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Yesterday I was suddenly reminded what a horribly wasteful society I’m in the midst of. I was getting onto the subway, and there were two people standing in front of the station, each handing out a competing “subway” newspaper. (For anyone not in Toronto: these are newspapers that are totally free and are meant to be read by commuters-in-a-hurry so that they can get the days news fast. They’re usually 32 pages or under and are meant to be read in 20 minutes or so.) Continuing my policy of giving the cold shoulder to any form of mainstream (North American) media, I walk by without taking one. Inside the station now there’s another person handing out a third paper. Suddenly I think to myself “Gebus! Where is all of this paper going?”

I get off at my subway stop and I find my answer. Every single garbage can I see in the station is overflowing with these newspapers; in some cases, they’re piled two feet high on top of the garbage cans.

Later in the evening I was at a movie at that constant reminder of everything that’s wrong with society, the Famous Players Paramount. Outside of the theatre there was a sprinkler set up raining water down onto a section of the sidewalk. Its sole purpose was to promote the film The Perfect Storm, which opened that night. I felt the extreme need to find some employee and ask how much of the city’s water they had wasted today. (The apparatus was hooked up to a nearby fire hydrant.) If I hadn’t been with a friend I probably would have.

Bought an Air album yesterday. Loving it.