F*cking TTC

Let me send a special thank-you out to the brave and lazy bastard of the TTC. Striking without notice, even for just a morning, was quite an effective way to gain empathy from the citizens of Toronto. Now EVERYONE is behind you.

Idiots.

Has no one in your union heard of choosing their battles wisely? I know many people who would be happy to take over your jobs for you.

Hindsight As Being 20/20

Toronto independent movie theatres The Kingsway, The Royal and the Revue will be closing June 30th, but who is really to blame for such a sad twist of fate? While poor attendance or mega-theatres are obvious scapegoats, I have a different spin on the situation.

As someone who watches a minimum of 3 movies a week and who lives in close proximity to the Revue, the owners should have considered me their target audience. After all, I treasure the moments I get to sit in a creaky chair eating over-priced popcorn over a sticky floor. Yet whenever I had the urge to go out to see a movie, I’d look in the paper and discover that some mediocre family or foreign film was playing. I have nothing against such genres, but the selection offered was rarely exciting. Besides, I don’t need to pay more than 4 bucks to see films that are just as good in my living room. These days I go to the theater for two things – in your face special effects, or older films that I may never have the chance to see on a big screen again.

Of course, when I would see a great movie was playing, it would be offered in a short run of only a few days and for some reason was never EVER convenient to my schedule.

Planning ahead to see a film has always been an unpleasant task too. To this day the festival cinema web-site is less than helpful. It is quite difficult to locate schedules specific to each theatre. And once located, the site only shows what that particular month has to offer. Why should I have to wait until the first of the month in order to view June’s schedule? I wanted to plan ahead, I really did, but it seems that wanting to prepare for June 1st on May 26th is somehow unrealistic.

Ranting aside, I actually love and will miss the cinemas – which is why I am so passionate/frustrated by their closure. Unfortunately, if going to see a festival movie in my own neighbourhood was more of a chore than I had time for, then really, how did the chain expect to succeed? Maybe I should have brought my complaints to the owners. Sadly, now it won’t make a difference. I only hope they don’t turn these beautiful buildings into convenience stores, or even worse, a Starbucks.

Steep Spirits

In much better spirits today. I have the nicotine pumping through my system again, my lungs no longer ache, I can walk short distances without breaking down from asphyxiation and the long week-end is finally here. This week-end my beer of choice will be 50, though I may splurge of a 12 of Sleeman's India Pale Ale – damn I love that beer. Sadly it costs way too much.

For those of you living outside of Canada, it may interest you to know that we pay, on average, $35.95 for 24 bottles of beer.

Seriously.

We do have discount beers, the lowest being priced at $26.40 (24 dollars plus our mandatory 10 cent deposit per bottle/can). Alas, these are never the best beers and they usually have a funny taste to them (although Red Cap’s nice).

Anyhew, for the Sleeman's Pale Ale we pay $44.95 for 24 bottles, so you can see why I’m hesitant to buy it. On one hand I feel like you can’t put a price on a beer you enjoy. On the other, I hate sending the message that people are willing to pay for over-priced beers. Sure, it’s not the breweries’ fault. They’d charge less if our government didn’t financially rape Canadians for wanting to have fun.

Grrrrr . . . there goes my high spirits.

;)

Limp Lungs

4 days of not smoking and bronchial infections has brought me back to bitter times. Of course, aggravation turns to fury when friends mock said afflictions. For the record kids, asthma means my lungs don’t work well. It’s not an excuse, it’s a fact.

Friday Night

As I pushed her drunken shell into the cab
And began to climb in behind her
I grew terrified
For she was drunk and on the urge of vomiting
And with a 20 minute cab ride ahead of us there would be no escape
From the diarrhea stench of liberated fart
Unleashed by the cabbie
Seconds before
I had opened the door

Blog is Dead

Or is it? Yes it is. But not really.

Been gone soooooooooooooo loooooooooooong . . .
No excuses – just been a busy guy with no humane way of writing my blog at home (gots me some Java problems), and an extreme paranoia of updating at work. And while I now have a new computer, I have yet to purchase a good virus program for it. Until then, I’m stuck in a Bloggless limbo of TV on DVD, CD's ripped into MP3's and overseas pleas to watch out for the avian sneeze.