The Internet is the greatest time-waster ever invented

I'm listening to Riccardo Muti conduct the Chicago Symphony doing Beethoven's 9th.

  Why?

Because it's there.

What the hell is up with Muti's haircut?

There's something to be said for orchestras. It's amazing how a hundred or more professional musicians, all of whom can actually read music, can hit the same note at the same time.

It's not hard to see why proper orchestras are constantly in dire financial straits. You have to pay all those musicians. Apparently in Chicago they're paid properly, and you're playing in front of a few thousand people.

Contrast that to a rock band. Four guys who may or may not read music, but in any event, it doesn't matter, because as long as they can stand up there in an arena in front of 20,000, and make stuff up and pretend they meant to do it (improvisation, I think it's called) everyone goes home happy.

Me and one of my ex-wives used to have season tickets to the TSO back in the Andrew Davis era. Had front row balcony chairs at stage right. It was the perfect night out. You'd head into town early, park under Roy Thomson Hall, and go have a leisurely dinner at Meyers Deli down the street, then head back for the show.

Our seats were strategically located so that at intermission, if I ducked out in the middle of the applause, I'd beat the line-up at the nearest bar, which was just up the steps and around the corner, and snag a couple of brandies before a crowd gathered. If I remember correctly, in those days you could even have a smoke indoors!

Anyway, Google has determined that I might like to check out Beethoven's 7th by the Royal Concertgebouw under Ivan Fischer...

I'm not so sure. I figure I'm pretty much Beethovened out and might like a little bit of Iggy and the Stooges instead.


Like I said... greatest timewaster ever invented.


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Food Truck Follies

My dear step-daughter Hanna called this evening. She called from the confines of a Toronto food truck.

She works in that food truck. She works in that food truck a year after graduating from York University with a Sociology degree.

Who says a Soc degree is a dead end?

Her boss Hoonan the Iranian runs a fleet of food trucks in Toronto. I think there's at least three in the fleet by now. Quite a lot of the time Hoonan's trucks require a tow to their destination.

I've always thought that makes them glorified hot-dog carts instead of "food trucks," but no matter.

The trucks all have very clever names.

The Rooster.

The Fig Leaf.

The Mustache.

Hoonan's employees just know them as Death Trap One, Death Trap Two, etc...

Today Hanna's truck apparently snagged a spot near Roy Thomson Hall.

It's almost 30 degrees Celsius outside; I shudder to think what the temperature is inside the food truck.

Hanna must be baked half to death!

But the reason she called wasn't because she's baked half to death. No, she called because she's worried about her Muslim assistant who is observing Ramadan. The poor kid doesn't even allow himself a drink of water during a ten hour shift in Death Trap One.

Hanna feels major guilt pangs for guzzling water in front of him all day long.

All I can say to Hanna is this; when you're trapped in a 45 C food truck for a ten hour shift during Ramadan, just be thankful you're a Jew and not a Muslim!


Thirty years ago we used to attend the Toronto Symphony on a semi-regular basis. We'd park under RTH and walk down the street to Meyer's Deli for a nice dinner.

I don't recall ever seeing a food truck in the neighbourhood.

Peter Munk's Midas touch is but a fading memory

You remember Mr. Munk. The guy who built Clairtone into an international brand and then bailed, leaving the shareholders holding the bag as the company went tits-up.

Munk had a number of resurrections and finally hit a homer with Barrick Gold, now the worlds biggest gold producer.

Also the world's most indebted gold producer. It has invested sums in its Pascua Lama mine in South America that are the equivalent of half the market cap of the company.

Speaking of market cap, it's about half of where it was a year ago.

And twice what it will be a year from now.

The pesky natives down there in South America just keep throwing up one roadblock after another. The latest setback was a $16 million fine levied on the company by the government of Chile, normally considered miner friendly.

You know you're in trouble when the friendlies are screwing you over.

Here on the home front Munk hasn't helped himself by underwriting foolishness like the "Munk Debates." These are the folks, loosely affiliated with the Munk Centre for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, who bring in "public intellectuals" for public debates.

Oddly enough, Toronto is so desperate to be seen as a "world-class city" that they can actually sell out Roy Thompson Hall for these debates.

When they had a debate about God, they hired in Tony Blair to speak for God.

Next week they've got Newt Gingrich coming in.

That's right; the Newtster. Public intellectual.

Stop laughing; tickets are sold out!

The joke is obviously on Toronto... and on Peter Munk.