Flip Flop Flying

Sadly I spent too much time changing the settings on my camera and missed a good deal of the chasing that was going on. The bird kept flying out of reach, but then coming back to continue. I caught the tail end of them playing, and a whole lot more of the squirrel amusing him/herself.

Here’s a wee story. Wrote most of it last summer, but got around to finishing it this morning after waking up at six bloody thirty. I’ve put it all up here rather than making you click on over to the main site, but it is over there too at www.flipflopflyin.com/lamppost. This recent spurt of stuff is mainly down to being nearly done with the Flip Flop Fly Ball book. All the graphics and text are done. All that needs doing now is some editing, tinkering, and a cover.

Just a lamppost, at the junction at the top of the street. Cassius, a four or five or six year old cat that Jeremy got from the animal rescue place, is missing. Jeremy knocked up an A4 flyer in Word, all caps, 72pt Times New Roman, dropped in a photograph of Cassius, put his cell phone number ten times vertically at the bottom of the layout, printed it, made twenty copies, took a roll of Scotch tape from Julie’s desk with a wink and a smile, and on his way home, taped the copies to lampposts, traffic light poles, bus shelters, and finally, the lamppost at the top of the street near his apartment.

Cassius’ flyer was taped over a similarly knocked-up-in-Microsoft-Word piece of A4 paper advertising a mountain bike for sale. Three of the phone number tabs have been pulled off and the paper was a bit bumpy from being rained on. Around the pole, above and beneath Cassius’ flyer were more and more flyers. Missing cats, found cats, missing dogs, found dogs, TV cabinet for sale, reggae night at a local bar (ladies get in free), dog walker services, cleaning services, clothes mending and alteration services, free-yourself-from-debt services, Lucy! call me! I lost your #!!!

Cassius never was found. Jeremy wanted to think someone had found him and taken him in and given him premium quality cat food and a saucer of full fat milk, given him a new name, and had just not seen Jeremy’s flyer. But, whenever he thought about it, Cassius always ended up lying dead in the road after being hit by a car at 3 a.m. Still, lifeless until rush hour, then being squished into an unrecognisable blood and fur mess.

Other flyers covered Cassius’. And others covered those. Again and again, more and more flyers covered more and more missing pets and services for hire. Spring turned to summer, autumn and winter. The flyers faded and crinkled, the ink ran, new bicycles were for sale, and a watch was found. And like a man who drinks a bit too much beer, eats a bit too much pizza, and drives instead of walking to the store, slowly the lamppost got fatter.

Someone selling a pair of tickets for Jeff Beck concert, a yoga teacher, non-smoking room for rent, baby clothes for sale, CDs and DVDs bought and sold, fridge for sale. The posters made it so that between knee height and the head height of an NBA player, the lamppost wasn’t visible. It bulged out, a foot in diameter with layers of paper, layers of flutter, holding up its own weight with rolls and rolls-worth of hastliy-applied Scotch tape. It was a fragile structure but it would take a not insignificant effort to dismantle it. But nobody did. The men in fluorescent jackets and trousers who cleaned the streets, picked up trash, fixed the broken street lights didn’t touch it. Other less-used lampposts were periodically cleared of the flyers. But not this one. It looked like a project. Someone at the department of whoever-does-these-sort-of-things must’ve decided to do an experiment.

It outlasted Jeremy, who moved away with his new cat Sonny to take a new job down south. More cats and winters, dogs and summers passed. (Cassius would go missing again, although this time it was “Tibbles” that was missing, and he was nearly a teenager.) The lamppost got thicker and thicker. Swollen like an ankle. To tape a flyer on the lamppost selling your hi-fi or stroller was to more-or-less guarantee a prompt sale. Unlike other lamppost flyers, where people would only pay attention should a word on the flyer and their own immediate needs coincide, passers-by stopped to read the flyers. People read them all. The lamppost was well known in the neighbourhood. People looking for a room mate would concoct beautifully-worded advertisments to show due respect to the lampposts place in the neighbourhood. Local comic artists would post A4 cartoon strips and their Facebook addresses.

Some local people grew annoyed that the bargains they’d often pick up from calling a number on the lamppost would be gone too quickly, such was the shop window the lamppost afforded its sellers. Yet it grew and grew, flaring out further and further, tapering from a couple of feet wide at the top to eight feet or so at its base. It never reached down to the ground, though. People had tried putting flyers for children’s toys down at the bottom, but nobody ever took the phone numbers when they were wet and smelly with dog piss. Dogs loved the lamppost. Especially in the summer. The dog of the owner of the grocery store next to the lamppost often spent hours shading under the skirt, watching life go by, and occasionally licking a child’s foot.

At Christmas, locals hooked up some lights and turned the lamppost into a Christmas tree. At Easter, the grocery store owner hid tiny chocolate eggs under the flyers. During the World Cup, little paper flags were added. The lamppost was added to the list of quirky things to see in the city’s Rough Gulde. Postcards of the lamppost were available in the tourist shops next to the city’s more well-established landmarks. It grew and grew. Spanish lessons. Qi Gong. It expanded until the pavement was unusable, the council made the street one way so it could be narrowed to allow for further growth. Visitors came to take photographs stood next to the lamppost. Some climbed onto the spread of flyers. A couple left big dents when the paper gave way. Cats fought on top of the mass, rats scrambled around underneath, dogs pissed around the edges. Drunk men ran across it in the early hours of the morning.

On and on it went, eventually blocking off the street completely. It was now a ten minute walk to the grocery store that was a stone’s throw away. School buses had to be rerouted. Houses near the lamppost went up in value, and down in value. Several houses could no longer use their front doors, only entering through the back alley. Frankly, it had became a right pain in the arse.

Another new thing today.
After spending most of the year working on a book about baseball, I have a bit of a One track mind.

Click here to see full image.

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It’s Drawing section.

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It’s Drawing section.

I’m gonna take a break from this for a while. It’s not much fun, really. Ever since the move over from Blogger to Wordpress, it’s not felt the same. Nothing permanent, just a break for a few weeks, maybe a month, maybe six months, so I can want to do it again because at the moment there seems very little point.

Went out to a comedy club called Yuk Yuk’s last night, to see the wonderful Marc Maron. Funny man. Drank beer, got hungry, thus, had some poutine on the way home. For those of you who’ve not seen poutine before, I thought I’d take a photo for you.

The box is about 4 x 4 inches, and about 2 inches deep, packed full of chips covered in beef gravy and cheese curds. I really have no idea what a cheese curd actually is, but it kinda tastes like a more cheddar-y, squeakier version of mozzarella. It’s really really tasty, very filling, and apparently my local place, Smoke’s Poutinerie is one of the good places to buy it. As comfort food goes, I’m fairly sure this is pretty close to the top of the heap.

Last night, I made a wonderful sandwich. So wonderful, in fact, that I made it again for lunch. Some of you are going to find this a disgusting idea, but, y’know, some of you might be salivating thinking about. First, you take the bread. Then put peanut butter on one slice, and strawberry jam on the other slice.

You’ve pretty much got a PB & J going on there. But then, you make it a PB & J & J by adding… jalapeño.

Slap ‘em together, and get eatin’.

Burp. Clean plate.

I know what you’re thinking: I am as good a chef as Gordon Ramsay. Seriously, it may sound disgusting to add jalapeño, but it’s really nice having something hot in there combined with the nutty and fruity flavours.

I just Googled “PB & J jalapeño” and found this place in Seattle called The Shelter Lounge that serves – my oh my – PB & J jalapeño poppers. Drool. I wish I’d know about this place when I was there last year.

I like Douglas Coupland. I like most of his books, he seems like an incredibly interesting fellow, and I think he comes across as a nice guy. So when I arrived in Toronto, one of things I wanted to see the most was Toronto Park, a park that he recently designed that opened in September last year. Before I got there, though, and just a five minute walk away, there’s a Coupland sculpture, “Monument to the War of 1812.” I know nothing about the War of 1812, but apparently the Brits won. So, y’know, yay! Here’s the Wikipedia article about that war, should you give a monkeys.

The first thing I noticed about Toronto Park was the canoe. You can see the canoe on top of a raised bit of land from the big road that runs along one side of the park.

These things are pretty, too. I assume they are fishing floats. Or maybe I’m wrong. I dunno…

But the best and most interesting thing about the park is the route around the edge with big pictures and plaques all about Terry Fox. Two laps of the park equals one mile, what they have called the Terry Fox Miracle Mile. Slight tangent: you may remember that Terry was the person I chose to do as the 1,000th Minipop last year. I won’t write any more, except to say, it’s a really nice little park with people walking around, picnicking, playing soccer, walking the dog; but most of all, it’s interesting which is something that can’t often be said about new public spaces these days. Here’s some more photos.