paul aguirre-livingston. a dialogue, not a diary.

I went to hear DJ Pauly D spin

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:30:00 -0500

…and all I got was this article. Yes, Jersey Shore. Bedazzled headphones and laptops. The people who paid money. Young girls, old dudes. Ok, I know you’re curious. For The Grid.

"The outrage is tiresome and deeply hypocritical, in all the tiresome ways you’ve been tired out by..."

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:37:11 -0500

“The outrage is tiresome and deeply hypocritical, in all the tiresome ways you’ve been tired out by before. M.I.A. was illustrating her line, acting out the attitude of the words: performing. Fine, it may not be legal to flip the bird on television, but that’s simply a remnant of the fifties we haven’t shaken. Unless somebody was handing out Xanax with the foam fingers, Lucas Oil Stadium was ringing with the music of profanities last night. More to the point, television viewers were submitted to ad after ad that likened women—negatively—to sofas, cars, and candy. Mr. Winter didn’t have anything to say about that, so I’d like to raise both of my middle fingers to him and anyone who thinks profanity is somehow more harmful to our children than images of violence and misogyny. (My two sons, fourteen and eleven, thought the Fiat ad was corny, so I guess they will be safe without Mr. Winter’s intervention.) I say we get out of The Pretending To Be Moral game altogether and use the Internet for important things like posting pictures of cats looking at croissants and PDFs of sensitive government documents.”

- Sasha Frere-Jones — M.I.A. Shouldn’t Have Apologized (via annaetc)

"Yes. Writing is always a way, for me, of coming to some sort of understanding that I can’t reach..."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:41:00 -0500

“Yes. Writing is always a way, for me, of coming to some sort of understanding that I can’t reach otherwise. It forces you to think. It forces you to work the thing through. Nothing comes to us out of the blue, very easily, you know. So if you want to understand what you’re thinking, you kind of have to work it through and write it. And the only way to work it through, for me, is to write it.”

- Abridged excerpt from Believer mag interviews Joan Didion. If you write, or want to, read this. Add to: “People who inspire the fuck out of me.” Not even for who she is, or how she writes, but because of the way she approaches her craft.

The Night List: things to do in Toronto this weekend

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:11:46 -0500

The Night List: things to do in Toronto this weekend

How do we feel about men in high-heeled shoes?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:40:00 -0500

How do we feel about men in high-heeled shoes? :

History + power v. oppression + women + gender expression + sexuality + fashion + homophobia + etc

The concepts that intersect when it comes to the high-heeled shoe. Thoughts on this, the disservice of the fleeting ‘men in heels’ trends + more for latest Life, etc. at The Genteel. Also, two completely different approaches to men in heels circa now. Which one do you think is less “silly/stupid”? Think about why - if you’re reading this and a man - you wouldn’t wear heels. Exactly.

and…

What, I can like this shit too. But only this one, and only for...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:40:49 -0500

What, I can like this shit too. But only this one, and only for the muppet-beard/glasses. Are you on Scruff?

via eliotglazer:

As if “woof” didn’t already sound like ~~how gay adult males with chest hair seriously hit on each other~~ babies making the noise a dog makes…

#justsayhi

The Night Shift: We could be Sheroes. My column, this week: on...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:28:03 -0500

The Night Shift: We could be Sheroes. My column, this week: on the wickedness of last weekend’s woman realness summits all over Toronto: fashion oligarchs, interior design queens, and Erykah Badu. The girl power in full effect. For The Grid. Then read about this band Bizzrah (^) by my musically-tasteful friend Anupa. The next Sheroes is Etta James in Feb. - yeah, you should go.

via fuckyeahsheroes:

The “scene” at Sheroes #6: Erykah Badu. Photo by Tony Halmos. Event GIF by Rea McNamara.

Sunday thoughts. My reality.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:35:30 -0500

Sunday thoughts. My reality.

The Night List: things to do in Toronto Jan. 26 - Feb. 1 + a Missy song

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:15:07 -0500

The Night List: things to do in Toronto Jan. 26 - Feb. 1 + a Missy song:

Last, last Sunday. From the archives… of my phone.

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:50:00 -0500

Last, last Sunday. From the archives… of my phone.

life, etc.: tweet me something, a.k.a. thoughts about social media v. fashion's 'other' stars v. pinterest

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:00 -0500

life, etc.: tweet me something, a.k.a. thoughts about social media v. fashion's 'other' stars v. pinterest:

For The Genteel, this week I’m talking about Twitter: how I never thought it would be a thing for me, and if I can seriously see myself using it beyond midlife. Also, there’s a fashion-y angle to it, discussing the once-silent stars now thrust into microblogging movement. So, aspiring PR-types (slash y’all who want to be Twitter-famous) here’s a fashion-y vid about DKNY’s PR gal (…who I wrote about in this…) to think on:

Oh, my Twitter you didn’t ask for? @pliving. Also, there was this thread on my Facebook of your confessions of obsession, so I also joined Pinterest. Still figuring that mess out.

"But the seventh night in Toronto can be akin to those hours you find yourself trying to fall asleep,..."

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:37:00 -0500

“But the seventh night in Toronto can be akin to those hours you find yourself trying to fall asleep, but just can’t. It’s busy, but subtle. It’s dizzying, but sobering. Every brain cell wants shut down, but the energy keeps your pupils dilated, and the complete silence of being alone in a dark room means your thoughts only want to get louder. The city is sort of like that.”

- from The Night Shift: Sunday nights in Toronto. This week, talking about the things we do/don’t, for The Grid.

This is what you could have done last weekend. Click the picture...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:30:00 -0500

This is what you could have done last weekend. Click the picture to find out. Oops.

Life, etc.: Let's talk about mentors + protégés

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:00:00 -0500

Life, etc.: Let's talk about mentors + protégés:

For The Genteel.

So, this week in Toronto fashion...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:17:46 -0500

So, this week in Toronto fashion...:

Have dinner with the Bustles, a new vintage clothing-slash-vinyl store on College, an Afrotropolis Wanderland is coming, and who will sponsor LGFW this season?

The Night Shift: Will Toronto ever really be able to embrace its greatness? (with notes from the cutting room floor)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:00:00 -0500

The Night Shift: Will Toronto ever really be able to embrace its greatness? (with notes from the cutting room floor):

Ah, Toronto. This week, I asked a question that someone’s probably asked before, but, with everything that’s been going on in politics and the budget this year, it’s never been, or felt, as real as it does right now. At least to me it hasn’t. I’m not trying to answer whether or not we’re a world capital or if we’re even “great.” This, I know. But, ultimately, I’ve realized we are responsible for our own growth, so I put the question out there.

I cut this bit that follows from the original story, but now I think it was (perhaps) more necessary than I realized. It explains a lot about why I give a damn about this city now, but why it wasn’t always so easy to do so.

—

I grew up in the Jane & Finch area in the ’90s, and lived there until I was about 16. Truth be told, it wasn’t exactly a place you could be proud of, at least not outside of our own community borders. (Just read these Urban Dictionary definitions to get a sense of what the reaction was like when you told people where you lived, and what they would automatically think about you.) I was around a lot of kids my age who, myself included, were sometimes made to feel like they “would never make it out the ‘hood.” To look back is to see how these experiences - these moments of doubt - really coloured a lot of what I thought about the city as a whole. Of course I knew there was more out there, but it either felt unavailable to me, or unable to provide what I really wanted out of life. I wanted to opt out, to go somewhere legendary. If Jane & Finch was any indication, this city wasn’t where dreams would come true, where people could “come up.” If anything, J&F made me hungry for better things, for more than what I thought Toronto could ever offer. (Plus, let’s remember: Toronto wasn’t even “all that” back in those days anyway, so…)

But then, things started to change, and the city started to change. I stopped letting things like my lack of money or my lack of pristine postal code define what was possible. I’ve watched this city grow tremendously in the past decade as an observer of it, and even more in the past year as a reporter of it. Each weekend, I get to see the interesting things people are doing and how this city really is better; my serious thoughts on its potential move even further away from that defeatist noise. On the worst days, I used to think about how these limits might be it for me; I used to hate that thought. But, for many reasons, it doesn’t feel like such a tragedy anymore. I want to be here. This is where the real action is happening - and, really, it’s still only the beginning. Why would you want to be anywhere else right now?

—

Toronto is great, and I think that’s pretty clear. I just wanted to keep reminding people what we’ve got here now, and what we can look forward to. If we’re “pre-climax,” or on the cusp of a “moment” or whatever, the future of this town really could go either way. Especially if we keep undercutting our services and developments. Yeah, people don’t want to think of Toronto as NYC or LA or whatever (hey: we probs never will be), but we can build our own, even better thing if we can fucking take it seriously sometimes.

This was for The Grid.

(Toronto Tempo from Ryan Emond on Vimeo.)

212 - Azealia Banks, name-dropped in this new thing I’m...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

212 - Azealia Banks, name-dropped in this new thing I’m trying for The Grid: The Night List, a.k.a. things to do in Toronto on weekends. Doing my part to make sure the unsigned Harlem chick who raps about perverse shit goes viral.

"Some people are saying something with their clothing; others say nothing at all."

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

“Some people are saying something with their clothing; others say nothing at all.”

- This, and other thoughts about image & identity for The Genteel. The opening image is a little extreme though, no?

This week in Toronto fashion

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

This week in Toronto fashion:

A clothing swap with a biker gang, CB2 set to open at Queen & Bathurst, make your own belt with Brave Leather, and more retail buzz

The Night Shift: Can you spell S-T-R-I-P?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The Night Shift: Can you spell S-T-R-I-P?