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Queen West Is On Fire

Toronto lost some of its character today as the buildings that housed Suspect Video, Preloved and Duke's burned to the ground. Say what you will about Duke's, they were around for generations and knew a thing or two about cycling. Some are already saying a new Duke's will rise from the ashes of this strip of Queen Street West. Preloved, a pioneer of designer recycled clothing, went up in flames and my little heart aches at the thought of those gorgeous threads burning.

After being woken up at 5:30 this morning from the wail of sirens, I am now watching a piece of my neighbourhood crumble from the 16th floor of an office building in Etobicoke.

Thanks to earnest photographers and technology, only hours after the first alarm call I was able to view pictures and read stories. Some of the most impressive pictures have been posted on Torontoist.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

How to Beat the Snow Daze: Dinnah Pahties!

These red-clawed snappy guys captured by robannz.

One of the great things about living in a big city, and especially in this big city, is the exposure we get to different cultures. Going on a gastronomic adventure only requires a couple of TTC tokens and some good friends willing to try something new.

Emily Wat and Drew Morris are part of a group of friends who have been holding regular dinner parties for the last couple of years. Beginning with an American Thanksgiving in November of 2005, it was the second dinner, during the Winter Olympics taking place in Turino, Italy, that began the trend of culturally inspired meals. "I know when I come home from work and think about what to make for dinner, my first thought usually is not, 'What cultural/ethnic food can I experiment with tonight?' This is an opportunity to cook delicious food not only for yourself, but for your friends as well," says Wat. The group welcomed the culinary challenge and since then they’ve explored Japanese, Mexican, Thai, and Indian foods, among others.

These dried goods are gettin' a tan! Captured by gavatron.

They beat the holiday hangover in January with a night of Chinese food that included sticky rice, stir fried Shanghai noodles, Kung Pao chicken, a mango pudding, and lots of Jasmine tea and Tsing Tao beer. Four teams each took care of an element of the dinner, sharing the cost and the work of preparing the food. They bought many of the main ingredients—shrimp, tofu, glutinous rice, Shanghai noodles, bean sprouts—in Chinatown. Wat points out that although some of these are available in grocery stores, the value and selection in Chinatown can’t be matched. Morris agrees: "Rarely has access to ingredients been an issue. I think I can thank the city of Toronto for that."

Most of Chinatown’s food markets are on the stretch of Spadina Avenue between College Street and Dundas Street. Anyone familiar with the area knows how busy it can be on the weekend. Shops bursting with food use the sidewalk for huge bins of produce that range from the simple (chestnuts, oranges) to the exotic durian, whose offensive odour juxtaposes its custardy insides. Families, tourists, and locals cram the sidewalks for a chance to score inexpensive groceries. Shop workers are often on the sidewalk loudly advertising the day’s prices. The bustle is tangible, the sea of people carries you from bin to bin and the selection can be overwhelming. You can do your groceries and have a quick stop at one of the Chinese bakeries to enjoy a bun filled with barbecued pork for less than a dollar, or pop into one of the many dim sum restaurants for lunch before you explore the area.

The lady picking out persimmons was captured by jnthnhys.

Eating with company is a lot of fun, especially if you put a twist on it. There are tons of fantastic places to explore in this city—just grab a few friends, buy some ingredients you’ve never tried before, and have a party!

The Last Lecture

Huge, life-altering traumas are a great leveller. They help you sort out the really important things from the less important ones.

In the Fall of 2006, Randy Pausch found out he had one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Nearly a year later, after being told that he had another 3-6 months of good health, he gave this lecture, his "Last Lecture."

I'll let him do the talking, and hope that you take the time to watch.

I Just Threw Up in My Mouth a Little

I used to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It was the ice cream to my fat girl. Trading in human emotions, this absolutely formulaic, American-as-apple-pie show selects a family in need, tears down their house and builds them a new one--in less than a week.

I know we're not all architects but I think there should be some warning bells going off here. Less than a week? Something is wrong here. You can't spend 5 seasons (well over 60 episodes) building new houses that then have no defects afterward.

We know that huge houses with tons of accessories are EM:HE's mandate. Besides all the arguments of necessity versus desire, the family that inherits a monster Makeover house will then be responsible for the maintenance of it. For many of the families, dire financial circumstances were a factor in selecting them for the show.

This article tells how one Kansas City man was fighting (at the time the article was written) a $3,891 monthly tax bill. His six-bedroom mansion, crammed between houses that allegedly barely make the six-figure mark, was evaluated by the county as being worth $348,089.

"The show has been criticized for glorifying excessive suburban lifestyles, such as in a Mother Jones article that questioned giving a 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 7-television house to a family of 4 in Kingston, WA." (Click here for a link to the Wikipedia page)


EM:HE parade themselves around as though they really want to make a difference, with Ty and his team tearing up in every episode at the brave kid with the disease we've never heard of. After the family has signed on the dotted line their stories, their lives, become property of ABC, which then wastes no time exploiting the shit out of it to make product placements and get insane ratings. So my guess is they sign away their rights to talk about how awesome/shitty/expensive/big the damn house is after it's been built. ABC doesn't want the world to see reality! They don't want the bubble to burst! They just want everyone to believe that Ty comes riding in on a big shiny bus, saves the family, builds a house so huge, shiny and packed to the rafters with luxury items that it gives you a hard-on, and rides off into the sunset!

Nothing speaks louder, though, than the ABC employees themselves. Check out this link for an astonishingly bizarre email about what EM:HE looks for in a family! The Smoking Gun said:

'...the program's "family casting director," Charisse Simonian, would love to locate a kid suffering from Progeria, the rare condition that causes rapid aging in a child (for those unaware of Progeria, the ABC e-mail helpfully describes it as "aka 'little old man disease.'") As if that terrible affliction weren't enough, Simonian is also on the hunt for a child with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. "This is where kids cannot feel any physical pain," she notes. But the hunt for a young victim--who will likely die before 30--will not be easy. "There are 17 known cases in US," she writes, before chirpily adding, "let me know if one is in your town!"

Tom Forman, the show's executive producer, told the Associated Press: "At the end of the day, you're talking about going to someone who needs it badly and deserves it badly and building them a home that makes life a little easier for them. It's hard to figure out how that's exploitive."

One of their more controversial projects involved a couple who earn over $100K each annually. According to a 2006 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 15% of all American families with children under 18 years of age live below the poverty line. That's roughly 38 million people. If Forman truly believed what he said, he would be building community centres for these people, he would build affordable housing for these people. He might exploit his position as an executive producer to bring attention to their living conditions.

But even in exploiting, even in their predatory methods, ABC can't bring itself to actually do good. You know, do something nice for someone with no strings attached. What's infuriating is Forman's trumping up of of a business transaction into a fucking charity, and America goes on thinking it's normal to have, say, a 4-person family living in a 7-bedroom, 5-bathroom mansion. Families pay for a new house with their stories, they sign contracts, then they all shit a collective brick after the bus moves. And the cycle continues.