Pedantry Digest

Bloor Street West, between Huron Street and Spadina Avenue. For this weekend, University of Toronto School became "John Drake Public High School" in New York City for the film "Take The Lead" (or something to that effect). People were lined up on the north side of Bloor Street West watching the filming take place. I chuckled a little bit as I watched this because, in spite of the amount of filming that does go on in this city with American film-makers taking advantage of cheaper Canadian production, so many people still seemed so keenly interested in watching the filming (which is really very dull, with a lot of waiting and reshooting). In Los Angeles, for the obvious reasons, people just don't seem to line up like this--it's too commonplace.





The first thing that actually tipped me off that something strange was going on (as I was walking around the area, before I actually got onto the main street) was that so many things were slightly altered. For example, new signs had been put up for both municipal vehicles and street names. It didn't seem quite right (like the "West End" and "104th Street" signs posted just below the "Bloor St W" and "Huron St" signs). This photo shows one of the more obvious alterations as Toronto became New York City for a day.





Still on Bloor Street West, on the north side, looking west towards Spadina Avenue. This is one of the few vehicles they had waiting around out of view of the cameras, presumably for night filming. It also makes me miss some of the fun of sepia toning my non-digital photos back in high school. Truly, my fingers smelled like photo chemicals for four years (plus at least a few weeks after I left).





I bought myself new flowers today at this convenience/flower store on the corner of Harbord Street and Major Street. The Asian (Japanese?) woman who helped me was darling and so friendly--she even gave me extra pots and potting soil for free! I put a lot of work into my old flowers, but I think I killed their chances of flowering long ago. The new flowers--one full-sized magenta Dahlia and one mini-sized (and multi-flowering) orange Dahlia--are really pretty, and the woman at the store told me that they actually do better with shade, rather than direct sunlight (perfect, given that they will be staying indoors with me). Soon, I need to find some terra cotta pots--not sure where. Anyway, this is the store with the lovely flowers and the lovely shopkeeper.





Just north of Harbord Street, halfway up a north-south alley between Brunswick Avenue and Major Street. This was clearly done with a stencil and spray-paint, but I still think it's really cool. Colour-wise, too, I like something about the blue of the character's head near to the brown on the short ends of the wood (mostly obscured by the shade).





Just south of Bloor Street West, just east of Borden Street, on the back of the building along an east-west alley. Let it be said up front that, composition-wise, I'm not at all impressed with this shot. But, truly, I didn't know what to do about it. This shaft (some sort of air shaft, I'm assuming) is actually quite tall (it has been cropped) and runs vertically along the side of the aforementioned building (I rotated it ninety degrees). When I saw it, I loved it for the contrast and colour (rust is absolutely fantastic, especially along blue-grey steel). But as far as composition...I just didn't know what to do.





Slightly further south down the same alley as the stencil/spray painted photo posted above the last one. (Admittedly, someone left their back gate open in such a way that I could see this without trespassing.) Both the bicycle and the paneling are a rich, bright red--their hues vary only slightly from one another. My first thought was, "Ooo, red special!" but it turns out that some cropping and a change to just black-and-white (or, to be pedantic, gradation) actually yielded a better "product" of art.