Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

June 18, 2006 21:48 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 17

I'm hoping that Shawna or Emily-Jane can correct the spelling of the title here.

My day started out simple. I woke up earlier than usual and headed down the Danforth to grab some brunch and buy some sponges so I could get to work cleaning my apartment. However, as it was Greek town, nearly every patio was alive with patrons watching the World Cup game, and on the field was France and South Korea.

Now I'm a Korea fan, not only because I miss my friends who have moved there, but I just like the people. Koreans are so damn friendly and they're the only Asian country that makes food that I can eat. France on the other hand... I just don't have the same enthusiasm.

The problem in my case however was the fact that the majority of people on the Danforth seemed to be rooting for France which was no fun for me. So what do you when you live in Toronto and want to find a Korea-friendly bar? You hop on the subway and ride to Christie station to be innundated with cheering fans and Korean flags.

Korea town exists roughly on Bloor street between Christie and Bathurst and during halftime, the fans were out in force. There were flags, cheering, drumming and dancing in the streets... and Korea was down 1-0 at this point. I found a patio that seemed to be friendly to outsiders just hanging around watching the game and stood there for the remainder of the game while everyone, myself included, gasped and cheered with Korea's trials. One enthusiastic group had brought along a snare drum and every time their star player graced the screen, he'd hit it in sequence while the whole bar cheered: "Dae Han Min Guk!"

And then, with about 10min left in the game, Korea scored and tied it up. ...Everyone screamed until they were hoarse.

The game ended in a 1-1 tie, but as I understand it, France has been doing so poorly that this is still good news for Korea. I'll have to watch the schedule for when they're playing again.

June 16, 2006 18:38 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 0

The Toronto Star's front page today showcased the new provincial government's plans to concentrate future population growth into urban centres. The idea is to make living closer to work, school and grocery stores easier and cheaper so people don't need a car to in their daily lives.

It's a great idea and as a few people in the article noted, 30years late, but I have my doubts as to its success. In opposition are some of the richest, most powerful groups in the province: Developers who won't be able to sell the clone-towns they love to profit off of, car companies who employ a large portion of the province and the federal Conservatives who think that bigger, wider freeways are the way to fix the urban sprawl problem.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish the Liberals luck on getting this through.

June 15, 2006 04:32 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 2

If you see one movie this year, if you only see one movie in your lifetime, this should be it... It will scare the hell out of you.

I'm not going to comment on the film itself, only say that I openly wept while watching it. To say that it is important that the world understand this film is a terrible understatement. Terrorism, racism, poverty, war -- they're all made completely irrelavent when compared to the urgency of Global Warming. Ignorance is not innocence.

See the movie, bring your friends, then see it again because the more people that see it in the first few weeks, the better the chances that it'll be around for more people to see it.

See the trailer

Visit the site

June 13, 2006 05:29 +0000 | Why I'm Here 0

Desmond Cole, the big winner of the evening

Ron Nurwisah was exceptional as well, but did not manage to take the #1 spot.

Well the civic experiment that is City Idol is officially over and Desmond Cole, a charismatic young man has take the title. It was quite the experience to sit there in the front row and watch the expressions on his face change as he came to the realisation that the consensus of the room had imbued him with our voice. It must have been empowering for both of us.

The show as really impressive actually. Unlike the previous one I attended, this one was able to focus on the contestants better and there was more opportunity to see what they'd be like "on their feet" without the aid of prepared speeches. One of the best parts of the evening in fact was the "media scrum" staged to demonstrate a real-life crisis: A homelessness protest at City Hall. Real representatives from real media companies (Now Magazine, Eye Magazine, Toronto Life and CP24 ambushed one candidate at a time with questions and bright lights while the other candidates had to listen to iPods loud enough to drown out the answers. Every candidate shone, even those I was surprised to see advance to this round. Some snippets from my notes:

Desmond Cole was the most charismatic person on the stage. Rivaled only by Ron, he owned the competition in almost every category. Even though it was obvious that he lacked the experience of some of his competitors, it wasn't a stretch to believe that he was capable of getting the job done. He put youth advocacy up as his primary platform and that resonated well with the crowd.

Katarina Collins was one of those I was surprised to see advance, but made me rethink my original position. She was well prepared and stood on a platform of keeping City Hall efficient and organised. However, she also came across as terribly naive and extremist when she suggested that the best way to deal with the homeless crisis was to evict condo owners from their homes. The crowd however, seemed to think this was smart politics so... I don't know what they're thinking.

Monika Dutt was big on immigration and the integration of skilled and unskilled immigrants into the workforce. It sounds all well and good, except for the fact that she made it sound like the City had the power to do things it clearly wasn't capable of doing. She stood up to the questions from the media scrum very well, but outside of that moment of inspiration, I didn't feel impressed by her for much of the evening. In fact, looking back on the whole night now, I'm having trouble remembering anything about her that stuck out.

Ron Nurwisah was a force on stage. He knew the answers to the questions and broke it to you straight without dodging. His principles came out strong: public space, the environment, cycling, zoning, corruption. His speeches were well thought out and well delivered. I have no idea how he lost.

Dennis Stark shook off my first impression of him and managed to paint himself in the "Joe Six Pack" frame. He projected, identified with the audience and came across as someone who really understood his field, that of public housing... even if he didn't seem to believe that fixing this portfolio in this city would require more money. However, when confronted with the very real possibility of a homelessness protest at City Hall, he made jokes about the mayor not being available and that he was "taking control". After that, I had trouble taking him seriously.

Karen Sun was a crowd favourite as she was one of the best at bringing in supporters for the shows. She campaigned on an environmental platform and like my other favourites, she was prepared, articulate and mature... except when she was confronted by the media scrum... she buckled under that pressure. This, coupled with her support for the idea of what she termed "diversity committees" (representatives from racial sub-groups in council) pretty much sank my support for her.

Among the highlights of the evening:

Voting was a multi-tiered ballot. You chose your first 3 favourites, and when those votes didn't manage to elect someone with a decisive 50%+1 majority, we had to do a second round where we selected our top 2 of the remaining 3. Ron, Monika and Dennis were eliminated in the first round.

My voting selection in order: numbers, 4, 1, 6. (Ron, Desmond, Karen) The area code for Toronto (I swear that this is a total conincidence).

At one point during the vote counting, Mez made an effort to entertain us with this announcement:

Here it is folks, the moment you've all been waiting for... There is a silver Lexus blocking the alleyway. License plate number [something].... It will be towed

It was a great night though. Despite my favourite candidate getting kicked in the first round, the whole thing was quite refreshing and encouraging. In his victory speech, Desmond reflected on the past few months and suggested that City Idol was just a beginning, and that one day, he wants to see competitions like this in every ward. It may be idealistic, but it sounds like a good idea to me.

Update: Pictures from that night can be found in my imager here.

June 12, 2006 02:23 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 0

I stumbled upon Groovy Green tonight, an environmental site I'd not visited for some time and found this video covering the new wind farm in Maple Ridge (New York, not BC). It's sharp, funny and very much worth 2minutes of your time.

June 08, 2006 04:37 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 0

I hopped on the Spadina streetcar today and as I sat there, munching away on "dinner", I eavesdropped on a couple guys sitting next to me. One of them was from Brazil, the other, from Korea and they were talking about, of all things: language.

"I speak French, Portuguese, English and a little Spanish" the Brazilian commented. "Oh my English is not so good" the Korean responded. They then went into little tangents about the similarities between language and how it's easy to learn one more than the other depending on where you live.

All this, as we cruised through Chinatown and the Annex, mashed between dozens of cultures.

I know that I complain about Toronto a lot. The smog, the insanity, the weather... it's all terrible. But moments like this somehow manage to balance it all out.

June 02, 2006 22:56 +0000 | Why I'm Here 0

A portion of the grounds surrounding the Spadina Museum and adjacent to Casa Loma that would be an expressway now if the project had gone through.

It's interesting to live in Toronto at this point in time. I'm presently at a sort of "memorial" for something that never existed.

35 years ago, the powers that be had a vision for Toronto. They saw the city carved up into portions, divided by expressways that encircled the city and "allowed access" to the downtown core from the suburbs. But a bunch of people, among them urban design hero Jane Jacobs, fought the developers and City Hall and in the end, won. If not for their efforts, the beautiful grounds I'm currently blogging on, would be an offramp to eight lanes of concrete. Instead, I'm surrounded by gorgeous trees and welcoming grass.

It's funny to look at this from the position of an outsider though. After being here through the whole mess of Save Our St. Clar, I realise that the opposition today involved in that project is probably very similar to what was surrounding the Spadina Expressway. Given that the streetcar route is going though, could it be that 35 years from now, people will be looking back on that fight negatively?

June 02, 2006 05:11 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 5

Tonight I attended The Second Round of City Idol, Dave Meslin's brainchild and fabulous idea. The party was engaging, fun and most importantly, successful... and while all of those I voted for did not make it into the final 6, It was exciting to be a part of such a grassroots project.

Essentially, the show worked like this: Each candidate gets a chance to speak on a topic and we listen, then they do it again, then we asked some questions (but not just anyone, 'cause as Dave put it: "We're not going to let people just stand up and ask questions, because some people ask really dumb questions"), then we asked some more, then they got to make closing speeches. We then took all of this into account when we wrote our 6 favourites onto little bits of paper and socialised while the volunteers counted.

Simplistic sounding, I know, but I think that's the point. Democracy should be easy. The candidates were all passionate and dedicated, nearly all were brilliant, and charismatic and the breakdown for me was how well they handled themselves in front of the crowd. Leaders must have presence, they should "own their space" and be able to stand on more than just good research. I made a long list of notes during the whole thing on my laptop and thought I'd post them here for kicks.

Sadly, of my 6 favourites, only 2 made it into the finals, and even among my 6, I was only really enthusiastic about Michael Lewis Johnson and Ron Nurwisah and Michael didn't make it. I guess that's democracy for you.

Lastly though, what made the evening that much more fun was the fact that I met an intelligent, political and gorgeous young woman by the name of Alexis MacDonald and chatted with her through the whole thing. I'd forgotten how refreshing it felt to talk with someone as passionate about politics as I was. She made my night.

Alright, time for bed. Yes, I took pictures, but most of them sucked and they will obviously have to wait anyway.

May 30, 2006 18:33 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 0

As I mentioned previously, Dave Meslin is running City Idol, a sort of "American Idol for Toronto's upcoming election". It looks fun, and I'll be attending this Thursday night.

Municipal Politics like you've never seen before!

26 candidates will try their best.
Only 6 will move on to the Final Round.

Will YOU be there to vote?

Kathedral (Queen & Bathurst, under Reverb)
Thursday June 1st, 2006
Doors at 7pm * Event begins at 8pm
$4 * No advance tickets

Ron Nurwisah one of the contestants, has details from the last event here and here.

May 29, 2006 14:45 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 2

So to commemorate the start of Bike Week, the TTC went on an illegal strike... Well that's not the real reason, but it's just funnier if you look at it that way.

Bike Week was kicked off this morning in Nathan Phillips Square with a free pancake breakfast, and I biked in to volunteer with TEV at the still unripe hour of 7am. I took some pictures, talked to some people and picked up some propaganda, while promoting things like the 20/20 program and just generally enjoying the sunshine. Other than the annoying "Bikes for Bibles" people (see below), it was a good morning. Olivia Chow even showed up on her tandem bike... though I didn't see Jack so I'm not sure who she would have been riding with.

The Bikes for Bibles people were not as funny as I thought they might be... well they would have, had they let me leave when I made it pretty clear that I didn't want to talk to them anymore, but evangelists just don't do that. Instead, the woman kept pushing me to donate to her bike ride across the country "cause", and after I explained that I was Pagan and not interested, she continued to push: "Did you know that God loves you? He has a plan for you you know" etc. etc. When she told me that she was trying to get the Bible translated into various Inuit languages, I had to refrain myself from strangling her... I was, after all in a TEV uniform.

Update: I've added pictures from the day, taken by me but with Jessica's camera. They can be found here.