I think they were serving $6 cosmos, but of course beer was the choice of drink for us!
Gayle’s BFF (that was the name of our team) came in second place during trivia night at Wayla Lounge in Leslieville last night! We lost by only two points, which was disappointing of course, but a stellar showing nonetheless. A group of queens beat us, and considering we were only a team of three, we did a pretty damn good job!
The competition was still arriving well after 9 p.m.
This crew spent nearly 30 minutes on their smart phones, without speaking
Look at my left eye! It looks like it's going to pop out!
Lisa, Keith and I went to see Perfume Genius perform at The Drake Hotel on Queen St. West this evening. He has a remarkably soulful voice and is a skilled pianist. We were in heaven.
My work came back from class
With notes attached
Of a place and time
Or how my body kept him up at night
He let me smoke weed in his truck
If I could convince him I loved him enough
Enough, enough, enough, ‘nough
He made me a tape of Joy Division
He told there was a part of him missing
When I was sixteen
He jumped off a building
Mr Petersen
I know you weren’t ready to go
I hope there’s room for you up above
Or down below.
Before Perfume Genius’ concert this evening Keith and I sat and enjoyed a few beers at The Beaconsfield. I propped my camera by the window and captured a few minutes of life on Queen St. W. Afterwards we met Lisa at The Drake and listened to beautiful music.
Lisa and I met at the corner of Gerrard and Jarvis at 2:30 p.m. for a 12km walk to Little India. Gerrard St. is one of the most impoverished neighbourhoods in Toronto and often overlooked by locals as a place to stroll on a Saturday afternoon. Gentrification is slow but not entirely absent as immigrants from India have claimed it as their own, and as they should; Allan Gardens is nearby along with a wide variety of Indian restaurants and department stores. Armed with only our cameras we soaked in the beautiful and unusually mild April weather with a passion typically reserved for a scrumptious dessert.
Gerrard and Coxwell is the main intersection of Little India
Remnants of old Toronto are easy to find on Gerrard St.
I'm not sure where this can take you, but it sure looks interesting
This odd looking house recently sold for $300,000
WTF?
The Ashbridge Estate
A typical home on Gerrard St.
An abandoned building inspires an entrepreneur's spirit
It was a long trip but I’m back in Toronto with Maude. The cutest dog in the world. She looks very well and has fully recuperated from her knee replacement surgery in December. Her seizures are also completely under control. I love her.
I often struggle whether writing about subject matters that I’m passionately and personally involved with is a good idea. Like animal rights. There is so much cruelty towards animals in this world that it breaks my heart over and over again. But so many of us pay no attention, even though our hedonism is responsible for much of the injustices inflicted on animals. I don’t want to sit on top of my soap box, or be preachy or pretend that I am better than anyone else, but something has to be done.
Early this evening I was conducting some research on an independent feature-length film by CanazWest Picture Inc. about Asian elephants. They are hoping for a theatrical and television distribution but have to raise sufficient funds. I was going through their Twitter photos when I caught a glimpse of an elephant whose trunk was cut off of his face. He was left alive, and in agony. How could someone do such a thing?
I want to help but how can I? We live in a world where the majority believe that animals exist only for our entertainment and then nourishment. People proudly post photos on their blogs of the steak from their dinner the night before with no acknowledgement that it was once alive and probably suffered a great deal to end up on their plate. It sickens me. It really does. I know I should reserve judgment, but I can’t understand how we’re capable of ignoring cruelty. Our attitude is what we don’t know won’t hurt us.
Elephants are exceptionally intelligent creatures but that shouldn’t be reason enough to save them from harm. We should want to protect them not because they are smart but because it is the right thing to do. I don’t know where humans ever got the idea that they were more worthy of life than any other animal. Especially since it is humans who behave the most horrific.
I do what I can. I haven’t touched meat in seven years. I try to educate myself about where I buy my clothes and I frequently make my own dinner and buy local fruits and vegetables. But it isn’t enough.
Collectively we need to think differently and respect the rights of every creature on this planet to live their life free of violence and neglect. Including dogs. Including elephants. Including sharks. The list goes on.
I pray that by the end of my life that the Canadian seal hunt will have been abolished and those responsible will be brought to justice. The idea that it’s legal to club a seal to death is a stain on humanity, and it will always remain.
But what I find worse than such callous disregard for life, is our apathy about it. The simple belief that what lands on our plate, or what is used to make fashion is not our problem. It might not be our problem, because we are the problem.
As autumn begins in the southern hemisphere I can’t quite believe that summer has passed without so much as a goodbye. Porteños are bundled up to the chin while walking home at night, quite the sight for a Canadian.
The sky is beautiful, but we're often too busy to notice. What a pity.
When I was younger my family and I used to cottage in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Natural beauty is easy to find and there is such an abundance of it around the world. My brothers and I used to lay on the dock and watch as the satellites floated in space. Life is simple when we’re young, or maybe it’s that we don’t ask too many questions, because the answer is so obvious: No one knows.
On April 30th I turn 33. Ten days earlier, I will mark my tenth anniversary since my university graduation. A whole decade. God I was so young. And stupid.
What did I think about my future then? Not much. I remember living life like I do today, one day at a time. My greatest wish right now is to maintain my health and make it to 43. Middle age. It doesn’t seem so scary to be honest. In fact I look forward to what the future holds, good and bad.
Maybe I’ve had it too easy, but nothing has ever been bad enough to fear another day. I look back on my younger self and think, “I’ll never forget you,” but ultimately I prefer my older version.
Pedestrians found this woman unconscious in her vehicle and called the police who responded to the scene. While they waited for the paramedics to arrive (they never did) they took it upon themselves to rob her and quickly left before she woke up. When she did, she frantically circled her car until two new police officers arrived, but by then the woman appeared fine, and they washed their hands of the entire affair. The woman didn’t realize that she had been robbed until after she returned home.
The video above is causing quite a stir among porteños who already distrust the police. Nothing new there, considering almost every major city in the world has issues with the way their law enforcement conducts business. But in Argentina, where corruption is the rule of law, it’s no surprise that most police officers behave in such a fashion. It’s common here.
I remember when I was pick-pocketed and discovered that a police officer nearby witnessed the whole thing. He shrugged his shoulders at me, and laughed. I’m hopeful that I will never be the victim of a violent crime in BA, because I’m pretty certain that I couldn’t count on the police to help.
Most people in Buenos Aires, when I told them about my iPod incident, said that I should just be lucky that I wasn’t attacked. Hmmmm….. Sometimes I have to wonder about this place. Porteños are so accustomed to crime that they consider themselves lucky if it wasn’t violent.
I was speaking to my Canadian friend Sabrina this weekend and she told me about a time when she was walking home and a man came up from behind her and pushed her up against the wall and demanded all her money and whatever else was in her pocket. She kicked him in the balls and ran like a bat out of hell. When she entered her house she burst into tears.
My former student Rosario was a victim of crime on three separate occasions. The first was her discovery, upon returning from holiday, that her house had been ransacked. She said that it didn’t bother her so much that she was robbed, but that they completely destroyed her house. The second was when she was visiting her sister in Retiro and two men approached her and demanded that she forfeit her purse. Frightened, she pushed them and ran like mad. And third she returned home to find that her purse had been pick-pocketed while on the train.
We’ve been lucky. There is the unfortunate case of the Frenchman who was approached by two men demanding his camera. When they applied physical force he fought back, only to be fatally stabbed.
In Argentina these episodes are tolerated by locals because they are at the mercy of a corrupt law enforcement and have been for decades. All they can do is laugh. Literally.
I’m blogging a lot because I’m glued to a desk writing articles all day. Today I completed 6 assignments, each requiring intense research because I know little about the topics. But that’s life. When I need a break I write blog posts, or view videos on YouTube.
This evening I had dinner with Ramiro who recently returned from his work-related trip to Dallas and Miami. There’s this take-out place on Cabildo in Capital Federal called La Soberana that he thought I might like. The man who took my order was really nice and tried to speak English with me. I’m always surprised at how proficient Argentines are with the English language.
Anyway, for dinner I ordered bomba de papa y queso, (a rice ball stuffed with potato and cheese):
Bomba de papa y queso
And for dessert I had a delicious slice of budín de pan (bread and milk) with a dollop of dulce de leche:
Budín de pan con dulce de leche
Ramiro ate terrina de verdura stuffed with espinaca:
Terrina de verdura
And for dessert he had a tiramisú doused in rum:
Tiramisú
I devoured my portion in record time. Now I’m listening to the news. I love the ominous music they play with everything. So dramatic. It’s almost worse than CNN or FOX. Almost.
