smiles | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘smiles’

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.

yogathon

Posted: August 17, 2014 in events
Tags: #riseforthecause, bare feet, child pose, cobra, community, downward dog, exercise, fun, good cause, help, laughter, love, mats, peace, people, postitions, postures, raise money, smiles, stretch, Toronto, upward dog, yoga, yogathon, yogis

Yogathon, Dundas Square, 16 August

Group of people at 2014 yogathon, Dundas Square

The first yogathon was held in Toronto a few years ago.
Today’s was the 3rd annual yogathon and it has spread to 46 cities in 12 countries.

During one of the short breaks between sun salutations.

The goal? 108 Sun Salutations. Variations were introduced to keep it interesting.

Try yoga while holding hands!

Money raised goes to Care for Children who work with youth in rural India.

A woman talks the group at the yogathon through their yoga postures, positions and sun salutations.

Instructors took turns leading the group through their salutations.

Happiness, Hope, Peace, Trust, Love and Balance.

Family time too….

Two women are sitting on the ground and talking to each other. Their backs are to the camera. On the back of their Tshirts are the words 'no one ever drowned in their own sweat'.

No one ever drowned in their own sweat – great T-shirts!

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I was curious as to the meaning of JAIGURUDEV as written in chalk in the above picture. So I looked it up and this is one explanation that I found. It may not be the only interpretation but I liked it……

“You know there is a Big Mind and a small mind. Sometimes the Big Mind wins over the small mind and sometimes it is the other way around.

When the small mind wins over, it is misery and when the Big Mind wins, it is joy.

Small mind promises joy and leaves your hand empty. Big Mind may bring resistance in the beginning but fills you with joy.

The word Guru means great. Jaya means victory. Deva means one who is fun-loving, playful, light. One who is playful is often not dignified and when one is dignified, he is often not playful.

Jai Guru Dev is victory to the Big Mind in you that is both dignified and playful. That is what Jai Guru Dev means: “Victory to the Greatness in you.”

You do not say victory or hail to the Master as he has won over already. You say victory to your own Self, your own Mind, which is being veiled by the small mind.”

from: Guru Vaani at guruvaani.wordpress.com

pride parade

Posted: June 30, 2014 in events, people
Tags: asses, bananas, bare asses, bare bums, Bloor St., bums, chaps, colours, cops, crowds, fun, gay, girls, guys, laughs, men, parade, people, police, pride, rainbow, raunchy, silly, smiles, topless, Toronto, wigs, women, Yonge St.

Shooting the pride parade was a lot different from shooting the dyke march! The pride parade is much bigger and by necessity much more tightly controlled. I was able to walk alongside the women in the dyke march but the streets were barricaded and non-participants kept off the route for the pride parade.

crowds are behind barricades along the streets, policemen on motorcycles are waiting at the end of the street. parade hasn't started yet

looking west on Bloor towards Yonge.

I walked the first part of the route, along Bloor Street, just before the parade started. Lots of crowds were behind the metal bars; a few police were watching/ignoring me. When I turned the corner at Yonge St., I realized just how controlled the crowds were! I chose not to continue walking south on Yonge. A policeman opened the barricade enough to let me out. After that I walked amongst the crowds….. and saw nothing of the parade! Too many people! But they were interesting people and I enjoyed walking amongst them. …. until Dundas when there were so many people and no one could move. That’s was my cue to exit stage right.

So here’s a salute to all those who joined the fun. A little raunchy and a little over the top at times but all good.

Two women in banana costumes posing for the camera.

Kudos to these two ladies who showed up in banana costumes! I asked them if they were part of a group, but no, they’re just fruity they said. I hope they joined the parade had fun (and didn’t get too hot!… unless they peeled…. )

Two women, or men dressed as women, one in black and one in white. The one in white has a large black & white clockface behind her

timeless

A group of people are standing behind metal barricades waiting for the parade to start, some are waving and some are smiling. A group of three girls are wearing pink boas.

pink, with smiles, waiting for the parade to begin

A group of policemen and policewomen pose for a group shot before the pride parade

Before the parade started – They were actually posing for someone else… but I suggested that they look a little livelier, wave their hands or something…. thanks for obliging!

viewable, & captured, from all angles

One guy in red underpants (with Christmas bells attached to the front) is pointing to the bare bottoms of his two male friends. He is making an exaggerated facial expression of surprise and shock.

boys just wanna have fun

Two older men dressed in white are under a rainbow striped umbrella. One has a white boa, the other has a red boa.

keeping the sun away. These umbrellas were great – very photogenic!

A woman with very large and almost bare breasts. Her face is decorated

Two men are standing beind, and leaning on, the barricade. They are wearing multicoloured beads, incuding some very big beads that look more like balls for a Christmas tree

big grins! The one in blue was more game than his partner…. you could almost say that one in grey is grimacing more than grinning. Thanks guys!

A group of men are standing behind barricades.

He had such a wonderful smile and he seemed so happy that I couldn’t resist taking his picture.

four girls, each with a different coloured mask, like the ninja turtles TV characters wear.

ninjas, mostly unmasked

a boy is sitting on his father's shoulders

a better view!

many people lining the route of the pride parade on Yonge St.

The crowds at Yonge and Wellesley just as the parade reached that part of the route.

A row of people wearing hats in the foreground, looking across an empty street to a very large crowd behind barricades

How does one even start to calculate how many people were there?

A quick shot – he saw my camera, turned and quickly posed, and I got the shot. It wasn’t until I downloaded the photos that I saw the marvellous juxtaposition!

a group of four girls wearing rainbow curly wigs, frilly short skirts and rainbow striped socks are walking up the street between two rows of parade watchers

almost their own little parade!

streetcars at the intersection of Yonge & College, all corners are packed with people

stopping the parade to let the College/Carlton streetcar through

Two people are standing on the window sill of a large window. The woman is wearing a striped dress. She is texting. The guy beside her is topless, wearing grey shorts

She doesn’t seem to be having fun – standing in the window of Starbucks at College & Yonge.

Wall to wall people at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas. All you can see in the photo are people's heads.

I walked the parade route at about the same speed that the parade went. An hour and a half later, I reached Yonge & Dundas where the crowds were so thick no one could move.

Two boys are standing on a window ledge so they are above a crowd of people. The small boy doesn't look too happy.

At the corner of Yonge & Dundas – by the time I made it to this intersection, I was beginning to agree with the boy in green!

Two topless women are painted in big rainbow colours. Two clothed women are posing for a photo with them.

posing with the body painters – Body Art by Tania was the booth on Church St., near the start of the parade.

actoronto – AIDS Committee Toronto

*****

dyke march

Posted: June 29, 2014 in events, people
Tags: #dmto, #wemarch, bikes, cameras, costumes, crowds, dyke, dyke march, flags, gay, international ms. leather, leather, motorcycles, parade, photography, pink, posters, pride, queer, rainbow, signs, smiles, Toronto, umbrellas, watching, Yonge St.

The march finally got underway…..

Here is the first sample of the photos that I took as it passed by.

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******

Streetfest – Beaches Jazz Festival

Posted: July 26, 2013 in events
Tags: beach, Beach Boys food, beaches, churros, crowds, dancing, Dr. Draw, Erin McCallum, event, food, food trucks, gmmf, God Made Me Funky, Gorilla Cheese, happy, hats, jazz, Juice, kids, music, people, Phusion, Queen St. East, smiles, street, street festival, sunglasses, Toronto

Streetfest, part of the Beaches International Jazz Festival, was held 25, 26 and 27 July this year. About 2 km of Queen St. East is closed to traffic so pedestrians can enjoy the music provided by many bands representing a diverse array of music genres. On both Thursday and Friday evening when I was there the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was fun. I hope that I have been able to capture the spirit of the event!

Music, food, shopping, and most of all, people watching!