Yum! Dim Sum.

Zellers Restaurant

I find myself here often in the strange emotional peaks of my life.

It isn't the best place to eat. It's not cheap. I wonder often why the
company, which so long has neglected this division, bother still to keep
it around.

But there is a consistency in mediocracy for these Zellers Restaurants.
I eat here when I feel beat and nostalgic. There is a certain style to
them. The waitress (and only waitresses) never get you that coffee you
ordered. She is slow to give out the menu, even slower to take the
order. Some poor shmuck of a chef is doing god knows what with the food.
It gets here kind of cold ...

Like now -- I order a chop steak dinner and I am still enjoying the cold
meat doused with A1 sauce.

I am an Chinese Driver

There is apparently more truth to the sterotype than I thought.

I took this picture a few days ago. I got out of a Tim's after a few
hours of studying and this is what I saw.

I didn't even realize it was my car!

Mid-Autumn Festival

My family had dinner today.

My cousin and her husband. My aunt. My second cousin and her family. And
my great aunt and uncle.

It will be the Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow and we were celebrating it
early.

Look at all the food!

Poor Timmy! Stuck at the ROM

The statue of Timothy Eaton which used to sit inside the northend of the
Eaton Center is now at the ROM.

Poor guy! his progeny sucks and they caused him to be a relic like the
mummies on the third floor.

Ad refering to its own campagin

This is an interesting one.

This Mr. Big ad actually doesn't make any sense on its own. It's shows a
picture of a crushed car, the product, and the line "Careful. It's
big."

Standalone, element one, crushed car, doesn't really mesh with the other
two elements. However, if you have been watching a lot of TV, you might
have seen the spot where a giant poster of Mr. Big crashes down and
destroys a car and causes traffic mayhem. (If memory serves me
correct.)

This is, I guess, in the same category as the Energizer Bunny ads. After
so much exposure to that pink thing, just a picture of the Bunny will
remind you of Energizer.

I personally don't think this Mr. Big ad is as effective. The Bunny is
really iconic, from the drums to the logo to the shade of bright pink.
This is just some random car. It has no logos, no distinct colouring,
and no general distinguishable mark.

This is a bust and I am giving it an F.

Post-Nuit Blanche Activity - Sunrise at Cherry Beach

One word: Perfect.





Then we went home.

Nuit Blanche (21) How to Respond to an Emergency

As I stumbled my way to my car, I finally saw this show.

They had people in the tango community dress up as cops and dance on the street. Dancing cops are funny. I just wonder how they tango with non-slip boots on pavement?

Nuit Blanche (20) A Glow in the Dark

This was a show put on by OCAD grads.

I was pretty tired by then and most of the stuff kind of drifted by.

I think I started hallucinating. Some of the stuff actually started to make sense then.

The simultanious showing of "The Paper Wall" and "A Life of erros" by hudsband and wife team of Nicolas and Sheila Pye was something I wouldn't watch sober, but great that night. The two contrasts the pains of seperation and the hell of togetherness.

I think I was fucked. I was fucked.
Then OCAD starting giving out free pancakes. We had to wait a full hour and they were rubbery. But they were pancakes. @5:30AM. Free.

Butterfield Park (Under the shadow of the Sharp Centre)

By the time I got here, all the events were pretty much done. (It was 4AM.)
There were still the Giant Chess Set, Giant Twister, Giant Dominoes, and Giant Comfie Pillows.

The Marbles were regular size though.

Nuit Blanche (19) -Ballroom Dancing

Darren O'Donell
This was done in the gymnasium of the University Settlement.

It was video screen DJ's and rubber balls under the cover of strobelights. It was the way your Jr. High prm ought to be but wasn't because of uninsurable liabilities. But the rubber balls were quite safe, but they hurt just enough to want revenge on the person who threw it at you.

Nuit Blanche (18) Embroidered Turth and Shameless Lies

Linda Duvall

This was a lot of fun by taking sotrytelling to the next level. She walks around in a little silk tent and tells passer-by's a story. Then the passer-by has to retell it to her. Then, she as the passer-by to keep elaborating on the story, as if he/she was the main character in the story.

It was fun.

Gardiner Museum

So I went to the Gardiner Museum as well to look at pot.
I had some randon observations:

1) There is a Picasso vase here. I didn't know that he did pottery. I did know that Toronto has the weight to get a Picasso piece in the citiy.
2) Saw a very beautiful piece by Laszlo Fekete. "Dish with History of a Family" was constructed out of shardheaps at Herend Porcelain Manufactory. Broken dollar figurines were re-made into expensive art.
3) The Delfware exhibit was very funny. Basically, it was the 17th century Englishman trying to imitate Chinese bowls, down to the painting. It shows the relative power-relations of the time.
4) "Power of Rhythm" was a massive, participatory event with all the audience members beating on drums, all guided by the artist. I think it was give this poor lady in the corner a headach.
5) Jean-Pierre Larocque had the most fab textures on his clay pieces. It made them resemble papier-mache.

Nuit Blanche (17) Kinsman Robinson Gallery

Featuring Norval Morrisseau

This was definitely an unexpected treat. We were walking around Cumberland and found this little gallery. We walked up the stairwell and I saw this wierd, multi-coloured drawing. I thought to myself, "wow, this looks SO familiar, like I have seen it on TV before."

Damn if it wasn't Norval Morrisseau, Shaman Artist.

I never did go see the exhibit at the National Gallery last year despite CBC pouring out commercials for this thing every 15 minutes. I wanted to, though. I sure wasn't disappointed by someone of his calibre.

Lots of neat stuff ^(1)(2)(3)(4)
Although it was kinda freaky with a lot of little signs next to each work to indicate some of Morriseau's very idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs.

My favourite is "Steam Bath Ritual with Spirit Helpers" which was done in marker! It really showed his ability as an artist to use markers and it was still a great piece.

Another little break: Quan Schieder Fine Art

@99 Yorkville Avenue

This was the most impress exhibit for me personally.

The artist, Richard Posa, created large breathtaking pieces of whalebone sculptures that are actually made from maple. This transfer to a different medium is very well done. It show the real craftsmanship of the artist and also his ability to envision structures that were neither geometrical, nor fully a part of the natural world.

Very good.

Nuit Blanche (16) Hollander York Gallery

Most of the work were neat in a 1970's kind of way. Lots of acrylic, landscapes, flower arrangements. This stuff is absolutely revolutionary — for the people that did it 200 years ago. Now, this is just yuppie art.

Not a total bust though, I saw Jimmy Wright's Uras paintings and they were nice.

Nuit Blanche (15) Maize Barbacoa

Corn.
You get a free stick of roast corn.

I didn't get any though. When I got there, the artist had a small fit.
He was tired, hot, and said the coal needed changing. So no corn for me.

Nuit Blanche (14) Pharma@opia

This is it.

Just a few helium fill ballons in the shape of pills.
It's suppose to be a criticism of pharma companies and AIDS.

But, I don't know. Does nothing for me.

Nuit Blanche (13) I am Curious

Images from Yorkville's past.

"Toronto was a better city then ..." said a passer-by.

Nuit Blanche (12) Hold That Thought

Just a pause.

Get inside. Feel the calm of an Anglican Mass.

ROM

Carlos Garaicoa

References the decay of Havanna as a statement for the collapse of modernism and failed Utopias.

Nuit Blanche (11) - Fog in Toronto #71624

So this is the fog sculpture.
I am kind of disappointed.
I amb sure it is very well respected, but by the time I get there it
wasn't very enjoyable.

Mixed with rain, mud, and hordes of people, it was just just crowded,
slippery, and no visiblity. Kind of like the Battle of Ypres.

Nuit Blanches (10) One Night, One Garden, One Wish

This thing is too dark for me to photo properly.
But ansolutely magical. It's a wishing tree.