Author: scruss

torrent: Circulatory System – Lee’s Palace, Toronto – 13 April 2003

http://www.easytree.org/torrents-details.php?id=12198

Circulatory System
Lee’s Palace, Toronto
13 April 2003

Audience recording by Stewart C. Russell
Sony ECM-909A microphone
-> Sharp MD-SR60 minidisc
-> analogue PC soundcard.

Tracks split with Audacity, normalized with ‘normalize’.
Compressed with ‘flac –best’
288 megabytes.

Track List:

1 Yesterday’s World
2 Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
3 [door/days]
4 Joy
5 Round
6 The Lovely Universe
7 Diary of Wood
8 Outside Blasts
9 [now]

— Pause to repair Will’s guitar —

10 Lately/Realize
11 Days To Come (In Photographs)
12 Waves of Bark & Light
13 Away

Track names in [square brackets] are unclear from the recording, and are from the (still) upcoming album

They’ll turn white soon enough

So everyone’s getting these red-centred quarters in their change from Tim Hortons:

Canadian Poppy Quarter 2004

They’re apparently the world’s first bicolour coin. The red in the middle has already started to look very distressed , ‘cos everyone’s scratching them to see if the colour comes off. And it does.

If Canada were really serious about peace, they’d have made the coin like this:

Improved Canadian Poppy Quarter 2004

… like the white remembrance poppies I used to get from the Peace Pledge Union in the UK.

big win for Ontario Renewables

From the resolutions from the upcoming Ontario Liberal Party Conference:

Be it resolved that the Government of Ontario encourage the use of renewable energy by implementing Advanced Renewable Tariffs that will allow distributed solar, small hydro, or wind energy to be established by farmers, co-ops, and locally owned enterprises and to be able to market this energy on the provincial grid.

Be it further resolved that the Government of Ontario make a subsidy available for the purchase and installation of all major Green” technologies which can be utilized to provide energy for residential dwellings, offices businesses and industry (products such as geothermal heat systems, solar-assisted hot water heaters, heat pumps, small-scale wind generators, net metering equipment, etc.).

I think we have Paul Gipe to thank for that.

Stewart’s Quest for the Sensible Bicycle

A trip to the Toronto Islands yesterday got me thinking about the perfect bicycle for me — and why nobody makes it.

In Scotland I had nearly the perfect bike. It was a ridiculously solid Pashley delivery bike. It had huge heavy steel wheels, full-length mudguards, hub brakes, hub gears, and a dynamo (generator) lighting set. It took minimal maintenance, and didn’t require special clothes to ride it.

The mountain bike, though promising so much to utility cycling at its birth 20 years ago, is failing to deliver. Complex suspension systems and derailleur gears make maintenance difficult, and so users seldom do. The complete lack of chainguards and mudguards mean that riders have to wear different clothes just to be on the bike. Can you image a car trying to sell itself by requiring special clothes just to travel in it?

So this is what I want from a bike:

  • Fully enclosed chain — I don’t want my drivetrain anywhere near road grit. Neither do I want my trousers to meet chain grease.
  • Full mudguards — I don’t get mucky, riders behind me don’t get mucky. We all win.
  • Hub gears — once you’ve used them, you’ll never consider anything else for utility cycling.
  • Dynamo lights — with a standlight, for preference. I don’t like getting stranded without lights.
  • Proper carriers — riding wearing a rucksack is bad and wrong.
  • Anything but rim brakes — why do we still use these relics? Hub brakes work in all weathers, and seldom, if ever, need maintenance.

You’ll notice the conspicuous absence of suspension. Good tyres, at the right pressure, are great suspension. They are also light and very puncture proof, if you know how and where to ride.

We’re not all athletes. Some of us would just like to incorporate exercise and sustainable local transit in our daily routine, with the minimum of hassle.

So who comes close to making these bikes? Pashley still do, but they’re murderously expensive in Canada. Workbike manufacturers Worksman and Mohawk almost do, but they’re short on mudguards and chainguards. Kronan is nearly there, but why they only have one brake (a rear coaster, which is terribly inefficient) is beyond me. Maybe I’ll find an importer of Dutch bikes. My search continues …

bagel

Smiley Bagel
I made bagels this morning. We just ate them. Yum.