Virgin Vigil

Last night there were 1,354 MoveOn.org vigils held all over the country marking the 2,000 American soldiers who have died in the Iraq war.



I had never been to one of these things before, but wanted to see what it was like to participate. So I brought a candle. The focus was peace and rememberance, not so much political rallying. The women next to me were talking about all the Iraqi civilians and soldiers who have also died in this situation. Everyone seemed focused on the larger "human" concept.

We wondered aloud what it would be like to stand on a street corner with a "No War" sign and a candle in a red state. I mean, it's pretty easy to do this in West LA.



Overall, I found it to be a positive experience. Lots of cars beeping and waving in support. Who wouldn't support the concept of peace and remembering those who have died in service of our (malfunctiouning) country? Maybe the guy who leaned out his SUV and shouted something about how George Bush would kick our asses. Read a newspaper lately, jackass?

TORONTO: Fight Night!

Toronto is such a cool city. Here is the requisite photo of the CN Tower, the world's tallest building!



Well, most of it is buried up in the clouds there, but trust me, it's tall and pointy. And it makes a great landmark for if you're ever unsure of the direction you're walking when you come up out of the TTC (subway).

Many people who have even a passing interest in architecture have heard that Frank Gehry is architechting the renovations of the Art Gallery of Ontario. I didn't manage to go by that part of town, so didn't get a photo, but I did get this:



Yo! That's the Royal Ontario Museum getting a face-lift as well, and this one is being architected by Daniel Libeskind.

Oooh! An architect fight! Who's gonna pimp the best museum? Anyone read Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead? I say we call for a throw-down in front of City Hall! (It was designed by Viljo Revell, and he's dead, so it's neutral ground.) Email me to place your bets.

Frank "Rocky Bilbao!" Gehry is 17 years older than Daniel "Freedom Tower" Libeskind, so maybe there's a slight advantage there for Libeskind. Also, Libeskind never wussed-out and changed his name to sound not-Jewish*, so that's got to give him some sort of advantage as well, right? But Gehry's gorgeous buildings look like they could suddenly come alive and stomp to his aid like giant Transformers, so we'll see!

*Apparently, Gehry (Goldberg, Ephriam) regrets the name change. Hey, John Mellencamp resumed his given name and his career was unharmed...

One Benefit of Big Fire

24,000 acres burned in brush fires in LA County in the past few days. Lots of particulate in the air. Bad for the lungs but sure makes for some interesting skies...