[PHOTO] Towards Ontario Place

Ontario Place looks, from this vantage point in Marilyn Bell Park and under the gaze of my imaginative eye, almost like some sort of lost island.

[ISL] "New P.E.I. film Pogey Beach seeks crowdfunding"

CBC News' Sara Fraser describes how the people behind the web series Just Passing Through have started Kickstarter campaign to fund a related project, the satiric soap Pogey Beach.

"POGEY BEACH - Just Passing Through" (Watch on YouTube)

Pogey Beach is already two things: first, it's the actual beach at Tracadie, P.E.I., so called by some because it borders P.E.I. National Park and is just as scenic — but doesn't require a park pass.

And, Pogey Beach is a show-within-a-show: the television fictional soap opera enjoyed by the P.E.I. characters on the web series Just Passing Through.

Now, JPT's producers want to take Pogey Beach from the small screen to the big screen.

"It's extremely low-budget, it'd be a micro-budget," said Jeremy Larter, speaking with CBC Radio: Mainstreet host Kerry Campbell from his home in Toronto.

"We're going to continue to look for other sources of funding, but we do want to shoot the film this September before the frost sets in," Larter said

[ISL] "The Dark Secrets of this Now-Empty Island in Maine"

Atlas Obscura's David Jester notes how American eugenicists destroyed a Maine fishing island community.

The cold green waters of the Gulf of Maine lap against the shore of Malaga Island. Lobster traps are stacked on the beach, spruce trees tower high, set against the azure sky. There is a significant absence of life on this small, 40-acre island, save for vegetation and chattering red squirrels, which belies the fact that a small fishing community once resided here.

One can find serenity on Malaga, a striking contrast against its grim past. Unpopulated and overgrown by brush, this island hides a dark truth of Maine’s history, a tragic chain of events spurred by the racist “science” of eugenics married with political corruption.

Malaga Island is located at the mouth of the New Meadows River and now owned by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. In a state where there are over 4,600 islands off its coast, it is easy to pass by without second glance. It was named for the Abenaki word for cedar and was inhabited in the mid-19th century. Sources disagree about who settled the island first, with Henry Griffin or Benjamin Darling cited as the founder of this community; neither of them ever owned the island. Eventually, a small community of squatters developed, making a living on fish and lobster. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common to have squatter island groups off the coast of Maine, surviving on what little they could eke from the sea. At the height of Malaga’s population, 42 individuals lived here, and it was set up like any other fishing village along coastal Maine.

But Malaga was different. As a community of mixed races, it drew the attention of those opposed to miscegenation, and Mainers with a bigoted view.

Those who took up residence on Malaga Island were poor, and their life was hardscrabble but, according to researchers, it wasn't much different than the mainland. Tar paper shacks were erected on the island, same as any other part of Maine. The residents were of varied lineages such as blacks, Scottish, Irish, Yankees, and Portugese, and although many couples were not legally married, they lived in as families. This struck moral indignation in the people of Maine.

[ISL] "Anyone can now explore Canada’s remote Sable Island, thanks to Google"

The Toronto Star carries the Canadian Press article noting that Sable Island is now searchable by Google, literally.

Whether they’re at a desk or on the couch, anyone with an interest in visiting the windswept dunes of Nova Scotia’s remote Sable Island can now do so without getting sand in their shoes.

Parts of the crescent-shaped island, situated roughly 290 kilometres southeast of Halifax, can now be seen on Google Street View.

From Google Maps, one click triggers a dizzying switch from the generic blue and green shapes of the map to crisp, 360-degree photographic images. Dozens of seals can be seen lounging in the white sand and blue surf on the expansive shoreline, and horses nibble on sparse grass among the shifting sand dunes.

An onscreen ‘x’ guides the user through a short “stroll” around a portion of the island’s midsection, with breathtaking views in all directions — but especially out over the Atlantic.

Danielle Hickey of Parks Canada said the 42-kilometre long, 1.5-kilometre wide island isn’t the first national park to appear on Google Street View, but she said its addition is especially unique and exciting because it is largely inaccessible to the general public.

[URBAN NOTE] "Canada's Wonderland worker told gay couple to stop hugging"

The Toronto Star's Alex Ballingall describes a sad incident at Wonderland. The heartening element in this story is the uniformly negative reaction to this incident.

Revelers can do almost anything at Canada’s Wonderland: surge in a train car at highway speed down a near-vertical incline, swoop on a gargantuan swing, scarf down pounds of bulk candy and free-fall 70 metres while strapped in a chair.

But if you’re gay and you hug your partner?

Not so fast, apparently.

Barrett Morrison and Brandon Hamilton went to the Vaughan amusement park on June 18 to mark the annual “Gay Day” at Wonderland, organized this year by advocacy group PFLAG and Pride Toronto. Waiting in line for the Lazy River, Morrison said he and his partner hugged —as any couple might on such an occasion.

Apparently somebody didn’t like that.

Morrison said they were approached by a Wonderland worker who told them there was a complaint. The worker asked them to stop hugging and said “we should check our behaviour because it’s a family park,” Morrison said.

[URBAN NOTE] "External reviewer called to Toronto Star after suicide"

MacLean's carries Colin Perkel's Canadian Press article noting the investigation of what seems to be a sad mess at the Toronto Star newsroom.

Canada’s largest newspaper has agreed to an independent review of its newsroom culture in the aftermath of the suicide of a prominent reporter, its chairman and editor said Wednesday.

The newspaper had earlier rejected a union call for an outside probe of the circumstances around the suicide of Raveena Aulakh, saying it would have been too bureaucratic.

In a memo to newsroom staff, the senior executives say a seasoned professional will facilitate the review and come up with recommendations.

“The union has publicly called for an ‘independent investigation’ of the newsroom’s ‘poisonous workplace’ where ‘ harassment’ and ‘bullying’ are rife,” Torstar Chaiman John Honderich and Star Editor Michael Cook say in their memo.

“The union’s assessment is not our view.”

[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto’s Asian Night Markets Helped Me Reconnect with my Culture"

At Torontoist, Erica Ngao writes about how Toronto's Asian night markets connected her to her Asian origins.

I smelled it before I saw it.

The air was hazy, filled with smoke coming off the many grills and deep-fryers. Pungent and sharp, the notorious odour of stinky tofu—the food I came here to taste—filtered through the humidity and hit me square in the face. I hovered at the edge of the Markham Civic Centre’s parking lot where Night It Up! was set up for the weekend. The stench was reminiscent of mouldy cheese and unwashed socks, and immediately overwhelmed my senses. I created a makeshift mask with my T-shirt but my eyes still watered.

The three stinky tofu stands were lumped together near the back—out of convenience or necessity, or both. My friend who didn’t mind the smell went to line up while I stayed a safe distance away. She returned with six cubes of deep-fried tofu, garnished with some pickled cabbage and chili sauce on the side of a paper tray. I pierced a smaller piece with a plastic fork, hesitant but curious about this all-star of street food. It tasted like how it smelled: not good. My friend loved it. I was more than happy to offer the rest of my half.

For the past decade, Asian night markets like these have flourished in the Greater Toronto Area’s food scene. Inspired by those on the streets of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and across Asia, these night markets are providing a taste of that experience within the city—the opportunity to experience Asian culture through food and entertainment in an atmosphere just like the kind you’d find on the other side of the world. It’s noisy, smelly, and crowded, and it makes no apologies for these faults. That’s part of what makes these markets special.

Since the inception of Markham’s Night It Up! in 2002, the event has become a staple of the GTA’s roster of summer food festivals. A few years after, the T&T Waterfront Night Market joined in to bring the concept to downtown Toronto. Now, both see thousands of patrons show up to get a taste of Asian culture.

[URBAN NOTE] Bloomberg View on the cities that will compete with London

Bloomberg View's Mark Gilbert writes about the advantages, and disadvantages, of London's different Eurozone competitors for its financial industry. Paris seems to come out broadly in the lead.

Have you heard? The platforms of London's St. Pancras train station and the departure lounges of its airports are packed with anxious investment bankers, ordered by their employers to relocate following Brexit.

Of course, that isn't happening at all; the U.K. decision to leave the European Union hasn't prompted an overnight exodus. But the banks that warned they'd consider moving thousands of staff out of a non-EU Britain are surely assessing "the next two weeks, two months and two years," as consultancy firm KPMG put it when appointing one of its senior partners to be head of its new Brexit division. "The French government, the German government, a number of governments, are making, if I may call it this way, a case for people to move to their jurisdiction," UBS Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel said on Tuesday. So which competing financial center looks most attractive?

On cost-cutting grounds alone, there are a number of options. London regularly vies with Hong Kong as the most expensive world city for renting office space. It ranks second according to figures compiled by real-estate firm CBRE for the first quarter of this year, with Paris 14th, Dublin at 30th and Frankfurt down at 47th. For a bank seeking a cheap European office, Frankfurt and Luxembourg look the best bets:

For a human resources department seeking the best overall environment for its employees, Frankfurt also looks attractive. In its annual scorecard of cities based on overall quality of life, including considerations such as political stability, economic backdrop, personal freedom and school systems, the consulting firm Mercer ranks the German financial capital as the seventh best place to live. Its 2016 ranking of 230 cities puts Luxembourg 19th and Dublin 33rd[.]

Bankers ordered to relocate can anticipate lower housing costs wherever they end up. For city-center apartments, London is the second most expensive city in Europe after Monaco, with Paris third at almost half the cost, and Luxembourg 10th. Frankfurt and Dublin, though, are even cheaper[.]

[MUSIC] Haywire, "Bad Bad Boy"

Saturday, I will be going to Prince Edward Island for a week's vacation. Today, I thought tonight's [MUSIC] post would be best devoted to perhaps the biggest band to come from Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown's Haywire, and their first hit "Bad Bad Boy."

"Haywire - Bad Bad Boy Official Video" (Watch on YouTube)

The music is memorable. The roller skate arena pushes the video beyond.

Haywire and this song are, I believe, the biggest entries on the Canadian and international music charts to have come from Prince Edward Island. Am I right? What are Haywire's competitors?