This year’s Dyke March (the 20th!) was an energetic, supportive, and positive celebration once again. It was led as usual by motorcycles and then Dykes on Bikes. Numerous groups and individuals walked and there was a good turnout that lined the sidewalks to watch the parade pass by. Colourful. Joyful.
#pride | #prideTO | #prideToronto
The Trans Rally and March, first of the Pride parades was last night (Friday).
below: If you were driving on Yonge street last night, perhaps you got stuck in traffic. Northbound cars on Yonge were stopped to allow the parade to cross from Bloor to Yonge. The parade continued in the southbound lanes which gave the stuck drivers and passengers a front row seat.
Last year it rained for the Trans March and in previous years the turn out was low. Whether it is because trans issues have been in the news a lot lately, or because the trans community is more visible, or because of other reasons, there were more people walking than usual.
below: Dave holding ‘Pulse’ a memorial artwork in honour of those who died at the Pulse nightclub Orlando. The piece was crocheted by Dave and the Craft Action Collective.
#loveislove | #lovealwayswins
July 1st falls on a Friday AND the weather forecast is looking good! I hope you have a chance to enjoy the day, however you choose to celebrate it. Happy Canada Day weekend! UPDATE – I uploaded this last night. This morning (July 1) I woke up to the sound of rain. Oh dear. Lesson learned, check your facts first! Maybe it’s just a good excuse to sleep in or have an extra cup of coffee while you laze around in your jammies!
Nuit Rose,
a festival of queer art and performance
On Saturday night events were held at a number of venues that were concentrated in two locations, along Queen St. West and in the Church-Wellesley village area. I hung out around two parks in the village, Norman Jewison Park which runs east of Yonge and Barbara Hall Park on Church street. In hindsight, I wish I had had more time, or had been more organized, to get to more of the events.
Red Pepper Spectacle Arts led a Light Parade that started at Norman Jewison park. A small contingent, most wearing or carrying a light-emitting object, walked through the park, along and then back down Church Street. From the – sparklers, glow sticks
to the more elaborate
below: and an eagle on stilts
below: Note to self: for night time parades take more photos at the start of the parade because once people start moving it’s more difficult to get them in focus!
below: Where else would you be able to sit on a unicorn and get your picture taken?
below: And after a unicorn pose, have your photo taken standing with a well-lit couple.
below: 360 degrees by Iain Downie, 360 stars, 60 in each of the six Pride colours in the garden.
below: Dance performance, ‘By Chance’ by Janessa Pudwell and Tanya Svazas Cronin.
We pass by hundreds of people on a daily basis who we may never see again. Sometimes we share a glance that lasts a bit longer. This piece is about the relationships that could be created if we acted on those glances. These are the fleeting chances, exchanged through our eyes that will never be fully realized. Instead these people may only appear once in our lives as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”
#nuitrose | #nuitroseTO | #nuitrosetoronto
The 10th annual Luminato festival is being held inside the old Hearn Generating Station in the Portlands. There are many theatrical, musical and visual events and the location itself is worthy of many, many photos. Rather than try to cover everything in one blog post, I’ve chosen to focus on mirrors and reflections to begin with. First, there is the giant ‘disco ball’ that keeps light circulating around the massive interior of the Hearn and second, an installation by Jordan Soderberg Mills features three interesting and entertaining mirrors.
‘One Thousand Speculations’ is the name of the giant ball that is suspended from the ceiling. At 7.9m in diameter, it is the world’s largest mirror ball. It is the creation of Canadian artist Michel de Broin and was commissioned for the 2013 Luminato festival where it hung from a crane over David Pecaut Square. One thousand mirrors reflect the light from a spotlight on the floor and as the ball slowly turns, the lights move around the ceiling, walls, and floor of the Hearn.
below: As seen from the ground floor level.
below: Close up. The top level is quite close to the ball.
below: Someone, somewhere, has a picture of his friend ‘holding up’ the giant ball!
below: And the reverse angle, from the top looking down.
Lots of irregular shapes of light moving around the space.
The Luminato website describes the mirrors involved in the installation by Jordan Soderberg-Mills as “anaglyphic mirrors that play with physics, perception and colour”. Now you’re probably wondering what anaglyphic means. It’s a word that comes from the science of 3D pictures. There is no concise definition! It is a picture that consists of two slightly different perspectives of the same subject in contrasting colours that are superimposed on each other, producing a three-dimensional effect when viewed through two correspondingly coloured filters. Phew. In practice, it makes for a mirror that is fun to play with…. and people did play!
below: As seen from the upper level, three vertical mirrors and four circular mirrors.
The best walks are those where you discover things that you weren’t expecting.
Slices of pool cues and wood, toy figures and animals, as well as small bits and pieces have been put together with patience and imagination. The methodical, artistic work of Albino Carreira covers his garage in a lane. It looks like a work in progress.
below: Rising above the garage is a sculpture that resembles a spinal column with its stacked vertebrae. Albino Carreira was a construction worker who came to Toronto from Portugal in 1972 as a young man. In 1993 he fell from scaffolding on a job site, cracked his skull and broke his spine. Albino survived the fall and doctors were able to fix his skull with metal plates and reconstruct his backbone with pieces of bone from his leg.
below: As you can see, one side of the garage is painted bright red, blood red perhaps.
But it is also a vibrant red, full of life.
below: The north side of the garage (the side you can’t see in the first picture) is covered with slabs of polished stone with marbles in the grouting between the stones. All parts of the pool cues were used, including the rubber bumper ends in the pattern seen here.
below: The wasps have found it and they must like it too.
below: Some examples of the eclectic assortment of objects that have been used…. skulls, Santa Claus, beetles, butterflies, gold golfers, figurines, and champagne corks. I spent quite a bit of time looking at the details, but then again that’s the sort of thing that I like to do. I find it rewarding to discover little things that other people might pass over.
As I wrote this blog post, I kept thinking that I should go back to see if there was anything that I missed… and then I learned that his house is also decorated in a similar manner so now going back is definitely in my future!
Running east from Christie subway station behind the stores on Bloor West is an alley. There are a few murals there, either in the lane or visible from the lane. Below are pictures of five of them, although the last one is more graffiti than mural.
The largest of these murals is ‘Under the Radar’, or at least those are the words painted on the mural. It is on three sides of a building that backs onto the alley.
below: East side of the building
below: The back of the building
below: “Painting to the artist is like flight to the bird. Freedom”
below: West side of the building
below: White on black, a mural signed as @oskwong @release852 (2 photos)
below: The central portion – it looks like the devil and maybe an angel? Good vs evil?
below: This mural is signed, ‘the Loft’ which is an acronym for Life Opportunities Food and Technology, a program run by the Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre.
below: A bicycle riding alligator.
below: White fish bones contrast with a bright orange garage door.
below: It’s not very often I have to watch out for a Mercedes AND a Ferrari in the lane!
The 6th Annual Yorkville Exotic Car Show was on Bloor Street yesterday, Fathers Day. There were 11 different groups, or corrals, of cars…. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin, Maserati, and many other car makers were represented. There was lots of sun and lots of people!
below: A line of Lamborghinis parked on Bloor Street.
The cars were behind ropes and the spectators had a red carpet to walk on.
below: A cute little 1959 BMW Isetta 300.
There are no side doors; the front of the car swings open with the steering wheel attached.
below: A black BMW i8 electric car with its front scissor doors open.
below: Porsche, with German plates
below: Mercedes GTS
below: Chevrolet Belair convertible, with matching fuzzy dice
below: A Porsche from the 1960’s with its engine in the back.
Not much trunk room in this car!
below: Another Porsche, a 1961 Roadster
below: Pink and pink. Standing in front of a pink Bousoughini from BGarage Ltd.
below: Morgan in two shades of blue, from the front.
below: Same Morgan, but from the back.
below: Shelby, from the 1960’s
below: Tuscan Speed Six by TVR (British)
below: Pininfarina is an Italian car design company.
below: Photos of reflections in the front of a Rolls Royce.
It seems I’m not the only one who takes reflection shots.
below: “Stop and we’ll build” in Bloordale Village, an area along Bloor St. West between Dufferin St. and Lansdowne Ave.
Last Saturday was Bloordale’s third annual community garage sale and laneway crawl. Many front yards were full of items for sale. A couple of families were selling homemade food and there was at least one lemonade stand.
I walked the area fairly early in the morning so many of the activities were just getting set up. There were things to do and games to play in the alleys and in Susan Tibaldi park. I have blogged previously about this area so last Saturday I only took pictures of things that were new. There weren’t very many changes in the alleys.
below: We are Starlight, we are golden…. **
below: … and it seems that we were all born in outer space. Lovebot and some friends.
Along the side of a building on Jenet Ave I found a large mural of three faces painted by Shalak, Fiya and Bruno Smoky. It faces a parking lot and there were cars in the way. I took some photos anyhow; I think you should be able to see the faces reasonably well.
below: Two women, the one on the left was painted by Shalak while the one on the right is by Fiya.
below: The mustached man and his fish was painted by Bruno Smoky.
below: Remnants of old Rob Ford graffiti still remain around the city including this doorway.
below: This building on Brock Street on has been empty for years.
below: The front of 668 Brock Ave with its Salvation Army ghost sign. In 1921 it was home to the Brock Avenue People’s Mission while next door at 666 Brock Ave., the Number 16 Corps of the Salvation Army was stationed. Its history since then is still a mystery to me.
below: At the not so picturesque corner of Lansdowne and Paton Rd., I found a metal fence. A sign on it says that it is the ‘Lansdowne Fence Temporary Artwork’ by artists Scott Eunson and Marianne Lovink, commissioned by the TTC in 2010. But why is the TTC involved with this vacant lot?
below: And as you can see, it’s a large lot. As it turns out, this was the site of the TTC Lansdowne Carhouse up until 1996. Although the carhouse was classified as a heritage building, it was demolished in 2003. The land has been vacant ever since.
below: Lansdowne carhouse, 1996, photo credit: Robert Lubinksi, TTC collection, found online.
below: A new mural has been painted on the side of the South Indian Dosa Mahal restaurant at the corner of Emerson and Bloor. It is the creation of SPUD and his team with the support of StreetARToronto and the Bloordale BIA. It’s probably the biggest tiger cub in Toronto!
below: Dasdardly Whiplash in his latest role as a graffiti artist near Lansdowne subway station.
below: Small places of worship are scattered all over the city. Many are in buildings once used for other purposes, including (by the looks of it) this one, the Belarusan Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Parish of St. Kiryla of Turau. Trivia #1 of the day: autocephalous is “self-headed” and in this context refers to a church whose bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. Trivia #2: St. Kiryla (c.1130 – 1182) was an eloquent and poetic preacher in Turau which is south of Minsk and east of Warsaw. And on that note I will move on before I end up writing a treatise on Eastern Orthodox religions.
below: Not your average patio!
And last, let’s finish with a splash of bright summer sunshine!
** yes, I know I’ve misquoted
Summer in the city – enjoying the summer weather!
below: Toronto street art in Graffiti Alley.
below: skateboarders
below: Enjoying a quiet moment, late afternoon.
below: Painting shingles – June 4th was 100 in One Day, a day where community activites are promoted. One of the activities on Kenwood Lane was shingle painting.
below: Running through the fountains at Yonge Dundas Square
below: World Naked Bike Ride participants cycle through Kensington.
below: Relaxing at Nathan Phillips Square. #sitTO is a campaign to increase the number of places to sit in public spaces.
below: Distillery District
below: Patio, College Street
as I walk Toronto 