Contact Photography Exhibit 2011

Every year in the month of May, the Contact photography exhibition places photographs of a given theme in public locations throughout Toronto.  This year the theme is "Figure and Ground", which explores " the shifting tensions between humanity and nature".  Photos can be found in public and private art galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, office buildings, open spaces.

Brookfield Place is displaying photographs by Alain Paiement called "Over Here, Over There"  The photos are of various rooms of a house and garage, but the perspective makes it seem as if someone climbed to the top of the house, cut off the roof and shot each room from above.  In keeping with this viewpoint, the large photos are displayed on the floor so that you need to look down on them.

Kinsman Robinson Gallery is showing Louie Palu's Fighting Season,  a series of photos depicting the war in Afghanistan including portraits of soldiers, images of troops in battle and wounded, Afghan children at play, arms and ammunition.  There were two eerie photos that stood out in my mind.  One was of a horse that had been blown up by a grenade so that only the skeletal remains were left. 

The other was of a wounded solider on a stretcher with his pant legs cut open.  The soldier is only shown from the chest down but the lighting, the positioning of his bare legs and the bunched up cloth of his pants resulted in an image reminiscent of Christ during his crucifixion

The Italian Consulate is displaying Giorgio Barrera’s Battlefields outside on its grounds, depicting the locations of three Italian wars.  I only caught a glimpse of this while riding by on the streetcar, but it made me wonder what would happen if it rained!

Tiger Princess Dance Productions at Enwave Theatre

Recently, my niece and I went to watch "Tiger Princess Dance Projects" at the Enwave Theatre in Harbourfront Centre, which consisted of solos and duets by Yvonne Ng and her frequent partner Robert Glumbek.  She is only 4 ft 10 inches while he towers over her at well over 6 feet, making for very interesting opportunities for choreography.  I first became aware of this duo when they did a preview performance at a Four Seasons Centre lunch concert.

The first dance was named A Tale Begun, created by Robert shortly after he became a father.  It starts with Yvonne strapped to Robert's back like a mischievous baby full of wonder.  She thrashes around with arms and legs outstretched, straining left and right in an attempt to see the world.  Despite her efforts to get free, repeatedly she curls up in a fetal position, back into the safety of his arms.

The next portion of the dance was added recently to interpret the ongoing relationship between Robert and his daughter as she starts to grow up.  Released from the harness, Yvonne is now a young child ready to explore her surroundings.  Imitating a bird trying to spread her wings and fly away, she is restrained by Robert who attempts to teach her to walk, putting one foot in front of the other.  Their power struggle goes on for a while but eventually ends with a loving embrace between father and child.

The next piece, called Relatively Related is a solo number for Robert, but begins with Yvonne alone sitting on the side of the stage in the dark, talking into a microphone.  There's a little comic bit where she calls out for him and wonders whether he's late or she's mistaken the time of this performance.  Her embarrassed little giggle is charming.

Finally Robert appears and progresses to perform various dance moves, jumping and twirling in response to her verbal commands.  It was reminiscent of the director in the musical A Chorus Line giving instructions to the dancers.  At one point she steps into the light and they interact with a long corded rope which he coils and uncoils around his body, and with which they interact in a tug of war.  She is dressed as what looks to me like a Chinese Communist commander, while he barefoot and all in black.  He continues with his frenetic motions, culminating in a move where he rapidly runs backwards in a circle with his body at such a tilt that we were amazed he didn't topple over.

The next dance called Sticks was a solo for Yvonne and was too weird and artsy for my taste.  Both the music and the motions were excruciatingly monotonous and plodding.  In my mind, nothing much happened and this was not so much a dance as a performance.  Dressed in a plain coloured Asian robe or kimono, Yvonne walked very very slowly to different parts of the stage, gingerly knelt down, picked up large tree branches, balanced them on her head, removed them, then moved on to the next spot.   She reminded me of the poor dog on The Grinch Who Stole Christmas!

We waited the entire number for something climatic to happen but it never did.  At one point, I think both my niece and I dozed off (maybe we missed the climax!).  There was probably some really deep significant meaning to this number, but I didn't get it or appreciate it.

The finale called Level on my Level was another duet by Yvonne and Robert, and in my mind, it was the showstopper.  The dance involves a giant circular lavender skirt which Yvonne uses as a prop to form beautiful images and formations.  The dance opens with the skirt fully laid out like a flower with Yvonne scrunched down in the middle.

With one quick swoop, she lifts the dress up to her armpits, twirls around until she has transformed it into a slim fitting cocoon-like gown which Robert uses to drag her across the floor.  Gathering the skirt up in her arms, she flings it around to make patterns like the traditional Chinese Ribbon dancers would do with their long sleeves.

In one of the most unique moves in the dance, Robert crawls under the skirt, puts her on his shoulders and stands up so it appears like you are watching little Yvonne grow to be 10 feet tall.  They dance like this for a while before moving onto the next stage of the dance where Yvonne has removed the skirt. 

Now free of this barrier between them, Yvonne and Robert are able to truly interact and the last part of the dance involves more acrobatic moves.  She jumps, sits and even walks on him while he whips her around like a rag doll.  In an amusing twist, it appears like she is dragging him across the stage (although he is obviously assisting by pushing with his feet).  This dance was mesmerizing and you wanted it never to end. 

I don't usually like dance, but I would gladly watch these two talented dancers again.  Their work is innovative, energetic, whimsical and extremely entertaining.  An interesting interview with Yvonne and Robert with some footage of their rehearsals can be found here:  http://www.dancepassport.ca/?q=taxonomy/term/498

Keep Toronto Reading Month

April is Keep Toronto Reading month, which the Toronto public libraries have been celebrating with literary events including authors readings, book signings, book club meetings, panel discussions, presentations, demonstrations and activities for kids, all to promote the love of reading.  I wanted to go to a reading by Andrew Pyper, the author of the last book (The Guardians) read by my book club but unfortunately it was during a work day.

I did attend a presentation by former librarian and now author Arlene Chan titled "From Chop Suey to Peking Duck: The Evolution of Chinese Food in Toronto".  Growing up, Arlene worked at Kwong Chow, her parents' Chinese restaurant in downtown Toronto. She has written a book called "The Chinese in Toronto from 1878: From Outside to Inside the Circle", which will be coming out in November.  Her presentation gave a brief history of how and why the Chinese emigrated to Canada and then Toronto, and how Chinese restaurants evolved over time.

She talked about the various regions of China and how the climate, terrain and growing potential influenced the food and styles of cooking.  For example, while rice is the staple of southern China because it could be easily grown, Northern China dealt mostly in wheat products including breads and dumplings.  The most interesting part of her talk revolved around her mother Jean Lumb, who fought to save the initial Chinatown when land was being expropriated to build the New City Hall.  Jean was the first Chinese female to win the Order of Canada for this and numerous other community contributions.  The evening ended with a tastings of Chinese delicacies and a discussion about how fortune cookies and chop suey are not really Chinese food!

Books about the Chinese must be a main theme for this year's festival since the featured book was on the same topic.  It was called "Midnight at the Dragon Cafe" and I attended a book club meeting that was led by the author Judy Fong Bates.

The book is about a family immigrated from China to small town  Irvine Ontario, trying to make a living as the only Chinese family in town while running a small restaurant.  The book deals with themes of unhappiness, isolation and loneliness, familial duty battling against personal dreams and desires. The author paints a vivid picture of what the life was like for Chinese immigrants in small towns in the 1960s.  She draws you into this world through in-depth details mined from her own immigrant childhood growing up in Acton, Ontario where her family owned a laundry. 

The story is told from the point of view of Su-Jen, the young daughter of the family.  She is caught between the old customs, superstitions and the importance of saving face of her family versus the new western ways of her friends and townspeople, which she is quickly adopting as her own.  Through her eyes, many secrets and plot points are innocently foreshadowed before coming to fruition. 

Although my family came to Canada around the same period, my own childhood in downtown Toronto was quite different. I was too young to remember much about Hong Kong so I never experienced the family's feelings of alienation.  We first moved into the Chinatown area in Toronto, so in my early school days, the little white boy was the minority in my class.  However I did recognize many of the particulars and traditions described in the book, which had a very authentic and sometimes almost stereotypical feel.  Rich is currently also reading the book so it will be interesting to hear his perspective as a Caucasian reader.  Had he read it prior to meeting me, the cultural shock would have been greater, but so far he still has gained much insight into "what it feels like to be a stranger in a strange land".
 
Judy Fong Bates is a vivacious speaker and spent most of the book club meeting fielding questions both about the plot of the book, as well as questions about her life in contrast to the heroine in the book, her writing processes and career.  She is a gifted story teller and told many amusing anecdotes during the Q&A.  She explained that she didn't start writing until her 40s because as a young girl without any other Chinese role models, she did not feel what she had to say was interesting or worthy of sharing. While the book is not autobiographical, she did claim to relate to many of the themes explored.

She wrapped up the meeting with a reading from the book. While she spoke English with absolutely no accent, when she read phoneticized Chinese dialogue from the book, she easily switched to perfectly pronounced Chinese village dialect that was obviously her mother tongue. 

Recently on one of our walks, we stumbled upon a plaque that stands at the North East end of the Bloor viaduct. It describes an enthralling tale of the building of the bridge and an incident where a woman almost plunged to her death but is saved, at least temporarily, by a worker who had been dangling underneath doing repair work.  At first I thought this was one of the many historical plaques that are found throughout Toronto.  I was mesmerized by the lyrical description of the story, made all the more poignant by standing at the spot where the action took place.  Looking at it more closely, I realized that this was actually an excerpt from Michael Ondaatje's book "In the Skin of a Lion". This was a plaque for Project Bookmark Canada.

Project Bookmark Canada celebrates Canadian writing by placing bookmarks across Canada that mark real locations featured in fictionalized stories and poems.  There are two more bookmarks in Toronto (Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces at the corner of College and Manning, Ken Babcock's poem "Essentialist" across from St. George subway) as well as ones in Ottawa, Owen Sound and Kingston.  There is currently a call out for readers to find locations in Vancouver and hopefully this is just the start of many more to come across Canada.

Danforth Ave Walk

The stretch of Danforth Ave. between Broadview and Jones is the location of the yearly "Taste of the Danforth" festival in August.  Although this area was originally known as Greek town and still has many Greek restaurants, it now also hosts an eclectic set of restaurants including English pubs, Japanese, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian, Thai and Continental.  But if you've been to that festival lately, you will know that it is too packed with people to maneuver.  So instead of trying to fight the crowds, taking a leisurely stroll on sunny spring day is so much more enjoyable.

How could we possibly walk through an area known as Greek town without sampling Greek specialties?  When we got to Athens Pastries, we noticed a huge line-up almost out the door, so without stopping to figure out what they were lining up for we joined the queue. What we got was fresh out of the oven Spanokapita, which is a phyllo pastry with spinach and feta cheese. We got some to go, and while it was delicious, we did burn our tongues a bit!  At Louis Authentic Gyros and Souvlaki, we watched as the cook put a couple of french fries in with the pita toppings, just like they did when we visited Greece

And as always, we scouted out potential future dining opportunities.  Aravind seemed like an interesting Indian Fusion restaurant mixing "the flavours of South India with Great Lakes fish, Canadian seafood and seasonal produce".  Their menu featured items such as "Banana wrapped Ontario Whole Fish", "Dungeness Crab Biryani", "Rainbow Trout Pakoras".

Passing through The Big Carrot Natural Food Market was a unique experience.  Where other shops usually offer samples of sweet and savoury snacks, here I tasted a healthy medley of spinach, collards, rapinni, yellow beans and onion sauteed in roasted garlic and olive oil. 

Continuing along, we spotted all sorts of quirky and delightful stores and items including the home accessories and furnishing store named Bullet.  They are currently having a moving sale, featuring giant wrought iron Eiffel towers, Will and Kate wedding plates, and these rubber duckies dressed up as British foot guards.  It's too bad that this store will soon no longer be on the Danforth, but it is moving to Queen St. East in Leslieville, which is another great area to walk.

In a store called La Di Dah, we bought this whimsical salt and pepper shaker called "Salt and Pants" to add to my collection.

Further down in a kitchen store, we spotted the cutest cookie cutters that made images of not-too-happy gingerbread men who already had a bite taken out of them.

We also liked the Easter themed display window in the children's clothing store "100-Mile Child", featuring a small mannequin dressed up like little-pink-riding-hood, sporting a t-shirt that read "Whatever Happens at Grandma's, Stays at Grandma's".  Speaking of mannequins, one clothing store had a very modern stylistic one consisting of a steel sculptured head and frame. 

Stopping by the party supply and costume store called It's My Party is always fun.  They always have something interesting in their store window, even when it's not Halloween.  This time there were a pair of giant rabbits each dressed in a suit of armour - in honour of Easter??  In the other window was a giant pink gorilla sporting a Hawaiian lei and beach hat.

AGO - Inuit Modern and David Blackwood Newfoundland Paintings

We saw several new exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  The first was called Inuit Modern and featured the impressive personal collection of Samuel and Esther Sarick, consisting of over 175 works which they've now donated to the AGO.  Amongst these were two iconic prints from the 1950s to 60s Cape Dorset era - The Enchanted Owl by Kengiuak Ashevok and Man Hunting at a Seal Hole by Niviaksiak, each print copy worth tens of thousands at Waddington auctions.  Rich and I lusted over Niviaksiak's seal skin stencil, admiring the rich vibrant aquamarine colour and pictured the perfect place for it in our home.... if only ...

The collection included many more prints, sketchings and drawings as well as a wide collection of stone and whale bone carvings.   Two unique carvings of note stood out for me and gave credence to the title of the exhibit - Inuit "Modern".  The first was called Shaman's Crash and melded a Shaman's head into the front of a crashed airplane split in two.  The second depicted the typical image of Sedna the sea goddess but shockingly nailed to a Christian cross.  Both these sculptures show how modern times and Western culture have influenced Inuit art. This impact was also prevalent in the current drawings depicting items like skidoos, kitchen appliances and cornflakes.

While the carvings were beautiful, most of them depicted typical themes of dancing bears, shamans, women carrying babies, etc.  There was one "sculpture" that consisted of what looked like a smooth grey rock in the form of a half trapozoid ... the sculpture version of minimalism contemporary art?  Didn't work for me!

In comparison we found the private Inuit art collection of Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron that was exhibited in 2010 at the Art Gallery of Hamilton to be much more interesting because of the uniqueness of their pieces, especially the sculptures.  That collection included wimsical renderings of an owl, in insect, what looked to me like Dracula or the character from Edvard Munch's The Scream, and face carving that seemed more European in style than Inuit.

The next exhibit was called "Black Ice" by Newfoundland artist David Blackwood.  It consisted of a haunting series of  prints depicting themes of isolation, dangers and hardships of the life in little fishing villages like Wesleyville where he was born and Bragg's Island where his grandparents lived.  Recurring images in his art include whales, icebergs, ships and shipwrecks, fires, fishing, seal hunting, village life and customs such as mummering (the tradition of visiting friends and family while dressed up in disguise during the Christmas season).  Based on the titles of his prints, the subjects seem almost autobiographical, depicting scenes and people inspired from his childhood. Prints with names such as Glam Glover's Dream, Uncle Sam Kelloway's Place, Uncle Eli Glover Moving, Edgar Glover's Cod Splitting Table, Captain Abram Kean Awaiting the Return of the Lost Party, make you wonder about the fascinating stories behind them.

An entire room is devoted to showing the step by step process behind one of his best known works - Fire Down on the Labrador.  Starting with a quick rough pencil sketch, the work is expanded upon with each additional print progressively showing more detail and colour until the final version is reached.  In the centre of the room, the copper etching that is used to produce the print is displayed and the etching process is explained.   This print encapsulates all the primary dangers of a seaman's existence - fire on the ship, the looming icebergs, the dark of night and the menacing sea creatures below.

Finally we viewed a room devoted to Aesop's Fables with a brief history of the possible origins of Aesop.  Old books of fables were accompanied by black and white as well as coloured drawings.  Fables are short stories involving talking animals or mythical creatures interacting with each other and ended with a morale, such as the Tortoise and the Hare - slow and steady wins the Race.  It seemed to me though that some of the tales and morales were a bit dark and mean-spirited in their teachings.  One story told of a fox who had a stork over for dinner and played a trick on him so that the stork could not easily eat the meal.  So the stork returned the favour, teaching you that "One good spite deserves another"?  Or maybe "Tit for tat"? "An eye for an eye"?  What happened to "Turn the other cheek"?

List of Festivals and Events for Toronto 2011

After a long cold winter, spring is approaching and it's the start of festival season in Toronto.  Here is a list of some notable upcoming festivals and events for 2011.  This is by no means a complete list but it gives a good idea of all the wonderful things going on in Toronto throughout the year.  More info about each event can be found on the internet.

Date                      Event
Mar 30-Apr 3       One of a Kind Spring Show
Apr 1-Apr 30        Keep Toronto Reading @ public libraries
Apr 28-May 8       Hot Docs

May 1-31              Contact Photography Exhibition
May 7-8                Jane Walk 

May 28-29            Doors Open Toronto 

June 10-19           Luminato 
June 11                 Yonge-Lawrence Village Day
June 12                 Bloor Street Festival
June 17-19           Taste of Little Italy
June 24-July 3      Pride Week
June 24-July 3      Toronto Jazz Festival
June 25-26           Toronto Island Garden Tour
July 1-3                 CHIN International Picnic
July 6-17               Toronto Fringe Festival
July 2-3                 Corso Italian Fiesta
July 8-10               Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
July 8-10                Honda Indy Toronto
July 8-24                Summerlicious
July 14-Aug 2       Caribana
July 15-24             Beaches Jazz Festival
July 2011              Just For Laughs Toronto
Aug 5-8              Taste of the Danforth
Aug 19-Sep 5      Canadian National Exhibition
Sept 9-11             Cabbagetown Festival
Sept 8-18            Toronto International Film Festival
Sep 25                 Word on the Street
Oct 16                  Toronto Waterfront Marathon
October 1             Nuit Blanche
Oct 19-29             International Festival of Authors
Oct 22                  Zombie Walk
Oct  29                 Night of the Dead
Nov 4-13              Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
Nov 9                  Flash Forward Festival
Nov 24-Dec 4     One of a Kind Christmas show

Nov 26                 Cavalcade of Lights

Lunch concerts at Four Seasons Centre - Dance Works

The Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts at Queen St and University Ave holds free lunch time concerts in its Richard Bradshaw amphitheatre.  This is a unique space where the performance takes place on an open floorspace on the 3rd floor of the building. Stadium seating consisting of rows of wooden benches look down at the performance floor, with a breathtaking view of University Avenue to the left.  Overflow seating includes rows of chairs as well as standing room only viewing on the 4th floor.

From noon to 1pm on given afternoons, a performance from one of five possible concert series is presented - piano virtuosos, dance, jazz, chamber music or world music.  The concerts are getting more popular and fill up earlier and earlier.  For the first concert that I watched, we arrived around 11:45 and secured a bench seat, but now if you arrive after 11:30 it is standing room only  and by 11:45 they are turning people away.  So far this year, I've watched a duet of piano and cello as part of the chamber music series, a Caribbean bongo drum performance as part of the World music series, and most recently a dance performance.

I usually am not that fond of dance, but the modern dance performances by the duo of Robert Glumbek and Yvonne Ng really appealed to me.  Partly its because the big tall Caucasian male and petite Asian female dancers remind me of Rich and myself.  But mostly it is the style and coreography of their dances, full of acrobatic moves,  that I found unique and fascinating.

The first was an excerpt from a dance called "A Tale Begun" and is performed with Yvonne strapped to Robert's back as if he was carrying a small mischievous child.  Throughout the dance, he flings her in all directions as they twist and twirl, entwine and unentwine themselves, with motions sometimes graceful, sometimes frenetic, sometimes robotic, and all very innovative.

The second was an excerpt from a new dance called "Level on my Level".  This time they are not attached but the dance is still full of whimsy and acrobatics as she jumps into his arms, rolls on him, and walks over him while he is lying on the floor (Rich is thinking that I shouldn't get any ideas from this!).  I enjoyed this so much that I'm actually going to buy tickets to their full show, playing at Harbourfront Centre in late April.

Danceworks
Enwave Theatre, 231 Queen's Quay W, Harbourfront Centre
April 28-30, 8pm
www.danceworks.ca

Reel Talk World Cinema - The Tenants & Mary Pickford Exhibit at TIFF

Our friend gave us tickets to watch another film in the Reel Talk World Cinema series at TIFF, which presents a surprise foreign film once a month and then has a film critic lead a discussion about it afterwards. We previously watched the movie Tirza from the Netherlands.

This time it was a tension-filled Brazilian film called The Tenants (Don't Like it, Leave), depicting San Paolo Brazil as a violent, politically amoral city where bombings are a regular occurrence, the government is not to be trusted and crime is rampant while the police look the other way.  Valter, the head of a middle-class family living in a relatively peaceful neighbourhood, tries to deal a trio of hoodlums who move into the house next door.  They have loud drunken parties all night, terrorize the old man who also lives in the house, and are possibly involved in an assortment of crimes including drugs, robbery and murder.  Had this been a typical Hollywood movie like Gran Torino, the father would become the vigilante hero and confront the thugs in a big shootout.  Instead we get a nuanced character study that reflects the passivity and helplessness of a society that has no choice but to accept its bleak existence.

If the purpose of the World Cinema film series is to expose us to other cultures and societies, then I'm quickly amassing a list of locations that I never want to visit (including the Ozarks after watching Winter's Bone on DVD!).  Based on the two movies we've seen in this series, as well the comment forms from other viewers, most of the selected films have been extremely dark and depressing.  As one patron wrote, "Are there no happy foreign movies to show on a Sunday morning"?  These films are probably picked with the same thought process that drives the Academy Awards to mostly pick "serious" movies as best picture.  My personal theory is that we watch these types of movies to better appreciate our own lives.  Just the other day when I was feeling a little down, I perked up after thinking, "well, at least I don't live in San Paolo Brazil!".

While at the Bell Lightbox, we also visited the Mary Pickford exhibit.  Nicknamed "America's Sweetheart", this early 1900s Canadian silent film star spent her childhood in a home which is now the current site of the Toronto Sick Children's Hospital.  The extensive collection included posters from her numerous movies, as well as photos and memorbilia from her personal life.  She was one of the first celebrities to widely license her image, with her face imprinted on everything from jigsaw puzzles, broaches, spoons, makeup, pillows, cigarette cases and cards.

A film clip of "My Best Girl" illustrated why Mary Pickford was so successful in her silent films.  Her big expressive eyes, face and actions conveyed everything you needed to know about the story without the need for words.

I was impressed by how influential and business-savvy she was for a young woman in the 1920s.  Mary Pickford helped to form United Artists, the first artist-run film studio, after not being happy with the movie deals that she was offered.  She cofounded the Academy Awards of Motion Pictures, sold liberty bonds to raise money for the war and contributed hugely to charities.  Her scandalous affair and marriage to Douglas Fairbank made them the "Brad and Angelina" of their times.

This exhibit gave a very thorough retrospective of Mary Pickford's career and personal life and is well worth seeing.   It is on display on the 4th floor, in the Canadian Film Gallery and is free of charge (closed on Mondays)

Complaints Choir at the AGO

The Toronto Complaints Choir gave a performance in the Art Gallery of Ontario's Walkers Court as part of a week of appearances at various Toronto locations.  Inspired by an idea that originated in Europe (doesn't it seem all good ideas originate in Europe?), the organizers solicited complaint suggestions from the public, found a composer to create a rousing song called "Toronto Complains!", and invited all interested parties to join the choir.  Meant to be a fun and cathartic way to vent common frustrations, the lyrics of the song strings together many rhyming non-sequiturs.  Seven choruses of complaints ranged from traffic, TTC, litter bugs, winter, Rob Ford, dog poo, escalator blockers, kids, work and so on.

"Where are the attractive single men?
Bugs are invading my house again
We are people, not sardines
Not everything is about you teens!
Complaining ...

Accompanied by a guitar and bongo drums and led by the spiky haired conductor and composer, the group exhuberantly sang a very catchy tune, while the audience who were handed out the lyrics tried to sing along.  It only lasted about 5 minutes in total, but what fun!

Getting into the spirit of things, I'd like to add my own complaint - the article in the weekend Globe and Mail advertising the AGO performance indicated it would be at 6pm so I showed up at 5:45 only to find out the real start time was 6:45.  I'm "Complaining ...!"

To kill time waiting for the singing to start, I checked out a few of the gallery's exhibits.  One room consisted of the cartoon drawings and accompanying text of the children's book "The Animals' Conference" by Erich Kästner. This was a fable about animals trying to convince human politicians to bring peace to the world for all the children.  It was quite enchanting to walk all the way around the room reading each panel of the story and viewing the delightful illustrations.

I also stumbled upon the Marvin Gelber Print and Drawing Centre, tucked away in the back of the ground floor and only open for limited hours.  The lonely curator seemed delighted whenever anyone wandered by.  She proudly explained how there were over 60,000 works on paper filed away in metal drawers in their vault room and that each piece of art could only be shown for a very short period of time before having to be rotated so as not be overexposed to light.

Currently on display there was the exhibit called  "Love Bites: Amorous Works on Paper".  It was a series of works on paper of various forms (prints, drawings, watercolours, photographs) all dealing with the concept of love in some way, abet not always the traditional hearts and valentines types of images, which made it very interesting to see.

Nixon in China at Cineplex

In general I don't enjoy opera since it usually lacks the features of musical theatre which I love - memorable songs with hummable melodies, lyrics that advance the plot, and the occasional dance number to accompany the singing. I also don't like the sound of extremely high-pitched soprano voices, another strike against the typical opera.

When Rich wanted to see the opera Nixon in China performed by the Canadian Opera Company, I was less enthused. Rich is not much of an opera lover himself but being a history buff, the topic of this show intrigued him.  A good compromise came up when we learned that Cineplex theatres were broadcasting the the opera live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.  For a mere $25 per ticket (significantly cheaper than the lowest priced opera seat), we could watch the action on a large screen in the high definition, surround sound enabled theatre that had reserved stadium style seating so there were none of the usual issues of sightlines for short people like me.  Although it lacked the excitement and intensity of watching a live performance, it had its own advantages.  We got to see shots of the orchestra being conducted for the first time by John Adams, the composer of the opera.   Between acts, they cut to shots behind the scenes and held interviews with members of the cast and crew to provide additional insights into the show.

We also got to see the elaborate staging of the Met's production, as opposed to the smaller road show held at Toronto's Four Seasons Opera House.  For the arrival of the Nixons in China, the entire front end of an airliner descended onto the stage (reminiscent of the helicopter from Miss Saigon) and the doors opened to reveal the President, First Lady and Henry Kissinger.

Watching Nixon in China served to reinforce my original opinion about opera.  I found the score and orchestration to be jarring.  Although the opera was in English, the style of singing made it difficult for me to understand what was being sung, so I read the subtitles to catch the gist of the storyline.  Unfortunately the lyrics seemed totally random to both Rich and I, and did not reflect the synopsis which we were given to read prior to the show.  We assumed that Mao's dialogues were intentionally ambiguous, reflecting the historically documented style of his speech at the time. His statements ("History is a dirty sow") were described as philosophical and allegorical in nature.  However even when the other characters sang, we still couldn't figure out what they were trying to convey.  Perhaps it was too poetic for us and we were just not sophisticated enough opera connoisseurs.

I found it amusing that the deep vibrato style of operatic singing made every line seem to have such importance, even when discussing something as banal as the weather.  Rich thought they sounded like rappers in the way they repeated a line over and over again.  At one point, Kissinger sang at least 5 times "There, you've got me, I'm lost" and I thought, that's exactly how I feel watching this.  Whenever Chairman Mao spoke, his words were echoed by three identically dressed female party members wearing thick rimmed glasses - the Chinese version of a "Greek chorus".

For me, the most entertaining part of the opera was watching the revolutionary ballet which Mao's wife arranged to be performed for the Nixons.  The dancers superbly mixed typical ballet moves with Red Army stances and gestures.  However even this got confusing when for some reason the Nixons and then Mao's wife ended up in the middle of the performance.

Actually, the most entertaining part happened before the opera even started.  A woman placed her coat in the seat next to us and then left temporarily.  Shortly after a man appeared and muttered that someone was in his seat.  I told him that a lady had left her coat and was coming back, to which he declared that she was in the wrong seat.  When the woman who returned ended up to be his wife, he exclaimed " I didn't realize the lady was you!".  It made me think of the old joke, "That's no lady, that's my wife!"

So we've concluded that although Nixon in China is probably a wonderful opera, as the unanimous rave reviews seem to prove, it's just not our cup of tea.  Back to musical theatre for us.  However we definitely would watch another live broadcast of a show at the Cineplex again.  That was a good experience.

Sonic Boom and Yorkville IceFest

We took a walk from Yonge & St. Clair en route to Sonic Boom, the eclectic music and movie store across from Honest Eds, which is currently displaying a collection of vintage 1970s "Exploitation" movie posters - more on that later.

For us, a walk down Yonge St usually involves stopping in at our favourite shops and galleries.

Muse Gallery (1230 Yonge St) always has interesting paintings and sculptures on display. Of the current exhibits, I like the smaller bronze diaramas by Won Lee that depict various scenes that tell a story, as well as the wood-inlayed sculptures by Susan Valyi that seem to be part bird, part man.

Our next stop is usually L'Atelier (1224 Yonge St), the home decor shop that contains multiple rooms of furnishings and nicknacks that range from elegant to quirky. As we browse, we usually play the game of "if we had infinite money and space in our home, what would we like to own". Rich has always yearned after a cabinet with beautiful marquetry, inlaying different shades of wood to result in a Venice-like scene. Lately we've been admiring a pair of bright red chairs, and if we had room for huge whimsical items, I would be bringing home the full sized wicker man. I had also had my eye on these cast iron sculptures of a man on a rope, scaling a wall. However next time I looked for them, they were gone, as the inventory changes frequently. This makes it fun to return to L'Atelier repeatedly to see what's new.

Continuing south on our walk, we stumbled upon the IceFest ice sculpture festival going on in Yorkville. Many intricate sculptures lined the sidewalks along the "Mink Mile" on Bloor St. and throughout Cumberland St. For some reason there were multiple clown sculptures, perhaps this year's theme for the festival. Several ice sculptures were still being created and it was interesting to watch the artists use both chainsaw-like power tools to cut through the ice and more delicate chisels to carve the details. On one block of ice that was further from completion, we could see the charcoal outline of the intended sculpture.

Several other stores caught our attention. The Lululemon store (153 Cumberland St) had "live mannequins" in the storefront window, demonstrating exercise and yoga moves while a DJ blared music. I was more taken with the facade of the store. The tiny colourful mosaic tiles reminded me of stainglass patterns by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Holt Renfrew (50 Bloor St W.) always has interesting display windows. Currently they feature quotes from various Canadian personalities declaring what items they "Can't Live Without". This included the predictable makeup, shoes, designer clothing and accessories, plus one person who couldn't live without lemons??? The merchandise in the windows are colourful and vibrant and the text makes you stop to read. Too bad they couldn't find more famous celebrities to give them quotes.

After our long walk, we finally reached our destination of Sonic Boom (512 Bloor St. W.). The collection of about 20 or more 1970s exploitation B-movie posters depicted the typical advertising for such flicks - big breasted scantily clad women often depicted in perilous situations, big guns, fast cars (sounds like an episode of Charlie's Angels?). The cheesy taglines that promote these movies are so outrageously over the top that they make you laugh rather than take offense - "Their guns are hot and their bodies are hotter.." These type of movies seem to have gone out of vogue by the end of the '80s, although recently Quentin Tarantino directed a pair of movies that he called the "Grindhouse" series (Death Proof and Planet Terror) which played homage to this genre.

Sonic Boom is a great store for audiophiles looking for that hard to find album. It buys and sells a wide variety of recent and older music, dealing in CDs and vinyl, DVDs and VHS. Its walls are lined with jacket covers of old LPs (long playing vinyl record albums) that take you on a blast from the past. There are some interesting groupings such as Teenage Head hung next to Scott Baio - I didn't even know that Chachi could sing?? The store is filled with funky decorations hanging from the walls and ceiling, including a drum set, giant insect, a huge cassette tape, and cardboard cutouts ranging from singer Erykah Badu to Batman to Super Mario. Free live concerts are regularly held in the lower level.