…now sadly lapsed, but in full-force through the fifties, sixties and seventies, which said that at some point between the ages of eight and ten, every young boy must attempt to build a model of the Cutty Sark, drive himself crazy trying
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I hope many of my friends were able to see the incredible Turner show at the AGO. The combination of the show and the recent biographical movie made a strong impression on me. (Two previous posts on this) Looking at his work
Checked-in at the Ryerson image centre today, a vastly under-appreciated cultural resource in Toronto. Not only do they put on first-class exhibitions (we’ve seen Avedon, Karsh, Goldin and more) and charge absolutely nothing for them, they are also genuine photographic keeners –
Not every day that one comes across Batman ducking through traffic instead of walking to the nearby intersection and waiting patiently for the crossing guard, the way we must assume any responsible Adam West type Batman would. Which places this fellow firmly
The last best hope for breakfast To list the iconic Toronto greasy spoons which are no more, or now mere sad shells of their formerly glorious selves would take ages and make everyone sad (me especially). However, this mighty stalwart, the good
Modesty is a fine quality, but Canadians are notoriously lousy at celebrating our own talent. In Toronto there is a particular inverse-snobbery about hiding genius, which is just plain sad. You’d never know (even growing up here) that Toronto is an important
Came across this lovely sculpture mounted atop a pole on Spadina – and it struck me as being just about as Toronto as a sculpture could be – not only was this area (and indeed most of downtown TO) full of wacky
Or, put another way I might alternately have called this one my creative resume. I maintain to this day that aside from wonderful time with those we love, art is one of the very few truly empirically-unwasted ways to spend a day
Every artist soon learns (usually by hard-knocks), that whatever estimate they make about the time and effort which a grand project will require, they are probably wrong – and not by ten or twenty percent, but by whole multiples and orders of
Winston Churchill, like JFK, is one of those characters that you end up liking and disliking ever more intensely as you study them. What no one (I’ve heard) ever questions, is that Britain was lucky to have him when they needed him.
This brave fellow (landing on a 92 foot department-store roof, to claim a prize in 1919 Paris) is Jules Vedrines – an early French pilot who spent WW1 flying spies into tight spaces (good practise for this stunt). He was also the
I have a very special relationship with squirrels – I’m not exactly sure that they like me, or the way that I insist on trying to learn their language. I think it entirely possible that a sneaky one taught me a horrible
I rather like the way this shot reveals the submerged, underlying the modern – it almost feels like there’s an old shipwreck down there, doesn’t it? Just finished a fascinating book tonight, about the long-hidden origins of Australia – it’s early (essentially
This is one of my favourite buildings on the old U of T campus for several reasons. I’d rank it second only to the lovely Massey hall as a Toronto venue – not quite such immaculate concert acoustics (though still commendable) but
I haven’t read any Rupert Sheldrake this century – but only because I always lend away my best books (and get them back, rather less-than always). He theorizes right at the edge of what I can ‘buy’ critically – one might think
The thing I love most about any good strong argument, is how fast you can learn, when you encounter one that displaces your old, less useful and/or valid ideas. Knowledge-turnover, like soil-aeration, is non-optional if you want to get a good fresh
I recently mentioned my curiosity about the differences between spray and line street-artists, and as soon as I self-sensitized that way, I noticed a couple. Not only is this (one-liner?) a real stylistic treat, for it’s minimal aspect and very immediate energy,
Context really is everything – there’s not much that’s more dull and common than a dirty puddle – and while wrought-iron fire-escapes do have visual appeal and even artistic significance (from the Ashcan school through Hopper and onward), we really don’t often