chumptastic dot org

as i tend to do every few years, i enjoy revisiting sites of questionable business models to see how things have made out. so, when i was in peterborough a few weeks ago, i was sad to see that my favourite hair salon/computer shop had made the following sad transformation:

January 2009

March 2010

i guess it’s a good thing i didn’t apply for a job there after all.

ok seriously, who thinks it’s appropriate to whittle (yes, carve wood) on the ttc?

his seat was covered nicely in shavings. an awesome treat for the next passenger.

every year this gets a little less relevant, but here are some of my favourite albums and songs of the year. shockingly, 15 of 20 albums, and 20 of 25 songs are canadian. i await your criticism.

favouritest albums
1. rural alberta advantage - hometowns
2. think about life - family
3. winter gloves - about a girl
4. st. vincent - actor
5. joel plaskett - three
6. timber timbre - timber timbre
7. white rabbits - it’s frightening
8. sports: the band - sports: the band ep
9. the lodge - take that, devil!
10. zeus - sounds like zeus ep
11. the xx - xx
12. cuff the duke - way down here
13. lovely feathers - fantasies of the lot
14. japandroids - post-nothing
15. ryan dahle - irrational anthems
16. clues - clues
17. little girls - concepts
18. maximo park - quicken the heart
19. hidden cameras - origin:orphan
20. brendan benson - my old, familiar friend

honourable mentions: by divine right - mutant message, ohbijou - beacons, ac newman - get guilty, apostle of hustle - eats darkness, young galaxy - invisible republic, hey rosetta! - into your lungs

favouritest songs
1. rural alberta advantage - don’t haunt this place
2. pomplamoose - single ladies
3. think about life - sweet sixteen
4. joel plaskett - through & through & through
5. st. vincent - actor out of work
6. winter gloves - factories
7. apostle of hustle - soul unwind
8. brendan benson - a whole lot better
9. the xx - crystalised
10. the lodge - world in me
11. timber timbre - magic arrow
12. clues - cave mouth
13. ryan dahle - chop chop
14. sports: the band - warn me
15. hidden cameras - in the na
16. zeus - how does it feel
17. white rabbits - right where they left
18. the lovely feathers - long walks
19. two hours traffic - territory
20. julie doiron - consolation prize
21. most serene republic - heavens to purgatory
22. ohbijou - black ice
23. library voices - step off the map & float
24. young galaxy - destroyer
25. metric - gimme sympathy

honourable mentions: gentleman reg - you can’t get it back, by divine right - i love a girl, maximo park - wraithlike, cuff the duke - promises, the national - so far around the bend, ac newman - like a hitman, like a dancer, spoon - well alright, phoenix - 1901, hey rosetta! - new goodbye, arkells - pullin’ punches, flaming lips - convinced of the hex, animal collective - my girls, rock plaza central - (don’t you believe the words of) handsome men, analog bell service - i guess

thanks to emily for sending me this:

apparently chumptastic is too hilarious for some work places. it strikes me that, for a site that gets at most 20 visitors a day, adding chumptastic to a content filter might not be worth the effort.

this sign would be even better if it were about a summer horse:

i noticed these signs creeping up in movie theatres in the summer:

they strike me as a “because of me, they have a sign” situation. note that while wearing other footwear, i stop exercising caution.

a coworker brought in this hard drive for me to “dispose of”:


amazing. apparently it’s from 1989.

time to be jealous, kids. i’m google famous:

apparently the google streetview car drove by me as i was leaving work.

close up:

awesome.

i’ve realized this week how many (crappy) photos have accumulated on my blackberry over the last several months. i guess it’s time to start sharing them with the world!

let’s start with this threatening looking sign from my building management:

as was the case with this sign, i’m interested in finding out what i’d be charged with for leaving a door ajar. stop tempting me, westdale properties…

i like these cute little robots that appeared a few weeks ago at intersections all over downtown:

this particular robot was spotted at queen and niagara.

spotted in my building’s mail room, how’s this for a personal touch?

maybe it’s “the entertainment” from david foster wallace’s infinite jest. if so, this is more than warranted, but it probably won’t receive a response.

finally, i’m sorry this didn’t turn out better (crappy blackberry cameraphone), but i’d never seen anyone mopping a ceiling before:

(as spotted in st. patrick station). does anyone else remember that old poledo song? “i’ll wipe the ceiling with you” was the chorus.

here’s a roundup of the movies i saw this year at the toronto international film festival, as originally posted to twitter:

the trotsky: jay baruchel + colm feore + communism + student uprising + malajube + canadian. fantastic. #tiff
the white ribbon: black and white, pre-ww1 germany, every character scary and disturbing, pure haneke. still thinking about it. #tiff
les herbes folles: a man undergoing a mid life crisis finds a woman’s wallet and loses his mind. i’m not french enough to get it. #tiff
up in the air: clooney/reitman, funny+sad+unpredictable+excellent. i can pretty much put my life in a backpack. #tiff
same same but different: german kid decides to marry HIV positive cambodian girl. i have no clue why. #tiff
partir: a woman attempts to leave her husband. won’t someone think of the children? kristin scott thomas is always good. #tiff
youth in revolt: michael cera playing michael cera…with a mustache. tries to get girl, blows up building, the usual. pretty ok. #tiff
my son my son what have ye done: insane, pelican obsessed man stabs his mother and takes hostages. “cohesive narrative”? herzogian. #tiff
the good heart: ridiculously mean bar owner with a bad heart befriends a homeless kid with too much heart. also, pet duck. sneaky good.#tiff
max manus: norwegian blockbuster about their greatest ww2 hero. surprisingly little action, for an action movie. soso. #tiff

at around midnight last night, i heard a loud screech of car brakes, followed by an even louder crashing sound. i looked out my window to see that a car had smashed into a house behind my building. yes, a house. this house wasn’t located at the end of a street, nor was it on a busy street at all. you have to be a real moron to end up causing damage like this:

when i looked out, i saw someone running from the car. i like to think he was running because he was embarassed about being so stupid.

edit: wait, how many cars crashed into buildings in toronto in the last day? at least two apparently!

it appears as though whoever was in charge of today’s toronto star “throws” (at least it appears that’s what the technical term is) fell asleep at the switch:

i especially like the first one.

when i first moved into my building, i asked a few people (the management office, the superintendent, a random cleaner) how to recycle. each of them told me to just throw it down the garbage chute. this was a less than satisfying answer to me, and, to make a long story short, calling the city repeatedly managed to force my building to start a recycling program. note that this was 2 years ago, not 1991.

last week i attempted to take my recycling to the rear of my building and discovered this:

i can only assume that they added the chains to the new recycle bins to prevent non-recyclable materials from being added. oh, and also recyclable materials.