Uninhabited Spaces

Saturday brought gorgeous weather so we took advantage of the day and headed out to explore the neighbourhoods that will be our new home come April 30. Our first stop was the King Street Design District in historic Corktown. We browsed in each amazing store and looked for ideas for our new condo, finding a potential a finalist at EQ3 . We then headed into the magnificent St Lawrence Market,   to get some smoked salmon and fresh bagels. which we enjoyed at a picnic table in the sun. With our tummies full of yummy, we then headed south into Harbourfront, to snake along the waterfront in the blazing Spring sun. It looked like plenty of other Torontonians and tourists had the same idea, walking along the boardwalk and checking out the views south across to Toronto Islands and the canyon of condo and bank towers to the north. Needing a break from all the walking we stopped off at Biermarkt to enjoy a Belgian-style German white called Hopf and some giant house-made pretzels. E...

Although not our original intention when we left in search of brunch on Good Friday, we ended up walking for hours around the downtown core. After some unsuccessful attempts to take in brunch at some of our usual places, due to congestion, we stumbled across Parkette . What a wonderful discovery! I had a delectable two soft-poached eggs and braised ham hock on a bed of perfect polenta, while Mark had their unique take on a club sandwich: Cornish hen, pork belly with tomato and mustard emulsion. We then walked up Queen West into Entertainment District, up Spadina through Chinatown, and then crossed into Kensington Market, where we took in the smells, sights, and chilled vibe of Canada's answer to Pike Place. We then kept going west into Little Italy, where Mark had some gelato and an Americano, and found ourselves amongst throngs of Italian-Canadians lined up for the annual Good Friday Passion Procession. We decided to stay and watch the sombre procession of Jesus going throug...

Photo Credit: Jennie Suddick, 2012 Last fall I attended an awesome exhibition of work by Ryoji Ikeda at DHC/Art in Montreal. A colleague snapped this photo of me checking out one of the installations, and I thought I would share it with you.

Well we're movin on up, To the harbour side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky. Movin on up, To the harbour side. We finally got a piece of the pie. We have some breaking news--come April 30 we'll be moving into the heart of downtown Toronto, into the Harbour View Estates tower, located within the CityPlace complex. CityPlace is a recent planned urban community bordered by the Fashion District and Entertainment District to the north-west and north-east respectively and Harbourfront to the south. The accompanying photo shows the south view of our new building, which is where our future unit is way up on the 42nd floor. We'll have windows in our living room and bedroom overlooking the Harbourfront, Toronto Islands, and Lake Ontario. One of the biggest draws to the building is the 30,000 sq-ft "Super Club", which offers a 25-metre swimming pool, a full-size gymnasium, jogging track, whirlpool, cardio, weight and conditioning rooms, a squash court, bow...

Set of "Avenue Q", Lower Ossington Theatre, Toronto I treated Mark to a special birthday experience this evening, by starting off with an incredible dinner at an Italian wine bar called Enoteca Sociale . We each had a 4-course prix fixe that was based on a Parmigiano Reggiano theme.  We then walked over to the popular Ossington strip to Rock  Lobster for drinks.   Then we took the few steps down the street to the Lower Ossington Theatre to take in a show of Avenue Q, winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book.  We had front row seats so I snapped the picture above for a souvenir.  The musical was hilarious, with stand-out performances from the leads, Cassie Muise and Stephen Amon. Ms. Muise was especially strong and moving, with a powerful vocal delivery and presence. We were pleased to see two Kingston connections in the cast: Kingston native Michael Donnelly was perfect as the comic-relief, gravelly-voiced Trekkie Mon...

Despite being rather frigid, we decided to get out and about. We went for a giant stroll eastward along Queen Sreet West, checking out the stores and galleries, including Propeller and MOCCA . Mark was on a mission to have some hot chocolate at Soma . Soma is among the few chocolate makers that makes chocolate in batches directly from the cacao bean or, as they say, "from bean to bar". They offer a hot chocolate elixir, which is essentially like having a melted top-quality chocolate bar. We each enjoyed a mug and wandered home quite content. While I made some delicious Moroccan food from the great cookbook The Food of Morocco, Mark snuggled up on the couch to watch "The Blob" (1958) starring Steve McQueen. Such a great B-movie. We had a blast watching this cheesy classic.

We had a memorable Valentine's evening, starting by attending "The Big Draw", a silent auction fundraiser for the OCAD U Drawing & Painting program. The auction ran for two hours and it was both fun and tense as we bid on two pieces and kept our eyes on a third. For the entire time we kept a hawk-like eye on the bid sheets next to our most desired work, as well as enjoyed some wine and mingling with our wonderful colleagues. The last 10 minutes was nerve-wrecking, as we had some counter-bids to contend with. They shut the auction down promptly at 7pm and we emerged as the winning bidders of our favourite piece, a lovely painting by Linda Martinello . In a great interview with Toronto Standard , Martinello explained, "My work is equally indebted to the long trajectory of landscape art as it is to the fictitious and real histories of places that have inspired it. Series of drawings and paintings that I create point at how ideologically formed, subjectiv...

Credit: GlobalHue While we awoke to a sunny day it was quite cold and especially messy on the streets, thanks to the recent "Snowmageddon". We decided to stick close to home and wandered through the neighbourhood beside us to the west, Parkdale. BlogTO describes Parkdale as a "diverse community...home to Tibetan, North African and West Indian enclaves mixed in with some of Toronto's best vintage fashion, furniture and fabric stores".  Others, as The GridTO notes, "denigrate Parkdale as a haven for slumming hipsters". The reality is likely a combination of both descriptions. There is certainly a realness to Parkdale, given its mix of down-and-out denizens, the Tibeten community, roti shops,  dollar stores, art galleries, payday loan joints, food markets, and, yes, dozens of enterprises catering to all things hipster. Parkdale mixes seedy with bohemian, a Bushwick in the making. We started our walkabout at West End Food Co-op ,  then checked ...

We started today with a fantastic brunch at our new favourite restaurant, Liberty 25. We are convinced that this lovely gem offers Toronto's best Eggs Benedict, plus they offer fresh scones with homemade marmalade and cranberry butter. Mmmm! Our plan for the the afternoon was to head to Corktown and the Distillery District but the Fates had other plans for us. A streetcar along our line decided to hit a delivery van, so we had to get off and make new plans. We ended up taking the subway north to Yorkville and went wandering. At one point we thought it would be nice to find a cafe and warm up, as it was getting chillier by the half hour. We ended up going down an alley and we stumbled across the Coffee Mill Restaurant . Little did we know we had found a Toronto institution. The menus had a sticker that proudly announced that 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of this establishment that bills itself as "Toronto's oldest coffee house". I got up from our table to ch...

This month marks the 30th anniversary of U2's album War. [I'll pause a moment to to let that set in...] 1983 was a crucible year for popular music; Punk was dead, New Romanticism was waning and ultimately morphing into Synthpop, and New Wave was emerging. There were records released in 1983 that would become iconic by the decade's end such as Synchronicity (The Police), and Murmur (R.E.M.), as well as solid releases from Duran Duran, The Cure, The Eurythmics, Madonna, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Billy Idol, and Culture Club that would birth some of the most beloved singles of that huge shoulder pad and large-framed glasses era. Of course, many of those same songs would now be regarded by some as vapid epic cheese. Alas... For their part, U2 released their distinctive third album in 1983. Coming off the commercial, and somewhat artistic, disappointment that was October (1981), U2 were still hungry for the chart-topper and to live up to the promise so brilliantly ...

Just around the corner from the southern end of our street is the new "Food Hub" of the West End Food Co-op . They just opened in October, and while we actually went in on their opening day, we only just became members today. The Cooperative is committed to creating a sustainable local community food culture in the Parkdale area. They opened a Farmer's Market in 2008 in Sorauren Park, and a Community Cannery in 2010.  The Food Hub is home to both a grocery store as well as a Community Kitchen, home to the Cannery as well as educational opportunities, events, training, and workshops. For our first purchases we decided to get a pound of organic Nicaraguan medium roast from Alternative Grounds - a roaster of certified fair trade coffee located in neighbouring Roncesvalles, and a baking mix of Oat Scones (with whole ground Red Fife, oats and spelt) from Grain Storm , a company that produces baking mixes using only organic heritage grains (as opposed to modern commodity whe...

A loyal reader recently chided me for not having updated my blog in quite a while. I  have actually surpassed the 500 posts mark, which is pretty darn impressive, yet my publishing rate has decreased in direct proportion to my work volume. So, firstly, apologies dear readers. I will endeavour to be more productive on the blogging front. And, secondly, I was curious to know more about my readers. Blogger tells me that I've had over 47,000 page views since I started this blog; that the top-5 views by country are U.S., Canada, UK, Netherlands, and Poland; 66% of my visitors use Chrome as their browser, and 73% are using Windows as their OS. The most-read post is my May 25, 2010 entry entitled " I love New York in the spring ". [Just so you know, that lovely photo of me and Mark was taken at Toronto's La Societe , at which we enjoyed a wonderful brunch with our dear friends, Karen and Jen, in the Fall. Always nice to share a good photo and, really, have you ever see...

There's a great cafe and bakery in our neighbourhood called School, which bases its branding and visual identity on, well, school. So the idea is that the restaurant is a schoolhouse of sorts, and they have lots of fun with riffing on the theme. On their website they have a fun section called "Yearbook" in which they ask for submissions of patrons' yearbook photos and associated quote. If you take a look on the yearbook page you just might find a familiar face.

"America, I believe we can build on the progress we’ve made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try. I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America".

It was a pleasure to be in the heart of Old Montreal on Thursday evening. After a stroll through the narrow streets amidst the tightly packed stone buildings, I decided to treat myself to a classic French dinner at the super quaint Marche de la Villette.  This bistro is a slice of the French countryside, with stone walls, comfy tables, and a genial and boisterous staff. I elected to hunker down with the assiette de la vilette , which is the house charcuterie platter, and a lovely glass of red wine.  This was just the perfect way to start the evening before the event I was hosting nearby.

I can't believe I haven't posted on my blog in a month! This is highly unlike me. I guess it's a reflection of the fact that I have been going all-out at work. Not only is my department hosting many events, we get invited to attend other OCAD U and related events to represent the University. I worked last Saturday to take part in the University's open house and this Saturday I am attending a screening of a recent grad's short-films trilogy. I then have 3 evening events this week, which make for a long day indeed. When I have been getting home it's a constant ballet of making dinner and flopping down to relax and unwind. Oh ya, and there is that need to spend time with my beloved. No complaints, mind you. It's been a great year for me at OCAD U and there is more exciting things to come at work. I am blessed with an awesome team and it's a joy to head to the office. It's just full-steam-ahead busy. Looking forward to some down-time over the hol...

The truth is out there...in Toronto! A store called Conspiracy Culture opened up in Parkdale and features books, magazines, and DVDs on a wide range of topics, including  mainstays like 9/11, aliens, ancient civilizations, the occult, cryptozoology, politics, religion, secret societies, war & terrorism.

Image Credit: Gehry International Inc Toronto is abuzz with the announcement by David Mirvish that he intends to demolish a block of his properties along King Street West, including the Princess of Wales Theatre, to erect three towers designed by Frank Gehry . The three towers would be condos with a total of 2,600 units, and they would rise from 80 to 85 stories--among the highest residential towers on the continent. The lower levels of the staggering complex would be multi-use and include retail, a 60,000 square-feet public gallery for Mirvish's art collection, as well as 25,000 square-feet dedicated to OCAD University for a new Public Learning Centre for Visual Art, Curatorial Studies, and Art History . There is a chorus of voices both in support and in objection to this proposed development. As the key players navigate the planning and approval processes it will be very interesting what comes out at the other end.

We were delighted to see an announcement in our lobby recently that our condo's pool, hot tub, and sauna were ready for use. Mark has taken advantage of our marquee amenity and has been swimming every morning. Good for him! I went down one day while he was doing laps and took a few shots of the pool area (click on images to enlarge).

We had the oldest child of longtime friends of Mark's over for dinner Sunday evening and he took this great panoramic shot of our view of the city. Thought I would share it with you...

On our way to explore the Polish Festival this past Sunday, we stumbled across a pedestrian bridge that crosses over the Gardiner Expressway and Lakeshore Boulevard and takes strollers right to the waterfront in an area of the city called Sunnyside. We had never been to this area before and we took a few photos of the boardwalk that connects into the huge waterfront trail system that crosses the entire Toronto shoreline.

Classic view of inside of the main entrance So many choices At the intersection of bagels and meats When you need the upper cut! Luba's Coffee Boutique, St. Lawrence Market Toronto's flatiron, the Gooderham Building (1892) We took advantage of the lovely, yet crisp, weather to take a trip over to St. Lawrence Market, recently ranked the #1 food market in the world by National Geographic. We enjoyed lots of samples, bought some bagels, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of one of the great gems of Toronto.

Awesome formation over the CNE Dufferin Gate, CNE Aerial shot of Liberty Village The "tabletop" Sharp Centre for Design, OCAD U Toronto skyline with so many cranes Left to right: Shangri-La Hotel, Trump Hotel, Scotiabank Tower, First Canadian Place