File under: fun. The Best Of Craigslist. Man, I wish the Toronto one was this wacky.

Things I did on my day off: Got my hair cut. Rode my bike around. Sat under a tree in the park, listened to music and read. Good stuff. I was going to go see The Quiet American but considering that it starts in half an hour and I still haven’t eaten, I doubt that’s going to happen. But to cop from the Comedy Network’s tagline – it’s been time well wasted.

np – Cinerama / John Peel Sessions : Season 2

The Polyphoinic Spree is coming to Toronto! They have two nights booked at Lee’s Palace, September 29 and 30. I haven’t heard more than a few snippets of their stuff, but for well over a year I’ve been under the impression that this is not an experience to be missed. How pften do you get to catch a band whose lineup that makes the Hidden Cameras look like a power trio? Oklahoman wacky-popsters Starlight Mints open.

The Ride BBC sessions album Waves has been confirmed for an October 7 worldwide release on Ignition Records.

Another scathing review of Liz Phair. Sure, they’re a dime a dozen but this one’s worth reading – well reasoned, well written and far less knee-jerk clever than some (hello Pitchfork). From TMFTML.

I’ve put up a top 10 list for the first half of 2003.

This super-extended long weekend thing. I could get used to this.

np – Bedhead / Beheaded

This afternoon I went to see the Jays play the Expos for maybe the last time (since the ‘Spos will be hightailing it out of La Belle Provence at some point in the near future), and a right royal thrashing was laid on the hometown. A two-hit 11-2 rout by the Expos. Ouchie. But it was nice to just veg at the ballpark for a few hours.

R.I.P. to Katherine Hepburn. I think I saw On Golden Pond about a zillion times when I was a kid, on account of it being one of maybe three movies that my family had on tape when we first got a VCR.

Maybe… Just MAYBE, someone in the music industry is getting a clue:

” . . . The problems at Sony Music, as in the rest of the music business, run deeper than costs. They also run deeper than Internet file-sharing, the industry’s favorite scapegoat. In fact, with some critical interpretation,

the rise of Napster and its successors can be seen less as a cause than as a symptom of maladies that are profound and structural – ranging from overpriced CDs to formulaic product to an outmoded business model based mainly on distribution and marketing muscle. The movie business may be screwy, but it’s not fundamental broken. The music business is.

“Sir Howard [Stringer, the new vice chairman of Sony,] agrees. ‘The music industry has offended the consumer,’ he says. ‘It has offended the retailer, offended the artists, offended the publishers. The radio stations are basically a duopoly now; they’re not helping the situation. MTV is no

longer playing music videos – they’re doing something weirder. You’ve got all this anger out there, you’ve got all this fragmentation, and so the music business has to be reworked, reinvented, and reorganized from the ground up.’

“That Stringer sees this – and that he’s not simply yelling ‘Piracy, piracy!’ – is the first encouraging sign for the future of Sony Music. . .”

[Credit: Business 2.0, July 2003 issue, page 37 – part of an article entitled “Can Sir Howard Save the Music Biz?” by John Heilemann]

np – Unrest / B.P.M. (1991-1994)

The last couple days have been a reality check for me in regards to my apartment search. Another reality check, it seems, in a series of many. Last night I went to look at a place that was probably about as nice a basement as I was going to find, and it was still disappointing. I don’t think I can live anywhere that I have to duck to get around in. This morning I went to see another place that was terrific in almost every aspect – except the lack of a proper kitchen. Only a bar-size fridge, no oven, two counter-top stove elements. I know I don’t cook much, but I would appreciate the option. It was really nice but simply too small. I have accepted that I am going to have to raise my limit for how much I’m willing to spend to find something above ground, but even finding places that aren’t basements to look at is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. With July rolling around, my target of an August 1 occupancy gets that much more urgent.

I was pricing flights to New York City for the Labour Day weekend, and it’s surprisingly cheap via JetsGo if you book early. Like $90 each way. Even after taxes, that’s less than $250 round trip. Okay, so it’s to Newark and not NYC proper, but that’s not a big deal. A good price is a good price. Now – does anyone know of anywhere inexpensive but not gawd-awful to stay in New York?

This afternoon was spent hacking up and rebuilding the Lake Holiday website. It looks pretty much the same, but is built better. Fuck frames! Let the people scroll.

Ticketmaster’s allotment of tickets for the Rolling Stones show are already all gone. All 150,000 of them. I am going to try and snag one from A&P, but failing that, I guess I’ll be sitting this one out. Selling out of 400,000 tickets will be quite a feat. Oh yeah, Rush are now on the bill as well.

It’s Pride weekend in Toronto. The dykes are marching! The dykes are marching!

np – American Analog Set / From Our Living Room To Yours

Some good stuff in the new issue of Exclaim!. The cover story belongs to lovely T.O. ex-pats Metric, whose debut album Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? won’t be out till July 22, which explains why I’ve had a helluva time finding it (it is available online from one source, but I’ll wait till it’s out proper-like) though I will probably just pick up a copy when they tour through Toronto at the end of July. They play Guelph’s Hillside Festival on the weekend of the 26th, and I expect the Toronto date to come shortly after.

They (Exclaim, pardon the digression) also have an article on weblogs and their effect on journalism and criticism and a brief history of Metallica that could have been subtitled, “A Roadmap To Suck”.

Now you can get your very own “I Survived Toronto” t-shirt. I think it’s a little premature – after all, it’s only the end of June. There’s plenty more plagues that can strike Hogtown before Labour Day.

Rainer Maria play the Horseshoe July 24. I am NOT missing them this time. I know I said that the last two times they came through town, and I did, but this time I mean it!

Went to see A Mighty Wind tonight. Fine, fine comedy. A loverly time was had by all.

np – Sigur Ros / Ágætis Byrjun