Neighborhood Nihilism: DIY

Montreal Ruelle Mile End: September 2009. I don't know what would be left to dance about after all of the fighting, fucking and destroying. Maybe it's supposed to be ironic. Or something.

So You Think You Can ...

A Facebook Wall exchange between me and my friend Krista, one of the most well-read, spoken and travelled individuals I know.

KS Not sure how i feel about sytycd-c...

ME

I know. The ballroom judge is out of control and the outfits are total trash and this leaves me with a meh about the dancing.

KS

That "house" dance was nothing more, to me, than "a night at the roxbury", yet everyone raved about it. Wha?
And the ballroom guy? he forgot a word in english, but instead of admitting it, he pretended that he was overcome with emotion and attempted to cry.
Not sure I can watch another episode.

ME

Don't get me started on the fake crying.

KS

Such shite.
I might just watch because I have a crush on Dan.

ME

I still like 'lil C too...when he's there. I tried to get tix to a show, but they were sold out. I would have looked like someone's gramma.

Who are you?

Best Foot Forward

Spadina Flip Flop -- could be a metaphor. Help me.
Toronto: September 2009.

The Ambivalent Side of the Tracks

Montreal Summer 2009.

Window Dressing

This sign in NYC (5th Avenue) made me cry.

The Diva Factor

(Staten Island Ferry Vista August 15, 2009)

This is an email from me to my old friend Bryan. He and his wife happened to be in New York City at the same time as my boyfriend Paul and I were. While we were successful in completing the NYC half-marathon (the reason for our visit), we had no success reaching them by telephone. I was still in a post-race rant haze apologizing for this oversight a day later:

"I'm so sorry we didn't get a chance to call. For one thing, it's crazy trying to find a functional pay phone in NYC -- we had very marginal luck with this, and couldn't really find free wifi. And, if the call isn't local, it's even more mayhem as we discovered. The race was super fun, though the logistics were a bit of a nightmare: not enough water (don't get me started on that), very few potty places, no pace bunnies (and they apparently ran out of medals at the end -- everyone is supposed to get one). The swag wasn't very good either: a t-shirt a some yucky lip balm. BUT, it was still great: the route was awesome, though at various points there was the competing urban stink of excrement and garbage and geez urine too. Oh well. That's not the fault of the organizers, though, and the volunteers were very nice. We ran slowly and for a very long time. I finished in 2 hours 42 minutes and P's time was 2:40. Paula Radcliffe, the person who won, finished in under 1 hour 9 minutes...(!) Now I'm dealing with a bit of chafe around the waist -- WTF? who knew???? Anyway. On Saturday night we went to the free Martha Wainwright dance thing at Central Park -- it was totally wonderful. We experienced the M-60 Bus through Astoria to LaGuardia airport -- all of the passengers were like t.v. characters -- kind of unreal. And then, we were detained by customs in Montreal. Apparently, suspicion is raised if you don't actually buy anything. Again, the learning curve of the weekend was pretty high. We spent a lot of time on public transport and we even did the Staten Island Ferry! So that was our weekend.

I hope you're enjoying yourselves. See you in Montreal."