As promised, here are your directions (and a glimpse at our gargantuan space)! is being held at Toronto's Lamport Stadium at King and Dufferin. If you'd like to type the exact address into a mapping site, it's 1155 King St. W., Toronto, M6K1E9. You can see a couple pictures below, as well as a rough map (again, go to something like Yahoo! Maps for more). I've tried to “point” at some major landmarks/roads to make it easier as well.
DOORS OPEN AT NOON!
Taking Transit
If my directions don't make any sense to you, just tell the TTC that you need to get to King and Dufferin. It's an easy location and they'll be happy to help you. It will cost $2.25 to get on transit.
Option 1: Take the subway to Dufferin Station (make sure you get a transfer when you first enter transit). Leave the station and go upstairs and take the bus (the “Dufferin 29″) south to King St. W. (it will turn around that little dog-leg that you can see on the map above, so that's when you know you'll have to get out in a minute). Get off at King St. and walk a couple blocks east (toward the CN Tower) and you'll be at the stadium.
Option 2: If you are on King St. (ie if you exit the subway at St. Andrew or King station, or have a hotel on King St. or a short walk from it), just take the “504 King” streetcar. Assuming you are east of the location, that means you want to be going west, or away from the CN tower. Get off at Dufferin.
Taking a Cab
Just tell the cab driver that you need to go to “Lamport Stadium, just east of King and Dufferin”. It will cost about $10 from most of the downtown core.
Driving
Honestly, you're probably better off using a site like MapQuest for your directions, but I'll mention what to do with your car. There is street parking, as well as a paid parking lot on the south side of the station. To be perfectly honest though, if there is any chance that you'll be drinking, please please please just leave your car at your hotel and take a cab or transit. Oh, and gas is a little more expensive in Canada (about $2.50 US per gallon) so if you're driving on a budget, you may want to gas up south of the border.
If you're interested in watching the space launch today, it is streaming on MSNBC and should start in less than half an hour. CNN is also playing it. On the other hand, if you're interested in the continued end of the world, Iran (not Iraq) just took out three British Navy ships (developing).
Update: They did it!
Let me repeat:
“A new life awaits you in the Off-World colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. New climate, recreational facilities…absolutely free! Use your new friend as a personal body servant or a tireless field hand — the custom tailored genetically engineered humanoid replicant designed especially for your needs. So come on America, let's put our team up there!”
[Note: Initially this seemed to be coming off Toronto Island Airport]
This is a different airport than the one you fly into internationally (this is coming off the Toronto Islands it looks like). I don't know what the source of the smoke is, but to put it into context size-wise, the CN tower is over 1,800 feet high and they are about the same distance away. There are also a number of fuel holding silos for the tankers that dock there.
Update: It's the Toronto Yacht Club that's on fire, and propane cylinders they had stored there keep making it worse. There is some risk of it spreading I guess but it's pretty much under control (although all I have heard out the window for the last fifteen minutes is fire engines).
If a single country can figure out how to do inexpensive space travel, they stand poised to be the dominant force of the 21st century. Not so much in terms of “victory”, but in terms of deciding what humanity is to become. The primary reason for this is advanced materials and manufacturing that are made possible when you put your “factories” into a micro-gravity environment. They potentially allow us to build hugely more powerful… everything. Whoever maintains that lead gets to decide the course of the next stage in human history as we colonize the solar system and then the galaxy beyond.
At 9:30 AM EST Monday morning Burt Rutan's civilian Spaceship One will launch, carried aloft by the White Knight, the first totally privately funded and developed manned space mission. Spaceship one will fly to 62 miles in height, the boundary of where our little planet ends and the vast reaches of outer space begin. CNN should be playing it, and there is a live webcast over at MSNBC assuming they don't get flooded with viewers. There is more info over on the Scaled Composites page as well.
The crazy thing is though that Rutan (funded by Microsoft's Paul Allen) is far from the only player in this reinvigorated private space race. On top of all the
Ansari X-Prize contendors,
Robert Bigelow (the guy that owns
Budget Suites of America, the hotel chain), is building a space hotel which he expects to have a prototype of up next year, with a full size space hotel following in 2006 (
more).
“Affordable orbital housing,” is what he promises!
Seriously, how much more exciting could the future be? This is an awesome time to be alive… We are simultaneously watching the governments of superpowers bring their nations to the verge of collapse with the ignorance of war, while at the same time watching the passion of small groups of single individuals rocket us into a new era. We humans have done amazing things before, but this is the only path that will allow us to become Gods, to become immortal, and to survive our sun's death billions of years from now.
A good friend of mine that is a tattoo artist believes that a small percentage of his clients are demons a la the movie Frailty. While he's tattooing them he becomes aware of their sins and is deeply shaken by it. I know another artist who left the industry out of fear for his own soul because he felt that some of their evil was flowing into him when he worked on them. Alex Binnie said “when you open the flesh you let something in”, but that “something” flows both ways. There are at least three murderers that I know of that have been on the cover of BME, one of them a serial killer and another a child rapist and murderer. There are approximately a dozen current IAM members who have murdered, and about double that number that have committed violent rape (note: before you freak out, that's to be expected in a group this large).
Anyway, the reason I'm writing this here is I'd like to get your experiences. I will commit to keeping your identity anonymous (but I hope you'll not hide your identity from me because I want to try and keep the BS-level to a minimum). I believe that demonic encounters (define as you see fit) are not at all uncommon and that they're something many artists have gone through (whether you want to explain them on a religious level or just a “bad vibes” level). If you can, please answer the following questions:
- Describe your encounter with the demon — how did you know what they were? How did it hit you? Was it just a "feeling", or a series of visions, or something that triggered in other senses?
- What did they look like in real life? Did the mod they ask for reflect their nature (or the opposite) in any way?
- Do you identify beings of other "types" as well?
- Does this come to you only when opening the flesh, or does it come at other times?
- What did you do when you found out? Did you tell them? Did they know?
- What is your personal spiritual/religious view of the world? Did these events change them?
- What, if any, is your explanation for the encounter? (ie. Genuine religious experience, "bad vibes" amplified by a hangover, whatever).
Any other directions you'd like to expand are valid. I'd prefer if responses were emailed to me at media@bmezine.com (although if you'd rather IM me that's fine too). Again, you are more than welcome to write me anonymously, but if you can tell me who you are it would be immensely appreciated and I will keep your identity out of the article unless you explicity permit me to use it.
Note: If you think the above is nuts, please don't bother writing me about it. I'm perfectly aware that not everyone can see demons, and of course it must seem like madness to them.
