Winter is drawing in fast. It's getting colder and I've seen the odd snowflake drifting through the air. I can't wait for the first big snowfall; everyone assures me I'll get over it pretty quickly, but I'm still excited by the prospect of a white Christmas. But so far, it isn't the external conditions to which I'm finding it hard to adjust, it's the level of heating indoors which is killing me.
It's cold out there today. It's cold out there everyday.
When I first arrived I equipped myself with heavy boots, a heavy down-filled coat and a (fake) fur trimmed hat to keep the cold out. All totally unnecessary. Every building in Toronto is heated to such an extent that if you were to wear all that stuff you'd drown in your own sweat within minutes. Every house, shop, subway, cafe, restaurant, bus or train is determined that on entering their premises you have to strip down as far as your own personal sense of decency allows and then carry all your fur-lined outdoor clothes like some sort of trapper laden down with pelts. It's impossible to dress appropriately; you either freeze to death on the streets, or you run the risk of heat-stroke indoors.
All this was troubling me when I discovered the Toronto PATH this week. To avoid having to go outside at all in the winter, the crafty Torontonians have built an entire underground city beneath the downtown area. There are 28 km of underground walkways which link dozens of downtown locations as well as housing 1,200 stores and services. It would be entirely possible to live down there and never have to see sunlight ever again. Come the eventual Zombie apocalypse, Toronto will be happily sipping on their Starbucks, getting their nails done, visiting the cinema and trying to decide which of the many food courts they should visit for lunch whilst the rest of the world will be trying to figure out how to make a CB radio work and whether or not rats are safe to eat.
And never seeing sunlight again is quite a likely prospect; successfully navigating 28 km of underground tunnels is not particularly easy. I went down there trying to get to Union station from the bus depot. Overground this journey would take perhaps half an hour. I was down there all day. I'm confident that I saw every inch of the PATH. Occasionally I would pop my head above ground and find myself in an investment bank or a management consultancy and have to retreat back down to the world of shadows and bargain dental care.
By the time I eventually found my way to Union station I emerged, blinking in the daylight and decided to never forsake the surface world again. But I know that once the novelty of the snow has worn off I'll be headed underground again.
Our friend Peter took us to a Korean BBQ last week. All you can eat meat for $16. You're presented with platters of steak, ribs, pork, chicken, salmon, squid, liver, sausage etc. all raw and all marinated in various deliciousness. On each table is a gas powered BBQ grill and you and your dining companions try to put as much meat as you can on, whilst also trying to look like you don't care that someone just stole that perfectly cooked piece of steak that you'd been carefully turning every 30 seconds and had left if for just a moment while you put on some chicken to go with it. I'm over it, it's no big deal.
But the meat keeps coming, they bring out platter after platter, each one more delicious than the last. In fact, you can't cook fast enough to stem the oncoming tide of fresh meat. Eventually, you start cooking things you don't want, just to make space on the table. A whole platter of liver is cooked in seconds and enthusiastically offered around the table. It doesn't help that no-one knows what cooked squid looks like, or at least how it differs from raw (and no doubt poisonous) squid. Best leave it a few more minutes. Why are we even cooking squid when there are two more platters of steak and ribs to cook?
Some people fill up on rice that they stubbornly insist is delicious on its own. They know who they are. It could be the greatest rice in the world, gently seasoned with white truffle oil and saffron, I'll stick with the meat.
I don't know why it's fun to pay to have to cook your own meal, but it is. If you've never done it, I recommend it. Don't bother with the squid though.
Part 2: - in which I'm going to controversial.
I'm basing this on limited experience and merely anecdotal evidence, I'm not saying that it's true. But it seems that Canadians are more interested in beer than the English (hereafter known as Englishers). This may be symptomatic of having lived in Cambridge where the chance of finding a pub not owned by Greene King in the centre of town is becoming increasingly difficult, but in the pubs I've frequented so far in Toronto, the choice of beers is huge. After our Korean meat extravaganza, we headed to barVolo(?) for a drink before the main event of the evening. Now, normally in an English pub there would be the brewery's standard pints and maybe two or three guest pints. Here, they had two home brewed beers and over 20 different guest beers. What seems to be the difference here is that there is a massive market for local micro-breweries and brewpubs.
I know that there are hundreds of micro-breweries in England, and hundreds of excellent beer-focused pubs, I'm just pleasantly surprised that in Toronto they have more choice than the expected Coors and Budweiser. Thank goodness for making friends with Medievalists, they know and appreciate their beer!
Part 3: - in which I get over excited by James Bond.
I had to wait a whole two weeks after the UK release of Skyfall before it opened here. In preparation I went to the "Designing 007: - 50 Years of Bond" exhibition. They had a large selection of original props, costumes and set designs, trying to highlight how much Bond has influenced style over the years. I always think that Bond is best when he isn't trying to be fashionable (hint hint Roger Moore). All the best Bond films have quite a timeless quality to them, none more so than Skyfall. I don't think that it's any coincidence that this film has been a real success, critically and commercially. The best parts of the film have a very timeless quality to them. The finale set in Scotland could have been taken straight from any era of the Bond films, in fact a lot of it is very reminiscent of Sean Connery running away from the helicopter at the end of From Russia With Love. I thought that the whole film felt very much like a throwback to earlier Bond films.
I've been a fan of Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins for quite a while now and as soon as I heard that they would both be working together on Skyfall, I knew there was the possibility that this would be a good'un. I don't think it's perfect, there are still a few bits which I thought didn't work too well and it seems that the Bond films recent move away from the misogyny of the earlier films has taken a step backward; every woman in this film ended up dead or working behind a desk. Having said that, the film's climax in Scotland was brilliant, and the cinematography was stunningly beautiful.
Fave bits: - The bike chase over the roofs of Istanbul, Bond adjusting his cuffs after jumping onto the train, Silva's entrance, the deserted island, Kincade and the final scene in M's office.
I have only one major complaint. The gun barrel sequence needs to be back at the start of the film, I really don't understand why they've started putting it at the end of the film. I hope they get it right next time.
Despite the rapidly cooling weather (I saw snow yesterday!), the chance of getting to celebrate Bonfire night this year seems pretty slim, (I'm still hoping someone will to set fire to something in the next few hours). Therefore, this year I'll have to make do with Halloween.
For me, the excitement started with the Toronto After Dark Film Festival which ran at the Bloor 'Hot Docs' Cinema. It's 9 nights of horror, sci-fi, action and cult movies presented in the trendiest cinema in Downtown Toronto. We went to see Wrong, the latest film from French director Quentin Dupieux (whom you may know as the man behind this). His last film, Rubber, was about a killer tyre and Wrong is just as bizarre. It included canine telepathy, spontaneous arboreal transformations, mistaken identity and forced vehicular re-design. Megan fell asleep, she claims from jet lag, but I thought it was hilarious and brilliant. The introduction described it as cinematic stand-up, which is a pretty good summation if you ask me.
The second film we saw was A Fantastic Fear of Everything starring Simon Pegg and directed by Crispian Mills of Kula Shaker fame. It started out like a typical Channel 4 comedy special, but once it got going was funny, and original. No great work of art, but the killer's sunglasses alone made it a worthwhile venture.
My Festival T-shirt, which, as you can see, is awesome.
As soon as the film finished we headed to the Centre for Medieval Studies Halloween party which was being held in the Pontifical Institute. Need I say more? The best bit was that they had a keg of beer. My first keg party was in the Pontifical Institute with a painting of his Holiness staring down and me. Despite there being slightly too many Tolkien characters present to make it a truly memorable party, it was really good fun.
On Halloween night proper, Meg and I bought loads of Chocolate in preparation for the hordes of children we expected to be at our door. Not a single knock. Nothing. Lots of chocolate for us. It's been a good week.
The day after Halloween (All Hallows'?), we went to Sorauren Park, where all the local residents take their pumpkins to display their carving prowess. As you can see below, there are some very impressive pumpkins.
Stephen Harper
So now I'm off to try to find some fireworks, bonfire toffee, sparklers, toffee apples and something to set fire to. I think I may need to buy some sort of hat as well, it's getting very cold. Probably something with fur would be good. Wish me luck.
Today's blog post has nothing to do with my new life in Canada. Today is my brother's birthday and he and I are always arguing about the value of photography as an art form. This is for him...
I've been sat looking at these two pictures for a while now, trying to decide which I think is the best.
For one of the photos I used my Diana camera which is a medium format film camera. This is a manual camera which meant that I had to choose the correct film for the conditions (in this case ISO 400) and estimate the light levels to get the correct exposure. I had to choose the aperture and shutter speed and manually focus the camera by guessing the distance to the subject. When I had finished the film I had to store the roll in my bag for a week before posting it off to get it developed and scanned.
I really love the finished photo, I think the colours are fantastic, the red coat really pops out and the grain on the film gives the picture some real texture. The red colour which you can see in the bottom of the picture is where the roll of film wasn't stored properly and some light has got into the finished roll and damaged the film. I personally think it really adds to the final picture, but it is a completely unintentional accident that its there.
The second photo was taken with my phone and put through an app which applies filters to give it an old-fashioned look. It adds the light leaks and the grain. It also adds the darkening effect around the edge of the picture, just like the film camera does.
So, one picture was easy to take and one took much more time and effort (not to mention money). Does that mean that one has more value than the other? Personally, I prefer the photo taken on film, I like the mistakes and the imperfections. I quite like that Meg's hair is in her face and I like the dreamy soft focus look. I like that I didn't know how the finished picture would look.
But at the same time, I can see that the camera phone picture is technically a better picture. It has a better composition, Meg looks happier and everything is much sharper and in focus.
I can understand that the taking of the Diana picture itself has given it value to me personally, but I'm interested in which picture other people would prefer to look at. Just because the Diana picture has more personal value to me, it doesn't follow that it has any more value as an artistic object.
I feel that to create something of artistic value shouldn't be as easy as it is using a camera phone, but equally I also think that if I was to choose one of the above pictures objectively, without knowing anything about how they were created, I would probably prefer the phone picture.
Which leads me to the following conclusion, to fully appreciate a piece of art we need to know about how it was created. To appreciate it in purely aesthetic terms, in a bubble, is to only half appreciate it.
But I don't like that conclusion, so I refuse to believe it.
I'm interested in what you all think. Does one of the pictures above have more value than the other? Should creating art be difficult, or is it OK for it to be easy? Comment below, if you'd like.
This week has seen me start a small part time job, only a couple of hours a week, but it provides me with some pocket money.
When I first arrived I sent out my resume to all the local private schools asking if they had any vacancies or cover teaching opportunities. (To teach in the state schools here, I would need to become certified with the Ontario College of Teachers, which is a faff, and even then there is a surplus of teachers.) The only response that I received was an offer from a Montessori primary school to start up a Science club as part of their after school program. I'm seeing two groups a week up till Christmas and there might be a chance of me doing some extra work with their older kids in normal school time, as the class teacher doesn't know much about science.
For those who don't know, Montessori schools are based on an educational method developed by Maria Montessori which emphasises student choice and freedom (within limits!) and a constructivist approach to learning. Many of these principles work particularly well in the frame-work of a science club, in particular having the opportunity to investigate and explore a particular experiment or phenomena. I find myself in agreement with the core principles, and in fact would suggest that many of these principles are in common practise across the British education system. Before I started, people warned me that the pupils would be un-disciplined and badly behaved, in reality I have found them no different (so far) from any other kids I've taught. The biggest challenge for me, is to be teaching 6 year olds up to 10 year olds. I hadn't quite realised how young some of them would be! I don't know how primary teachers manage. They're all so needy and energetic. Give me listless, bored 16 year olds any day. (I did like how one of them introduced himself and said how much he liked my French accent.)
Having worked for nearly 2 whole hours on the Thursday, I thought I deserved a day off on Friday and so decided to walk into the City to collect my photos from the Camera shop. (Last weekend I went out on a camera workshop/walking tour. I'm still experimenting with my Lubitel and so it was great to meet some people and explore together whilst wandering through Kensington Market).
So, instead of taking the subway, I walked all the way in and was able to see
some of the different neighbourhoods on the way. I've put some photos
of the walk below along with some of the shots from the workshop. (As
you can see, I'm going through my "graffiti and urban decay" phase. Forgive
me, big cities are still new and exciting to me)
The first thing I see when I leave our building.
A pedestrian crossing.
The Starving Artist Waffle house. Awesome place for brunch. In fact I want to go there right now!!
Christie Pits park. When announced on the subway it sounds like Chrispy.
Honest Ed's is a huge bargain store. It's massive and a Toronto landmark.
I was trying to catch the basketball players behind the fence. I'm just not tall enough.
Part 1 (In which I am enchanted and confused in equal parts by art installations)
Nuit Blanche is a night in which Toronto is turned into an all night giant art exhibition. Free art installations fill the streets and people spend all night wandering the streets until 7am when they presumably go and discuss it in a coffee shop somewhere.
We started at the TIFF cinema where we saw a film called 101 zombie deaths which was a collection of zombie death scenes from scores of different zombie films from the 60s all the way up to the modern day. Whilst this was undeniably awesome, I did wonder where the border line between art and youtube fan film was drawn. I guess having a french title helps (cent une tueries de zombies), although that probably counts for less in a bilingual country.
The next piece of performance art confused me further; a selection of youtube videos played on the big screen with audience interaction via twitter and the two energetic and entusiastic hosts commentating on what we were seeing. The grand finale was a live performance by a youtube hit caberet act, again with the audience joining in. If any art historians are looking for a topic for a thesis I'm sure there is one in here somewhere.
Out on the streets was much less social media based. My fave bits were: the drunken lamp-posts, the space invaders that were invading King Street West and the graffiti artist using icing (or frosting).
Sweet Canadian graffiti
The life cycle of a lettuce. With a flaming pyramid.
Nuit Blanche translates as "bad night to choose to drive"
Ruthless in their predictability
Don't just stand there, run!
Don't know what this is.
"I'm fine to cycle home"
As we got further up Yonge St the crowds got busier and drunker and by the time we reached Dundas square we decided to jump on the subway and head home. Fortunately there was a disturbingly convincing Batman also catching the subway home, so at least we felt safe.
Part 2 (in which I don't buy a watch)
The Eaton centre is a mall in the centre of Toronto, mostly upmarket shops and designer stores. They have a flock of geese flying down through the central atrium, attempting to land just in front of Oakley. I assume they are of the Canadian variety, but I'm no expert. I was killing time one afternoon and found myself wanting to look at watches in Fossil. Lately, I haven't been wearing a watch. I guess I missed it. In fact I had been regulalrly going into the Fossil shop in Cambridge to look at the watches there, no intention of buying one, but I liked to look at them.
Anyway, as soon as I was 2 paces in the door I was greeted by a young man working there. Not just greeted, he actually walked across the shop to talk to me personally. I could tell he was much cooler than I was, he was wearing a scarf indoors and I felt like I'd maybe made a mistake in coming into the shop in the first place. He could tell I didn't belong there. "I'm just browsing". Get that in there quick, be straight, no awkwardness further down the line. He can ignore me and I can look at the watches in peace. But he isn't going. He wants to have a conversation. Asks me where I'm from. Sheffield? Why does he want to talk to me? No, Cambridge, I reply. (It's only later that I think on how strange a guess Sheffield is. And not an outrageous suggestion either, certainly more accurate than Cambridge. He was probably quite proud of his ability to pick up on accents and now I've shattered his confidence. He won't dare try again. Well, I wouldn't. He's probably got far more self assurance than me.)
But why does he insist on having a conversation? I'm really not that interesting. He keeps picking out watches and forcing them into my hands. "I'm not on comission" he assures me. Then why do you care? What's going on here? Why is he so keen to show me watches?
"I'll be back" I tell him as I dash from the shop. I won't be. Far too stressful. Not that I blame him, I just find any sincere interest in me as a person as suspicious. I think I now understand why customer service in England is so rubbish; we just couldn't handle people being nice to us all the time.
