The sign promises:

• Hamburger
• Panini
• Steak
• Coffee
• Gelato

But the best part? Their slogan is “Profile of Excellence.”

I’m not quite sure what that means, but I’m keen to eat there.

But the problem is, I live in a city (and a neighbourhood) where nice bicycles get stolen. Quickly. Thus, for the past four or five years, I’ve simply resigned myself to the fact that I need to own crappy bikes that aren’t worth stealing. These bikes, of course, are not much fun to ride.

Whenever I’ve talked to bike shop guys about this problem, they’ve said, “Well, you should buy a nice bike. Just bring it inside.” I know that’s what I should do, but it’s something I would never actually do. I can’t imagine lugging a bike up the flights of stairs to our apartment, let along finding a place to put it.

So then, last weekend, when Jenna and I were walking along Bloor Street, and we ducked into Curbside Cycle (”Just to see”), I again explained my conundrum to the salesperson, Aaron. He countered by showing me the Brompton Folding Bicycle. Gorgeous, and handmade in London, they fold down to a package that weighs just about 25 pounds.

Perfect! This is a bike that I could actually imagine carrying up some stairs, or bringing into my office.

I took one for a test drive on Saturday, and loved it. It feels a lot like a “real” bicycle, despite the smaller wheels. A bit low to the ground, obviously, but otherwise, a totally normal, comfortably smooth ride. I tried folding and unfolding it a few times, and I’m not quite at the 30-second fold yet, but I’ve been assured that with practice, I will.

So yesterday, I bit the bullet and placed my order: a 3-speed M-type in Cornflower Blue (similar to the one above, without the leather Brooks saddle).

Because Bromptons are all custom, the turnaround is about 3 weeks. It’s going to be a long wait.

She’ll put together a team that will travel across Canada to collect oral histories from Canadian WWII veterans, then put them online.

It’s good, important work, and I’m really proud of her.

And because someone once told me that “celebration without reflection is hollow and empty,” here then, in no particular order, are some of the things I’m most proud that happened in the last year. I:

• Celebrated a year of marriage (thanks Jenna)
• Started running (thanks Beginning Runner’s Handbook)
• Started playing the ukulele (thanks Tom, and thanks Steve and David)
• Pitched, produced, and hosted my very own pilot for CBC Radio
• Started drinking Scotch seriously
• Helped make another season of Spark, a show that I think is both important and good
• Schooled another class of aspiring audio producers at Ryerson
• Took a weird digital cable channel up on their offer to host a fake talk show
• Formed a brand new rock and roll band with my friends Tristan, Mike, and Isaac

Here’s to becoming old!

Hot damn. Do we look tough or what? Nice photo, Hilary.

Donations to the CCS are good. You know that already, though, right?

You can pledge here.

I’ll be performing as part of a brand new rock and roll band called The Sweat. We’ll do the LFLF song “King Hipster.”

That’s tomorrow night, 27 May 2009 at the Rivoli, starting at 9:00 PM. Cover is five bones. Or if you want a CD too, ten bones.

A few weeks ago, the videotaped the whole night and put it on YouTube. Here’s me, doing a ukulele cover of “She’s Dead” by Jim’s Big Ego:

There’s a contest for these YouTube videos — the most viewed after a month wins a dinner at the Dominion, if I recall correctly. So feel free to watch this multiple times.

Go ahead. Listen:

It’s 55 minutes long, though. So maybe you’ll want to download it from MaximumFun.org. It’s a wide-ranging discussion, but ultimately, it’s about how to make stuff online that people will care about.

In particular, I found Jeff Olsen’s comments about unnecessarily consistent website design:

I think a lot of what we do is the opposite of what people try and do in terms of branding, of “We’re going to be consistent, you know, we’re going to look the same way in all these different places.” I mean, you won’t see the Adult Swim logo hardly on our site at all. [...] I think branding and consistency, weirdly, can fight what it takes to provide great entertainment.

This reminds me a lot of what Mark Ramsey had to say about NPR website design:

I don’t know why when I go visit a program website for NPR or wherever, I end up on npr.org/program, and the page looks just like every other program at NPR. What in the world is that? You mean to tell me that your program is virtually identical… that what’s important to me as a listener to this program is that it’s almost like every other one on NPR? That’s what you want to communicate to me?

Seriously. If you make stuff online, listen to this. It’s worth it.