The pits…
CBC employees in both Toronto and Vancouver are on the brink... but not in the way you think.
Massive construction projects are underway in both locations. In Vancouver, a huge redevelopment project is underway. CBC sold its staff parking lot for $34 million, so a developer can build two highrises "on a TV theme", including a promenade that lets the tourists stare in at the newsroom workers beaving away. Live webcam image below:
There are some great Flickr pix of the construction also online.
Here in Toronto, construction has begun on the RBC Centre, the first of two massive buildings that cozy up to the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (as blogged here earlier.) I've created my own Flickr set for this construction, since it'll be inconveniencing me until 2010.
The paranoid among us might have nightmares that one day some unsupportive government might opt to simply shove both buildings into these deep holes, throw a shovelful of dirt on them and get rid of the public broadcaster forever. But that'd be crazy. We have a proud tradition of a death by a thousand cuts to uphold.
I must admit to having such impure thoughts twice in the past, however. Back in the early nineties, when I started here, I had pause to wonder when the broadcasting centre was surrounded by a fleet of mobile shredding trucks marked "Shred It." (Wish I'd taken a photo... CBC Watch would have loved that one.)
And another time, the north side of the building was completely redecorated as an American TV station for the filming of a Tom Arnold movie. Approaching the building from the subway, all you could see was signage for a (fictional) private network, leaving employees to wonder if they'd been privatized while they slept.
I should probably just relax. Still, it's hard not to gaze into the abyss.
On a related note, we just received word that there will also be a massive interior construction project at the Toronto Broadcasting Centre.
More on that shortly...
Commuting by Numbers
Sometimes when I'm commuting to and from work, and the streetcar is so packed I that I can't read, I just count stuff. Schools, traffic lights, crazy people, whatever - it helps pass the time.
I thought it might be interesting to blog the list, so here it is thus far. There will no doubt be more counting coming eventually - and not just from me. I've challenged some of my fellow bloggers in other parts of Canada to do the same. The regional comparisons might be rather interesting.
And of course, I'd love to hear from you! Count up something from this list on your own commute - or make your own categories. Let me know, and I'll count them. Here we go:
Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar
Billboards: 36 (48/hr)
Neon signs: 48 (64/hr) [pictures]
Poster-type ads: 291 (388/hr)
Public art installations: 16 (21.3/hr)
Indian restaurants: 4 (5.3/hr)
Pizza places: 9 (12/hr)
Coffee shops: 19 (25.3/hr)
Condos under construction: 14 (18.7/hr)
Cows: 0 (0/hr)
Parks: 9 (12/hr)
Really hot women: 21 (28/hr)
Panhandlers: 3 (4/hr)
Churches: 7 (9.3/hr)
Strip clubs: 1 (1.3/hr)
Street cars: 17 (22.7/hr)
Car dealers: 4 (5.3/hr)
Gas stations: 0 (0/hr)
Traffic lights: 14 (18.7/hr)
If you really care what my criteria were for what constitutes a park or a hot woman, I can tell you, but I don't think it matters much. [For the record: A park had to have some trees and enough grass to play frisbee on. Counting women is embarrassingly crass, and explaining what I consider hot would only make things worse. Use your imagination.]
So, there's round one. I'm awaiting results from the ragtag fugitive fleet of bloggers I've challenged to do likewise: Sinister Dan in New Brunswick, MC in Southern Ontario, Joe in the 'burbs, Tod in Vancouver. John in Newfoundland informed me that a St. John's "commute" takes five minutes (but 20 in "rush hour") so he's off the hook.
How about you? Anyone else love to count?
Not in time for the holidays
Here's one reason I'm glad I didn't buy a condo or townhome that's under construction.
Occupancy: DECEMBER 2006
Whaddya think? Looks about a week away from move-in, no?
Babewatch
Am I the only one who snickers to note that our local strip club is located on Broadview Avenue?
The street art on the sidewalk is similarly amusing. The four corners of Broadview and Queen E. are inlaid with steel equations, part of Eldon Garnet's "Time: And a clock" series that runs from the Don River to Empire Ave.
The sidewalk outside Jilly's just happens to have the one that says "Time is money : Money is time".
How the other 1/1000th live
Today CBC staff got a chance to walk through the model suite for the new Ritz-Carlton skyscraper soon to be built next door to the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto.
It was an interesting opportunity, since the sales centre is not generally open to riff-raff like you and me. Plus, gorgeous as it is, they're going to bulldoze the thing next week to make way for construction in January 2007.
And it's not like I'll be living there when it opens in 2010. The units start at close to a million bucks for the smallest condo (which is still about the size of my Leslieville house) and can run ten times that for the 10,000 square foot penthouse. There will be restaurants and a spa open to the public, but no underground connection. Once it opens I expect people like me will repelled by force fields, or tasered for even looking up at the building.
Which will be quite daunting, actually - the south side is catilevered outward ("toward the lake"). So if you ever look up at a skyscraper and feel it's toppling on you, this one will really freak you out.
Up at the very top (both elevation and socio-economic) the penthouse is still available, but they've already sold half of the condo units which make up the top half of the building. There's money to burn somewhere, obviously - some of it in Singapore, where a sales office for the building was also set up.
The interior was stunningly appointed, of course, with marble everywhere, floor to ceiling windows, and so on. It's gorgeous, but a little hard to wrap your head around... the "woman's closet" is the size of my "master bedroom", and if I sold all my RRSPs, I could buy a parking spot ($45,000)
So, this may be as close as any CBC employee gets to the Ritz-Carlton. However, the R-C will be getting close to us - we'll soon permanently lose the patio outside Ooh La La, and the informal motorcycle parking there. They're shifting around some east side bike racks, too.
Anyhow, it was nice to step out of the rain and momentarily (after they checked my ID) imagine life as a super-rich. The event was billed as "Meet the new neighbours," and I'm glad I did. It may be the only day they'll want to meet me.
Loading ...…and Die-ee?
The new Starbucks may be getting all the buzz, but this new-ish coffee shop on my stretch of Queen St. E. has the ballsiest name.
I love it!
Their organic coffee and fresh-baked muffins are pretty darned good, too. And their menu lists something called "The All-Butter Butter Tart"... mmmmmm.
Quiet moment
This afternoon I took advantage of a little-used perk of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre: The Graham Spry Theatre.
The 30-seat theatre is located right beside the CBC Museum, and frequently runs "sneak peaks" of upcoming CBC and Newsworld programs (usually documentaries.) These shows play on the enormous screen on a continuous loop all day long.
As usual, the theatre was empty. I sat down (I imagine the seat you choose in an empty theatre says something about you, psychologically...) and spent a delightful 10 minutes with a coffee and a documentary.
Today's flick was "Call of the Wild", about a Scot named Guy Grieve who leaves his family and office job in Edinburgh to live alone in an Alaskan log cabin for a year.
It was at times funny and alarming - there are more than a few hints of The Shining as he talks to his dog and his handycam in the dark. It was moving, too - Grieve watches a video of his sons opening their Christmas presents in his absense, then discovers what happens when a sled dog tries to have puppies in isolated, -50 degree conditions. "Triste," said the one other person who popped into in the theatre.
The show airs tonight at 10:00 on CBC Newsworld.
Now, I sure as hell wouldn't spend a year alone in a cabin, but I did appreciate the moment of calm in the middle of an urban work day - and the film only enhanced the feeling.
Perhaps tomorrow I'll drop into the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church next door on Simcoe St. - for years I've seen the sign that says, "Drop in and find a quiet moment", but I've never taken them up on the offer.
Beck’s Bling
I noticed this oddity on my way to work today: Sir Adam Beck sporting bling!
The statue of Beck was erected in 1934 at the intersection of Queen & University. I have no idea who decked out Beck (Buck?) with the classic dollar sign chain, but it was visible enough to cause me to get off my streetcar a two stops early.
(Again, apologies for the crappy Palm photo - wife has the digital camera today. For a nice photo of the statue sans bling, try here.)
For those who don't know, here's the Wiki on Beck: "Sir Adam Beck, (June 20, 1857 – August 15, 1925) was a politician and hydro-electricity advocate who founded the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario."
Beck's name also graces the giant hydroelectric stations at Niagara Falls, as well as the gigantic Niagara Tunnel Boring Machine that is currently tunneling under the city of Niagara Falls. It's known as "Big Becky". And there's an interesting story that came out today about Beck's original "electric circus": a 1912 demonstration of electricity in farming.
But why the bling? It it a protest against rising hydro rates? Is he dressed up for the film festival? Pimpin'?
Dunno. But now, unfortunately, I have to get back to my own "boring machine."
Lantern Festival
This is really just a test - I'm figuring out how to blog photos from Flickr. A couple of days ago, I took my family to the Rogers Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place. And I must say, it was spectacular. A little pricey, but well worth the trip (particularly if you have kids.) I've uploaded plenty of photos to that Flickr account I keep pimping.
The perfect storm… description
My two-year-old daughter Grace this morning, telling her grampa about last night's storm:
The thunder was like dogs barking.
And growling.
Big dogs.The lightning was like the clouds turning on and off.
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