Anomalies and Forgotten Instances.

I was riding the subway today from Yonge and Eligible to Union, and noticed a fair number of good looking young people on the platform with me. Some hipster, some just eccentric looking, all of them looking pretty cool and friendly.

Didn't think much of it, what's a dozen good looking people? I just figured they were friends or a group or something and that was as far as it went mentally. I won't play innocent, the girls short shorts and gorgeous legs caught my eye (I love this city) but again I didn't think too much of it.

It wasn't long that I was on the train that I noticed one of the cats was dancing in the isle of the sub car, rocking out to his Ipod, seemingly oblivious of the looks he was getting but dancing none the less. An middle aged guy beside me made a loud noise that took my attention momentarily and with a dip of my head I was back with Roland and his Ka-tet as they approached Blaine's cradle.
Falling in and out of my novel is something I'm quite used to.

When I bounced back in reality I noticed the cat with the fro wasn't the only one who was having their own personal dance party, a VERY cool chill looking girl was doing ballet. At opposite ends of the sub car I didn't think they were with one another, but in hindsight I should have known.

One by one my sub car stood and started dancing. Turned out to be almost 80% of the riders were in on it, each with an Ipod or MP3 player, each in their own world of music that was inaudible to everyone else.

Looking behind me I saw the car behind me was also full of dancers, I have to say it was pretty cool sight. I watched silently, smiling to myself and to the dancers when I managed to catch their eye.

Once we reached Bloor I heard an audio announcement informing my fellow TTC riders that unless this "jumping" stopped the train would not continue and that they would clear the trains if need be.

Talk about your ultimate kill joys right?

Out danced the dancers, in walked the new riders, and on went the train.

One lady beside me made some bitter comment to the effect of "at least someone came to their senses" , suffice to say I thought this lady needed to take a very large stick out of her ass.

Just like that the event had come and gone, my fellow riders who joined just a stop later had no idea what had taken place, it likely won't be documented in the paper, so I thought I'd capture the memory before it leaves my consciousness.

Wish I'd taken video... I hope to see it again.

Thanks for reading Faithful Few

Tower followers, Blaines slo-trans engines are running full tilt, onto Wizards and Glass.

The Tower.

Recently, The Tower has been calling to me.

It's like a dull ache behind my eyes, throbbing insistently, thudding endlessly. It is the urge to tongue a cut on the roof of my mouth that can't seem to heal. It feels like standing of the deck of a ship that's just hit troubled water and started to take them on... the slow sinking feeling you have in the pit of your guts that makes the hackles on the back of your neck stand on end. Fear washing over you in a cold wave,long before the icy sea ever reaches your feet. Crawling it's way menacingly up to your knees before surging forth and hitting your belt line. It is the knowledge of what is to come that instills this anguish, this NEED.

I Know that I won't be able to resist the murky depths that await me. The sea of pages laid forth by a King over tumultuous decades. The Violence and Hardship, The Heart Break...The Rose...it's all there for me. I've been cast along the path of the beam, tossed into the street and under the wheels of a Cadillac by a priest. Or just a man who claims to be.

I stand in The Way Station.

I travel under The Mountains, the slow mutants beckoning.

I will palavar with The Man In Black.

I stand before a door, with hinges that connect to thin air, and open it.

This and so much more I WILL do, because it is Ka, and you my faithful few will follow my journey, as we are Ka-tet.

I walk, somewhere Charlie is sounding off his steam whistle, smiling that smile...

I don't trust him, and that's the truth.

I'm afraid, and that's the truth...

The Tower calls me forth into The Wastelands...and I'm helpless to resist.

And that's the truth.

Lost in a Sea.

So I've not been keeping this up in the fashion I might have liked. I do have a number of interesting stories and photos to share, and they've been piling up on me, but I've been running around so desperately that I've yet to dump them here. They don't call me The Absent Minded Man for nothing now do they?

I'm still working a 45 hour week, and probably spending a solid 5 hours a night out with friends. I'm sleeping an average of 3 hours a night currently, it's interesting how much you can get accomplished in a 21 hour day.

I have a small story I'd love to share that was originally going to be a little longer, but I need a transfer cable for my phone that I don't own, and uploading the photos to go with the stories is a bit of a Macgyver-esque job. So I'll do what I can, here we go:

Catto Houghton, an amazing young Toronto artist invited my good friend Zach and I into her studio to take an insiders looks at her new showing before it became open to the public.

Zach and I were out skating around Toronto late at night, as we often do, just to check things out, clear our heads and see what our city has to offer. On the night in question we were skating down Queen St. West and checking out the galleries when I stopped to snap a pic of a brightly lit little studio with some amazing portraits.

After seeing Zach and I, the girl inside who was cleaning up started towards the door. I thought she might be locking it, in case she was worried we might try and walk in on her, after all it was already after midnight. But to my surprise, she invited us in to take a private look around.

Pictured is Zach and Catto, and my longboard, all in the reflection of the glass looking out onto the street while giving you an idea of all the work we were checking out, it really worked out neat. Click to enlarge.

She gave us a wicked walk around, discussed her gorgeous oil paint portraits and shot the shit for probably a solid half hour, It was really a surprisingly cool little adventure, here are a few close ups of her portraits:

Please check out Catto's Site here : WWW.CATTOSTROPHE.COM