Canadian Culture Thing now has Prints. These awesome prints are sure to make your environment that much better. Say, if you lived in an igloo, you could put up the Animated Map of Canada and POW! you’ve got some colour to add some pizzazz to all that white snow and ice. It might be so flashy that you’ll have to reach for your Inuktitut Snow Goggles just to look at it.
Animated Map of Canada c1935.
Or maybe you’re a Torontonian lumberjack, living up a tree in B.C. and you’re getting awfully sick and tired of all that green, all that blue sky and you need something to balance the pristine beauty of a Canadian forest. So you reach for your black and white print of Yonge Street at rush-hour, with streetcars, cars and people, oh my!
Looking north on Yonge Street from north of Queen Street. 1:15pm, January 12, 1929 Toronto.
Or maybe you’re from Vancouver and were forced at finger-point (we don’t do things at gun-point) to go work in Toronto and want to show all those people, with their inexpensive housing what trees look like…
Trinity College grounds looking south towards gates at Queen Street West and Strachan Avenue. Toronto, Ontario, October 9, 1913.
I attended Art in the Park this weekend at Trinity-Bellwoods Park. Our local super-park and one-time home of Trinity College (1851-1925), was overrun by artists and art-lover’s in this annual exhibition and sale.
Trinity College gates, Queen Street West at Strachan Avenue. Toronto, Ontario, Canada c1916.
The sun was shining, children were laughing, lover’s were canoodling (that’s right, canoodling!), I had a bowl of dumplings and it seemed that everything was right with the world. But looking past the veneer of paradise, past the squirrels, black and white, gathering nuts in unity, there was subversion afoot! Not since 2001, when Mel Lastman shook hands with members of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club in an unfortunate photo-opt, has something so scandalous taken place in Toronto politics. Mel Lastman claimed to not know who was shaking his hand, and when told he was shocked to discover that there was a chance that the friendly hand-shaking bikers might be mixed up in illegal shenanigans (that’s right shenanigans – don’t judge me!) like drug-trafficking!
Mel Lastman shakes hand with member of the Hell’s Angel in January of 2001.
But here in Trinity-Bellwoods Park where I once saw a cat leap from the top of a tree, over the head of a reaching fire-fighter on a ladder-truck, something more shocking and unbelievable had taken place and was now on display.
Kids, cover your eyes…
While you can’t actually see the cat in the picture, believe you me, when that cat hit the ground it was well enough to run.
Allegedly, Rob Ford (Toronto’s temporary mayor) had been seen standing next to Sasquatch on the shores of Toronto Island. Artist Mike Riley had captured the event and was now displaying it for everyone to see.
“Look, isn’t that the CN Tower” by Mike Riley
Rob Ford has been known to be staunchly opposed to Gravy Trains, weekly weigh-ins and so horrified by Gay Pride that he doesn’t even want to be in the city in case he might catch homosexuality, but when graffiti artists began depicting him in an unsavoury light, Big Rob went after them.
Graffiti by Ivus
Is it possible that now that his impromptu appearance next to Sasquatch Dave is out there for the whole city to ridicule that Rob Ford may go after art in general?
Rob Ford targets art! First it was Gravy Trains, then it was weigh-ins, next it was safely operating a motor vehicle. Now he’s adding eyebrows!
Sasquatch Eddie, who was visiting from the Fraser Valley in B.C. has been facing ridicule amongst his fellow-Sasquatch at home. In a front-page story in the local Sasquatch Valley Recorder, the Sasquatch community is in an uproar about Sasquatch Dave posing alongside Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, claiming it was poor judgement on his part. In an interview with Canadian Culture Thing, Sasquatch Dave claims he was simply making a silly pose for a photo for long-time girlfriend Sasquatch Velma and he “was just as shocked as everyone else that the Toronto Mayor jumped into the frame.”
Sasquatch Dave added that he has been having trouble sleeping ever since and has been having a recurring dream, “I’m in a large pot of boiling water and there a Rob Fords dancing around it and chanting that I have to “volunteer” for his Toronto football team or I can kiss my job goodbye! It’s horrible…just horrible.”
Let me tell you, you haven’t seen sad until you’ve seen a Sasquatch cry.
Toronto-based artist Olenka Kleban’s butter sculpture depicting the mayor driving a car while reading a Margaret Atwood novel was a real crowd-pleaser at the CNE this year. Rob never wanted to lick himself so badly.
Edmonton-born actor – director -writer, Eric Johnson was by Valhalla on Queen West to sign his Maple Leaf Forever stamp for us folks at Canadian Culture Thing!
Eric Johnson MapleLeafForever stamp on the back of CCT0104
A big favourite around here, Eric played Whitney Fordman, Lana’s Lang’s jock-boyfriend on Smallville. Filmed in Vancouver, Smallville told the story of the early years of Canadian-Kryptonian hero Superman. Along with Eric Johnson, Smallville was packed with Canadian talent like Erica Durance, Kristin Kreuk and Aaron Ashmore.
After a season as Flash Gordon, Eric took the role of Detective Luke Callaghan on the awesome Toronto-set cop-show Rookie Blue. Rookie Blue tells the story of a group of Rookies on the Toronto police force, learning the ropes from their training officers and working the beat (and getting shot…and kidnapped…and BETRAYED!). Eric Johnson plays Luke Callaghan, the dapper Detective and main-squeeze of Star-Rookie Andy McNally, played by Missy Peregrym until he does a no-no and she finds herself a new man. Only time will tell what drama the future holds for the now brooding James Dean-esque Eric “Luke Callaghan” Johnson on his return in season 3.
I went to the Toronto Zoo on Saturday figuring everyone else would be at the CNE and that was a good call. Having purchased a season’s pass for the family, we decided to investigate smaller portions of the zoo and not kill ourselves trying to see all of the 287 hectares. So, on this particular trek to the zoo, we decided to go to the Canadian area and let me tell you, from the beginning it went downhill until it was an uphill hike in the scorching heat. In the middle it was a snooze-fest in more than one way.
Here’s the Canadian checklist:
The Lynx…asleep.
The Cougars…asleep.
The Grizzly Bears…asleep.
The Moose…missing.
The Muskox…we didn’t want to chance not making it back from that distance.
The Eagles…were awake.
The squirrels and Seagulls…quite alert.
Here, you see a beautiful Lynx, sleeping in the shadows…
So closes the first day of the Harbourfront Outdoor Market. I’m bushed. We’ll be at this wonderful market down by the lake from 12-12 on Saturday, tomorrow…er…I guess it’s today! Wow, it’s late. And again on Sunday from 12-8.
We’re showcasing our new series of Prints and they are AWESOME! Along with our postcards, notecards, Christmas cards and magnets, we’ve also got a great selection of Wendy Tancock whimsical Canadiana line: her prints, cards, mugs and coin banks.
Don’t forget to come down at pick up a copy of the Little Book of Rob Ford, a collection of quotes of our readin’-while-drivin’ one-term mayor. Don’t judge me!
Be sure to follow our twitter feed for up to the minute…who am I kidding, I’ll tweet if there is something worth tweeting.
See you there.
