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Canada
18 years ago
General
I went to Toronto recently for the Virgin music festival (Headliners-Bjork,Smashing Pumpkins). It was bad ass, I was at the front row for Bjork,but that isn't the reason I'm writing this journal. The real reason: the Canadian Highway and road system. Insane!! Once on the highway it became apparent that NOBODY follows the speed limit. The signs set the limit at 100km/hr which is like 62-63 MPH. Every single car on the highway was going 160-180 km/hr!! Otay-then, when in Rome....we hurtled toward Toronto at 90-100 MPH. Sweet!
It really blew my mind to think that if we were in the States, going 40 or 50 over the speed limit would entail police choppers, spike strips, and round the clock coverage. Not in Canada! We blew past patrol cars (or whatever they're called)
with impunity!
It slowed down quite a bit once we were in the city,but the insanity factor lessoned not a whit. I throughly enjoyed busting U-turns in the middle of an intersection,blocking three lanes of traffic, and barely missing pedestrians. All of this in front of a cop who either didn't see it or didn't care.
Thank you Canadian Highway system for a sweet ride and for showing me how much U.S. traffic laws blow!
Any Canadians reading this? If so, please comment!
It really blew my mind to think that if we were in the States, going 40 or 50 over the speed limit would entail police choppers, spike strips, and round the clock coverage. Not in Canada! We blew past patrol cars (or whatever they're called)
with impunity!
It slowed down quite a bit once we were in the city,but the insanity factor lessoned not a whit. I throughly enjoyed busting U-turns in the middle of an intersection,blocking three lanes of traffic, and barely missing pedestrians. All of this in front of a cop who either didn't see it or didn't care.
Thank you Canadian Highway system for a sweet ride and for showing me how much U.S. traffic laws blow!
Any Canadians reading this? If so, please comment!
Saturday sept.8-Noah's Arkweld,Dragonette,Bang Camaro,M.I.A.,Kid Koala,The Arctic Monkeys,
Interpol, and of course, Bjork!
Sunday sept.9-The Postage stamps,
Museum Pieces,Louis XIV,Metric, The Killers, and then, the Pumpkins.
Hell of a weekend, let me tell you!
Headliners aside, my favs were Dragonette,M.I.A., Interpol, and the Arctic Monkeys. Oh, and Bang Camaro.
That's not to say any of the other bands sucked, it all kicked ass!
We figured the alcohol situation inside the festival would be draconian(which it was, no beer outside the beer gardens!)so we brought in vodka disguised as water bottles. Like, two liters worth. That did the trick!
I waited five hours in front of the main stage to see Bjork up close. Not a bad wait. I got to see M.I.A., Kid Koala, the Monkeys,and Interpol. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to a concert with 50-60,000 people,but let me tell you, that front row is packed TIGHT! At times you don't even have to stand up. You just lean against the mass of bodies around you! You're always being pressed forward against the rail, sometimes painfully. It was nuts but totally worth it to see Bjork that close.
The second day we were a little more lazy and alot more drunk! I was little surprised at how difficult it was to find any pot! People would smoke with you, but wouldn't come off any!
Anyway, we were a respectable distance away from the stage for the Killers and the Pumpkins. Not too far
and not too close. I've seen the Pumpkins live before and wasn't willing to put myself through the hell that is the front row again!
The Pumpkins were fucking SWEET! They did all the fav tracks you would expect, and a bunch from their new album, which I quite like hearing live. Billy riffed out a parody of the "Star Spangled Banner" which got booed (it was supposed to). Being among the few Americans there, we kept our mouths shut. It's one thing to hate your government and/or administration and quite another to have your country booed by thousands of Canadians. I was sort of split between booing with them and telling them to shut the fuck up. Instead, we said nothing.
Hmmm, I'm sure there's more to tell ....Oh, the festival was on an island in Lake Ontario, so we had to take a ferry out to reach it. Which led to some shitty lines at the end of the night to get out. Whew!