Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
The Lee's Palace Mural is Dead! Long Live the Lee's Palace Mural!
Peeve Patrol
Third Floor, First Rate
Polling Booth: "Kick a Ginger" Controversy
When TTC spokesperson (and esteemed Torontoist commenter) Brad Ross contacted YouTube superstars Syrus and Randal, they figured they were about to be hit with a cease and desist for their parody music video "I Get On (the TTC)." Turns out he just wanted to invite the pair to today's public TTC meeting at City Hall to honour them and give them free January metropasses.
Their mention was the first order of business, with TTC chair Adam Giambrone introducing the young men and leading the room in applause before playing the video. The cult hit was greeted with smiles and appreciative chuckles (and even some bopping in place from Mayor David Miller).
Then the floor was handed over to Syrus, who drew laughter when he gave his reason for making the video: "We were bored." Mayor Miller praised the guys for being smart enough to film in the stations without permission (more laughter) and called their video "fun and whimsical." "In the '80s," Miller said, "I remember 'Spadina Bus' was the cool song about the TTC, but I think you have eclipsed it."
Photos by Amanda Factor.
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Glad these kids are getting some exposure, but that song sucks worse than Thorarinn Jonsson.
Before Adam Giambrone and Brade Ross the TTC would have chastised the artists for filming on TTC property without permission and issued a No Comment on the content.
Add the increased service and technology upgrades and things are starting to look up...
good for them, man.
I don't understand — is it the End Times? Have dogs and cats begun living together?
Giambrone has a creepy and fake-looking smile.
It's nice to see the TTC recognize these artists for creating a good music video.
I'd like to give credit where credit is due here.
TTC Chief General Manager Gary Webster suggested to me that we invite Randal and Syrus to the meeting and present them each with a Metropass. I'm glad we were able to do this - it was a lot of fun.
Happy holidays, Toronto, from everyone at the TTC.
Brad Ross
I love this song.
I really liked this song, and had shared it widely, until I noticed the "fag" comment. I don't really think calling someone a fag -- in any context, let alone one as incidental as touching legs on the TTC -- is "fun and whimsical."
@jenito: they edited that out within days after they uploaded it. The one currently up is the one that received media coverage and is the one seen by most people.
The "fag" interjection bothered me when I noticed it, too. It's arguably in the same satirically over-macho tone as the "super-straight" line, but they later use another interjection to puncture the tough-guy posturing directly ("...comin' from where I'm from..." "Scarborough!?"). So we have to decide if we're supposed to laugh at or with the "fag" remark, with the structure of the text unfortunately suggesting that the answer is with.
Unstable irony's a bastard; it's almost indistinguishable from sloppiness.
@jenito: if you read the comments thread in my original article about the first video (the one with "fag") in it, you can see Syrus respond to the criticism about that. (It's up to you whether you buy the excuses offered or not.) As Vik noted, they uploaded a new video as a direct result of that criticism.
Thanks for the updates, guys. I'm not sure if the revision/excision is better or worse, but I'm glad it was brought to their attention.