Description 26 - The Boo-Boo Box

Go inside the actual 2006 ballot of the key state in the U.S. elections...and why do I have that ballot? Fortunately, we have some Canadian rock from Danko Jones to help get our frustrations out.

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Associated links:
Ashtabula County Board of Elections
Absentee voting info from the Ohio Secretary of State
votefromabroad.org
Overseas Vote Foundation
Margie Bort and Joe Pete (Jr.) at a county auditor meeting (sorry, you can't get the full effect of Joe's mustache in the photo....)
That photo came from The Star-Beacon.
Danko Jones: .com, .net and myspace!
Thanks to the Podsafe Music Network
And zefrank explains voting! (QuickTime)


the show with zefrank

Whew. Seriously, this is one of the very few shows I've done in the apartment totally off the top of my head. I didn't know what was going to happen or how much I'd be blathering when I got the iRiver rolling. It should be clear I'm not the most informed person about the local politics from where I grew up, and have no pretense to be some sort of pundit (what? like not being informed stops real pundits?). These days, I am paying more attention to the municipal elections here in Toronto, which will happen shortly after this U.S. whoop-de-doo. As usually happens (already my concerns about Michael Ignatieff's trajectory are coming to fruition), David Miller had good ideas when he got voted into the mayor's gig and not all of them have worked out. He's certainly screwed up at times. But having the ideas (himself or from others) and pulling off some of them is enough for me to vote him back in. And then there's the matter of finding someone to fill the councillor's seat Olivia Chow left when we sent her to Ottawa. Adam Vaughan seems a worthy successor. If he is not a Philosopher King, he definitely is a Philosopher Prince, with all the risks implied that I'm usually willing to take.

Okay, enough of that. Making an effort to do silly crap next time. Oh, man - I'd been intending to make a promo. We'll see if I ever do that.

Description 25 - Nuit Blanche

The city stays open all night for the sake of contemporary art, and lots of people actually show up! Including me! Enjoy music made with water, reading pieces of paper tied to tree branches, and learning how to walk the right way through fog. And remember: positive energy!

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Associated links:
Official Nuit Blanche Toronto site
Torontoist Does Nuit Blanche, Has Stories, Is Sleepy.
Spacing on Philosopher's Walk
An explanation of Taddle Creek
University of Toronto Faculty of Music
Bloor-Yorkville @ toronto.com
That carrot episode of "Good Eats"

The featured exhibits were: Carl Beam: The Whale of Our Being, Fog in Toronto #71624, Son(ic)ambulism, Hold That Thought, I Am Curious - Yorkville, Leif Ostlund and Raphael Montpetit @ Hollander York Gallery and One Garden One Night One Wish.

It's a long episode, but man, I cut a lot of stuff out. Sorry there are things I made reference to that ended up on the virtual cutting-room floor. After my first bit, I walked down bpnichol lane, where there was supposed to be something going on on the way to Sussex, but I must have been too late for it. In a nook of Yorkville, huge, inflated capsules were floating for Pharma©opia by Toronto art legends of the '80's General Idea. At the Royal Ontario Museum, there was some great work imported from the Nuit Blanche in Havana, Cuba - particularly the work of Carlos Garaicoa. Also, outside of the ROM in the contruction site for the Crystal, an interesting projection was being shown. And I didn't end up dragging my ass across the street to the newly renovated Gardiner Museum.

Again, that was just part of Zone A! There were two other zones with swimming and 10-year-olds DJ'ing and dramatic pup tents and cops dancing and whatever the hell. Once folks finally wiped the sleep from their eyes, it was determined about 450,000 people experienced this thing. That's pretty damn cool. But y'know, Montreal is having one of these deals next spring - they're supposed to be the artsy ones. That event just may have enough power to fortify all the overpasses in Laval. But for now, the art community of Toronto and the plain old shmucks like me can be kinda proud of what went down Saturday night.