Bullfrog Power are going to stop issuing their own bills, and go through the local utility. Though I understand it is a bunch cheaper to get Toronto Hydro to do it, I’ll miss getting my bills with a stamp affixed.
Hmm, now that I have a smart meter, does that mean I can access the metering information? Bullfrog doesn’t do time-of-use (yet), but the stats would delight this nerd.
Robyn Hitchcock had his blue Fender Telecaster stolen in Toronto on Tuesday. For last night’s show he managed to borrow Barenaked Lady Stephen Paige’s black Tele.
I also suspect that his Fylde acoustic was stolen too. He was playing a small-bodied acoustic last night.
Mean people suck.
I really think that Ken Reaume‘s Four Horses could be my best album of the year. It’s been on repeat play all day.
And yes, he does work in Penguin Music.
All our usual restaurants were busy, so we stopped at El Pulgarcito at 1210 Kennedy Rd. I’d never had pupusas before; these little filled maize pancakes are the best. We’ll be back.
We got our smart meter installed today. Unfortunately, Catherine didn’t quite understand why there was a knock on the door, then her computer went beeeeyyooooww … then all our clocks caught the <blink> tag.
While I like smart meters, this one isn’t quite as smart as it could be. To me, a smart meter needs to have a big display of your current demand, and needs to be inscribed with a suitable message like “Quit using so much juice, you cretin!” It also needs to hook into local time-of-use pricing, which me being green and a Bullfrog customer and all, I don’t get to take part in. Boo.
But what could have really gone sideways was my own desktop, which was quietly chugging away installing Ubuntu 7.10. Since I started using Linux in 1995, I don’t think I’ve ever had a system upgrade go totally smoothly. This time, though, I was lucky – the system must have fully initialised before we lost power.
I can’t honestly say I see any difference between Feisty Fawn and Gutsy Gibbon; they both are fairly pretty, and just work.
We saw The Wailin’ Jennies at Hugh’s Room last night. As ever, their harmonies were beautiful, but what amazed me was their one piece in unison. They were so close that it didn’t just seem to be the one breath, but as one heartbeat. Wonderful stuff.
Whoa, the Camp Combo rocked Mitzi’s Sister – in fact, they are still rocking it, as I had to head back home.
Nichol brought his enormous Leslie speaker which added to the ‘jazzeh’ sound of the evening. It was worth lugging it down.
Update: Fred Spek was kind enough to let me post the recording online:
Fred Spek’s Camp Combo – Mitzi’s Sister, Toronto – 2007-10-16 (early set).
“It looks like Lite Brite”, said Catherine.
Around Toronto today, I saw three Lamborghinis and five Ferraris. I think I saw fewer SmartCars, so as usual, smarts are in shorter supply than muscle.
I just heard some music by Ken Reaume – and I need to hear a lot more.
I finally got to see Thomas Dolby play live last night. A real brass section (the Jazz Mafia Horns) really added to Thomas’s all-electronic sound. Good show!
We saw The Aliens at Lee’s Palace last night. Shame the place was only half full (have people really forgotten about The Beta Band?), but it was a great show. They’re really high-energy live. Gordon has big hair!
Yesterday Toronto Monthly Meeting approved my request to have white poppies at the meeting house this year.
Downtown, many people are carrying potted plants. I wonder why?
Who are these plant people? What is their mission?
We had a wildlife day today. At breakfast, we had a large raccoon amble across the deck. At lunchtime when I was setting up the grill, this large hawk was looming above me:
What alerted me was the skrrt, skrrt of it rubbing its beak on the aerial, as in the last picture. Once it had finished gnawing on its recently deceased dinner, it sat about for a bit (quite literally fed up) seeming unperturbed by me sticking a big ol’ lens at it. But then, if you had Leatherman tools for hands and tin-snips for a face, you wouldn’t be worried about anyone trying to mess with you either.
An old open-top Routemaster tour bus turned past me onto Bay today. The diesel smell and the distinctive bogla bogla groom! as it pulled away reminded me of UK public transport.
The city decided to change its trash collection today, and most of our street (us included) didn’t know. We all got little yellow snarky notes saying that it was the wrong day. As I’ve never got one before when I mistakenly put out the wrong kind on the wrong day, they must’ve been expecting this.
The city really should’ve waited until next month, when last year’s trash calendars would have run out. As is, the reaccoons are going to have a banquet tonight on everyone’s trash at the curbside.
