Car XxX Blog

Today was a mixture of fog, rain and snow which perfectly reflects the ongoing election campaigns - partly confusing with a chance of victory. Polls continue to favour the Conservative party so people wait for a game changer or we head into another Conservative minority or maybe even a majority government this time.
Sometimes we have a vague idea that we will probably vote for a certain party and will only change our mind if they say something that makes us mad, or if the other party says something so great that it completely changes our mind about the candidate.

I don't really understand the commercial that says "A vote for the Liberals is a vote for Michael Ignatieff" because I am pretty sure that's the way it has always been. You vote for both the local representative and the leader of the party when you cast your vote. Conversely, a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Stephen Harper. If that's the most negative advertising that's going to happen I will be impressed by how civil the election is being run.
We need everyone to jump on the streetcar, or bandwagon, and get out there and vote on election day May 2nd, 2011. You can pick one of the five main parties (Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc Quebecois or the Green Party) or chose an independent or other registered political party like the Pirate Party of Canada or the Rhinoceros Party.

Remember, you can't talk about the election without talking about parties!

The City of Toronto has introduced a new, sexy type of newspaper box - a community type of box with multiple newspapers living together in harmony, a sort of hippie newspaper commune or a condo-box for a condominium city. The grey structure I found at Queen Street West and Bay Street is branded with the City of Toronto Logo, holds eight different papers with up to four paid editions possible (yeah, like that will be necessary in the near future). Maybe they can remove the coin slot area and stick in more free editions as necessary. This design was actually released to the media in 2008 and shown in this Torontoist article but this is the first time that I have seen it in the wild.

This sleek new baby replaces the long line of multi-coloured newspaper boxes that fill many street-corners and which many people consider an eyesore. I didn't mind the old individual boxes because they were sometimes the most colourfull objects on a downtown street. You can see that they must have just taken the wrapping off the installation as the dull grey finish is yet untouched by stickers, graffiti or posters. I will check back later this week to see if the finish remains virgin.
The old boxes in front of the Starbucks wait for the transfer of the paying editions to the new box. They are remarkably clean with very little marks added by artistic citizens. Both the Star and the Sun boxes have small stickers which mention agendas and lies.

A Toronto Fire Department High Rise Unit blows past a TTC streetcar on Queen Street West as it goes into the Yonge Street intersection. Not too much slows down the pace of Torontonians so everyone goes about their business, including climbing into the streetcar.

After some rain in the morning the sun decided to come out today and blue sky provided some welcome sunshine on the last day of February 2011. Old City Hall, which is now a courthouse that turned 100 years old in 1999, is reflected like a fun house mirror in the Simpson Tower windows.

The lush texture of Queen Street West begins with the high end clothing and shoe stores and a crazy mix of some wild and wonderful stores like Condom Shack and the Cannabis Culture Shop and is followed, and always overshadowed, by the old CityTV/Much Music building with that SUV blasting out of the side of the wall, high above the parking lot. Stars and celebrities still wander through out the studios and people wait to catch glimpses of the famous. Wonder Woman engages in a wild fight with evil, phallic shaped MAC cosmetics in the store window above.

There is always colour and a vibrancy about the street coming from the area's desire to be something other than a staid business strip of typical merchants. That and the constant posters and graffiti everywhere.

Half the working population of Toronto stayed home during Wednesday's predicted blizzard. Toronto was protected from the full fury of the storm, probably because of Groundhog Day, and the next day dawned bright and sunny.  No massive piles of snow blocked pedestrians or cars; we survived Toronto, we survived.

Bay Street is the heart of Toronto's financial district, a mixture of old buildings or skyscrapers with a few suits and ties walking around. You can't go very far before tripping over some investment banker or a lawyer ready to sue you for tripping over them. I was surprised to find out that Bay Street used to be called Bear Street because, believe it or not, they used to see bears around the area many moons ago.
I think when they built the road they wanted to have it go right through old City Hall, just to show who was boss, but instead they built a jog in the road around the old Credit Valley Stone stucture at Queen Street. These pictures were taken from the steps of old City Hall looking south towards Lake Ontario, just past the row of condos, the railway structure over Bay Street and the Gardiner Expressway.
The section of Bay from Queen Street to Union Station is one of the most popular locations for the homeless. Several seem to live permanently at the busy intersection and in the winter the stacks of sleeping bags help to keep them warm. There are a number of Toronto resources, and organizations like the Salvation Army, who to try to help those who live on the streets.

Chanel No 5 Fragrance advertisement on the side of the Queen Street West Bay.

I also found a sign war going on a Ryerson University Campus stop sign. Someone had placed a sticker that read "Eating Animals" - when read with the sign it said "stop eating animals". Someone else had scratched out the "ing" part and added "and" to make "stop and eat animals". Pure genius; those crazy university students. Now I have to go to dinner, I am having a veggie burger but instead of buns I am using sirloin steaks.

On the side of a comic book store on Queen Street West I find the wall now covered with an advertisement for TRON Legacy 3D by Artchild from TorontoGraffiti.com.

I found a YouTube Video from the Key of Awesome guys, which was awesome.

Swiss Natural had a double dutch skipping team out on Queen Street West - if you skipped they would donate $1 to Breakfast for Learning. It was fun to see people stop along their busy day and start jumping and some, like this lady, were very good and I think it brought back some happy memories of younger times.

The Queen Street West stroll takes in an area with lots of character and it is always fun walking along and seeing the different stores and their sometimes funny advertising (who can forget the camel toe window), ever present graffiti and the occasional chair to relax your weary bones.

The Much Music Video Award (MMVA) Show brings some pretty big stars into Toronto to hand out and to receive shiny trophies and like any party there is always the hungover cleanup after the event. The set was very elaborate Meccano kit that was probably very difficult to put back in it's original box. You can see how they had to build their scaffolding around the old CityPulse, now CP24, SUV breaking out of the building.
The show takes place in the parking lot of the Much Music Building at 299 Queen Street West and in the surrounding streets and was held June 25, 2010. Pop singer and actress Miley Cyrus was the host and entertainers Drake, Katy Perry, the band Hedley and Justin Bieber were among many stars that took part.

I filmed the crew making the commercial for the 2010 awards in Yonge-Dundas Square and my YouTube clip has over 2,200 views. People were asking about the song used in the actual commercial and someone wrote in and identified BlakRock singing Ain't Nothing Like You.

Banksy's graffiti has taken quite the abuse since he first painted his works on the walls of Toronto. Many have been totally destroyed or defaced. It is both sad and ironic that his street art/graffiti gets painted over. But I do love Banksy.

On Wild West Queen Street West I find more art. It's like CityTV; everywhere. A beautiful girl looks down onto Queen Street pedestrians passing by (pictured above) from Omy Gallery. There website says "Pabst is the best beer for shows & you better have good art or nobody will show up".

At Trinity Bellwoods Park I see a "Where's Omar" poster stuck in the entrance gate. I also find some posters stuck on a pole, the posters have multiplied and are thick on the pole and have started to peel off.

Update: Or is it? While CP24's website says that she signed off on June 22, 2010 it's been noticed that she remains on the news channel. Welcome back Ann.

It's been awhile since we heard the news that Ann Rohmer will leave CP24 Breakfast in mid June of 2010. The host started in television in 1979 and eventually landed the gig that we all know her for - CITY's BT or Breakfast Television. I found it amusing that she appears on a CP24 advertisement in front of the old CITY TV headquarters, now a CTV studio.



When CTV acquired CHUM in 2007 it had to get rid of it's CITY TV properties, including Breakfast Television. Breakfast Television continued until it was taken over by Rogers which led to the creation of CTV's CP24 Breakfast which was launched in 2009. Ann became the chief anchor of Breakfast Television in 2001 continued as the anchor on the new CP24 Breakfast.

CP24's site says this. "After 31 years in broadcasting and 25 years at 299 Queen Street West, Ann Rohmer has decided to hang-up her microphone mid-June, CP24 announced today. Rohmer is currently host of CP24 Breakfast, Hot Property, and Animal House Calls, in addition to her duties behind the anchor desk. Rohmer will remain the special guest host of Animal House Calls on CP24 and Animal Planet but has taken a position outside of the broadcast industry. Rohmer will break the news to her viewers Thursday morning on CP24 BREAKFAST."

I had run into Ann (picture at top) during the Toronto Olympic Flame celebrations in December of 2009.

Some young girls relax on the statue of Sir Adam Beck on University Avenue and Queen Street West.



University Avenue in this area is a large divided road with plenty of trees, statues and fountains. The traffic is heavy and it is hard to cross the large intersection in the time they give you - don't hesitate or stop and smell the roses. If you want to get above it all the statue is actually a good place to go.

A TTC streetcar turns off of Queen Street West. I didn't know that the whole wheel assembly rotates to allow the streetcar to make the sharp turn onto the side street.

I am not sure if the water shown in the bottom of the picture has been added to reduce the noise of the streetcars turning at this intersection or if it is just rainwater. Apparently the TTC also uses sand to assist with acceleration and breaking - just like they do in San Francisco. I will have to keep an eye out on the tracks for sand.



Speaking of Queen Street West - the girls from MissBehav'n were dancing up a storm while Police were pulling over some cars for possible traffic violations. Bless their hearts for keeping the people getting tickets entertained.