Month: March 2013

Here’s Helen Andersen, my mother, painted by her mother before I was born. Helen died in 1995 and when her husband Raabye died 10 years later, most of her paintings were thought to be lost. Water damage had claimed them… or so we thought.
This week, out of the blue, a message arrived informing us that perhaps as many as 30 of Helen’s smaller works had survived. They were discovered in the apartment building where Raabye had lived. The building’s new owners were told that the neglected works were apparently not not wanted by anyone.

Isn’t this painting of Anado fresh, loose and full of personality? I love the colours, too. Anado wanted to buy it but Lloyd generously made a gift of it.
Anado is evidently an inspiring character. From his website:

“Anado has led an exciting, glorious, laborious, irreverent, spirited, delicious, ordinary yet eventful life. He was born in Oklahoma and spent his first 19 years there. At age 20 his soul was psychedelicized and the imprint of the late 60’s…”

You can see more of Lloyd’s work here. Read on to see some of Lloyd’s Anado shots:

“Critics of Rob Ford, Toronto’s laughable bumblefuck of a mayor…”

I had to LOL when I read this item about how His Worship is in hot water over remarks about his high school football coachin’. Geez, it’s tough enough mayorin’. Then they pick on you for being a child-saving hero. What a bunch of ingrates.

Top left, iPhone shot of our calamari pizza. Beside that, the Italian postcard/coupon that comes with the bill.

Brian and I were the first customers to arrive on Good Friday at 11:30 a.m. Shortly thereafter the place was packed. (Customers included one two-year old, bawling very loudly… please, parents, any chance for a bit of consideration?)
We had heard good things and were there to explore.

Marimekko was a Finnish art collective whose eye-popping fabrics literally covered Toronto back in the 60s and 70s. The show at the Textile Museum made us feel as if we’d stepped into a time machine. We found out today that the exhibit has been extended to May 12th, so make the trip. It is very trippy.
The Textile Museum is right downtown, near Dundas and University Avenue. Easy to get to on the subway. You can even get free passes at your local library if you have a library card. Danica and I like to go around the corner for a good Chinese food lunch on Dundas when we visit.

Canadian Kyle collected video support from celebrities for Emily, his Australian girlfriend. She is recovering in Australia from surgery for a cancerous brain tumour. Her birthday arrived before Kyle could be at her side in Oz, so he put the video together. In it, everyone wishes Emily well. I do too, of course. [Story]
There was a message in the video for me as well as for Emily. The only celebrity I recognized was Regis Philbin who once ran a talk show I never watched and a game show, ditto. None of the others, kind as they were to participate, looked at all familiar to me.

Danica and I finally made it over to visit Jo in her new digs at Delmanor Retirement Suites (Wow! Wonderful life style). Since she was treating us to lunch at the in-house restaurant, we wanted to bring a little hostess gift.
We have an outstanding florist just at the top of Beach Hill… East of Eliza (on Gerrard, east of Woodbine, actually). Our friends don’t need another knick knack to dust and we don’t want to bring gifts of fattening food or candy. Tastes in wine vary and some don’t drink anyway. Flowers are perfect. East of Eliza flowers are super fresh, fragrant and stylish.

Just listen to what this lady does with a Korean gayageum! I hope you find this, Min, Julianna, Jol and Merrill. Everybody else, too… enjoy!

Lovely Ethiopian restaurant on the Danforth near Woodbine. I asked, “How do you pronounce the name of the restaurant? Heer-ROOT?” “Correct”, the charming lady replied. “That’s also my name!”
Danica, Kathleen and I ordered 3 dishes so that we could share and get a variety of tastes. The first dish to arrive might have been enough for all of us! It was a great, big platter of delicious piles of various beans, chick peas, a hard boiled egg, some chicken, ground beef, lettuce/avocado salad, a melange of other vegetables… all sitting on a bed of Ethiopian bread. You use the bread to scoop up your food. Extra rolls of the same bread are provided, as your utensils. (We cheated a bit and asked for a knife to divvy things up. The ladies also used forks.)

When she was a little girl and complained that she had nothing to do, Danica’s mother would say (in Czech), “Take off all your clothes and run around naked”.
Here, in Stana’s memory, Shelley Silverstein’s Nothing To Do…