The holiday display at Fashion Crimes & Misdemeanours on Queen St. is pretty intense!



They're burning witches at www.fashioncrimes.ca!

I'm not making any Monty Python jokes.

Venerable geek shop The Silver Snail has their holiday window display up on Queen St. and I liked it so much I snapped away with the camerafone!

Han Solo helps Indiana Jones climb up a snowbank

Shaun (of the Dead) battles Predator, while Sarah Connor makes snowballs (is it packing snow?)

American Psycho makes a snow angel while Doctor Who's Martha battles it out with...some dudes I don't know!

Watch the video! Thoughts? Great parody?

Creative way to spread the message about sustainable income in the developing world?

Slightly exploitive in that way that only well-meaning white people can be?

Uh.... too much use of "motherfucker" in a charitable appeal?



Visit the web site: iWantAGoat.com to read more about the project and donate goats. I'm about the bottom line, so I like things that raise money. Do I like this? I don't know! I know hearts were in the right place.

When I see folks traipsing around villages in the developing world, showing off the "Photograph of ME, with the POOR!" I cringe with embarrassment squick. As much as the producers claim the village participated in this project, they also note they'd never seen a video camera before - so is there context for informed consent?

How much of this is entertainment - ie: Lulzy quick-zoom shots of poor people drinking water from tins, while some asshole American raps: "We eatin rice and dal / Cuz we aint rich / I'm pounding out some grain, chopping wood and shit / Carrying pots on my head damn you know I'm fit." Dunno.

But it's really catchy, yeah?

Take a good hard look at the motherfucking goat!

Poll #1488902 Goat Poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

Would this video make you consider donating a goat?

Do you guys know who James Purefoy is?



He was in Rome, Mansfield Park, Resident Evil, etc.

I was certain I spotted him at the premiere of his movie Solomon Kane at TIFF Midnight Madness.

He was sitting there, looking like James Purefoy, at a James Purefoy movie, so surely that was James Purefoy, right?

Blurry dark video or it didn’t happen !



You can hear me whispering about James Purefoy while the director on stage also going on about James Purefoy. And apologies for the creepy-sounding voice-over at the end... I’m not stalking you James Purefoy. I just knew it was you.

I knew it was you.
 

Hey here's a dose of inappropriateness for your Monday morning.

It's been doing the rounds in the non-profit sector so please enjoy ... 2009's Worst Non-Profit Ad! It's for the WWF - created by DDB Brasil.



Copy reads:

The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11.
The planet is brutally powerful.
Respect it. Preserve it.
www.wwf.org

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Great work huh! Compelling. It sure makes me want to Adopt A Panda.

Wait, there's more. You may have seen the print piece already but did you know... ( It's also 2009's Most Offensive Non-Profit TV Spot too... )

I'm at the Toronto International Film Festival all week. We're spending all our time running to venues, standing in lines, sitting in lines, waiting in lines, switching to lines... It's pretty fucking glamourous!



If I see anything or anybody cool I'm going to tell you all about it, toot sweet, but I have to tell you my paparazzi story today.

I'm the butt of the joke, so that means the story is extra good....

( Friday afternoon I was strolling along Queen St. W... )

Some days you need to jam your mouth full of cake, am I right? I heard that you can make a cake without actually having any cake ingredients, so I put this to the test.

It's good to have projects. Today's was: "I'm going to make that cake I heard about, vaguely, in passing, the one with diet pop."

Diet Pop Cake: A Recipe I Sort of Heard About & It Sounded Crazy, But It Turned Out to be True

You will need:
- 1 box of cake mix
- Some diet pop
- Some Pimms (to taste)


The ingredients for a bitchin' lazy cake. As Betty C says, "Goût Garanti!"

( Okay, first step ... Mix the fizzy stuff together! )

demotu posted an article about Canadian health care myths, which was pretty interesting. She wonders: Is there a fundamental ideological difference between Canada and America?

I don’t know about that, but I said I thought that what America is missing on health care is a champion who can fight this battle and win.

It’s not like Canada is a nation of kind people and our likewise thoughtful government said one day, “let’s give everyone universal health coverage” and it happened. The idea was really viciously fought against at the time.

But we had Tommy Douglas, who made it work in Saskatchewan and proved with numbers that a co-operative government could have social programs and not go broke. Tommy Douglas was basically the greatest Canadian who ever lived.

Listen to how he speaks to people and see if he isn’t incredibly persuasive.

He’s speaking in this video at a convention in 1983, reminding his party members why they should continue to fight for universal health care.



What a finish!

“And I remind you in this movement we pledged ourselves 50 years ago.. we would provide health care for every man woman and child irrespective of their colour, their race or their financial status and by God we are going to do it!”

In this speech Tommy is not even asking people to vote for health care, he’s telling them to keep fighting even though they’ve already got it.

So where’s the voice in the United States that gives a damn this much about universal health care?

*ETA: His 1983 numbers for GNP 9% / 7% are 17% / 10% in 2009.

It's 40 degrees in this stupid fucking hellhole hipster apartment and I need to get out. I'm going to marry the first boy with enough money to whisk me off to an air-conditioned mansion.

I was at the point yesterday where I was considering taking the laptop to Starbucks just for the chilled air. All my noble principles crumble to dust when I'm sweating. Maybe I should decamp to the public library. How granola and virtuous would that be? But, it's over 15 minutes away on the streetcar!

Last week I did a favour for a friend and was able to score really good seats at a Blue Jays / Yankees game. So, we had a genuine American-style field trip to the ball game!


I enjoyed American beer to honour our Yankee visitors!

Of the three of us, I was the only one who had never been to a Jays game before, so I was super-thrilled. Our seats were very close to the action. It was explained to me who Alex Rodriguez is and why is he universally hated and why we should boo for him.

Little did we know, he also hates us! A-Rod's foul ball came hurtling towards our faces while we were filming a video of him! ( Click to enjoy our bitchin' video of A-Rod swinging and girls shrieking! )

This one is for copperbadge



( Notice the elephant in the bottom corner...! )

I just got my tickets for the pre-selection clusterfuck at TIFF this year.



When I know the schedule of films we're seeing, I will post more. If anyone is here September 10 - 19, let me know!

Cheerier thoughts...the Toronto After Dark festival starts on Friday. Last year's fest brought me my favourite short film of all time - and it's Canadian:

"Lazer Ghosts 2: Return to Laser Cove" by Steven Kostanski

Billed as "An incredible homage to 1990's Charles Band era VHS titles", this short film got a standing ovation from our balcony! Oh shit, it was so badass. I just saw that the full short (9 minutes) is available on Youtube.

The longer this "trailer" went, the funnier and more action-packed it got.

Lazer Ghosts 2: Return to Laser Cove, best ending to a film ever?

 

( Put 9 minutes aside, click the cut tag and ...RETURN TO LASER COVE! )

When you work in the charitable sector you have the joy and misfortune to see a lot of "campaigns". Here's one that has been around for a while that I think you will love.

Sex From A to Z from the AIDS Committee of Toronto



These are 26 playing cards giving you "26 ways to blow your mind (and your load)! "


I've been carrying these in my purse, in case of a sexy emergency.

( Click for Sexy Business from A to Z ! )

I SAVED THE CITY! I can't believe I forgot all about it.

What happened was, well actually I'll start first by telling you about the garbage strike...

So there was a garbage strike in Toronto, which was just resolved on Friday. It was fucking disgusting downtown for a while there.

Here's what our garbage bins looked like - Pic thanks to Torontoist's strike watch:


This grossness was 5 minutes from my workplace.

On Monday, I was walking with my coworker Aaron towards St. Andrew's subway. Dodging blowing bits of garbage like tumbleweeds, etc. I was in a fantastic mood because we'd just stopped for burritos. Just a quick ride on the subway home for me and I could lie on the couch and eat that awesome yam burrito!

So, we stand there at the subway entrance talking for a sec (about our amazing burritos)...

…suddenly Aaron looks over my shoulder and says “IS THAT GARBAGE BIN ON FIRE?”

( YES, it was totally on fire! )

So, my goddamn alma mater decided they needed to "rebrand". For the 21st century!

Rebranding is hot.  Compare and contrast...



Holy shit, there are lasers coming out of that thing!

To me this doesn't look like a university logo. It doesn't even look like a college logo. I just got an email from a friend with the subject line: "Welcome to the DeVry Institute".

I think I stayed at this hotel. It was called W. Or, was it a nightclub maybe? I look at this logo and think: "Pretty fancy. If I barf on the dance floor will they ask me to leave?"

Obviously, the students and alumni are freaking out. As summed up in a National Post blog here, and on the official protest Facebook group.

What's so funny is that the marketing company they hired to inflict this on us obviously has no idea that UW is the most SRS BZNESS university in the country.

People go to Waterloo to escape fun. Most of the buildings are made out of concrete. There are no windows. What do you need to look at other than a whiteboard filled with numbers?

Students have discussions like: "How should I knot my tie for this co-op interview?" not "Where are the beers, guy?" The ratio of Dude to Girl is 20 to 1. No, that's not right... 400 to 1!  Waterloo may be the only school in the world where students band together to complain that something isn't serious enough.

Here are some of the funniest parodies that have popped up in the last 48 hours on the Facebook group.
 

( Click for lots more logo LOLs behind the cut tag... )
I've always said Marketing is the most useless and backwards department in any non-profit, but I forgot about the even lower-level of Marketing evil, the "Marketing Consultant"! LOL.

This was the front page of the Toronto Sun on Friday...



POOR BRUNO!

Not only was he a councillor's ex-lover, but to be found in a car trunk on the day his movie premieres... Sad!

If you've been watching Torchwood: Children of Earth, I hope you've been taking note of the fabulous return of the Harkness Pointed Brow.

In Boeshane Peninsula-speak (of which I am fluent) it is described as the ^^.

Sometimes you just get one ^. Sometimes you get two ^ ^ ! It depends on how fabulous Jack is feeling in that moment. The level of fabulousness goes from 1 (not very) to 4 (very fabulous).

I collected some bitchin' uses of eyebrows from Days 1-3 for you to enjoy.

 

( Browse the brows, bros! Some of these brows might spoil you... )

Wank that has nothing to do with Torchwood...Do you have room for it in your heart?



Fans of the micro-lending site Kiva.org are wanking away on a topic not even vaguely related to porn. :-(

If you don’t know Kiva, what the site does is allow individuals to make small loans to people in developing countries. The loans are of the $25 - $400 variety and the majority are eventually repaid.

Now Kiva is allowing American entrepreneurs to apply for loans. Controversial because American projects need thousands to get off the ground but the projects in developing countries can be successful with so much less.

Poll #1426901 My awesome poll on loans
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54

Would you lend money to an American small business owner?

Hi everyone, this is my first post in this blog. When I have a blog I usually post about LOL stuff, not serious stuff, so I hope I can shoot interesting items into your face that you'll enjoy. This was irresistible... So, I work close to Chinatown which is the best place in the city to find cheap goods.

And by 'cheap' of course I include counterfeit, you understand my meaning? If not for VCD stores, where would the city get its Tony Leung fix? The internet? How do I enjoy a photocopied DVD cover on the internet?

( Check out what I found this week, some awesome perfumes... )