Toronto Light Fest 2018

As it got dark on February 3, I went east from downtown to the Distillery District for the latest incarnation of the Light Fest. I had been quite taken with the installations last year (see my posting,  https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2017/02/toronto-light-fest.html), and wanted to see what they came up with this year.

It was a cold evening, and very windy, so some of the videos you'll see in this posting will be slightly marred by the sound of wind - just so you know.
So many of the pieces depended on movement, interaction and shifting colours that you'll notice there are almost as many videos as pictures this time!

I didn't get pics or video of every piece there, but tried to get as many as I could, given the harsh weather, and, well, my personal preferences, too. So there.

I didn't go through the installations in any particular order, so here they are - pictures first, I think, then videos.


On entering the area at Trinity Street, I had to smile at this piece, called - rightly so - Perspective.

The next piece that caught my eye was called Gummy Bear Pyramid, a strikingly colourful structure, lit from within, that you could go inside of.
Here it is from one angle:

And from the opposite side:

If you're wondering where the title comes from, it's because - as you see in this extreme close-up - the piece is made from thousands of tiny, hand-crafted glass-like gummy bears! Incredible!

The next piece I saw was called Talking Heads. This is a still pic of one of two LED-lit head sculptures, that face each other across an open space in Tank House Lane. The lights race around and around each face, creating amazing effects.
There is a video of the other one of them below, to show what the full effect is like.

(You may also notice the furiously blowing snow that was coming down that night!)

Off Tank House Lane was this startling piece, called the Light Tunnel. You could enter and walk down to the end to see Solar Sail, which I didn't photograph.

And here is the equally amazing interior of the Light Tunnel:

Again - wow, what a lot of work!

This installation is called Nest. The colours change here, from a combination of  different shades...

...to this greenish-blue hue, and back again.

Now, the rest of the videos:

This first sculpture is called Zoa, kind of a short form of "protozoa." The artist imagines it as kind of an alien life form. It turns slowly on its axis, although the strong wind inhibits it a bit.
You'll hear a child's voice in the video say, "Look! I told you! It's spinning!"

This was another amazing spectacle. In the first part of the video, you'll see The Electric Dandelions as they shimmer and pulse with different colours; then, Birds Fly Around With You, in which sensors in the middle section capture movement as people run around it, making the bird sculptures appear to be following them. Very remarkable, both of them.

Another piece, in Gristmill Lane, Entwined, also features constantly-changing colours:

(You can hear that it was super-windy in Gristmill Lane!)

This was a surprise, and a treat; appearing again this year (or maybe it never left?) is the towering sculpture, IT, inspired by the tripod alien ships from "War of the Worlds." This year, there were laser beams trained on it from various angles. I kind of thought of it as a "battle with the aliens"!

Here was another remarkable piece, LightPiano 2.0. Visitors were invited into a small plexiglass booth, to sit and play an electric piano, and these shapes would light up as they played. Apparently, each one was connected to a key on the piano, so a single note would light up one shape, while chords would light up several!
(You may be able to hear that the person was playing the Beatles' "Let It Be.")

This one was called Guardians of Time, and featured transparent, sombre, cowled figures that changed colours slowly:

Finally, this beautiful piece is called The Glowdecahedron, and also features constantly-shifting hues in the interiors of these three intricately patterned ten-sided shapes:

As I mentioned, that's not all the pieces there are at this exhibit; I chose the ones that struck my fancy most to post here. And, yeah, it was really cold - and windy - and snowing - so I didn't exactly want to hang around outdoors for much longer than I did. I eagerly (and gratefully) retreated to Balzac's Coffee again this year once I was done!

(I recently bought a pair of "touchscreen" gloves that you're supposed to be able to use in cold weather with a tablet, so I'm eager to try them out with my camera. I'm hoping it won't be such a hardship with them on. I'll let you know!)

So, do try to get to this exhibit. It's well worth it. But try to pick a warmer night than I did, OK?

Ice Breakers

On another very cold day on the first weekend in February 2018, I decided to take in two art exhibits happening in downtown Toronto (I don't know what makes me want to get outdoors during these cold snaps - maybe because it's easier to walk? Haven't figured it out yet).

The first was the Ice Breakers exhibit, happening along Queen's Quay. There were five different sculptures in all, set along a very easy-to-follow - and well-mapped out - route along the street.

The overall theme of the exhibit was kind of an environmental one, and, as you'll see, all the pieces are constructed from natural or recycled materials.

I decided to go from east to west, from York Street to Lower Spadina.


First up, in front of the We Brew Cafe, was this piece by two sculptors, titled Root Cabin. As the name implies, it's made entirely of found tree roots, and shaped into a kind of shelter.
At roughly centre of picture, you can see a small electric light that dimly illuminates the interior.
People were going in and out and posing for pictures the whole time.

The interior is spray-painted a kind of purple colour, some if which is visible on the outside, too.
It was interesting to see this group of roots at the rear of the piece, and note that some of them must have been pulled from the ground wholesale, earth and all.

The next piece, set up on the Lower Simcoe Wavedeck, was called Black Bamboo, and is another sculpture made from trees (bamboo, as you can see), and also spray-painted, this time in black.
I got the first shot against the harbour and the sky:

And the next one against the condos along the north side of Queen's Quay.
Apparently, you could go inside this sculpture as well, but I didn't try. It looks kind of fragile, and I suppose that's part of the point.

The most colourful of the pieces was Winter Fanfare, at HTO Park.
It consists of a series of fan-like shapes, made, interestingly, from two-by-fours, and painted (with an airbrush apparatus, I'd guess) these striking colours that move from gold to red.

The piece is designed to be looked at from all angles, its appearance changing as you move around it, so here it is from three more perspectives:

At HTO Park West was this piece, Through the Eyes of the Bear.
This was another one you were invited to enter, and you can see the child in this pic, looking out, as intended by the sculptor, "through the eyes of the bear."

Moving close to one of the "feet," you can see that the outer part is made from a soft fabric.

And, from inside the "head," I'm getting my own view, through one of the "eyes," of another photographer. I never did find out what his picture of me photographing him looked like!

The final piece was a musical one, placed, appropriately, at the east end of the Music Garden. It's called Ensemble, and consists of a wooden frame supporting a series of metal tubes that sound when the wind blows or when someone moves through it. You could think of it as giant wind chime.
There happened to be a child going through it at this moment, so I took a short video of how it sounds. There doesn't seem to be any particular "tuning" to the tubes, but I found their sounds charming anyway.

And, while I was near the harbour, I thought I'd get some pix of how starkly attractive it is when partially iced in.
Looking south, you can see the planes at Billy Bishop Airport in the distance.

More to the west, an ice-locked marina along Spadina Quay, and the slowly crumbling silos overlooking Ireland Park - don't know what they intend to do with those.

Finally, I guess any day is a good day for ducks, whether it's at Tommy Thompson Park (as in my last posting), or here in Toronto's inner harbour. The brutal cold seems to have no effect at all!

And that was it for the Ice Breakers exhibit.
I also wanted to see the Toronto Light Fest at the Distillery District, but had to wait until it got dark for that to have the best effect. So, it was up to a restaurant on lower Bathurst St. for dinner, then on to Trinity St., and the next posting...

Tommy Thompson Park in Winter

Yesterday, I was wondering what to do with myself, and had a notion to make another visit to the extraordinary Tommy Thompson Park, a/k/a the Leslie Street Spit.
I had been there in the summer of 2016, and found it a wonderful place. My blog entry for that walk is here:
https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2016/10/summertime-at-tommy-thompson-park.html

I don't know what compelled me to go out there on one of the coldest days of the year, but I do know there's something about a clear, cold winter day that would offer some terrific sights, and a chance for some good photos - so off I went.

Ye gods, it was cold! Every time I took my gloves off to take a picture, I thought my hands would never be warm again! But, once inside gloves (and pockets) for a few minutes, they did warm up, and I got some pretty good pics that I'd like now to share.


The paved path was very easy to walk on, even in shoes, as I was. I guess there had been enough vehicular traffic over the last few weeks that the snow had been tamped down to a hard, dry surface, not unlike regular pavement.

If you look closely about mid-picture, you can see someone coming out of one of the paths.
To my surprise, I met at least two dozen people, out for a walk, or taking photographs like I was!

Here's the first view of the city skyline from the baselands.
I liked this pic because it looks like some of the smoke from the stacks at right is coming from the tall stack at the (long-decommissioned) Hearn Generating Station!

The French call it a "trompe-l'oeil" effect
- Mr. Know-It-All

Getting to one of the trails on the lake side of the park, I was reminded that, in winter, however blue the sky, Lake Ontario maintains this grey colour throughout the winter:

This is one of several lookout points along the east side of the Neck.

This next series of pictures I'll refer to as:

A Natural Art Gallery

What stark beauty - and incredible shapes - mundane construction debris, like concrete and rebar, take on when coated with layers of snow and ice, and seen in bright sunlight!

And even natural things, like trees, logs, rocks and bushes, have an eerie, otherworldly appearance:

Moving along from the "Art Gallery," I was pretty amused by these ducks, just bobbing along on the surface of the lake, occasionally diving for food. Just another ho-hum day for them!




Another view of the skyline, across the outer harbour:

And, looking back, a more "honest" view of the twin smokestacks of a local aggregate company, quite separate from the one at the Hearn.
Mainly, though, I wanted to get a pic of the now-deserted marina berths that had been filled to capacity with watercraft during my summer visit.

Farther along, a full view of the outer harbour makes it look like the whole lake is frozen over, but of course, it's not. Don't go out there, kids!

Here's a view of one of the parts of the east-side endikement that juts out into the lake:

Another amusing sight was this port-a-potty, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
I wondered what combination of bravery, foolhardiness and desperation might compel a person to use it on a day like this!

A view similar to one in the summer, of some of the wetlands of the Cell One area:

And, from a distance, the large pond of Cell Three:

Finally, as far as I wanted to go yesterday; the pedestrian bridge between here and the farthest part of the park offers a great view of the Cell Three pond:

Farther along the bridge, the same pond looks like it's been cleared for skating or hockey, but it's only the action of the wind on the snow that's opened up this patch of shining ice.

Again, I wouldn't recommend trying it out.

And, as in summer, one of the greatest views of the Toronto skyline you'll ever see is at this point, looking across Embayment C, through Peninsulas C and D.

Finally, on the way back, the sun was setting (it was about 4:45 pm), and I wanted to get a pic of something reflecting the light, so it was back to that aggregate company's smokestacks.
However  ho-hum the sight, it always looks better in the sunset, doesn't it?

That was my winter walk in Tommy Thompson Park.
I wasn't sure how it was going to go when I started out, and yes, it was bitterly cold, but the sights made the whole effort worthwhile.

This is a terrific place in all seasons, and I'm sure there will be more blog posts from here in the future, so do come back again!

My Fairly Odd Summer

Hi! Well, it's Christmas Eve already! All greetings and such later, but...

In my last post (gee, way back in October!), I mentioned that I had a pretty unusual summer; the main reason is that I spent a lot of it off work. This is why:

In late June and early July, I began to experience bad coughing fits; they were always "productive," as they say, but constantly interrupted my work, my evenings, and eventually, my nights. So, after a few days with not enough sleep, I finally set up an appointment with my doctor.
Sure enough, it was a lung infection, and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic, which I was supposed to take for the next four or five days, along with a cough syrup. "Don't want it to turn into pneumonia," said the doc with a chuckle. I didn't chuckle along - it would bring on a coughing fit, for one thing.

I also see a respirologist for my asthma, and happened to have an appointment around that time. I take the inhaler Symbicort for the asthma (it's not terribly serious), but after looking me over, the doctor said I should increase my dosage fourfold.

But the fun wasn't over yet.
I next developed laryngitis, and could only speak hoarsely, and for a limited amount of time, before my throat got so sore that I had to stop. You may know that I talk for a living, so despite various attempts to go back to work, I could only work sometimes for half an hour before it got too difficult. So there went steady work.

It was pretty frustrating, because otherwise, there was nothing wrong. I was perfectly healthy, and could get out and about as I wished. I just couldn't do my job. To make ends meet, as with my experience with shingles in the past (https://aproposno.blogspot.ca/2015/12/my-fortnight-with-shingles.html), I had to draw on my savings (I've often thought, out of all the decisions I've made in my life, setting aside a fixed amount each month - whatever the circumstances may be - was one of the smart ones).


Well, as with most things, I try to find an upside to a circumstance, and this was no exception.
It occurred to me that, since I was perfectly mobile, and the weather was mostly nice, it would give me a great opportunity to get out and explore "previously uncharted territory" around this city. This certainly had the desired effect of cheering me up, as good long walks always do.

One area I was always curious about was the trail that I knew ran along the Humber River. I had passed this trilingual plaque on the bridge near Old Mill subway station many times, and here was my opportunity to find out where the trail went.

The plaque features thee languages. English and French as you'd expect, but despite an extensive online search, I could find no indication what the native language is!

There's a long stairway down to the floor of the valley, and I struck off south. The trail kind of twists and turns at first, and I wasn't sure I was heading south the whole time, but it turned out to be right.

There's a paved trail for most of the first part, but there are also several footpaths running parallel to it. As I walked along one of them, it occurred to me this may well have been the view of the river an indigenous person would have taken in many thousands of years ago:

As I mentioned, the trail is a little tricky to follow, actually going through an urban park, and a neighbourhood of houses and low-rise apartment buildings, before descending back into a paved path with tall trees and natural growth on both sides.

Yes, this quiet bucolic scene is right in the middle of Toronto's west end.

One thing that took me by surprise was this well-known sight, formally the South Humber Pavilion, better known as "The Oculus." I had heard several things about it in local news reports, and never knew just where it was. Now I know!

It was built as a public pavilion in 1959, with kind of a "UFO" design, and included public washrooms, which you can see as the stone structure in behind:

Here's why it's called "The Oculus," or eye.
They've painted over some graffiti that was on there a few years ago, but that's really the only sign of maintenance. Otherwise, it looks sadly neglected overall.

The original design had a sculpture in the centre, with a base, and three rising bird figures, which at the right time of day, would be lit by sunlight coming through the opening, but that apparently was stolen some time ago.
There are ongoing efforts to restore the site, including reinforcing the metal posts, and demolishing the washroom building entirely, but conservation types would like to leave the stone building alone, and restore the whole site to its former glory. After just this short visit, I must say I'm inclined to agree with the conservationists; this place is far too charming to leave in its present state.

Moving on, I walked for some time more directly south, finally approaching the mouth of the Humber, where the QEW crosses over it.

Equivocal as I am about massive amounts of car traffic, I am always impressed by the engineering feats it takes to accommodate it. This is really a massive structure of concrete and steel under the QEW that many people don't see or appreciate (until it needs repair, that is).

Further along this path, I was struck by these incredible pieces of art on the concrete pillars. As you can see, they're quite beautiful, even moving, and not only did I wonder how on earth they were done, but who thought of such an incongruous place to put them!

I've taken pictures of this beautiful bridge over the mouth of the Humber before, but it's always worth a look from another angle:

From south of the bridge, here's the great view of the Toronto skyline:

And finally, at the mouth of the Humber River, as it empties into Lake Ontario, is another plaque commemorating the history of all the people who have lived on and around it:

I kept walking that afternoon, heading east, as far as King and Roncesvalles, to catch the streetcar back home. That was nearly the longest part of the whole walk, and it really brought home - as only walking can do - the sheer size of this city.


I was to take several more walks throughout the summer - including one along the same trail, from Dundas St. W. down to Old Mill station - but this was the one I got good pictures for.

Eventually, my voice returned, but it was into September before I could return to work full-time again (and thankfully, was j-u-u-ust strong enough to participate with the TWMVC in our very well-received performance at the North American Welsh Festival in Rochester, NY on Labour Day weekend - would have hated to miss that!) And I'm back to my regular once-daily dose of Symbicort.



Anyway, that was my summer.
As I look out my window now, I see snow, and temperatures that are only going to get lower, and I'm glad I was able to post this reminder of a rather pleasant, if definitely unusual, summer.


So, I hope everyone has a great Christmas, and a happy and prosperous new year in 2018. See you soon, I hope!