Archive for 2010

TCL Flickr Pool

Posted on August 3rd, 2010 2 Comments

flickr pool, torontocitylife.com, froz'n motion, cameron macmasterThe Crown…” by Froz’n Motion, Cameron MacMaster

Filed under: B Sides, Contributed, Pictures

In over my head

Posted on August 2nd, 2010 7 Comments

Had big plans for this weekend: go down to see Caribanna, soak up the sunshine, restock my new photo collection. But fate’s a bitch, ain’t she?

At around 9 p.m. on Saturday night I started to get a migraine. No biggie, I thought, usually lasts a few hours, I’ll be right as rain tomorrow. By 2 a.m. I’d emptied the contents of my stomach from the pain, couldn’t quite see out of my left eye, and just wasn’t having a good time. Not good at all.

strip joint, marquee, repairs, toronto, city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Me and my pal Lazarus

Posted on July 27th, 2010 5 Comments

Yes, I have to admit that believing me to be dead would be a natural conclusion at this point. The gears have all but ground to a halt here at TCL, the Toronto City Life Twitter feed has barely seen the light of day over the past couple of weeks, and for all intents and purposes I may as well be pushing up the digital daisies.

gaelic cross, grave, mount pleasant cemetery, toronto, city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Spare the rod, spoil the cyclist

Posted on July 20th, 2010 25 Comments

“This is just glorious!”, exclaimed the unidentified cyclist as we stood in the middle of Jarvis Street, referring to the empty center lane he was casually occupying.

jarvis street, cyclists, bicyclists, bike lanes, toronto, city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Patrick Bay, Pictures

Weekend of weekends (part 5)

Posted on July 15th, 2010 11 Comments

…continued from previous part.

Okay, it’s now been well over two weeks and I’m just about ready to put this puppy to bed.

But before I do, let me round out the G20 weekend for you, dear reader. Let’s start with the Black Bloc, the attention whores of the summit.  While I was trying to figure out who they are and where they came from, a few glaringly obvious pieces of evidence jumped out at me with a, “zut alors!”

g20, riots, vandalism, broken glass, french, toronto, city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures

Weekend of weekends (part 4)

Posted on July 9th, 2010 2 Comments

…continued from previous part.

One of the most iconic images of the G20 riots a couple of weeks ago was the that of the burning police car. You know the one:

g20, riots, fire, police car, cruiser, queen street west, toronto, city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures

Pride Parade 2010 (part 2)

Posted on July 7th, 2010 8 Comments

…continued from part 1.

Of course there was nudity again this year. Just more seemingly painful nudity. But I’ll let you be the judge. First try to find it. Then try not to cringe.

pride parade 2010, yonge street, toronto, city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures

Pride Parade 2010 (part 1)

Posted on July 6th, 2010 Be the first to comment

Sorry for leaving the witty writing out of this one, dear reader, but it’s waaaay too hot to try thinking about words and stuff.

On Monday I spent the day in bed throwing up and nursing what I can only assume must’ve been heat stroke. Much of today was about basic, sweaty survival. An honest-to-goodness heat wave has settled over the city and even parading around completely naked in front of my front windows isn’t helping. Thanks for the suggestion, Pride folks, but it’s not as liberating as I’ve been led to believe.

The weather people say that my flat should stop being an oven by the end of the week. I’m afraid that in the meantime, by leaving my computer on for too long, I’ll be taking the temperature of my living room too close to the point of combustion. Basically, it’s not terribly conducive to either writing or photography (though there’s still plenty left from the G20 protests!) Plus, I’m still trying to deal with my no-means-of-income situation; that continues to eat up precious blogging time.

In the meantime, here’s the 2010 Pride Parade from Sunday. It’s now officially the world’s largest gay/lesbian/trans/etc./etc. parade. It used to be just LGBT but they added so many letters to the acronym this year that I’m just not going to bother taking it any further (there’s even a “25” in there somewhere!). If organizers can manage it, the world’s first international event will also be hosted here some time in the future. Sorry, Seattle. *snicker*

Not much else to say; it was hot, fun, and those Queers Against Israeli Apartheid people just couldn’t keep away, despite initially being banned. Not sure how their message changed between then and now to get them unbanned, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about that in the future.

Enough hot air, here’s the fun.

pride parade, gerrard street east, toronto city, life

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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures

Weekend of weekends (part 3)

Posted on July 2nd, 2010 Be the first to comment

…continued from previous part.

It’s mostly the rhetoric and misinformation guiding the protest that I take exception to. After all, people were just expressing themselves and exercising their right to peaceful protest which, much to John Clarke’s chagrin, ended up actually being peaceful. There were a few arrests made along the route, that’s true, but I suspect they involved the kind of people that would get arrested any old day, protest or not.

bicycle police, guard, college street, arrest, g20, protests, protesters, toronto, city, life

For most of us on the street the Friday afternoon was more like a parade.

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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures

Weekend of weekends (part 2)

Posted on June 30th, 2010 1 Comment

…continued from previous part.

On a scale of 1 to 3, with 1 being granola-popping tie-dyed hippies, and 3 being black bloc anarchists, the OCAP (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) protesters on Friday would probably rate at 2. Not outright violent instigation, but prepared to throw a few punches.

ocap, protest, g20, allan gardens, toronto, city, life

You may have already seen the video in which John Clarke bluntly states, “they have given us war, we’re looking to give them war back”, and “things are not gonna to be peaceful”. This speech was given prior to the march and these quotes weren’t taken out of context. Mr. Clarke further urged protesters not to be afraid of the police which, during this protest march, made their presence clear.

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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures