Walking down Chestnut Street this morning I got to experience the full effect of the monolithic snap-together-from-a-kit building that’s been dropped on Euston Street to house AIM/Trimark:

While it’s difficult to argue that what was there before was any great architectural marvel — a motley collection of two story buildings were torn down to make way — the new building isn’t exactly built in a “we’re glad to be a new member of your neighbourhood” style. It’s rather more “this could be suburban Indianapolis for all we care.”

How much more of downtown Charlottetown are we going to allow to be auctioned off to multi-national companies to set up cube farms before we realize that we’ve turned our neighbourhoods into architectural wastelands?

If you’ve got a subscription list of podcasts inside iTunes, and you want to subscribe to the same podcasts in the Nokia Podcasting mobile application, it turns out that it’s a really easy transition.

First, export your iTunes subscription list as an OPML file. Just select Podcasts in iTunes, and the from the menu select File \| Export, and make sure OPML is the export format:

Next send the exported OPML file to your mobile device. You can do this in a number of ways; I use the Bluetooth File Exchange application on my Mac:

Then it’s as simple as opening the OPML file on your Nokia mobile, which will prompt you to “Import OPML file to Podcasting directories?” Once you do this import, go to your Podcasting application, and you’ll see a new directory, named after your OPML file, with your podcasts in it; you can then select which you want to subscribe to:

The Eastern School District calendar has been released for 2008-2009. I’ve taken the information there and marked it up so that you can now grab and integrate into your own digital lifestyle:

• iCal file download
• Google Calendar

Let the crazy school-calendar mashups begin!

I admit it, I’m a little obsessed with traffic signals. Especially with pedestrian signals.

You don’t want to get me started on the crazy pedestrian signals at the corner of Prince and Grafton. While I originally lauded them (for there were no signals in place before a year ago), their operation makes no sense to me. I’ve asked and asked about this, but have been assured by the authorities that somehow their operation is standard. You have only to visit the intersection once to know that this cannot possibly be the case.

In any case, I’ve given up on that fight.

This year I’ve been disturbed that the pedestrian signals one block along at the corner of Prince and Kent have been missing their “Don’t Walk” lights since before Christmas. I asked two city councillors to look into the issue over recent months, and despite their best efforts nothing was done. Last week, at the suggestion of a friend, I emailed Mayor Clifford Lee. Whatever His Worship did, it worked:

Up in the top-left corner this afternoon you’ll find a new ruk. The macron is gone (if you’re still confused about the pronunciation, read here and stop being so Anglocentric). Or just sing it out letter by letter — r-u-k dot c-a — as it’s very lyrical.

The new typeface is an old typeface: Koloss Regular from German designer Jakob Erbar, released in 1930. Erbar was also the designer of the ruk that preceded this one, set in Erbar Bold Condensed.

I am lover of 1920s German type design, and a particular fan of Erbar’s work. I appreciate Koloss (German for colossus or “any man or beast of gigantic size”) for its ability to hit you over the head with it’s weight while simultaneously bewitching you with its jaunty angles and snubbed corners.

The old ruk was almost four years old; it was there when this incarnation of my blogishness debuted on September 29, 2004. It will be missed.

I went out to see Be Kind Rewind last night at City Cinema.

It’s by no means a perfect movie, and depending on your perspective you may find that either annoying or part of the whole point.

The “recreating movies on the cheap using found objects” part of the plot, which is what drew me in initially, and which seems to be the aspect of the film that’s viralizing it, turns out to not be its most compelling aspect: the film actually has a plot and a perspective and a [somewhat fuzzy] backstory.

Ultimately it’s a story about the virtues of DIY: it posits that a marginal community can come together to make art, and that in doing so it will find purpose and redemption.

If you know me at all, you will realize this hit me straight between the eyes: the world of Be Kind Rewind is the world I seek to cultivate.

Whether or not you will enjoy the film depends on whether you’re looking for another manic School of Rock-like Jack Black comedy (you will be disappointed) or a rough-edged morality tale about the powers of art and self-determination (in which case you may have the occasional tear in your eye).

Be Kind Rewind runs until Sunday at City Cinema.

The design on ruk.ca is still being fine-tuned as I wrench the CSS into the modern age. Everything looks almost as it should in Firefox 3. Firefox 2, at least, still has Issues. And the comments pages are a work in progress. Things will return to normal soon. In the meantime, if you miss the sidebar, it’s likely down at the bottom of the page ;-)

Update: things should be back to normal now. Or at least a variation on normal. If the site appears upside down in your browser, please contact me.

I’ve updated TinyPlazer.com so that you can now toggle up a list of your recent Plazes as well as entering a Plaze name free-form.