JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

It's a body-shakin', "man!"-overloaded, horrifyingly stereotypical ad for all those songs that radio programmers never let flower children, or their descendants, forget! That, or a record executive's fingers were itchy from deciding how to repackage White Rabbit and A Horse With No Name that week. As the 1980s drew to a close, it was hard to ignore the constant reminders of what happened in popular culture 20 years earlier. The emergence of classic rock radio stations, TV retrospectives on the summer of '67, the return of hippie imagery, etc. The wheels in the heads of executives at companies specializing in albums sold on television began spun, hoping to capitalize on boomers entering their forties. Cue one late 60s/early 70s after another, many similar, most available as four records or three cassettes. In the race for the cheesiest ad, Freedom Rock stood above the rest. Watch and believe! Soak up the authentic acid-drenched dialogue delivered by

Sit back, relax and enjoy my first attempt at posting a video on YouTube, featuring friends going for a skate down at Dundas and Bathurst yesterday afternoon. I forgot if this was before or after I fell over a mound of snow on the side of the rink. In other words, welcome to my first experiments with the movie function on the official Warehouse camera. We're talking the type of moving picture that was popular around 1897. Filmed January 28, 2007, Toronto - JB

Last week's TPS wanderings wound up at U of T's Scarborough campus for the opening of Post Object at the Doris McCarthy Gallery . We hopped on a free bus shuttle from downtown and divided our time between the show and exploring the surrounding building. One thing you quickly notice: lockers. Lots of lockers. Block upon block of lockers. What educational institution is complete without a jug of Simply Pink? We passed half-a-dozen or more doors to the library, but all were locked. The bars in the window and empty aisles make it look like these copies of books are serving time. Left: Eddie Murphy, the idol of veterinarians everywhere. Right: the more things change...we swore we'd all seen the exact same signs in our university days. Exterior shot near the bus stop. Both buildings we wandered through reminded us more of shopping malls than educational institutions. A couple of discoveries on the walk home after the shuttle bus returned us to do

This ad has been plastered all over the city for the past month and something about it unnerves me. Amy thought the expression in her eyes didn't match her smile. Maybe it's the almost evil, Joker-like grin peeking through the snow. It could be she has snuck up to a car windshield, trying to scare the crap out of the driver before she swings the axe behind her back. Or maybe she's just happy that the Head and Shoulders is working and she's pushing away snowflakes, not a mound of dandruff. *** Self-promotion department : A look at the King Edward Hotel in 1934 , over at Torontoist .

While winding down this week's Psychogeography trek, we discovered at Dundas and Huron one of the strangest restaurant names we'd ever seen. Our jaws dropped. The kitty's obviously trying for the sympathy ploy as it begs for more food...or is hoping to win customer sympathy with its innocent eyes...or maybe it's a young fox pretending to be a kitty in the hopes of gaining more grub. The backside of the sandwich board. We were impressed by the greedy feline's generousity when it came to beer prices.

After a break of a few months, time to ease back into exploring the city's backstreets with a short trip through Chinatown. Larch runs a short distance, from Grange Ave to Dundas St W. Haven't been able to find much history about the street, other than it existed with its current name in the 1880s. Our journey starts at the south end. On the left is the complex at the the northeast corner of Larch and Grange, which reminded a fellow walker of an old hotel. On the right are the buildings opposite Larch - if anyone can translate the signs, leave a comment. Most of Larch is occupied by public housing, opened in 1996, that curls around from Grange. The west side of the street is shown on the left, east on the right (note the leftover election sign). As Richard Milgrom wrote in East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto : Both buildings are three storeys high, fitting with the scale of the neighbourhood. The address the streets by providing many

Call these Pepsi cans cool, an 80s hangover, corporations trying to be hep to the jive, whatever. The classic summer archetypes are there: surfing, parties, neon, girls in sunglasses. I dimly remember seeing these on shelves, though I don't recall if we ever bought any. Available throughout the summer of 1990, Pepsi Cool Cans are the basis of an urban legend , specifically that stacking the black neon cans would reveal a word in the background that could end civilization as we know it. Pepsi officially denied subliminal messages, but one never knows. Stereogum has a short piece on the cans , whose TV pitchman was Young MC , fresh from the success of Bust A Move . Source: Sports Illustrated , May 14, 1990

Some people spend their Boxing Day battling crowds to find that hot advertised item that each store carries only two units of. Some use it as a day to recover from the meal the night before. Some lock themselves in their room and play with their presents. Me? Meet up with my sister for dim sum at the Wah Court in Windsor. Lessons learned over the years: 1) 11:30 is the ideal time to arrive. Arrive earlier and the servers aren't roaming around with trays - dim sum isn't as much food when you have to order from a sheet. By noon, the room fills and lineups start at the door. 2) If you see mango pudding, grab it, even if you've just started to sample steamed shrimp specialties. One of favourite desserts, the mango pudding seems to make the rounds less frequently than other sweet items. 3) We can't be persuaded to grab a order of chicken feet. We don't think they're disgusting, just not worth the puny yield...or maybe it's memories of Dad grousing about

Look down there, buried in that pile of sports magazines! Slower than a snapping turtle! Less powerful than a broken-down Geo! Able to push copies of the Football News out of the way with extreme pain! It's a double chin! It's a cheap cap! It's Scoreline Man! *** As the 1970s rolled into the 1980s, the number of handicappers ("experts" who promised to analyze sporting events, mostly football, to help their clients place winning bets) who advertised in the major college and pro football yearbooks rose rapidly. Services varied from phone lines providing the latest scores and quick tips, such as today's pick, to handicappers proudly showing off their luxury automobiles in Las Vegas to boast how their prowness for prediction made them wealthy. The proprietors ranged from dudes who later fled to Central America to the founder of the Psychic Friends Network (remember the Dionne Warwick informercials?). These ads reached their peak in 1984, as han

Previously... The Park House is one of the oldest homes in the region, originally situated along the Rouge River in present-day Detroit. When the original Loyalist owners decided to move to Upper Canada in 1798 (after Detroit was permanently turned over to the US), the house was floated across the Detroit River and erected near Dalhousie and Gore. The building remained there until 1972, when construction of Duffy's Motor Inn resulted in its move north along Dalhousie to its present location at the north end of Navy Yard Park (later expansion by Duffy's resulted in the move of another historic building, the Gordon House ). Fort Malden National Historic Site contains a portion of the originally military grounds - the site was subdivided in the early 20th century after periods as an insane asylum and lumber mill. Though the full site will likely never be reestablished (General Amherst High School would have to be knocked down), land adjoining the park has been reclai

Bud Man has rubber face with no place to breathe! OH YEAH! Bud Man has chin like Brian Mulroney! OH YEAH! We called Duffman for a comment on the man who possibly inspired him, but the only reply we received was "Duffman doesn't talk for free! OH YEAH!" Apparently Bud Man has fought for truth, justice, fermented barley and large breweries since 1969. OH YEAH! Source: Sports Illustrated , June 10, 1991

Looking for something to do while Mom was busy making Christmas dinner and before relatives began to arrive, I grabbed my camera and walked around town. First photo stop: the former Burger King on Sandwich St. Other than fewer chairs, the dining room looks as if it could still be in operation. Care for a drink? A few steps north is Sir Isaac Brock Plaza, built when business was booming in the south end of town. Among its tenants over the years: Valdi Food Stores, Donut Delite Cafe (the only donut shop in town for years - Dad often brought home bags of their thick, cakey cherry crullers) and SAAN. Of the seven business listed on the sign above, only three are current tenants (Dollarama and the two restaurants). After snooping the remnants of A&P (seen last post), I walked along Dalhousie St into downtown. The left picture shows the Christmas tree decorations that have adorned Amherstburg for years. Note the style of sign marking Gore St. On the right is the Sal