Half way around the world, here at home.

With the current conflict ongoing between Gaza and Israel, York has been a-buzz with talk about it. Many students at the school are either from the area or have family from there. If you add in the fact that it’s primarily two religious nations fighting, and the diversity of the religious backgrounds at York, then a huge percentage of York students have something to say on the issue.

I suspect that with school starting again next week (what, I didn’t tell you?), then we might see even more graffiti like this around the school and the city.

Basement Sebastien

I found out about a free show at in the basement of Sonic Boom Records yesterday morning, featuring an in-store performance by Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains, a band that I’d been hoping to see for a while. Sebastien Grainger used to be part of the duo that was Death From Above 1979, a drums and mega-distorted bass sound that I really liked (here’s a link to a video of a performance they did on Conan O’Brien’s show a couple of years ago, featuring Max Weinberg on drums). Anyway, that band broke up, but Sebastien recently formed this new band, and I’d been listening to them for a few months.

The basement of Sonic Boom Records actually featured a small stage and pretty good sound. The organizers of the show were taking food bank donations and selling posters for charity, and aparently they have these in-store shows every other month or so. Hopefully I find out about the next show in time to go.

On a side note, this was the first time I shot in RAW mode on my camera. It let me get some great colours out of the pictures when I got home, and I’m definitely going to try it out again soon.

Strike ‘Art’

Upon walking into Vari Hall yesterday, the same place where I took this photo, I was greeted by this huge sheet of white paper taped to the wall, calling for people to take up a pen or marker and “express yourself”. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the “art” is almost entirely made up of hate speech. It does not surprise me that York’s ‘right-wing’ students are using this to make personal attacks against both the York Federation of Students and CUPE 3903, but it does disappoint me that they would do it in such an anonymous way.

Vari-ed Music

Vari Hall at York University can be a happening place. Rallies, protests, and campus groups all enjoy using the space to try to reach out to the student body because of the high-traffic nature of the building. The main hall also happens to be rounded, and thus provides excellent accoustics. As a result of this, it is not uncommon for musicians to set up and jam along the perimeter of the hall. They aren’t busking, but just using the space to its fullest.

The above picture is of a girl who frequently plays in Vari Hall. She can often be seen with another guy, and they play some really good music together. I saw them playing yesterday, and managed to get a picture.

Petition: 12%

This is Staci, one of my coworkers at the York Federation of Students. We’re currently trying to get students to sign petitions in which we ask for a 12% refund of our tuition fees. We based this on the fact that when we do (eventually) get back to school, our semesters will have to be condensed, leaving us with a total of 11 weeks in the fall semester and 11 weeks in the winter. This is a reduction of 3 weeks, or about 12%, so we’d like to get the money back.

We’ll see how that goes over the next few weeks.

Freecycle!

When we first moved to Toronto in September we were given two sets of lamps to help give some different types of light in the apartment. They worked fantastically for the first couple months we were here, but we soon needed something that suited us a little better.

I signed up for a group called Freecycle, and was able to find someone who came and picked them up from us. We’ve replaced those lamps with some nice black and white ones that we’re enjoying very much.

So call him… Tim.

While walking around downtown Toronto, I ended up chatting with Tim here from Amnesty International for a while. Nice guy. Very smart.

I kind felt bad that he had to stand around in the bitter cold for so long.

Walk Walk Walk Toronto

I was intending to head to Sneaky Dee’s to see some bands for the evening, but once I got there and realized that the show wouldn’t be starting until 10pm, I decided to change plans. With four bands on the bill, it would’ve been a really late night, and I probably would have had to miss some of the last band in order to catch the subway before it shut down for the night. It’s never enjoyable to be watching a band and have to check your watch between every song to check and see if you have enough time to stick around and listen to one more.

I walked down Spadina Street for a little while, just in case something more timely was going on. I didn’t find anything, but I did see this cool light outside a Chinese restauraunt in the China Town area.

In Which Tom Talks With Christians

These posters have been plastered around York for the past little while. It didn’t take long for me to realize that they aren’t advertisements for an agnostic or atheist group, or even some philosophy society, but are adverts for an event hosted by a Christian Society, where two philosophers will debate about the existence of “god”.

I ran into a guy named Steve wearing a “Does God Exist?” shirt who was giving away free coffee so I kicked up a quick conversation about what was going on.

I was dissapointed to learn that the debaters would only be discussing the existence of a god from a Christian viewpoint. My discussion continued for a little while, but I was able to stop myself before getting too arguementative. Good times.

Growing Some Green

My sister Katheryn gave me a Chia Tree for Christmas, and I planted it when Candice and I got back to Toronto. It took a while, and I was afraid I hadn’t set it up correctly, but over the past day or two a couple of sprouts have shown up. Hopefully more will come soon!