Travelling Around Canada/USA

Toronto

We landed in Toronto, which is already cool because its in Canada and people keep their doors unlocked, as in Bowling For Columbine. My brother inquired about how i found room in my rucksack for a sleeping bag and i replied 'What sleeping bag?' We were camping you see.

Hence the first night was probably the worst nights sleep i've ever had. The campsite was like the Great Canadian wilderness transported to Greater Toronto. Insects chirping, pick ups rumbling by, headlights beaming, bears growling, well, they might as well have been and it was freezing. The towel that i was lying on did nothing to provide comfort and my hoodie was a crap pillow. So in the end I stayed awake in the car.

The next day we went up the CN Tower and ate in the revolving restaurant (you can actually see it going round!), drank at a gritty punker pub and watched the Toronto Bluejays lose to the Oakland Athletics at baseball. Now, this is a strange game. People sit around eating overpriced junk food, occasionally cheering, but only when prompted by a man dressed as a giant furry animal or the loud speaker. The teams come out then swap round, people miss the ball, the scoreboard bares no resemblence to the game and yet no one takes the piss out of the man in the silly mask. The big screen was playing some MTV fodder so this kept me amused.

Torontonians are a friendly bunch but i guess wherever you go in the western world you still get shopping centres, parking problems, one way systems, trendy bars, British people, local listing guides and tramps, although there doesn't seem to be a ghetto in this city. I'll take it.

Niagra

Falls that is. We drove for several hours to the Canadian side of this marvellous spectacle (its right on the border you see). When we went on the Maid of the Mist, a boat ride around the falls, we had blue waterproofs where as the American side had rather sickly yellow ones. I took this as a good sign and then got promptly drenched by the force of umpteen gallons of water falling over a hundred feet. Despite this spectacle I still couldn't find any film for my polaroid so we ate and spilt.

Detroit

The Motor City. Motown. MC5. Soul. Ford Car Dynasty. The Stooges. Techno. Riots. Protests. The Supremes. Factories. Museums. Garage Rock Renaissance. So why is it shut????

Its a ghost town. We drove into the city centre at 6pm on a Friday and we had the whole road to ourselves. It was like tumble weed was gonna roll out across the next pedestrian crossing any minute. There were boarded up skysrapers, thats right not buildings, SKYSCRAPERS, and tall with broken windows. Parking was easy so we wondered round aimlessly. It appears as if all the white people have moved to the mall-ridden suburbs and taken their money with them.

But it had its charms. We visited the African-American History Museum and the Ford Automobile Museum but the best was the Science museum which had lots of interactive installations involving light and sound and magnets and stuff. Also we met some locals who seemed to be quite amazed by the fact that we were there. We ended up staying an extra day because we thought a band was playing the next night whose drummer we knew. Turned out to be a misprint. We could've been in Chicago by now.  ¶ Sunday, January 11, 2004

  Things that were good in 2003 in no particular order.

Film: Adaptation:

Not really a Nic Cage fan but this film had the genius scriptwriter of Being John Malkovich behind it, Charlie Kaufman. Indeed it is he, who is the central figure in a film that is at times as bizzare and quirky as its sister film. In one early scene we see Kaufman on the Malkovich set, hanging out with the actors, pontificating about his next project. This also means that John Cusack is (if only very briefly) in another great film. We are introduced to the world of Charlie's comic neurosis, as he fails with girls, gets writer's block and cowers in the shadow of his confident identical twin (also played by Cage) Its funny, touching and ends by mocking formulaic Hollywood dross which means its almost got everything a film should have.

Book: Paul Auster:

And rediscovering novels. After years of reading nothing more taxing then the sports section on the 38 bus, I have spent some time with a number of his books. They all explore common themes like relationships, families, traumas and writing but it is the quirky details that really interest. It indicates that there is always an element of himself in everything he writes. His books inhabit his own personal world where strange twists of fate take stories elsewhere. The New York Trilogy is recommended, a metaphysical thriller rife with historical allegries where as Timbuktu is about a dog.

TV: Six Feet Under

Not unlike an Auster novel. The best acting. The best characters. The best stories. The best thing on TV. Or is that The Sopranos?

Album: Rachel's, Systems/Layers

Rachel's make highly emotional and intimate music that wouldn't be out of place on a Michael Nyman soundtrack. They believe in traditional instruments, violins, cellos and pianos played with feeling over virtuosity. This gives the album many mood changes, sometimes just piano, then an ensemble piece rising to a beautiful climax, then a wall of strings, or even experimental field recordings of outside noises. Music for those long lonely winter nights.

Gig: Liars

A link to my friend Andrew's blog, with a review of this gig and many more  ¶ Thursday, January 01, 2004