Dirty money

I don’t get particularly bent out of shape when it comes to most gambling, state-sanctioned or otherwise. I find Ontario casinos depressing (as opposed to Vegas casinos, which I find thoroughly delightful in small doses), but relatively inoffensive. But VLTs are a whole different story – so much so that I can’t believe several provinces still have them.

Set up a few scattered casinos and you’re giving gamblers the option of going out of their way to feed their habit. But stick thousands of highly addictive machines in bars and you’re bringing the gambling to them – practically daring those trying to get over a habit to take it up again. It’s bad enough that governments allow this to happen; it’s absolutely repugnant that they’re the ones running the racket.

Anyway, good on these folks for protesting them. I hope someone’s listening.

Island in the sun

Truth be told, I’ve never liked outdoor festivals as much as I’d like to like them. I tend to get a little cranky when I’m out in the sun too long, and rarely does live music benefit from being played in broad daylight. But I’m still pretty sure yesterday’s Island show was a little weak next to last year’s – admittedly an unfair comparison, since it had no pretense of being the same thing, but an inevitable one nevertheless.

Not to say it didn’t have its moments. Broken Social Scene has to be the world’s most perfect festival act, since the crowded stage of talented musicians with burgeoning solo careers/side projects makes every song seem like a closing collaboration between four different bands. And their new stuff is very promising. And Metric was fun, mostly because Emily Haines is pretty irresistible. And while I got there too late to see them, I hear Most Serene Republic were solid, which I don’t find hard to believe since they seem to be on a steady upward curve. (Last Friday’s MSR write-up from the Post is here, by the way.)

Thing is, though, this wasn’t a cohesive lineup in any way I could quite figure out. Last year was basically a coming-out party for Canadian indie (or quasi-indie) acts – one that, in addition to headliners Sloan and Sam Roberts, served up Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire (just before they hit it big), the Stills, Death from Above and the Constantines, among others. This year seemed to be aiming for the same thing, sort of, but closing with Modest Mouse – and inserting their sub-par opening act earlier on the bill – confused everything. And much as Modest Mouse turned in a perfectly competent set, the vibe was so different from BSS that the whole thing was jarring.

Anyway, just saying. On the bright side, I discovered the joy of water taxis, which are, like, 100X better than ferries, and nowhere close to 100X as expensive.