For some strange reason people continue to submit photos to the TCL Flickr group despite the fact that it’s been mothballed for months now. I drop by every couple of weeks and there are ten to thirteen new photos awaiting approval — for only who knows how long. Weeping inconsolably, usually.

I feel like such a jerk.

Well, why not at least show off a few good ones, huh? It’s what the photographers were expecting when they joined my neglectful outfit.

So here’s the first of whatever (and whenever) I dig out the group pool. I believe this is that roller derby league I’ve seen plastered on every light pole around town.

E-ville Dead by –nikon–

Regional transit and brooding days seem to go hand in hand for me. Here’s another example from yesterday: me going to meet family to celebrate a birthday out west. Way out west. The flipbook movie is about 13 minutes long (out of a 40 minute trip to Oakville), so give it some time to load. Maybe this is a good time to call your mum?

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Zach’s post about the G20 kinda freaked me out a bit. Not about the clampdown on the city or anything, I think that’ll be a riot. My main concern is the volume of simultaneous stuff that’ll be happening, and the lack of bodies to attend. Last year I got a request to cover Caribana so I spent the whole day wriggling through a million people in the blistering heat. I had to miss about three other things that day, three things within my highly limited scope of “what’s happening”.

This year the city’s shipping in Euro-crazies for the summer, doing a mayoral throw-down, plus all the other usual seasonal stuff that’s supposed to happen. It’s all a bit overwhelming.

One day at a time.

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Have you noticed any changes around here lately, dear reader? I’ve slowly been sneaking stuff onto the site…that TwitPic flip book at the top of the front page, TCLand (current to August 2009, but now there’s Caribana :( ), TCL by Month, the Tumblr site for picture junkies (occasionally with exclusive stuff), various shuffles, re/moves, and additions.

And I’ve added paid advertising. For realsies this time. It’s high time I try to do this thing fulltime because, if I may be honest, a year and a half in I love this blogging thing more than my first day. I entirely agree with most ad networks’ policies that I shouldn’t be asking you to click on any ads. It’s crass, a justifiable reason to get booted off the ad network, and you being the intelligent person you are make the sole and conscious decision to interact with any advertising that appears on this site. I wouldn’t insult you like that.

In order to be entirely transparent about my reasoning behind this effort, you should understand that any revenue that TCL generates goes directly toward helping me pay rent, eat, pay for hosting fees, and all that other stuff that requires money.

Generally speaking, revenue on sites and blogs is generated through the sale of ads, many of which pay when they’re occasionally clicked on. In effect, a a simple click on an ad ends up, via various channels, supporting the site on which it appears. In a very indirect way, the site that loads when a viewer clicks is providing financial assistance to the site carrying the ad. I like to think of this as the credits at the end of a PBS program. Hope you find this information useful.

So yes, I’m selling ad space and I’m getting something together where folks can actually invest in the blog — the idea is for these investments to accrue in value over time (if you believe TCL will accrue value over time, that is), and I’m going to try to get prices down to as low as a buck a pop — $1 – so it might be affordable for you too. I’ll explain how it works later, hopefully it’ll make so much sense that it’ll make your head explode.

But wait, there’s more!

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Thanks to an astute twitterer for this gem.

The general consensus on this seems to be: when it gets its own Ministry of Silly Walks.

The fact that is was cloudy and kinda misty and foggy on Saturday was so apropos.

That little pot rally that happened at Yonge-Dundas Square about a week ago was basically just practice for the main event, the Global Marijuana March and Freedom Festival. The point of the march, as far as I can fathom it, is to demonstrate the futility of existing pot prohibitions. It originally started as a grass roots (haha!) movement but now, well, the word “festival” is appropriate if you ask me. Even if you’re completely against anything marijuana, you must admit that arresting everyone simply wouldn’t be practical. Maybe even possible.

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You heard me…

I’ve been sitting on this one for long enough; sorry, Kurt. May the exhibit be heavenly. Enlightening. Ascendant. Hey, whatever turns you on. :)

For the benefit of the reader who may not be familiar with the Queen West art strip, it’s a terrific place to exhibit work. The whole area is chock-a-block with galleries and people interested in seeing them. In July, tourist season in full swing, with the heat and oh-so-pleasant air con inside, it’ll be even more lucrative. Kurt’s been at this for a while so you’ll be in good hands and I didn’t see anywhere on there that it says “locals only”.

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“The Spirit Of The Thing” is an exploration of Art that deals with spirituality. I asked a friend if he was religious. His reply was one that is heard often now;”No but I am spiritual.”. I want this exhibit to reach for some explanation as to what the word spiritual means in this context. Does being spiritual have some loosely defined form of dogma? How is it practiced? Or is this just a way to avoid the matter of religion altogether? Have we as a western society become so jaded by our religious traditions that we have rejected their ways, but don’t want to be viewed as having no concept as to what is before and after these short stays in our fleshy carcasses? Has history showed us the political truth of religious societies; A truth of war, intolerance, and abuse in the name of their deities? Have we re-examined religious literature to come to the conclusion that indeed it is literature and not dogma? So we have on mass vacated the houses of religion, but what have we replaced them with? These are the questions I want to see your answers to.

The exhibit will take place in *New* Gallery in the middle of the Queen West art district, during the month of July. *New* gallery is an Artist collective as well as a rental gallery. The fees are very reasonable and with enough Artists involved to share the expense the cost would be nominal. For more information please e mail me, Kurt Rostek, lokart@sympatico.ca .

Submissions by email only. Send 3-5 jpegs of recent work, and an Artist Statement. All media acceptable. Send all submissions to Kurt Rostek, lokart@sympatico.ca

Deadline For Entry: May 15th 2010

Newstalk 1010 is starting to grow on me again.

The downtown AM radio station was part of my regular morning schedule. I’d wake up, shove an energy drink into my face, and get good and worked up to Bill Carroll’s latest rant.

As the weekday morning guy, Bill was on top of local topics before most people, and he’d always deliver them with an abundance of vociferous opinion. Sometimes he’d be so wrong that I’d have to stand up in protest. At other times Bill would say something so accurate and poignant that I’d have to rise in support. Either way I’d be out of bed and into my day with a tank full of caffeine and indignation.

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