Subway Shenanians - Improv in Toronto - Subway Dance Party

Next Saturday, June 5th is the 4th Annual Toronto Subway Dance party.   This is as Wiki defines, a "Silent Disco", which is a type of Flash Mob.   The first identified Silent subway disco was held in the London Underground in 2006. Flash mob is a example of an Internet meme. See here for more blogs about internet memes.

From the Video, looks like it might be a bit of fun.  I might just trot along (or salsa along, more accurately), of course only if I don't retreat to my Collingwood Shangri-La for the weekend!  

Just as a point of interest, I could try out my fancy new "moves" I have been learning at the dancing lessons I have been taking.  LOL - but I think that those moves would be more appropriate for the annual "Salsa on St. Clair" weekend which is later in the summer.  I am still learning the steps and working on the the 1-2-3-...-5-6-7...  Might need til the summer to get good enough to want to flaunt my new moves.  LOL

If you want to join in or even just turn up to watch all the fun go to the Improv in Toronto site to check out the details.



According to Wiki:
A flash mob (or flashmob)[1] is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse.[2] The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.
This is in fact a very tame subway goings on compared to others. I wrote about several others in an earlier blog.  I also found some other Videos of flash mobs which are kind of neat. .

For some real subway dance shenanigans have a peek at these ones!

Reflections on the Direction Forward and Summer Time!

Gosh, the weather in Southern Ontario (that is the province that the City of Toronto is located within Canada, for my global guests) has been absolutely fabulous.  I think we have had more summer weather in the months of April and May than we had the entire summer of 2009 - we called that the summer that wasn't following the winter that went on forever.  We in Southern Ontario have weather of extremes.   Cold snowy winters and often (although not so much in the years immediately preceding 2010) hot and humid, tropical summers.  Summer is my favourite time of year.  Most years we only have reliably 2 months of real hot summertime weather.  This year looks like we might be blessed with 4 or even 6, if the fall cooperates.  That is spectacular in my books.

I am planning an active summer of hiking, walking and yes I am embarrassed to say just driving around in my car with my dog Bella and "doing stuff" in the little spare time I have in my calendar.  Work is still horrendously stressful and I am doing far too many hours.  I simply don't have enough time.  I started to think about how want to be spending my time this summer and concluded I need to review priorities and return on effort and to figure out what I am doing right and where I need to tack into the wind to get a bit more traction.  My blog came up on radar as something that needs to be reviewed.

My reasons for blogging are many:

• I enjoy writing and aspire to do some serious noveling at some point - therefore I the habit and  practice of  writing is needed.
• I want to share with my global friends what a great place Toronto is and tell you about what I see and do in this city.  
• In particular, I want to promote art and architecture within the City of Toronto to  potential visitors.
• Ditto Collingwood, because that is where my Shangri-La getaway is located.
• I want to leave something of me somewhere friends and family can go to catch up with what is going on in my world, my thoughts, likes, dislikes and opinions when they have the time and inclination
• I want to make new friends in the blog sphere - who knows maybe my "Prince Charming" is out there reading this right now! Failing that, I am sure that there are lots of folks who may well be living in the countries I see myself visiting in the next number of years and maybe I can connect with some of my blog sphere friends "in the flesh".
• I want to promote others who have a presence in the Internet by "retweeting" and commenting on the neat stuff I find there. 

My posting schedule of twice a week plus maybe one or two on the weekend does allow me to meet these goals and if I cut back I will not be achieving them.  But maybe that is ok for the summer.  After all, don't we all remember what it is like when school lets out and we have the summer months off to rest and recharge.  I for one found that I approached September with optimism and enthusiasm for a new school year of accomplishments.  Maybe it can be that way for my blog.

Inciently, you notice that increasing my visitor count was not listed as a goal for me - but lets face it, all bloggists hope to have visitors and increasing numbers do provide a sense of satisfaction and motivation on days when it is easier to go outside to play rather than write a blog.  Which gets me to the next point.

I do have regular visitors, however I have been noticing that every month I am doubling the number of folks who come for one visit in response to a google search but the number of repeat visitors seems to be dropping.  I find it great that I come up on so many google searches - perhaps I am providing some reference to folks who are looking for information on a topic I've blogged about.  Sadly, it  seems I may have lost some of my regular readers but it might  be that they are as busy as I am these days.  I subscribe to a service which logs visitors and through the use of  IP addresses and cookies attempts to tell me how many returning visitors I have and what city/country that they are located in.  Unfortunately, it isn't easy to check how many returning visitors come in a given month - it could be that the same 3 or 4 people visit each day or that I have a different 3 or 4 repeat visitors coming each month (which means 90-120 returning visitors).  I guess the answer is somewhere int between - at least I hope that there are more than 3 or 4 people who are coming back regularly at any frequency.     Lord knows that I have a majority of silent readers with very few venturing any comments on the blog.    But that is ok.  I read lots of blogs and comment on only a few myself.  Please do feel free to just say hi... maybe we can strike up a conversation.  :)

In any case, maybe I don't have a great number of regular visitors to worry about disappointing if I don't post on a set timetable and the content is thin for the summer months.  Not to say I don't appreciate you guys who return for another visit, even if it is on an irregular schedule.

Where am I going with this?  I am not going to give so much time to blogging away the hours.  I might be able to sit dock side and read a blog or twelve, but I am not going to be able to continue churning them out 2 or 3 blogs  per week at least while this glorious weather calls me.   So I am reminding everyone that I am officially on summer hours and I will be posting  photos showing what I am doing more than I will be writing long blogs for the summer.  I have a few blogs prewritten for events which are coming and those will get polished and posted, and maybe if the weather turns nasty I might put out a longer update, but for the most part there will be only brief postings here.

So please pop by to see whats up when you are able but don't expect any long winded updates and essays until September, the fall weather approaches.

Neruda's Poetry: Leaning into the Afternoons

I have to confess, I have been working long hours again and that combined with an inclination to be out and about rather than inside blogging, means I dipped into my net of half written blogs/blog ideas to churn out today's offering.   As you know I love Neruda's poetry and I have still a bunch in my bag, waiting for an appropriate time to share them without risking all but poetry junkies abandoning my blog.  :)

Following is another of Neruda's poems, this one Poem VII from 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair, which was written in his early years.  It speaks more of the absence of love and the unhappiness that can come from from "absent eyes".  For a more lengthy analysis go here to find Bookstove's analysis of this poem.   If you want to dive into some of my other blogs and about Neruda and read/hear more of his poetry go here.



Leaning Into The Afternoons

Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad nets
towards your oceanic eyes.

There in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames,
its arms turning like a drowning man's.

I send out red signals across your absent eyes
that smell like the sea or the beach by a lighthouse.

You keep only darkness, my distant female,
from your regard sometimes the coast of dread emerges.

Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad nets
to that sea that is thrashed by your oceanic eyes.

The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.

The night gallops on its shadowy mare
shedding blue tassels over the land.

Psychedelic Rock- for us Hippie Zoomers

My adult children occasionally remind me that "I used to be a Hippie"...  Actually, I was not a true hippie - I most definitely hit the late end of the 60's and early 70's in my teen/young adult years.  I was old enough though during my teen years to catch the end of the hippie movement but young enough to have been still at home and in high school as during this time.  I can still remember talking about what happened at Kent State in May of 1970 in a Grade 11 classroom.  That was the sunset on the Hippie years.  By the time I was out of the house and "clubbing" it was disco fever and that is where I landed through a great deal of the 70's.  Though I was not really fully in the sex and drugs counter culture of 60s, I did participate in the tail end of the "Love and Peace" years.

I grew up spending a lot of time listening to the music of the 60s and psychedelic rock during high school.  To this day when I hear "A Whiter Shade of Pale" or "White Rabbit" or "Someone to Love", I smile recollecting those easy going days where our biggest problem was what to do on a Saturday night.

The weather was so great this weekend and I was able to be up at my Collingwood Shangri-La for this wonderful Victoria Day holiday.  I did spend a lot of time lazing in the sun and taking it easy, recalling how simple life was in those days. I didn't get any blogging done (I normally write the following week's blogs on the weekend) as I was in that same easy going head space. 


I leave you with a few favourites of mine from that era. Those of you who are of the same vintage as I am, close your eyes and remember times which were so different than they are today. Added to the treat is Canada's own Smother's Brothers. I can remember watching their boundary pushing comedy show every week. They were Canada's rebellious answer to the States' Ed Sullivan Show.



According to Wiki:

Jefferson Airplane's song "Somebody to Love" Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jefferson Airplane's version #274 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

 and Wiki says of  White Rabbit:
 The song was ranked #478 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, #27 on Rate Your Music's Top Singles of All Time and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.




A Whiter Shade of Pale was and is still often played.  As I recall, it was my first slow dance song.  Can't remember the guy now, but I do remember that it was pretty special.  The song has a special place in my heart. 

From Wiki:

...United Kingdom performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited in 2004 recognized it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years.[3] Also in 2004, Rolling Stone placed "A Whiter Shade of Pale" #57 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Art and Architecture: Rogers Centre and The Audience by Michael Snow

Toronto Downtown Skyline as seen from the Toronto Islands, which lie just to the south of the City and form our natural harbour and tremendous recreational lands.

Toronto's Domed Stadium - The Roger's Centre
Toronto's Stadium lies in the heart of our downtown, tucked in beside the CN Tower.  The Dome of the Stadium and the needle of the CN Tower, surrounded by the usual office towers you might see in any city, define the Toronto Skyline.  I can see it from my east facing bedroom window and I have featured several pictures of that view in my blog.  From the angle I view, the Rogers Centre (formerly called the Sky Dome) is not very visible as it is mostly hidden by condo and office towers, as you can see from my picture below.

Our Sky Dome was built in the late 1980s at a time that dense construction of the downtown area west was just getting underway.  I can remember when the area was just a bunch of railway tracks and industrial buildings, even Liberty Village was not yet anything more than mostly abandoned industrial buildings and the Inglis Appliance Factory.  Now it is a vibrant and ever growing upscale residential and recreational area frequented by people for every day activities and for special events.

About the Rogers Centre from Wiki:

Rogers Centre, formerly known as Sky Dome, is a multi-purpose stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated next to the CN Tower near the shores of Lake Ontario. Originally opened in 1989, it is home to the American League's Toronto Blue Jays, the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, the site of the annual International Bowl American college football bowl game, and as of 2008, the National Football League's Buffalo Bills' second playing venue in the Bills Toronto Series. While it is primarily a sports venue, it also hosts other large-scale events such as conventions, trade fairs, concerts, funfairs, and monster truck shows. The stadium was renamed "Rogers Centre" following the purchase of the stadium by Rogers Communications in 2005. 

The venue was noted for being the first stadium to have a fully-retractable motorized roof, as well as for the 348-room hotel attached to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the field. It is also the most recent North American major-league stadium built to accommodate both football, as well as baseball..

Because the construction around this area is fairly recent, most of it has been built after Toronto instituted its "Percent for Art" program.   From the City of Toronto Web site:  

The Percent for Public Art Program recommends that a minimum of one percent of the gross construction cost of each significant development be contributed to public art. The governing principle for the Percent for Public Art Program is that art is a public benefit to be enjoyed and experienced by residents and visitors throughout the city. The Program requires that the artwork must be clearly visible at all times from publicly accessible areas.

As a consequence, the area developed from the Sky Dome and west is rich with public art and a feast for the walking person to take in.  In the next few dozens of Thursdays I will focus on Art and Architecture in the downtown area near the Sky Dome and the surrounding area running west through to Liberty Village.  Not that I haven't already done dozens of blogs covering art and architecture in the Downtown area but just to let you know there are dozens more to come.  Last week's blog on the Barca Volante (Flying Canoe) at the Navy Wharf building which is right across the road from the Roger's Centre is another example.  Just to let you know that there are lots more to come, I thought a proper introduction was in order to give some context to the coming blogs.

Art and Architecture at the Toronto Roger's Centre  

(AKA The Sky Dome)

Michael Snow - The Audience
I just love this installation, which sits at the two northern corners of the stadium. This is a whimsical sculpture, giant caricatures of the sorts of people you might see at the stadium watching a game.

This shows the location of the piece on the NE structure

The picture above looks east and shows the one part of the installation, which look to be stadium box full of cheering people watching a game.  It is located on the eastern most part the supporting structure upon which the giant roof retracts - you can see the tracks that the roof retracts on in the picture.  You can also see a bit of the Renaissance Hotel which adjoins the stadium.  It would be really neat during a Blue Jays game to be in one of the hotel rooms with windows looking out into the stadium field.

This is a close up of the work installed at the NE corner.

The right most part of the installation is another couple of stadium boxes full of people - they always make smile.  I view this work from my office building which is right beside the Rogers Centre and I can see it from above when I look out the 13th floor south windows. 

This is the NW part of the installation.

This is a close up of the folks looking out of the N-W "Stadium Box" Click for greater detail.

I am going to go out on my lunch break next week and take some photos of the draw bridge between the Stadium and the walk way to Front Street which is one of the access points to the Stadium and right beside my place of work.  There are quite a few interesting pieces of public art installed in and around the CN Tower to also show you. Stay tuned for next week's installment.

This next photo shows the Roger's Stadium as it is seen from our waterfront, lit up at night.  It is a nice sight to see.

Tom Waits - (Looking for) The Heart Of Saturday Night

I think Saturday nights are very special. I work extremely hard all week.  While I do look forward to Friday - it has the sweet air of excitement of things to come - it falls short.   Friday night is a night to let loose a bit, a night to unwind or even on a bad week it's a night to crawl into one's hovel and collapse in a heap.  It is decidedly the night before the main event. Saturday night is what we all look forward to. It is the night - the top of the week's mountain before Sunday morning, coming down.

It is my favourite night because it is all about relaxing and doing whatever feels right.   And hopefully being with one's own honey.  There are lots of Saturday Night songs.  This one, The Heart of Saturday Night, by Tom Waits is my favourite.

From Wiki's entry on Tom Waits:

The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), featuring the song "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night," revealed Waits's roots as a nightclub performer, with half-spoken and half-crooned ballads often accompanied by a jazz backup band. Waits described the album as:

...a comprehensive study of a number of aspects of this search for the center of Saturday night, which Jack Kerouac relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.

This song is contained in his 1974 album of the same name. In 2003, the album was ranked number 339 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, his highest placing, according to the wiki entry relating to the album.  I just purchased the album  from iTunes.  His music has certainly stood the test of time.  I am enjoying some great songs as I write this blog.  :)

The mention of the name Jack Kerouac in the Wiki article is in reference to the style of some of his songs.  His recitation of the lyric rhythmically against bass and drums is reminiscent of Beat Generation poetry and Beat hipster Jack Kerouac who wrote about his trek across the States in his famous book "On the Road" published in April 1951.  This is, by the way, an advance plug for my May 30th Poetry Blog which will feature Beat Generation poetry.

This is not the first time I have blogged about Tom Waits.  Go here to read my earlier blog.

I think the Tom Waits Song, The Heart of Saturday Night, is so appropriate as my Saturday night anthem.  (OK, others might choose the Hockey Song by  Stomping Tom Connors LOL).  The melody is mellow and easy in tempo and tone and his lyrics speak of the sort of time we all experienced as teens out on the town on a Saturday night. 

I may not cruise down Main Street on Saturday night in the arms of my sweetie anymore, but Saturday night for me still holds that same excitement, even if sitting on my couch watching a movie alone rather than with my sweetie.   Indeed, Saturday night is a special night. I have long stopped looking for the heart of Saturday night. I live it each week and I hope you do too.

I have included 2 Videos of Tom Waits doing this signature song of his.  I like the first one, which was taken from his 1974 Album and is musically a better version, I think.  The second Video is a live performance of the song and contains a long humorous banter poking some fun at the songs lyrics.  It is fun to listen to also.

Close your eyes as you listen to Tom Waits sing my Saturday Night anthem.  Enjoy the Heart of Saturday night.



(Looking for) The Heart Of Saturday Night
by Tom Waits

You gassed her up behind the wheel
With your arm around your sweet one in your Oldsmobile
Barrelin' down the boulevard
Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Got paid on Friday and your pockets are jinglin'
And you see the lights, you get all tinglin'
'Cause you're cruisin' with a six
Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Comb your hair, pleads your face
Try to wipe out every trace
Of all the other days in the week
You know this'll be the Saturday reachin' your peak

Stop on the red, goin' on the green
Tonight'll be like nothin', you've ever seen
Barrelin' down the boulevard
Looking for the heart of Saturday night

Is it the crack of the poolballs, neon buzzin'?
Telephone's ringing, it's your second cousin
The barmaid that's smilin' from the corner of her eye
The magic of the melancholy tear in your eye

But that makes it kind of quiver down in the core
Dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin', stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night
Now you're stumbling, stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night.

Living in a Sci fi Dream: I am lining up for this Device!

Those of you who know me understand that I am a gadget person and right out there on the edge of anything new.

I definitely would be in the early adopter category on the Roger's Diffusion of Innovation curve.
For some reason, when I hear about a new technology, tool or even an idea, I sit up and take notice and check into it to see if it might be something great.  Then if it  does look worthwhile - I go for it!  Sometimes I am wrong, sometimes I am right.  I figure you can't always be right and there are benefits to be had in the use of innovative tools and techniques.

I have had a special interest in the area of Brain Machine interfaces for the last year.  It is something (not giving away too much) that is featured in my novel in progress, drafted during NaNoWriMo last November.  So I was absolutely blown away when I saw a Video this week which featured and the Emotiv device.  Having watched this Video I am dumb founded.

The Emotiv Mind Machine Control Device

Mind Control Device Demonstration -  In the video following Tan Le, co-founder and president of Emotiv Systems, gives a live demo of a mind control device that uses a person's thoughts to input computer commands.



Idea City 2010

Tan Le is a presenter at Idea City 2010.   What is Idea City, you might ask?

Idea City is Toronto's answer to Ted Talks which is held in Toronto on June 16,17,18 2010.

From the Idea City Website:

What is ideaCity?
50 Presenters, 3 Legendary Parties, a Ton of Inspiration

ideaCity, also known as 'Canada's Premiere Meeting of the Minds', is an eclectic gathering of artists, adventurers, authors, cosmologists, doctors, designers, entertainers, filmmakers, inventors, magicians, musicians, scientists and technologists.

Fifty of the planet's brightest minds converge on Toronto each June to speak to a highly engaged audience. Only 700 are privileged to attend.

Produced and presented by Moses Znaimer, ideaCity is not themed around any one topic, issue or business. There are no scripted speeches or, breakout or parallel sessions. Rather, everyone is in one place and in on the same narrative.

With extra-long schmooze breaks between sessions, and legendary parties each night, attendees have had an unprecedented opportunity to mingle with such notable speakers as Conrad Black, Barbara Gowdy, Michael Ignatieff, Douglas Coupland, Pamela Wallin, Pete Seeger, Robert Kennedy Jr., John Ralston Saul, Daniel Libeskind, Clayton Ruby, Romeo Dallaire and the late Peter Jennings.

I am sooooo tempted to buy tickets and attend this year's idea city!  It is very expensive, but I wonder if I could possibly justify it as a business expense?