Month: December 2012

…and time in bed with an iPad, I might never have watched this marvellous film from our amazing NFB.

Flamenco at 5:15 by Cynthia Scott, National Film Board of Canada

I didn’t even know tha Laurier LaPierre had been made a Canadian Senator until I heard of his death at 83 today. I picked a photo showing him as I like to remember the co-host of This Hour Has 7 Days on CBC.

Is Mrs. Claus about to strangle the old boy? Or is she just putting a Hudson’s Bay blanket on his shoulders? You be the judge.

For the occasion, I suited up as a character from the last century. Danica and I had gift tickets (thank you Richard and Mark) and I still can’t believe I actually enjoyed a “musical”. Fortunately, it’s a pantomime kind of musical, with entertaining jabs at local politicians and conditions. Stuff I like.
Click here for tickets. The show is fun and the Elgin Theatre is gorgeous. If you can take some little kids along, you’ll enjoy it even more. The double entendre jokes will go right over their little heads. Ross Petty is a treasure. Show lasts until Jan. 5th.
 

If our snow remains confined to a window display at the local stained glass window store, I’m good with that. I hope we get another winter as mild as last year’s but prognosticators tell me I’m dreaming.
Here’s the little sign that hangs on the store display…

Here’s how we happened to be at a concert in a school gym, listening to a concert being given by OPK [Other People’s Kids].
I saw that our friend Brian was following something called Sistema on Twitter. Curiosity led to website, led to news of the Friday concert at Parkdale Junior and Senior High School. Dr. Draw was the final draw. Danica and I were hooked.

Owner Stephen Fowler (top right) runs a unique and wonderful store on Dundas West near Ossington.
Danica and I spent an hour in The Monkey’s Paw antiquarian bookstore yesterday and made two nice scores from the Biblio-Mat. For my toonie, I got a slim volume originally published in 1930 and reprinted up to an 8th edition in 1958. It held 15 “Crow” poems by Canadian poet Wilson MacDonald. For example, this one on the subject of modern art:

So far, Twitter’s answer to Facebook’s Instagram is available only on iPhones, not iPads or other Apple devices such as iMacs and laptops. This will probably change soon, but for now, it’s iPhones only.

Bloor may have its Mink Mile, but Coxwell has its Dollar Block. A Dollar Tree store (almost) opened today, to compete with the Dollarama a few doors away. A store inspector was late arriving, so no one knew when the public would be let in. [I don’t think the doors ever did open on Opening Day.]

It’s nice to have free wifi, even if it’s as weak as the signal at Druxy’s on Queen East, across from St. Mike’s Hospital. Less than a fifth of a megabyte per second? That’s so incredibly slow, there MUST be an explanation. I have a theory…