Two Questions About Canada

[Hal]

ok better question - why does canada have so many cool sounding electronics store?  

And are there any this cool in the great City of New York?

[Mark Hammer]

Cripes, I leave you guys alone for a couple of days, and all hell breaks loose!!

I've just logged 3800km of driving in 4 and a half days (Ottawa to Calgary)

Note that prices listed so far are in Canadian dollars, which makes the purchases suggested even better value, even AFTER taxes.

Note that the part of town where the indicated stores are located is an extremely popular area, and that commensurate with that:
a) Parking is an absolute bitch to come by; expect to walk
b) Monitoring and ticketing/towing of parking offenders is quite simply predatory in that part of Toronto.  I'm serious.  The slightest infraction and your bargains will be wiped out by a $45 ticket or more expensive need to relocate your car where it has been towed to....5 minutes before you got back from shopping, and 3 minutes after your parking time had expired.

The signage is particularly bad in that part of the city, and it is not uncommon to find "additional" information about the fact that parking on that side of the street or during such and such an hour will result in towing squirreled away on a sign halfway down the block or some other locale where you won't readily see it.  I parked at a meter where such information was printed on a label/band around the post that the meter was on, but just *under* the meter where you couldn't see it from a normal height.  You had to bend over and look UNDER the meter to notice it.  In other instances, the information is simply unclear.

Note as well that to simplify their lives and probably reduce vandalism, the city has abandoned formal parking meters in the Queen St. area and you have to locate a machine somewhere on the block, buy a ticket for the amount of time you think you need and plunk it on your dashboard where the all-too-eager-to-ticket officer can see it.  The best advice is to buy about an hour or so more than you think you need right atthe outset.

Finally, Toronto has streetcars in the downtown and other older sections of the city.  The locals are used to it, but visitors are disoriented by the way the tracks in the street grab your car tires.  A bit like driving on an open highway with a strong wind blowing you this way and that from time to time.  There's no direct risk of damage to the car, but with an area as densely packed with things to look for and look at as Queen St has, and with the volume of traffic as high as it is, risk of accident, towing, etc., can be considerably reduced by parking AWAY from the area and walking.  Some 15 blocks west of Supremetronic is a place called Songbird which is a pretty good vintage place with a large selection.  West of there by about another 20 blocks is another vintage place Brian Duguay told me about that probably has more Gretsches per square inch than you've ever seen.

Regards from the road.

Mark

(Dean: Stopped in at Rouleau and took a family picture on the porch of the Ruby.  A day to remember.  THANKS!!)

(Rick: I figure somewhere around the 21st or so we'll be in town)

(Jim: Golden Boy rules!  The Bay on Portage is the finest in the nation.  What a "real" department used to be.)

[Fret Wire]

Mark, good to see your trip is going well so far.  Are you posting from the mini-van? Who's driving? Have a fun, safe trip. Hope the weather holds up nice for you and the family.

[Mark Hammer]

I do all the driving....sometimes with more "coaching" than I'd like.  Thankfully, the prairies were made for cruise control.  Not only flat but ridiculously straight.  I thought I'd give our older son a chance to practice his driving skills, but rental vehicles prohibit drivers under age 25.  When he's not staring out the window mesmerized, he's reading a large book describing someone's travels through Japan.  I don't think he misses the driving.  Lucky SOB gets to travel through two countries at once!

The trip is rushed, but fabulous.  The purpose was to get our boys to fall hopelessly in love with their country, and so far the plan seems to be working.  When our older one stood in a Saskatchewan wheat field that seemed to go off to infinity and watched, mesmerized as the breeze made the wheat undulate like an ocean, we figured the trip was doing its job.  About 3 hrs from now, we hit the Rockies (Banff and Lake Louise).  They think they know what they're in for because they've seen pictures of mountains.  They don't don't know.  They just don't know.  I think they'll find even more to love watching the breakers roll in along the Straight of Juan de Fuca.  If time permits, we'll stop at the desert in BC's Okanagan area.  Very similar to the one in Washington state.

There is certainly something to be said about staying somewhere long enough to appreciate everything it has to offer.  On the other hand, there is something to be said about visiting such disparate places in close spacing.  To be staring at a view that consists of a blue horizontal stripe, and a yellow one (their junction/border being the horizon), with a grey stripe up the middle of the yellow one, on one day, and then be staring at mountains the next, puts things in sharp perspective.

Biggest surprises?  The region just north of Nipigon at the top of Lake Superior is staggeringly beautiful.  The cliffs beside the water seem like they are CG backdrops for the LOTR movies, except for the fact they are real.  I have no idea why there aren't more cars poking their rear bumper out of the water...right where they broke through the rail guard when the driver looked up instead of looking at the road ahead.  We stopped at a gorgeous rest stop, and I felt compelled to drag out my guitar and amp - made expressly for the trip - crank it up, point out at the water and cliffs, and play the rockingest version of O Canada you ever heard.  The Rheostatics, a critics' fave here in Canada (and possessors of one of the finer palettes of guitar distortion), did an album of music inspired by the Group of Seven painters a couple of years ago.  I think I know how they felt.  Yup, patriotism CAN rock.

The salt marshes of Chaplin were a surprise.  We did a double-take because the vast fields of salt look like a heavy snowstorm had just fallen.

The badlands of Drumheller, Alberta, are mind-blowing.  The west side of North Dakota has some pretty spiffy buttes and land formations with rich striation, but the buttes transition into farmland and rolling priaire hills very gradually.  Drumheller just appears out of nowhere like some acid flashback.  You drive along through what seems an interminably long country secondary highway, and then BOOM, you're on Mars.  The Tyrell Museum there is quite impressive, and apparently enjoys quite an international reputation.  I barely heard any English there.

This note comes to you courtesy of the machine at our friends' home here in Calgary.  I may pop in once or twice more over the next 2 weeks.

And since you asked, the weather has been pretty much marvelous the whole way.

[Doug_H]

;lkj

[Aharon]

Here's some links to check prices and stock:

http://www.songbirdmusic.com/

http://www.12fret.com/

http://www.tundramusic.com/index.php

Aharon

[cd]

Here's some links to check prices and stock:

http://www.songbirdmusic.com/

http://www.12fret.com/

http://www.tundramusic.com/index.php

Aharon

Neither Songbird nor Tundra update their site often enough to show all their deals - especially Tundra, they're horrible - even getting them to reply to an email is a chore.  12th Fret is pretty good, out of the 3 they're the most web aware and net savvy (IMHO).

[Aharon]

Neither Songbird nor Tundra update their site often enough to show all their deals - especially Tundra, they're horrible - even getting them to reply to an email is a chore.  12th Fret is pretty good, out of the 3 they're the most web aware and net savvy (IMHO).[/quote]


But gives an idea of the money that you would pay for any given item.
I know what you are saying tho",I called for them to ship me an Fostex 8Track reel to reel that had been sold almost 3 days before.
Tundra and Twelfth Fret have the goods tho'.....if you are looking for serious vintage and have coin.
Aharon

[cd]

But gives an idea of the money that you would pay for any given item.

Actually - for the most part, as per my post above, most of the used retail prices are effin' ridiculous.  I really don't begrudge them what they charge (and they must sell at those prices) but if you're even halfway informed, there's no way you buy used at retail.  Songbird had two SF Twin Reverbs recently, one was $950 and the other was $975.  They sell Yellowjackets for $125 a pair (plus tax = $140+) when you can get them for $66US via mail order (with shipping & customs & duties, you still come out ahead)!  A new ZVex Octane will run you $410+tax, when I've seen them as low as $250US NEW!!  Nuts!

[Aharon]

D'you know what cd,you are absolutely right now that i think about it ,I have gotten more good deals on new or slightly used shitza at Long&McQuade or Steves than at the other places combined.
Aharon

[dolhop]

If you're looking for an amp, go to Long and Mcquade on Bloor St.  They have a lot of stuff in rentals - the longer it's been in rentals, the cheaper it becomes.  Ask them to look through the inventory and find you the cheapest one.  The other locations don't have as much but I think they can check the Bloor store inventory as well.