Roadtrip

Cross Canada Road Trip from Whistler Whatever on Vimeo.

East to west; from Barrie, ON to Whistler, BC in about four and a half minutes. Recorded October 26 to 31, 2009.

Twilight

West vs. east; Vancouver on the left and Toronto on the right. December 2008.

It feels like I’m trapped in the Twilight Zone in some sort of crazy weather spiral. However, the weather I’ve been experiencing over the last several years has been so drastically that crazy weather seems to be the norm.

When I arrived in Whistler earlier this month, it was warmer than usual and there was not enough snow to ski. Then it became too cold and snow started to fall slowly. When I returned to Vancouver before Christmas it started to snow – and snow it did. I think there was a snowfall warning issued daily for over a week on Environment Canada.

I flew from a snowy Vancouver to a rainy Toronto on December 24th – barely making it because there was a shortage of crew available in Vancouver because many flights were canceled from several centres in the west. Toronto is now enjoying spring-like weather. It reached almost +15c yesterday. Warm enough not to require a hat or gloves – something that I was never without in BC this month.

Much of what I do is dependent upon the weather so I will be glad when things return to what we once knew as normal – except in the mountains where it should snow as much as possible!

Incongruent

While walking from the curling club to the subway station this evening, a friend mentioned the unattractiveness, incongruity and randomness of the landscape in the area. Just as he mentioned that, I turned and saw these four houses. In this area of the city, East York, there are many such houses with architecture that resemble barns.

However, this was not the real topic of discussion. It was the accessibility of the Toronto transit system. Had we been on a bus, we would not have seen this landscape. However, buses on this street do not run beyond 7:00 p.m. on Sunday evenings. Even on weekdays, it does not run past beyone 10:00 p.m. This seems to strand or marginalize people – especially the elderly or people with limited mobility. The schedule presents even more challenges when the weather is inclement.

The local transit authority, the TTC has an initiative underway, Transit City: Moving Toronto Into The Future.The plan is to extend the transit system into the suburbs. Having such a plan seems counterintuitive when the TTC does not seem to provide adequete transportation within the city.

The lack of transit in this area of East York made it seem neglected and in despair. If proper transit were provided to poorly serviced areas, would the area improve? A hypothetical question that probably will not get answered anytime soon – but should be asked.

Almost

It’s been four years in the transformation of the AGO from mild-mannered art gallery to a world class art gallery. This is Frank Gehry’s first major project in Canada. It doesn’t look like it will disappoint anyone. It even looked spectacular during construction. There was a reception tonight but it was a private one. It is scheduled to open to the general public in just over a week. We will see what the critics think then.

My images from the past year. Click on the larger image to advance to the next image.

Clear

The first shot where I noticed the difference between my new camera (not the one in the previous post) and my old camera. The above image was captured at dusk, untouched – except for some minor cropping – and at ISO 1600. The higher ISO captures images better in low light conditions – but also produces lots of image noise because the sensor that captures the image is not sensitive enough and the software makes up for that deficiency.

I rarely took shots above ISO 800 on my previous camera because the noise made it look like a snowstorm. Bring on the night!

Square

I notice recently that I’ve been cropping some of my images to a square or 4×5 format. I find that the 3×2 format of 35mm and D-SLR cameras don’t always work for what I’m shooting. I never used to crop my photos because I was framing the subject to fit in the camera viewfinder but it did not work when I viewed it on paper or on the screen.

However, I noticed that when I cropped some of them, it gave them a new life and changed the perspective of the photo. I’m sure I learned why in school, but my brain is like a sieve and I usually forget such minute technical details. I normally would shoot, process the levels and then post – maybe I could not be bothered to crop photos before.

Now that I think about it, why isn’t all film/digital in a more square format? Lenses are round and if film is not, there’s a lot of wasted space. I will guess that it started with some film manufacturing executive fitting into the manufacturing process or something like that. I’m going to a camera show on the weekend so I’m sure some people can let me in on the secret.

Enough talk, here are some pictures. Two of my favorite images, one square, one 4×5. Ironically, both from NY – maybe that’s what changed. Click on either image to jump to my flickr set.

Slideshows of the sets; click on the larger image to advance to the next one.

The 4×5 flickr set:

The square format set:

Hipster

I wasn’t exactly sure what a hipster was until recently when I visited New York City. I found out through a free newspaper that they live in Williamsburg, an area of Brooklyn just over the river from Manhattan. Apparently they aren’t well liked by some because they over-pay for Goodwill fashion, drive out good-value restaurants, hang at dive bars and  drive up housing prices, especially lofts!

Elise Thompson, an editor for the LA blog LAist defines hipsters as people wearing “expensive ‘alternative’ fashion[s]“, going to the “latest, coolest, hippest bar…[and] listen[ing] to the latest, coolest, hippest band.”

People are starting to emulate them in other cities – including Toronto as seen here in gbalogh’s (a flickr contact) photo stream.

Hopefully we won’t need to reinforce our doors to keep them out in Toronto – and hopefully they won’t invade Sneaky Dee’s!

Here’s a funny video of hipsters in action in Brooklyn.

Dynasty

Ten years after I first visited Yankee stadium, I returned for a final visit in the last season of the current Yankee Stadium. They will be playing in a new stadium starting in 2009 – also called Yankee Stadiium and the old Yankee Stadium will be demolished.

Although there is a lot of history in the current stadium, it is an old style stadium. The seating is old, the walkways and washrooms are cramped and there are not many amenities. Skydome/Roger’s Centre in Toronto is quite spacious in comparison.What I find most interesting about Yankee Stadium are the fans that visit the games. They are the most lively, boisterous and out-spoken – true New Yorkers. The Yankee fans may taunt you because you’re a Jay fan, etc. but everyone can still be friends because we’re all baseball fans.

I’ll probably go back to visit the stadium before it is demolished but this will probably be my last Yankee game in the House That Ruth Built (or the Stadium, the Big Ballpark in the Bronx, the Cathedral of Baseball).

On a related note, while in NY, I met a guy from Toronto that has the goal of watching every Toronto Blue Jay game in 2008 – at home and on the road. He worked out a deal with his company to work part time – when he was in town. His enthusiasm seem to be waning when I talked to him – but that’s understandable because he has been watching baseball games daily on his own for five months and counting. As Homer Simpson knows, baseball isn’t that exciting most of the time (when sober). Ryan’s website, is Baseball Odyssey – he stopped blogging at the end of June – perhaps that’s when he contracted baseball fatigue.

Here is my Flickr baseball set. Click on the larger image to advance to the next image.

24

That’s how many hours I was in transit last weekend from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. After arriving at the airport, I was told my flight was canceled; I ended up getting on the previous flight which had already been holding for three hours. I almost didn’t make it to NYC on Friday. After waiting a few hours, I was on the phone to American Airlines inquiring about a refund – which they did offer to me – but at the last moment, I declined to take it. Moments later, we did get on the plane and we took off around 10:30 p.m. I was in Brooklyn by 2:00 a.m. and the party was already started.

Watching the sunset while waiting for my flight at Toronto Pearson airport.

On the way home on Sunday evening, I arrived at JFK airport late because I missed one of my connections which delayed me enough to miss the boarding cutoff time. I ended up buying a bus ticket and arrived back in Toronto by 7:00 a.m. Monday morning. I basically went home, showered and left for work. It was very tiring and it took me until Thursday to feel normal again.

On a lark, I called American Airlines to let them know of my weekend. They were nice enough to give me a credit for my missed flight so there will be another trip to NYC in the works.

Relaxing at JFK after missing the check-in cutoff time.

Watching the sunset in Manhattan before catching my bus.
The Megabus; I paid 80x that; but at least it got me home.

Blackout

Five years ago yesterday, it was a Thursday afternoon. I was at the office and it was just past 4:00p; I was on the phone with my girlfriend [at that time] because we were arranging to go to York University to watch the Canadian Open tennis tournament in the evening. During the conversation, the lights, computer and other electrical appliances in the office went dead. I looked out the window and noticed that the subway train below had stopped in its tracks also – I knew something was not right.

Walking home through the streets of Toronto seemed to be a jovial experience. Everyone was talking; traffic was cooperating and nobody seemed to be complaining. I got a free popsicle from a store that was giving them away. I also got some free iced tea and water from a restaurant that had set up a table for all the people walking home.

I ended up having a party for some friends (that could get to my apartment) to eat my frozen food and drink my beer before it got warm. I didn’t care about the beer, but it was a good reason to have a party.

We celebrated the fifth anniversary last night in Toronto with several groups, including: PS Kensington, Critical Mass and Newmindspace that culminated at Spadina and Bloor streets in a street party.

The night started with a spectacular sunset, which set the mood for the party.

Here is my flickr set from the evening. Click on the larger image to advance to the next one.