originally sent October 14th, 2003
| Since I retired my Bahamas Updates pages a few months ago, I realized that I need to start up a Toronto Updates pages. I originally intended the Bahamas Updates to be letters back home to the gang in Toronto, but now after making so many friends in Nassau, and other parts of the globe, I realize should really be keeping y'all up-to-date as well. So here goes: | |||
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Room With A View - After leaving The Bahamas in June of 2003, I moved back to Toronto and, with the help of a friend, found a great (and cheap) little 2-bedroom 2nd story flat right downtown. The place even has a deck with a perfect view of the Toronto landmark CN Tower (left). Perfect for Saturday morning coffees. I live near to two other Toronto landmarks - Kensington Market and Chinatown. Toronto's Chinatown is massive, and it's fun to go into stores where everything on the shelf is completely unreadable. And of course there are delicious restaurants galore. Kensington Market is a small shopping area with outdoor fruit stands, vintage clothing stores, cool outdoor cafés and, in the summer, outdoor concerts and festivals. And I'm even reminded of my ol' island home every time I walk by Nassau St (which is only a few blocks away in K Market). Plus my Portugese landlords are great and Victor, in the middle, even shares the homemade wine he makes in the basement. Sweet! |
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Paradise Island - But getting out of the city is pretty sweet too. I spent quite a few weekends this past summer in Canada's great outdoors. The first outing was, of course, my giant family reunion at Manitoba's Westhawk Lake. Later in the summer my friend Sarah and I were invited up to the riverfront cottage of my friend, local Toronto artist Evan Penny. A whole troupe of people went up there one glorious holiday weekend in August, and, of course, we spent the time canoeing, hiking, eating, drinking and picking blueberries. It's a 4-hour trip to get there, but well worth it. I also had a mini high-school reunion one weekend when I went up to the cottage of my old friend Tracey and no less than 7 people from my distant pass (and all their kids - yikes!) were at the same lake (left) that same weekend. I went up with my school friend and neighbour Halina, together with her brood, and once again the weekend was spent sunning, swimming, catching frogs and lounging on the deck enjoying the view. |
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Hot Town, Summer In The City - But city life is a big reason why I returned to Toronto, and we definitely had an eventful summer here. There was a giant outdoor Rolling Stones SARS benefit concert (which I missed - I do work occassionally ya know) and a massive blackout that crippled half the eastern seaboard of North America (which I didn't think twice about after survivng a blackout every month in Nassau). But one source of perennial summer amusement is the wonderfully cheesey Canadian National Exhibition (left). I went one night, with my friend Sarah, and although she didn't want to go on anything scarier than the Ferris Wheel, we still had fun. I even won her a dog toy at the ball toss game (the thing on her head). And although I missed the Stones's big concert in July, I did manage to see shows by Roxy Music, Tori Amos, Mogwai, local fave Lenni Jabour and Goth icon Nick Cave. I even got to go backstage and meet ol' St Nick after his show (connections, connections) but, of course, my camera was still in for repairs! | ||
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That's Entertainment - September in Toronto means only one thing for me, and it's not "back-to-school". The annual Toronto International Film Festival takes over T.O. for a week every Autumn, and this year the loverly Leslie Vanderpool (left) came up from Nassau to attend. I had a connection in the festival head office so I managed to swing us a few extra movie and party passes, and together we had a great week of film fest fun. I even ran into my old friend singer Johnny Favourite at the opening night soirée. And he and I haven't seen each other since he used to work as a band-leader on a cruise ship that made port in Nassau once a week. I also saw a few celebs around town (Woody Harrelson rode by me on a bicycle) but the real coup was seeing screen legend Omar Sharif introduce his film "M. Ibrahim" at a gala premiere. Unfortunately I was nowhere near the front row so the shot isn't that stellar, and you'll just have to take my word that it's Omar. | ||
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Ich Bin Ein Berliner - During the first week of October I spent an amazing week in the city of Berlin (left), in beautiful Deutschland (that's Germany to you anglophones). The airfare from Toronto was so cheap that I couldn't resist booking a flight, and the fact that 6 good friends of mine were coming along for the ride was all the more reason to get airborne. The idea was planted in me 'ed when my friend Roger's art gallery was invited to attend the annual Art Forum Berlin, which is sort of a contemporary art trade show. I thought it would be fun to tag along, and coincidentally so did 4 other friends. Not to mention the fact that several other Toronto galleries were invited to attend the same show. It was quite a Canadian entourage. The pix from my trip are posted online and divided into 3 sections: the Black Gallery, the Red Gallery, and the Gold Gallery. BTW those are the three colours of the German flag. See how educational this site can be... |
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And
that's that. Man that took a lotta work! Hard to make your life
sound more interesting than it really is. But I do try. Hope y'all
enjoyed this little update, and till next time, over 'n' out! |
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