Uninhabited Spaces

I wish you a hopeful Christmas I wish you a brave new year All anguish, pain, and sadness Leave your heart, let your road be clear They said there'd be snow at Christmas They said there'll be peace on Earth Hallelujah, Noel, be it heaven or hell The Christmas we get we deserve.         - Greg Palmer The first giant storm of winter has dumped a blanket of snow on Toronto and we are snuggling in our condo and watching corny Christmas movies (and loving it).  I can't believe I have not posted since October. It's testament to how incredibly busy my fall has been. Now that the holidays are here I have time to take a breath and share some of our adventures over the past few weeks. One of the nicest events we went to was the annual Lowe's Toronto Christmas Market in the historic Distillery District (see above picture). It was so fun to wander amongst the 19th century brick buildings and check out the vendors' booths, and enjoy Christmas music and a rea...

Since I was in sessions until 5pm my wanderings were mostly at night. While I was at the conference, Mark took in the Art Institute of Chicago on the first day and the Shedd Aquarium on the second. Here are some shots of our walkabout during the evenings. Hard to get any more iconic than the Chicago Theatre (c. 1921) Oriental Theatre (c. 1926) View of the The Wrigley Building (c. 1924) from one of the bridges Inside Pizano's, where we went for beer and classic deep dish pizza Pizano's opened in 1991, inspired by the owner's father's place, opened in 1943 Chicago Water Tower (c. 1869) The Pumping Station (c. 1866), now home to Lookingglass Theater Company The grand entrance atrium of the Crate & Barrel on "The Magnificent Mile" The largest Burberry store I have ever seen! Looking up at the ceiling of Grand Lux Cafe Intercontinental Chicago (c. 1929) and Tribune Tower (c. 1925) Better view of the neo-Gothic...

I went to Chicago this week, to attend a conference, and Mark came along with me to play tourist. Thought I would share some photos of our visit, starting with our hotel: the grand Renaissance Blackstone , built in 1910. Plaque at entrance to hotel The foyer at the entrance to our hotel room Looking down the main hallway of our room The huge bed View from the bed View of Lake Michigan from one of our windows View from another one of our windows View of Hilton Chicago and Blackstone Hotel (right) from Brant Park View of Blackstone Hotel from across the street

While Queen's Homecoming is not taking place until October we happened to be in Kingston this past weekend to celebrate the 40th birthday of a dear friend. Since it's the 20th reunion of my class, Artsci'93 , I I took the opportunity to stroll around my beloved alma mater. It was one of those perfect Fall days, 20 degrees, with a sky that looked photo-shopped, the ivy was turning red as were many of the campus foliage, and the Rugby Gaels were demolishing a visiting team on Nixon Field. It looked like a movie set or a classic college catalogue. Here are some shots I took as we strolled around my old stomping grounds. Theological Hall (1880) Morgan Memorial Chapel, Theological Hall Fleming Hall (1904) Carruthers Hall (1890) Ontario Hall (1903) Grant Hall (1905) Douglas Library (1924) Detail, Ontario Hall (1903) Goodes Hall (1892, addition 2002, addition 2012)

For our anniversary last month we went to the restaurant inside the new The Beverley Hotel located on Queen Street West. I think it had been open for about a month when we dined in, which seemed to be perfect timing as we had a lovely experience and a mouth-watering meal. My opening dish was hanger steak tartare and lobster carpaccio Mark started with scallop and chinook My main was a perfectly-cooked beef cheek with chanterelles and frites. Mark's main dish was clams, lobster, chinook and scallops over corn veloute. For dessert we shared house-made donuts.Mmmm...

So the juggernaut that is the Toronto International Film Festival is well underway and, given that my office is just four streets up from  main venues Bell Tiff Lightbox, Roy Thompson Hall, and Princess of Wales Theatre, I have been witnessing the chaos every day during my walk home. I usually walk through David Pecault Square on my way to work and this morning around 8:20 I stopped along the fenced off VIP drop-off section to chat to some die-hard TIFF fans who had brought camping chairs to set in for the long-haul. Their goal today was to meet Ewan McGregor. They had met Brad Pitt the day before and said he was really sweet. As for your truly, we had made out our top-5 "must see" films and were very pleased to score tickets to 2 of them. Our first showing is Tuesday night's Gala Presentation of Kill Your Darlings starring Daniel Radcliffe and Ben Foster. The film is based around the 1944 murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr. Radcliffe plays Allen Ginsberg whi...

The TARDIS appeared on a hill opposite the MTCC The Batmobile from "Batman" (1989) KITT from "Knight Rider" An AT-ST from "Star Wars" A Dalek from "Doctor Who" Actor George Takei ("Star Trek") Actor Norman Reedus ("The Walking Dead") Actor David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff ("Knight Rider, "Baywatch") Actress Linda Hamilton ("The Terminator", "Terminator 2") Actor Zachary Quinto ("Star Trek", "Heroes") R2D2 waiting for an elevator Mark shaking the hand of his comic book artist hero Todd McFarlane. Actor Sam Witwer ("Being Human", "Smallville") A kid checks out the Lego version of Bag End. Fan dressed up as Dark Helmet from "Spaceballs"