The Sketchbook Project: Art on the Go

The Sketchbook Project trailer

This past Sunday Sarah and I met up with our friend Susan to check out a really cool concept: The Sketchbook Project. On their website, they describe the endeavour thusly: "The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive, traveling exhibition of handmade books." This greatly intrigued us so we headed down to the Distillery District on that stunningly beautiful June afternoon to see if it was as much fun as it sounded. If not, we'd get to spend time with a good friend basking in the spring sunshine and walking around this very interesting area of Toronto. With any luck, maybe there'd be beer in our future! (Spoiler alert: there was! How could there not be?)

Snowmageddon™ 2013

♪Oh, what a beautiful moooooor-niiiiin'...♫

It's a stunningly beautiful day here in Toronto. Sunny and crisp with nary a cloud in the sky—a picture-perfect winter's day. A friend of ours posted on Facebook yesterday that he was taking his kids tobogganing this morning in Riverdale; we opted not to go because the side of the park he chose—the west side—is difficult enough to get to and park at when snow isn't piled up on the narrow streets in the area. We'll make sure we get out for a good, long walk a bit later, though, to make up for it. In this area of the world, days like this are woefully rare indeed. I love the long shadows and pristine snow you can see in the photo here; the mounds on top of the cars, though, don't seem nearly as high to me as the hand-wringing on social media yesterday led me to believe they would be. The City of Toronto received 24cm of snow yesterday (actually, 1/10 of that amount if you check the official Environment Canada site, which clearly is having some math issues today), which is only single digits in inches, the scale many of us still cling doggedly to when discussing precipitation.

Evan Penny: Re Figured at the AGO

Stretch #1 - Evan Penny
(owned by the AGO)

Our last stop at the AGO on Thursday was at the Evan Penny: Re Figured exhibition in the Contemporary Art section on the fourth floor. I've been trying to decide how to accurately describe what this show was like; I've concluded that the best thing to do is to show several photos that I took, comment on how they made me feel at the time of viewing, and let you, the reader, check out the AGO's description of the exhibition and Evan Penny's own website for more detailed information with respect to his intent. What I can tell you is that Penny has taken the realistic sculpture techniques of Duane Hanson to a whole new level. The pieces challenge the idea of what is "real" to the viewer; some of them—such as Stretch #1, seen here—are done in kind of a "Photoshop in real time" method, where the dimensions are skewed and manipulated while maintaining the original aspect ratio, such as one would do with a photograph. In other cases, Penny creates a completely fictional person (using no model) in hyper-realistic form and then photographs the sculpture, posting these photos next to the pieces themselves. In most of these instances, it is almost impossible to tell—after the conversion to 2D—that the "person" in the photos has never existed. (I found that the effect was the greatest in black and white photos.) In still other cases, Penny has used real-life models and recreated them in incredible detail, right down to blemishes, age spots and stray wisps of hair.

Catrinas and Floor Burger: Our AGO Visit, Part II

Sarah and the ofrenda

On the way out of the Frida & Diego show—after passing through the obligatory gift shop, of course—we came upon a vividly-coloured room that was an homage to the Mexican celebration, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The two long walls were painted in a blue tint that was very close to that of La Casa Azul, the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, while the end walls were a brilliant yellow. On the right-hand side as we entered there was an ofrenda for Frida and Diego, an altar to honour the departed pair where visitors to the exhibition could leave their own personal offerings. Note the propensity of yellow marigolds; the Aztecs called them zempoaxochitl, or "flowers of death". The AGO supplied paper flowers for visitors to write their own messages on and then leave on the altar if they wished. The ofrenda itself was created and constructed by Carlomagno Pedro Martínez, Mexican artist and artisan.

Going to the Dogs

Even Chandler eventually is shamed into liking this dog

If you ever watched the television show Friends, you may remember the episode where it was discovered that Chandler really didn't care for dogs that much. When his "secret is out" everyone—other than Joey, who already knew of this "failing"—treats the hapless Chandler as some kind of social leper, apparently because he has angered the enormous "dog lobby" in North America. Well, I can empathize with this fictional character's situation to some degree and I hope that, by the end of this blog post, I am not shunned in much the same way. However, this is an issue that has been very much on my mind for several years now and, in light of a recent addition to Stan Wadlow Park, I think it's time to come out with this.

A rare sight: leashed dogs leaving off-leash area

I love animals—pretty much all animals—and if this is news to you then I urge you to stop now and read a different blog posting before you continue. Seriously, just about any of my other posts would likely do the trick. Ok, are we good now? Let's continue. As I was saying, I love animals to a fault but over the years my feelings towards dogs in the city of Toronto have undergone a drastic change. It's now at the point where, when friends tell me they have recently acquired a dog, my first instinct isn't to say, "Congratulations!" but rather, "Why on earth would you do that?" I don't like this about myself, but it was a long, slow evolution and it comes quite naturally after many years of living in this dog-crazy city. It's important here, however, to point out one thing: this is by no means the fault of the dogs themselves. Rather, it's because of the myriad self-centred, irresponsible and careless dog owners living in Toronto. Oh, I know there are a great many good pet owners—they may well outnumber the bad—but, as the saying goes, "one bad apple spoils the bunch" (unless you're an Osmond) and there are myriad "bad apples" in Toronto.

Taylor Creek park in an all-too-typical scene

When Sarah and I moved in 2000 to be near my kids, our first apartment building backed onto the Taylor Creek ravine (which I can see from our second building, the one we live in now). That first summer, we used to take my kids down into the valley virtually every weekend to go rollerblading, cycling or just throw a frisbee or baseball around. By the next summer the descent into doggie anarchy was well under way. The few times we were courageous enough to venture down the hill we were menaced regularly by unleashed canines who snapped at us on our blades or bikes, or chased down the frisbee and ran away with it. Sometimes they would just charge at my young kids for no particular reason whatsoever while their idiotic "owners" just watched. The summer after that, 2002, we stopped going down there altogether. The inmates had taken over the asylum. The park was most definitely not an "off-leash zone"—there were plenty of signs alerting dog owners to that fact although many of them had been vandalized or broken—but at no point did I ever see a single individual capable of handing out a ticket for the offense patrolling that pathway in all the time we spent down there. For a couple of years afterward I took my bike down to the valley to cycle through the park system and down to the Beaches; not once did I ever see anyone be reprimanded for having a dog off-leash.

Toronto's Financial District

But even though it's become an epidemic to the point of keeping humans from enjoying the parks that they pay for, if you try to have a discussion about it in an average group of people in Toronto it becomes more of a heated debate than if you wanted to discuss abortion. The "Dog Rights" lobby has become very powerful here and they are starting to push for things that make absolutely no sense. The way I look at it, owning a pet in this city—or anywhere else, for that matter—is a privilege, not a right. If you abuse your pet it can—and must—be taken away from you. But there are far too many people around these parts who insist that their "right" to own a dog is sacrosanct and, in fact, supersedes any "rights" you or your family might have. People are constantly moving into the high-rise condos of downtown Toronto, adopting a dog too large for their apartment (or bringing one with them) and complaining that there aren't enough places for the dog to "run free". Well, duh. How on earth did that come as a surprise? If you moved to a remote community to get away from it all would you then complain that there were not enough art galleries there? Or if you moved to a place beside the airport, would you then complain that the noise....er, hang on. People do that all the time, so that's not a good example.

Denzil Minnan-Wong, rocket scientist

Toronto City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong could be a poster child for the spoiled, selfish, whiny, entitled dog owner. Apparently he even brings his dog up to the press gallery at City Hall to pee on the carpet from time to time. Last Hallowe'en—in a shining example of "trick" versus "treat"—this shameless city official declared that he had asked the parks and environment committee to "study introducing off-leash hours at all parks" in Toronto. He stated that, "if dog owners don’t live close to an off-leash park, they must struggle with the hassle of transporting their pets." Or they could, you know, research where they are going to live before actually moving there. As people sometimes do. I am so sick of people who, out of their own ignorance or laziness, get themselves and their helpless pets into a situation that could have been completely avoided and then cry that somehow it's up to the rest of us to fix it for them. Look, when you are searching for a place to live you make conscious decisions and compromises. You should have a list of "musts" and be willing to bend in other areas because no place is perfect, not in a city of this size. If you want to live close to the action, you have to give up the freedom to have your dog run around wherever it wants to. If you want to enjoy access to large parks with the room to contain an off-leash area for your dog, then move someplace where that is possible. In the city, other people have to come first and it's time to stop treating dogs like they are "citizens". The day after the Minnan-Wong idiocy, The Star ran another article in which they interviewed someone on each side of the issue. The dog-owner's comments would be absolutely laughable if they didn't so tragically represent the feelings of so many others with similar ideas of entitlement. She says that, "dogs are part of the community"; asks,"who else is using the green space right now other than the dogs?" (which, you know, is exactly the point I was making a few paragraphs back); and complains that, "if you live downtown, you don't have a backyard...this is their [the dogs'] space". After a lot of other blather—all of which I have heard many times as "arguments" in discussion about dog laws—she offers this positively Socratic bit of logic: "Parents have the option to have their children play in the park, so we should have the option to let our dogs off-leash." Because dogs should have the same "rights" as real human children when it comes to our parks. Of course.

The new (and ugly) dog run at Stan Wadlow

There are, thankfully, other potential solutions with good intentions to this "problem" and that brings me to the catalyst for this blog piece today. Over the past few weeks we have watched as first some orange safety netting and then actual fence posts and rails has been erected in the playground below our balcony. At first we thought the netting was setting out the boundaries for an outdoor rink and we were quite happy; over time, though, it became apparent that the city had something very different in mind. As the project neared completion we realized, with sinking hearts, that this was to become a new dog run. Now, I agree with—and wholeheartedly support—the theory of off-leash dog runs and I think it ought to represent an excellent compromise with the unleashed dog fanatics. The problem in this park—as it has been in so many other places where they have created these runs—is that they have now taken this space away from children at a time where childhood obesity is at near-crisis levels. Have a good look at the picture here. The building at the very front of the picture is an elementary school. The nearer ball diamond is one that benefited from the largesse of the Jays Care people last spring, ostensibly to keep the youth of this community active and outdoors. But the soccer field is what really strikes me. The near side of the new dog run comes within a couple of feet of the far soccer posts, meaning that any ball kicked in the general area of that goal stands an excellent chance of ending up in the paddock with the dogs running free. This is a horrible planning mistake, in my opinion. I imagine the fencing takes the shape it does because of the undulation of the land, but why does the run have to be that big? Again, let me say: I agree in principle with having off-leash dog runs in areas that would support such an effort; however, it has seemed to me that, in most cases, the creation of these runs has come at the expense of the activity of our children.

Karen Stintz at another failed dog run venture

There's one more point about this that I would like to make, but I feel it's very important. Regarding just the specific new dog run in Stan Wadlow Park, it seems to me that we are rewarding bad behaviour with a gift, much like giving a little kid having a tantrum at Wal-Mart the candy he is demanding just to shut him up. The area where the dog run has been created has, for quite some time now, been overrun with off-leash dogs even without this fencing. It's been an issue for me for years now and I have never—not even once—seen nor heard of a single person in Stan Wadlow Park being charged with violating the city's hilariously ineffective off-leash laws, despite the fact that they are within a few yards of the back door of a school full of small children. Putting this new run there is not only a tacit approval of the previous actions of these inconsiderate boors, but it now will also attract a whole new crop of inconsiderate boors to the area. Yes, there will be some responsible owners who show up as well, but these are not the issue for me. Do not for a second think that this new off-leash area will make people understand that their dogs need to be leashed everywhere else. In the time I have written this blog post I have seen four different humans and their canine companions (numbering far more than four) come and go from the dog run—and I have only popped up from my chair to observe the proceedings a couple of times. Only one of these humans left the park with his dog on a leash. Every other pooch was still running free once they left the area and headed towards the school. So these people have learned nothing, for there has been no lesson to be learned other than if you whine loudly enough and have enough people in your complaint group you will eventually have things given to you. If the creation of these leash-free zones was accompanied in each case by an increase in the frequency and amount of non-compliance fines everywhere else—at the very least in the areas immediately adjacent to the dog runs—then I would likely be on board with this compromise. But as it is, it is not a compromise at all.

It's merely one more sign that the city of Toronto has gone to the dogs.

A Parable

Imagine you own a company that makes widgets. Once upon a time your widget company was the best in all the world and for most of the recorded history of the widget industry it's been a standard-bearer for excellence in widget making—one of the top two companies for decades. But recently your company has fallen on hard times in one sense: it's been over forty-five years since you last created a widget that was the best in the world (or even second-best) and you're running on reputation alone. Oh, you're still turning a profit—a huge profit, given the circumstances—because you have generations of consumers still buying your widgets out of some kind of misguided loyalty. Some years you offer different colours; other years different shapes and sizes; still others no noticeable change whatsoever. No improvement in how these widgets operate, though: they still break down when the going gets tough (except for one notable year when they were sabotaged by an outside agent beyond your control) and have never truly adapted to the ever-changing landscape. For the past seven years, in fact, yours are the only widgets to have never appeared in the publication This Year in Widgets even once. You're exceedingly happy with your financial situation—and how could you not be?—but embarrassed on some visceral level that your product has become the laughing stock of the entire widget industry. Surely there will come a time when the loyalty factor will be removed from the equation and your profits will take a nosedive...right?

TPS, You've Got Some 'Splainin' To Do

As I've mentioned in this blog several times, I am training to be a Volunteer for the Toronto Zoo. I have four classes left and at the end of that time I need to put in a few more hours of training before I can lead a tour on my own. One would think that would be the toughest part of this whole venture, but one would be very, very wrong. For, you see, I also have to pass a police background check—supposedly at the "Vulnerable Sector" level—before I can be entrusted with the leading of young people into pavilions. Fair enough: I've already gone through this procedure twice before in order to coach peewee hockey and, much earlier than that, to volunteer at my kids' schools. On those occasions, I paid a small amount of money and filled out a form; the organizations took care of the rest and that was the end of it. But not the Zoo, oh no. This has to be done on a whole other level which is making me now wonder exactly how much information they are trying to find out about me before allowing me to perform a non-paying job for them.

Zoo Volunteer Training, Week Two

Hairy-nosed wombat
credit: Jeff Green/Toronto Star

The training was a little more intensive in our second week as we are starting to get some idea of exactly what is going to be expected of us. We focused on Grade Ones and Twos this time around (more the former than the latter, truth be told) and were taken on a short tour by a veteran Volunteer who stopped us frequently en route and explained the methodology she would use if we were actually six or seven years old. The Grade One curriculum explores "Characteristics and Needs of Living Things" with a special emphasis on the five senses. Grade Two learns about "Growth and Change in Animals", including life cycles and classifications. One especially nice thing about the tour yesterday was it took us through the Australasia Pavilion where we had a chance to meet the newest Zoo additions, two young southern hairy-nosed wombats who have come to join Hamlet, the thirty-year-old wonder already living here who has outlived his life expectancy in the wild by a factor of two. It is hoped that the new pair, Millie and Arthur, will breed when they are ready (likely a full year away, still) because that is something that Zoos up until now haven't had a lot of luck with. There are nine of these creature in captivity in North America; the Toronto Zoo now sports three of them. A let me tell you: these two youngsters are some kind of cute. One was braver than the other (we are not sure who was who), venturing past the wallabies into the outdoor enclosure and watching us from the fence there quite closely. I didn't want to stop and take any pictures of my own while I was "in class" and I didn't go back before I went home. Hopefully they will be just as active the next time I am in that pavilion and I'll capture them for posterity!

Spacing's Map Contest

The current cover of Spacing

A few months ago, Sarah discovered that there was a contest being run by Spacing Magazine, a publication out of Toronto that focuses on urban design and public space usage; a contest which was right up her alley. They were soliciting entries to their "Creative Mapping Contest" and, even though it was very close to the deadline, Sarah bore down and worked furiously to be sure she submitted a design for their consideration. It was fantastic and she did get it in on time, but I didn't hear any more about it whatsoever.

Until last week, that is.

The Ford Follies: International Edition

Good grief. The guy just will not go away.

Even when he actually does "go away"....he still won't go away. Not really.

Rob Ford, part-time mayor, part-time football coach, full-time buffoon, is in Chicago right now on a "Trade Mission". He has boasted, on the record, that this trip is not costing the taxpayers of Toronto "one dime". But, of course, he is lying because there are two senior staffers with him whose costs are being covered by the city. There will almost certainly be more costs, but there's already enough information to rebut his ridiculous claim.

RoFo and the Bean: A Modern Ballet
credit: Don Peat/Toronto Sun

Yesterday, while Ford was in the Windy City dancing under the "Cloud Gate" sculpture (nicknamed the "Mirror Bean" by locals and which Ford thinks should be replicated in Toronto, only in the form of a giant football, of course), one of his special assistants, Chris Fickel, attended the Don Bosco football practice, arriving at the facility in a car registered to the City of Toronto. When Dave Rider, a Star reporter covering the Chicago shenanigans, asked Ford about it he was told, "Do your homework. I paid for it last year." Paid for what, exactly, nobody is too clear on and since RoFo wouldn't comment further, choosing instead to tell Rider to, "go home, go where you came from," there's a chance we may never find out. And the exchange got a lot weirder and creepier than that. At one point, Ford asked Rider, "are you going to be sleeping with me tonight?" I can't do the incident justice here; have a look for yourself at the transcript in the Toronto Star.

But the hilarity doesn't stop there.

RoFo: The Trial Concludes

Keep laughing, Chuckles

Today's blog post will be a lot shorter than yesterday's because, while Rob Ford's Conflict of Interest trial concluded yesterday, Ford himself didn't say anything inordinately stupid in the courtroom. But there's a good reason for that: Ford did not take the stand yesterday.

Instead, we were treated to closing arguements from the two lawyers, Alan Lenczner, who represents Ford, and Clayton Ruby, who represents the private citizen who brought this case to court, Paul Magder. This still took an entire day in court, but I'd wager it felt a lot shorter than the previous day to everyone in attendance.

Again today I followed as much as I could through the live blogs such as the one by the Torontoist, and Twitter feeds such as by the indefatigable Don Peat, filling in the gaps by following the discussion hash tag #FordCourt, also on Twitter. Ruby went first because Lenczner needed time to review some "new case law and facta" given to him by Ruby that morning. The next few hours, until 3 p.m. with a break for lunch and a couple of recesses, Ruby and Nader Hasan, a partner in his firm, held the floor and spent much of that time reiterating just how muddled and confusing Ford's testimony from the day before truly was. Some of the more "on-point" quotes from the prosecutors:

“He has never explained the basis for his peculiar view of the law. My submission is that it is not a believable assertion because it is made by someone who has a 12 year tenure on city council.”

“That is not someone who has made an error. That is someone who is doing deliberately what he believes is right. It is not an error of judgment to be reckless identifying conflicts… it is not a good faith error. He is deliberately not doing what any reasonable person would do.”

“It is reckless to proceed in ignorance all of his 12 years on council. If you swear to uphold an Act and you don’t even read it, you are simply ensuring that you will breach it.”

“Ignorance of the law is not an error in judgment.”

A Day at the Ex

The Penguins at the Ex

Sarah had a real bee in her bonnet to go to the Ex this year, for whatever reason. We tried to find a time last week to get to the fair, because the admission was only $5 after five p.m. on weeknights, but the only day we could have gone was Monday and it poured that night. So we put it off until the long weekend and when we saw how amazing the weather was going to be yesterday the decision became rather easy. At that point it just became a matter of working out how best to get there. A couple of years ago we drove down to an inexpensive garage we found near Union Station and took the Harbourfront streetcar. That was a truly awful experience, though, as the lineup to get anywhere near the streetcar at Union was very, very long. We rejected that idea this time. We thought about going down early and parking close to the grounds, but two things worked against that idea: 1) in the past when I have parked "at" the CNE, invariably I have decided I am tired enough to go home when I am about as far a walk from the car as is possible; and 2) we got up a lot later than we had hoped to. Ok, I got up a lot later than Sarah had hoped. Same thing. Well, close enough. Moving on...

Ah Sey One

Part of a fantastic mural outside of the Harlem Restaurant

Last night Sarah and I went to a fantastic event, "Ah Sey One", organized by Sceneopolis and inTO, and held at the Harlem Restaurant on Richmond Street East. I won a "plus one" entry through a contest that The Grid ran on their Twitter feed last week, by answering the simple question: "What is your favourite song by The Sattalites?" I knew nothing about the event at that time, only that I really love The Sattalites (a long-standing Toronto Reggae band; only Rush is an older Canadian band right now) and that Sarah and I really needed an evening out. But it wasn't just a show by The Sattalites (whom I had seen several times in the past): it was an event which was all about the mood and the mingling. Food was included, as well as two drinks each, and the people at the Harlem Restaurant -- to which we'd never been but will definitely return -- were absolutely fantastic.

An Open Letter to the Soccer Mom We Encountered on King Edward Ave. Today

Sarah and I couldn't put it off any longer: we had to do laundry today. So we took our heavy load down to a great little place on Danforth near Main that I have had a really good experience with in the past. While our clothes were in the wash, we sauntered over to Popeye's Chicken for lunch; while they were in the dryer we browsed through the nearby Canadian Tire and then grabbed a coffee and doughnut at the Timmy's just down the street. We loaded up the clean clothes, dropped by Sobey's to pick up a great dinner deal they offered today (the kids are with us later on), then headed home relaxed and happy with the afternoon. The light changed against us at Danforth and Gledhill so we turned north to drive through the back streets to our apartment. There are speed bumps on Gledhill; I decided to swing over to King Edward to avoid them. And that's where it all began.

Here is my open letter to the Mom who, with kids in tow, stepped briefly (I hope) out of her right mind today in the middle of King Edward Ave.


*************************************************

Artistic recreation of our experience

Hi, Mom. How are you doing now? Is your blood pressure back to normal? Should we be worried about your health or that of your kids? The display you put on for our benefit today left us more than a little rattled and concerned that you might get worse before you get better. I get that your road is under construction and likely has been for a long while. I get that the new garbage services - privatized under the gloating countenance of our idiot mayor - leave quite a bit to be desired. I get that you might be tired of having your two school-aged kids underfoot all summer long, especially a summer that's been this hot. I can relate to all of that. I've had bad days, too, many more than I could ever count. But you know what? You having a bad day is never, ever a good catalyst for losing all concept of reason and civility in front of your kids.

Inconsiderate drivers are everywhere

Because I think it's entirely possible that you had a blackout and cannot remember the events, here's what happened: we turned onto King Edward -- the street you live on, at number 75 -- at the very south end and slowly proceeded north. You stopped your car in the dead centre of the street, nearly a full block ahead of us, facing south and fully able to see and comprehend that we were approaching your car. This didn't faze you in the slightest as you stepped out of your van and left the driver's door wide open so that no vehicles would be able to pass you from either direction, with no indicators of any kind flashing as a warning. You then walked (and not quickly) a short distance away, stepping over the curb, and proceeded to perform some kind of task that we could not really see from where we were. As we came upon your car, still in the middle of the street, still impassable, we saw that you were shuffling some garbage bins around. We drew to a halt - we had no choice - and waited while you finished your machinations and returned to your car, finally closing your door as you did so. Why you were handling those garbage bins was anyone's guess; my thought was that they could have been in the middle of the road and in your way so you had stepped out to clear the path for everyone. Apparently, though, I gave you too much credit. After you closed your door I proceeded to continue up the street and go around you, having been stopped for several seconds already. As we drew even with your car, you suddenly put your left-turn indicator on and only at that point - and certainly no sooner - did it become clear that you were trying to pull into your driveway, which I can only imagine had been blocked by the empty bins a few moments earlier. By then we were already past the point of no return and had to continue to pass you; however, as we did so I heard you screaming at your closed window (mine was open) and gesticulating wildly. For a moment I thought you were warning us about imminent danger ahead, but I could not make out what you were saying to me. So when I saw you leap out of your car in your driveway and wave your arms at me I pulled over a little further up the street and stepped out of the car to give you a chance to pass along whatever information you thought was so important that you had to scream it at me in front of your kids. (Despite your apparent rage I couldn't be 100% sure there wasn't some sort of emergency, so I thought I should stop and find out.) When you repeated your muffled words for me, it turned out to be the rather mundane and rhetorical question, "You couldn't have waited for me?" At that point, wishing I had simply kept going and not stopped to check on your well-being, I calmly informed you that I had already waited for you for several seconds and had you given any indication - such as your turn signal - before I had drawn even with your car that you were trying to go into that driveway then there was a very good chance we would have let you pass before continuing on our way, well-mannered citizens that we are. I have no idea whether you heard any of this, though, as you shouted over top of my words the entire time I was speaking. Then you dismissively made some rather rude gestures with your hands and turned your attention to your children, who had witnessed the whole exchange. At some point you gave my partner and me the finger in front of them. I know you swore more than once and your arms virtually never stopped moving maniacally as you shouted. Your meltdown would have been appalling enough had you been standing there alone; to act the way you did in front of your children is far beyond egregious. I'm not particularly proud of my own role in this incident; however, you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself for yours.

Speaks for itself, no?

Now, because you clearly need some help with this concept, here is what should have happened. Perhaps you can read this section to your children so that they don't perpetuate your rudeness and ignorance into their own adulthoods. In the first place, even if you were frustrated with the garbage bins blocking your path and even though you own a home on a certain street, you do not have the right to completely block said street just because you feel like it. This may be the hardest concept for you of all, because unfortunately this city in which we live has come down with a wicked case of "Sense of Entitlement" over the past many years and it seems to be a tough thing to fix. But let me be clear about this point, again: you do not have the right to block an entire roadway simply because you yourself are being inconvenienced in some way. Your car should have been all the way over to the right-hand side of the road and your door should not have been left open, forcing us to come to a halt. If you had done these things properly in the first place, then we would have been long past you by the time you returned to your car and there would have been no need for your little fit that followed. However, you did jump out of your car in the middle of the road and forgot to close your door behind you, but there was still time to recover from that oversight. At that point, the moment you saw us coming toward you you should have either gone back to the car and moved it out of our way or worked at double-time to perform the tasks at hand: namely, moving the bins out of your path. You also should have given us some sort of indication of what was happening: leaving your left-turn indicator on or, better still, some sort of sheepish and apologetic wave to us in acknowledgment of the fact that you were now inconveniencing us for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than your own abject selfishness.

Might be buying this from Zazzle

But let's assume you had a momentary lapse of judgment because you were angry with the garbage collectors. Let's assume you had already held us up with your inconsiderate actions and had returned to your car and closed your door. There was still time to salvage a little bit of civility from the moment: you could have motioned for us to pass and waved your thanks for us having waited for you in the first place. At the very least, you could have just kept your mouth shut while we drove past and perhaps at that point your poor kids would not even have known anything was wrong in the first place. (And speaking of your kids, you left them in the middle of the street in a car with the engine running and no indicators going while you stepped out of that car and moved away from it. I think you had already relinquished any claim to "Mom of the Year" at that very moment.) But you did not keep your mouth shut, choosing instead to draw attention to your selfish lack of respect for anyone else on the planet and, worse still, indicating to your children that this was the right thing to do and somehow we were in the wrong here. Let me assure you, unequivocally: there wasn't a thing you did during the whole time we were on your street that can be considered as "the right thing to do". Not one thing.

Manners: not just for children

So congratulations, Mom: you are today's poster child for why I despair for the future of the human race. You are competent enough to own a driver's license and a car; you have produced a minimum of two offspring and are raising them in your image; you apparently own property in the most expensive city in Canada; and yet not only is your gut instinct to be uncivil and selfish and ill-mannered but you appear to be incapable of recognizing this as a fault when the opportunity arises to make amends. Instead of yelling at us that we "could have waited" for you - which we most certainly did do - you should have first of all not made us wait for you at all unless it was our choice to do so; failing that, you should have been sincerely and manifestly grateful that we did wait for you after you inconvenienced us so unnecessarily. Let me make this part perfectly clear: it was not the wait that we minded, not at all; rather, it was the assumption that your needs superseded ours and that we should wait for you, and do so without question and with no need of acknowledgment.

It is that assumption that I cannot let pass without comment. For it is that assumption that is at the root of myriad other problems that plague our city and make me want to scream most days I travel about within it. We are all in this together and if you can't innately understand that then perhaps you might at least figure out a way to teach it to your kids. That is the very least you should do, because your kids looked terribly embarrassed by your actions today and, therefore, I think there might still be hope for them.

It's sure worth a try and, more than that, you owe it to them to do so. Best of luck.

*************************************************

That's it for the letter. You know, I thought I would feel better at this point, but I really don't. Sigh. Well, thanks for reading, at least.

A Morning at the AGO

My "discovery" of Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, 25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973.

Sarah at the entrance to the Picasso exhibition

The Art Gallery of Ontario has a fabulous exhibition of Picasso's works which opened in May and runs until August 26th. Today Sarah and I finally went to see it, choosing an early morning timed entry on the advice of a very smart man on the phone when we called about tickets earlier in the week. Because we are members at the AGO the exhibition was free for us; we've waited this long so we could go on a weekday while Sarah was on holidays, so it would be less crowded. The pieces are out on tour right now (Toronto is the only Canadian "stop") because the Musée National Picasso, Paris is closed temporarily for renovations and we were very lucky to get to see some of these works. I had never been that much of a fan of Picasso's work (and Sarah is definitely not) but this was a tremendous opportunity to view the progression of his style and learn more about his life and how it affected his work.

Stop the Madness

One of the two people killed in the Danzig shootings on Monday
credit: Liam Casey/Toronto Star

There was another public barrage of bullets yesterday in Toronto. Two people died and twenty-four others were injured.

Twenty-four others were injured. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Now I'll continue: one of the victims is twenty-two months old. Good luck letting that sink in.

Originally we were told that many of the victims were injured as people rushed to vacate the area of the gunfire. But that wasn't the case as all but one of the twenty-six people who were either killed or injured in the melee last night were hit by a bullet (or several bullets).

In Toronto, we are told that "violence is down" from past years and our mayor insists that this was an "isolated incident". Later that same mayor declared a "war on gangs" (a month too late), which is a poor choice of words at the best of times, quite aside from everything always being a "war" with RoFo. In Ottawa, predictably, the amoral Harper Government seized the spotlight to make it all about them, as usual.

"Play Me, I'm Yours"

"Play Me, I'm Yours" piano at the Royal Conservatory

I was downtown this morning for a group information session put together by The Challenge Factory and spent a little one-on-one time afterwards with my "Career Mentor", Lisa Taylor discussing my next moves. (I'll expand on that in a blog post tomorrow with some exciting news.) After we left the L'espresso Bar Mercurio we walked back toward Avenue Rd. along Bloor St. On our way we came upon a piano, sitting outside in the sunshine, next to the steps of the Royal Conservatory building, with the words "Play Me I'm Yours" displayed prominently on its face. A young lad had just finished playing this piano and had stepped away as we approached, his position on the bench being immediately taken up by the woman you see in this picture. I assumed it had something to do with the Conservatory itself, but when I spoke to Sarah about it later she told me that it was part of a much, much larger art project and that there were pianos all over the city of Toronto.

Now, Back to the Lunacy

Wonder if these will still be here next July 1?

After such a fun, sunny, Pride-filled (in more ways than one) weekend in Toronto I had hoped that perhaps we could coast on the goodwill for a few days at least. After all, the midway rides haven't even completely disappeared from Stan Wadlow Park; to be fair, though, they might still be there into next week because the company that ran the pathetic midway this year - "Outdoor Amusements" of Scarborough - are perhaps the worst bunch of slacker layabouts I have ever seen at one of these fairs. (I know I keep harping on them, but I really want to be sure their business suffers because they are truly terrible.) This picture was taken between 7 and 8 PM this evening, two full working days after the midway shut down. By way of contrast, every other inch of Stan Wadlow Park was cleaned and vacated before we got out of bed yesterday morning (with the lone exception of the Port-a-Potties, which were picked up around noon). The kids trying to have a soccer practice on that pitch this evening had to deal with the intrusion of some of the ride remnants and they occasionally lost a ball under one of the trucks, requiring them to scramble under there to retrieve it. I wonder if the organizing committee has balked at paying them their money (and balk they should) and this has caused a degree of petulance from the midway company. Perhaps we'll get our field back in time for school to return in the fall.

Canada Day Hangover

The midway tonight at 8:30; these people do nothing fast

After all the sun and fun of Canada Day it was pretty hard to drag ourselves out of bed this morning, to be sure. But we had made a date with our friends Louise and Mike (the latter here on a very short visit from England) to have brunch with them at Flo's Diner in Yorkville. It was a special treat to be downtown early on a Holiday Monday because it seemed almost like a ghost town (Louise said she kept expecting to see zombies coming from around the corner). We got a great table outside under a huge umbrella and spent the better part of two hours with our wonderful friends. I'm really glad we were able to see them today, but let me tell you: it had to be a special occasion indeed to get us out of the apartment because we were absolutely zonked this morning.

Happy Dominion Canada Day!

A patriotic house on Woodbine Ave.

It's been an absolutely gorgeous day for the Canada Day celebrations at Stan Wadlow Park in East York. Sarah and I got up this morning and grabbed a quick cup of coffee before we headed outside onto Woodbine Ave. to catch the parade as it traveled its final few metres before entering the park. There are a few clouds now, which have helped to cool things off a little, but we soaked up quite a bit of sun while we were at the parade and then at the fair (twice), and it kind of has me "zonked". Also, this should be a holiday, so today's post is going to be more of a "photo journal" than anything. I look forward to your angry emails.

Sarah and the (non-functioning) Ferris wheel at noon

So let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. As I mentioned yesterday on my blog and lamented more than once today on Facebook and Twitter, the midway this year has been a tremendous disappointment. This picture was taken at 11:30 this morning, after the parade and at the exact moment the rides and games were all supposed to be open for business. As you can see, they were a long way from being ready to go; in fact, the Ferris wheel behind Sarah wasn't running until 3:30 PM, four hours after it was supposed to. On our second trip to the park we stood near someone from the organizing committee who was very politely but firmly chastising a representative from the midway providers, asking why the Ferris wheel didn't even arrive until 11PM last night, why there were so few activities, why the booths weren't open until well after noon, and on and on and on. The company rep spent all of his time lamenting how little sleep he, personally, had had this past week and deflecting the blame in any way he could. At one point he promised the organizer that there would be "twice as many rides next year and much better, too". But since this is at least the fourth year this particular company has had the contract to provide the midway for East York (which has been smaller, crummier and later in opening each and every one of those years), I would have to say that if they are given the contract again next year then the entire organizing committee for the East York Canada Day celebrations should be replaced.