Posts Tagged ‘guitar player’

some Parkdale doors and windows

Posted: March 31, 2025 in doors, stores, windows and walls
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below: Have a seat!  Let me show you a few interesting and colourful doors and windows that I have seen along Queen Street West.

2 wood chairs outside a coffee shop

below: We’re all in this together. Recognize the font? the style?  It’s a throwback to Honest Eds.

sign in window that says we're all in this together

outside wall painted bright blue, window,

below: Passing in front of Bone & Busk store.

Front window with two corsets, one white, and one red, of bone and busk store on queen west

below: Art frames the windows

part of a street art mural that frames the windows in a store, reflections in the window

below: Facial time, with love from Pepe!

old black mailbox on a white wall, with poster above showing a woman getting a facial, black scrawl graffiti below the mailbox

below: An abstract painting of a musician in hot reds and oranges covers this door.

dark wood door frame, abstract painting in hot colors, reds, orange, and some yellow, covers most of the door.

below: Welcome, but closed.

metal gate in front of door of store with closed sign, also a sign that says welcome

below: Luigi plays Tetris

in the window of a store, a figurine of Luigi from Mario brothers, with a toy tetris game

below: Grocery Coffee

from across the street, front of Grocery Coffee with a table and two chairs outside

reflection of woman looking at pastries for sale in a bakery window,

two men talking outside a tattoo parlour on Queen West, both wearing toques

below: In a quiet niche, a guitar player finds a place to play.

man plays a guitar in doorway of closed restaurant and cafe, guitar case on ground, pictures in window

a woman walks past Lee's Variety on Queen West, store is painted red, with large window in front,

below: Advertising their wares, phone accessories, backpacks, incense sticks, cat dog food, ice, beer, and key cutting… and many more inside!

window of convenience store, key cutting, with ads on boards outside on sidewalk

below: T.dot Variety

t dot variety store with a tree growing in front of it

below: Gumby lies in the window of Tammy’s wearing white boots and pink thong.  Not the Gumby of your childhood!

rainbow coloured bench in front of Tammys window, Gumby with white boots and pink thong, holding a microphone,

below: Mailboxes and stickers

2 doors on a building, the one on the right is covered with stickers

below: A peachy scene

doorway alcove painted with abstract person's butt in the shape of a peach

green door, with 2 green milk crates sitting on the doorstep

below: Mary stands outside a window of Our Lady of Lebanon Church

part of a dark red brick church, with arched window, white statue of Mary in front of the church

looking in a restaurant window, plastic pink flower, with reflections of street

I have chosen to focus on the content or the character of the windows and doors at street level. There is at least one, and probably more, stories that could be told about the doors and windows of Parkdale from an architectural perspective (commercial, and then residential…). I will leave you with a couple of examples but I will have to save the rest of the subject for another post.

upper level of 2 storey building, brick, with six windows, and pattern of yellow bricks,

toronto city street sign, Queen Street West, Parkdale, showing the upper level of the buildings across the street

spring, stikmen and smiley hearts

Posted: April 9, 2018 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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graffiti words on a wall, black sharpie, Save us

It’s early April and we’re all tired of winter but it lingers on.   How are you coping?  Yes, you!

Cameron House mural on Queen Street West, woman in pink blouse is looking beyond the window to a man walking past.

below: Is this wishful thinking?  or maybe just a little too optimistic?

chalkboard sign on the sidewalk outside of a store on Queen Street West, sign says Spring is here

below: Spring is in the air?  They forgot the question mark.   Is the cat reacting to the disconnect between the sign and the reality? … or maybe  its expression is because it’s just realized that it’s sitting beside a book about Justin Trudeau?

sign in a store window that says spring is in the air. also some stuffed animals

These were the only signs of spring that I saw yesterday as I walked although I noticed that someone was trying to cheer things up.  Not sure how long these have been sitting outside.  They’re looking a little weather worn and grubby.  Hope may be wearing a bit thin?

small leafless shrub in the front yard of a house, small yellow fake flowers strung through the branches, the flowers are old and dirty.

below: Elsewhere yellow birdies were playing hockey.

two women are having their picture taken in front of Uber5000's mural about Toronto in the winter, little yellow birdies playing hockey.

Spring was elusive but what I did spot were a couple of stikmen that I don’t remember seeing before.   I also noticed more smiley hearts popping up in unexpected places again. First, some of the hearts…

smiley heart on pink wall with red spray paint lines around

pink smiley heart on a wall with lots of other colours, street art

small black line drawing of a heart on a metal pipe on a wall, pipe has been painted orange and red to blend in with a street art piece

below: Cool Woodstock makes an appearance too (a yellow birdie of a different kind).  I don’t think she’s too happy to have a bird sitting on her head.

street art on garages, a small yellow Woodstock cartoon character with black sunglasses, on top of a black drawing on white of a girl screaming, a little smiley heart and the word love is beside her ear.

below: The guitar player is now playing with heart.

part of mural of a guitar playing in shades of orange and red. A white piece of paper has been stuck on his chest, with a black smiley heart on it.

And the stikmen….

a broken stikman painted greyish blue on a greyish blue door where the paint is peeling and the wood is fraying

stikman on a white and blue wall

below: Instead of wooden, this stikman is a drawing in a frame.

picture of a green stikman in a little frame, on a wood gate, by a black and white stencil of a man's head

below: Is that a little orange head of a stikman in the bent frame?

….. and then back inside for some warmth!

interior of a coffee shop, people sitting at tables, people sitting on the bar by the window, a TTC streetcar is outside, passing by

I  will leave you with one last look at a window full of yellow chicks and Easter bunnies, hope for spring (Hope springs eternal? Hopes of spring are eternal?).

looking into a store window, that is decorated with little bunnies in Easter clothing, with little yellow chicks and paper flowers