Taking down the establishment?

The windows are shaking. Brazil must have won today.

The party is seriously on in Corso Italia. It will be for the next few weeks. If you are Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Argentine, Mexican, Uruguayan, Paraguayan, Chilean, Honduran or Spanish please feel free to come to my hood for a visit when your team wins. You won't be sorry.

I went to a hella good concert on Sunday with Jimmy, tuneyards. She is one of the most entertaining and talented musician I've ever seen. At certain moments of the show I felt like I was at Ellen Degeneres' first attempt at music, and at other times I wondered when a rapper would join her onstage. Incredibly diverse songwriting, but with a very distinct sound.

Enjoy these gems and any live bootlegs you can find!





Your friend,

Ramk

L'été à Toronto.

An extra smooth slice of life for your ears and eyes. - Gandhi (maybe)

Ramk

Big Wheel kept on turning.

Some Canadian folklore I ran across recently:

Living a mere 6 miles from the center of the earth, they were creatures of habit, feeding on any bacteria that could withstand the pressure and heat of the environment. As their flesh ate through the molten rock in front of them, a steam filled fissure followed behind them.

Only one rogue specimen ventured out toward the crust.

When she broke through to the sunlight, no land dwellers noticed. The the energy that escaped her body thrust itself upon all of us.

The energy released at that moment will sustain us for a thousand years.

Imagine if we were still making up folk stories…

If I had a small child and didn’t want them to run across the street, I would probably make up some story about a streetcar driven by a ghost. The ghost would spend most of its time on one of the Ontario courthouses as a gargoyle or as a snake around someone’s neck. But, once in a while, it would commandeer a Queen streetcar and look for little children to hit. The story would end: “and that’s how your older brother that you never met died.”

I'm sure you can tell that my moustache is extra greasy today.

Ramk

Toll Booth Blues

Two short items in today's post.

1. Clever use of good weather:

- Run outside more. I don't go to the gym quite as often during the summer season. Running outside, especially on trails or uneven ground, is much healthier than running on treadmills. Plus, more people get to see you in your leotard.

2. Graveyard

Hold on to your hats. It's a hell of a ride.

Blue Soul

Thin Line

Right is Wrong

with love,
Ramk

Will I live?

"Molalatladi" by BLK JKS

Thanks to my man Tony for coming from a faraway land and bringing his musical taste with him.

Thanks to the gods for the weather in Upper Canada today.

- Ramk

The Best Evers

Oil is currently spilling upward into the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming rate. I don't necessarily identify as an environmentalist (I'm more of a feminist and socialist), but this is still a disturbing problem from my perspective. As a species, we may be killing ourselves with our own consumption.

I remember my grade 3 environmental economics class and the perfectly logical argument that the teacher would present to us: As we pollute our environment and begin to use up our non-regenerating natural resources, people will move their money into abatement technologies (in order to improve human health) and products made of recycled or reused materials (they'll be cheaper than products made of new material).

This is well and good and may be an accurate description of how humans react economically to changes in our natural environment. But, will this reaction save us when the end draws near?

What if we can't abate enough pollutants to save the most vulnerable? What if some of our natural resources don't have alternatives? I guess the answers are easy: the vulnerable die and the rest of us do without some of the products we have learned to enjoy.

I don't believe that we will wipe ourselves out, not completely anyways.  Sad truth, it's the poorest who will really suffer. They won't be able to protect themselves from pollutants in their air, land and water and will therefore pay the highest price for our poor treatment of the environment.

Those of us with good income and assets will likely be fine. We will be able to buy clean water, safe food and air filters.

I think we should be environmentalists not because our environment has any intrinsic value, but because the environment has such a high value to us. Our responsibility is to the world's most vulnerable people, not a stupid tree that pokes you in the eye when you aren't paying attention or a pathetic rosebush trying to protect itself from predators with those annoying little thorns. To hell with you, vegetation.

Maybe I should call myself an envirosocialist or tree hugging jebus.

Yours,

Ramk

The New State

I'll gain an extra life...