Dark Sky 

I'm pretty sure this is the nicest weather embed widget I've seen. It's from the creators of Dark Sky, one of the nicest weather iPhone apps you'll see. Unfortunately, it isn't available in the Canadian App Store so this will have to do for now.

Quarterly Sextodecimo: 2014 AE Edition 

The Autumn Equinox sort of snuck up on me but I’ve had this idea to make a Sextodecimo primarily of live and/or found recordings. You can stream a sort simulacrum of the playlist on Rdio.



Or download it here (extract and after importing the files into your player application, you can also import the playlist as an XML file to ensure the correct order).

The recordings between the actual songs are just random things I’ve recorded with my phone. It’s been said the best camera is the one you have with you so I guess the same might be true for recording equipment.

See more for the play list description: Read more »

Endless Summer Ends 

But it's a dry heat/cold/heat/cold/and so on. Image via Wikipedia

“…we rush like Disney-pushed lemmings to the edge of the lake”

In a dystopian future when climate change has left the Earth looking like the surface of Mars with a blistering radiant heat or impossibly frigid cold, we may look back fondly on our childish regret of summer unofficially ending after Labour Day. Until then, we rush like Disney-pushed lemmings to the edge of the lake hoping to wring more summery moments from one last weekend. As I’ve done next to nothing all summer when the bell tolled on August 29 I found myself circling places on the city map and plotting like Gen. Patton a tight schedule of sites to hit. Unfortunately, Friday was wasted buying and installing a ceiling fan but I did get to make another batch of ice cream and made up a weekend bucket list: I wanted to see at least one more movie, swim in an outdoor pool, drink at a microbrewery, and have at least a long bike ride.

Saturday turned into an unusual loop of the city from the east end to the west. In the morning I swam at the indoor Regent Park Pool, then, intending to break in some new riding shoes I planned to ride across town to the Indie Alehouse and somehow ride back for an outdoor evening swim – and stop to see a design exhibit on the way. The exhibit of Japanese design was closed for some reason, so I rode on to Alehouse where I had a sample flight of five of their beers and a meal of mussels and fries. To anyone who knows mussels, these were putzy, puny things and were a disappointment. Luckily the beer did not disappoint. I then bought a growler of their “It Takes Two to Mango” (“It’s like having a real mango in your mouth!” Tobias Funke) - which is 64 fl oz of beer in one large bottle. That’s almost two litres or half a gallon of beer. It turns out that two quarts of beer does not easily fit in a messenger bag. Despite that, I jumped atop my bike and to avoid traffic rode to the Lakeshore trail and headed back across town.
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Seen in August 

Robin Williams as Lance Clayton in World's Greatest Dad. Image via Film School Rejects

Summer movies tend to fall into that kind of simple fun and satisfying category but it wasn't really a great summer for movies (Boyhood and Guardians of the Galaxy were the exceptions) so I made do with my own guilty pleasures. Now the summer is gone so it's good-bye to all that. Here in Toronto it seems fitting that the Toronto International Film Festival rings in the start of more considered movies that get released in the autumn.
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