One of the things keeping this particular contributor busy over the last few months has been writing small commentaries for the Spacing Ottawa weblog. Today’s instalment focuses on the state and perception of the Ottawa Public Library‘s Main Branch. Libraries being yet another form of civic infrastructure, that infrastructure being Spacing Magazine’s main topic of…
Transit, Ages, the City and the Future – A Happy Ending
Sometimes, the song lyrics are proven wrong in a happy way: you not only get what you want, but it’s also exactly what you need. Case in point? This morning at Ottawa City Hall. The age limit on qualifying for student-rate bus passes is dead. To the last man and woman on city council, they…
Transit, Ages, the City and the Future
Seems a generic title, and it is. I grant you that right now. But there’s a point to the mundanity which we’ll get to right now: I spent this particular morning at Ottawa City Hall, watching the presentations to and deliberations of the city’s Transit Planning Committee. From Photos At issue this particular morning was…
Peacekeepers Day
Did you know that today was Peacekeepers Day? I’m sorry I got there just as the ceremonies were ending. What photos I was able to take in this link.
Just for fun…
The National Film Board’s celebrating its 70th Anniversary as best they can this year. That celebration includes an outdoor display in front of the Conference Centre. And it includes a still shot from my all-time personal favourite short cartoon produced by any outfit on the planet: “The Cat Came Back”.
Trudeau Stories: An Open Letter to the Author-Performer
Brooke, I went to see your show at the National Arts Centre tonight while it was in town as part of the Magnetic North Festival. Wanted very much to stick around for the Q & A session afterwards, but misunderstood what time it was by the time the show itself ended. Thus, my hasty –…
Some Urban Thoughts
Maybe I’m not making sense yet here. Today in the Toronto Star‘s print edition is a map of Toronto’s neighbourhoods as envisioned by the staff of the paper with input – said input is still in progress and will be for some time – from the readership at large. An interesting exercise for me to…
CD Review: APlotAgainstMe – Deuce
It’s ironic that Ottawa’s APlotAgainstMe has christened their new album Deuce, as it perfectly describes what to expect: an album with two distinctive appearances. Deuce is an independent release by the hard rock group and features ten tracks which are dark and intense, and are reminiscent of material produced by Tool, Marilyn Manson and Metallica.…
Ottawa Transit: Subways Ahead?
Some of you will already be aware of the troubles we’ve faced in Ottawa in the course of expanding OC Transpo‘s light rail component. We’ve had at least one proposal get right up to the point of putting shovels in the ground…and then we got a sort of whiplash thanks to the election of Larry…
Ottawa Bookstore Crawl: Aftermath
In case anyone wondered: It lasted two hours. Four people aside from myself showed up. We managed about 5-6 different bookstores from Elgin Street to Bank Street before the party broke up. We never got to the bookstores in the Byward Market(and there are a few good ones scattered across that neighbourhood awaiting the interested).…