You do see some strange things around Toronto. I’ve got three to report:
1) While I was moving in furniture and driving along John St. to Queen West, the car was swarmed by about 40 skateboarders, many in punk-esque white shirts and skinny ties. They stopped in the intersection, shook their boards in the air (like Critical Mass), lay on the ground and did fake midair ollies, and then took off. Strangely synchronized…
2) The morning after Nuit Blanche, Zhan, Ed, Michelle and I were having brunch at Cora’s… and saw Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) two booths down from us. Surprising that he goes for $10 brunch…
3) Paul and I were walking past Trinity-Bellwoods and saw a sack sitting next to the sidewalk. When people walked by, the sack would start yelling at them, and poke out a few puppets. Mostly, it was just surprising to find out that someone was inside the sack…
And, of course, Nuit Blanche itself – two weeks ago, from 7pm to 7am there were dozens of art exhibits, performances and galleries open for entertainment. A lot of the events seem to be taking place in public pools, which was… uh… an unusual place to see art performances. Entertaining, although the quality wasn’t as high as I’d hoped. It was great to see hordes of people streaming around the streets at 3am on a cold, rainy night!
The photo on the right was one of the performances: “How to respond in the event of an emergency.” It was a long sequence, involving some faked fracas on the sidewalk, and then the arrival of two “police” officers who proceeded to tango. I like the randomness of the idea, and the way it messes with your expectations in a public space.
Man you are making me want to go to Toronto which is wierd because I went there once and did not like it too much. I want to give it another chance. I don’t know if I could live there, but I would like to explore it a bit. Thank you for the slight change in my perspective!
Where did you actually go in Toronto? I’ve heard many people say the same thing – but it often turns out that they just visited relatives in Mississauga or North York. Downtown Toronto is a totally different beast.
But I think Toronto’s very unfriendly to Tourists. It’s a very opaque city – there are amazing neighbourhoods, but even locals are often unaware of them. I think you need either a) one year living there, or b) a friend who knows the city inside-out and can show you around.
As you might have guessed, I’m very fond of the city, in ways that many might find hard to understand.
I think I was downtown. My brother was attending U of T at the time so I saw the campus a bit and I forget where he lived but it was somewhere nearby and still downtown-nish. A bit of it may have been that I was still younger and I could see a particular type of culture there but imagined it as being completely unaccessible. Cause I looked like a kid from Regina?? I don’t know. But…like I said above…I should go back some time.