Picturing: Bird on Wires

Picturing: Tree Base Beauty Late Day (Toronto)

Picturing: Bird Walk This Afternoon in Toronto

Picturing: Yet More Crackerbox Towers

While strolling down Bloor Street one day recently I could not help but notice two crackerbox towers going up. These ugly things are on the southwest corner of Bathurst and Bloor, where Honest Ed's used to sit (and give something back to the community).

Some would say that Ed's had to go, it was an eyesore. So the plan is to replace it with another eyesore?....eyesores?....

Crackerbox City (formerly known as Toronto).

Jonas Mekas on Listening

"In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not to their poets."

And Donald J. Trump is no poet.

Canada Geese Remind Me (Repeat)

When I see numbers of Canada Geese up to no good in the grass, especially on an incline, I'm reminded of the "Silicates" featured in the 1966 British horror film Island of Terror. Not for a moment do I think these CGs will suck the bones out of humans....

The "Leafs Curse" May Be Its Fans (Repeat)

Leafs Nation is not elated today: Last night their beloved Toronto Maple Leafs got trashed by the Boston Bruins in game seven of the best-of-seven series.

It was just the first round of the National Hockey League playoffs, but that's all the Bruins needed to set an example. The ultimate K.O. (Knock Out)....one round.

"It's over, it's allll over!"

This morning I found out that Leafs star player Auston Matthews produced just one goal in those seven games. Goaltender Frederik Andersen was inconsistent. The defensive line was just a blue line. Theories are abound attempting to explain why the Leafs, who enjoyed a successful regular season, by any measure, lost engine power in just the first round of the NHL playoffs. I do not believe in curses, but, there may be some credence to a "Leafs Curse".

Maybe it's the fans. They show up and pay habitually for massively overpriced tickets, satiating the team's greedy owners, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd (MLSE). Producing a loser is every bit as profitable as producing a winner, it would seem. And keeping fans in line is easy, in more ways than one.

So That's Why - Maple Leafs Flockery

Yesterday, before the Toronto Maple Leafs got eliminated from the playoffs last night, I posted a bit on an episode of the CBC investigative documentary series The Fifth Estate.

"Harold Ballard: Wha’D’Ya Mean Ex-Con" first aired on February 26th, 1980.

There is a great line a few minutes in delivered by Adrienne Clarkson over shots of Leafs fans lining up outside Maple Leaf Gardens....

"No matter how badly their team is playing, Torontonians still flock to fill the seats."

Agnes Varda on All You Need in Life

“This is all you need in life: a computer, a camera, and a cat."

I cannot argue with that list at all.

The Canadiens Came Back From a 2 Game Deficit

About thirty minutes ago I got curious as to what the score was between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was game 7; tied at three games apiece.

The live score above displayed 2 to 0 in favour of the Habs with 8:40 remaining in regulation time. I watched the live countdown to Montreal come-from-behind, down-by-two, series victory.

That pic is a snip of the final tally.

The Toronto Maple Leafs *did* *it* *again*.

Harold Ballard on The Fifth Estate (February 1980)

A few years ago I had a conversation with a friend about former Toronto Maple Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens co-owner Harold Ballard. As part of our discussion, I overviewed a terrific episode of the CBC's "investigative documentary" program The Fifth Estate that I watched when it aired. Adrienne Clarkson's profile of the then 76-year-old Ballard seemed ahead of its time, for some of the 'colourful' onscreen language, uttered by the doc's subject, no surprise, may not have gotten parental approval all those years ago.

The subject of the Leafs' constrictive owner came up again yesterday with this same friend. I then decided to check YouTube.

"Harold Ballard: Wha’D’Ya Mean Ex-Con" is well worth watching, if for this alone: The first few sentences in Clarkson's intro are kinda chilling, certainly if you're a Leafs fan....

A Forever Question: Tears Out

“Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question."

Sir. Peeling onion can make one cry, but will that happen when one peels out?

The Song of the Year! ("Racist, Sexist Boy")

Last week someone I follow on Twitter posted a clip from the above, and like many tweeps I watched and got punked. These talented young ladies from the band "The Linda Lindas" perform, what is for me, "The Song of the Year".

Just to put this in perspective, I have never seen the Grammys; I am just a sponge for the arts.

More perspective: Racist, Sexist Boy was written by band members Eloise, who's thirteen years of age, and ten-year-old Mila.

Wow. At those ages the best I could come up with musically was a hum of the theme tune to Gilligan's Island. (And certainly not a lyric to match "The Professor and Mary Ann", never mind "We rebuild what you destroy".)

"The Linda Lindas" are making me reach back to my music shelf: "Television"; "The Ramones"....

An Admission 45 Years Later (Maple Leafs Forever) Repeat [Originally Posted 5 Years Ago]

On Saturday, February the 13th , I came clean by making a long awaited admission of misplaced support from 1970.

Today I will admit something about "misplaced support" from 1971.

In April of that year, deep in the National Hockey League playoffs, I, for some bizarre and inexplicable reason, was hopeful for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team in eternal question was playing against the New York Rangers, a good, solid club, and one coached by the great Emile Francis.

The date was April 15th, it was game 6 of the quarter final round between these two members of the "original six". The Rangers led the best-of-seven series by three games to two.

Overtime: This match, tied at 1-1, was resolved with venomous brutality when a Rangers player (Jean Ratelle? Walt Tkaczuk?) scooted down the ice over the Leafs blue-line, through a hapless Leafs defenceman (Jim McKenny?), and snapped off a quick shot. Goaltender Jacques Plante shot out his right leg, he stretched out his toes, but failed to stop or deflect the smoking disc-shaped piece of vulcanized rubber from fulfilling its Nomad-like programming. The next event was more acoustic in nature; the sound of what happens after a speeding 6-ounce hockey puck motions past a Leafs goalie at such a critical time in the NHL season. "Clank!!!"

(Forever Futility.)

I did my job quite well: I was a pro. I (got a wee bit upset).

My dad laughed, no doubt amused by a hockey-loving kid who had yet to snap out of a silly phase. I can still picture him, to my right, getting a kick out of my "upset". Translation: "Kid, it's just a bleedin' game. It means absolutely nothing in and among the grand schemes of life." (My dad was right, of course; except when his beloved Habs lost.)

For decades I've asked myself the question: "Why?" Not the question of why a Leafs goalie would fail to stop or deflect an ice hockey puck, which even an answer of "42" could not explain away, but why I would waste allegiances on a total, complete, absolute, non-achiever. This memorable match had played out mere weeks after my 10th birthday, and after the Leafs team began to brush up on all the interesting local golf courses and beer halls, I would, in guided prescience and with great leaps of maturation, shoot my affections to the Montreal Canadiens. This would pay off -- sorry for the spoiler, young ones -- and my reaction this time around would be one of: Joy.

Toronto-based sports journalist Peter Gross reported on the wireless this morning that the Toronto Maple Leafs are just one loss away from being "mathematically eliminated" from making the playoffs this year.

This cynic must admit: That loosey-goosey sports organization has been improving since 1971. By way of avoiding playoff games on a regular yearly basis they spare many a 10-year-old from having certain hopes and, more importantly, breakdowns. And from having anything of relevant interest to write about 45 years later.

(Replay: "Claaaaank"!)

Paint By Numbers, Toronto Maple Leafs Style

Last evening before retiring I checked the score of the Toronto Maple Leafs / Montreal Canadiens ice hockey game... game six (of seven). It was tied at 2 apiece at the end of regulation time.

I 'knew' that the Habs would win in overtime, so it wasn't worth riding the live game score.

This morning I awoke knowing that Montreal did it again: two overtime victories in a 200-foot row: There were no car horns to be heard here in downtown Toronto last night; horns to signify the first Leafs playoff series win in 17 years. To confirm this forgone conclusion I fired up the internet....

Game seven is when?... certainly not "how".....

(The Leafs were winning the series by a game count of 3 to 1 at one point.)

The Toronto Maple Leafs: one of cinema's great tragic characters.

No Good News is Good News (Repeat)

... to the Toronto Sun. And me.

Yesterday the news broke that U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have a new deal: No more tariffs on steel and aluminum, and no retributive measures on these tariffs.

The news was everywhere. Toronto-based newspapers sang "Read all about it!", the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail updated their online pages immediately with the important news. Well, almost "everywhere". I was not surprised to see that the National Post had nothing; even less surprised to see that the Toronto Sun not only had nothing, but still had a front-and-centre story up about how the latest negotiations had failed ("close but no cigar!").

This newshound monitored the situation with almost morbid fascination. Hours later the old and out-of-date story was still on the Sun's main page; then the National Post finally had a small bit, hardly what one would expect for such big news. Last night it was still the same Sun story, but they had, finally, dropped the old version. (I'm guessing they wanted their "I only read the Sun!" crowd to lap it up.)

This morning: Still nothing.

I've written about this before on this blog when such an important, favourable to the Liberals and Mr Trudeau, story breaks. The Toronto Sun spends a day or two working up a negative spin on something that gets under their skin. The news breaks on its pages through editorial....a stream of anger from its stock of bitter columnists: Brian Lilley; Lorrie Goldstein; Mark Bonokoski; Anthony Furey; ....

I can't wait!

Picturing: Rain Fall in Toronto Today

Right Here, Right Now, All Right! (Repeat)

On Friday of last week the National Post newspaper published a excerpt from Stephen J. Harper's new book "Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption" (2018, McClelland & Stewart). The former Prime Minister of Canada has a few opinions which are being lapped up by our right-wing press. Anthony Furey in today's Toronto Sun hails "Right Here, Right Now" as truth. The kind of truth that nobody outside the Sun would dare reveal.

Here is a morsel I drew from the Post's sampling....

"So here is my re-examination in a nutshell. A large proportion of Americans, including many American conservatives, voted for Trump because they are really not doing very well. In short, the world of globalization is not working for many of our own people. We can pretend that this is a false perception, but it is not. We now have a choice. We can keep trying to convince people that they misunderstand their own lives, or we can try to understand what they are saying. Then we can decide what to do about it."

As we are well aware, yes. Harper hardly reveals anything new here, but he has the floor.

From Mr Furey's book review it is clear that Stephen Harper has a few issues with our current leader, Justin Trudeau. As I wrote here Canada's 22nd prime minister was clearly devastated by the results of the last federal election when "Justin" and his Liberals emerged triumphant.

That I will remember at times as I read "Right Here, Right Now: Politics and Leadership in the Age of Disruption".

Star Wars: The Lull Before the Storm (Repeat)

"... It's called Star Wars. One set alone cost twelve million dollars."

That is how I first heard of Star Wars. It was the spring of 1977. I had the Grundig stereo on in the living room and as I walked from the kitchen into the dining room I heard an on-air host from Toronto radio station CKFM say the magic words. My reaction to the announced set cost must have been one of awe -- I later learned that the movie cost about ten million dollars to make -- but it was the name of this mysterious new flick that really intrigued me.

Over the next few days I will tell, in serial form, the story from my perspective of how Star Wars hit not only the marketplace, but entered our culture....


That could have been the opening crawl to my series recounting my introduction to Star Wars. It all started for me when I heard that radio piece. But everyone has a different story. And already I've read a few online.

In the pre-Internet age, it was a different game.

After learning of a new and anticipated movie going into production, one had to sometimes dig to learn more than what was readily available from the mainstream media outlets. For most pictures the wait was, more often than not, off our radars.

However, do not think for a moment that pre-release or pre-production hype used by the major film studios is a recently developed tool. Films from the 1970s were following an old model but with new tricks. Promotional featurettes, shot on 16mm film, were taken to a refined state during those years. Major studio productions like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and King Kong were promoted heavily while they were still in production. In the case of Kong the casting of the new beauty was covered in local and national newscasts. I remember watching Buffalo television station WKBW late one evening and seeing newsfilm of Jessica Lange on stage holding a bouquet of flowers (it was a press conference).

Who could forget watching the excellent and dynamic promotional film showing the production crew of The Towering Inferno doing their magic? Irwin Allen directing over John Guillerman's head by using a megaphone was exciting and memorable. ("Mister Newman!") Accompanied by an authoritative but not staid voice over, bulldozers dug down into a sound stage floor in order to give the already voluminous space even more fly. These promotional shorts were nothing less than recruitment films. "I want to do that!"

By the time big pictures such as Poseidon, Inferno, Kong, Earthquake, and The Hindenburg hit the screens, an educated, of sorts, audience was awaiting. And I was a member of that audience, in all five examples.

There was none of that for Star Wars. It just snuck up on us....

The Star Wars of 40 Years Ago (Repeat - Now 44)

"... It's called Star Wars. One set alone cost twelve million dollars."

That is how I first heard of Star Wars. It was the spring of 1977. I had the Grundig stereo on in the living room and as I walked from the kitchen into the dining room I heard an on-air host from Toronto radio station CKFM say the magic words. My reaction to the announced set cost must have been one of awe -- I later learned that the movie cost about ten million dollars to make -- but it was the name of this mysterious new flick that really intrigued me.

Over the next few days I will tell, in serial form, the story from my perspective of how Star Wars hit not only the marketplace, but entered our culture.