Kensington Market

Graffiti

Artwork is everywhere, and here a some great examples. I took these pics in the Kensington Market and Annex area.

Artwork in the Bay Wellington Tower

I took these ages ago when I was roaming around downtown with a friend. Half day off - did I mention before how I love those! I couldn't resist taking a bunch of photos of this sculpture; it's like a flurry of birds in flight.

Parking lots

I've been fixating a bit on parking lots lately, don't ask me why. Perhaps because they seem like giant waiting rooms, and all the action is happening somewhere else. So I took some pics of the parking lot near Bayview Village. They're so sterile and neat, and they remind of the book Super-Cannes by Ballard. So bright and white and lonely....

Bayview Station

Noirscape

I have an episode of train trouble (frequent these days) to thank for this post. A couple of weeks ago, I had to get off the train at York Mills and walk to Sheppard due to signal trouble at Sheppard. It was a pretty lonely walk, but I did see some interesting buildings and doorways. It occurred to me that anyone can be the star of their own noir film, hence the predominance of black and white in these pics.

The escalators at York Mills lifting you to street level...

....buildings and parking lots...or the asphalt jungle....

....then I found a strange little stairway that seemed really familiar for some reason, so of course I had to walk up it...till a couple of people popped out of the shadows and scared the dickens out of me, so I made for the street lights again!

...Christianity in neon!



 ...concrete desert with light flowers...

.....and then you get to a stretch of overgrown grassland than reminds you of a David Lynch movie with some Twin Peaks vibes...note the grasses mysteriously flattened by something or someone...

....and just when you think that you might find a body lying in the thicket somewhere, you find a resting place for a few...

...and when you really start to feel a bit terrorized by all this noir, noir, noir....civilization! In the form of a petrol station, of course.

Mist-ical

Ok, I'll admit that this entry started out as an excuse to flaunt my preference for corny titles. I've always loved fog (instant mystery!), and I ran around my neighbourhood (Bayview & Sheppard) after work with my camera. When I was looking at the pics afterwards, I thought how nice it was that the buildings in most of them seem to be evaporating, while the trees and plants are more aggressively pushed through the forefront. Nice change from the norm, especially in my hood which seems to be on a marathon stretch of endless construction. Soon we'll just be left with a few carefully positioned plants with not a leaf out of place....