Went to see two more apartments today. The first was the farthest one I’ve considered to date, and as I was cycling up there and realizing just how far out it was, I decided it was time to sit down and re-evaluate my criteria for a place to live. The place itself was *okay*, but the area felt like the north end of Hamilton for some reason, and I don’t much care for the north end of Hamilton. And it really was far – probably a 15 to 20 minute walk to a subway station. I can do better than that.

Like the second place I looked at – you could see Bathurst station from the porch. The location was the best imaginable, right in the middle of everything, but off the main streets just enough to be quiet. The landlady was very nice, the price was reasonable for what was offered. So why aren’t I taking it? Short answer is it’s too small. It’s the main floor of a small house, and there are no closets. No storage. You couldn’t call it a one-bedroom, there was just what used to be the living room and dining room. The kitchen and bathroom were about as small as you could get while still fitting in all the appliances and whatnot. I think the kitchen was the kicker – you had to turn sideways to squeeze between the refrigerator and the countertop. It’s a shame, because there were a lot of positives about it, but the negatives weren’t fixable and I wouldn’t be able to get past them. And so we keep looking. This whole rigamarole is wearing me down, let me tell you.

Sandwiched between looking at apartments, I went to see a play at the Fringe Festival – this one was called Leggs Over Easy, featuring sketch comedy by the Scrambled Leggs troupe. It was alright – a few real prize moments and a lot of just okay ones. They were well received, though, and show potential.

Tonight, after I take a little nap and digest the sushi I had for dinner, it’s off to an indie-pop night called The Stolen Wine Social. It’s probably the same thing as the International Colouring Contest was, and every other indie pop night in the city, but it’ll be some decent music and get me out of the house, so that’s a good thing.

The Catbirdseat strikes again! Hipster Bingo. This stuff is gold.

np – Starflyer 59 / Old

The Billy Bragg show tonight at the ElMo was correctly billed as “Talking Woody” – as in Woody Guthrie – because that’s exactly what it was. Billy talking about Woody, singing his songs. It was as much a history lesson as concert, with Bragg taking extended breaks between songs to talk about Woody Guthrie’s post-dustbowl days, when he wrote most of the Mermaid Avenue songs, the making of the Mermaid Avenue records and generally provide a deeper insight to the man who’s mostly known as the “This Land Is My Land” guy to some and a dirty Commie to others. Bragg’s reverence for the man and his work was clearly evident but so was his trademark mischeviousness, as he easily traded quips with the audience and took a couple good-natured shots at Morrissey. Unsurprisingly, he had a lot to say about recent world events – though always hilariously so – and his views and opinions were well-received by the sold-out audience of, and this is me taking a wild guess, socialists, lefties and more than a few Commies.

Musically, it was just Bragg, his green Burns Steer (by far the oddest and maybe ugliest guitar ever made – but perfect for him) and a songbook comprised of photocopies of Guthries original lyric sheets, which he took great delight in showing off. It was interesting to hear Bragg’s cockney in place of Jeff Tweedy’s rasp on the songs that Tweedy performed on record, the delivery sometimes adding a different spin to the song, sometimes just sounding odd (“Joe DiMaggio Done It Again”, mainly). He did apologize for not doing any of his own material, but was fairly emphatic that this evening be about Woody. It was an understandable decision but still mildly disappointing, though that was alleviated by his hilariously ad-libbed version of encore closer “Waiting For The Great Leap Forward” (one couplet being, “If you’ve got a website/I wanna be on it” – well Bill, here you go. He did promise to return next year with a proper set of Bragg material, likely to promote the double disc Must I Paint You A Picture? compilation, out October 7. I doubt that show will be nearly as intimate as this one was, but I don’t doubt it’ll be terrific.

As feared, reviews of League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen are harsh. Such disappointment. I will still venture out to see it when it hits the rep theatres (which shouldn’t be too long as it’ll likely disappear from the first-runs in short order), but I can’t justify paying regular theatre prices to see something that’s so universally panned. Well, there’s always Pirates Of The Carribean.

Everyone and I mean everyone is all up ons over Frank Black’s comment to the NME that “I do dream about the Pixies reunion I do have to say”, and that the four members still get together and jam in private. As well they should, a reunited Pixies would be majestic. Or at least not awful. I hope.

Fox is bringing Banzai back to North American television (CityTV ran the show back in the late summer of 2001), complete with the online interactive betting component. They’ve got the same cast and characters from the original show, but are they running the same episodes? Those of us who’ve seen it already know which old lady wins the Old Lady Wheelchair Chicken contest, and how many balloons it takes to lift the squirrel into the sky. A bit of an unfair advantage… But the show is riotous. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s on on Sunday at 8:30PM EST.

I am surprised how much I am enjoying the new Portastatic record. Absolutely stands up with the recent Superchunk stuff (and I really like the recent Superchunk stuff). They will be following up The Summer Of The Shark with a new EP in October, Autumn Was A Lark, featuring one new track, three covers, a full-band version of “In The Lines” and eight bonus tracks of radio sessions. A 13-track EP. Gotta say this about Mac – he knows how to provide good value.

np – Calexico / Feast Of Wire

A curious little article on how your record collection reflects your personality. An interesting analysis, though their examples don’t offer me much to relate to. Which maybe says something about my personality… From TMFTML.

“Spiders” may well be one of the best songs Wilco – or anyone – has ever written. Find a live recording somewhere and then tingle in anticipation of Decibels Per Minute, or whatever the hell the new album is called whenever it’s released.

Billy Bragg talks about the Woody Guthrie travelling roadshow he’s bringing to the ElMo tomorrow night. Lotsa Woody is fine, Bill, but you better play “Levi Stubbs Tears” or there’s gonna be some ugliness.

Trying to learn Python is making my head spin juuuuust a little bit. It’s fun to be reminded that I’ve never taken a proper computer programming class. Objects? Classes? What?

np – Portastatic / The Summer Of The Shark

Picked up the final issue of Hunter: The Age Of Magic yesterday. Since the title’s cancellation was announced a few months ago, you could tell Dylan Horrocks was staring down the clock to try and wrap up all his plot threads – stories that took months to set up were resolved in a single issue, greatly compromising their comprehensibility and impact. Still, I’m happy that DC gave him the opportunity to wrap things up rather than pull the plug immediately. I began reading The Books Of Magic way back with issue #1, maybe 10 years ago, and while the book went through some rough patches over the course of it’s 100 issue run (105 if you count the two regular titles and miniseries), it maintained a pretty high level of quality throughout. With the end of Hunter, I think Hellblazer remains the only Vertigo title set in the DC universe. I’ve replaced Hunter with Y: The Last Man in my monthly title roster, but am a little wistful about the title’s passing.

Because you demanded it! Hitler Vs Stalin! When titans clash!

Mogwai have made the video for the first single from Happy Songs For Happy People, “Hunted By A Freak”, available for watch on their website.

The fact that I haven’t heard boo back from the apartment I was hoping to get after three days does not fill me with great joy. That is compounded with the fact that there is nothing interesting in the classifieds today to buoy my spirits. I’m going to look at a place up on Bathurst tonight, but my mindset isn’t the most optimistic right now that I’ve been introduced to the fact that even when I find a place I do like, there is still no guarantee that it’ll like me back. Why everything in life has to end up like dating, I have no idea. Harrumph.

np – The Posies / Amazing Disgrace