Slavic Studies

On the third floor of the Slavic Studies building, I noticed the bare trees in the window, their naked branches stretched outward against the grey sky. They encircled the neighbouring redbrick building that was crowned with a weather vane, grasping fiercely.
The walls of the Slavic Studies department were covered with maps of Eastern Europe. "Warsawa", "Praha", and "Turkey in Europe", showing the Ottoman Emprie's 18th century European possessions, from Moldavia to Rum.
As I stood outside the Balkan literature professor's office, reading an advertsiement for a Croatian novelist recently translated into English, a beautiful dark haired girl smiled at me lazily, before passing me by.

Rock, Paper, Scissors!

My sister is visiting from Victoria, and I'm showing her the best of what Toronto has to offer. Yesterday afternoon we popped over next door to the Narayever synagogue for lunch, and last night we took in the World Rock Paper Scissors Championship. The tournament, in its fifth year, took place at the Steamwhistle Brewery, in the shadow of the CN Tower.
The tournament was an intense affair. For $40, anyone could participate, and the competitors came from across Canada, the US, UK, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, and the Cayman Islands. For $12, one could spectate, and also engage in "Street RPS". This involved challenging other attendees to a match, one game or best of three, for any amount of "RPS Fun Bucks". We were each given $15 in ones and fives of the currency upon arrival, and the person who amassed the most of the currency at the end of the night won $1000 in real money. As for the actual competitiors, prizes were $7000, $1500 and $500 for first, second and third, respectively.
We arrived shortly after the end of the first round. Many players had come as teams, with names such as Team Paper, Team Rock, Mr. Smoot, L'Escouade Tactile and WWJT (What Would Jesus Throw), with matching team uniforms bearing the name and logo. Team Paper's shirts were particularly impressive, with each player's bearing a different paper name (fly, recycled, toilet, 8 1/2" x 11"). Other competitors wore individual costumes, such as Cat in the Hat, Superman and Captain Morgan.
The competition took place at designated tables alongside the room. Each match (best two out of three sets of two out of three games) was officiated by a referee attired in zebra suits (like those of the NHL). The competition was fierce, and several competiors were visible strained. As Rock Paper Scissors is a highly strategic sport, matches most often went to those able to display the most poise and quickest thinking. Winners of the first round progressed on to the round of 128.
My sister and I were most closely following the fates of two squads, Team Paper and L'Escouade Tactile. Team Paper was composed of a squad of lawyers from Siskind Law Firm. The evening did not go well for them, and they lost their match on a technicality. L'Escouade Tactile, from Montreal, fared better, progressing into the round of 64, but no further.
Throughout the evening, the center stage had served as the forum for high stakes "Street RPS" competition, with hundreds of dollars in "fun bucks" exchanging hands. Beginning with the round of 32, the official competiton shifted to the center stage. Commentary was provided by a suited gentleman named Michael Booth, and camps took place under the watchful eyes of a team of referees, led by head referee Doug Cox.
The round of 32 was fast and furious, as were the rounds of 16 and 8. The semifinals pitted a Montrealer named George, with long orange rock star hair and matching handlebar moustache, against a man from New Jersey in one match, with the other featuring Rob from London, England versus a Philadelphian. The final would be the Brit verus the man from Jersey, with Rob taking top prize. Georges lost the third place game to the Philadelphian, and had to go home with the consolation of having gotten that far. He seemed quite happy with this, as his onstage post competition dance indicated. Georges was not the only competitior to dance onstage. The New Zealanders present had earlier preformed the haka, a pregame New Zealand All-Blacks rugby ritual derived from a Maori warrior dance.

More Kensington Happenings

This afternoon, while I was conferring with my roomate about groceries in the Moonbeam Cafe, a man came up to us and inquired if we were interested in writing. I replied in the affirmative, so he presented himself as an up-and-coming author of short fiction named Banaloko, and proceeded to tell us about his work. His story was about a young man, an immigrant to Canada, who began using hard drugs in university and embarked on a downward spiral. He was rescued from his self-destructive behaviour by a preacher, who took him to a revival session and turned him toward the right path. After describing the story, entitled "Masquerade", and declining my invitation to read it publicly, he presented me with a copy of my own, free of charge.

More Kensington news: another franchise has come to the Market. Cob's Bakery, a chain began a few years ago in West Vancouver by a bunch of Aussies, has moved into the store vacated earlier this year by My Market Bakery when they moved westward. As well, Xpace, the OCAD student-run art gallery on north Augusta, has vacated their premises, as evidenced by the "for lease" sign in the window.

Upon my arrival home, I noticed that my free trade bananas had failed to make the trip. Assuming that they had slipped out of my backpack at some point while I was biking, I retraced my route. My search failed to turn up any fruit lying on the side of the road. Fortunately, when the friendly lady who works in the organic grocery store heard of my predicament, she let me have another bunch. So the quest wasn't entirely fruitless.