Get your pear on! The feature film Fairey Tales and Pornography, produced at The Canadian Film Institute, uses a major chunk of Bartlett Street from Black Eyed Sue as the background music for the,...get this, LOVE SCENE. It's pretty cool.

Glossary
a few Toronto-specific references from the lyrics

Viljo
To make a graphic reference for the lyrics to 2.4 Million, I designed a logo for the name of Viljo Revell, the Finnish architect responsible for Toronto's new City Hall. The modernist masterpiece may be unforgiving in it's celebration of cement, but it's abstraction of two parents sheltering an egg brings humanity to the pure forms. Many Torontonians have never got on with the design, and at one point, 35 years after it's construction, demolition was considered during the breakout of mega-city madness. In a rare diplay of common sense and decency, the city "fathers" spared one of the few exciting buildings we have. Certainly our only structure groovy enough to get a spread in Wallpaper.

The Archer by Henry Moore
The song Civic Kiss takes place at Toronto City Hall, which has a large scale bronze sculpture in a very prominent position. The Archer, by British artist Henry Moore, was a very controversial purchase in the early sixties, with much opposition from the traditional haters of progressive culture - the Progressive Conservatives. As a kid I remember all the fuss in the media devoted to this expensive piece of modern art - even the cartoonists for the dailies were having a go. They were probably frustrated fine-artists themselves and were jealous of a foreigner scooping the big commission. The deal eventually led to Moore donating a priceless personal collection of his original plasters to The Art Gallery Of Ontario - which basically put the institution on the map with this world class exhibit. The revenue from increased tourism has likely paid for the original Moore many times over.

2.4 Million
This was the population of Toronto when I wrote the song in Jan. 2001, according to the city's official website.

Red Rocket
This was a nick-name for the classic street cars used in Toronto's public transport system. They were phased out in the 90's and replaced by modern "efficient" models. Turns out the new ones are much heavier than the originals, and the increased stress on the tracks has resulted in constant, expensive reconstruction.

Bathurst Flat
Bathurst Street is a major north-south route in downtown Toronto, with streetcar service. A block north of the apartment mentioned in the song is Honest Ed's, a very weird store which boast's the largest electric sign in Canada.

Bloor
This main east-west drag in Toronto gets mentioned in Lunar Lines.