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8月9日 Yes! Yes! Yes!I was out at Yonge & Bloor on Saturday night... and spotted a Toronto icon: Zanta.
Zanta can be seen on Toronto's streets most nights of the week. While officially 'banned' (whatever that means) between College and King, Yonge and Spadina (resulting from several incidents with CHUM / CityTV)..... Zanta is known to frequent stretches of Yonge Street... particularly Yonge & Bloor as well as Yonge & Eglinton.
Zanta's famous for his "Yes Yes Yes" catchphrase... which he encourages his fans to yell if they spot him on the street.
My experience on the Yonge night bus was a memorable one: Zanta performing push-ups (on his knuckles no less!) as he hangs from his feet from the stanchion on the bus.
Zanta reminds me of another Toronto character: Flyerman. Both have an insatiable desire for attention and fame... and will pull any variety of stunts (be it push-ups, in Zanta's case... or illuminated jackets, in Flyerman's case). Coincidentally both are the subjects of biographical documentaries.
Do you have a Zanta story to tell?
Further reading:
- Official web site: http://www.torontozanta.ca/
- Wikipedia biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanta
8月1日 Foggy weather on SaturdayAs typically occurs on slow news days, the media turns their attention to truisms like "the summer season is hot". When the City of Toronto issues "heat alerts" and "heat emergencies"... like magic... we have a sound bite from the Medical Officer of Health with warnings to the young and the elderly. More grist for the proverbial journalistic mill. Still... do we not reserve the right to any common sense any longer?
"Hey... it's sunny, humid, and 40+ degrees outside. Gee... think it's about time to tackle that roofing project." Not a likely consideration for most. I guess we need to legislate common sense for the rest.
On the topic of weather... this past weekend gave way to some unusual weather patterns. On Saturday Crystal and I spent the afternoon at the "Beach" area to soak up the culture at the Beaches jazz festival. While we walked down to the boardwalk, we got caught in a brief sunshower. Upon arriving at the boardwalk, we confronted a wall of fog blowing in off the lake. Is this an effect of the hot temperatures we've experienced over the last couple of weeks?
Below are a few photos showing the fog... as well as a few other photos from the walk along the boardwalk. 7月9日 Viva ItaliaTonight Italy celebrates its fourth FIFA World Cup win. Across St. Clair Avenue, thousands have flocked to Corso Italia to rejoice in a thrilling victory that went to penalty kicks.
Below are photographs that I captured earlier this afternoon: 7月2日 New photos in "Out and about" galleryI'm pleased to report that the new camera has already paid dividends. The updated "Out and About in Toronto" gallery includes a sample of its recent photos.
This summer has proven itself to be a great source of photo opportunities:
- The good:
- The bad:
- The ugly:
More to come... 6月19日 Canon camera crazy...Well it's official: I am addicted to my Canon 20D.
Since picking up the 20D last month with its bundle of an extra battery, battery grip, and travel case... I've augmented my collection with:
I purchased the 28-135mm to use as my "walking around lens": good range, decent optical quality, light/portable, and reasonably affordable. Given its reviews on www.fredmiranda.com/reviews, I was attracted with its price performance. More recently, the 85mm prime lens filled my requirement for a good portrait lens that I could use in low-light situations. I've long been interested in improving the quality of the concert photos that I take, this lens filled the void nicely. See the concert photos taken in the photo album for samples. Despite its reputation as being an expensive retailer of camera equipment, I found Vistek's rental department a great opportunity to check out the lenses before buying. I rented the 85mm prime for $17 for the weekend. Make sure you boost your credit limit before going to the store: their security depsits are not trivial ($250 deposited for this lens... more for the higher quality lenses). Danny Michel - ValhallaOn Friday June 16th, Danny Michel played the Mod Club. Danny celebrated the release of his sixth full-length album this past week... and invited several notable guests -- including Kevin Fox and Luke Doucet. His 90-minute set featured tracks from his new album -- Valhalla: the radio-friendly Midnight Train, personal favourites Into the Flame and White Lightning, and Black Tornado (with its chorus being eerily reminiscent of Two Hearts). And in true Danny Michel style, the band treated fans to a rendition of In the Belly of a Whale, a song often requested but rarely played due to its difficult guitar parts.
Check out the photo album for photos from the concert.... courtesy of my Canon 20D and 85mm f2.8 lens! 7月24日 A few more photosAfter being a delinquent blogger for the past several months, I've decided to make amends with a few more photos I've taken of late. 2月9日 Eastern Toronto beaches in winterWith the balmy weather that we had last weekend, I took the opportunity to pay a visit to the beaches at the eastern end of the city. While the weather to the north of the city was sunny and mild, the weather by the shore of the lake was foggy and cold. I began the walk at Neville Park Blvd and walked across the boardwalk to Woodbine Beach and north to Lakeshore Blvd. Over the course of the walk I snapped a few photos and have added them to a new album. Enjoy... 12月19日 Building the 'foundation' of an alternative music collectionAs the end of 2004 approaches, every radio station and MuchMusic/MTV/VH1 of the world release their Top 10s, Top 100s, etc. for the year. Edge 102's (http://www.edge.ca) Alan Cross... host of the Ongoing History of New Music... showed off his list of must-have alternative music albums. "A CD library is like any other collection. You start with the basics and add on from there. Think of a wardrobe. If you're a woman, you start with the little black dress. Guys need a white shirt and tie. If you're into wine, you need a selection of reds and whites from around the world. And any book library starts with the Bible, the Torah, the Koran and the works of Shakespeare." So what nine albums made it to his list?
Quite a formidable list of artists... punk, new wave, grunge, an even hip hop can trace their roots in part to these bands. Certainly some good gift-giving ideas for those looking to fill out their CD (or MP3!) collections this holiday season! 12月11日 Thinking about the next vacation...After posting these photos of Crystal and my trip to New York back in May, I'm thinking about the next vacation. My preference would be a trip to some of the older US cities... Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia. With a couple of weeks of vacation that would be a great summertime getaway from the usual routine. With so much to see in New York I'd be inclined to return there. Another long weekend... or perhaps even a week would allow us to see the rest of the city. In time... 12月5日 More photos...I've added several additional photo albums... depicting recent concert experiences, a trip to Calgary back in October, and a couple of trips to various sites around Toronto. Cheers, 12月4日 New MSN place...It seems that a lot of people are maintaining 'blogs' these days... complete with photo albums, message boards and the like. When my friend Gary told me about this MSN service, it sounded like a good setup. One of the things that i like about this MSN offering is its ease of use. It makes no sense to maintain a site like this if it takes a lot of effort to do that. So with that said I'm posting the requisite 'welcome' message. I've already put the photo album to use with a recent get-together of some friends from my University of Toronto at Scarborough Management program... Cheers, |
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