Thursday’s headlines

12 comments

1. I agree about the new street furntiture placements…they are often terrible.

   One of the worst is a new garbage bin outside Royal York subway station…they put it right in the middle of where people walk!! (sorry, I have no photo)

   It should have gone right behind the subway station sign pole. Can they be petitioned to get relocated to more sensible locations?

2. re: Night time is the right time. Shawn, the indie-rock crowd loves to dance. Surely you know this. Impossible that you don’t. They might not dance at shows (a badly over-rated activity anyway), but they definitely dance at parties. Toronto has more indie-rock dance parties than any city in North America, if not the world. It’s one of the salient features of our music scene.

   (When I moved to New York, I was sorely disappointed by the absence of anything remotely comparable. In New York, indie-rockers might start swaying rhythmically to the music by their 4th or 5th drink, but they don’t go out with the intention to dance. There is nothing like Big Primpin’, Goin’ Steady, Fuckfaces, et al. In this regard, Toronto kills New York.).

   Speaking of New York, it would be great if an article about contemporary Toronto nightlife could avoid slavish references to New York nightlife in the 1970’s. What does Studio 54 have to do with anything, except as an exhausted image of what nightlife is?

   And finally, what exactly are the “legitimate” concerns of the Clubland residents’ associations? The “relentlessly untucked” shirts of nightclub patrons? (Relentlessly untucked! I love it. So utterly meaningless, yet loaded with condescension). As you point out, the clubs were there before the condos – indeed, without the clubs, there would be no condos – so anyone in these condos knew what they were getting into. If you don’t want to live near a nightclub, don’t buy a condo in the middle of Clubland. Otherwise, just shut up, untuck your shirt, and go dancing.

3. Mike> The modern discotheque experience was invented in NYC in the 1970s, and writers like Lebowitz created the language to describe it, so to avoid referencing the era or its canonical writers is to be slavishly loyal to a weird Toronto provincialism that prevents any mention of NYC even when appropriate.

   I invite you to stand on the corner of Peter and Richmond for 15 minutes one weekend night and see if there are not legitimate concerns down there. The residents are simply the ones articulating it now. I’ve argued here on Spacing with Kevin Bracken (of Newmindspace) before about exactly this — he sees any limit on nightclubs as a Giuliani-esque clampdown — but by giving blanket support to everything in clubland, that supports the near-violent (sometimes actually violent), often homophobic, misogynistic wild-west environment down there — along with the good stuff that happens there that Toronto needs, which undermines arguments to ensure that stays . At the same time, as I mention in the piece, the condo associations etc often sound like a temperance society, going too far, like people who move near the airport and complain about the planes. Balance, is what’s needed, is all.

   As for Big Primpin’ et al, those are discotheques. They may have indie rock followers there, but they function just like the clubs in clubland do.

4. re: the John Barber article. He’s a curmudgeon, and can be a bitter one at that, but this missive is dead on. There’s absolutely no way the Smitherman or Dalty could have been surprised about the request for provincial funding for the streetcar replacement (Queen’s Park is on the 506 for chrissakes!). Their condescending talk about “priorities” is totally disingenuous.

5. Also this editorial in The Sun, re: streetcars.

   http://www.torontosun.com/comment/editorial/2009/04/30/9296986-sun.html

6. New bus shelters are falling apart!!!!! On the weekend rumor has it that 20+ shelters (NEW) had major failures with the glass and structures. Also several people (children) were injured while waiting inside a new shelter. Dad is not happy. and….. The garbage cans are also being damaged easily. I have found several that no longer work and witnessed children using the foot peddles to bounce off. Another potential injury lawsuit awaits the geniuses at Astral……TBC..

7. Any pics of the damaged shelters?

8. No it’s still hush hush…..

9. Shawn> Who you calling “provincial”?!? That’s the third worst insult one Torontonian can hurl at another (after “racist” and “homophobe”). That hurts, dude.

   “The modern discoteque experience was invented in NYC in the 1970’s”. No. France invented it in the 1940’s (hence the French name). You have fallen in the Saturday Night Fever trap. Very provincial of you.

   Says who Fran L. is “canonial”? There’s no canon of nightlife writers. There may be a canon of 70’s-NEW YORK-nightlife writers, but again, the idea that some ancient text from the Metropole can tell us about ourselves is very, very provincial.

   I’ll be glad to stand at Peter and Richmond this weekend (I find it invigorating)…if you’ll be glad to stand at, oh, let’s say Major Mac and Dufferin trying to have a good time on Saturday night. Maybe then you’ll have a little sympathy for those who “invade” Clubland every weekend. (Invade! Hyperbole again. No one’s storming Richmond St. in search of a Bud Light. They’re just young folks looking for fun and sex.)

   I agree with Mr. Bracken: we already have MANY limits on nightlife (most egregiously our embarassing 2am last call). We don’t need more.

   What about all the Homophobia, Misogyny, and Violence in Clubland? Sounds terrifying, but maybe you just need a moment in the Chill Out Room. No doubt there are goofs who yell “fag!” “pussy!” and “what? what?” at passersby, but so what? That’s life in the Big City. Don’t conflate minor social annoyances with a major social ills. It’s extremely provincial.

   As for your final As for: megawrong. Big Primpin’ et al. are NOT discoteques, they’re parties, and they most certainly DO NOT function “just like the clubs in Clubland do”. Although these parties are diverse in their playlists, venues and clienteles, they are united in COMPLETE OPPOSITION to Clubland and its ilk. I invite you to go to one this weekend and discover the difference. Be sure to bring your Lebowitz.

10. This man, Mike W, needs his own manifesto for Toronto nightlife that avoids any reference to anything ever written about nightlife and it appears, anything resembling Toronto. “In complete opposition” — maybe under the influence of ecstasy, but otherwise, it’s all just places to Dance, “dude”. All the same, all good.

11. The people commenting on the Scum’s article are even dumber than ususal. Here is my comment to that article:

    Wow, do you people even listen to yourselves anymore? You don’t even read the article, you simply come on here and yell out cliched remarks on how ‘Miller sucks, unions suck, etc.’ Even when the Sun produces a somewhat intelligent article (such as this one), most of you retreat back to your idiotic statements because its content is too much for your single digit IQs.

    First, this project and its expected funding has been very transparent. If the province had issues with what Toronto wanted, then they could have said something before hand. Second, this project DOES qualify for stimulus money, and meets all the criteria to receive it.

    If you read the article, you would know these facts.

    (I wanted to post more, but had hit my character limit)

12. Most of damaged shelters are located in the area around Yonge and Eglinton area.