Month: November 2013

For months, Google has been trying to suck me into participation in its Google Plus social media thingy. I eluded their efforts until today, when they tricked me (or coerced me?) and linked my Youtube account to all the rest of their customer tracking “services”. As you may have guessed, I’ve had enough.
I cancelled all my Googly accounty stuff. I can still use Google’s search algorithm… and that’s the most useful thing Google does. If I use it through DuckDuckGo, my search history won’t even be tracked and stored.
I can’t upload videos to Youtube anymore, or comment on Youtube videos uploaded by others, but I can still watch them. A few of my Youtube videos that are embedded here are blog posts will go dark, but maybe I’ll upload them to Vimeo.
Here are links to the first ones I’ve moved:
Chrissy and Barry’s Wedding
The Jig
The Biblio-Mat

We just received notice of an upcoming, first-ever Forum on the Future of Our Public Library – Sunday, November 24th – 2 pm to 4pm – Council Chamber – City Hall.
– See more at: http://ourpubliclibrary.to/#event

Alnoor Savani, owner of the Lahore Tikka House on Gerrard Street East has died of heart failure at the age of 48. He spent years building his famous restaurant in stages, completing more construction whenever he had enough funds.
Over the years, we’ve watched his restaurant take shape, ever so slowly, but ever so steadily. Early on, customers filled tables in the outdoor parking lot, dining under improvised canopies. Even then, the place was very popular. Gradually, the place grew into a handsome two-storey landmark with an outdoor patio on top. It was our friend Neda’s absolute favourite place to eat on the Little India Strip… and Neda is a serious foodie.
How sad that Danica and I never got around to having a meal there. We always seemed to be waiting for the construction to be finished… and now that it is, the founder is gone. The best we can do now is go and dine there in tribute to one man’s persistence and entrepreneurship.

The Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria show opened on Thursday and I just received a snapshot of the installation from our friend Ulli Walker. Ulli and Christine Ross (CACGV board member) took care of transporting the piece from Pat Ekland’s home to the gallery. Thank you both. Looks great! And thank you, Pat, for parting with it for a couple of weeks.

Things like this always make me question whether or not we should depend on numbers to give us a picture of reality.
Try 259 x your age x 39 =…

There have been questions about what we are doing with all of the Helen Andersen art we have been framing. Were we preparing the works for a show? Perhaps the one being planned for next year in Victoria? Not really. This is how we’ve put some of them up on our own walls, and we love it.

Keen observers will note that the groupings are not exclusively filled with Andersen pictures. There’s a Tony Onley print in there, a hall mirror, an anonymous canvas of grandmother Sophie as a young woman, for example.
That’s the plan. Helen’s art will outnumber everyone else’s, but we’ll try to maintain a mix in other rooms, too. Oh yes, other rooms. We still have lots more to hang and thanks to grouping, lots of space still to use. I hope we are managing to avoid looking like an auction house. Not everything can go on display, but we’ll be able to rotate pieces and look with fresh eyes.

If you’re not on Peter’s mailing list, you may have missed this remarkable performance by a 9 year-old singer in Holland.

How do you get from the cycle path along the bank of the Mighty Don…

to here… the Riverdale Farm?

Answer:

[Notes] I only rode to the base of the stairs today. The photo of the sheep is from the Google Map of Riverdale Farm.
After the climb up the stairs, carrying your bike, there’s more climbing to do… up a fairly steep hill to the farm. Well worth a visit, especially in the Spring. Baby goats are my favourites. They dance on the heads of long suffering sheep. Pure joy.

There’s a new art show up at my favourite café. Like the show that preceded it, this one is colourful, well executed and light-hearted. Rob Elliott’s monkeys are acrylic originals on canvas… small ones and larger ones.
“I’m not afraid of colour”, proprietor/artist Andrew Horne said to us one day. His own work is similarly bright and you can see the paint job on the café exterior. Andrew brews good coffee, too, and sells fresh-daily baked goods made on the premises.
Getting into the spirit of Diwali, Andrew adapted his place to the Little India strip by erecting a driftwood sculpture, cleverly tied together with big zip ties. You can see how he added colour. There are red and blue bulbs for night time. Festival of Lights, you know.

The bikes will go into storage this month, so walking is definitely more year-round. Bikes are more fun than walking and they get us down to the lakeside more quickly and frequently than our shoes have done. Would not have wanted to miss this today…

I notice more detail walking than I do riding, though, and walking is simpler. Put on your hat and coat, and off you go. With a bike, there are keys and helmets and locks and backpacks. On foot, you can just pop into a coffee shop. The bike needs locking up… significant locking up in Toronto. Sidewalks feel a lot less nerve-racking than bike lanes.
Without the mechanical advantage of the bicycle, I work more (and different) muscles and get better blood pressure readings. The bike wins on cardio and it wins on range, taking us farther, to interesting sights. It definitely lifts spirits higher, especially on nice days. The bike is a brilliant invention and we’ll continue to use ours enthusiastically, but in the final analysis, walking wins for health, cost and convenience.