The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Click the photo to see the Flickr set.

Last night, newmindspace held a Hallowe’en party on a subway train, which they announced on their site as:

Subway party tonight! Dress in your spookiest, scariest, fun furriest costume and join us for a late night ride beneath the streets of Toronto. Bring candy, decorations and a friend to this Halloween celebration. Bangin’ electro tunes will blast from the Rothko Institute + VelcroRocket portable soundsystem, and we will ghost ride the train!

You may join the party at any station, but the fun starts at Kipling 🙂

Ghost Ride the Subway Party!
Kipling Station, last car @ 11:13 PM
Wednesday, October 31st 2007
Free and all ages!
No facebook plz

Last year’s went perfectly! This is because we followed some simple guidelines for the TTC’s sake:

• No smoking *anything*
• No open alcohol, tickets have been written before
• Keep off the seats, really!
• Mind the emergency alarm
• Leave no trace
• Don’t hold doors open or leave the train

I joined the party at Kipling station (with accordion, of course) and took photos. I’ve posted them in a Flickr photoset — click here to check them out!

Click the photo to see the Flickr set.

And don’t forget: the clocks get turned back this Saturday, which means that we get an extra hour’s worth of party!

The choice of talking heads of FOX News has always left me wondering what journalism school would generate such a sorry lot; they seem to have been picked for less for their ability to ask the Five Ws and more for their ability to cheerlead for President W.

Even stranger is the choice of anchors for the spin-off channel FOX Business, who seem to have been picked for their Debbie Does Dallas (don’t worry, the link is safe for work) looks rather than j-skills. Even the design of the FOX Business site — gold on gold — makes it look more like a porn site than a news site. RADAR magazine noticed this and created a little game called FOX Business Anchor or Porn Star? The game is simple: you’ll be shown a picture of a woman and you must guess whether she’s an anchor on the FOX Business channel or a star from an adult entertainment film.

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but this ad with a faux date of 1965 (it’s actually brand new) makes me proud to be a rye and whiskey drinker (although I prefer Crown Royal to Canadian Club).

Click to see the ad at full size.

I thought I’d give a quick bloggy salute to Paul Raven, who died from a heart attack on October 20th in Switzerland.

Raven played with Killing Joke during their most successful period, contributing low notes to the albums Fire Dances, Brighter than a Thousand Suns and Night Time, on which the classic 80’s alt-rock/goth anthem Love Like Blood appears. I remember when my buddy George heard this tune at a Toronto dance club for the first time; he was so taken with it that he bought Night Time the very next day. Here’s the video:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Here’s another track from Night Time: Eighties. Many rock pundits believe that Nirvana borrowed its guitar riff and incorporated it into their song, Come as You Are:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

I wore out two Night Time cassettes in the ’80s and finally bought the CD. It’s that good.

Raven later joined Prong, playing on the albums Rude Awakening and Cleansing, which featured the closest thing they had to a hit: the woefully underappreciated single Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck. During my DJ days at Clark Hall Pub, as soon as Raven’s opening bass notes from this song came on, the moshing would begin in earnest. Here’s the video:

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Rest in peace, Mr. Raven, and thanks for the great tunes.

…for your ability to add kinky weirdness to anything, including Pokemon:

[found via David Janes who found it here.]