i went to new york for a week.

i was thinking i would write blogs everyday about all the exciting things i was seeing and doing and eating and holy shit! new york city, wooooooooo! but, instead, i felt really comfortable there and just wanted to sort of hang around and make friends with bartenders and take pictures of clouds and pretty much do everything i would do at home.

i mean, we saw all the boroughs.
we saw the touristy bullshit.
i ate a hotdog at 30 rock.
we walked till our legs ached.
we made fun of students in greenwich,
avoided suits in hell's kitchen,
raged with drunks in the east village.
we ate bbq chicken in harlem.
i got freaked out by coney island.
we saw the ocean and some mountains.
i eavesdropped thick accents.
i rummaged through chinatown.
central park is a beautiful sanctuary
and yoo-hoo is a bizarre beverage.

i thought that i didn't want to leave on our last night. it was starting to feel normal to wake up in our little expensive apartment. i could navigate my way around easily. i get lost in the fucking eaton centre but i know the new york subway system surprisingly well. i think i'd always feel like a tourist in that city though. i'm sure most people do. toronto has a lot of the same characteristics and it's also somewhere for small towners to flock to. the big city and all that. while it was easily growing familiar - it wasn't home.

you know, i'll always feel embarassed buying a record that was made fun of in high fidelity but getting the big chill soundtrack on vinyl from a dude that looks like jim jarmusch in a brooklyn dirt mall - well, that tops it. and, for me, it sums up new york.

i guess it was great. i guess traveling is a strange trip. (yeah, yeah... i know)
i guess it's just something we have to do to escape from our own lives, sometimes.
i guess the pictures tell a better story than i ever could.

click here for the whole set: flickr.

counting down the days

a couple things happened this week i meant to write about but i've been too busy planning and preparing for my trip to new york! i've never had a real vacation and i've always wanted to party with people that never sleep. that's right, right?

here's a quick synopsis.

we ate a lot of ribs and then lit fireworks. got blacked out at sneaks and slipped in someone else's puke. karen danced for awhile outside her house and we all laughed till we cried.

i watched a shitload of movies on tv. notable ones: bird on a wire, michael jackson doc, batman begins and a really weird live action flintstones prequel. betty was played by jenna from 30 rock and wilma was the tall chic from 3rd rock. pretty weird, huh?

the weather has been amazing all week so i rode out to trinity bellwoods after work one night to lay in the sun. i took a picture of a pretty girl doing the same thing as me, saw a couple eating a baguette, cheese and olives on the grass (probably my favourite thing ever) and watched dogs try to fuck eachother.

i barbecued some amazing tandoori chicken drumsticks (two nights in a row) and spied on my neighbours. for some reason i'm always terrified to light the bbq. i even freak out turning it off. i think i'm afraid it's gonna blow up in my face like the time my mom got thrown into the pool after a gas surge knocked her off her feet. she didn't have eyebrows for weeks.

bullies

i just read an article about a woman in quebec who was hand-cuffed, taken to the cop shop and fined upwards of $400 for not holding the handrail on the escalator exiting the subway station.

are you kidding me? do the police in montreal really have nothing better to do than patrol the fucking escalators? i would've snapped if i were her. i would have completely lost it. seriously. i tend to have problems with authority as it stands (let alone useless pieces of shit upholding pointless laws) but if an officer asked me to hold onto a germ infested handrail when i am perfectly capable of standing upright on a moving conveyor... i'm sure my fine would've been a lot higher than hers.

pt. 3

saturday night was arron's (aka serpico, satant, wiseguy) birthday party. we made some steaks and salad for everyone at phil's house before heading over. the food was amazing and the sweet smell from the rice cooker lingered most of the night.

arron's girlfriend works for a booze company so there were little bottles of booze all over the place. the apartment was pretty beautiful and her dog ruled. he was all muscles and energy. he kept trying to lick between my toes which i didn't really mind. when the free booze led to things getting out of control, phil and i peaced. we got back to his place, ate the leftover steak, drank the run-off and seconds after laying down in bed i got back up, puked for awhile and woke up starving this morning.

not too shabby.

pt. 2

friday night phil and i ate at chieng mai. we were the only customers in the restaurant and the food (while blazingly spicy) was so fucking delicious that i didn't mind chugging gallons of water during the whole meal. we had glass noodle salad, thai mushroom soup and green curry seafood. living in chinatown highly influences my diet. i eat a lot of seafood, rice, noodles and barbecued meat. it builds a great base for drinking and i know i'll usually have a fantastic shit the next morning. definitely a win-win.

after a couple beers at my house we rode over to sleeping giant gallery. the last show we went to there was a complete joke but this time there were a couple great artists. my favourite was hugo arias. the pictures below don't even do the works justice. truly amazing stuff.

we ended the night at jackson's. the door was locked when we showed up so we went around to the alley in the back. we called everyone a couple times and then i hucked a rock at the window. i got their attention on the first try. i felt like i was in a movie. i'd never done that before. jackson ordered a secret pizza at one point and we all ate the shit out of it. i burnt my mouth on scalding hot cheese but nothing could ruin the feeling of greasy 'za sliding down my throat.

it was a little treacherous riding my bike home because my goddamn brake line snapped on wednesday but i'm used to stopping with my feet so atleast i didn't bail. i have to remember to replace that this week... fuck.

the long weekend before vacation pt. 1

last night i went to the silver dollar for honky night in canada. i forgot to eat dinner, got pretty drunk off 4 beers and danced to some honky tonk. i left early without saying bye to anyone, went home, made a toasted tomato sandwich and watched true blood. you were all right... it is the best thing since buffy.

one day vacation

i called in sick to work today because i was exhausted and really just needed to get some stuff done. i feel like even on my days off i'm trying too hard to do exciting things with phil and friends that i don't leave myself time to get things accomplished. i haven't done laundry or dishes in forever and my room is a disaster.

i made a fried egg and asparagus sandwich for breakfast with some instant coffee, burnt my finger pretty bad on a frying pan, smoked a bowl to ease the pain and ventured out on my bike. i bought the parts i needed to fix the toilet that's been broken since our last party, checked the post office to see if my phone had arrived unbeknownst to me and dropped off a down payment for an apartment in nyc. the guy i paid the security deposit to lived in an area i'd never been to before so i took some pictures of quiet streets and sped down one ways on my bike.

i got home (where kim had two junior bacon cheeseburgers waiting) ate a ton of food and got really high. sometimes a one day vacation is quite necessary.

mother's day science fair

i ate kom jug twice on friday night. i know the name sounds gross but the food is great. phil and i split pork and chicken on rice on the way to ronnie's and i grabbed some peking duck on the way home. i fell asleep covered in grease and happy.

saturday morning phil's parents came up for mother's day. we went to dim sum at the bright pearl and it was the first time we've been there early enough to experience the cart service. our bill ended up pretty pricey for two reasons. one was because we all wanted to eat everything that came by and the other was because phil fell in love with all the old chinese ladies singing out the food they were serving and couldn't help but take whatever they offered. afterwards, we walked through kensington and took them back to my apartment where we got locked out on the patio. after struggling for almost two hours we finally ripped the back door off of it's hinges and got back into the house. phil's mom stayed completely calm the whole time and even called the next morning to say what an exciting day it had been. that southern belle gets me every time.

saturday night there was an adult science fair at the rivoli. we had no idea what it entailed but headed over after a quick surf n turf barbecue at my house. the most impressive exhibit for me was the 3d hologram. i swear we're only one step away from "help me, obi-wan kenobi; you're my only hope."

following the fair we headed to jackson's house for his birthday party and someone had brought a cotton candy machine! holy shit. it's always been my dream to have one. i didn't get to use it but i ate a shit ton of spun sugar off a paper cone. a bunch of our friends had made their own flubber-like substance at the science fair and shit sort of got out of control. it ended up everywhere. it was hard like clay but if left on any surface for long enough it would run like liquid. pretty great to string from a chandelier... for sure.

i got some free passes to star trek from my work and rode over to the amc at dundas square on sunday evening. i'd never been to that theatre before and every step i took i felt myself getting lost. i had to go up six fucking floors to find the theatre. it felt excessive and i was left disoriented. i finally found a row of dudes (read: exclusively dudes) from work and fully enjoyed the movie. like, for serious. who gives a shit about star trek? nobody i know. i was originally drawn to the film only because sylar was in it but i got sucked in. i even got some of the fanboy jokes.

i liked it so much in fact, that i came home and starting watching battlestar galactica. everyone has been talking about it forever (and i've been making fun of them) but since i've never enjoyed sci-fi as much as fantasy, i couldn't bring myself to watch it. i made it through the mini-series but we'll see where i get from here. honestly though, this reinvisioning of star trek is really going to flip the franchise. if undergrads and kevin smith have taught me anything, trekkies have always been an embarrassment and j.j. abrams is set to shatter the stereotype with his prequel(s). i can't wait for the next one.

but, do i really need another nerdy thing to be obsessed with?
aw, frak it. live long and prosper.

mccool and kai

i dj'd with kai at 751 tonight. we do it the first thursday of every month.
tonight was pretty fun. we took a new press shot.

so tonight that i might see

this was another eventful weekend. nice weather makes everything better.

friday night phil and i went to la pallette and ate a bunch of animals. foie gras, duck confit and horse. they always try to keep their food local and we were told the horse meat was from ontario. it was damn delicious. i drank one of those strong beers i always make the mistake of ordering and most of the night is a blur but after a beer at ronnie's (and a hilarious conversation with a stranger) we ended up at 751.

saturday we had dim sum for breakfast and ordered tripe. not great. sometimes bold choices are rewarded and sometimes you should just stick with shu mei. afterwards, we picked up groceries, rummaged through a church sale, a little kid gave me a quarter to buy a john cougar record and when it started raining we went over to karen's. she has a great apartment on the otherside of the market that gets a lot of sun in the afternoon so it's always nice for finger foods and daytime drinking. there's pictures below of everything we ate. it was a lot.

later, we went to the horseshoe for the great bloomers cd release. it was packed and everyone was pretty stoked about the situation. saw some old friends and some newish ones. i remember being sweaty and taking a shitload of pictures.

sunday was breakfast at morning glory in the east end. i had a breakfast butty on some of the springiest ciabatta i have ever touched. it was like butter melting when i bit into it. amazing! we rode our bikes down to the distillery district to see some contact exhibits. there were a lot of great photographs and a ton of weird kitchsy stuff that i got to touch. i bought a truffle that was made with aged balsamic (it ruled, the vinegar sweetens as it ages) and took pictures of clouds. when i got home i could feel the sun i had gotten on my face and it made me pretty happy. there is nothing better than warm summer skin.

today at work i sold a pair of speakers to the canadian guy from the new star trek movie and had an amazing hamburger at lunch. craft burger on king has really got their shit together. that meal made me moan. i ate a light stirfry for dinner to compensate and hung some laundry on the line. that's just as good as a workout. totally.