Nuit Blanche

30 September, 2012

My school had a drama workshop program for the 11th & 12th graders - it was a two-month emo extravaganza that usually produced far more drama than was ever seen by the audience in the final production. All-nighters were frequent, as is inevitable when scenes were rewritten about seven hundred times each.

I remember staying up one entire night watching the colors of the sky change, and discussing each phase in great detail with a senior. It was awesome, in a we'll-never-do-this-again(-and-thank-God-for-that-maybe) kind of way, and it was the memory I flashed back to when I first heard of Nuit Blanche.

Nuit Blanche, or White Night, is an all-night free-for-all cultural extravaganza which originated in France and made its way to multiple cities around the world. While that's exciting enough in itself (let's not forget I have a degree in art), some of the pieces' descriptions had me even more hooked.

Example: thought balloon, an installation where people typed out their thoughts which were projected real-time for everyone else to see. It's a reflection of how we share information in the age of social networks. I made a detailed map of all the things I wanted to see, but on the actual night, found it far more fascinating to just wander around looking at everything and everyone.

Many of the exhibits had an interactive element and as I walked through downtown checking out Nuit Blanche, I thought the audience defined the art as much as the piece itself. Though we walked fast and didn't stay longer than 10 minutes at any exhibit, it was an evening which gave me a lot to think about. I'm far too diplomatic to pick favorites, but my husband and a friend who came along agreed that their pick of the night was the Convenience Store exhibit.

It was written about in every single newspaper promoting Nuit Blanche as one of the highlights, and it took us 1.5 hours to view it, but it was worth it for the sheer effort the artists had put in and the overall effect of the convenience store. Can you believe each of those boxes in that picture is a mock item, with a tealight inside? We were each allowed to pick an item to take home - I chose the light bulb, that way I was the only one who got the product that the box said it carried!

My favorite take-away from the night was this Xerox copy that my husband and I created. As juvenile a concept as Xeroxing your body parts is, and as much as I resented the waste of paper (most people just threw their copies on the ground), this one was an unexpected keeper.

Opera Briefs

26 September, 2012

I'm not sure how I feel about opera, and I'm not sure I'd pay full ticket-price of $60 a head to find out. In fact, opera's just not something I thought about very much - India has it's own classical dance + music + drama forms.

So I volunteered for Tapestry's shows over last weekend to find out more. It's always a great idea volunteering my way into things which I don't have previous exposure to - it gives me a chance to talk with the people involved & learn more than I would as an audience member.

Opera Briefs, the show I helped out with, was a good place to start, though it wasn't traditional opera. In fact, Tapestry New Opera helps develop, as the name suggests, new pieces. Big advantage: they're in English, and have contemporary-ish themes, so I know what's going on rather than trying to frantically Google my way through the classics.

Tapestry had a program called LibLab where writers & composers were paired off in different combinations and they wrote short sketches that could be developed into full-length pieces based on audience feedback.

The sketches were funny, poignant, and much much more intriguing than any short story I've read. I think it was a combination of the writers being fantastic (I felt pangs of envy throughout) and the performance artists being nothing short of brilliant. The music was appropriate too, but I've to say, it was hard to isolate it given the force of the writer + artist brilliance.

I'm hoping to catch a full length, more classic opera piece tomorrow, to contrast... if I manage to leave office early enough to get door-tickets. Fingers crossed.

Writer's Circle: Lillian H Smith Library

24 September, 2011

I'd just gotten back from Panama (read about it here) with a duty-free souvenir that was more painful than Customs, even. The husband and I got home at 1am (hello, 16 degrees in Toronto, happy to see you after 30-degree Panama weather), devoured a packet of banana chips because the airline's idea of a vegetarian meal was three slices of uncooked brinjal and a crusty piece of bread, and then, for some reason, decided to stay awake a while more.

My favorite notebook 

So I finally woke up jet-lagged and bleary-eyed, did three rounds of laundry (the downside to long vacations) and just as I was sitting down with a relieved sigh, my phone insistently reminded me that I'd foolishly committed to attending a mid-day writer's circle the day I got back. I groaned & deliberated but finally decided I'd go, because I was starting work soon and couldn't take a rain-check.


It was a memoir writing group, and while I don't plan to write memoirs just yet, it must be said I have a remarkable way of committing every single tiny detail to memory and being able to wax eloquent about each (just ask my husband about one of our early fights :D) I figured it was as good a writing exercise as any. The rest of the group consisted of seniors, and we essentially picked topics from a box, then wrote about whatever the topic inspired for 15 minutes before reading out what we'd written.


I took along my favorite notebook for inspiration, and soon had two pages of crossed-out scribblings while everyone else had written out three pages of solid text. Never in my life have I felt so tempted to copy :P I managed to string a couple of paragraphs together while the group read out their pieces, and the gasp of appreciation and the chorus of 'aaah's made. my. day. I should totally do this more often.

Busker Fest 2012

25 August 2012

When I landed in Toronto, I was all touristy-eyed about attending the city's most talked-about festivals... in most cases (as with Luminato which I wrote about here) I had no clue what the festival was actually about, but I thought the name sounded promising. Similarly so with the Busker Fest (I started wildly thinking about snow sleds and dogs, which, actually, isn't too far fetched, if all that people tell me about Canadian winters is true).

Turns out what actually happens at busker fests is almost as awesome - buskers are essentially street performers - everyone from jesters, to jugglers, to magicians, tightrope walkers, fire-eaters, what have you. Entertainment medieval style. Nothing I say is going to do it justice anyway, so I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

I pretty much wandered through with my mouth agape and eyes wide open for the most part, so all the pictures above aren't mine, they're from Busker Fest Toronto's Facebook page. The full collection's here.

Now here's what I found truly amazing: all of this stuff was available for free. The audience didn't have to pay to watch, the performers weren't paid to perform. Some of them came from other countries, just for the joy of performing. Any money they made was from tips. And not one person who watched any show walked away without leaving a tip. I think that's what made the whole thing completely phenomenal for me. 

All proceeds from the theater in the area, as well as donations made from those attending the event, went towards supporting Epilepsy Toronto. I'm definitely going to volunteer as well as attend next year, it's a great event that ensures people who attend willingly donate what they can.

Art Attack: Exploring Queen West

August 2, 2012

On the first Thursday of every month, the W. Queen West Business Improvement Area organizes an art + design + food walk through the area. I repeat: Art. Design. Food. My own idea of heaven, really; particularly given a string quartet was playing at St James on the same day as the August walk, and so music could be thrown into the mix too.

The walk took a group of about 30 people into three warehouse style galleries along Tecumseth Street - Birch Libralto, Georgia Scherman, and Susan Hobbs. The art work ranged in style from beaded ideograms to wood sculptures, from abstract paintings to digitally generated colour-field paintings (where the colours are determined by algorithms rather than the artist - imagine the science fiction possibilities!).

Like I said, I'd been super excited about the walk, and think it's a great idea in theory -  but I actually didn't enjoy it very much. I tend to think of art as a personal experience absorbed by different people at different speeds and in different ways. The guide's style of asking leading questions to elicit responses from the crowd didn't sit well with me, and, in fact, took away from the artwork for me personally. 

At one point, three people in the group decided to just break away and explore the galleries on our own. We even managed to fit in a walk down the graffiti-filled alleys, all the way up to Bathurst. Street art always puts me in a great mood, it reminds me of San Francisco and the Mission area in the best possible way. So the purpose of the evening was definitely achieved!

We rounded off the evening with organic handmade fair-trade ice-cream from Delight (805 QSW if you're interested in checking it out), sponsored for those on the walk by Royal LePage realtor Suzanne Manvell. Classic case of all's well that ends deliciously :)

Summer Solstice Event: The Stop's Night Market

June 20, 2012

The Event

 Having fake-alertedly attended one 'summer solstice' kickoff, I double checked my calendar and confirmed this was the real deal. The Stop is an amazing Community Food Center with a mission to eliminate world hunger. This event, in particular, had a $50 entry to an all-you-can-eat-and-drink Night Market extravaganza in the alley behind Honest Ed's.

27 restaurants & beverage-providers) (including Woodlot, Steamwhistle, and Ursa) generously loaned their chefs' services, and 27 designers worked on creating unique food stalls for them. Toronto sure knows how to put food and art together! (Here's what I'm talking about, if you haven't read it yet). Brockton General's carboard... Pegasus?...was a show-stopper, noone was sure what bird/animal the cart was, but it brought in the hungry and the curious. Cowbell's ice block stall was a literal show stopper, with the heat + the ice combining to create watery chaos.

Me at the Event

I tried to buy tickets for the event, but they were sold out. So I volunteered my way in :)

Pro-tip: It's a great way to get behind the scenes, meet the talented people orchestrating these events, and do your bit towards making them work. Plus, you learn so much about yourself! I for one did not know I knew how to untangle cable wires and make lights actually work. Also, in India, you don't really do part-time restaurant work, the way a lot of college kids here do. It was the chance of a lifetime for me, it's always been my secret dream to work at a restaurant for a bit. What an awesome avenue to do it, we waited on 1000 people who brought in more than $50K that night.

What I loved: I loooooved how many vegetarian options there were. I cannot stress that enough. What I also loved: At one point, the chefs and the beverage providers realized they could swap wares, so they set up beer runs and taco exchanges. It was great fun being in the middle of it all, and bringing smiles on the faces of the chefs who were ensuring everyone else there was smiling too. Additional bonus: vegetarian customization for the helpful volunteer who brought them what they wanted! 

What I didn't love: Sadly, because it was a $50 flat fee, there was quite a bit of wastage. People just kind of took a plate, took one bite, and threw away the rest. There were full glasses of beer (what a sin, seriously!) and entire plates that had just been left behind on tables and strewn around the grounds. Maybe next time it should be a pay $50 and get to eat at any 5 stalls or something.

Overall: I definitely hope this is a recurring event, it's a great way to kick off the summer!

Cartloads of Fun: Toronto Carretilla Initiative

9 June, 2012

The Event

Makeshift kitchen

I’m deeply interested in food (who isn’t?) and I have a passing love affair with art, having studied it in college (and more than gotten my fill of it with all the assignments we were made to do!)

Put both food and art together and… you usually get an inedible mess which looks pretty. But artist Rainer Prohaska’s Toronto Carretilla Initiative, a part of the Toronto Luminato Festival, immediately grabbed my attention. It combined food + art in a way which was both beautiful, as well as incredibly yummy.

The idea was to fashion an industrial-style kitchen  out of 10 Loblaws’ carts, in various areas of the city. The makeshift kitchen not only passed the Toronto Public Health regulations, but also enabled batches of volunteers cook up community meals of soups and salads. Installation art at its epicurean best.

Me at the Event

This was the first event I attended in Toronto and I loved the sense of experimentation and community in everyone present at the Distillery District’s installation. Our group of 10-12 people made Austrian Potato Soup that chilly Saturday morning, and it certainly seemed to warm up the watching crowd.

The recipe for Austrian Potato Soup

I added an extra touch of colour to the proceedings by promptly knicking my finger while cutting a particularly rotund potato. Lesson learned: knives in Toronto are sharper than they are back home! Bandage in place, I went back to work, and 40 minutes and about a 100 grated carrots, cut celery etc later, soup was ladled out in disposable containers to the eagerly waiting public.

What I loved: Cutting my finger wasn’t pleasant, but it did allow me to step back and look at the group. It was pretty impressive watching the efficiency between stations, and I really got to see the ‘art’ side of it.

What I didn’t love: My soup , an unexpectedly thick and textured warm bowl of goodness, vanished far too fast. But this was more my fault than the organizers’ :)

Overall: So much fun, and I definitely recommend this for anyone who’s even passing through Toronto.