Month: August 2014

The Globe and Mail reports, “Porter is looking to sell its terminal at the island airport in downtown Toronto.”
Does this sound like a financially healthy company or one that’s running out of money?

I’m worried. There are enough people in Toronto that will never vote for Olivia Chow, she is no shoo-in to replace the problem in the mayor’s office.
John Tory may look like an option, but his strongest claim is that he is Rob Ford without the circus. What IS Rob Ford without the circus? Let’s face it, support for John Tory is half-hearted and fragile. He has name recognition, but his opponent has a ton more.
So I figure I’ll just vote for the candidate I believe would make the best mayor and do the most for Toronto. David Soknacki‘s policies are clearly defined and published, with priorities identified and funding spelled out. He has the experience to run a large government as well as success in business. He knows how to work with others and has some original, sensible ideas on transit and reining in police costs.
My choice for mayor is running far behind in the polls right now, but there’s time to fix that. That’s why I contributed to the Soknacki campaign and state my support here.
If his campaign is to succeed and lead the charge against another 4 years of wasted time and nonsense, this is no time for a wait-and-see approach. (You get a 75% rebate on any contribution between $100 and $300, paid to you by the City.)
We have an excellent choice for mayor. Let’s make it … and let’s make ourselves heard.
Toronto Star profile David Soknacki

From our place to the Evergreen Brickworks on the far of the Don River, the bicycle route looked iffy for part of the way. We were not willing to ride with the cars on Bayview, where everyone is going 80. Maps were unclear. Could we cross the Don at Pottery Road and circle back down to the Brickworks?
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When we got to the Pottery Road bridge, we found our way easily enough to Bayview but stopped a passing cyclist to ask about riding from there to the Brickworks. We asked the right guy! Alan not only told us, he turned around, rode with us to show us the way and joined us for a blueberry scone at the café. That’s going the extra mile (only it was less than a kilometre).
Anyway, we made it and it was well worth the ride. The conservation area behind the old kilns is beautiful. You’d never guess that it’s smack dab in the middle of a big city. “Magical,” said a woman walking her dog.

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We were out for the South Asia Festival on Saturday and Sunday, there was so much going on. Art, music, dancing amazing food and friends. My new camera got a workout.

I don’t really care who owns Tim Hortons but I’ve never liked the flag-waving in their advertising. Surely that will go away now. And the dark roast coffee isn’t bad.

Yesterday Ruth gave me copies of her 3 volume Sisters Agonistes and we are both pleased with the way the covers came out. Full credit to Gustav Klimt, of course. Ruth chose his image of Pallas Athena to front her classically styled and structured poems.

The first: invincibly lower class. The second: serially sincere.
You’re welcome. I know you will find perfect uses for them. I plucked these from a conversation yesterday with John Robert Colombo.

Saturday evening at the Flying Pony Gallery/Café.
Proprietor Andrew Horne embraced the South Asian street festival going on outside and threw Melanie MacDonald’s show opening at the same time. On his side street, he and fellow artist Rob Elliott built the big street sculpture pictured below. A colourful tent offered fresh, delicious Flying Pony baked goods, too.
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There have long been artists who look back at the past, sometimes inviting us to contemplate the ruins of collapsed civilizations (and consider the fate of our own), sometimes romanticizing bygone “golden” ages.
Melanie MacDonald’s scrapbook paintings are different. They simply celebrate the images and colours of sentimental pop motifs that she found in a couple of 1930s/40s scrapbooks. Kitschy images are monumentalized in large, wall-spanning canvasses, forcing our attention by sheer size.

Obviously, I clicked something on some site that tricked me into allowing creeps to install a malware extension into my web browsers … Safari, Firefox and Chrome. No big deal. I just started to get redirected to sites I wasn’t looking for, but annoying. It’s easy to get rid of. Just find your browser extensions and trash the MacPriceCut extension.

Danica and I took the one-hour class and we are good to go – certified 3D printer users. Our library card lets us book a time to use one. Five cents a minute plus a buck for the session. No making guns or sex toys, though. Hey, it’s the public library. Shhhh!

Our handouts included links to free software we can use at home to make 3D files ourselves. You can find out more here.