Fall 2015 is coming to Ontario

Cool on Saturday, warm as heck this week, CNE back in Exhibition Place - we are officially heading into Autumn. North East of Parry Sound, just a couple hours north of Toronto already has some early signs of Fall.

Isolated bursts of colour can already be found in Ontario's forests

Follow the changing leaves with the Ontario Parks Fall Colour Report website. Peak fall foliage colours tend to be in mid to late September. If you head north you can also find the beauty of cottage country.

Prince's Gates lead to the Canadian National Exhibition

And keep up to date with the Fall Fair season in Ontario at this website. Support your local Fair - mine is the Acton Agricultural Fair, September 18 to 20, 2015 in Prospect Park.

Trump Tower Troubles in Toronto

Reports of a potentially unsafe condition at the Tower has caused the shutdown of Bay Street in Toronto's Financial District today. The temporary road closure of the North-South arterial roadway between Richmond and King Streets, along with portions of Adelaide Street West between Yonge Street and west of Bay Street will continue "until the owner of the building provides a report from a professional engineer that concludes there is no risk to the public."

News crews setup their cameras at a safe distance on Adelaide Street West

The measures were taken in the morning of Monday, August 31, 2015 after reports of possible danger due to the conditions of an antenna at the 325 Bay Street tower. The streets were still taped off and watched over by police during the afternoon commute. Reports suggest that hotel staff saw the tower swaying in the wind, much like Trump's hair when he gets near his helicopter.

If you wave your head back and forth you can recreate the tower of terror effect

I was hoping that there would be a giant great ape hanging from the tower

"Toronto Building contacted and issued an order to the property management company in charge of and responsible for the building to provide a professional engineer's report commenting on the safety of the antenna and related building elements. The City is awaiting a response to the issued order. To protect public safety, the roads will remain closed, and at this time it is anticipated that a response to the issued order will not be received until tomorrow."

Bay Street closed to traffic

The streets remained closed during Tuesday's rush hour commute

Toronto BuskerFest 2015

One of the World's largest, annual street performance festivals returns once again to Yonge Street outside the Eaton Centre. Toronto International BuskerFest, presented by Scotiabank, located in the Downtown Yonge neighbourhood continues until August 30 with famous local and global artists working hard to make people happy, collect some coin and vie for the best act of the festival.

Amazing Kromatik face painting

Stretching from Queen Street north to College Street, also in the McGill Granby Parkettes and with bleachers and a large stage in Yonge-Dundas Square cannot contain the talent from over 170 performers. The event is staged in support of Epilepsy Toronto and acts appearing at Y-D Square donate all funds to the charity for their benefit performance.

The main stage panorama at Y-D Square

Dream State Circus

Forbidden City - Toronto Chinatown Festival 2015

Lions and Dragons danced the day away at the #tcf2015 15th annual Chinatown Festival located along the west side of Spadina Avenue. The cultural street festival is presented by TD Bank, hosted by the Chinatown BIA and continues from Saturday to Sunday, August 22-23 - centered around Dundas Street West.

"This year's theme for the Toronto Chinatown Festival is the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City, now commonly referred as part of the Palace Museum (故宮), is the largest and most well-preserved imperial palace in China. It served as the royal residences and admin offices of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the palace there are 8,707 rooms including big and small palaces, halls, towers, etc. The Forbidden City symbolizes absolute authority: It forbids the public to enter or to get close to the palace without permission. For the same reason, trees were not even allowed in the palace until the end of Qing Dynasty. The Forbidden City is now partially opened to public as a popular tourist attraction in Beijing, China."

I caught a brief glimpse of the Lions doing the Forbidden Dance, the dance of love on the streets of old Chinatown, but I looked away because it was forbidden. Martial arts also played a big part in the performance schedule with Kung Fu, Karate, Taekwando, Jiu Jitsu being just some of the fighting styles showcased on the OLG Slots Woodbine Stage.

Global's Carolyn Mackenzie at the TD Stage

Posted by Joe Hamilton and James Hamilton.

Importfest 2015

Canada's Biggest and Baddest Car Show brought DJ and B Boy Battles along with Studio Models, Beat Box performances and a whole bunch of cars to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Importfest only lasts one day - Saturday, August 22, but it manages to squeeze so much horsepower and beauty into just one building.

Major events also include a lingerie show and bikini contest along with modified car competitions - 'Each year IMPORTFEST hosts Canada’s largest one-day indoor car and lifestyle at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Hundreds of cars from across Canada and the USA attend in hopes to WIN awards in various class categories. This year’s event will have over 300 “pre-selected” modified cars."

Miss Importfest 2015 Dannie Riel

The Bikini Contest presented by Streetoutlawz started at 6pm and is "definitely one stage show you won’t want to miss! Watch live as bikini models strut their stuff down the catwalk for a chance to Win! Hosted by Billy T of StreetOutlawz" while the Perfect 10 Lingerie Model Search starts at 8pm.

Posted by Joe Hamilton and James Hamilton.

Toronto has got it going on Aug 22-23, 2015

As summer starts winding down the city starts picking up steam and today begins the 2015 edition of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) - oh, and I want to go faster. I can't hear me. I WANT TO GO FASTER! The Ex is open to September 7 and finishes off with the Canadian International Airshow (CIAS). Veterans can also ride GO Transit and the TTC going to or leaving the CNE Warriors Day Parade on August 22.

Importfest

August 21-23 is a big weekend for fun in the Big Smoke, besides the annual Exhibition you can pick out from numerous events like the Sail-in Cinema where you don't need the boat, the screen floats to you at Sugar Beach, or more movies in Christie Pitts, the street festivals such as the Big on Bloor Festival and the Taste of Manila Festival. Several of our festivals require street closures and while the Pan Am HOV lanes are gone (for now) the Gardiner has been reduced to two lanes each way, so in summary; Toronto road construction will impact travel your travel plans - so plan ahead. We are also in the middle of Toronto Men's Fashion Week (TOM)

If you like dragons and/or lions (I am never sure which one is which) the Chinatown Festival on Spadina has plenty of interesting events and attractions. Plus experience other cultures with Iranian arts and cultural TIRGAN Festival and the Scarborough Afro-Carib Festival.

Food lovers can check out the Wild Blueberry Festival at Evergreen Brickworks while car lovers can find the biggest and baddest at Importfest (plus girls, girls, girls)

Also, the "GOTOPLESS BIKE RIDE ON AUGUST 23RD, 2015: On GoTopless Day, come and ride with us on Sunday, August 23rd along Toronto Lakefront starting at 1:00 PM! This year GoTopless will be celebrated in more cities than ever before and Toronto ladies will be enjoying a topless bike ride!!! We will meet in the parking lot beside the Mimico Creek Bridge at noon (12:00 PM) and prepare our helmets, bikes with posters and signs, body paintings, etc… Our bike ride will start at 1:00 pm at the Mimico Creek Bridge and we will ride the bicycle path along Lakeshore Blvd., passing by the Humber Bay Shores Bridge and all the way to Coronation Park, where we will take a short break and ride back. It is approximately a total of 15 km ride that will be memorable and filled with fun and laughter!!!"

Don't forget that Buskerfest starts next week (note: there is a Buskerfest in Port Credit this weekend) and coming up is the Toronto International Film Festival  (tiff) (for great photos check out Candid Toronto by Roger).

Thunder Over Michigan Aug 29-30, 2015

Yankee Air Museum wished everyone a Happy Aviation Day (Aug 19) today, ahead of the US Navy Blue Angels and the rest of the Thunder performers coming to Ypsilanti, Michigan next weekend. Aviation Day honours the anniversary of Orville Wright's birthday and was proclaimed in 1939 by American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"See rare classic military aircraft. With just over a week until showtime, our birds are getting geared up to put on a phenomenal show!

This year's show features some of the most well-known warbirds to ever take to the sky, such as the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito and Focke-Wulf FW-190. The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British multi-role combat aircraft with a two-man crew that served during and after WWII. The Focke-Wulf FW-190 is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank in the late 1930s."

Thunder Over Michigan Show Schedule and aircraft list: Saturday Aug. 29th & Sunday Aug 30th, 2015

Hamilton Airshow

Ex military planes take to the skies over Hamilton International Airport for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum annual airshow on Saturday to Sunday, August 15-16, 2015. Close combat over the hot skies of steel town had some extra zing as the DC-3 transport plane developed engine troubles and airport fire crews rolled - just in case.

DC-3

Tickets to the show went for big bucks and included parking, a barbecue and the three hour aerial show which started at 5:30pm. Parking limitations keep the crowds small with only a maximum of 1200 tickets available for the weekend event. Even the jet truck almost caught air!

Posted by Joe Hamilton.

Kentucky Fried Chic

This recently closed fried chicken restaurant is missing part of its sign, so the location is now a place that would fit in with the fashionable crowds at the Mink Mile along Bloor Street. Tres chic, mon ami. The old, weathered Colonel still grins out to the world from his perch high above the street on his big bucket sign. I always hoped that the bucket was full of big, plastic fried chicken parts and if you ever complained to the staff, they would take off their white gloves, slap your face and challenge you to a duel! Working at the restaurant you would also have to say 'I do declare' and 'well I never' quite often.

Located at the crossroads of the Danforth, the Toronto location is 3359 Danforth Avenue at Byng Avenue. Hmmmm, finger lickin' good.

York-Eglinton International Street Festival

When Toronto wants to celebrate, the Big Smoke throws a few street parties which totally does two things - brings the neighbourhood together and screws up traffic. You can't win them all, so get out of the car and have some fun. Tomorrow will really be fun as there will be several more festivals, including Open Streets TO, a baseball game featuring the on fire Blue Jays (just finishing their streak), and hydro upgrades will shut down part of the TTC subway system. The only traffic positive will be that the Pan Am / Parapan Am Games are done like dinner.

Today Fresh Joe and I caught the Wheels on Danforth Festival and the York-Eglinton International Street Festival. The rest of the August 15-16, 2015 Toronto festivals are Abari Africa Festival, Festival of South Asia, Fusion of Taste Festival,

Samba Heat added to Saturday's high temperatures with great costumes and energetic dancing.

York-Eglinton International Street Festival Schedule after the jump.