Halloween Haunt

Canada's Wonderland has the horror of Halloween Haunt, which opened on October 1st, and which has frightfully spread into the heart of Toronto. Ghoulish ghouls and zombies walked the streets terrifying citizens to promote the fun at the park on weekends (Friday to Sunday) throughout October from 7pm to midnight.

I have not been to the Haunt but I loved the haunted attractions listed on their flyer like the Psycho Circus, Clowns at Midnight and Club Blood.

Waterfalls & Paris in the Fall

It's fun to go to places that share the same name with more famous travel destinations. We were on a waterfall tour on the way to a train ride in Port Stanley when we ran out of time and just decided to continue looking at waterfalls. On our way back we stopped in Paris and to prove it Joe Fresh took our picture (I noticed that famous Cigar Guy had joined us in Paris - check out the photo after the jump). Paris was nothing like I imagined it, but they did have a river (the Grand), which also had a man made waterfall at a dam just upstream of the town.

We stopped at two waterfalls on this day. The first was Sherman Falls in Dundas.  This waterfall is nice and easy to walk to and is just a few minutes away from the road. The valley was filled with leaves falling to the ground and there was a nice flow of water. For some relaxing video of the waterfall click here.

And the second waterfall visited was Smokey Hollow Falls in Waterdown. The falls are right beside the parking lot and there is a nice viewing platform right beside the top as the creek goes over the edge. It's also not that hard to go around the platform and check out the waterfall from the front, as seen below.

See the photo where Cigar Guy joined us in Paris after the jump.

Ombudsman to release report on G20 secret law

The Ontario Ombudsman (Andre Marin) started a review in early July of the "origin and subsequent communication" of changes to the law known as the Public Works Protection Act used during the G8/G20 Summits. The Ombudsman has twittered that he has finished his report and will present it to the Ontario Government and that it will be made public before the end of this year.

"@Ont_Ombudsman: Our #G20 investigation: evidence gathering complete, draft report to b finalized within next 10 days and provided to Ont gov't for comment."

The photo above shows two lone riot police officers at the north west side of Queen's Park just minutes before long lines of riot police drive people from the south yard of the legislature property while at the same time another large contingent of riot police are sweeping in from the north east.

As many of us know the police explained to the public that within 5 metres of the fence they could stop and arrest people that did not provide identification. This soon extended to unreasonable searches and demands for identification in areas that were outside that 5m distance and in fact were far away from the secure, fenced area down by the Metro Convention Centre. When I saw the police searching backpacks along Yonge Street I asked them why they were searching bags, it didn't take them long to intimidate me and ask for my identification, which they wrote down.

The Toronto Police website states that "Officers may stop pedestrians on the street if they observe an offence, if they are investigating a complaint, or if they believe the person has committed or is about to commit a crime. These interactions usually involve the officer asking for your name, address and identification, and other questions that are appropriate to their investigation." The large amount of police cameras installed through out the downtown core didn't seem to help the police control the black bloc.

It has subsequently been widely reported that the police did not actually have the power they claimed or used so widely. They could only require identification of people trying to enter the secure, fenced area. And if you didn't want to show identification you could leave the area. Here is a picture of Global news reporter Alex Pierson covering the summit.

I feel the Black Bloc was wrong, that this country is peaceful and democratic and that violent protests were not warranted by anyone. I also feel that the many thousands of police could and should have stopped the Black Bloc when they were committing the vandalism, without searching everyone's belongings and asking for identification and even arresting so many peaceful protesters and innocent spectators of the weekend's events.

Interestingly enough a National Post article has a quote from a G20 security spokesman saying "Although Constable Wendy Drummond, a spokeswoman for the G20 Integrated Security Unit, would not address the Black Bloc movement specifically, she said the unit is “prepared for any eventuality.”
Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/14/the-black-bloc-a-look-at-the-anarchists-who-post-the-biggest-g20-security-threat/#ixzz11v8cugFG"


See more pictures after the jump.

Elora in the Fall

Heading out to Elora we go looking for the fall colours around the Gorge and we find there are a lot of cedar trees so there is not a lot of bright splashes of leaves. Still, you can't go wrong visiting Elora. The beautiful, old, stone downtown, full of restaurants, art and tourist shops, sitting along the Grand River and the Elora Gorge cut deep into the stone. Close by the downtown core is a casino - the Grand River Raceway, a traffic circle and a Tim Hortons.

World Press Photo 10 at Brookfield Place

A large exhibition showcasing the best photojournalism photographs over the past year is traveling to over 100 cities around the world and it currently sits in Toronto's Brookfield Place. The display of pictures in the World Press Photo 10 will be in the Allen Lambert Galleria from October 6th to the 28th. Over 100,000 pictures were entered into the contest and there were only 167 winners. Update: See the World Press Photo 11 exhibition post here.

I was passing through very quickly but I loved the nature shots from Canadian Paul Nicklen of National Geographic. This is a large bull seal elephant throwing sand over it's back.

Hedley at Face Off

Hedley (http://www.hedleyonline.com/), one of my favourite bands, and certainly my daughter’s favourite band, was at Yonge-Dundas Square doing their sound check for Face Off. The area was just starting to get packed with people, including a lot of young girls waiting for the bands to play. I think Hedley will be back tonite at 6:45pm to 7:00pm for the start of the season opener hockey game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.

From the Yonge-Dundas Square website: “NHL Face-Off is the NHL's annual season-opening event.  This year, the celebration comes to Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto on October 7, 2010.  From noon until the conclusion of the Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game at Air Canada Centre, the NHL® will treat fans at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto to live musical performances with Hedley, Down With Webster, and Hey Rosetta!; interactive attractions that test hockey skills; prizing and giveaways, including a trip to the 2011 NHL Heritage Classic™; special guest appearances, including former NHL players; food, beverage and merchandise tents; and live CBC and VERSUS game broadcasts on giant screens, including the Yonge-Dundas Square video boards.  CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, Versus and the NHL Network™ will broadcast live from the event throughout the day, including portions of the CBC's pre-game show, Scotiabank Hockey Tonight, beginning nationally at 6:30 p.m. ET.”

Yonge Street is closed for the event with beer gardens and the main stage extending onto the road. Beautiful Bud Light girls were walking around posing with the crowd and there are plenty of contests and giveaways going on. Don’t forget, the festival and concerts are free.

Here is the lead singer Tim Baker with guitarist Josh Ward from the group Hey Rosetta playing on the Face Off stage later in the afternoon.

See more photos of the event after the jump.

Show You Care - missing toys

The Children's Aid Society of Toronto started a new campaign titled "Show you care" and as part of promotion they put up stuffed animals around town. Many of the cute stuffed critters were stolen and the Society pleaded for the toys to be returned.

"October 5th, 2010 (TORONTO, ON) – Toronto’s Children’s Aid Societies report that many of the two hundred plush stuffed teddy bears, cats and puppies they located in public areas throughout downtown Toronto and across the city are missing. 


The stuffed toys are part of a new Child Abuse Prevention Campaign that challenges Torontonians to take notice and show how much they care about child abuse prevention by texting the word CARE to 82442, or calling 416-960-2327, to have a toy donated to a child in need."

Renegade Parade and Rave

Update: See the 2011 photos on my post here.

Having never been to a rave I found it fun to follow the Renegade Parade and Rave that took place during the long night of Nuit Blanche. Organised by the Rothko Institute it had fire, art and chaos with a massive mobile sound system (arrghh, full of pirates) - just as advertised. Everyone gathered at the Royal Ontario Museum waiting for 10:02pm and the start of the parade, mixing in with the already large crowds taking part in Nuit Blanche.

Finally some black flags appeared on the street along with the truck and trailer carrying the DJs (ill.gates, freedom danish, memrx and rolls royce - thanks to memrx for the correct DJs). People quickly gathered behind the vehicle, overflowing the street. Police shouted for people to get to the side of the road but when the party started flowing it basically took up half of any road it was on. We heard that the eventual destination might have been Yonge and Dundas but it initially headed south on Queens Park and into the University of Toronto property and parked at the end of Kings College Road and stayed there for awhile.

Besides the DJs and their rope lights there were also a number of people blowing fire and twirling staffs of fire. With the sound system blasting the rave dancing began. It involves a lot of hypnotic hand waving and flowing body dancing, cool to watch.

They stayed there for about a half and hour the headed out onto College Street, later to University Avenue and we finally left the party when they turned onto Dundas Street West.

I heard the mobile rave got shut down a little while later and we saw the pirates on foot heading toward the parking lot beside City Hall (Chestnut and Armoury) at the Chevrolet CRUZE Remix site. Here is a short video of the parade along the streets and the rave in the University.

Evergreen Brickworks now open

The former Don Valley Brickworks, now christened the Evergreen Brickworks, has finally opened (September 5, 2010) to the public while much of their site remains under construction. The property seems to have everything under the sun including office space for lease and I am surprised they haven't squeezed a condo development into the mix. They have saved part of the brick making equipment and kilns and a lot of the graffiti that adorned any available, reachable space.

The old, abandoned factory is almost gone and urban explorers will have to find a new place to haunt because they come out of the brick work when you start to take pictures. I was told it was illegal to take pictures there now without a permit although I found no mention of this on their website.

The site is owned by the City of Toronto and the Toronto Region Conservation Area and they not only purchased the site, they paid millions of dollars to upgrade the old quarry. Give us your money but don't try to take a picture is an unfortunate message that they want you to have. Oh well, these may well be the last pictures that you see of the brickworks (following photo by fresh Joe).

The Bluffs in early fall

The Scarborough Bluffs face bravely into Lake Ontario, bravely because the water and the extreme slope of the cliff face means that erosion will slowly bring down the grey clay wall over time. Large chunks of the hill fall to the base and large cracks appear along the cliff face. When you walk along their edge it is hard not to be nervous at the possibility that today will be the day that a piece will just happen to come fall down. There was a nice smattering of fall colours in the trees on the slopes.

More pictures after the jump.

WindFest 2010 - Toronto Waterfront Kite Festival

The Canadian Wind Energy Association sponsors the October 2nd, 2010 edition of WindFest which is  Toronto's Waterfront Kite Festival held at Ashbridges Bay. I haven't seen a hot air balloon festival yet but I am hoping that this kite festival comes pretty close. As they say "WindFest is a chance to celebrate autumn, wind power and the breathtaking are of kite flying, on Toronto's largest beach". It's a little cool today so you might want to leave your bathing thong at home.

The kites take to the sky from 11am to 4pm. They also had kids having parachute races.

Mayoral candidate Joe Pantalone (centre) was also at the beach, he didn't bring his thong, he brought his beach suit.

Nuit Blanche and Les Rues Des Refuses 2010

The magical all-night art thing called Nuit Blanche gets in gear and I have quite a few exhibitions already picked out. My brother and I will be attending on bicycles to help us get around the city. In addition to the famous and extremely popular (my god - the horror of the lineups where even one of the installations is a lineup) art event we will also be checking out it's edgier cousin Les Rues Des Refuses (LRDR) with it's off program events including the Renegade Parade leaving the ROM at 10:02pm.

We headed to Nathan Phillips Square to start the night with "Later that night at the drive in" which was a projection and sound installation. We took pictures before the official start which was slated for 6:57pm to see the preparations required for this massive project. Various triangular apparatus were showing videos on the ceilings, on vertical screens and on the walls of City Hall while a band played on a stage which had an overhanging mirror. The large mirror was very interesting and provided some great views.

Overall the event has to much darkness in their white night, that and not enough room to experience the installations. The crowds and mobs of people make the night an event of endurance. Too many of the installations were of videos; videos of water drops, videos of making plaster casts of hands, videos of people's faces, you name it and there was a video for it.

The feeling of "is it art" is not something I usually question during the night - I like to find joy in the work and as a photographer I hope to find something visually interesting. I found less of these installations this year and more installations of ordinary events like looking at a bonfire, sitting around a bonfire and playing video games just to name a few. Next year I imagine they will have see through port a potties and lineups of people will gather round and marvel at the excitement of waste production. However, with the amount of Torontonians getting out for the event and the immense amount of exhibitions, you can't really see it all and most people's experience will be different than that experienced by the next person.  The TTC was having a tough time as a few streetcars lost their power pole connections and stopped in their tracks which caused more traffic mayhem along Queen Street.

The people that you find along the night's journey often provide a lot of fun like Tron and fuzzy bike girl, below.

Some people say that the night is an excuse for an all night drug and alcohol party, which for many was an apt description, but for many people this is a chance to be an active part of the experience, which helps to make the city a better place. But you have to make it worthwhile for people to attend and ignore the lineups and the sometimes questionable art. I think I will have to see some great installations planned for 2011 to get back in the saddle again for next years' event.

What was interesting to watch was the young people joining in the night's mass of humanity with their own version of Nuit Blanche - Les Rues Des Refuses, or the street of rejects. They hope to promote art that does not have the funding or awareness of the Nuit Blanche experience but they are really looking for a good, public rave. They gathered at the ROM and at 10:02pm set off on their DJ driven sound show, stopping in the U of T grounds before heading back out onto the streets of Toronto. The funniest part of the night for me was when someone got in my face and got mad at me for being "corporate media". You can see more of the Renegade Parade and rave on my post here. See the 2011 rave photos here.

Here are some of the other stops along my long night of cruising the Nuit Blanche pieces.