Uninhabited Spaces

If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air Quaint little villages here and there (You're sure)You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod (Cape Cod, that old Cape Cod) If you spend an evening you'll want to stay Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod I am so excited to share that we have just booked a beautiful apartment in a 162 year-old classic shingled Cape Cod house in fabulous Provincetown for a week of serious chilling out. P'town is located at the tip of Cape Cod (check out this awesome aerial shot ) and it was where the Pilgrims first landed the Mayflower in 1620 before ending up at Plymouth. P'town has been the premiere U.S. gay resort town since the 1970s (although gay and lesbian folks starting flocking to P'town in the 1920s). As gay author Reed Woodhouse has written, “To such an extent that Provincetown is, for anything, known for us, known for being one of the two or three places on...

While we had originally thought we would run away for the Victoria Day long weekend we decided to stay in the city, to relax and spend some more time exploring the wonderful neighbourhoods of Toronto . Besides, we are planning a proper getaway over the summer so it made sense to stay put and just enjoy our new home. Friday I gave myself an extra day off, so we could start our long weekend on Friday. We walked up Queen Street West in search of some new shoes, with a quick stop at Nadege Patisserie for some pastries and a drink. Mmmm...We kept up our walk eastward on Queen Street into the Entertainment District , ending up at a lovely pub called Town Crier , just a block away from my office. The great thing about the pub is that they have a sort of hidden second floor that is like a hideaway. It was so cozy and welcoming, so we stayed for a refreshing pint. Saturday We went for brunch with Toni at favourite spot Cafe Bernate and then hit the galleries in the Ossington Avenue ...

Last night we attended an alumni social hosted by the Toronto Branch of the Queen's Alumni Association. The alumni gathering was held at P.J. O'Brien Pub in the St. Lawrence Market district. Located on the tiny, charming and historic Colborne Street, the pub was very friendly and the service was also quite good. It was nice to meet some other Queen's alumni of varied ages and backgrounds, including from engineering, political studies, physical therapy, and business. We were joined midway through the event by our dear friend Edward, up from Kingston for a conference. He ended up running into some fellow chemical engineering alumni so he was quite delighted. The three of us eventually decided to take our leave and we had an awesome dinner at nearby Osteria 55 , a brand new Italian eatery. Both Mark and Edward had the Tongue ’n’ cheek (beer-braised veal cheek ravioli, sweet and sour cipolini onions and crispy calf’s tongue) while I opted for the duck confit pasta. Th...

On Saturday we continued our exploration of Toronto's neighbourhoods, taking in three distinctive areas. We started by walking from our condo north up to Little Italy . With the temperature hovering around 25 degrees Celsius, it felt like a warm summer day, and people were out and about taking in the beautiful day. We stumbled across Creme , a new bakery, and indulged in some very tasty gelato. Mark had a scoop each of pistachio and chocolate, while I had a small cup of mango.I was taken aback by the soaring clock tower of the fire hall (pictured at left) that dominates the neighbourhood and made it feel like we were in a small town. Continuing eastward, we ended up in the adjacent neighbourhood of Kensington Market . The contrast was quite hilarious, as Kensington is-- like all bazaars-- a mess of sounds, bodies, and general chaos. We checked in two of our favourite vintage stores, Bungalow and Exile . We then hopped on the Dundas St. streetcar and headed west over to Churc...

In an interview on ABC news earlier today, Barack Obama expressed his support of marriage for same-sex couples, the first sitting President of the United States of America to proclaim equality for gays and lesbians. "I’ve stood on the side of broader side of equality for the LGBT community. I had hesitated on gay marriage, in part because I thought civil unions would be sufficient, that that was something that would give people hospital vistitations, elements that we take for granted. And I was sensitive to the fact that, for a lot of people, the word marriage was something that evokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs, and so forth. But I have to say, over the course of several years, as I talked to friends and family and neighbors. When I think about members of my own staff, who are in incredibly committed monogamous same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there ...

Today, One World Trade Center (previously known as the "Freedom Tower") edged out the iconic Empire State Building to become the tallest building in New York City. Although still some 500 feet from completion, the addition of steel columns earlier today put the tower at 1,271 feet. When completed the tower is expected to rise to 104 stories with a symbolic height of 1,776 feet, a commemoration of the 1776 Declaration of Idependence. It's hard not to be moved by the incredible visual impact and symbolism of the new One World Trade Center. Anyone can understand how important it is for Manhattan to once again scrape the clouds and reclaim a space so tragically undone. Still, Robert Sardello argues in his book Facing the World that skyscrapers are manifestations of a self-centered ego--designs that turn architecture into "egotecture" and create a wasteland of hollow, inflated, monotonous, lonely, and defiant spaces. Sardello is certainly on to something...

We decided to stay in our own neighbourhood--Liberty Village-- today for a low-key day. Since it was so sunny and warm I put together a small little afternoon snack (pictured at left) for us to enjoy on our patio. Being 19 floors up we figured we had a better view than just about any other spot in town! We did make a small trip over to West Elm to pick up a lovely planter . Mark was over the moon when we spotted Golden Apple Confectionary , which had just opened on Friday. Mark bought an apple dipped in caramel and covered in Skor bits. Here are some pictures of the view we enjoyed as we sat in our little cafe, sipping wine, and watching the city alive and in motion below...

After a few false starts over the weeks due to bad weather, we finally made the trip up to "The Junction" neighbourhood with a lovely couple I met through work named Katherine and Darren. Named for the junction of four railway lines in the heart of the area, The Junction was a manufacturing community in the 19th century, and populated by immigrants from Italy, Poland, Macedonia, and Croatia. As of the 1920s the area is home to "Little Malta", due the large Maltese population. I was surprised to learn that until as recently as 2000, The Junction was "dry", meaning that the sale of alcohol was banned. Today, The Junction is enjoying a renaissance of sorts as a destination for incredibly large warehouse spaces home to a litany of industrial salvage and antique dealers, as well as curio shops, and furniture stores. There were a few used book stores and a couple of galleries that also looked interesting. The Junction is being touted by its BIA and others ...

As the villainous "Calvin Caddie"  Leonardo Dicaprio will be duelling himself come Christmas Day 2012, as he has two highly anticipated films opening that day. Both are period pieces helmed by markedly diverging directors. In Quentin Tarantino's stylized Western Django Unchained , set primarily in the pre-Civil War South, a slave-turned-bounty hunter (Jamie Foxx)-- with the help of his mentor (Christoph Walz)-- sets out to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner (Dicaprio). The films also features Samuel L. Jackson, Sasha Baron Cohen, and Kurt Russell. Promising to be far less violent but no less dramatic is Baz Lurhmann's upcoming 3-D adaptation of The Great Gatsby . Set in New York and Long Island in 1922, the movie is anchored by Dicaprio in the titular role with Carey Mulligan as "Daisy Buchanan" and Toby McGuire as "Nick Carraway". This promises to be a stylish and gorgeous production.  As th...

With season 5 of " Mad Men " now in full swing, the show's website now allows users to update their avatars. So here is a slightly improved version of how I would look if I worked at Stirling Cooper Draper Pryce. I guess it's convenient to blame pop culture for behaviour, but I have indeed increased my Scotch whisky consumption since we started watching "Mad Men". My current Scotch of choice is The Macallan Sherry Oak 12 Years Old . Mmmm... We inherited a stunning set of 40 year-old whisky tumblers from Mark's mother before we moved to Toronto.  Don Draper would certainly improve. To ensure we do not damage the balance of flavours in the Scotch, we use whisky stones , made by the oldest soapstone workshop in the U.S. We store them in the freezer, so they cool down the whisky, but since they do not melt there is no unnecessary dilution of the single malt.

I have seen more art in my 6 months in Toronto than the 39 years prior! At least once a week we are hitting an art opening or touring the many galleries scattered across the city. The largest exhibit we have seen recently was on Thursday night at the Toronto Art Expo , which was mixed at best in terms of overall quality. The stand-out artist for Mark and I was Tara Krebs , whose exquisite paintings from her "Curio" collection really captured our interest. We are watching closely the career and output of emerging sculpturist Nicholas Crombach , whose whale series really enthralled Mark. We just saw his newest show, "On the Fence" over the weekend. We first met Nicholas in Kingston, where he was exhibiting in the annual Creative Arts "Art in the City" show.  Our friend Patrick represented Nicholas at his first gallery in Kingston and then his new one in Toronto .  Two galleries that we regularly frequent are Angell Gallery and AWOL Gallery , both o...

After a fun Saturday hitting the galleries around Ossington Street/Queen West, Mark and I joined our friend Dana for a full day of geek glory at the Wizard World ComicCon . The primary celebrity guests were Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell, together for a "Quantum Leap" reunion. The three of us went to Bakula/Stockwell panel, and scored seats in the second row. I was not a huge fan of the show but certainly enjoyed watching once in a while during its original run from 1989-1993. The panel was actually great and Dana, a massive Dean Stockwell fan, lined up to ask a question during the open Q+A session. They were both well-spoken, hilarious, and had great chemistry. Dana got her picture taken with both of them, an event that was truly memorable for her. Other celebrities we saw included Amy Acker, best known from the great Joss Whedon shows "Angel" and "Dollhouse", Sean Maher from Whedon's brilliant "Firefly", Sam Witwer from "Sma...

On this cloudy and blustery day, with the wind blowing us around, we decided to do start our afternoon with brunch at Cafe Bernate and then do a crawl of the gallery district centred around Ossington and Queen Street West. We began with seeing Transformation , a show of works by first-generation OCADU students. Next was Angell Gallery , always a must-see venue for its engaging works. We hit another three galleries on Queen Street West before heading to the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) for a truly facinating exhibit called Necropolis . According to MOCCA, Necropolis is an "immersive multi-media meditation on the nature of video and its strong affiliations with death culture". Visitors have to walk up inclines and down declines inside a totally blackened hallway that winds through the museum space. Lit only by each piece in the exhibit the viewer is confronted by a mixture of sensory deprivation, sounds, and television and video screens. Tired of the wi...

Daniel Lanois at The Great Hall. Image Copyright Stacy Kelly, 2012 Mark and I just returned from seeing iconic producer and songwriter Daniel Lanois live in the basement at The Great Hall. Lanois was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame on Thursday and he planned to follow that honour up with two concerts in Toronto. Tonight's was the first and all I heard as we left the building was "That was awesome!" repeated over and over again. Awesome indeed. I took this picture of Lanois with Brian Blade , surely one of the finest drummers on the planet.  Brian laid down some incredible grooves that left the audience in head-shaking-foot-stomping rapture. I have never been so close to such lengendary performers, so I was in a state of shock for a portion of the evening. Most people know Daniel Lanois as the justly celebrated producer of  artists such as U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris and others, but he has also crafted a catalogue of his...

The office building that houses my office appears to be in the epicentre of location filming for various TV shows. Since I arrived in October at least three productions have been filmed along the streets outside and behind my building, and interior shots taken in neighbouring buildings.  This morning an announcement was posted on our front door informing us that a Showcase program called " King " will be filming this Wednesday and Thursday. In the Fall the popular Bravo show " Suits " and the CTV show " The Listener " were also filming right here in the neighbourhood. Fun!

From: MastersInIt.org

This past week was easily the busiest for us since moving to Toronto. We had all sorts of events back-to-back in what was a very packed set of adventures. Our first activity was attending a Queen's Alumni event on Wednesday evening at the swanky National Club on Bay Street, featuring guest speaker Peter Milliken talking about his experience as the Speaker of the House of Commons. It was a very nice event and, being a political junkie, fun to hear about the ins-and-outs of life on Parliament Hill. Thursday night found us at an art exhibit opening of Rose Hirano at the Wellington Street Art Gallery . Ms. Hirano was a thoroughly engaging speaker as she talked about her process and inspiration for the incredible reduction woodblock prints she was exhibiting.  It was a treat to be able to learn from such a gifted artist. Her works have always spoken to both of us and we admire her multi-inking process, in which she prints from light to dark values using a single piece of wood. ...

Richard J. Kelly (September 1, 1944 - February 26, 2011) Today marks a year since my dad died. He has been with me every day in my thoughts and at least once a week I have dreamed about him. I am not sure if it is because he keeps visiting me at night or if it's because I have not let him go. It's been the biggest surprise of my life that I keep seeing him in my dreams. I can't believe how much he stays in my thoughts. I hope my dad knew how much I did love him, even though I only told him at the very end. That was a surprise too. I had a tough relationship with him for most of my life. He came into my life in 1978, when I was all of seven. He was "Richard" then. He was seeing my mother and all of a sudden we moved in with him from Ottawa to a hamlet called Breckenridge, 15 km north of Aylmer, Quebec. Dad was a car salesman and he travelled most days of the week so I did not see much of him outside of the weekends, although he was around more in the summ...

Today was Mark's birthday and so I treated him to dinner at La Societe , one of Toronto's most opulent French bistros. Opened last June, the restaurant evokes a Parisian bistro of the 1920s, with a stunning stained glass ceiling, beautiful milled wood details and brass ascents. The tile floor is absolutely gorgeous. We both opted for the prix fixe, beginning with an incredibly creamy and flavourful duck liver terrine. We also had the same main, a 24-hour slow-cooked flat iron steak. A recent butchery discovery, the flat iron steak comes from the cow's shoulder and is the second tenderest cut of beef. It was perfectly prepared and presented; a succulent medium rare with a gentle pepercorn sauce. For dessert I had the cherry clafoutis tart while Mark opted for the milk chocolate chantilly cream. Both were simply fantastic. Our only complaint was that the bistro is quite loud. It's a large space, and with all of the tile, wood, and high ceilings, it was tough to he...

We headed back over to the east side of the city on Sunday morning, with a trip to Riverside, a small neighbourhood within South Riverdale. A gentrified, bohemian strip of quaint boutiques, upscale furniture vendors, and hip cafes, Riverside is home to a great artists walk every summer. All that nice stuff aside, the real reason I wanted to go to this neighbourhood is that it is home to De Grassi Street, the setting of the excellent CBC shows " The Kids of Degrassi Street " (1979-1986), " Degrassi Junior High " (1987-1989), and " Degrassi High " (1989-1991). As stated on Wikipedia, "[m]uch like its predecessor, Degrassi High dealt with controversial issues ranging from AIDS, abortion, abuse, alcoholism, cheating, sex, death and suicide, dating, depression, bullying, gay rights, homophobia, racism, the environment, drugs, and eating disorders". I have to admit I was rather giddy to finally be able to go to De Grassi Street. It was a sort of p...

After putting it off for weeks we finally went to the eastern neighbourhood of St Lawrence Market on Saturday morning to take in the awesome food market. There are over 50 vendors selling meat, cheese, vegetables, and fruits. We were pleasantly surprised to see St. Urbain bagel shop, which makes the closest thing to a Montreal-style bagel I've had in Ontario. We ordered a half-dozen and devvoured one immediately. Mmmm. We then walked around the neighbourhood--specifically the Queen-Jarvis intersection, which is home to a great collection of design stores. It was a fun day out, even if the weather kept changing every five minutes.

Whitney Houston August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012 In September 2009 I noted on this blog how happy I was to see that Whitney Houston was releasing a new album, and I was hopeful that she would make a heroic comeback and show all of her imitators what the original diva could accomplish.  And this evening the sad, sad news that "The Voice" has been silenced. I had Ms. Houston's 1985 debut record on vinyl and I adored her instantly. My gooodness, could that stunning woman sing.  May she rest in peace. Here is one of my favourite moments of her incredible and inimitable talent, her performance at the 25 anniversary of Arista Records. This is how I will always remember her . 

We had a relatively quiet weekend but we did venture out on Saturday with our friends Patrick & Raymond to take in a gallery showing of my colleague Megan, who is in a collective called Woman King . They were exhibiting as part of a multi-gallery show called " Capacity ", a show built around the premise of raising the profile of female Canadian designers. After viewing the show we headed to Ossington Street-- "epicentre of Toronto hipsterdom" says The Grid --in search of dinner. We happily stumbled across Fish Bar , after our original choice required a 75-minute wait. What a wonderful find! From the incredibly sweet and attentive server to the simple but well-executed tapas plates, we indulged in various sea fare, from oysters-on-the-shell, to grilled calamari, to octopus ceviche as well as a perfect bouillabaisse. Mark finished with a Lemon curd parfait, creamed cheese, vanilla crumble. He was very happy!

We are so excited, as I have scored free tickets to attend a special screening of "The Walking Dead"--the brilliant AMC TV show based on the awesome graphic novel of the same name-- at the TIFF Bell Lightbox! We were hooked after the first episode, and so it will be so much fun to take part in the screening and after-show Q&A with the executive producer. I have actually never enjoyed the zombie genre, but The Walking Dead managed to capture my full attention, thanks to the incredible work of its lead, Andrew Lincoln and one of the best of its supporting players, Laurie Holden. The show is really more about the living, rather than the walking dead, so I have been enthralled with their struggles and challenges as they face the terrifying prospect of a world nearly wiped out and mostly populated by zombies.

Last night I checked into to a sleep clinic to get my sleeping tested, just to make sure my snoring is not something more serious. Of course, it's rather ironic to be tested for sleep with things stuck all over your body (see lovely accompanying photo). I counted at least 17 electrodes stuck to my face and head! Before the lights went out they had me do a series of body and facial movements to test the sensors and then it was lights-out. It was hard to fall asleep as there was some noise in the adjacent room (the technician talks to each patient via a speaker in the room), not to mention the lovely apparatus, wires, glowing thingy attached to my left index finger, and rather strange bed. All-in-all I suspect it was a normal sleep night, though, and I am quite curious to have my follow-up appointment to see what they figured out about yours truly. Oh dear...