Burning sky

The past couple days have been interesting, weather-wise.

For starters, it literally smelled like smoke yesterday morning. You could walk outside, and it'd smell like a faint campfire.

It was also foggy. If I looked toward the end of the avenue, I could see a gray haze not unlike a fog, this without a hint of rain in the air.

This morning, the smokey smell remains, and instead of a sunrise, the sunlight literally looks like an orange sunset. It's quite strange.

Of course, the air quality is terrible, and thankfully I don't suffer from any respiratory conditions, but I know that people who have those conditions are seriously advised to stay inside while the smoke blows over.

Yeah, it's smoke from forest fires out in Quebec and Northern Ontario blowing down smack in the centre of the city; it's quite a phenomenon.

Kinda bummed that I still don't have great picture-taking capabilities, but I'm budgeting kinda tight with my money and a new phone or camera isn't really a necessary expense for me so it'll have to wait.

Doom & bloom

Listening to Doomsday by MF Doom it kind of makes me want to write improvisally; making up words, rapping makes it sound pretty. Don't really care if I'm no good at making things sound good; can't rap can't finish my day without my green dope.

See my words on the screen that I freewrite for thee; is the next sentence free or do I have to make it rhyme perfectly? I need to catch up on vocabulary, maybe even read the dictionary. Trying to express as best I can with a beat in mind and a vape in my hand. I'm gonna keep rambling a bit to the tune of doom, but don't expect anything too great or a silver spoon.

I tire of the negative buzz in my head; if I care to sum it up it's all about comparing myself to the common ideal; the glass circus, the identity politics. Sure I might not be rich or fully independent but I still try to improve my present circumstance in the small ways that I can. Not constantly, not even primally; just living day-to-day with some stability. 

So I'll end now with my session done; feeling good, but should still go outside and feel the burning sun.

Word on the Street '23

I had a Saturday with nothing planned last weekend, so I decided to check out the Word on the Street festival. I would simply describe it as a big outdoor book fair: there were tents representing publishing houses, editors, independent bookstores; individual authors, poetry collectives, and even the Toronto library's own bookmobile which was my favourite part.

The bookmobile is basically a big bus that's been converted into a library on wheels. You climb inside, and there's enough space for half-a-dozen people to browse books comfortably before it feels a little too crowded. Air-conditioned, too, which was good because it was a rather warm spring day. The books are lined up on shelves attached to the sides of the inside of the bus, and I perused them for a while before deciding to borrow a random mystery book. The bookmobile was parked smack in the middle of the festival, which ran along the east side of Queen's Park, with a couple of streets being closed for pedestrians to wander through the various exhibitions.

I didn't really recognize any of the authors (unlike the last time I went to the festival, pre-pandemic, where I got my copy of Silverwing signed by Kenneth Oppel!), so I didn't attend any of the author readings or panel discussions; rather, I just enjoyed wandering in the crowd and eventually just chilling under a tree in Queen's Park to vape & listen to music.

Not getting a bike flat on my commute there & back was also a positive experience!

Really, the least enjoyable part of the festival was that there were some "F*ck Trudeau, lock Freeland up" wackos on the north-western side of Queen's Park, really, just like... 3 of them... blasting some Neil Young & other ironic music beside a big white van and waving provocative flags. They eventually drove past the festival, honking annoyingly before heading off to wherever else they were planning to "protest".

Anyway, I don't have any pictures to share. I know I keep saying this, but I really want more pictures with my blog posts. Makes them a bit less dull. I'll get around to it... eventually.