What can you do when no one around is doing anything?

I haven’t been able to find anything going on in Toronto in support of the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. This frustrates me somewhat – isn’t this suppose to be the centre of Palestinian activism in North America? Am I the only activist who follows twitter and the internet, and thinks local actions should be temporally connected with local actions being directed by Palestinians on the ground over there?

Anyway, there is a global call out, or so I’ve read on various blogs and on twitter, to join the Palestinian prisoners in their hunger strike for one day – Today, the 12th of October. It’s past midnight now, so between now and tomorrow at midnight, not a morsel of calorific food will cross my tongue.

I fasted on Saturday as well, although that was for slightly less than 24 hrs, and I never really felt that hungry. This might be because I was drinking coffee, which keeps up the energy levels. But, if I don’t have coffee, I can’t effectively do my work, and I can’t afford to simply take days off at this point.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in the hunger strike, you can read the post I made about it, or probably better, check out electronic intifada for current updates.

 

“Chic-ness” and Cheapness – the materiality of the modern aesthetic

We find today everywhere examples of mass produced luxury. Sitting in a coffee house atop dark wood chairs, next to a floor to ceiling fireplace adorned with an exotic artwork, I am both everywhere and nowhere. Starbucks, or Second-Cup, even the new-look Macdonalds embrace an architecture of bare wood, rock and leather wingback chairs alongside glass panel windows, bare metal, intricate lighting and world music. “Comfort” “Nostalgia”, “Modern”, “Chic” are the values put forth in such a decor – these are “3rd spaces”, like homes (who of us have these anymore in a world of rental housing, difficult roommates, distant parents) without the intimacy. We revel in them, we feel at home in the intimacy of anonymity. Critiquing this modern form of intimacy is a study unto itself, but not the one I pursue here. Rather, I wish to concentrate on the materiality of these places – the role materials play, the way they show up, and the way they might be emblematic of a relationship to matter that is dominant in the present.

The first thing to say about the materials in coffee shop architecture is that they are cheap. The brick and grout in the fireplace have a superficial look – the grout doesn’t sit nicely between the bricks, and though I’ve seen worse bricklaying than this, it feels very much like it’s been built to have a certain appearance (old, nostalgic), rather than with any kind of function or service length in mind. The wood around the the hearth is more explicitly cheap – a place where the finish is flaked off reveals particle board beneath. Of the screws attaching the board to the brick, 3 fit flush, but the fourth sticks out – a telling sign of a job carelessly done.

The seats on first inspection look better – a dark mahogany, and surprisingly solid for coffee shop chairs. But a well used seat betrays the dark finish – it is of course a cheaper, lighter toned wood (possibly Alder), stained to appear like rich, dark mahogany. I could go on and give the same analysis of the drapes, the tables, the lighting, the floor, etc… but it serves no further purpose – the point is already made.

But what is the point? So the materials are cheap, the workmanship a bit shoddy – but isn’t this what we should expect from something like an infinitely reproduced coffee shop? Of course we should – it is not my intention to criticize the coffee shop for not being something I would like it to be. It can be criticized only because it is not something it feigns to be, because its materials show up as one thing immediately, and then quite another upon reflection. The reason I bring this issue to the forefront is I wish to claim this is becoming a basic characteristic of our relationship with materials in capitalism more generally.

It is a cliche now to say capitalism is characterized by turning everything into a commodity – this is to say something infinitely reproducible and exchangeable. This inclines us to think of matter as the raw resources which are tapped, processed and formed into these commodities On this account, matter has no positive characteristics – the only things we “see”, we buy, we come into contact with, are forms – objects, their quality having to do with how they are put together rather than anything inherent about the matter. However, in situations like the fireplace, the “dark” wood chairs, we encounter commodities in their material aspect as false appearances. Traditionally speaking matter can never “appear” – anything that shows up must show up as an image, as something formed, usually something built by a machine that put an order into some disorderly matter. However, what we “see” in the mahogany chair is the false appearance of a matter which isn’t there – we see the mahogany (in a certain sense), and we also see the absence of the mahogany (when we recognize that it is only a cheap finish). W see the absencing of the appearance, the becoming-mere of the mere-appearence of the mahogany. Or with respect to the fireplace, we first see the fireplace “as” old, worldworn – and then immediately that is revealed as mere appearance, we recall we are in a new Second Cup in the JCC at Bloor and Spadina, and that this piece of exotic african art is nothing but a piece of Second Cup, second rate mass produced kitch?

But why is it interesting that we see the matter in this particular way in coffee shops? Is this not a hipster’s hubris to believe coffee shops will reveal the nature of contemporary reality? Perhaps, but this architectural aesthetic, or better this interior design modality, is not limited to coffee shops. We see the same fake rock, false mahogany and photocopied exotic art at restaurants like the Keg, the Olive Garden, the current generation of fake brewpubs, and other examples. What is common to all these locations is a rejection of the old plastic-fantastic Macdonalds model of interior design, and a look to the Whistler post and beam style, and the modern European coffee shop for inspiration. But the problem with simply replicating any of those styles is simply that they are inherently against mass production because they employ local, high quality materials, and sight-specific interior design to create spaces appropriate for the place the space takes in the community. In order to mass produce these styles it could not have been otherwise than to empty the materials of their quality, to use cheap alternatives with thin varnish surfaces. The result of this is a chic-ness characterized by cheapness, an aesthetic of mere appearance, of materials that devalue themselves in front of your eyes, of spaces which appear comforting but then spit you out. Perhaps we should not be surprised that a commodification, a reproduction and replication of particularity, turned out to produce its own reversal.

An Adventure in the Making

Cross Canada Coach?

Cross Canada Coach?

Is this the Vehicle that will take me across Canada? The story began several weeks ago with some couch surfers who needed to sell a Van they had driven from Vancouver to Montreal and Toronto. Unfortunately, they were not able to sell it. Which was lucky for me, because it meant they were willing to sign it over to me (in actuality, they signed it over to my mother to make it easier to insure). Now, the plan is to drive it across this great land.

Looking at google maps, I’ve decided that the northern route is best. Toronto, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, Kamloops, Vancouver. On the whole, it’s only about 100km longer than the more conventional route through Calgary, and it affords the benefit of seeing Mount Robson, not seeing Calgary, and a more interesting prairie drive.

I’m quite excited about what I will see along the way. Prospects include seeing the neighborhood my mom originally moved to (somewhere near Thunder Bay), standing at the corner of Portage and Main in Winnipeg, and wandering through the West Edmonton Mall. I hope to blog about the adventures from the moving van – hopefully posting updates from whatever wireless access I can borrow along the way.

Do people have suggestions of what to see along the way?

Montreal Week

I’ve spent the last week in Montreal at my friend Nell’s place. It’s been quite excellent getting to know the city I’ve always loved, but never for very long in person. I saw the Tam-Tams, hung out in the cemamtery with an old friend drinking Unibrou on the Molson tome, spent two days in the National Library working on papers and reading philosophy in French, and general hung around more like a local than a tourist.

I feel that this is the summer of montreal, and I will try to return once or twice more if conditions allow. It is really a wonderfully friendly city – especially since I can get by in both anglophone and French quarters. I didn’t see as many museums as I would have liked, but I did make it to the museum of contemporary art, which had some very decent instillations.

Nell and I even went to Schwartz, where, although I didn’t indulge in their wonderful looking smoked meat sandwiches, I did appreciate the oldness and dirtyness of an 80 year old Montreal institution by eating fries cooked in positively black cooking oil. The place is a real cultural equilizer – most anyone can afford to eat there, and most everyone does – from dirty kids to families to expensive looking business men.

In a few hours, I board a train to take me back to Toronto and normality. I could save money and take the bus, but I can work on the train, and it takes half the time. If I had more money, I’d take the train via1 class – which includes 3 course dinners and expensive wine.

Right now, I’m sitting with my suitcase at cafe cagibri at the corner of St-Laurent and St-Viateur. According to Matthias, this is the heart of cultural montreal, and this cafe certainly indicates it. The ceiling is stamped tin, with cream white paint peeling off where it isn’t already bare. One wall is entirely covered with posters commemorating momentous events in labour history. It even has a cheesy 70′s jukebox. The food is old time vegetarian – think naam rather than that chic place on Main and 6th i Vancouver. Every table and most chairs are different from each other (Sugar Refinery), and there is a small stage. The cafe is mostly anglophone (probably the only place I’ve been where I feel confident ordering in English), but that’s alright – it is a bilingual city after all.

A short walk to the subway and I’ll be whisked back towards Toronto the Good, but at least I’ll have eleven bagels to remind my housemates that Canada also has this place.

Vancouver to Portland – By public transit alone

Why do things just seem more adventuresome out West? Maybe it has something to do with the people I know there. My UBC friends Mike Kushnir and Aaron Palm, and Mathieu from Quebec, are on a transit odyssey. The project: to travel from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Portland Oregon – by public transit alone. It’s possible, they insist – that all the local transit systems somehow miraculously link together. Today they are in Seattle, looking for a place to stay. Last night, they were in Bellingham – a town whose wonders Mike, I, and other excellent friends from UBC discovered last summer.

You can follow their voyage on twitter, if you have it. I’ve been following using a web site they are updating in real time: Why do things just seem more adventuresome out West? Maybe it has something to do with the people I know there. My UBC friends Mike Kushnir and Aaron Palm, and Mathieu from Quebec, are on a transit odyssey. The project: to travel from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Portland Oregon – by public transit alone. It’s possible, they insist – that all the local transit systems somehow miraculously link together. Today they are in Seattle, looking for a place to stay. Last night, they were in Bellingham – a town whose wonders Mike, I, and other excellent friends from UBC discovered last summer.

You can follow their voyage on twitter, if you have it. I’ve been following using a web site they are updating in real time: http://i5chronicles.wordpress.com/

The Taste of Coffee

I like the taste of coffee, but I do not consider myself well trained concerning tasting coffee. I know when I like the taste of coffee, and I know when I do not like it, but I can hardly know how to make a cup of coffee taste good or bad. Crucially however, I have no words to properly describe the taste of good or bad coffee.

Notice that it’s much easier with beer – I know lots of words concerning beer. For starters, “Lager”, “Ale”, “Pale ale”, “India pale ale”, “Stout”, “blonde”, “pilsner”. And others – I can use these words to think about the taste of beer as I’m drinking it. Certainly some beer drinkers have much richer vocabularies, and they have expressions which can help compare beers with each other. On the other hand, I don’t have these words for coffee – I have “Dark roast” and “medium roast”. I have no concept of what a light roast tastes like

I know one thing, I know the taste of coffee when it has been made with not enough coffee. It has a dark watery taste. But in general, I am completely hooped.
Does anyone have some vocabulary which might help me? Is there a book?

Spring Warmth, and the at-home

Today is the first day where it has been warm enough for our patio to be a reasonably nice place to sit (that’s where I am now in fact, thanks to my new micro-PC). There’s a feeling of elation in the spring – the habitable world expands out your front door.  On Tuesday I tried to do some thought exercises on the south steps of the Spadina Museum, but it was simply to cold and blustery to use the space effectively. Of course, there are coffee shops, but the cost of frequenting them adds up.

So, sitting here, feeling not locked in my room, I look forward to the good weather to come.

Jet Fuel

“Jet Fuel” is a coffee shop in the cabbagetown region of Toronto. Three things make it distinctive.

a)Mixed coffee drinks (i.e. mocha, americano, etc…) come in pint glasses.

b)Only espresso drinks (no drip, perculated or pressed coffee)

c)It sponsors cycle racing.

It’s excellent for a number of other reasons as well. It has an excellent sitting/table area in the back, which offers a full view of the front of the shop, where coffee is prepared and people wait in line. Also, it’s very popular, but more amongst people in a hurry. The upshot is someone like myself, who has much Deleuze and Merleau Ponty to read, gets easy access to a table, and yet isn’t condemned to sit in a lame second cup. The music also, is excellent – and I appreciate the music delivery system – it’s itunes based but they have two monitors, one for the baristas and one placed such that customers can see what is playing. More than that, I appreciate that the speakers and amplifier are vintage, pawn shop specials – it reminds me of the NAAM. This gives the music an organic feel – the tweeters have seen better days and the upshot is a warm and rounded rather than crisp and accurate sound. The choice of music is excellent as well, neither the overplayed classic drivel, nor anything so out there as it is uncomfortable. It’s all the songs you would already know if you didn’t happen not to know them – familiar, without being familiar.

Now… back to work!

First Post from New Machine

So, after accepting the offer to stay at York to do my PhD, I decided I deserved a present. So here it is – an Asus Eee 4g non-surf. It’s a subnoatbook. It’s a hobbyist computer. It’s smaller than most of my medium sized books. The keyboard at first seems desperately small – a real issue for a machine on which writing is the prime directive. But even after a day of messing around on it my fingers are learning how to cope with the smaller dimensions and half sized backspace key. So, it looks like it will be a real tool for writing – and that’s good, because this thing can come anywhere. One thing – the touchpad and buttons really are small and difficult to use naturally. I solved that by plugging in an external mouse – which in effect increases the size of the computer you encounter by moving the mouse control a foot away from the keyboard, without compromizing the physical size of the machine. It’s like extended theory of mind – if something is going on outside your mind [the computer] which we would call part of your mind [the computer] if it was happening inside it, we should just call it part of your mind [the computer].

People are saying it weighs less than two pounds. Well, my judgment of imperial weights may not be what it once was, but if I was to guess I’d say it’s closer to one pound. I think it weighs less than a bottle of beer – and that’s good.

However, writing is only half the fun. The other half comes from the fact there is a huge community of enthusiasts who are tricking out their Asus Eees, mostly with software. Running windows is old hat – Asus supports and gives you a tutorial to install XP. I’m more interested in the people who have successfully installed OSX Leopard on the machine. There is of course an obvious hurdle with that – journaling could reduce the lifespan of the drive considerably. The Xandros OSX build the computer comes with is entirely workable, if a bit simplistic. And there are many nice other Linux builds I could experiment with.

On Tea

I have begun this year to drink a lot more tea. In the past I was a bit snobbish about tea – I only wished to drink loose leaf tea and only from the best stores. This does not translate well when you live by yourself and your only kitchen is a mile high stack of your housemates’ plates.

After Christmas, 2nd Cup had on sale for 4.25$ a wonderful set of drawers for putting tea in. It came with 5 each of 8 different kinds of teas. Yes, I do realize it was the deal of the century, and no, they didn’t have any others and that’s why I wasn’t able to give any away as gifts. Now I have in my room tea cups, an electric kettle, and many kinds of tea. It turned out that none of the tea’s which came in the set (in keeping with 2nd Cup’s “very mediocre everything” policy I’m sure) were very good, but they were certainly acceptable. I’ve since replaced 2nd Cup’s teas with tea in satchels purchased from Shoppers Drug Mart. I know, I am the opposite of class. However, the “our compliments” Earl Gray is extremely good, not up to Merchees standards, but very far above Twinnings. Furthermore, I find I’m able to refill the cup at least twice and still have good flavour (this is especially good for the evening since virtually all the caffeine is instantly disolved when water is first poured on the satchel). I’ve also picked up “Calm” and “Awake” – Starbucks’ teas. I have not yet tried them but hopefully they will live up to Starbucks’ “Consistently above average” quality policy.

It is very satisfying to refill the drawers. If nick ever mails me my camera, I will take photos of myself placing and removing satchels from the drawers.