The Fox is back!

Open for business in 1914, the Fox was the oldest continually running movie house in Toronto until it was closed down earlier this year. But have no fear Beach residents, because the Fox Theatre (2236 Queen Street East) reopens on October 1, and this weekend it's open for free, showing classic Warner Brothers cartoons, offering free popcorn and an opportunity to see the renovated theatre and meet the staff. Its nice to see one of the oldest land marks in the area is back in business. Show your support and go see a movie!
courtesy of http://torontoist.com/

The Hulk is everywhere!

You can't go for a bike ride these days without riding past something to do with the Incredible Hulk. The movie is currently being filmed right here in the streets of Toronto. Unfortunately, Toronto is playing the part of New York City. The other morning I can across the crew cleaning up after filming a scene on this bridge on Cherry St. They had two huge cranes suspending these pipes high overhead out of camera shot making rain. Looked like the entire scene was shot on the bridge. Look for it in the movie.

And then I can across this. It looks like a used car lot, but it is actually a staging area for all the vehicles used in the film.

I'm guessing this is the bad guys car...

This section I'm thinking is the cars that the Hulk crushes and destroys. By the looks of it, Hulk is angry!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Tina's birthday. Happy 32nd birthday! Call the fire department, that cake is going to cause a three alarm fire with all those candles! ;) Hope you have a great day!!

The summer that was...

Summer officially ended last weekend. And as far as I'm concerned, it was a great one. It turned out to be a busy summer, with lots of great weather and a ton of stuff to do. I took a look at all the pictures I took over the summer and thought I would post some of my favorites. Enjoy...

We kicked off summer a little early this year with a trip to Las Vegas to catch the first race of the the Champ Car season.This has become one of my all time favorite pictures of us. The Champ car race was run in the streets of downtown Las Vegas. This is us on top of a parking garage, taking in the qualifying.We even had a view of the track from our hotel room!Our seats track side in Vegas.And we took in some show as well, while we were there. One of them happened to be Carrot Top's.Our next stop, on my Champ car tri-fecta was the Quebec race, held in Mount-Tremblant. As far as races go, this one was pretty cool. This was the first time that Champ Car had raced here. The site lines are unbelievable, the track was super fast with some crazy elevation changes, and you were allowed to bring into the event with you, as much beer as you could carry! Man you have got to love Quebec! Check out the view from the general admission seats.Headed to our grandstand seats, which for the record were pretty good too.Some shots of the action from Mont-Tremblant.Enjoying the sites and sounds in the village of Mount-Tremblant.The next weekend was the Toronto race. Pilar had to work, so I went by myself. I bought a photo pass which gave me access to the pits and track side. I had the time of my life. Here are the pictures to prove it.OK, so I wasn't totally alone. My buddies made it down for race day.Here are some of my shots from the race.In mid-July we made it down to London, Ontario for the three day "Rock the Park" festival. Its safe to say a good time was had by all.And even with Pilar's extremely busy schedule, we managed to make it the cottage for a few days in August.Calvin perfected his swimming ...... and Hobbes always ready for the save.We even celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary up at the cottage.And the one constant for me all summer long was biking. For my birthday in July, I got a mountain bike from my wife. It is a blast!I set a goal of riding 2000 kms this season. I am happy to say, to date I have rode 2073 kms and am still going. There appears to be no end in sight to this summer like weather, I will keep riding as long as I can before I have to put the bikes away for the winter.And that's the kind of summer its been. Hope you have enjoyed your summer as much as I have enjoyed mine.

Referendum? What Referendum?

Referendum? What referendum? About 50% of Ontarians polled don't know about it. If you don't know about it, read up on it. It's rather significant.

Nearly half of Ontarians say they know nothing about a proposal to change the way the province elects its politicians, but those who do know about it are likely to support it, according to a new poll.

The referendum, to be held in conjunction with the Oct. 10 provincial election, will ask voters if they want to replace the existing first-past-the-post system for electing legislators with a new system known as mixed-member proportional (MMP).
With less than three weeks to go, 47 per cent of those polled said they knew nothing at all about the proposal. Only 12 per cent said they knew a lot.

THE PROS AND CONS OF EACH OPTION
THE EXISTING SYSTEM
Under Ontario's first-past-the-post system, each person casts a ballot for a candidate in his or her riding and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. The political party that wins the most ridings forms the government.
Strengths: The system often produces stable majority governments, and provides communities with strong local representation in a large and diverse province.
Weaknesses: The legislature does not always reflect the way Ontarians voted and a majority government only rarely wins a majority of the votes. The 2003 election is a case in point: the Liberals swept to power, winning 72 of the 103 ridings, but won only 46.5 per cent of the votes.
THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
Ontarians would cast two separate ballots vote under the mixed-member proportional system - MMP, for short - one for a local candidate in each of 90 expanded ridings across the province, and one for a political party. In addition to the 90 local MPPs, another 39 "list members" would come from lists of candidates chosen by political parties. If 40 per cent of the votes were cast for a particular political party, for example, that party would get 40 per cent of the seats. If a political party didn't have enough local members elected to match its share of the vote, it would be awarded additional seats from the 39 held by nominated members. The party with the largest numbers of seats would form the government.
Strengths: The number of seats held by a political party would roughly equal its share of the total votes for that party. Smaller parties could also gain seats, helping them emerge as a political force.
Weaknesses: The system could produce uncertainty as political rivals with opposing views form governing coalitions. For example, Belgium, which adopted proportional representation in 1981 and has 33 political parties, has gone without a government for more than three months. Critics also say that, with the list members, political parties would be able to stack their caucuses with loyalists who have no direct responsibility to voters.

courtesy of http://www.theglobeandmail.com pix courtesy of http://images.google.ca

Lonney soars like an eagle

For a brief moment yesterday the Canadian Looney reached parity with the American Dollar. For a few short hours yesterday, $1 USD got you $1.0012 CAD. The last time this happened was Nov. 1976. We bring you a mock-up of what the new American dollar may look like. Who's got the funny money now? Go Canada go!

courtesy of http://www.blogto.com/, picture courtesy of Fotograf.416

Life in the Beach

The other day I went out for a ride. I saw a window of opportunity. It had been raining all morning and at about 10am the sun came out for an hour or so. Check out the view from my left ... more Storm clouds coming.... and my view from the right ... nothing but sunshine.
... and this was the view in front of me.I finally caught crazy surfer dude going into the water the other day. This guy is totally dedicated. I've seen him out there in the middle of winter paddling away.A couple of Beach sunrises for your enjoyment.Check out this crazy rainbow I snapped yesterday morning on my bike ride. Sunrise in the Portlands.My cherry ride on Cherry Street.The view of the Beach from the Leslie Street Spit, aka Tommy Thompson Park.That white building in the centre of the picture is the R C Harris Filtration Plant. Close to where I live.An old rusty building I thought was cool looking in the morning sun.A falcon silently watching the world go by.If I had to live on a boat, I think it would be this one.Toronto skyline.That's all for now, peace!