Soundtracksforthem

As I was sitting in, going bleary eyed, starting routinely through lists of Word Press plug-ins and template hacks – a mega fire was blazing about fifteen or twenty minutes walk away from where I live. It was such a strong fire it consumed a whole city block. A friend said it had something to do with a crystal meth factory in an old second floor ware house going up, but the fact that this happens just shortly after the whole Queen W and Bathurst area around Portland got designated a historic district certainly leaves questions.

Jeff Chang goes on about arson, in that hip hop book of his, something about it being the final and most precious stage of capitalism’s life cycle in property development. A bit like the resurrection of Christ, run down buildings rejuvenate themselves through the transubstantiation of insurance settlements and a perked up interest in the future of an area free of population, historic constraints and desperate to rebuild.

What’s really shook the city is the loss of Suspect Video, Toronto’s “hippest depot of higher culture” as it calls itself and the sort of place you’d go to pick up grainy copies of In the Woods, the Evil Dead prequel.

Spacing.ca has the best of the mob blog photo journalism that spawned all over the net as a result of the fire. I might just head down tomorrow and get some photos of the charred remains, me and about two hundred other digital camera wielding parasites that is. Expect some urban cinders in the new Soundtracksforthem banner soon.