Les Rues Des Refuses & Nuit Blanche 2011 now with Roller Derby

Toronto's free all night arts festival is just around the corner. In just over two weeks you can start to lineup for the various art installations which are part of the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (translation: sleepless night) 2011 which kicks off at 6:59pm on Saturday, October 1 and runs until sunrise. These pictures are from the 2010 night of fun.

"For one sleepless night experience the city transformed by hundreds of artists for Toronto's sixth annual sunset-to-sunrise celebration of contemporary art. Discover art in galleries, museums and unexpected places. From a streetcar, alleyways and storefronts to churches, ponds and parks, choose from more than 130 destinations and chart your own path. One night only. All night long."

The City is broken into three zones and the amount of exhibits, the locations and the crowds make it near impossible to see it all - even if you wanted to. Check the list and pick out your favourites because you really need to plan your night. Here is their index of commissioned, open call and independent projects.

Checking out the 2011 projects I find these twig my interest: Audio Graffiti, Monster Jam, The Heart Machine, Loomiere La Nuit, The St James Circus, The Athanor and the Stone, Singin' in the Dark: '80s Edition and AirSHIP. Check out the projects and pick yours.

This year will also feature the Toronto Roller Derby in a double header called Bout Blanche where "ToRD challenges the Hammer City Rollergirls to not just one, but TWO bouts! The night opens up with the Smoke City Betties vs. the HCRG Harlots at 6pm, followed by CN Power vs. the Eh! Team (around 8pm). Doors @ 5PM, bout kicks off at 6PM. Tickets are on sale online now. There will be no outlet sales for this event, so get ‘em online, or get them at the door!

The bout takes place in our new home The Bunker, located at 40 Carl Hall Rd Studio 3 in Downsview Park, just before the train tracks."

You can't have Nuit Blanche without the renegade off program called Les Rues Des Refuses (translation: streets of the refused or rejected). "Les Rues Des Refusés was created as a voice for artists whom — for whatever reason — are not an official selection of Nuit Blanche. With the explosion of renegade, off-program events that have occurred around this amazing night of art installations and activities, it is now time to have a guide that will allow participating LRDR artists to have their own rogue events formally listed." 

Hopefully they will have the Nuit Blanche Renegade Parade and roving rave. In 2010 the crowds met at the ROM at 10pm and headed out into the night. Update: The 2011 parade is scheduled to leave the ROM at 10:03pm!

2011 Zombies will soon walk

Cool weather scares the zombies hiding in their graves, when winter hits Toronto the frozen ground makes it hard to break out and start their brain eating parties. I don't know what they fear more; frozen ground, gunfire to the head or the lineups at TIFF. Thea Munster has put out the word and that word is that the 2011 Toronto Zombie Walk is scheduled for Saturday, October 22 at 2pm starting in Trinity-Bellwoods Park. Later, if the Zombies survive the walk, much of Canada will join them in the horror known as Halloween which occurs Monday, October 31, 2011.

Those scary guys even have a scary Facebook page which says 'They came, at first, in groups of two and three. With each passing year, their numbers grow - along with their vile cravings for deliciously succulent human brains. Some day, their guttural moans and outstretched hands may well outnumber those of the terrified living. Join them. On October 22nd the dead will rise for the 9th annual Toronto Zombie Walk!!"

Super Goose - Sticker Graffiti

Along the Lake Shore Boulevard West pathway there is a pedestrian crossing bridge adjacent to Roncesvalles Avenue and on the concrete structure there is a sticker of a large Canada Goose. At first I thought it was Super Goose and it was pulling a Superman change - like from Clark Kent to bad boy Superman. The breast feathers pulled away to reveal his costume with maybe a hint of cape. I thought there was also a hint of glasses off to the side, he takes them off when he makes the change to a super bird.

Remember - don't feed the super birds, Canada Geese can poop 1kg per day!

See more pictures after the jump.

PawsWay September Events - Things for Dogs to Do

Tre Smith from PawsWay let me know that there are plenty of activities that you can bring your dog to during the month of September. I mean, it's not only kids, animals sit around going I'm bored, what can I do, can I fetch something? They want outside, then inside, then outside, then they stick their heads out the window. It is time for something new - to PawsWay where everyday it's like a stiff breeze to the face.

They have events like the Irish Dog Shows, K-9 Kindergarten, Agility, Rare and Unusual Breeds and plenty of off leash days.

I love the looks of love this big boy is getting from the tiny chicks at bottom right!

Just to piss off the dogs they have an International World of Cats coming up October 1st - butt sniffing traitors, but they make it up with the Oct 23rd Pug-O-Ween!

Milton Real Estate Pros

Left to right, bottom row: Kevin and Andrew, top row: Darcy and Aaron.

The company I work for has a great section based in Milton - these guys are Real Estate pros and they are great guys to know and work with, plus they are hilarious. Here are a few of them, all from the University of Guelph.

It gets a little rough in the office sometimes between Andrew and Kevin.

GIF animations generator gifup.com

It's a Fair fall: Acton Fall Fair

The Canadian National Exhibition CNE is just a memory now but in the GTA it is FAll Fair Season, which is an open season I believe, bag as many as you want, no limits. The homecraft competitions with baking, sewing and crafts pump zillions of red, white and blue ribbons into the local economy so that one day they will replace cash. Fairs generally start on the Friday and run all the way to Sunday evening.

My local fair is the Acton Fall Fair - yeah, Go Acton!

They have been setting up the fair, getting the rides ready, laying out the tractor pull course and polishing the apples for the candy apple treats. You can see some of my pictures of the 2010 Acton Fall Fair here. My wife, Ann, is in the Homecraft division of the fair organization - yeah, Go Ann! The fair guys said that their Ferris Wheel is off site awaiting an engineering inspection and it has LEDs, much like Toronto's cool setup at the CNE (It never made it to site this year).

Early tomorrow the fair opens for Education Day and Acton Sobeys will serve about two thousand free Maple Leaf hotdogs to the children attending in Prospect Park. The Fair then officially opens later Friday at 4pm with adult entrance costs of $9 or $18 for a weekend pass.

Agricultural activities, animals, rides, baby show, baking, art, tractor pulls, Miss Acton pageant and tons more entertainment.

You can attend more GTA fairs over the next couple of weeks including the Bolton Fall Fair, the Erin Fair and the Markham Fall Fair.

See lots of photos after the jump - including heavy horse pulls, rides at night, the Miss Acton pageant contestants and the parade through town.

I love gum

My name is James Hamilton and I love gum. Today I got a free pack of Trident White gum and a photo of myself beside etalks' Tanya Kim and Ben Mulroney. The series hosts were a lot of fun although Ben seemed even more stiff than usual. I was surprised when Tanya squeezed my ass - but I did look good on the red carpet so I can't blame her. The gum was great as well. The photo above was from Trident.

Tiff Bell Lightbox - falling glass barriers

The recent spate of exterior glass breaking and falling from highrise buildings is a scary situation. I thought the glass balconies at the Tiff Bell Lightbox Condos at King and John Streets had broken past their green barriers and continued to rain on the streets due to the presence of both the police and fire departments on site. In fact I think the glass was heading towards Madonna but the star directed the glass to turn away from her because only the best crystal can come near her.

The balconies are all covered over to keep the glass from falling. It's almost like a vertical golf course.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

Do this, don't do that, can't you read the signs.

I know I can't. Sometimes the traffic signs that we put up can be awfully confusing. A lot of times the restrictions kick in at different hours, days or months. You have to have a calendar and a clock out for turning left and parking, otherwise it's a ticket or a tow. 

Stay Distracted. Don't think.

And don't get me started on the clothing-mandatory signs!

No. 210 Simcoe Condo at Queen St W

Queen St West is a place where the bad boys and girls play, or maybe just the slightly bad. Some buildings on the wild west side are changing. No 210 Simcoe was a corner store that for a long time was a complete advertisement for the latest movies - you can see it promoting Harry Potter here in the background and I seem to recall it was made up as a restaurant selling blood to vampires for the move Daybreakers, now it is on it's way to being a classy condo.

The posters were covered over and plywood covers the entrance, inside the workers are busy remodeling, later up goes a new outside with a bunch of big, black glass. In a short while a 25-storey condominium will rise on the site. The sales office looks purty.

Building's got a new coat for winter.

Contagion Biohazard

They hope a virus goes viral. The promotion for the movie Contagion had a van driving around Toronto with windows on all sides looking into a scene with a medical gurney. The mobile advertisement van was bright yellow, which matched the movie poster, with orange signs warning of bio-hazards.

They had also done large petri dish billboards which grew bacteria that spelled out the name of the movie.

View Your Prison

Standing up against the bus stop at Yonge and Dundas was a large display which featured prison bars with the saying 'VIEW YOUR PRISON' written at the top and behind the bars was a mirror. The mirror was more like a fun house mirror but I think the message they were going for was that we are the creators of our own prisons.

There were a number of small stickers on the bars with symbols or logos of several companies, like apple and a bunch of banks.

I had enough of their message and so I busted out.

9/11 10 years later

The terrorism attacks that happened in America during September 11th, 2001 were profoundly shocking. I am currently watching a television show of the same name as this blog post and they show the planes hitting the World Trade Centre buildings and the firemen responding. The sounds of people hitting the ground and the collapse of the towers was a nightmare and watching the show you still cannot believe the events of that infamous day.

The emergency responders are to be commended for their heroism on that dark day and later as they moved into the recovery phase. One firefighter says the building collapsed into dust - how do you find a body in the rubble? Here is a NASA photo taken by an astronaut during 9/11.

Battle of Brandywine Parade at Historic Fort York

The grounds of Historic Fort York were filled with serving members of the military during the 2011 Battle of Brandywine Parade. The annual Stand-To Parade featured Lieutenant Governor David Onley as he assumed the position of Colonel of the Regiment on September 10, as per the order of the Defense Minister. He is the first Colonel of the Queen's York Ranger Regiment since John Graves Simcoe.

See more photos after the jump.