Toronto skyline by -nikkon-

How do you make the Toronto mayoral race interesting?

Well, I dunno if I have a definitive answer to that, but there’s a bunch of stuff you can do to prevent it from being less relevant.

I mean, the first televised debate earlier this week on local all-news CP24 was mangled pretty good. Judging by the reaction from the few remaining media outlets not owned by Rogers Communications, I wasn’t the only one underwhelmed by the ADD spectacle. This was made more acute by the fact CP24 is owned by Citytv which is owned by CTVglobemedia, a Rogers joint. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rogers already owns a controlling interest in Toronto City Life. Monopolistic issues aside, none of these organizations is exactly new to this type of thing, so their combined wisdom really should’ve produced something a bit more substantial.

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After welcoming Amber Dawn to the fold I decided I wouldn’t count anymore. I have every confidence that you can do that yourself, dear reader. :)

Besides, I wouldn’t assign a number to Matthew Del Biondi; he’s a little too much of himself to be categorized in that manner.

As a weekly feature contributor Matt will be giving us the video lowdown on Toronto’s social, arts, and party scenes, not necessarily in that order. Perhaps this isn’t an adequate description. To be honest, I didn’t ask him to elaborate, mostly because I like to be surprised.

In fact, I don’t really know much about Mr. Biondi. Mr. Del Biondi? Judging by his last name I’d guess he’s Italian. Judging by his MySpace account I’d say he’s an artist. Judging by his YouTube channel I’d surmise he’s a bit of a social butterfly with something to say. And judging by the initial email he sent me in which he mentioned seeing a TCL advert hanging in a local supermarket, he must live within a few blocks. Or he comes down here to buy groceries. :)

In any event, I’m very pleased to welcome Matt to the TCL team! I’ve been assured that what he has in store for TCL will be something different, but just like you I’ll have to be patient to find out exactly what that is. If involves “Life” in the “City” of “Toronto”, as I’m sure it will, it’ll be right up my alley.

So welcome, Matt! Super glad to have you with us. :D

This morning, on my way through Allan Gardens to get my daily jitter, I noticed a City of Toronto truck parked smack in the center of the central path with a curly-haired city employee standing beside it waving down passing cyclists. After a brief lecture the cyclists all dismounted and walked their bikes until over-the-shoulder glances confirmed that the guy was no longer looking, at which point they got back on and rode off.

“What gives?”, was my initial reaction, but without a jolt of caffeine and the other magical energy ingredients found in my canned morning concoction, I’m pretty much useless at that time of day, so that’s as far as that line of questioning went.

But once I got back to the flat and downed all 473 millilitres of liquid inspiration it suddenly dawned on me that something in the park was amiss, so I grabbed my camera and my curiosity and headed back.

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Aha! I finally figured out why the smell of frying food conjures up such strong feelings of summer. And it isn’t all funnel cakes either.

The whole synesthetic experience must’ve started when I was still doing my ex-pat thing overseas. It was on the tropical island of Taiwan where winter temperatures hardly dipped below 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), and the summers we non-stop steam baths regularly hitting 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), that I  first made the association. After a few years of that, the link between summer heat and fried food musta just burned into my brain, I guess.

The fried food part of the equation is my favourite Taiwanese breakfast, usually eaten in small roadside shops surrounded by greasy steam and greasier customers.

The three most common meals at such establishment are, as I recall, lobogau, diced fried daikon (giant white radish), congee, a cold soup consisting of rice, some kind of shredded meat, and a variety of veggie / nut toppings, and dan bing, which I’ll be discussing here and the only thing that I actually enjoyed in the mornings. (Fried radish — gross!)

The name dan bing comes from the Mandarin words “ji dan” (chicken eggs), and “bing” (platter or plate – or ice if mispronounced). It’s usually accompanied by “nai cha”, literally “milk tea”, but with whitener being used instead of real milk — for a variety of reasons. Incidentally, this is also the secret ingredient in Tea Shop 168’s milk teas, unsurprisingly since this is also a Taiwanese company. (With tapioca in the milk tea —  buble milk tea — it’s called “jinju nai cha”.)

Dan bing is super easy to make:

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…and as Zach noted, this year it’s going to considerably more exciting than previous summers. The government is still very much mum on security details for the G20 summit, but the groups that will be coming into town for the event have already started to pop their heads out of the ground.

Here’s one I heard about today, the FFFC, an aboriginal anarchist group (at least everyone’s calling them anarchists), who are blaming the Royal Bank of Canada, and by extension the entire monetary system, for increased poverty in Vancouver and for environmental destruction through the support of Alberta’s tar sands projects. Plus all the other usual bullshit complaints like stolen land, blah blah blah.

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Hurray for Flickr submissions! Here’s another randomly chosen one from TCL’s photo pool:

“City walk” by Chris A.K.A. Shrek

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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