Toronto, Canada.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.

But I must be dreaming out loud, because somehow the Lord has smitten us all with this awful plague.

Seventeen million pounds... sorry... kilograms... of snow, eh?

I keep oscillating between believing that global warming is bullshit and believing that I should be burning my wool clothing. I still can't decide.

Toronto seems to be having an identity crisis. It thinks it's Oslo. Perhaps it's the early winter blast. All I know is that everything here is clean, cool, well designed and ridiculously expensive.

I love it.

Chicago, USA

A complete train wreck.

The Jerry Springer show isn't high culture. You pretty much know what to expect the second that you walk in the door. That being said, it's impossible to truly understand the absolute depravity of the human condition that exists on that show.

The people on stage are not the real attraction. It's the audience members.

Tattoos on necks. A complete disregard for cleanliness and decency. Obese retarded people.

We sat in front of a homeless vagrant who kept belching and singing.

I still have no idea what the show was about.

There was plenty of fighting. Plenty of public nudity. Plenty of interventions waiting to happen.

But in the end, it was rather boring. Because you expect the unexpected... there's no surprise. It's all ridiculous. All absurd. All predictable.

Jerry Springer has been doing this show for 17 years now. I have no idea how he does it with a straight face.

I guess it's easier than being mayor.

Austin, USA

Austin, Texas has always been a vibrant combination of youth, music, energy and technology.

However, the word got out.


Suddenly, all these people who were told that "Austin is cool" have moved here.



The city is ripe with high-tech, high-rise condos. There are hip pan-asian health food boutiques. Everyone has a California drivers license, blond hair and excellent teeth.


It's like parachuting in to an episode of The Real World.


The whole city is obsessed with maintaining that edge, a remarkably difficult task.


Unfortunately, becoming 'hip' tends to outprice the truly hip away.

It's a double edged sword. Austin used to be 'cool', but there was extremely little to do.



Now, it seems that they've paved parking lot, put up a paradise.