A curious case of Canadian fast food

Canada is not the first place that comes to mind as a home of fast food, like burgers and pizza - poutine and Tim Hortons notwithstanding.

However, recently I've noticed some fast food outlets naming themselves after Canada or Canadian places. And as they say, 'three is a trend', so here we go.

In Larnaca, in Cyprus, I saw Toronto Pizza. I've heard of Chicago pizza and Detroit pizza, but not Toronto Pizza. (Though Wikipedia claims there is a Toronto-style pizza, as well as styles named after several other Canadian places.)

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In Spa, Belgium, I noticed this restaurant called Canadian Burgers and Pizza. The menu posted outside didn't feel especially Canadian.

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Finally, in Oldham, I spied Toronto Fried Chicken - and I've seen it called 'the best fried chicken shop in Oldham' online.

So, the big question here is: why? and why Canada?

London to New York from above

You don't see much land on a flight from London to New York (especially if it's a cloudy day in the UK Ireland) - otherwise, it's the Atlantic Ocean all the way.

But, as you descend along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the USA, there are lovely views of islands, coasts and cities like these.




(This is Plum Island - I saw this on my last flight to New York too.)

Sketching North America

It's been a while (2 years) since I went collecting continent maps at London festivals. I've decided I want to collect the world, so this weekend I went in search of North America.

Eleven people drew maps, and here they are all over-laid.

On Friday, I went to Trafalgar Square for Canada Day celebrations. There was hockey, mounties, beer and curly fries. It was all very good fun, with people wearing red and maple leaves all over. The 6 people who drew maps for me were fun and friendly.

On Sunday, I searched out 4th of July celebrations. The first event I went to (in Portman Square) was a bit too private, so instead I then went to King Edward Memorial Park where I expected to find a big American picnic.

The turn-out was in fact smaller, but 5 people obliged me. One man had a flag on his hat. Swell!

So, thanks to Alisha, Jen, Jo and Lauren from Canada, Amy, Jessica, Jon and Tim from the USA, Christina and Grem who are English, and Izzy who is English (and Austrian too). Here are their maps individually:

Sending postcards to museums

Last year, when I went to Norwich, I bought some snapshot sets at a second-hand market. I had never seen such things before: little envelopes in which were several snapshot photocards. "How novel," thought I, "I'll buy them!"

I bought sets with pictures of: Shetland, Amsterdam, Niagara Falls, San Remo, Norway and Vienna.

A year later, I have looked at and admired these sets quite enough - but what to do with them? I don't want to just throw them away (that would never do), and charity shops don't seem worthy enough - so I hit on the idea of sending them to relevant museums.

This is a bit foolhardy: museums generally have lots of things in their collections, more than enough, and possibly don't need items they have not solicited. On the other hand, I'm intrigued to see which museums might like the sets. And, so...

I'm sending the Shetland set to the Shetland Museum.

The Amsterdam set go to the Amsterdam Historical Museum.

The Norwegian Maritime Museum receive the 19 images of Norway's coast.

20 photographs of San Remo go to San Remo's Museo Civico

Beautiful photographs of Vienna go to the Wien Museum

And finally, the twelve photographs of Niagara Falls go to the Niagara Historical Museum

I'll let you know what happens.

Map tattoos: geography on the body

When I was in university, a friend of mine wrote a great geography dissertation about tattoos. She imagined the body as a landscape, with tattoos acting as landmarks and inscriptions in the landscape. People wrote their lives on to their skin, tattoos are like maps to their identities.



I really liked the idea. I wondered if people would mark their patriotism on their bodies, with maps or national insignia as tattoos.




For years, I've wanted to do a photography project on it, but have always stalled at the idea of finding people to photograph. Recently, I started to explore on flickr, finding these fantastic images.



I find it amazing, fascinating and inspiring that people's pride and patriotism lead them to the extent of imprinting maps of their country, state, city onto their skin.



I've created two galleries of these images on flickr: Tattoo Nation I and Tattoo Nation II

(Thanks to flickr users who have given me permission to show their images.)

London to New York, from above.

I took these aerial photos on a flight from London to New York.

Dragonette.

Dragonette are amazing. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again. 

I went to their showcase on Monday night. Before the show commenced, a pole dancer slinked her way on stage and swung around. Dragonette's image is being moulded from sex and lots of it. Martina wore a purple PVC leotard, and talked about the boys in the band's cock sizes.

I Get Around is a homage to sleeping with men that you shouldn't, the sort of forbidden-fucks you know you shouldn't. 

Competition is about sleeping with another girl's man. Martina fabulously introduced it as "this is a song about the time I fucked your boyfriend". 

New song Black Limousine plays around with being a gold-digger.

The video for the synthy-slutty I Get Around shows Martina cross-dressing and getting off with ladies. I cornered her after the gig (actually - she! approached! me!) to ask her a hugely important question. Here's the exclusive interview.

Me: We still love your hair.
Lady Dragonette: Thanks!
Me: I want to ask you a question... actually, three questions but I can only remember one now as I've drank this freebie wine. So. What do you say to those that suggest you should be getting off with hunky guys in your video and not those ladies?
LD: What? Haha. Well, that would mean another change, and I've already had two changes so I don't know. Or as a guy? It would be, eh...
Me: [interrupting] You totally know I'm just going to pretend you said "Yes! Absolutely!"

Hurrah for her. Hurrah for Dragonette. I'm sure they'll be playing tons more gigs soon so go see, and get their album when it comes out. It will be ace.

Enter the Dragonette

I went to see Dragonette play in Metro last Thursday night. They were typically ace.

• They played about 10 songs. Competition and I Get Around were definite highlights, as they're dirty songs about being a mistress and staying out all night.


• A song called Marvellous is, indeed, marvellous.


• There was a great musical segue between one song & I Get Around.


• People were dancing in an exuberant fashion. I Get Around got people moving, only for the gig to be cruelly cut short.


• Martina (henceforth to be called, Lady Dragonette) wore an amazing 80s striped blanket dress with big shoulders held together with black-masking-tape-patent-dominatrix-belt and too-high-to-function heels. She danced in these heels. Dancing featured robotic arm movements, ace synchronised movements to I Get Around and some marching.


• She revealed that she nearly didn't wear the heels as they hurt like hell. Thankfully she wore them in the name of showmanship and glamour. Excellent working of the Bet Lynch miserable behind the bar of The Rovers but slapping a bit of lippy on, serving a G&T to Rita with a smile and flirting with the male punters while calling them "cock" spirit.


• The boys wore skinny jeans and shirts. Not as co-ordinated as last time.


• I finally worked out which boy is which. Dan is the tall, dark-haired man who plays guitar and keyboards. Will is the blond cutie who plays guitar. Joel is the floppy indie-haired drummer.


• Fan-girlies gushed forward to the stage when the gig ended to talk to Joel.


• Lady Dragonette revealed that she cut the boys' hair. ACE.


• While the boys set up the stage and instruments, Lady Dragonette was backstage doing her hair. We later asked her how she did it, and she gave us a hair demonstration.


• Their manager's mother was there. She looked like a very nice lady.


• Dragonette have coined a geographical phrase. Shepherd's Bush will henceforth be known as She-Bu (pronounced Sheh-bu).


• I Get Around was the highlight of the gig - it should be an instant hit. 

Dragonette

On Monday night, I went with Mr. Gaypop and Ms. Karinski to Ghetto to see Dragonette, a new electropop band who are Canadian but based in the UK. 

They played about 8 songs in all. Their song I Get Around is an ace synthy number with an excellent rousing pop chorus. I think about this song at least 3 times a week, as it has the line "so I tiptoe out of this mess / as I slip myself back into last night's dress". Then the singer slathers herself with lipstick and faces the day - a song about The Walk of Shame, how fantastic.

The gig was great. Lead singer Martina is quite fabulous, addressing the crowd with a louche, but enthusiastic, style. She wore gold spandex skin-tight leggings (which I know she bought at American Apparel), ace black shoes with a gold heel, black-and-gold fingerless gloves, and black cashmere cardigan with a piece-de-resistance accessory - a mutilated pom-pom hanging from one shoulder (made from cassette tape, so she told us).

I was highly impressed by some of their newer songs, which I hadn't heard before the gig. True Believer sounds like an ace rousing, power uptempo ballad-esque pop song. I can see it being huge. I like equations, so Dragonette sound something like this:

Rogue Traders - Rock + Electro = Dragonette ≈ No Doubt + Pop - Ska.

While Martina moved around, dancing with the audience, standing on the amps and generally shimmying like a funky-robotnic, the rest of the band stood intent on playing their music. I was quite taken by this guitarist. Hello. 

The band finished off by saying, “We’re Dragonette... you’re not - but don’t feel bad about it.” Cute, and great attitude.

So. Dragonette: they have excellent synthy-pop music and a fabulous nouveau-eighties look. The pic below is one of their striking gender-bending-but-not-too-much promo images. Having already supported Scissor Sisters and New Order live, 2007 could just be their year. Here's hoping.