Shopping Carts in Ravines

I’d long been wondering what was up with this storefront on Dundas, just W of Bathurst.

Turns out it’s one of a number of abandoned storefront sign installations that Specter has done.

Check out the whole site, it’s some seriously hype shit.

Recently, someone has been manufacturing and placing these official-looking ‘historical’ plaques around Queen Street West. I found two:

Here’s a real one, for comparison.

Update: David Topping sent me this Torontoist link about the works, which also includes links to videos of the events described.

I just posted this as a comment on blogTO and thought I’d cross-post / elaborate here.

Self-made Toronto street celebrity Zanta (aka David Zancai) seems to be working on a BlogTV channel. Or, well, nine million of them.

Twice now I got on the 89 Weston bus to head to Keele Station and noticed someone had written something in the dust on the bus windows… “Jesus BlogTV Com” and “F*** The Police” were there both times, but the first time I thought nothing of it. The second time, however, one window just had a “Yes Yes Yes” and I started to think of the time I’d encountered Zanta riding the Weston bus.

I did some searching on BlogTV.com and sure enough there are multiple accounts that are variations on the same form and themes:
ZANTAAISOMG-JESUSCHRISTYESYESYES
JESUSCHRISTITSZANTAYESYESYES
BEWARE-ZANTATHEMAN_ISCOMINTOTOWN
GOOGLE-ZANTA_ANDYOUTUBE
JESUS-CHRIST_OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
JESUSCHRISTWTFISGOINGONHEREGRRRR
ZANTA_NOLONGERCOMINGTOBL0GTV
LOOKTHERES-ZANTA
ZANTAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ZANTAAA
ZANTAATINTERNETCAFE-SHOWNOWWATCH
ZANTAGOINGONCAMINFIVEMINUTEWATCH
ZANTAHEREONINFIVEMINSWATCHME
ZANTAONCAMERAIN5MINUTESYESYESYES
ZANTAONGOOGLEANDUTUBE
ZANTAONSTRIKEYESYESYES
ZANTAORONTOONTAIO
ZANTASLEAVINGBLOGANDTORONTO
ZANTASPALACEWILLHAVENOLESBIANS
ZANTAZANTAZANTAZANTAZANTAZANTA
ZANTAWILLBATHALANDWILLDELETEYOU

Finally, after looking through many empty accounts, I came across this video which Zanta co-hosted (as GOODMORNINGMYPRINCESS-ANGEL singing some mutation of “What A Wonderful World” and “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”:

If you watch to the end, you’ll notice that he states that he’s currently in the army and hence away from home. The recent bus graffiti suggests otherwise, but perhaps it was true and he has since been the first person discharged for doing too many pushups.

Maybe I just didn’t dig enough to find the right account, maybe Zanta’s DIY internet television debut is still forthcoming, maybe he’s given up on BlogTV yet still writing about it on buses for the same reason that he seems to have forgotten his account name every single time he wanted to log in to the website, but anyway that’s the most recent thing I’ve heard of from him.

I just posted the first shopping cart photo I’ve put up in a year and a half. I realized that a big part of what would prevent me from getting around to uploading any such photos that I took was the hassle of manually updating the terribly ugly 1996-style gallery page.

Well, that gallery is no more, thanks to the just-released NextGen Gallery 1.0 plugin for Wordpress 2.7+ by Alex Rabe. It’s a little buggy and takes some work to get set up the way you want, but it’s a vast improvement over what I had before and Rabe has done his best to take advantage of new WP 2.7 features.

So, without further ado, here’s the new stolen shopping cart gallery.

Update: Apparently this photo was just featured as the ‘feral trolley of the week’ on BitterWallet.com. My decision to put this new gallery together came perfectly timed between NextGen’s release and BitterWallet’s pick.

James Howard Kunstler’s 2004 TED talk “The tragedy of suburbia”
…AKA The End Of Suburbia in 20 minutes.

“When I was in Lisbon, Portugal 3 months ago I would walk by this homeless lady who was begging for money everyday. I found it sadly ironic that just 6 feet away there was an ATM machine where people were literally lining up to withdraw money.”
– ABOVE, who is currently selling prints for charity with profits going to selected homeless shelters.

Via Wooster.

Oh the price of gold food is rising out of sight
And the dollar is in sorry shape tonight
What the dollar used to get us now won’t buy a head of lettuce
No the economic forecast isn’t right
But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray
I can even glimpse a new and better way
And I’ve devised a plan of action, worked it down to the last fraction
And I’m going into action here today

I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I will tell some power broker that rich committee
What they did for Iacocca Bob Nardelli
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a million grand 15 billion out
I’ll be standing with my hand out
Yes, sir, I’ll get mine

When my creditors are screaming for their dough
I’ll be proud to tell them all where they can all go
They won’t have to scream and holler
They’ll be paid to the last dollar
Where the endless streams of money seem to flow
I’ll be glad to tell them what they can do
It’s a matter of a simple form or two
It’s not just renumeration, it’s a liberal education
Ain’t you kind of glad that I’m in debt to you?

I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I will tell some power broker that rich committee
What they did for Iacocca Bob Nardelli
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a million grand 15 billion out
I’ll be standing with my hand out
Yes, sir, I’ll get mine

Since the first amphibians crawled out of the slime
We’ve been struggling in an unrelenting climb
We were hardly up and walking before money started talking
And it’s said that failure is an awful crime
Well it’s been that way for a millenium or two
But now it seems that there’s a different point of view
If you’re a corporate titanic and your failure is gigantic
Down in congress there’s a safety net for you

I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am going down to Washington D.C.
I will tell some power broker that rich committee
What they did for Iacocca Bob Nardelli
Will be perfectly acceptable to me
I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am headed for that great receiving line
So when they hand a million grand 15 billion out
I’ll be standing with my hand out
Yes, sir, I’ll get mine