lemonade

wheels spinning
with the aftertaste
of rubber
poetry in no motion
is just a poor use of trees
and i've been idling
for more than 3 minutes
180 seconds
but wishing for
180 degrees
from here
crosstown
but midtown traffic
in 30 plus temperatures
has me feeling sticky
and stationary
with my stationery
looking for a park bridge
and a edge to rest on
catch up on my psalms
find growth
in proverbs
find relief
in verb usage
action words
to get me out of
an actionless third
this is the
fourth quarter
where eating rubber is
no longer an option
and one can't slouch
if they believe
in collar poppin

second childhood or...

things i did 15-20 years ago that i still may do today...

- watch alvin & the chipmunks
- sit in the first car of the subway
- avoid walking over vents downtown
- wearily wonder about the infamous third rail at subway stops
- perk my ears at the sounds of an ice cream truck 'ICE CREAM MAAAANNN!'
- get disoriented at union subway station
- partial aversion to playing cricket (behind the wicket)
- intentionally make myself dizzy upon the completion of ice cream sandwich
- world famous oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches.

i left my heart in montreal...

its funny, only when you visit other places do you realize how good/bad you have it at home.

this entry is dedicated to one bad thing t-dot suffers from(among many according to some). a signature food / dish.

chicago - deep dish pizza
philadelphia - cheese steak sammich
montreal - smoked meat sammich, poutine.

toronto has no real dish to hang their hat on. granted you can be told of great places to get dim sum, sushi, roti, penne, gelato and souvlaki, none of these foods are native or infamous to the 416.

all this is stemmed from the last week i spent in montreal, taste-buds need not rest there. baguettes, poutine, bagels, smoked meat, maple butter. the freshness, the smells, the options. endless and utterly enjoyable.

George Bernard Shaw didn't lie when he said there is no sincerer love than the love of food.

real people

real people
walk these streets
dodge misstep
and halfstep
from stoop to sidewalk
stairwell to subway
st. joseph to st. denis
and ask for forgiveness
at st. patrick
a foreigner with potential
row houses and residential
state of mind
while away from home
real people dealing with
real congestion
and needs for real protection
still i could really
see myself living here
caught in thought on the metro
from place d'armes to beaubien
politic on a pedestrian tip
and leave a tip for the friendly service
real people

summer of the street

Yesterday i spent most of the day walking up and down yonge street.
Call me crazy but i think yonge doesn't get spoken about too much when discussing the livelihood of streets in toronto. Sure yonge street has a festival, but i personally think the festival takes away from the essence of the street and to be frank is a lousy attempt at a street festival (see 'the danforth', 'montreal jazz festival' for proof).

College, queen, bloor, dundas, spadina, get alot of press and love from us twenty-somethings.
anything north of bloor is irrelevant, because there is usually a cooler equivalent south of bloor.

But yeah, yesterday, walking yonge street north of bloor, there's alot going on, its a busy street aside from the north - south traffic. Solid range of businesses, buildings of mixed usage (sounds like i'm doing a commercial strips assessment), a good mix of old and new architecture. This ranges from bloor almost up to lawrence. Like i've been told in class time and time again, streets and street scaping are important, they lay the foundation for the vitality of an area. Streets should be more than a mean of travel, they should be a destination, a place to hang out, shop, sit, relax, be seen.

With the Death and Life of Great American Cities and Great Streets on my reading list, this could very well be for me a summer of the street. Stay tuned.

my west toronto

west of bathurst.south of eglinton.north of college.east of jane.

My early years were bounded by those areas. With no family car or driver in the first 11 years of my life, public transit and walking was the mode of transportation. Some years later public transit and walking are the style again. This time around I have a greater appreciation for the row houses, corner stores that are located on actual corners and not within plazas, streets lined with fruit markets, patios, fabric stores and various other shops. These were my first impressions of commerce, of community, of the city. This isn’t a rant about the end of suburbia, because for all its publicized ills, there are many positives. But this isn’t about suburbia, this is about the area I was bounded, or rather, allowed to grow in.

In my limiting definition its west toronto, my west toronto. A place once referred to as home.

A place that gives me a smile when I’m on a streetcar or a bus and see signs for pistachio gelato or boneless goat roti. A place that make me reminisce when I see kids on bikes, skateboards and on foot darting in and out of back laneways in games of tag. A place that when what starts out as a private conversation becomes a public forum as strolling neighbours stop to listen and engage.

These things are not exclusive to my west toronto, but for me, this is where they began. I learned my earliest lessons in life in west toronto, so it comes as no surprise to me that i find myself revisiting these places and spaces. west of bathurst. south of eglinton. north of college. east of jane. my west toronto.

the sbs...

numerous hours get spent on youtube watching videos.
specifically hip hop videos that stations i don't watch wouldn't play.
so after months of unofficial searching i'm bestowing a couple of awards.

best outro to a video
the roots - you got me

the beat change at the 3:29 combined with the theme of the video. there's a reason why they got a grammy for this joint.


best video i didn't know there was a video for (best = most amusing)
craig mack - making moves with puff

the historical context and visual comedy of puff and craig mack sharing a screen is best displayed here.


to be continued...