Toronto | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘Toronto’

beside 530 Richmond West

Posted: September 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: birds, Bruno Smokey, chickens, ears, eyes, face, faces, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, Kevin Ledo, kid, man, mural, old man, Shalak Attack, skeleton, street art, Toronto, uber5000, woman

There is a mural in the lane way that runs beside 530 Richmond Street West (and connects with Graffiti Alley). It was completed earlier this summer. It is a collaborative effort by Shalak Attack (woman’s face), Kevin Ledo (child’s face), Uber5000 (blue cat) and Bruno Smokey ( man).

A large mural on the side of a building in a lane. Three or 4 people are taking pictures of it.

A number of people were taking pictures when I was there.

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building, a large multicoloured woman's face. She is wearing earrings that look like skeletons

death dangles from her ears

part of a large mural, a picture of a smiling small boy wearing a light blue cap. It is very large.

grimaces? smiles?

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building

ghetto cat

part of a large mural showing the bottom part of a blue cat that is standing on two legs. Under his legs are 2 Uber chickens and one is saying Pizza. Another chicken is sitting on the cat's tail and he wants tacls. There is a clock on the cat's tummy.

I guess it’s dinner time…. pizza, tacos and beets!

part of a large mural, a very large wrinkly man's face with large eyeballs and large ears

eyes to the right

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building, a small uber chicken is being held between two fingers of a very large pair of hands

chicken fingers

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.

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!

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