It’s pretty rare for me to troll around on YouTube — regular web’s fancy enough for me.  But just as I was settling down for the evening I just spotted an article in The Star about local 26-year-old Jeigh Madjus who was recently found online by The Unmentionable One (last name borrowed from a famous hotal chain / personality-aborted blonde, first initial sounds like urine).

Jeigh put together a couple of audition clips for Fox’s Glee — a show that even a musical-hating person like myself can get something out of — and although I make have little musical experience I happen to think this guy’s got some skills. Doesn’t hurt that he’s from TO either. ;)

Find more Jeigh on his YouTube channel, or just keep your eyes and ears open. Call me crazy but I think this young man may be heading places.

Gabriella Nagy can suck my gonads.

Okay, I admit that as a divorcee, my views are a little skewed here. The attitude that this woman is carrying around is awfully similar to my ex’s, so be warned that there’s a pretty heavy bias here. And some lingering emotion. :) But enough time has now passed for that initial divorce pissed-offedness to have worn off. I’ve had plenty of calm time to consider / discuss motivations, history, my own faults and involvement, etc., and I’ve come to the conclusion that although I have plenty of improving to do, it doesn’t make Gabriella and my ex any less hosebags in their own way.

So here’s the story. Some time in 2007 Rogers Wireless (TV / Internet / mobile provider), decided to switch up its billing system to a one-per-household “global” system (as opposed to one per customer). At least I’m assuming that was it, I’m not a Rogers customer. In any event, they decided to start bundling bills for the same address even when the names weren’t the same. According to Gabriella this was done without her consent or knowledge.

At this point I can kinda see why she’d be suing Rogers. A major-brand car dealership, along with assistance from my ex, did something very similar to me — downright fraud, in fact — so I can sympathize. If it’s true that Rogers did this then they should be reprimanded, fined, and made to update this policy. I really don’t think there was any evil intent on the part of Rogers — it saves trees, saves the company some money, etc. — but they can’t just pull policies like that out of their ass and implement them without thinking about customers.

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I’ve been sitting in front of this computer for almost three days straight, working my blogging mojo to maximum capacity and barely moving an inch. Were I able to effectively aim the same soda I drank not long ago back into it’s original bottle, I would. The weather helped a bit – not May-like at all, cold and damp and overcast. But once the sore ass begins there’s little else to do but throw on a jacket and and take that ass out for some fresh air.

The moment my foot hit the ground outside the flat, the skies parted like some miraculous scripture moment and the sun beamed down on my swollen buttocks, urging them on. I can’t say I believe in the supernatural unless I personally experience it myself, but damn if that didn’t feel like a sign.

So with the sun shining happily on my perambulating backside, I chose somewhat arbitrarily to head down Queen Street East again. I did The Beach not too long ago, but the stretch between there and the Don Valley I kinda glossed over, and that’s a shame because it’s also a terrific area, very picturesque and Bohemian in its own way. The stretch encompasses the former villages of Riverdale and Leslieville, one of the first few towns to be gobbled up by a growing Toronto (you’re next, Peel, Markham, Vaughan, and Pickering!). So not unsurprisingly the main Queen Street strip has a really nice, old town feel to it, but it’s well maintained. Well, most of it anyway.

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Another contributor, can you believe it, dear reader?

Joining TCL as a Syndicated Contributor is Amber Dawn Pullin who does her own bit of dabbling in urban Toronto life over at amber dawn’s non-paper journal.

As a Syndicated Contributor Amber doesn’t write directly for TCL. Rather, I occassionally scour her blog for posts that I think you might like and, with her permission, re-publish them here. And feel free to comment on the posts — I’ll try to nudge Amber to take a look, possibly even answer.

Of course, dear reader, you’re welcome to let me know if I’m making editorial errors. In other words, if you’re clamorin’ for more Amber, gimme a holler. And there’s always the option of visiting her blog too, right?

So welcome to the Legion of Downtown Super Villains, Amber! (Sorry if I didn’t mention that last bit in my emails. Membership is mandatory.)

It’s been years since anything like this was attempted and, let’s be honest, this is a survey that all of Toronto has been waiting far too long for. I understand that you, dear reader, may not know the first thing about most, if not all, of these people and that’s perfectly okay. I might suggest that not knowing some of these folks’ backgrounds may make them sexier. The idea here is to be entirely superficial. :)

I think it’ll be fun to leave the poll open until the fall election when all of these faces may change. Perhaps we can correlate the sexiness factor with incumbency.

In the meantime, pick the three sexiest guys and gals (feel free to vote as much as the system will allow), and I’ll try my best to deliver the good news to the winning two offices — one lady, one gent — when the numbers are all in. “Hottest Toronto Councillor 2010” — that’d look nice on a plaque.

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Every now and again, when people learn about what I do (did), they ask me earnestly why I’d choose to stay in Toronto.

Easy to answer: it’s an awesome city. As soon as the right people are at the helm at City Hall, it’ll be truly world-class. In some ways the city is already busting at the seams in this regard, it’s simply the government that keeps reining it in.

Election day is coming and, regardless of this, the city is blooming with construction, flowers, and lovely ladies. And as I’m sure I’ve mentioned, I’ve seen a good selection of cities; enough to know that I haven’t seen nearly enough. Toronto isn’t the cheapest, or the cleanest, or the busiest, or the biggest, but it’s also not the dirtiest, most boring, barren, or small by any means. Any tourists that complain about deficiencies in these areas are, well, tourists. The city’s way bigger than that (have you see how little I’ve covered in TCLand?), and growing by leaps and bounds. Frickin’ jackhammer outside my window right now, in fact.

With so much growth it’s extremely important to keep a steady vision otherwise it could get real messy. Here’s a great example: the new designs recently unveiled for the new north hall of St. Lawrence Market. The market has been around since basically Toronto’s been here but the north hall, which to me resembles a stripped-down school gymnasium, is much newer. On Saturdays local growers truck in their produce and on Sundays it’s an antique market.

I know I’ve probably mentioned this before but I know that many people don’t get a chance to visit that area, so to help you out I’ve taken photos from approximately the same locations as in the literature. That way you can see the before and proposed-after shots.

The design teams for the north hall project are split up into five colours but obviously the orange team is the best. A rooftop garden? Hells yeah!

Anyhow, here they are, winner to be decided by committee. :(

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This week the pre-election ritual of reviewing councillors’ salaries began in earnest. Prior to this election the issue, like the trillium, blossomed every three years but now with a four- year term this ugly plant has morphed into a weed that always bears bitter fruit. Councillors will predictably fall all over themselves to prove to the electorate how frugal they are. They will disparage the expectations of their colleagues and publicly slash their wrists in an effort to out humble each other.

Oh my gosh. :D Then at the end of this Toronto City Council motion it ends by saying that the Toronto Star’s Editorial Board bears great wisdom when it comes to giving people raises and why not use them since they’re “are always eager to give advice about this weighty subject”? Yours truly, Councillor Howard Moscoe.

Gotta thank Newstalk 1010 for this one.

Here’s something else I found stuck to the wall this afternoon (Church, south of Dundas). Could it be?

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Been a lot of buzz about British street artist Banksy on the Toronto wires lately. When I had a gander at the art I thought I’d remembered hastily snapping something like it last month — but that was last month. What do you think, Banksy or not?

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For some strange reason people continue to submit photos to the TCL Flickr group despite the fact that it’s been mothballed for months now. I drop by every couple of weeks and there are ten to thirteen new photos awaiting approval — for only who knows how long. Weeping inconsolably, usually.

I feel like such a jerk.

Well, why not at least show off a few good ones, huh? It’s what the photographers were expecting when they joined my neglectful outfit.

So here’s the first of whatever (and whenever) I dig out the group pool. I believe this is that roller derby league I’ve seen plastered on every light pole around town.

E-ville Dead by –nikon–