Culture
March 5th, 2010
The following is a reprint of my recent Psychogeography column in Eye Weekly. Photo by Smaku.
Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods, we’re told. When they work well, they feel like a small town and, when they work really well, we might feel like Al Waxman in the opening credits of the King of Kensington, walking down the street like we own it. That’s all fine, but it gives us a false sense of the size of the city. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of just how big Toronto is.
Try standing over an expressway. Anytime is good, but late afternoon when the rush is at its peak is best. The bottom of Dufferin over the Gardiner, right before the Canadian National Exhibition arch, is good, as is the top of Avenue Road where the 12 lanes of the 401 have been called the busiest road in North America. Every second, dozens of individual people pass by, each going to an individual home, some filled with more individuals, each with their own network of friends and coworkers. It’s a web that doesn’t stop growing, and watching the traffic and thinking this way gets overwhelming fast. Where do all these cars park? How many pairs of pants does everybody own? The numbers add up meaninglessly high.
Another rush-hour place to feel this more intimately is the Union Station basement at 4:45pm on any weekday. Try standing still in the middle of the thousands of GO Train passengers. It’s like a flash-flood mudslide and, if you don’t watch out, you’ll be swept up and taken away to Pickering or Newmarket. The mental aggregate of all this is confounding — we can see all these people, but it’s hard to know where they fit into “the city we know.” It’s too much.
November 2nd, 2009
After the St. Clair Right of Way was approved, Toronto Environmental Alliance activist Gord Perks told me that nothing worth doing at City Hall takes less than five years. In light of that wisdom, the seven years it has taken to get a billboard tax into City Council’s committee process seems about right.
On Wednesday, Planning and Growth Management committee will finally consider a tax on billboards and a new signs by-law that makes it harder to get a new billboard approved in most neighbourhoods while ramping up the fines on illegal billboards to make them unprofitable.
The tax and by-law are being advocated for by the umbrella group Beautiful City Alliance, which includes artists and public space activists that range from the Scarborough Arts Council and the Art Gallery of Ontario to IllegalSigns.ca and Toronto Public Space Committee. (Spacing is also an endorser of Beautiful City, and I am personally involved in the campaign.)
While the by-law and tax provisions are good but not great, there are some important changes that need to be made by the Planning and Growth Management committee when it considers the issue at its meeting this Wednesday. While John Lorinc made some suggestions on Spacing Toronto this morning, the Beautiful City Alliance disagrees with them because his main proposal (BMX/skateboard infrastructure) could, in fact, be accommodated in Beautiful City’s proposal without limiting access to arts funding for youth, if that’s what youth prefer. Plus, there are two vital issues that need to be addressed to ensure any new programs or infrastructure are funded.
October 22nd, 2009
Last night, in the darkness under the Gardiner Expressway, Toronto’s first permanent multimedia art commission was unveiled. WATERTABLE, the 500 m2 light and sound installation, by …
October 14th, 2009
Prior to the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I attended the final day of a three-day history symposium at Fort York on Oct. 9 to hear Ontario’s former Lt.-Governor James Bartleman speak on the subject of how best to celebrate the forthcoming 2012 bicentennial of the War of 1812. I got more than I bargained for.
The “Sense of Place and Heritage Trails: Realizing the War of 1812 Bicentennial†conference at the Cultural and Heritage Tourism Symposium 2009 was organized by Centennial College and presented in association with the City of Toronto at the historic site, Oct. 7-9. Kudos to the College’s organizers for holding the event at Fort York and not way the hell out at its campus in Scarborough.
Bartleman served as an ambassador in Canada’s Foreign Service for 35 years prior to serving as Ontario’s Lt.-Gov. Simply put, the retired diplomat gave the audience a two-pronged history lesson on the War of 1812 and the subsequent racism this country’s aboriginal population has endured since the European powers-that-be decided the natives were no longer useful militarily.
“The popular view of this war is that . . . we preserved Canada from the worst of all possible fates: becoming part of the United States. I guess there’s some truth to that but as we’re looking at the forthcoming bicentennial of the War of 1812, I imagine you’d want to avoid the fate of the 250th anniversary of Quebec City,†he said, referring to the holding of a reenactment during that city’s celebrations of what was effectively the defeat of the French on one of the most historic sites in French Canada. Needless to say, the event offended many French Canadians across Quebec.
October 2nd, 2009
Calling all art fans and insomniacs…
This weekend is Nuit Blanche 2009, that runs from sunset (6:55pm) on Saturday, October 3 until …
August 19th, 2009
WHAT: ”Toronto Movie Theatres: Palaces for the People,” lecture by Paul Moore; followed by screening of the documentary, Dreamland: A History of Early Canadian Movies
WHEN: Saturday, August 22, 4pm
WHERE: Revue …
August 15th, 2009
WHAT: Music Hall’s 90th anniversary, featuring silent film Dollars and Sense
WHEN: Tuesday, August 18, 2009. Doors open at 7:00pm, plaque presentation at 7:30pm, silent film (1hr) at 8:oopm
WHERE: Music Hall, …
July 3rd, 2009
“From the rez to the city, my people are you with me? You’re tuned in to the chief of the concrete city,†rapped hip-hop artist Wabs Whitebird at last Friday’s pow wow at Eastview Public School in Scarborough. Sharing insight into his experience as an aboriginal person born and raised in Canada’s largest urban centre, Whitebird’s a cappella performance provided a hip-hop interlude amidst the day’s traditional pow wow festivities.
Kids from the neighbourhood raced around the event, hopping from the playground to the barbeque and into the dance arena, where they joined head dancers Nadjia Melanson and Joseph Harper. On-lookers and vendors surrounded the dance arena, where three drum groups (two local and one visiting from Peterborough) performed from the centre of the circle, seated next to the flags and ceremonial staff.
This was the third annual pow wow to be held at the Scarborough elementary school, originally organized by Waabanong Head Start, a preschool program for aboriginal families in the neighbourhood.
While some may find grey high-rises and Kingston Rd traffic a curious backdrop for a pow wow, it shouldn’t be unexpected, as the aboriginal population continues to increase rapidly in Canadian cities. The 2006 census reported 54% of aboriginal Canadians live in urban centres. Nevertheless, some people are still surprised to learn of a pow wow happening in Scarborough, said organizing committee member Sue Rogers, going on to discuss what a meaningful moment it was in bringing the community together.
With National Aboriginal Day taking place on June 21st, the message Rogers hopes to communicate through the pow wow is one of celebration and awareness. She emphasized the importance of pow wow in teaching the next generation about their heritage so they will continue to keep it alive.
To check out some more photos from the event, click continue reading below.
July 1st, 2009
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xESPNlH5rrA[/youtube]
Happy Canada Day! Recognize anybody in this Trudeau-era anthem film? Where are these Canadians today? I’m particularly nostalgic for this little film as it informed a lot of what I thought this country was — it was used as a …
June 2nd, 2009
Community, Culture, Connection: Celebrating 30 Years of Scarborough Arts Council
An eclectic evening of Scarborough arts filled with guest speakers, various performances, and a silent auction. Our special guests for the evening include:…
