Tomorrow:

http://www1.astro.utoronto.ca/~gasa/public_talk/2009APT/0903flyer.pdf

Song of the night: The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

Download song here.

Lyrics here.

Youtube: Live in Glastonbury

Two interpretations from that lyrics page:

"The song gives me the vision of a guy always going to parties/get-togethers, leaning on a table with a cup in his hand, and being bored shitless. The conversations he has are boring, he's not listening to them, not laughing at any of the jokes. He keeps going to these parties so he can't get a decent meal. He's falling asleep, he's obviously not interested in going anywhere anymore but people keep telling him that being able to is "everything a man could want."


"to me the meaning of this song is pretty clear. it refers to life on the road as touring/famous musician.
they constantly plays shows at night, thus sleep a lot during the day and get pale due to lack of sunlight.
the ringing in the ears is that familiar ring we all get after a show. its constant for them because they constantly have to play.
skinny as a rail comes from boozing and not eating properly.
lightbulbs are dim because of odd sleeping cycles, lack of proper nutrition, and general jadedness.
conversations become dull because they start to repeat themselves (due to meeting so many new people).
the sense of humor/interests start to fade because of home sickness, lack of stimulation, and general jadedness.
the verses about a 'confederate'. refer to the fact that there is no one who can bring pep into the situation/break up the monotony. the feeling that this 'confederate' doesnt exist shows the state of mind that they are in. again, jaded.
the verse about looking for sympathy refers to diners/groupies. both are good for a quick meal/pick me up, but dont solve the problem.
but being a 'rock star' is "everything a man could want" and they shouldnt complain.
just my thoughts. "

The history of High Park

In 1836, John George Howard purchased a 160-acre (0.65 km²) property in the County of York, to the west of Toronto, for a sheep farm.

In 1873, Howard and his wife agreed to convey their country property to the City of Toronto.^[3] There were several conditions to the conveyance, including that the Howards continue to live at their residence, no alcohol ever be served in the park, and that the City hold the park "for the free use, benefit and enjoyment of the Citizens of Toronto for ever and to be called and designated at all times thereafter High Park".

1930 - The city purchases 71 acres to the west of the park (formerly part of the Ellis estate), encompassing all of Grenadier Pond within the park boundaries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Park

Stuff in High Park: http://www.toronto.ca/parks/highpark.htm

High Park Community Advisory Council: http://www.highpark.org/
Mar 08 - 10:30AM - Walking Tour - Winter Tree Identification

ok... time to stop procrastinating and get some work done.

Daniel Burnham - The Chicago Plan

The Plan for Chicago: Daniel Burnham

Overview article in New Yorker this week.

Most important of all, a hundred years ago, in 1909, Burnham completed work on a document with the unassuming title “Plan of Chicago” that remains the most effective example of large-scale urban planning America has ever seen ... Assisted by the young city planner Edward H. Bennett, he laid out the shorefront of Lake Michigan, quadrupling the amount of parkland and thus insuring that the lakefront would forever be public open space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Burnham#City_planning_and_.22The_Plan_of_Chicago.22

... everyone should be within walking distance of a park...

HIV contraction prevention in ice cream/breast milk

GML (glycerol monolaurate) is an 'emulsifier'; it's in ice cream and apparently, breast milk.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/04/u_of_m_aids_research/

“Ordinarily when we expose these animals to these high doses two weeks later an infected animal will have hundreds of millions of copies of virus floating around in its bloodstream. And all of the GML treated animals had nothing at two weeks”, says study coauthor Pat Schlievert.

Monkey Study also: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature07831.html

Song of the Day: North of Canada - Modernday Saint Peter

Song: Modernday Saint Peter

(btw, to download myspace music, I used this. Sketchy program (works off another website), not very intuitive, but works.)

... people try, but they put me down...
... pick me up when I'm falling down, but don't line me up against the wall.

... I went down to Saint Petersburg!...

Catchy!.. reminds me of the Local Rabbits, Starkicker, Marcy Playground, and a local London band I remember existed about 10 years ago, Scrotes. No, seriously... I'll profile them soon! (edit: ok, did a quick search, there's no chance of finding these guys... )

... definitely lo-fi indie... but nice song D.C. Band, Two Polish guys in it (I think)... ugh.. you gotta love that lo-fi sound. Straight out of a 6-track. So raw and great. You could just see them recording this.. vocals can definitely use some work..


http://www.myspace.com/northofcanada

Profiled: http://musicunderfire.com/2008/12/north-of-canada-showcased-in-dc.html

Live: Oh gawd, vocals live could use some work, but really fun song...