Bonus Blog Summer Sofa Surfing Sidewalk Styles · Thursday August 20, 2009 by colin newell
Have been meaning to rant on this for a long while…
It all started with a sofa on the sidewalk.
Which in wet Victoria B.C. Canada comes as something of a surprise.
Discarded stuff. For some reason we live in a city with residents that feel that garbage self-disposes. Hell, we dump raw sewage into the strait of Juan de Fuca so dumping our sofas on the boulevard is not that much of a stretch. I guess they think the rain will flush it away.
But I have been seeing more shite on the sidewalks lately.
- Old televisions. Big ones at that.
- Computer monitors. Yep. CRT ones. No surprise here.
- Microwave ovens. Seeing a trend here?
- Coffee makers. Say’s it not so.
Lately I have been seeing a veritable Potpourri of detritus (Hey Cheryl!) on our city streets that seem to include…
- Children’s toys – they grow up so fast.
- Booster seats – as above
- Strollers – again, I hope the kids are OK
So. For residents of Victoria B.C Canada, I ask you: What is up with all the sidewalk refuse?
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Summer Food Fun and Drink - Readers digest rants Canada · Tuesday August 18, 2009 by colin newell
Seniors in Canada fear three things.
Alzheimers.
Dimentia.
and unwanted Readers Digest books and products, like overpriced CD’s and knick-knacks… many of which they insist they did not order.
A local Canadian post office claims that 15% of their daily work is returning unwanted and overpriced budget quality books sold by Readers Digest at an utterly outrageous price.
But there is comeuppance on the horizon folks. And the schadenfreude comes in the form of news that Reader’s Digest International is applying for bankruptcy protection.
What? Could not sell enough shit books to confused seniors?
Senior secured lenders will exchange a “substantial portion” of $1.6 billion in debt for equity, the publisher said today in a statement. Some of them will provide a $150 million bankruptcy loan, debtor-in-possession financing, to ensure the company has enough liquidity during its reorganization.
Gee. Does that mean that my dear old (now hospitalized) Aunt does not owe $800 Canadian for 12 of your shitty books and CD’s?
Here is hoping.
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British Columbia mini-rant - Deer at the dinner table · Wednesday August 12, 2009 by colin newell
A Ucluelet woman has been ordered by the Ministry of Environment to stop keeping a black-tailed deer as a house pet.
Janet Schwartz took in “Bimbo” as a fawn five years ago, after its mother was killed by a car, she told CBC News.
The doe sleeps in a bed in Schwartz’s home, dances to Elvis, hugs like an old man and eats at her table. Its diet includes fruit and junk food.
The blue meanies at the Ministry of the Environment say that the Doe has got to go.
Bimbo has been with Ms. Schwartz for almost 6 years now…
so, In B.C. this is a legally binding common law relationship.
I say leave the couple alone.
And isn’t it funny that a government that behaves like an obsequious old house-elf from Harry Potter towards every little ache and pain from the likes of VANOC – bares their teeth at a little old lady and her live in venison.
Shame. Shame I say, shame!
A government that is now less popular than swine flu and less credible than the RCMP can ill afford to be smacking around old hippies and their hoofers.
So back off already… before we call in the rest of the herd.
Summer Food Fun and Drink - why Ikea sucks · Tuesday August 11, 2009 by colin newell
Ikea. Junk furniture made with unsustainable materials manufactured and collated by exploited workers so we can have dilapidated and readily disposable crap in our shrinking living space.
Ikea is in the hot seat this month after being caught vandalizing hundreds of pieces of public and private property. Picture at upper-right: Unreal.
Given that IKEA’s environmental stewardship is more global wrecking ball than actual contributor to real solutions, their recent botched ad campaign seems entirely apropos – Corporate guerrilla art it’s called. They spray-paint (vandalize) public space in the name of corporate kitsch and coolness – and it bites.
Ikea. You stink and it ain’t the reek of laminate.
IKEA—third largest global consumer of wood— gets many of its raw materials from regions where illegal logging is rampant and environmental stewardship is as absent as your parents on your first big night out. IKEA’s wares, and the industrial location of its big-box stores (consumers have to travel by car to make their purchases, or even exchange faulty small parts), speak to a unfailing disregard for environmental consideration.
The hoo-haw around Ikea’s use of “chalk spray” graffiti to complement a TV ad campaign aimed at driving viewers to a website where they could enter a contest to win $15,000 worth of furniture – has caused them to back peddle faster than a RCMP officer at a taser inquiry.
The ads featured a yellow dotted line framing the slogan “Any Place Can Be Beautiful,” a website of the same name and “Aug. 10,” the date Ikea plans to deliver 5.5 million flyers to Canadian homes.
Although I have never been a fan of the crap that they sell, I am now even more resolved to never set foot in one of their soul crushing retail outlets. Shame on Ikea for stealing our public space and branding it for commercial gain.
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