Archive for ◊ July, 2007 ◊

22 Jul 2007 Summer Sunday at Belfountain
Author: Gail |  Category: The Great Outdoors  | 6 Comments

Three of us spent the whole day at the Belfountain Conservation Area, which is about an hour northwest of Toronto and not much further from where I do my flight training. It was a nice break to get out of the city for a day and hang out with friends in nature. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, because I’m all out of energy.

(Pssst Francesca — see the toes? I took your advice!)

the feet feel good
sitting on a rock in the Credit River

in the creek
in the creek

before I closed my eyes
before I closed my eyes for a nap on the grass

Belfountain dam
the dam

a chance butterfly encounter
a chance butterfly encounter

More photos tomorrow, once I’m all recharged again.

TechnoratiTechnorati tags: ,

22 Jul 2007 Lexington Avenue Steam Explosion
Author: Gail |  Category: Other Photogs  | 2 Comments

Lexington Avenue Steam Explosion
Lexington Avenue Steam Explosion by JimmyOK

Last Wednesday there was a steam explosion in New York City one block from where a friend from Flickr, Jimmy O’Kelly, works. He took this shot and Yahoo News interviewed him over the phone to add his commentary to their online news piece. I found this style of news reporting — a photo slideshow with voiceover not from a news reporter, but from eyewitnesses — much more palatable than watching it on TV.

I compare living in a city like New York to living in London: in the days before terrorism was on high-alert (although London had that for years when the IRA was active), “there is always something going on” usually referred to newsworthy events in arts, science, sports, some cultural or social activity. These days metropolises are targets, and since 9/11 I’m sure New Yorkers are more than a little jumpy.

I remember last autumn when Jimmy and I were walking around New York in the middle of the night when the city seemed quieter and saner. He told me the City takes a lot out of a person; the stress takes its toll. I believe it.

TechnoratiTechnorati tags: ,

22 Jul 2007 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Author: Gail |  Category: Out + About  | Leave a Comment

A Midsummer's Night Dream
CanStage amphitheatre at High Park

Well, I discovered a couple of ways to stop myself from coughing all the way through an outdoor production of Shakespeare — eat and drink. Drink and eat. Repeat. The play was nearly two hours with no intermission, which means I ate more in one sitting than I have all week!

Thanks to Arliin’s advice to get there early to stake out territory and bring along picnic food, I secured a prime location for three of us well in advance: an hour and forty minutes before the performance! This sounds crazy early, but the amphitheatre isn’t very large and I wanted to make sure we weren’t relegated to the far wings. Peter and Lauren arrived before 7:00 and we dined on chicken, samosas, dips, bread sticks, tortilla chips, potato wedges, vegetables — I’m Filipino! There’s no such thing as too much food! — and wine before the performance, but we were still grazing and sipping as we watched. It was the perfect summer evening: not too warm, not chilly, no swarms of mosquitoes, and the play itself was extremely entertaining — a “hip, urban interpretation of Shakespeare’s timeless comedy.”

http://www.canstage.com/

“Delving into the world of paparazzi and celebrity culture, the play is set in downtown Toronto and features a multi-racial cast and Caribbean carnival-influenced costumes and rhythms.”

The last part is something I really enjoyed — I wished I were allowed to take photographs of the colourful costumes. Makes me want to go to Caribana this year.

TechnoratiTechnorati tags: , , ,

20 Jul 2007 It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Author: Gail |  Category: House of Fielding  | 3 Comments

it's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood
TGIF! — taken on the way home

It’s far too nice a weekend to spend it coughing up a lung, I say. I have plans! Outdoor plans for both Saturday and Sunday! I’m sick of the hacking and the bone-rattling barking. I have no symptoms other than a hijacked esophagus, thankfully, but that’s quite enough.

I took my camera to work today for the first time in a long while so I could shoot some random photos in the sunshine on the way home. I haven’t done that lately because I’ve got so many to process from recent trips, but I really needed some distraction from this annoying cough. I tried listening to music and reading a book, but a camera in my hands seems to be much more effective.

Happy Friday!

20 Jul 2007 “Let’s All Hate Toronto”
Author: Gail |  Category: Culture + Society, Reel + Screen, Toronto  | Leave a Comment

Relax, it’s a film. A film that looks really funny, but only to a Canadian, I think.

Sunday, July 15, 2007
Hatred of Toronto examined in mockumentary at Montreal comedy festival

http://letsallhateto.com/

I found this part of the article particularly amusing:

Although Montreal would likely be the most fervant Toronto-hater in the country because of long-standing sports and cultural rivalries, Spence and Nerenberg found that’s not the case.

“The West only started hating Toronto in the way it does now in the last 20-30 years,” Nerenberg said. “This is a trend that Toronto isn’t really aware of. It’s news to them.”

Top honours go to Vancouver, Nerenberg said. “Vancouver is much more resentful.”

Another snort from Mr. Toronto.

“I think here’s what happens, is you have somebody who can’t cut it in Toronto. They like to lay around and smoke pot all day and maybe do the occasional kayak. So they move out to the ‘mountainlands’ where they can basically escape the responsibilities that we carry in Toronto to make the country work.”

But there is a bright spot to all the resentment. In a country threatened by political divisions and western alienation for years, hating Toronto is a great unifier.

“French, English, we can all hate Toronto,” Nerenberg said brightly. “What we discovered is that you could go to the most remote Inuit village in the Far North of Canada and you will find people who hate Toronto.

“You can go as far west as you want to go, you’ll find Toronto haters. You can go as far east. Rich, poor, short, tall, with mustaches, without mustaches, it doesn’t seem to matter. All these people can be unified by hating Toronto.”

I wonder how I can get a hold of this film now that it passed through Toronto already?

19 Jul 2007 Random Thoughts on Transit
Author: Gail |  Category: Europe, Urban Life  | Leave a Comment

Paris metro
Paris metro

To get to work, I take a streetcar, subway, and bus for short times (average 10 minutes each) for a one-way trip of about 35 minutes. I take my iPod and sometimes a book, but because of the short segments and connections I usually just listen, watch, and think:

  • Should I wake up those people snoozing on the subway to see if they missed their stop?
  • Did that person kiss their loved one/s goodbye this morning or just walk out the door like any other day?
  • How many items has she knit on the streetcar? (What wonderfully productive trips.)
  • What did I forget to do before I left the house?
  • Is that older guy taking his son to school on his second family or first? (I love seeing fathers take their kids on transit every day. I find it especially touching, for some reason. Also, men in the grocery store with kidlets in the shopping cart.)
  • What song is he/she listening to?
  • Did she look in the mirror before she left the house??? I don’t think so!!
  • Do I have toothpaste in my hair?
  • How many years has that conductor worked for the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission)? Is he counting the days before his retirement?
  • How many people on this bus also work for the Ontario government? Are they counting the days/months/years before their retirement?
  • Will *I* live long enough to make it to anything resembling retirement?
  • Is his hair real or fake?

Oops, time to stop daydreaming and get off this thing…

Iris taking a breather
Iris taking a breather in Paris

TechnoratiTechnorati tags: , ,

19 Jul 2007 It’s a Flickr Baby!
Author: Gail |  Category: Flickr, Other Photogs  | Leave a Comment

Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield
Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield by caterina

Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake, founders of Flickr, had a baby girl!

Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield
Born July 10, 2007, 6 lbs. 1 oz.

Congratulations!


Life with Sonnet by caterina

TechnoratiTechnorati tags: , , ,

19 Jul 2007 In Need of a Scrub-Down
Author: Gail |  Category: Blah Blah Blah, Europe  | Leave a Comment

in need of a scrub-down

Behind Palais de Tokyo and Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. You might remember when the movie Amelie came out in late 2001 that the film crew had to clean up the parts of the city they were shooting. Paris (like many large cities) has a lot of graffiti.

I’m feeling in need of an internal scrub-down: I slept 10 hours last night to try and get some relief from the dry, hacking cough I picked up after all the heavy-duty cleaning and work I did around the apartment last weekend. I’ve been ingesting a dose of American ginseng derivative every day (a recommendation from someone at work — ColdFX? never tried it before) and sucking on Ricola to try and keep the coughing down and not drive my colleagues up the wall. I bought a small bottle of Benylin DM and take a couple of swigs of that as per prescribed schedule. Thankfully it hasn’t progressed beyond the coughing stage into a full-blown cold — yet — but I’m keeping to the regimen until the coast is clear.

17 Jul 2007 The Toilet Least Recommended For Claustrophobics
Author: Gail |  Category: Europe, Raconteurism  | 2 Comments

the toilet least recommended for claustrophobics
Can I reach it?

This is, almost without a doubt (I have to leave room for a weakening memory), the smallest toilet I have ever visited. It was in Paris — was that only three weeks ago?? — on a wacky boat moored on the Seine called "Le Cabaret Pirate" that doubles as a restaurant and concert venue.

(Site only in French): www.guinguettepirate.com/

My friend Berit found a recommendation for it, but by the time we arrived the floating cabaret was packed to the gills. That’s Friday night in Paris for you.

While we were waiting to see if we could squeeze in, I spotted the toilet and escaped the fray for some lavatorial relief. It’s hard to miss — it’s located rather conveniently in the middle of the boat by the entrance for the least amount of privacy possible. It would be like putting one of those construction site portable toilets in the middle of Grand Central Station.

The mistake was trying to take my bags in with me — my camera bag, tote bag, and the bag of painting smocks I’d just purchased for my nieces and nephew. It was literally the size of a standing shower, but once I locked the door, I was committed to the process. But I could barely close the door, I don’t know how I thought I could accomplish much more than that.

Of course, you can’t really see more than a corner of it from this picture, because that’s as far back as I could stand! And I had the lens as wide as it could go, 18mm!

The toilet paper was hanging from a railing, the tiny sink was a rectangle the size of a tissue box mounted on top of the toilet tank, and to my utter amazement there was even a small hand dryer mounted up on the wall beside the toilet paper. It was a boat, after all, but it made the airline W.C. look spacious!

I could only get in two quick shots because people were banging on the door. I literally spilled out, like the toilet ejected me and my bags in one spit: “You’re done!”

TechnoratiTechnorati tags: , ,

16 Jul 2007 The Long And The Short Of It
Author: Gail |  Category: Gail at Large  | 3 Comments

Behold the Long:

19 and living out of a bag
19 and living out of a bag

From the archives: May 1992

Standing on a termite mound somewhere along the coast between Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. I’d been on the road for about six months by then, and was travelling with a Scottish guy and a Dutch guy in a combi van. Crazy times.

Obviously, I was too poor for a haircut…

Not the longest I’ve grown it, but pretty close.

Behold the Short:


glassy-eyed thinking about all the money I’m saving with this Young Persons Rail Card

From the archives: February 1994 (age 21)

British Rail ID card so I could get discounted train fares. My hair had grown out a lot by this point — I had it razored down to less than an inch in Los Angeles a month or so before. A Cuban stylist used a straight blade instead of scissors, and I loved what he did with it but it only lasted a couple of weeks.

David said the haircut was very “Mary Lou Retton”. Argh.

Right now my hair length is medium length and quite wavy because I stopped blowdrying the heck out of it in the mornings. I had quite a bit cut off a week before Iceland, and the new ‘do is lower-maintenance. Now I just dry the top to get the cowlicks down and just enough on the rest of it so I don’t look like a drowned rat upon arrival at work. I used to have straw-straight hair as a kid and my mother permed it, permanently sealing my fate as the gradeschooler who looked and dressed like a senior citizen ready for her weekly bingo outing.

Strangely, my hair started curling as I was finishing high school and by the time I was living in Australia it was such a bird’s nest I was even considering dreadlocks to neaten it up a bit. The thing about dreadlocks is that when you’re tired of them, you have to cut all your hair off and by the time I wanted to try it I was getting ready to head from the tropics to damp, cold London in February. No thanks, I needed to keep my neck warm somehow.

In the past year I’ve suddenly grown thatches of white hair but I’m not colouring it out — no, I’ve earned them! Every single one!

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »