1995 was a pretty good year. Still reeling from the death of Kurt Cobain we found some sweet solace in the likes of Hayden, a Canadian musician who hasn’t only survived the 90’s but did pretty well then too. With his debut album, Hayden introduced us to his super-slowed-down folk style and his super-low-down voice. We liked it, and continue to. Since then Hayden has gone on to record a whole bunch of really good music; his song-writing has steadily improved. I especially like his the story-telling style of his music and the fact that, as demonstrated on his famous live album, he can really do a lot with just a guitar and his voice.

Bad as it Seems (1995)

If you ever watched wrestling in the mid-to-late 90’s then you might have heard of Dwayne Johnson, The Rock. He was a bit of a dink, kind of full of himself, but a really good wrestler. He has this catch phrase, an insult really, he’d use the term “jambroni”. If you’re a moron, according to The Rock, you’re a “jambroni”—and who better to tell you you’re a moron than a professional wrestler.

That said, whenever the name “Adam Giambrone” came up in the news, the first thing I thought of was The Rock. And the name came up often: as the head of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) that tends to happen. But this week Giambrone’s been in the news for another reason, for being a “jambroni,” as The Rock would say.

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If you’ve been following the stories surrounding the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) then maybe you’ve heard about today’s little press scrum. If not, let me fill you in on the events of the past few weeks to bring you up to speed.

Criticism of Toronto’s transit authority began when a picture, and then another picture, of a sleeping TTC employee surfaced online. The picture showed a TTC ticket-taker asleep in his booth, feet kicked back, having a grand old nap. Following that, videos, pictures, and anecdotal reports began appearing online depicting TTC employees engaging in all manner of bad behaviour. Some were sleeping, some were rude, and some were taking ten to twenty minute coffee breaks with a bus load of passengers.

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