The blogroll (the list of blogs or sites who’ve linked to me, even if only to pull down my pants and taunt me) in the right-hand column has been updated. Did I miss yours? Let me know!
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Author: Joey deVilla
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More trash talkin’
The state of Queen Street during the strike (not too bad, actually), a couple of guys going door-to-door offering to haul people’s garbage away for two bucks a bag, and what the Toronto media have to say about the strike.
Queen Street report
Queen Street West, a bustling street of bars, bookstores, boutiques, clothing shops, clubs, music stores (both for CDs and musical instruments), restaurants and street vendors, is my home turf. Casa di AccordionGuy — and yes, it’s a real house, not a condo — is tucked into a quiet residential neighbourhood a couple blocks north. I’m pleased to report that the worst effects of the garbage strike is that there are only three or four piles of garbage . Aside from an increased amount of discarded wrappings and cans in the street gutters, it’s surprsingly clean, and remember, this is after a heavy influz of tourists thanks to Canada Day, Gay Pride Weekend and the Molson Indy. Most American cities with Toronto’s size and population would be wallowing in their own filth by now.
I took some photos of Queen Street today at about 2:00 p.m. and will post them later.
Entrepreneurs or con artists?
A trio of guys — two in their early twenties, one in his early teens, have been doing the rounds of my neighbourhood, going toor-to-door and offering to haul people’s trash away for the measly sum of $2.00 a bag. They said they’d take the garbage to the proper depot (the depots are still open, it’s just the collectors who aren’t working). I opted to go with a pragmatic approach: we gave them only our food garbage and while they were canvassing houses down the block, I took pictures of their pickup truck, with the license plate in plain view. If they’re legit, there’s no problem, but if they’re just dumping the bags elsewhere (some people have been dumping garbage in parks), we’ve got a way for the cops to trace them.
Recommended Reading
Here’s what some of the local media have to say about the strike:
A discussion from the BoingBoing site on Toronto, my smart-ass comment about San Francisco (which I made here) and civics.
Strike talks collapse, city says (Toronto Star)
Trash talkin’ in court (Toronto Sun )
Talks stalled in municipal strike: unions accuse city of rigging bust (CBC Toronto)
A whole page on Canada.com devoted to the Toronto strike.
Trash talking: Mel’s deputy sticks it to unions while making like Mr. Clean (Now magazine)
Composting for smell and sanity (eye magazine)
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Trash talkin’
Here are a couple of photos showing what’s been going in the wake of Toronto’s garbage strike.
Someone’s not pleased with the strike. A trash/recycling can on the south side of Bloor Street, just east of Bathurst. Taken Thursday night.
Garbage in Chinatown. This was taken Saturday afternoon at the north-east corner of Spadina and Dundas. Throw in a couple of discarded needles and some human excrement, and it’ll look just like San Francisco.
The Daily Nonsense, a Toronto-based weblog, has more photos and rants about the current garbage situation in Toronto.
Rhyming “Dorian” with “accordion” when Dorian and I walked in the room showed some really quick thinking.
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Yet Another Memo to Self
Wedding rings. You must check to see if they’re wearing wedding rings. It’ll save you a lot of trouble.
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Slut School
Two Fridays ago, Slut School had another one of their DJ events. I attended, dances, and took pictures.
Two Fridays ago
Every now and again, Slut School — a group of Will’s friends from his high school, a school of the arts somewhere in Mississauga, a suburban sattelite city of Toronto — holds a DJ night. It’s usually at in Lounge 56, a basement dance club nestled between food stores in Kensington Market. Accordiong to Eva, one of the organizers, Slut School got its name from a remark her mom had made when she saw her and her friends getting ready to go out one night: “it looks like a slut school.”
(Memo to self: go to art school in your next life.)
The DJs played a great set — some funk, some jungle, some drum and bass, some ambient, and even let me drop some accordion science over some breakbeats. The evening ended at around 3, after which Will and I headed to Swatow for some fine Fukien-style Chinese cuisine.
And now, the photos…
Not quite a “Scarlet Letter”, but it’ll do. Have you ever seen someone so happy to be branded as a slut?
Fresh Meat and friends. Hangin’ with Toronto’s tallest band.
Leila, Will and Dorian. Leila and Will look like they should be in a Diesel Jeans ad, while Dorian seems to be thinking “ear wax…mmm, salty.”
Look out, Billy Idol! Will shows us his sneer; Tina doesn’t look impressed.
Us and the ladies. From left to right: Hoda, Will, Leila, Holly, me. Holly can barely contain herself in the presence of the accordion mojo.
A little bandmate bonding. Tina kisses her drummer (Tina, Mandra, anyone, please tell me his name — I’ve forgotten!) while Heaven Lee makes the universal sign for you-know-what.
The ladies! The ladies! Don’t you have to have a license to be this cute?
And finally, because so many of you demanded it, more Heaven Lee. Even Heaven Lee asked if I had any more “cute” shots of her. It don’t get any cuter than this [Warning: not work safe.]. Cheeky girl!
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Now you can talk back
First came an RSS feed, and now, comments! Expect similar upgrades to my other blog, “The Happiest Geek on Earth”, and more changes to both blogs shortly.
If you’ve haven’t yet guessed from reading this blog, I’m a big schmoozer and love a good coversation or discussion. I’d been meaning to add some kind of system for readers of this blog to leave comments, but didn’t get around to it until recently. You’ll find a link to a comments page at the bottom of each entry; go ahead and comment away! The “look and feel” of the comments page is pretty rough right now, but it’ll change as I’m currently redesigning my site, starting with the blogs.
(Thanks to enetation for the commenting system.)