Month: October 2014

I took down the gag photo of Harper’s plane, shot full of arrows on its underside, because it left a wrong impression. Certainly aboriginal people strongly oppose Harper’s screwball support for a pipeline to the Pacific, but they do not protest with violence.
I decided that the joke could be used by the tar sands companies and their pals in Ottawa to duck their responsibility to consult with First Nations stakeholders. You know …. “We’d like to talk to them, but we’re scared”.
In fact, aboriginal opposition to the pipeline is well reasoned, scientifically supported and more lawful than the proposals of Harper’s tar diggers. First Nations people are our best line of defence against dirty, dangerous bitumen exports and they deserve our grateful support, not laughter.

Sometimes, I admit, I feel like the lad in the lower right when it comes to nosy Google. He is reacting to the Street View camera.
I’ve heard of people “gaming” Street View by spotting the camera car, texting friends with location, direction etc, then staging a performance to be captured as the GoogleCar drives by. This could explain a few of the oddities you’ll find in this collection.
Anyway, we have a new hobby for rainy days, hunting weird moments around the world.

“Oh oh”, I thought when I saw the rent sign. “Is Gerrard Art Space going under?”

Around on the side door, I found the good news. The artists’ collaboration is just moving. Still on Gerrard, still close by, a little closer to Coxwell … and me!
More good news. “Little India” is perking up and becoming more colourful as merchants and landlords pull up their socks and shake off the recession.
This bright new mural appeared suddenly and some new stores have opened along the street.

Thanks to Ian and his sister Eileen for sharing.

My hat’s off to Al Runt, “That Lee’s Palace Guy“. He’s been on the Toronto art scene since the 60s, working (and working and working!) as an artist and, when necessary, paying his bills by turning his brush to painting houses, walls, whatever.

Just received a nice greeting from B.C. Don Straathof is a fan of Helen Andersen art and owner of her lithographs. Danica met Don in person during her art rescue trip to Victoria.

Obviously Don is an avid cyclist and knows how to enjoy life. He says retirement is just around the corner. “Yippee!”

He was seen for years on analogue television as a brash, abrasive panelist on CBC’s long-running Front Page Challenge. His original claim to fame was as a journalist; a foreign correspondent and Toronto newspaperman of the 30s.

John Robert Colombo has published a slim volume (can an ebook be slim?) of commentaries on Sinclair’s books. It’s now available on Kindle and I provided the cover. It’s based on a Toronto Archives photo of a young pith-helmet-wearing Sinclair, who looks nothing like the guy in the loud plaid sports jacket who asked the rude questions on Front Page Challenge.

Click the image or here to use the live app.
One of Beach Hill’s clever residents knows how to create picture-information maps as an online web app. My contribution was photography. A few trips to Upper Gerrard Street this summer allowed me to capture the storefronts you see illustrating our commercial strip.
The web app is still a work in progress. There’s more store info to add and a Beach Area historian has agreed to contribute histories of the various businesses that has operated out of the present locations, back in time.
I wish that I had photographed the stores when we first moved here, 28 years ago. Marco Polo Pizza is gone now, where John Candy and George Wendt played a scene from Hostage For A Day, back in the 90s. The spotless little butcher shop is now a meditation centre. The shot I regret not taking most: Perferred Printing, complete with the spelling mistake in big red letters on its sign.
At least I have made a full set now. Who knows how these businesses will change, and how quickly.

A couple of friends share an appreciation for the Subaru WRX. In fact, both own one. The other day I was CCd in an email photo exchange and my friend with the blue WRX thought the rally pic would make a good screensaver.

The trouble is, the original was too low res to look good enlarged. Time to get out the Photoshop. As you see, I can have fun with a WRX, too.

These shots are small ones for my blog, but the full size image is 1920 pixels wide, not the 600 pixels you see here. The stylized background was not only fun to work on, it should provide a sufficiently simple background to show desktop icons well.
If I can stop playing with it, I’ll ask the guys if they’d like one. Oh … gotta make those wheel covers gold. Would you like a customized licence plate, gents?

<rant>

On Nuit Blanche, I had my first nighttime look at the ignorant underlighting of The Archer by Henry Moore. The sculptor didn’t approve of the stupid spotlights, either.
If you look with any kind of understanding, you will see that The Archer is inspired by natural form. Bones, for example. The Archer owes a lot to vertebrae.
Natural forms deserve natural light, namely light from the sun above. Underlighting the sculpture with a ring of spotlights embedded in the base is WRONG. The effect is cheaply theatrical and belongs in Las Vegas or a Halloween tableau.