Last week's music

Last week I resumed my love affair with Youtube which had been put on hold due to China blocking the dam site. I got into old school hip hop mixed with new school beats from the Ninja tunes label. This was a good Youtube playlist:

Toronto is ROC

I've only lived in the Rest of Canada for 3 months in my life. I don't really consider New Brunswick to be Rest of Canada because I lived in a francophone community which was just not very Anglo Saxon in its outlook. My three months in the ROC were spent hitchhiking across Canada, living in lower East side Vancouver and working on a flower farm in the Yukon; not exactly the typical ROC experience I would say. Toronto is ROC, it is the center of the ROC experience and I would say it is pleasant enough. I would say that it is a good place because the WASP element is mixed in with the entire planet. So when I was walking in downtown Toronto and saw the bagpipe wearing skirt sporting Scotish guy, my attention was immediately diverted to the reggae Jamaican guy with dreads riding his bike and screaming sme non-sense "Babylon" or something. That is good. Toronto takes the British politeness, love of order, Victorian era prudishness, and Protestant work ethics, and uses it to build this multicultural hodgepodge of everything that is very interesting if you enjoy people and culture.

Now the critical theory, French nationalist in me screams " but it is all overpowered by Anglo culture and moors"! But I am left wondering. What is quite amazing in this city is how everyone seems to live together quite fine. I have only been here for a while, like a week really, but I think I get the point that nobody is going to look at you funny if you wear a turban and a dress, man kiss a man, or scream at people down the road in Chinese. Everything goes in a great mix of indifference and economic logic that is very refreshing when coming back from China. Even the whities are joining in and they have a bunch of urban tribes that can be visited as I travel across the city; from urban hip, to suburb clics and  banker money people. The WASPs gain from all this great food, cultural excitement and (I am sure) a self glorified sense of satisfaction at having arrived there first and therefore having in large part built the basis for this great experiment.

Obviously this is all fodder for the separatist because French in this metropolis becomes just another minority group. Well I say "to hell with that" because a federation should be able to house many different political and cultural systems under a state and Canada has obviously been pretty good at that. So for today and until I get pissed off, I lay glory upon you Toronto.   

Toroto Night

I met up with my friend Jon. He is a fluffy intellectual. Fluffy because of the curly afro he sports on his head. Intellectual because he is like woody Allen, but less funny, he is still pretty funny though.

We were at a bar and I commented on a man's beard, he had just bummed a smoke. He was a Geopolitics PhD at York. He seemed to be really into religion and academic theory. Critical theory more precisely. He lives in the ivory tower. We then proceeded to get drunk. After a while we left for another bar. The guy told me repeatedly I was a Marxist.Jon left, he was probably bored out of his mind that me and this guy had just been taking academics for the past 4 hours. Me and the beard try to get into another bar. I somehow got refused at the bar. I might have been a bit confrontational. I think maybe I refused to show my ID or at least made sarcastic remarks to the bouncer, its ironic because I had just befriended another bouncer at the other bar. This upset the bearded academic, "Can you get in the system? Can you?" he yelled at me. It was a bit odd and we parted. I got his phone number and promises we would play badminton. I am sceptic as to whether the number is real or not, don't really feel like trying it right now.

My head hurts. Maybe I will read Das Kapital today.

Leaving Shanghai

I am leaving Shanghai in a few days. Tomorrow actually, to go to Zhengzhou in Hebei province (I think) and then the third of September to  go to Toronto. I have been reflecting on my experience here for the past few months, working at the Expo for the Canada Pavilion. I guess what really stands out is the people I have been working with who are quite amazing. People are such a mixed bag, a fusion of everything we have been through in our life, and to work with such an interesting group in such a tight knit situation for the past few months has been amazing. I have had a pretty amazing life I think, It has been my luck in life (or blessing if you believe in those things). So it is amazing to find people who have had and continue to lead so interesting lives, people who think in a similar way, have the same ideas, and were willing to share them with me.

It was also an experience to see around 1-2 million people in such a short amount of time. They estimate that around 70 million people will be coming to Expo over six months. According to my rough estimate that is around 1/20th of China's population, twice that of Canada. It is all walks of life, all places, all ideas and the such, a great mixed bag. To have such a contact with a population in a country such as China is amazing. Especially in a time when China is becoming the richest most powerful place on earth. How do Chinese people think of the world in a time like this? Mostly they are pretty ignorant about the outside world, most people are still too poor to care, and those who do seem to have a  nationalistic fervour about them that is scary at times. Yet people with less stress, more education (money), and by extension more power in society seem to be quite friendly and open, which is a positive sign. I guess all we can do is wait and see, but as people turned out to come and see the world, they seemed to be envious of Canada and our way of life, which fits in with our own prejudices, but anyway.

On towards the rest of my life, but not without a bit of nostalgia. 

Why I Love America

America is just a dream, it does not actually exist. It is the hopes and imagination of each of us, it is the prettiest thing. There is no real America; even the real one is clothed in cyber-reality and entertainment television shows. Americans dream of capital gains and faraway vacations from their suburban homes. Yet America makes the prettiest dreams, of cowboys and endless landscapes; of rugged hills in the dry desert and beautiful forest with leaves that reflect the autumn colors.

America is New York with millions of people from all over the world running for business at a frenetic pace; Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Chinks and Indians all living side by side madly pursuing the unattainable, indefinable American dream; silver glittery rockets, million dollar cars in endless driveways, sexy babes at discos and poor to riches in a matter of days.

America, always more America, on the television it's talk shows and fake reality. On the radio all I hear is that sweet American music, of country alt-disco. In the subway people wear American Apparel and give me sweet looks of boredom. I fall asleep and see open fields with cowboys and Indians sitting on horses chasing each other. In the hallways of universities all I hear is American talk of science and technology, of arts and philosophy. In Chinese factories, or Russian gulags, people dream of American freedom, American riches, and the American life. Wild dears dream of American forest and hunters dream of American wild dear. My mind is set on leaving America, but wherever I go, I'm beset by extreme Americana.

Florida beaches and Texas hoodlums, west coast hippies and east coast hipsters, Mid-land simple folks and Salt Lake religious, Georgia blackness and New Mexico Mexicans, down south Cajun. Cars, big cars, SUVs, Hummers, Pick-up trucks, convertibles, Gm, Ford, Oldsmobile, second hand, this years model, black, white, grey, red, cars. Toaster ovens, Chinese dry cleaners, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, all kinds of home appliances.

America is comfort, America is waste, America is beautiful, America is evil, America is Free, America is imperial, America is yours, America is closed, America is a dream of sweat and blood mixed with prairie land and mountains. America is the cold white beaches of Alaska, America is the vast empty Arizona desert, America is the endless drive on highway 66, America is the mountains of northern Oregon, America is the salmon rivers of Maine, America is the bustling nightlife of New-York city, America is the casinos of Atlantic city, America is the Dallas suburbs, the Chicago buildings, the Hollywood stars, Detroit techno and Indianapolis, Louisiana.

America is a fat man in a drive-thru, the great lakes, the plantation houses, the coal mines of Virginia, the Pittsburgh steel mills, the New-York Yankees, Micheal Jordan, the anti-establishment and the establishment. America is unavoidable, it is giant, it is there, it is in my head, it is in your head, it is everywhere, it is the world.

I have been going through old stuf

I followed you in the shade you were meant to play I remember when you came all night  settled on the door little bit of top of wine  and I drove away  and yesterday Ill stay your friend no matter you are older now  and stay awake  your parents arent at home now  take a shot of rum  Nowadays, wish I could come back to you but I drove away  so this is standard now  sat to play  I loved you and it feels the same  Today is the day today everything for you everyday coming for every actor and so and so today is the day today is the day everyday everyday go at home and we'd talk about so and so  today is the day today is the day everyday  I remember When I met you, you were young We had good times and it was fun and now that your of age We might just kiss Do it on your parents bed  Just like the kids  I went to bed you thought of me The summer time  today is the day

Hot Dog Misery

This
Is the greatest. Man storms hotdog eating contest. It is so abstract and irrelevant. It is pure dada. I am sure Dali dreamt of that stuff and Warhol did too. Especially Warhol. There is still hope for America!

---

Enter for a chance to get your town photo on Bing.ca! Submit a Photo Now!