Out on Bikes?

If Only.....


As someone who has had the misfortune to have been hit by a car (while cycling nonetheless) the image above comes straight out of my wildest dreams. unfortunately I come from a place where community activists make DIY bike lanes, only to have them subsequently and abruptly removed by the powers that be. I lived for three months in a city that elected a mayor who is vitriolically opposed to the construction of any new bike lanes and my own bike is currently sitting mangled in my garage from my aforementioned accident.

I will admit I lose serious bike punk points though, I have a drivers licence (sssshhh, dont tell anyone!) A good friend of mine from Paris tells me that having a drivers licence is something that makes me uniquely American, because I come from a place where I don't really need one. how American of me! Most of my Canadian friends don't Drive, and my sole European friend indeed does not drive. yet in the United States the Automobile is king. At least I'm going back to a place where there are 24 Subway lines that run all night and a strong cyclist culture. god forbid I were to end up in a place like Los Angeles, my god that would be rather dreadful. Am I the only one who thinks its a bit...erm....sordid that things as simple as bike lanes could draw so much ire and scorn from the public at large? only in the USA (and Toronto now, apparently).

Its 2:07 AM. now I'm just ranting with out any sort of coherence or eloquence. time for bed.

thanks to David Bilmas for inspiring this post.

and they told us not to idolize our parents generation

I love the Rolling Stones.




















they've made Bob Dylan hip? hence why Cosmos Records sells The Times They are A Changin' for $30 and I always hear Highway 61 played at Black Market Vintage (the hippest faux-thrift store on the hippest street in Toronto). why not the Stones? our parents like the Stones, that's the music of our parents generation! as if Dylan isn't...

I'd rather listen to Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed over Abbey Road and Sergent Pepper any day. both albums are filled with the same counter cultural rage and have that somewhat artsy tinge to them, yet (for the most part) the Stones are still relegated to the status as an "old persons band". I'm not saying this is true in general, but as an example lets take the average marginally-artsy, somewhat-intellectual young adult. lets say this young adult is from a rather wealthy middle class area, lets say Toronto's Forest Hill neighbourhood. said young adult is a first year University student at a somewhat counter-cultural school, lets say the Ontario College of Art and Design. lets say if this young adult is a Male, he goes to the open mics at his school and plays his Simon and Garfunkel covers and/or recites a Ginsberg poem and no matter how awful he is at it, his fellow somewhat artsy, pseudo intellectual friends will always give him credit for trying. he hangs out frequently at the quasi-eclectic intersection of Bloor and Bathurst where he goes to get coffee, show off his cute cardigan sweaters and/or buy vinyl represses of Velvet Underground records at Sonic Boom (because he doesn't know of any real independent record stores). this young man would listen to the Beatles over the Stones.

lets take the same person but make he a she. this young woman is a first year at.....lets say Innis College, a somewhat artsy academic unit of the University of Toronto. she comes from a solidly middle class neighbourhood, lets say Riverdale, that produces like minded marginally creative young people. she likes to wear leg warmers and thick rimmed glasses, yourscenesucks.com would classify her as "apple store indie", not hip enough to roll with the ranks of Parkdale Hipsters on Queen Street West, but has a cultural palate independent enough that she fits in comfortable in The Annex. this young lady would listen to the Beatles over the Stones.

Neither of these two fictitious somewhat indie but really very mainstream musical gormandizers would deify the Rolling Stones as they do The Beatles. they may like the Stones, but no, mom and dad like the Stones, god forbid they like something their parents did!

I could care less how "Indie" I come off as (although cardigan sweaters are very comfortable and I may or may not be wearing one right now) and when it comes down to it, the Rolling Stones in 1968 were a down n' dirty Rock n' Roll band that still managed to have a bluesy, angsty, vaguely anarchistic counter-cultural edge to them. I also would rather listen to something that pays homage to classic American blues over thinly veiled drug references over drippy psychedelia (Lucy in the sky with what?).

while I may not get any points with the Apple Store Indiekids, I'd rather have the Stray Cat Blues and a Honkey Tonk Woman over a Yellow Submarine and some burnout druggie named Lucy anywway.




















BEGGARS BANQUET:
http://www.mediafire.com/?imj4qzymzmu

LET IT BLEED:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzm2ojywlym

GET YER YA YA's OUT:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ouxme50ghte

Toronto the Good? If only.....

^This is Toronto circa 1980














^This is Toronto in 2010

What is wrong with this picture? well first of all when you look at the Toronto of 1980 you are looking at the quintessential Toronto skyline. Skydome was not yet build, the CN Tower looms over First Canadian Place and the Royal York Hotel is still a major feature of the cityscape. and for those who aren't as familiar with the intricacies of the Toronto skyline I'll put it in laymen's terms, the skyline of 1980 is not obscured by horrendous over-development and atrocious postmodern style residential high rises!

Toronto of 2010 is home to "Condo Canyon" a labyrinthine web of obscenity that obscures the "old, quintessential" Toronto skyline with a seemingly impenetrable fortress of concrete and plate glass, of sleek housing for the upper social orders (Donald Trumps wet dream, Karl Marx's worst nightmare). one can argue this represents not only the dearth of culture but the depravity of Capitalism as a whole, but that's a another can of philosophical worms to be opened at a later time. Toronto is a city in which development supersedes population growth, which means that many of the Condos in the Canyon are not filled to capacity, to the point that developers resort to advertising new condos such as "the mercer" or "the ocean view" (which coincidentally views a lake)on CP24. It makes me wonder, is Toronto's bourgeoisie really this ubiquitous or is this some kind of sick joke?

This is a textbook example of postmodern urbanism. And I'm sure it has Jane Jacobs rolling in her grave. what is postmodern urbanism? well, Condo Canyon is postmodern urbanism, haphazard development based on the whims/at the behest of the wealthy with no regards to functionality and/or community. Contrast this to Modernism, which brought us the marvels of the 1964 New York worlds fair and progressive innovations such as the ridiculously efficient Montreal Metro system (which still runs its original trains of 1966 vintage) and the failures of slum clearance via bulldozer, residential tower blocks and high rise public housing. In other words Modernism was urbanism for all, whereas postmodernism is urbanism for the elite.

Toronto has successfully become a postmodern city. A city that destroys historic buildings to erect condos. David Miller should be very proud of himself indeed. and Torontonians wonder why the rest of Canada hates their city.....

Montreal by Night/Montréal par Nuit

....As a monolingual American anglophone I feel out of place in Montreal sometimes. However, the exoticism (or faux-exoticism, considering almost everyone on "the Island" speaks English anyway) that comes from experiencing a place that is contradictory to ones norms is something I seem to thrive on. I do find solace in loosing my moorings, as one of my muses, avant garde playwright Andre Gregory once said, (in my favourtie film nonetheless) "If your operating by habit your not really living". so if living as a New Yorker in Toronto (American's are barley foreigners in Canada anyway) was stage one in my quest for self-liberation from the mundane, than living as an Américain in Montreal would be no more than total immersion in the eclectic. yet, mostly due to the presence of McGill University, there are enough of us Américain's (as well as the Anglo-Canadian transplants who outnumber us) there that I would by no means be a stranger in a strange land. thus, my rationale in applying to Concordia for the Fall. plus I always wanted to learn another language anyway, now I will have a reason to!

earlier this month, I spend a week in Montreal to see Tragedy perform at Varning Fest plus embark on a much needed vacation from Toronto and the stresses associated with dropping out of Canada's #1 University. and after that rather liberating week, I was able to deduce that I indeed like Montreal better than Toronto anyway.

(Vile Intent at Varning Fest aftershow)










(flier for A Varning From MTL Fest 2010)
















(On a personal note, Varning Fest was something straight out of the wildest dreams of my 15 year old self (the wide-eyed young crust worshiping punk that I was). and I think I made him proud that weekend, having seen Tragedy, Hellshock, Mob 47 and Montreal punk all stars Unruled all on the same bill. Now I can fully lay the last glimmers of my former, naively idealistic and moronic self to rest. so In ways this was a reconciliation and with every stage dive (and failed stage dive) I took that weekend, I made peace with who I was, because I came to realize its not who I am anymore. Thank You, Canada)

the fest took place at the Katacombes, a punk as fuck concert hall on Boulevard Saint Laurent and the Maisonneuve. Its dimly lit interior and exterior bathed in red spot lights was more than fitting for such a festival, and while the crowd was a bit "too crusty" at times (complete with 40oz malt liquor drinking traveler kids who yelled at me in French whenever I come out of the venue, I can ironically appreciate their presence because it keeps me on the right path by reminding me to stay in school and never become a scumfuck) the energy was just right, and while no I was not wearing enough denim and/or leather (no leather for my Vegan self anyway), yes I did manage to have a blast! surprisingly enough the fest drew people from all over, I traveled from Toronto with a Southern Ontario crew, but I spotted people I know (and know of) from back in New York (such as members of the stellar New York City D-Beat band Dawn of Humans) the highlight of which was meeting a prolific graffiti tagger who's work I have seen allover Brooklyn in the alley behind the venue. for the sake of putting an inside joke in here, it was suuuuuubtle! while Tragedy had to play a truncated set at the Katakombes show due to their bassist not making across the border, they more than made up for it in their energy, in the crowd response and their stellar set at the Sunday after show. for the sake of ending this paragraph on a quasi-cliche, If only every weekend was like this!




Curiously enough, Montreal reminds me more of New York than Toronto (which doesn't feel anything like New York at all, despite its label as "the New York of Canada"). there is a neighborhood in Montreal called St. Henri that is curiously known as "where all the Punks live". in St. Henri you have the Fattal Lofts that house multiple show spaces, and I cant help but be reminded of Bushwick, Brooklyn and the lofts of 538 Johnson. Montreal has residential districts of lower-middle class row housing such as Verdun, directly southeast of St. Henri and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve which hugs Boulevard Pie-IX adjacent to Olympic Stadium. architecturally and aesthetically these areas follow a distinctly North American style of design, of dense tenement housing bisected by large multi-lane avenues. When poking around districts like Verdun and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, I eerily feel like I could be in some outer-urban residential area in New York City. if I really put my mind to it and forgot I was in Quebec, I could easily pretend it was Bay Ridge, Brooklyn or my grandparents neighborhood in The Bronx. Juxtapose that with the vaguely European ambiance of St. Henri and there is something incredibly inviting about a city where European and North American aesthetics coalesce.

not to mention that Montreal has a rubber wheeled metro system that shuts down at Midnight, something that is most definitely un-North American.



(Anarchist graffiti on the Metro, props to whoever did this)







I constantly search for analogues to persons/places and or things that I know in New York in every other City I visit, though in Montreal (and to an extent in Toronto) I can never truly find anything that is completely analogous to back home. while St. Henri is undergoing some degree of gentrification it is not over hyped and commercialized like what is happening in Brooklyn. rents are still cheap and the bourgeoisie are still afraid to wander St. Henri's foreboding avenues, which is why it is a place I wouldn't mind living.

(Morning in St. Henri)











(There are some awesome tags in Montreal. This one is especially cute)







Two Sundays ago was the Tragedy/Vile Intent/Omegas/Le Kraken gig. that was an insane lineup and it is probably the best show I have seen in Canada thus far. the show as at a place called Il Motore or Rue Jean-Talon Ouest, just southwest of Montreal's Petite-Italie. Since my friends are anti-Public Transit Luddites I had the pleasure of walking all the way to Rue Jean-Talon from Downtown, and while to my lazy bones this was arduous, I had the pleasure of experiencing the quirkiest of Boulevard St. Laurent (interrupted with some gawking at some omnipresent anarchist graffiti) and in the end it was worth it because I found a dive that bears my name. curious, eh? also, everyone should eat at Patati Patata where they serve "Tofu Bourgeois" for $1.75 each, they're to die for!






(on the prowl for tofu sliders)









(they named a bar after me)










there are very few shows I go to where I feel utterly content and stoked after they let out, and the Tragedy gig was one of them. also, everyone should listen to the Omegas, they're probably the best Hardcore Punk band in Canada at the moment. I will admit Ive caught the bug and have falling in love with this town. and how could you not? Its distinctly and uniquely un-American, its a city that hasn't yet been spoiled by the ills of postmodernism (i.e. there is no Toronto style "Condo Canyon" in Montreal). this leads me to believe that I should have chose Montreal over Toronto as my escape hatch from New York. its not too late though.....

companion music for my escapades in Montreal Punk City:

Omegas-Sonic Order EP:
http://hotfile.com/dl/43405290/1eb85da/Omegas-Sonic_Order-EP-Vinyl-2010-GRAVEWISH.rar.html

check em out:
www.myspace.com/omegasmtl

Vile Intent-Shadow of the Skull (available for DL on their blog):
http://vileintent.likeweeds.org

Primitive Air Raid (Classic Montreal HC Punk Comp featuring UNRULED, from 1984):
http://www.mediafire.com/?mn2ojwzlnwm