Pride, Day One

Personal Bits, political, Queer stuff, Toronto 3 Replies

Just back from Pride where just two hours ago they closed the streets and people are still streaming into the neighbourhood. The energy is building.

While waiting for BobaDoug, SharkBoy and I sat on the wall outside the 519 Community Centre, where we were entertained by a young, slightly high lesbian youth who wanted to know all about my Five Finger shoes. She and I eventually left the topic of shoes and got into a game of shouting “HAPPY CANADA DAY!!” at random people. SharkBoy was in stitches because, in true Torontonian fashion, when you yell a greeting at a stranger in this town they instantly put on this face of “Oh my god you are yelling at me and if I ignore you, you might disappear…”

Of course the slightly high lesbian youth would yell “Happy Cananaerrday!” and that made me laugh.

Regardless, here are some pics! Enjoy!

Howdy!

Let them eat Cake

The Bunny of Pride

Pickin'

Bal Cone

Dear Michael Bay

Celebs and Media 4 Replies

Hi Michael Bay!

I see you sent along a letter to projectionists around the world in preparation for your latest 3D spectacle “Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon”. Wonderful! I’m glad to see your micromanaging is exceeding your limits. It’s always nice to have a goal.

I love how you’ve taken up the sword in the defense of 3D movies and that you urge your fans to see your movie in the “best possible theatre” they can. I’m hoping this is because with your superior directing and editing skills, you’ve managed to cram that extra frame of action, that one more line of patriotic rhetoric, that added misogynistic/homophobic/racist joke —in 3D!. And we shouldn’t miss one second!

Yesterday SharkBoy and i spent 10 minutes watching Transformers 2: Cock Flapping In Our Faces and thought how terrible it must have been to create such a movie of sheer actionness, utter excitemaplosion, pure adrenalinacokewhoreness, and then have to come down after all that production work. We wondered aloud at what you might do in your off time. Do you stitch puppies together mouth-to-anus and watch them roam your property? Do you dress girls up like Meghan Fox and make them work on your car engines while encouraging them to continue with their stellar acting abilities into such ground breaking movies as Jonas Hex? Whatever you do I’m glad you don’t sit still for long! I can’t wait for your Ouija Movie!!

Anyway, just wanted to say Hi and keep up the eye-bleedingly shitty work.

Pride Tips for Out of Towners

political, Toronto 1 Reply

Hello potential visitors to one of North America’s largest Pride events! Welcome!

Just a quick note: I can’t really add anything new to my past tips: 2008 and 2009

Except there is this update: Last year I mentioned briefly that Torontonians have had their fill of political posturing due to a certain human rights group marching in the parade and getting other human rights groups upset about it. I said that if you meet a Torontonian, you should treat the subject of political posturing as a sore point.

This year, you’ll find we’re a bit more battered, but somehow, a lot more stronger. See we somehow managed to allow a red-necked, conservative mayor to take office (some blame the outer boroughs banding together to defeat the “downtown elitists”) and he’s making it very loud and clear that he thinks the LGBT community isn’t worth his political time. Our Mayor says he’s traditionally spending time with family at the cottage as he usually does (and parades his mom out in front of reporters to prove it) but can’t account for not showing up at any of the other events happening this week, including the flag raising ceremony at City Hall… just outside his office. Beyond the finger pointing and speculation and just how bad this looks on a Mayor to turn his back on one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world, let’s just say this might make things interesting between the LGBT community and City Hall. History (herstory?) has shown you never fuck with an angry drag queen.

With that in mind, when you meet up with a Torontonian the proper greeting is “I am sorry you are currently suffering through 4 years of ignorance and child-like intelligence within your city’s government.”

That should be it for new tips. You will have a great Pride this year because I think this whole “hate city hall” (of course, except for a certain few like Krisyin Wong-Tam, always a voice of reason – see the comment at the end of this article) thing might galvanize Pride back into something more political, like it was in the 70s and 80s.

Oh and one more thing: DO NOT EAT AT ANY OF THE CHURCH STREET SIT DOWN RESTAURANTS. You’ll lose an arm and a leg for a palmfull of fries!

Happy Pride!

RIDE ME!!

General 1 Reply


RIDE ME!!, originally uploaded by deadrobot.

I love the art at the bottom. It tells an entirely yet similar story unto itself.

Grape Soda

Distractions, General, You Magnificent Bastard Leave a reply

I’m getting my morning coffee at Starbucks with my camera bag slung over my shoulder. On the strap are two badges I got from my last trip to Disney. One is the Boba Fett “logo” that I was going to give to Sean but after learning he already had it, I deemed it cool too and slapped it on my camera bag.

The other is a faux safety pin holding a Grape Soda bottle top. The Disney/Pixar savvy will recognize it as the pin Carl wears in the movie “Up”, given to him by his first and only love. Start the waterworks, kids.

I’m interrupting this story here to share with you a Disney Wow Moment: While wandering the parks my pins were flying off my camera strap due to the little plastic clasps not holding onto the pin. When I slid my strap to take a picture, the Mickey-shaped backing would fly off and the pin would poke me in the chest. At one point I lost the backing entirely so I went to the nearest pin trading post and asked a Cast Memeber if she had any for sale. She offered to replace it for free, in a heartbeat. I laughed and said “This park will NEVER make any money with that attitude.” We talked about my problem and she suggested their Ikea-like solution: they sell a brass lug nut kind of system that tightens with an Allen Key onto the pin stem. Problem solved! I can whip my bag around without fear! And again, Disney wins over an already happy customer.

Anyway, so I’m waiting in line with these pins on my bag and the Barista spies my bag and says slowly: “Grrrraaaape. Sooooda…?” Obviously asking without asking.

“From the movie Up? It’s the pin…” I start.

“Oh I love that movie!” She exclaims. Then her face darkens. “Oh. That pin will make me cry…”

My job here is done.

Penny. Farthing.

Art, Distractions 3 Replies

Seriously, my brain is fried. Work is so piled up I come home and feel guilty for ignoring you, Dead Robot Heavy Industries.

So here is some pictures of Penny, Sean and Josh’s utterly wonderful dog. Ha! I made a dog fart joke with the title! I rock!

aArooooO

Slorp

Squweent!

Rolly

What does one tip…?

Robots, Tech, Travel 5 Replies

…a robo-porter?

August can’t get here  fast enough. I know. Summer not even here yet and I want it to be nearly over.

Only because I can’t wait for our supertravelfuntime trip. You might recall that in August, Sharkboy and I are hitting the west coast from LA to SanFran to do some Disney, some driving and some …er… more Disney. Anaheim for the Disney “D23” convention and a couple days in the park, then a nice slow drive up the coast and then almost a week in San Francisco where we’ll visit the Disney Family Museum.

I’m affectionately calling this trip: Ryokō Nippon. Purely because we’re staying in a couple really cool Japanese inspired boutique hotels. First we found the Tomo, where Japanese graphic designers went all kabuki on an old Best Western. Exciting! And yesterday my husband found the greatest hotel ever near the heart of NYC: Yotel. A boutique hotel with what looks like no humans involved with the operation of the building. No check in drones, no concierge and probably no maids (I bet the rooms are hosed down periodically like some produce department at your local grocery store).

There is, however, a porter. A ROBO PORTER! LOOK!!

You know I am going to try to cram MYSELF into that little tray for the night!

The Lion, The Switch And The Lowdown

Tech Leave a reply

Today I had to use a Vista machine at work. I know… it was horrible.

As I suffered through crappy UI, I found myself yearning for the upcoming Mac OS update, codenamed “Lion”. Apple boasts over 250 new features but there are 5 that stand out as being “insanely great”:

  1. Multi-Touch gestures. One step closer to Minority Report
  2. Launch Pad. Start apps on your Mac like it was an iPad
  3. Auto Save/ Version. Think “Time Machine” for your documents.
  4. Mission Control. Full control over everything going on.
  5. And Mail gets a freshening up with graphical “conversations”.

And Apple sweetens the deal by keeping the same low upgrade price of $29.

I’m dreading going back to that Vista machine tomorrow.