miracle mile: the spirit of terry fox

08Sep09

“Even though I die of cancer my spirit didn’t die and that should influence a lot of people.”—Terry Fox (as printed in Terry by Douglas Coupland)

Tomorrow marks the opening of an 8 acre downtown Toronto park designed by Douglas Coupland for the Concord CityPlace development. One of the grand features of this park is a trail dedicated to the memory of Terry Fox: The Terry Fox Miracle Mile. Since I doubt I’ll make it to the opening at mid-day tomorrow, I decided to walk over there this evening. Before my camera battery died (*groan*), I managed to snap a few photos of the accessible landmarks: mainly Terry-related artwork as trail markers…and a giant-sized red canoe.

Terry Fox continues to be a tremendous inspiration to me. Through the eyes of my beloved (and inspirational in her own right) grandmother, he was saintly. My grandmother has been gone for nine years and I believe she would be pleased to know that, at first opportunity in the next couple of days, her granddaughter will eagerly strap on her running shoes to test out Terry’s Toronto trail.

Oh, and this is an incredibly over-the-top corporate promo, but alas:

All images ©katcentric

Filed under: architecture, art, canada, design, photography, snapshot, toronto, ©kat   |  Leave a Comment

touching Oprah

28Aug09

I have had a dream since I started watching The Oprah Winfrey Show back in high school: to one day touch and/or be touched by Oprah. Then, and only then, might a tiny bit of her magic/spirit/attraction-to-all-things-worthy-in-the-world rub off on me, transforming me into a refined, financially-elevated, airbrushed magazine cover-worthy version of myself.

This morning I was talking with fellow cube-dwellers about how my LA partner-in-crime might find himself in close proximity to Oprah this weekend if she chooses to grace the Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards with her presence. He might get close enough to touch her! I’m imagining the next time I see him something almighty and otherworldly might happen when we embrace…. But it gets better than this: Oprah is slated to attend the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in less than two weeks’ time. And so my personal dream might yet be fulfilled. O! the (O!) power when LA meets TO, having both been touched. We will become one unstoppable force of goodness and rightness. Yes.

A good friend forwarded me a clip from an episode of 30 Rock that I haven’t yet seen. It is clear that Liz Lemon holds the same passion in her heart that I do. Sigh…that lucky, lucky Liz Lemon:

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Tags: amusement, oprah winfrey, wishes

seek and ye shall find

26Aug09

Okay. Who are you?

Because I know we’d get along famously.

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let this kat out of the bag(ging of merchandise)

22Aug09

I think it is fabulous that Mayor David Miller and the City of Toronto have taken an interest in human ecological issues. I am pleased to live in a city that cares about reducing landfill to the point that a packaging bylaw was approved with regard to plastic shopping bags. As of June 1st, all City of Toronto retailers have been required to charge a minimum of five cents for each plastic bag requested by customers at the checkout. It seems like a win-win situation for all: city residents embracing the change can hold their heads high as they stroll their reusable bags, bins & buggies down the street and retailers get to do whatever the heck they want with the revenue generated from plastic bag sales. (City council suggested retailers reinvest in environmental initiatives and communicate these investments to customers: but I guess it’s a little too soon to know how that’s going.)

It’s been close to three months since the bylaw was approved and I’ve almost one hundred percent succeeded in replacing my utterances of “DANG! I forgot those bleeding shopping bags again” with “WHEE! I get to use my matchy-matchy monochromatic Envirosax bags again.” I’ve begun to feel good about the bylaw and the fact that, in my own little way, I’m helping make my city a better place in which to live. If anything, I can say I’m doing it for the frogs.

BUT…

I think it is very much not fabulous that city retailers, by-and-large, seemingly could not give a rat’s arse about human ecological issues and/or making the City of Toronto a lovely place in which to live and breathe (and rejoice with the frogs). After three  months, I have yet to encounter a retailer that communicates appreciation to its customers either for the five cents toward purchase of a plastic bag or for supplying their own reusable bags/bins. In fact, what I have encountered is a complete absence of acknowledgement when I place my reusable bag/bags on the counter, or frustrated huffiness from register clerks who realize they have to bag my items when I’ve requested a plastic bag.

I just got back from a small shopping trip to my local Rabba market (Queens Quay West at Harbourfront). This is my third or fourth time frequenting the shop since the bylaw was approved and each time I have encountered a surly and/or downcast register clerk who asks me if I require a bag. I say “no thanks” and place my reusable bag on the counter while the clerk rings in my purchases. And then I wait. The clerk gives me my change and/or receipt and either goes back to a conversation with another surly/downcast employee behind the counter or stares vacantly over my shoulder. What the clerk does not do is place my items in the bag, thank me for diverting waste from landfills (and for saving another frog) or even thank me for shopping at Rabba. This places me in the awkward position of juggling change, receipt, wallet and purse whilst simultaneously attempting to place groceries in my bag(s) and avoid the glare of the customer behind me who has deemed my time as…up. I am a clumsy person on a good day. I suffer a slight performance anxiety when put on the spot. How can I continue to shop at Rabba or any other similar Toronto retailer?

Have Toronto retailers like Rabba suddenly deemed the bagging of merchandise a service valued at five cents per bag? Have they instructed their staff not to provide customer service to those customers who care about the environment? Is this yet another step in the direction of a do-it-yourself society filled with antisocial and self-absorbed human beings?

I feel like a displaced frog on a plastic bag that nobody really cares about.

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Tags: bags, bylaw, canada, ecology, environment, groceries, mayor david miller, ontario, rabba, recycling, retail, reuse, shopping, toronto

tornadoes in toronto

21Aug09

It’s laughable I’ve barely touched this blog and yet today I’m approaching topical. Nevermind, let’s have at it:

Tornadoes in Toronto. Not your typical T-dot scene, but last night I started setting up a chair on my balcony when I looked up and there was a diagonal line drawn across the sky. White to black. I picked up my camera and the moment I depressed the shutter release, I was hurled into my screen door by a surge of wind and rain. This was what I saw:

Approach ©katcentric

Post-storm? Talk to any Torontonian who happened to look out the window around 8 p.m. The skies were a surreal orange. Some photos (including mine) can be seen over at torontoist.com. Or right here:

©katcentric

©katcentric

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Tags: acrossthestreet, cn tower, harbourfront, rain, storm, tornado, toronto, weather

o dears: I would walk across the street for you

29Jul09

Murray Lightburn ©katcentric

Did anybody know The Dears were in Toronto on Sunday until…well…Sunday?

In an interlude between thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon, The Dears played Harbourfront Centre’s outdoor Sirius Stage for the finale of the World Routes: Canadian Voices weekend. I live across the street from the stage and heard them rehearsing around 1:30 p.m. So I walked across and caught the end of their sound check. There were about six of us sitting there on rain-spattered seats listening to a session-worthy version of “Money Babies” from their last album, Missiles. I suppose I was as giddy as could be listening to a fave band in my own backyard with soggy-bottomed jeans on.

Sound Check ©katcentric

After the sound check, I went home to equip myself with a plastic barrier to place on the storm-soaked seats. I also grabbed a book to kill time with and went back across to secure a good seat before the 3 p.m. show. Since most of the Toronto Dears shows I’ve attended have been wall-to-wall with hipsters, I was sure the place would fill quickly. Alas, I was wrong. Be it the fitful summer storms or lack of pre-show publicity, even halfway through the set, the crowd was only at two-thirds capacity. And about two-thirds of that two-thirds was made up of grannies and families who happened upon the covered seats whilst seeking shelter from the intermittent rains. There was a lot of up and down movement, babies fussing, and bewildered old fogies shaking their heads whenever the guitars kicked in.

All that said, The Dears remained polished (albeit a bit grumpy-looking) in broad daylight before this somewhat lacklustre crowd. Perhaps this is due to a well-rehearsed (read: slightly predictable) set with standout older hits like “22: The Death of all the Romance”, “Lost in the Plot” and (personal fave) “You and I are a Gang of Losers” mixed in with material from the Missiles tour. Though the lead vocals were a bit muted, the set didn’t deviate much from the show I saw back in October (near the beginning of the tour) at the Music Gallery. This was a little disappointing as I was hoping for new material. Alas…for a show I didn’t know about until the final countdown and a show I didn’t have to pay for and, in fact, a show I had only to walk across the street for…well I was quite pleased to experience a multitude of favourite songs performed live on a Sunday afternoon. Yay Dears.
 

Here’s some much better video than what I was able to grab on Sunday. “Money Babies”:

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Tags: acrossthestreet, harbourfront, music, the dears

reorientation

24Jul09

On Friday, July 10th, I lost my beloved aunt Wendy to ovarian cancer.

I feel odd saying she fought hard and showed courage in the face of this cruel disease because, really, what other choice did she have? At 55 years old, she had yet to see her son graduate high school; she had years to look forward to living, laughing and loving with her husband (my uncle); and she had conversations, events and gatherings to look forward to with a network of friends and family members. Though she may have accepted the reality or finality (reality? finality? what do these words even mean?) of her situation, she was not ready to go. And so, through fear, she fought. Because there was no other choice. Even her decision to forgo further chemotherapy treatments showed courage: this was Wendy deciding to be here with us, with as much health and spirit as she could muster.

Cancer is cruel and it is indiscriminating. It has teeth and it gnaws and it bites and it tears at the spirit. I have seen it take down the lightest of spirits. I have seen it turn faith into fear. It is terrible and terrifying and it renders everyone in its path injured and weak and helpless. I think it is the most truthful form of death and dying we humans can experience, for it offers a tableau in complete contrast to life and living. But I also think we’ve seen enough of it to “get it”.

I’m trying to learn from the horrors that Wendy had to endure and the choices she made, but sometimes it is all quite paralyzing to consider. I know that life is short and that it can be cut shorter and become more painful within the space of a breath. I know that I want to live and live now, packing in as much time with loved-ones and as many enriching experiences as possible. But there are undeniable fears: of making bad/wrong choices, of hurting people we love, of missing the ultimate “deadline” and of overwhelming oneself with goals.

It’s been two weeks since Wendy left us and I’m in that paralyzed place right now. So many choices, so much love to give to so many people…and so little time. And Wendy, who was both a parental figure and a best friend to me, was the person I talked to most about these things. I miss her wisdom and her warmth and her understanding.

Though she is gone, she left me with something comforting. She taught me, by example, the importance of reaching out and maintaining bonds of love over time and distance. I’m trying my best to do this in my life right now and I’m also realizing that Wendy continues to reach out and that the bond is still there. If I listen closely, I can hear her encouraging me forward. And so, through the fear and the challenges to my own faith, I will attempt to summon the sort of courage and benevolence she displayed. Because there’s no other choice. There is too much love. And I’m not ready to go.

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borosilicate bodum

08Jul09

A trip to Bayview Village at lunch today has cemented in my mind a necessity for a collection of Bodum Pavina double-walled insulated glasses. At $18.95 [CDN] each (for the largest size available at Junors) this is not a price I’d typically be willing to pay for something that will inevitably look smashing (literally) on my ceramic tile kitchen floor. But having read the product description over at bodumusa.com, I’m on the verge of taking a detour on my way home from work this afternoon.

Beautifully amoeba-like in their mouth-blown design, these are the perfect glasses in which to stir up an iced coffee. Made of medical grade borosilicate glass (the same stuff used to make lab glass), they can take extreme heat and cold, are as strong as (or even stronger than) traditional glassware, they resist scratching & cloudy build-up over time in the dishwasher and they maintain ideal beverage temperatures.

And look how pretty:

I’ve been looking for my version of the perfect glassware for years and years. Bodum’s come pretty close with this product line. Perhaps I’ll start with two….

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Tags: coffee, glassware, kitchen, want

douglas coupland’s atelier

19Jun09

A wall of flattened Andy Warhol wigs faces off against a wall of mutilated Marilyn screenprints. On a table in between, children’s blocks stacked atop Barrel Of Monkeys barrels form totems of words and phrases mom would have washed your mouth out for building. And Bill Gates is the referee, reproduced and multiplied in screenprints on the sidelines.

This is a glimpse into Douglas Coupland’s “Atelier”. There are aged checkerboards and bingo games from a bygone era scattered on the floor amidst fallout shelter signage, ripped posters advertising Rush and Ace Frehley shows and a battered photo of Mao Tse-tung. Standing in the exhibit space at Clark & Faria Gallery I was filled all at once with a melancholy sort of nostalgia, a cheerful amusement in the present and a cautious optimism about the future. Doug’s got a curious knack for creating the futuristic out of past and present objects. He examines our current version of “modern” by nodding to past versions and utilizing, as Warhol did, everyday objects to draw us in. Not only do we identify with googly-eyes, banana stickers, cigarette tinfoil and corporate branding logos; but seeing them used to deface iconic images in a colourful and whimsical artistic sort of vandalism…well, it almost tugs at the heartstrings.

In the front room, there’s a more sombre tone (though Doug’s version of sombre is technicolour), with highschool yearbook faces (a subject Doug revisits often in both his writing and his artwork) “melting” into colourful acrylic makeup mishaps; more children’s blocks mounted on the wall forming the phrase “time is the fire in which we burn”, and an abstract installation piece involving coloured pencils lined up and encased in acrylic boxes to form horizontal and vertical “barcodes”.

Douglas Coupland: Atelier is on at the Clark & Faria Gallery in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District until July 26th. Check it out. I may see you there, as I’ll be returning a few times. There’s a terrific energy in that space.

It seems to make Doug pretty happy.

(All photos © me. More images will be added to my Flickr set here.)

Filed under: art, canada, photography, toronto, ©kat   |  4 Comments
Tags: andy warhol, canada, clark & faria gallery, distillery historic district, douglas coupland, ontario, toronto, warholesque

the cirque is in town

13Jun09

I started this blog at the worst possible time. Too many highs & lows happening, making my “down time” pretty exhausted and uninspired. However, the circus is in town…and how could a parade of face-painted, lightbulb-bedecked acrobats not put one in a posting mood?

Cirque du Soleil arrived in Toronto last night as part of the LuminaTO arts festival closing weekend festivities. They “emerged” at two Harbourfront locations cloaked in mystery (and wearing cloaks—made out of newspaper pages) and on “artist time” (a half hour later than scheduled).  I attended the Toronto Music Garden “encounter”, where there were slightly other-worldly/slightly familiarly-costumed stilt-walkers, musicians and acrobats weaving through, and interacting with, a sizeable crowd. They were speaking (gibberish? Jar Jar? Klingon?) “another language”, exploring the grounds and opening large crates found in and around two geodesic domes. One revealed a piano, another an entire bedroom set, another transformed into a living room…. And on it went. Oh, and there was a water-spouting toilet in the “bathroom”. Yeah.

As the performers became more familiar with their environment and the crowd, they became bolder in their exploration. They bounced on the bed and performed handstands and flips from the headboard. They climbed the geodesic dome structures and danced in the “living room”. And then…they went away.

Today promises to be more of an interactive series of street performances. I have high hopes. Though last night’s introduction proved creative and entertaining, the logistics of crowd-pleasing in the outdoor spaces the troupe has been given didn’t seem well-considered. Sightlines were bad: more use of vertical space (they are acrobats) and crowd control (or simply choosing not to situate a major performance area in a small park surrounded by cement half-walls and shrubberies) would have solved this. Also, most Torontonians seem to appreciate performances starting on time.

As for a plot breakdown, the info LuminaTO staff have volunteered describes two tribes: one urban-based and the other nature-based. The “nature” tribe I missed seeing last night: their “home” is in the Natrel skating/canoe pond behind the Harbourfront Centre and their “water encounter” was apparently booed last night. Sunday the two tribes are to meet and join together in a finale performance, which takes place in the HTO park.

Hmm. I’m half expecting Tina Turner to pop up in her costume from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

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Tags: canada, cirque du soleil, luminaTO, ontario, toronto