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Wednesday August 18, 2004
Required reading
Jon Kay was kind enough to lend me his copy of Down to This, which he wrote about in a recent column. I had a chance to read the bulk of it up north this past weekend, and though I still have to finish it I have no qualms recommending it.
How it affects you probably depends on the reader. But trust me that you’ll probably never get a more compelling snapshot of homelessness in Toronto, nor a more sincere account of how self-destruction can take you there. It’s really quite remarkable.
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Adam Radwanski
Not so required reading
Latest column is up. Nothing really to add to this, but thought you might want to know.
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Adam Radwanski
Tuesday August 17, 2004
I've been holding this in for days...
I hate the Olympics. There, I said it.
I hate the way I'm supposed to care about a bunch of sports I would never care about otherwise, just because they're all lumped together into one giant orgy of sports I don't care about.
I hate the way our national pride is supposed to take a hit every time we fail to perform adequately at water polo or long-jumping or synchronized swimming.
I hate the self-importance of the IOC (sorry, "Olympic Movement"), whose website informs us that "Olympism is a state of mind."
I hate the way anyone who's ever played amateur sports takes great umbrage whenever one dares turn a blind eye to the herculian achievements of our Olympic athletes.
I hate that, even though I don't know anyone who's even remotely fanatical about this thing, it'll dominate the front pages, lead off broadcasts, and pre-empt other sports coverage for another week.
But I'm very, very glad Toronto didn't get the 2008 Games. And quietly, I think a lot of other Torontonians are too.
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Adam Radwanski
Saturday August 14, 2004
Don't leave home without blogging
Heading up north for a couple of days...more extensive blogging will resume Monday or Tuesday.
In the meanwhile, I've finally got last week's Citizen column on separatists up here, and this week's Post column on John Tory here. Only the finest summer reading for you, my friends.
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Adam Radwanski
Thursday August 12, 2004
Words of wisdom
In response to Tuesday’s posting on the provincial Tories’ leadership (scroll down a little), a former Ontario PC staffer sent over a pretty interesting take. I find the second point probably a little more insightful than the first, but they’re both good. Here it is, only very slightly edited:
I've got a couple thoughts as to why Tory and Klees are doing better than Jimmy.
First, when the party support Eves in his leadership bid, there was a certain expectation that the policy agenda we'd follow in the election would be his - not Jim's. Unfortunately, Eves selected Flaherty supporters to run and set policy for the provincial fight with McGuinty. The party felt betrayed by this ultra-right coup.
Second, those that worked as political staff in government felt betrayed after we all lost our jobs - except by Frank. Bosses walked away from their staff, offering little in the way of support in helping us find jobs, etc. (generally speaking, of course - some were better than others). But Frank actually used his corporate contacts to organize a job-fair for ex-politicos. And while it didn't actually land jobs for many (or any), it showed that at least Frank cared and took it upon himself to help us. That's paying off for him now with backroom support.
This is all working to Tory's benefit - Frank is draining support from Jim, and Tory is being seen as the "Ernie we should have elected.” There is no risk of Tory asking the same campaign team to run his camp. Not going to happen.
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Adam Radwanski
Tuesday August 10, 2004
I've got a fever, and more cell phone is not the prescription
It’s so nice to know that I’m becoming a minor celebrity in these parts. Having a quick post-Argos drink on Sunday, I’m spotted by two well-wishers, clearly excited to see me. I give a quick smile, knowing it’s the least I can do for my fans, as they march toward me.
And then, much to my chagrin, they loudly announce my presence for all concerned: “Hey, it’s the cell phone guy!”
Yep. The cell phone guy. I guess after 11 years of season tickets, I was bound to wind up doing one of those stupid Jumbotron contests eventually. So very glad I finally got my moment in the spotlight.
What I’m not so glad about is that someone stole Jen’s cowbell (we’re talking about my girlfriend, here, for the non friends and family crowd) at the Lone Star before the game.
To answer your question, yes, she has a cowbell. And no, she doesn’t live on a farm. It’s an old family artifact that we’ve discovered makes some pretty sweet noise at football games. To make this even more of a sob story, we’d even just bought a ribbon to attach to it for more effective ringing.
In any case, I think the bigger question isn’t what we’re doing with a cowbell – it’s what kind of asshole actually lifts a cowbell from a restaurant.
If it’s Will Ferrell, I might be able to forgive him. Otherwise, my faith in the guys who sit around cheesy Tex-Mex bars at 4:00 in the afternoon has forever been shaken.
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Adam Radwanski
Oh, crap...here come the angry Klees letters again
A couple of interesting notes from around the provincial Tories’ leadership.
First, the Flaherty campaign appears to be in complete disarray – low morale, lots of turnover, and an increasing possibility their guy might get bested by Frank Klees. This happens to at least one candidate per leadership (the disarray part, not getting smacked around by Frank Klees), but what makes this a bit peculiar is that, until a few months ago, Flaherty was actually considered the favourite. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to piss off the entire party establishment less than 12 months before asking them to hand him the keys to the leader’s office.
Second, not only does John Tory seem to be winning over most Tories; he also appears to have at least a few Bay Street Liberals backing him. I’ve been hearing enough about this that I might do this week’s Post column on how/why that crowd is already abandoning McGuinty. Stay tuned. Or not, if you have better things to do with your summer.
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Adam Radwanski
Make it go away...
I loved Broken Social Scene at Saturday’s Island show. I particularly got a kick out of Emily Haynes’ honey-coated vocals on Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl. But I can’t get the bloody thing out of my head, and it’s starting to drive me nuts.
Seriously, if you’ve ever tried to write an editorial about Quebec’s labour laws with that going through your head (and who hasn’t?), you’ll know how much grief this is causing.
Does anyone have any suggestions for this that don’t involve putting an even more annoyingly catchy tune in my head?
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Adam Radwanski
Saturday August 7, 2004
Of course, we're assuming anyone's listening to Peter Kormos in the first place...
You want to know why calls for resignations have lost all their meaning? Because attention-seeking opposition members throw them around like this, making it impossible for casual observers to differentiate between the real and the bogus ones.
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Adam Radwanski
Sex, souvlaki and rock 'n' roll
Off to the Island for Sloan, Sam Roberts et al. Expect a review in Monday’s Post. And in the meanwhile, pray for a sunny afternoon…if not for me, then for all those folks heading down to Taste of the Danforth.
Speaking of which, if you’re among the masses visiting Greektown, I highly recommend the combo platter at La Carretta (the Cuban joint at Danforth/Logan), the lamb and rosemary pie at Ouzeri, the gyros at Megas, the lamb chops at Louie’s (yes, it’s a butcher shop…but they can evidently cook), and anything from the Chopan Kebab House (the Afghan place east of Pape). And yes, I ate from all these places last night. Good thing it’ll probably be impossible to get food on the Island.
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Adam Radwanski
Friday August 6, 2004
Maybe it's time to start reading the French-language papers...
It seems I may have missed an angle in today’s column, available for free (!) here, about the federal parties pandering to Quebec nationalists. Fellow Citizen columnist Brigitte Pellerin has kindly brought my attention to a little story that made the front page of La Presse a few days before the election, and somehow passed unnoticed in the rest of the country. It seems that long before he hired a former Péquiste as his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Harper has already broached the notion of a Quebec “nation”:
Stephen Harper n’a aucun problème à reconnaître publiquement l’existence de la nation québécoise, a-t-il confié à La Presse au cours d’une entrevue exclusive. "Si l’Assemblée nationale du Québec affirme que pour elle les Québécois forment une nation, je peux reconnaître cette réalité." Mais n’allez pas lui demander cependant de rouvrir la Constitution et de reprendre de grandes discussions d’un océan à l’autre sur cette question. "Honnêtement," lance-t-il en riant, "je suis tanné de ce débat existentiel. On m’a demandé: est-ce qu’il y a un peuple canadien, est-ce qu’il y a un peuple francophone? J’ai dit que c’était une question de sociologie et que je ne voulais pas avoir de débat constitutionnel."
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Adam Radwanski
Jim Henson presents...garage rock
Just back from seeing the Walkmen at Lee’s Palace. Not quite what you’d expect from either of their albums (frontman Hamilton Leithauser is a lot more hard-core than either his studio vocals or his name would suggest), but thoroughly entertaining. And since he’s the closest thing to Animal you’re going to find short of watching Muppet Show reruns on the Christian channel, drummer Matt Barrick alone is worth the price of admission.
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Adam Radwanski
You'd have to be on crack to think this is a good idea. Oh, right...
I fully support safe injection sites. In fact, knowing what harm junkies will do to themselves without them, I think it’s irresponsible for governments not to offer them in badly drug-ravaged areas. (If you’re not convinced of this, go find a copy of The Corner - by far the most compelling thing I’ve ever read about the drug trade.)
That said, this is ridiculous. The reason injection sites make sense is that the act of shooting up is as dangerous as the substance itself. The same can’t be said for smoking crack – nobody gets HIV, hepatitis or gangrene from the pipe.
Even the guys pushing for “safe inhalation sites” acknowledge that their purpose would be to spare users from being “roughed up by the police.” Maybe it’s time for a full review of our drug policies (not just on pot, but on harder stuff as well), but as long as the present laws are in place, governments presumably have better things to do than provide violators shelter from enforcement.
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Adam Radwanski
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