as I walk Toronto

alley creatures

Posted: September 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, bandana, boat, devil, dmc, dog, fork, garage door, graffiti, horns, lane, red, red roses, skull, street art, sunglasses, Toronto

Creatures on walls and garage doors, all seen yesterday between Dundas & Palmerston and College & Bathurst.

AIDS walk

Posted: September 14, 2014 in events
Tags: #aidswalkto, AIDS, awareness, carnations, downtown, HIV, in memory, MCGP, Miss Teen Canada, people, posters, red, red ribbons, remembering, SIDA, sign, walk, walkathon, walkers, Yonge St.

AIDS Walk, 13 September

Beginning at Yonge Dundas Square…..

Getting dressed and ready to walk.

Making posters to carry in the walk.

….. north up Yonge Street…..

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. A Sikh man wearing a red turban is holding up a poster about treating and defeating AIDS.

Test. Treat. Defeat.

The walk made its way to the AIDS Memorial in Barbara Hall Park on Monteith Street (near Church and Wellesley).
Here, each walker was given a red carnation to leave at the memorial.

A group of people is winding its way through a park in which there are short concrete pillars. Each pillar has plaques on it with the names of the people from Toronto who have died of AIDS. Red carnations have been placed by the plaques O

Winding their way past the names of those from Toronto who lost their lives to AIDS.

The memorial was opened late in 1992 and dedicated during Pride Week in 1993.
There are about 2700 names now engraved on the plaques. New names are added once a year.

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. A group of volunteers is cheering on those who have walked so far. They are standing on the sidewalk.

Enthusiastic volunteers cheer on the walkers.

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. Miss Teen Canada winners, seven of them, are walking as a group. They have stopped to have their photo taken.

A cheerful Team Miss Canada Globe stopped for me for a few moments.

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Money raised in the walk goes to support act (AIDS Committee Toronto).

A small group of people is holding a banner in the walk. The banner says Scotiabank AIDS Walk, in support of ACT . A C T is AIDS committee Toronto.

The lead group in the walk.

Link to the official Toronto AIDS walk website

women on David French Lane

Posted: September 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, arm, faces, garages, graffiti, heads, lane, mask, paper, red lips, street art, Toronto, women

David French lane runs between Borden St. and Brunswick Ave., south of Bloor. I know that I have posted some of the graffiti on the garages in the lane before. Most of those garages have since been covered with ugly and boring tags. There isn’t as much of interest there these days…. but I did see the following today.

Street art piece of two large women's heads. One is blue and she's wearing a black mask.

Masked and unmasked

A stencil (on paper) almost life sized woman wearing shorts and a Tshirt. She has a metal arm with a vice grip hand that looks sort of robot like.

Waiting in the doorway. Note the trashy tags around her.

smoochies!

Graffiti man's head with red eyes and mouth. Red paint that looks like blood dripping is above him.

Ooops, that’s not a woman!

another Kensington alley

Posted: September 4, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: all seeing, alley, blue eye, colours, eyes, faces, graffiti, grin, heads, Kensington, lane, people, red eye, smile, street art, Toronto, trees, wise

Back in May I posted some photos from a small dead end alley in Kensington.

This past weekend I took some pictures in a different Kensington alley.

Take a look 🙂

Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane. Close up of a pair of grey eyes. Bottom part of face is obscured, including her cheeks.

Eyes hold a fascination for me.

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The top part of a woman with long black hair and wearing a white and blue dress is standing amongst many tree trunks.... Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane. There is a broom, a mop, and two large buckets on the sidewalk in front of her.

It looks like she is in the midst of cleaning. Mop, broom and buckets handy.

Colourful graffiti in a Kensington lane stencils of heads, one dark blue and one purple.

twins, similar but not identical

summer days

Posted: September 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: balcony, city, CN Tower, condo construction, culture, festival, filipino, food, kids, kultura, love, music, Music Garden, padlocks, people, performance, photos, summer, Toronto, Wychwood barns

The day after Labour Day, the official end of summer get back to school day.

So here are a few photos of the lazy hazy days of this summer past…..

two sisters are hugging while having their picture taken in front of a large wire mesh heart. The word LOVE is spelled in large wire mesh letters. People have locked padlocks onto the wires.

summer love, in the Distillery District

Looking down at a man who is sitting on his balcony and reading a book. Across the street is an open hole where a new condo is being constructed

‘On a Toronto balcony’… or, ‘Looking out my window’

A boy dress in shorts and holding a plastic bucket is watching a group of men and women practise a performance that includes long bamboo poles.

Watching performers practise at Kultura, the Filipino Arts Festival, Wychwood Barns.

A path leads through a garden, there is a group of people sitting in the park. The CN Tower is in the distance.

Hanging out at the Music Garden, on the waterfront.

always in the way

Posted: September 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: church, city, CN Tower, downtown, graffiti, Music Garden, photos, sculpture, skyline, skyscrapers, Toronto

If you can’t beat them, join them.

No matter where I went this summer, I seemed to always find the CN Tower lurking in the background.
It photobombs a lot of pictures! 🙂

A bright red tugboat is tied up in the foreground. Many glass windows of many condos are in the photo. The top of the CN tower is peaking up over the top of the condos on Toronto's waterfront.

The M.R. Kane, a bright red tugboat sits tied up at the waterfront near the foot of Spadina Ave. The CN Tower stands tall above the condos the line Queens Quay West.

An SUV and a red truck are parked in a parking lot. On the left side of the picture are two walls that are covered with graffiti. The CN Tower is above one of those walls.

behind graffiti walls in a parking lot on College Street

Black eyed Susan flowers in the foreground, some taller buildings including the CN tower in the background. There is also a tall thin sculpture (decorated pole?) in the picture

Trying to hide behind the sculpture in the Music Garden, waterfront

The pink wall of faces is a fountain and it is on the left side of the photo. People at the ex and the CN Tower are also in the photo.

…. and at the Ex too!

The CN Tower and the Toronto skyline as seen from the east part of downtown Toronto.

Where Eastern Ave. joins Richmond Street East before they cross the Don River.

Part of a bright red metal sculpture is in the foreground. The CN tower is in the background (the top part of it anyhow)

Lurking under sculptures….

Part of the stone church, St. Andrews Presbyterian, dominates the photo. Part of a tree, the edge of a skyscraper and the CN Tower are on the right side of the photo.

Peeking out from behind St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on King St. at Simcoe.

a section of Yonge Street

Posted: September 1, 2014 in locations
Tags: adult, arches, bar burrito, Blugod, books, brick, city, condoms, convenience, cuban cigars, Darvish Persian, doors, downtown, Elliots bookstore, flag, heritage, historic, lucky sister, mansard roof, massage, mobilicity, ndj books, north bound leather, pedestrians, Pinky Nails, Pizzaiolo, spas, storefronts, stores, street, tattoos, three storey, Tokyo Grill, Toronto, urban, windows, Yonge

Toronto is undergoing a massive amount of redevelopment these days. When I walk around this city I see older buildings that I often wonder about – are they going to still be around in 2 years? 5 years?
….that is what happened yesterday when I was on Yonge St. between Bloor and College. I took a few pictures, just in case these buildings disappear in the near future.

row of three storey buildings on Yonge St. Brick buildings with storefronts on the ground floor.

Looking south (and a bit west) from just below Bloor Street.

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At the intersection of Yonge & Wellesley.

We’ll see what happens in the next few years!

downtown glass

Posted: August 30, 2014 in locations
Tags: blue sky, downtown, glass, King St., reflections, Roy Thomson Hall, Simcoe St., St. Andrews church, streetcar, sunshine, Toronto, TTC, urban, windows

Reflections I noticed as I walked up Simcoe and across King this afternoon.

Reflections in the building across the street, some women are walking by with their bicycles, a street car is just coming into view.

I often see tourists stopped here to take photos. I decided that it was my turn today. The CN Tower is also reflected in this building, along with St. Andrews Church.

More downtown reflections of tall buildings.

Curved window beside the entrance to St. Andrews subway station.

Two small trees in the foreground. Some tall buildings reflected in the windows of another building are behind the trees.

Roy Thomson Hall just sneaks into the lower left corner of the picture.

Reflections of streetlights in a window, lots of horizontal blue bars are in the windows too.

My selfie for the day!

Toronto, block by block

Posted: August 28, 2014 in general Toronto, landmarks
Tags: city, city hall, CN Tower, CNE, Ex, lego, Lego Discovery Center, Legoland, lights, models, nathan phillips square, Vaughan Mills

A different perspective on the city –

Legoland (Vaughan Mills) model of some of the buildings in Toronto

A lego model of some of the buildings in downtown Toronto

downtown Toronto, CN Tower, bank buildings, the CNE

City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square. Streetcar tracks but not much traffic on the streets!

buskerfest 2014

Posted: August 26, 2014 in events, people
Tags: #samsungsbbf, Ariel, art, balloons, buskers, chalk, chalk chick, clowns, crowds, dogs, DyneMike, entertainment, epilepsy toronto, great dane, littlest mermaid, music, ninja turtles, people, performances, photos, ponies, screech, Screeched Inn, shows, sidewalk, silver Elvis, smiles, stilts, street performers, toast, Toronto, touch2catch, Yonge St.

Buskerfest 2014

Yonge Street was closed from College to Queen for the event.

Yonge St. at Dundas, barrier across Yonge St. as it is pedestrians only. Lots of signs, lots of people,

Yonge Street on the Saturday afternoon of Buskerfest, looking north from Dundas Street

A man dressed in green is on stilts as he walks up Yonge St.

Hovering above the crowd.

There were street performers……

A group of four people are on stilts but dressed in very long pants. Two are playing a drum and two are playing shaking instruments. They are walking down Yonge St. People are on the sidewalks watching them. Street performance as part of buskerfest.

towering over the audience as they walk down Yonge Street

A performer is on a very tall unicycle. He is juggling lit torches as he slowly goes around in a tight circle.

DyneMike, playing with fire on high

A street performer is using a diabolo to entertain a crowd of people who are sitting and standing on the sidewalk around him.

This guy, part of Touch2Catch, was amazing to watch. Great diabolo action!

A performer has been launched into the air. He is holding a large ring that is on fire. He is turning himself through the ring while in the air.

more Touch2Catch – jumping through a ring of fire

One of the street performers from the group Touch2Catch is doing a side flip over a man who is on all fours on the street.

side flip over Dimitri

A picture of buskerfest is displayed on an electronic billboard.

Samsung was putting tweets and instagram postings with their buskerfest hashtag on the electronic billboard above Yonge & Dundas. At one point I looked up and saw this one. A great photo! She captured an unobscured view of the exact moment the performer from Touch2Catch did a side flip over five people.

A woman has taken the silver guitar from Silver Elvis and is pretending to play it while hamming it up for the small group of people that are watching.

sharing the limelight with Silver Elvis …. or taking over? All in good fun!

A woman is having her picture taken with a performer who is dressed in a white dress made of balloons. She has balloon wings and white feathers in her hair.

Photo op with an angel in white balloons. Balloon dresses are available from The Twisted Ones

A street performer is twisting the upper part of his body in order to fit it through a tennis racquet.

What one does in the name of entertainment – putting one’s shoulders through a tennis racquet…. don’t try it at home kids.

….. music

A toast to the cod, screeching in at Dundas Square. The Screeched Inn performed on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square, their “kitchen party”.

All money raised by performers on the stage at Yonge-Dundas Square went to Epilepsy Toronto.
In addition, Samsung donated $1 to Epilepsy Toronto for every tweet of buskerfest that included the hashtag #samsungsbbf

….. sidewalk artists

A woman is using chalk to make a large picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the sidewalk

ninja turtles taking shape on the sidewalk (artist: the Chalk Chick)

A chalk drawing of Ariel, the little mermaid in the Disney movie on a sidewalk. A man's legs are also in the photo.

Ariel, Disney’s little mermaid is on the sidewalk. Another drawing by the Chalk Chick.

… and curious kids, entertained kids

Some children are watching buskers perform by peeking through a gap in the red and white plastic banners that are the backdrop to the show.

vantage point

A dog, a Great Dane, is standing in front of two women dressed as clowns on pink and white ponies. The dog has barked at them and they are reacting by making faces and moving back

Some dogs don’t like clowns either. Great Danes have quite the bark!

A large electronic billboard high above Yonge St. A picture of one of my buskerfest tweets is being displayed.

a narcissistic moment

With thanks to the Second Cup on Mt. Pleasant where I hung out while putting this blog entry together.

as I walk Toronto

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