Forgery League

Upcoming Flickershow shows: Friday 25 November at the Renaissance, and Thursday 8 December at the Cameron. Details at the site.

Upcoming Some of the Parts show: Saturday 3 December at the Renaissance.

Also, work work work.

Speaking of work: met a local SF/fantasy author in unexpected circumstances. She was fab, and so were the rest of her cohorts. Funnest client meeting ever.

Speaking of the fantastic: Roommates have hooked us on Buffy, starting from the very beginning. The way Willow talks totally reminds me of a friend of ours. It’s kind of adorable.

Speaking of fab: inspiring talk tonight by one of these wonderful crazies from Portland, Oregon. Taking back intersections! Building beautifully sculpted benches on donated lawn space! Tea houses on wheels!

And now to bed.

From the Chicago Tribune, March 19th: “Media giant’s rally sponsorship raises questions” (Thank you, Boing Boing.)

“In a move that has raised eyebrows in some legal and journalistic circles, Clear Channel radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and other cities have sponsored rallies attended by up to 20,000 people.”

Now, let me tell you about Dundas Square. It’s an odd little triangle downtown that used to be full of cheap and/or sleazy shops, in an area that was seriously damaged by the construction of the giant Eaton Centre shopping mall next door. A year or three ago they knocked down the buildings to make way for a new public square.

Fair enough; downtown could use more of that sort of thing. But the concept for the square - essentially our own miniature version of Times Square - has always struck me as ridiculous. Times Square is awe-inspiring in its way: street advertising and trashy glitz taken to its greatest extreme. To mimic it is to miss the point. It’s tacky, uncreative, me-tooish - exactly the sort of thing that Canadians from one end of the country to the other love to mock Toronto for.

The square, then, is surrounded by billboards and giant screens showing full-colour video. And crowning it all is The Media Tower, on the northwest corner (it’s the drum-shaped thing in the photos). Essentially it’s a big box made of girders, several stories high, made for the express purpose of hanging ads on. Guess who owns it. Yay, Clear Channel!

On the other hand, Dundas Square has provided a nice location for antiwar demos. That’s one of the most important functions for a public square, after all. And it makes me feel a bit better.

And hey! There’s this big fat target waiting if agit-pranksters want to hang a banner or something. With lots of exposed girders to chain themselves to.