Wow... Another week gone by with absolutely no news coming out of Toronto. Especially on the political front. Weird, wild stuff. I will try to throw something despite no news to speak of.
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Total drag. Toronto's most famous discount/department store, Honest Ed's is soon to be no more. David Mirvish, son of founder 'Honest' Ed Mirvish, confirmed last week that the site has been sold to Vancouver based condo developers Westbank Properties in a deal that will close later this year. The site, which includes the Honest Ed's store and converted towns houses that line the East side of Markham Avenue, is one of the largest re-development sites in downtown Toronto. The store opened in 1941 and is known far and wide for its crazy circus like signage (often used to gauge where you are whilst 'inebriated' on the Bloor night bus) and it's free turkey giveaway every Thanksgiving. The store hasn't changed much since the 1940s it seems. And the deterioration of the makeup of what was once the worlds leading discount store can be caught with the naked eye. Wires from the ceiling, dusty inventory and a few seemingly abandoned hallways where a robbery or two may have taken place. Shortcomings aside, Honest Ed's is one of my favourite places in the city. Ya, the stock is questionable, the jeans might very well be made of burlap and I've seen low end neon signs for 2.99 with spelling errors (my favourite is a man swinging a 7 iron and in big letter the neon exclaims 'GOIF') but it harkens back to a time of Torontos origins as a theatre hot spot. The walls are plastered with playbills, photos of actors, signed and personalized to 'Ed and Anne', posters of past productions and my favourite, by the main till by the Bloor St entrance, the giant signed Frank Sinatra photo. I get it, the stock is tacky, the staff is in the same smocks as their grand opening but it really is one of the funnest places to walk around. Preservation wise, it would be awesome if they could just leave it as is right now, dusty stock and all. The discount store was always Ed's baby and after his passing (and in turn the passing of the store to his son) the focus was shifted to the theatre side of the business, despite Ed's uncanny ability to run the store, the Broadway shows and Ed's Warehouse restaurant, one of my dad's favourites (always raved about the prime rib). David Mirvish noted "families and businesses evolve. My family moved his business from Dundas Street to Bloor Street; I’m moving our business from Bloor Street to King Street" (location of Mirvish Production offices and Mirvish Walkway aka Canada's Walk of Fame). Hopefully, the beautifully tacky signage can be preserved somewhere; the developers mentioned including a museum of everything Mirvish somewhere on/in the new site. Let's hope this Toronto landmark, that helped shape the Annex neighbourhood since 1941, gets remembered for what it was; the Worlds Greatest (and maybe the original) Discount store. Give Honest Ed's autobiography,"How To Build An Empire On An Orange Crate", a look. A great read and the last thing I bought at his great store.
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This isn't really news, but I love me some good irony. William Shatner dropped some knowledge on us in Airplane II, and it went like this: "Irony can be pretty ironic," delivered with the kind of sombre urgency that only he can deliver. I'm missing the point but that is a great line. What a terrible film though. Watch the original Airplane film for can't miss hilarity. Anyways, the is an exhibit at Atlanta's Premier Exibition Center showing off Titanic artefacts and re-create rooms and scenes from the 'unsinkable ship' and spared no expense on the historical integrity as it closed in the middle of operating hours due to an unspecified water source. The Daily Mail did note that the similarities have "an unerring degree of accuracy." Too soon? Fortunately, the attraction reopened for business on Thursday morning with an employee saying they were 'closed for less than a day' and that the irony wasn't lost on the staff and many jokes will be had. It's nice to joke around at work.
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On October 29, 1969 the internet was invented. No joke. It involved two computers; one at UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Science and Douglas Engelbart's system (he also created the mouse - computer not rodent - and developed hypertext ) in Menlo Park, California. Shortly after UC Santa Barbara joined, then some folks at the University of Utah, gaining fifteen networks by 1971. Commercial internet began popping up in the late 1980's and early 1990's (remember when a phone call would knock you offline?). I remember thinking my 28.8k modem was a significant upgrade to my 14.4 on my P1 75MHz processor hog. I could play Wolfenstein, later Civilization (Civ 2 to be more accurate) and Doom. Shareware version of course. How about theglobe.com.. I wish I could remember what handle I used back in the day but, naturally, the site has long been shutdown. Maybe there is a mirror of it? The founder of the Globe.com is one of the best dot.com millionaire stories ever. Cornell undergrads Stephan Peternot and Todd Krizelman launched the site April 1, 1995 garnering 44,000 visitors to the site in the first month. The company secured a $20 billion dollar investment from Dancing Bear Investments making the kids six figure salaries by the time they were 23 years of age. The company went public in 1998 making the two guys being worth 100 million each. CNN interview Paternot in 1999, donning leather pants with his model girlfriend at some Manhattan nightclub made the dubious statement, "Got the girl. Got the money. Now I'm ready to live a disgusting, frivolous life" dubbing him the 'CEO in plastic pants.' The stock, obvs, plummets and the two wonder kids are forced out by 2000. They both currently live together and play canasta while reminiscing of the olden times when they were embarrassing, obnoxious arseholes. Then social media grabbed the net by the balls. First with Myspace.com which now I don't even think is a real thing. I think people still use it for music or something. Then the Facebook, tweeters and instagrams came out and now we know everything about everyone at all times. Not only is your friend going to the show tonight here is a link to buy tickets to the same event. But the internet has basically changed the way we do everything from shop to get our news to watch our favourite TV shows. It has come a long way since downloading Simpsons episodes in ten parts from News Groups, waiting 45 minutes to download a three minute Fugazi song in wav format or get an album in 3 seconds in Real Player format - remember that piece of junk? Anyways, we love you internet. Please don't go away or we'll all be screwed. Also, there's this great book called "Tubes" written by Andrew Blum who traces those crazy wires that hook up to get on the internet, where the go and who takes care of them. He visits data centres the world over from Palo Alto to Virginia to Amsterdam and really is a fascinating read if you like that sort of thing.
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The Boston Red Sox are your 2013 World Series Champions. The Sox completed their worst to first run with a six game series sin over the St. Louis Cardinals. This year's edition of the Red Sox reminded me of the historic 2004 team, not just because they beat the same opponent and had similar clutch performances but because every member of that team genuinely liked each other on and off the field. Staff ace Jon Lester alluded to this fact, noting after the victory that he spent more time with his teammates off the field than on. The teams dismal 2012 Bobby Valentine season has been well documented and no one gave the Sox much of a chance this year. Why would anyone expect the Red Sox to do much? The Blue Jays were dubbed World Series favourites after picking up R.A. Dickey, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson while the Tampa Bay Rays pitching staff, led by David Price, have been a tough team since their World Series appearance not to mention the great strides the Orioles franchise have taken, with slugger Chris Davis, centre fielder Adam Jones and third basemen Manny Machado all having career years this year. The Red Sox came off a crazy off season last year where they lured slugger Adrian Gonzalez from the Padres and Carl Crawford from the divisional rival Rays... Both players proved to be a bust in Boston, especially Crawford who was hurt for most of his tenure and we shipped to the Dodgers together along with Josh Beckett and Nick Punto. This move, what was essentially a salary dump, was the first building block of this years championship (the foundation; David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester; was already in place). In this past off season, GM Ben Cherington avoid the big name free agents available and went for character players, guys who have won in the past. Hoping to create a new culture in Boston, a return to the winning tradition Red Sox fans had become accustomed to since their 2004 championship, Cherington went out and picked up former Phillies centre fielder Shane Victorino, Rangers 1B/DH Mike Napoli (whose deal was almost axed during the preseason due to a failed physical) and the versatile outfielder/pinch hitter extraordinaire Jonny Gomes. The biggest off season move for the club had to be the re-acquisition of John Farrell, who left his Red Sox post as pitching coach to manage the Toronto Blue Jays for two seasons. With Valentine fired almost immediately after the 2012 season, it didn't take too long for the Sox to start talking to the Jays regarding Farrell's return to Beantown. Next thing you know Mike Aviles is shipped to the Jays as compensation and the Red Sox had their manager. Farrell had an instantly calming influence on a club whose club house culture was, essentially, a nightmare (see eating fried chicken, drinking beer etc). He was especially good at handling his staff and bullpen, something that shouldn't be a surprise given his previous assignment as a pitching coach, and the team's ERA was 3.79, compared to 2012's 4.70 with essentially the same staff. Throw in a trade deadline deal for former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy from the White Sox and you had a team that could beat you so many ways. A resurgent John Lackey, who came back from Tommy John surgery, was lights out most of the season and all playoffs, even coming in to throw an inning of relief in the World Series. Baltimore Orioles/Texas Rangers castoff Koji Uehara was lights out as the closer, taking over the job from an injured Andrew Bailey and Jack Hannerhan. He was virtually unhittable throughout the playoffs and won the ALCS MVP going 1-0 with 3 saves and 0.00 ERA. David Ortiz, World Series MVP, finished with a .688 batting average in the World Series not to mention a staggering on-base percentage of .760. Video game numbers right there. The scary part is most of the team will be intact next year; Napoli and shortstop Stephen Drew have already been offered new deals leaving lead off man and MLB stolen base leader Jacoby Ellsbury as the teams main focus. Whatever he asks for, pay it. Great season and congrats to the Red Sox!
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The NHL is in full swing now, most teams a game or two away from the quarter way point of the season. This is the first full length season in a couple years and it's nice to see the West play the East again.. and it'll be nice to get a full season to gauge this Toronto Maple Leafs team that sat in the fifth seed in the East then took the eventual Eastern conference champion Boston Bruins to overtime of game 7 of their series (other than the finals their series ranked up amongst the best all playoff long). Offseason goalie acquisition Jonathan Bernier has played extremely well (despite letting in a few comically hilarious goals - taking cues from his former teammate Jonathan Quick's doozy of a goal earlier this season) and is providing not only competition but motivation for James Reimer, who has also played great this year, possibly setting up a late season deal to a goalie hungry team for a decent return (centreman please). We haven't really had a chance to see our new forwards, at least not at the same time, for anytime tangible length of time. Agitator, Toronto native, former New Jersey Devil and all around good guy David Clarkson was suspended for the first 10 games of the season after leaving the bench in the infamous line brawl between the Leafs and Sabres in the pre-season while another Toronto native (Mimico to be precise) and the man who scored the Cup clinching goal for the Blackhawks this past spring, Dave Bolland, will be out until at least December with a punctured tendon in his leg, four games after Clarkson's return from suspension. Leafs also picked up Mason Raymond, one of the fastest skaters in the league, who made the club out of camp on a try-out contract and has been a great surprise and a nice addition to the teams second-third line. The Leafs defence has been quite suspect and have been bailed out by stellar goaltending all season long. Captain Dion Phaneuf has been better this season, while Cody Franson much like last season has been our steadiest d-man. Nineteen year old Morgan Reilly has made an impression as well and deserves to be with the team. The biggest surprise has been the unsteady play of former blue chip prospect Jake Gardiner, who played unbelievably well the stretch and last years playoffs seems to have take a step back and hopefully will show us more as the season goes on. Paul Ranger, playing in the NHL for the first time since the 2009-10 season, really looks out of place sometimes.. Not the fleetest of foot to begin with, I catch him standing around watching more than anyone on the team. Mark Fraser, who is as steady (and tough) as they come will be a welcome addition, returned Friday against the Devils after missing thirteen games to injury. But despite the fact the Leafs are getting outshot basically every game (sometimes by over 20 shots!) they still sit third place in the Eastern Confrence with a 11-6-0 record. Let's keep it up boys!
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Very weird, messed up dude. Lost a true OG. Lou Reed 1942-2014.
