A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON MY WAY TO MY BIRTHDAY

Living in the city, you can constantly be surprised

Walking along, going to Destination A, you can be quickly sidetracked by something and wind up at Destination B. Perhaps you will eventually make your way to A, perhaps not. You may end up staying at B or something there sends you to C

You get the point

For me, the unexpected Destination B could be a patio, or a bookstore (yes, they still have those things but sadly not near enough) or a pub or an art store or a bar or ...

You get the point

In the summer, in this city, Destination B, C, D etc could be some unknown (to me) street fest. Every weekend there is something going on. All winter long 2 million people wait, like runners in the blocks, for the sun to come back around so they can burst out into streets that are not clogged with ice and snow

This weekend, for instance, there was the Queen West Jazz Festival, the Pan Am Games celebrations, a north end community festival. These things I was aware of and for one reason or another, decided not to attend

Collette and I did, however, end up downtown, to see a play (more on that in an upcoming post, contain your enthusiasm) and to hit a patio cuz, well, it was my birthday

But a funny thing happened on my way to my birthday.

Crossing by Yonge-Dundas Square we heard music and saw people milling about. There is often something happening there though sometimes its some company needing to tell you how awesome they are

Not this time. There was a DJ up on the stage and throughout the square itself, several breakdance crews going through their motions. Quite without knowing it, we had stumbled upon the Unity Festival, a hip hop fest designed for young people to show off their chops

I am not at all a fan of hip hop music but I do enjoy break dancing street performers. So we stayed and watched for a bit. I had my iPod Touch in my pocket so I shot a bit of footage of the dancers and an area where artists were making some street art. We went up to the Milestones patio above the square and I took a couple of shots up there

Just a little video to remind me: Slow down, take your time, give yourself some temporal space before you need to be at Destination A. Destination B may be worth a few minutes of your time


Toronto Unity Festival (By Accident) from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.