The Studio* Lives!

MOBILITY. I AM SO HAPPY. YES I AM YELLING.

5 months without a car, longest stretch in a decade+, and it was really getting to me. Genuinely, it was making me down.

Then two weeks ago when I was on a roof looking out, and it hit me, “I can’t get to any of that”. And I’m used to being able to get to that, designed my life around being able to get to that, you know?

BEHOLD!!

Check out the keyed entry.

The odometer readout is more for me than you, to document. Miles though, funny eh… The Canadian Explorer drove an American car, shhhhh.

I can’t turn on radio though, I’m being defeated by the anti-theft system.

You can’t see the display to enter the code to turn on the radio.  It’s my new game: you get two tries then it locks for an hour.  It’s possible this is impossible to win, because the radio might no longer works.  Half the windows don’t go down.  No one knows.

Funny I posted the radio security code online eh, not for the first time either.  Security is relative.

Driving home.

This happy face is brought to you by Claus of Frontenac AutoBody in Kingston, Ontario.

Remember when it all started, my car broke down and I left it under a cel tower in Kingston?

I got news last week Claus and his gang had been tinkering, and YES got it up and running again YES Claus YES Frontenac AutoBody.  And another YES to you for not having a website, and making me link to the YellowPages ahaha for real.

Their specialty is making  high-end cars in wrecks, look like they never were.  As well as Extreme Studio Maintenance.  Actually, if you smashed your pretty car here in Toronto, I’d flat bed it here.

*

For those of you just meeting me, ‘The Studio’ is my car, which was an integral part of my show, The Canadian Explorer, which I will explain further here, in song.

First Post from my iPhone

This is where I type out the post.

Let’s bold these three words. Easy.

What of I use quote?

Ahhh I put the text in here. Then I’ll keep typing to make this nice and long as to really see how a quote is displayed.

What will this do? Strike through im guessing

This one will be italic obviously

Wait there’s more?! Oh wow this WordPress app is amazing.

We’ve got underline, list, ordered list and a more tag, nice nice.

Let’s add a link. I’ll link up this. Phft easy.

Tags, categories, it’s all right here.

Kay that’s all that, now let’s add two photos, one I take now and one from my existing ones…

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Oh this is amazing! Just add the text in between like this.

I have feeling that second pic will be far too large, let’s publish and see.

What a pleasure that was. I feel like I was living in olden times on my blackberry

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What the app looks like.

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Spent Labour Day in Kingston, Where It’s Awesome

Spent the long weekend in Kingston, Ontario, visiting friends, a photoshoot with Suzy (I’m not allowed to show you anything yet) and celebrating a 60th birthday.

If you would like to get away for a weekend, come here.  There’s 1000 Islands, 1000 things to do, and Kingstonians are known as party-ers.

Let’s start with these four places:

1 – Go there for a beer – The Toucan

2 – Buy your books there – Wayfarer Books (smells so good)

3Pan Chancho – get a coffee and chocolate croissant

4 – I never go here, it’s for hippies, but green arrow: she’s _still_ there :O

Or, you could go see me on the walls of here.

My favourite ever army suprlus store is here – Smith Army Surplus.  If you’re lucky Kyle will be working, say hi.

I cruise through, sift through the patches, talk shop and swap lies.

You can shoot in Kingston, too.  Well I can, you might have a bit harder time.

This was S&R – Canada’s oldest (50+) independently owned department store.

It closed two summers ago, which I went around for weeks proclaiming sad and wrong.

I wish I had video of inside here; places like this don’t exist anymore.  I heard some mid-level-restaurant-franchise is going in.  Golf claps.

70% of all Kingstonians own something from here, maybe one of those glass balls, likely received as a gift.

I’m being dramatic, but not really.

Where you should be buying gifts from is Dwell Boutique, which I should have taken a photo of.

It’s a great place for Morning Drive.

YA BUDDY!  THE STUDIO LIVES!

Thanks Claus! <3

He also gave me silver dollar.  I put it on my fridge.

I left it there though, my car.  It’s no longer fit for the highway, not even I’m that wacked.  So kinda cool eh….

Me – “Pardon me?  Oh yes yes, I do keep a car in Kingston” :|

Ha.

This place below is my personal real estate brokering deal dream… it’s the old Psyc Ward down on the water.

Executed correctly, it could be one of the premiere mini-areas in Southern Ontario.

Kingston is a good-sized city that you’ll be leaning on a wall texting, someone strolls by you know, now you’re on a patio making jokes.

The streetlights are an inside joke.

Kingston is filled with buildings like this, Canada’s very first bank.

The arrow is pointing to my old apartment. I was the last person to live in it before the City took it over.

There was a restaurant on the main floor, who’d pass me ahi tuna on my way up the stairs, which I’d eat on the fire-escape (they removed it), from which I may have once thrown handfuls of mini-bouncy-balls from, to see what would happen (fun happens).

Go to Kingston, you’ll love it!

 

 

 

A Girl in a Masonic Lodge VERY RARE

Freemasonry is the oldest and largest world-wide fraternity, founded in the 1500s.  It relies heavily on symbolism derived from classical architecture. The 3 Main Tenents of Freemasonry are: Brotherly Love, Relief (help), and Truth.  You’re encouraged to keep your own religion, doesn’t matter.  There’s more than 6 million all-male members world wide (Grand Lodge of OntarioWiki)

That’s why this post is titled like that.

There’s over 600 Lodges in Ontario alone.  This is the East Toronto Masonic Temple, where they meet.

I’ve blogged about the Masons before, this is not a new fascination.

– their Canadian headquarters in Hamilton

– the Toronto Stock Exchange was founded in 1850 by 24 Masons

– one of the most detailed Masonic buildings in the world is the Manitoba Legislative Building

See the lightbulb top right?  It was the most asked about item in the room, and that was disappointing to hear.  Because the photos below, it’s rare to get to see this stuff.

Click here for a list of famous Freemasons, you’re going to be surprised at how many you know.

Discussing politics and religion is forbidden inside all Lodges, cool eh.

You know the Shriners?  That’s them, too.  Their hospitals treat any kid, regardless of  any relation to a Freemason, race, ethnicity, even if they can’t pay.

See the arrows?  Symbolism.  You start as a rough stone, and through study, giving and hard work, you elevate yourself to be like the smooth stone.

There are 33 levels to ascend, the 33rd is done at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

Everything detail you see, colour, every single thing has a reason behind it, symboloism, a purpose.

I love it.

The Mason origins also come from one of my personal favourites, the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar were the most skilled fighting force for 200 years during the Crusades and Middle Ages, and they did it all for charity.  They were officially endorsed by the Catholic Church, guarded roads, the public, and fortified things.

The Knights Templar also:

– innovated and established banking methods that are in use today

–  in 1307 the majority of all Knights were captured and burned at the stake on… Friday the 13th.  Some say that’s why it’s unlucky.

– built Rosslyn Chapel, one of my favourite places on Earth.  Look how beautiful.

Hope I’ve got this all right Masons, if not, please correct me in the comments. Last thing I want to do is spread mis-information, aiming for the opposite here.

 

KeriBlog