VROOM VROOM WHILE STANDING STILL: WHEELS ON THE DANFORTH CAR SHOW

The cars are parked on the street. They are not moving. Their engines are not running.

But they look fast, they look powerful, they look dangerous. The look sleek and sexy and beautiful. They look like my past, they look like art. The art of steel and paint and chrome and leather. The art of looking fast, while standing still.

This past weekend was our second visit to Wheels on the Danforth, an annual on the street car show that happens in the Crossroads of the Danforth, where Danforth Ave meets Danforth Rd in Scarborough, close to Victoria Park subway station. Last year our visit was plagued by cool rain but this year it was hot and sunny and dang, did all that chrome love it.

The show features vintage and classic cars. Detroit, of course, was well represented ...

... but a few foreign interlopers managed to sneak in

While all the cars were arftfully parked, not all the wheels were stationary. A stunt troup joined the show, featuring BMX bikes and a skater. A lot of speed on display, but no chrome and none of that panty-dropping-rumble the muscle cars represent (It's true, everytime I hear the roar of a 68 Shelby GT Mustang my panties drop right off)

It's a great show, very community based. There is judging and rewards but the atmosphere is very relaxed. It's quite easy to have conversations with the owners of the cars and they were more than willing to accomodate Collete and myself, opening hoods, opening trunks etc so we could get good shots.

No celebration of gas and chrome and internal combustion muscle is not complete without beer and rock and roll and Wheels on the Danforth supported both in the form of a beer tent and the Blues Brothers.

You can hear the latter on the video. I would reccommend hitting the "YouTube" button in the lower right corner so you gain the function to play the video full size

THE SUM OF ALL PARTS MAKES WHITE BOYS WANNA DANCE

Plans. You make em. Sometimes you wonder why Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes not so much. It's all about expectations

This past weekend Collette and I headed downtown to attend the Lovin Local Food Festival. Food fests run amok in this city, there's about 12 (it seems) every week, all year long. Yeh, cuz you know, we gots a lot of foodies in our city, many of whom fall under the sobriquet MMTB .. more money than brains

Me, I ain't no foodie. But I do like me some vittles. However, we don't attend many of these food fests, mostly because they charge you 20 bucks to get in then charge you for the food. That be double dipping and don't just mean in the chip dip

But last weekend we went out to Woodbine Park for a free Food Truck Festival that featured 40 trucks, a beer tent, wine etc and charged us nary a dime. We'd never before been to this Lovin Local fest but it was also free and it was in Younge Dundas Square, a great location right downtown

Well, we didn't end up eating anything there. There were only a few food stalls, none of which were terribly exciting .. get what you pay for, eh. But the the folks from Muskoka brewery were present and it followed the new trend of licensing the entire venue

Yeh. Summer . Beer. Nuthin more to say there is there

But there was one very pleasant surprise, one that we did not plan for. Several years ago, down at the Harbourfront Centre we encountered, quite by accident, a band from Vancouver that on the surface I should have no interest in. They played a fusion of Indian bhangra music, Celtic, dubstep and electronic DJ. Yeh, you know, I've done a lot of Indian weddings and while I've always admired the stamina and enthusiasm of the drummers, it's really not my style and I is too old and white to be a hip hop fan

But ...

This band is called Delhi 2 Dublin and we liked them when we saw them years ago and liked them even more when we saw them over the weekend

 The whole fusion thing works here, I never would have thought of combining Indian drums with Irish fiddle but hey, what do I know

Combine with that some very animated and passionate vocals and a searing guitar, you have a perfect afternoon on Yonge St

They are a great live outfit. This was a free event downtown and I'm sure a lot of this audience had no idea who these guys are but I think that very quickly changed. Many of the band's lyrics have a message but essentially, I think, this is a dance band and it's pretty difficult not to fall under the spell

Check it out for yourself

Delhi 2 Dublin at Food Festival from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

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.

YOUR PAN AM GAMES UPDATE

We're winning! We're winning! Europe and Asia are not competing but fuck that, we're winning we're winning!

There is no parking at any of the venues, you dare not even look at the Athlete's Village.

Pan Am buses carrying athletes and officials get their own police escorts that stop and wave them through red lights, tickets for the opening ceremony started at 200 bucks a pop; they took place at the Air Canada Centre which has a square outside of it equipped with a giant video screen that they use for Raptor pregrames but they did not use it for the ceremony. Oh no, that would mean the common citizens may be there in the presence of the Important People. Instead, they put the screen up at Nathan Phillips Square .. that does not have a screen. They had to buy one and pay to have it set up, instead of using the existing one at the ACC

At the Athlete's Village, athletes are given lodging, food, a spa, a discoteque, a nice view of the waterfront. In Toronto City housing in Regent Park and Jamestown citizens of this city who pay rent live with broken plumbing, ceilings falling down, rats and gangsters who laugh at the broken security cameras

But we're winning! We're winning!

NOT JUST ANOTHER WEDNESDAY

Yup, just another Wednesday here in Toronto

Warm, sunny, a light offshore breeze. A perfect day to go down the recently revamped Queen's Queue and stroll around the Harbourfront Centre

Stroll along the docks, admire the vessels, both power and sail, moving across the harbour

This is Toronto of course, a big city and this part of this city is often quite busy during the summer, especially on the weekend. But this is the middle of the week. And there are thousands of people down here, and lots of entertainment, and balloons and bubbles, and flags. Lots of flags

Canadian flags

What the heck is going on?

Oh yeh, happy Canada Day

OK Vimeo are being money grubbing assholes so I'm using Youtube to post my videos, not ideal. Click the Youtube symbol on the bottom right corner and you will get options to view full screen and adjust the output to 1080

THE CIRCUS IS COMING! (AND I DON'T MEAN SHRINE)

Often, it seems, this city is not ours. During the G-8 Summit, with it's fence and its detention centres and its armed guards, it felt as though the downtown core of Toronto had been occupied by an invading force. Even though that force wore badges that said Toronto

The occupation is happening again, this time by some actual foreign invaders. How are we responding? Why, we're building them places to sleep, feeding them, giving them their own traffic lanes to make it easier to invade ...

Yup, the Pan Am Games are coming

Some of it is funny. As in, this thing is costing us a few billion bucks and it seems to be run by bipolar chimps smoking crack and weeping over Donnie Walberg's hair loss.

What's funny: They've turned some regular traffic lanes into HOV (High Occupancy Lanes) that are exclusive to vehicles carrying three passengers or more. They're called Diamond lanes because they have hug diamond symbols painted on them. Well these are temp lanes so they didn't want to use paint. Instead, they put down these huge decals. Here's the problem: The decals come off in the rain. And it's been raining. A lot

What's Not Funny: These new lanes are, essentially, being reserved for the "important" people. The officials and athletes and the local gov't reps whose Games these are. Yeh, their games, not so much ours. Their lanes. Two weeks to go to the games and they are enforcing these lanes right now. Cop cars are perched on medians to make sure none of us plebes are using the royal lanes. Don't worry about the traffic chaos; essentially one or two lanes have been taken from use on some of the busiest roads in the GTA; the DVP, the Gardiner, the QEW, Lakeshore, the 400

What's Funny: The planners of these Games knew how horribly traffic was going to be affected. Not only have they taken away some active lanes, they are not stopping the construction that already brings the downtown core to a crawl. Our govt's solution? Go on vacation during the Games

What's Not Funny: Our govt's solution? Go on vacation during the Games

What's Funny: Many new sports facilities have been built for the Games. These are the supposed legacy. But many temp structures have been erected as well; public parking lots and public streets have been closed off so they could put up these giant plastic quonset huts where the Important People can mingle and guffaw and say how marvelous they all are. Well, it's been very rainy and windy here. And the tents came down

What's Not Funny: Fences. Fences in my city are not funny. During the G-8 a fence was put up around several blocks downtown. Cops stood at the fence and questioned our right to even look at it. Now we have more fences, enclosing streets and areas that are public. Most of the people standing there are not cops, they are Pan Am security but it is clear: Hey, you live in this city, you can't come in here. Keep moving, see this clip board, you are not on this clip board, so get the fuck out of here

What's Funny: The people who are running these games are getting paid lots and lots of money. Lots of my money, lots of your money. When the whole thing got rolling, couple years ago, they hired a very respected manager to be the grand poobah. Turns out he was very good at padding his expense account and paying off people. The Gov't seemed quite content with this till he was exposed. So he was let go due to malfeasance. Here's the funny part: He got a "severence" (after being fired) that was basically his promised salary

What's Not Funny: They hired a new manager. This guy they seem to like. They like him so much that, when he finishes out his contract he will get a lovely party gift of a bonus that will equal what he's getting paid to complete the contract in the first place

Hey, no worries. There's lots of money for the gov't. So much money. It just keeps rolling in

Now, you, the person from whom this money is being taken, just sept back behind that line and keep your head down. These are your Games

TUNNEL? WHAT TUNNEL

"Good day Mr Kellar, welcome to the 156 1/2 Precinct of the Oblivious Police. Please take a seat"

"I can take it? For reals? Um, it's kind of sucky, do you have a couch? Can I take a couch? A nice recliner? Maybe a lovely ottaman. With a capital A. A Turk, I mean, not the footstool, always wanted my own Turk, just to ask him in Turkey, what do they serve for Thanksgiving Dinner .."

"Mr Kellar we are authorized to use deadly force"

"For you protection?"

"For you being a smart ass"

"Fuck, I'm doomed!"

"Mr Kellar we're here to talk to you about the tunnel"

"The tunnel? Look it's not my fault Ok, my Mother ran a hot dog stand, inside a train tunnel, in Bangcock ..."

"Mr Kellar I have taken out my pistol"

"Slow down Bubba, you should at least buy me dinner first"

"Mr Kellar we want to talk to you about the tunnel, the one we discovered in the woods near York University, near the Rexall Centre, where they will be staging events for the Pan Am Games"

"The events are staged? I knew it! That's the only way to explain Togo Togo winning the Team Synchronized Duct Cleaning Event three games in a row"

"Mr Kellar have you ever before been shot in the scrotum?"

"No"

"Huh, I find that surprising. Now, let's get back to the tunnel"

"Which tunnel"

"The tunnel you dug in the ground"

"I never dug a tunnel"

"Mr Kellar we have you on video"

"Do I look good? Sexy? Would Brad Pitt gouge out his eyes in envy?"

"You look like you were digging a tunnel"

"Which tunnel?"

"The tunnel you dug near York University"

"York has a tunnel?"

"It does now"

"Wow, classroom shortage eh"

"Mr Kellar why did you dig that tunnel"

"Did you want me to dig a tunnel? You're a little obsessed about tunnels. Have you ever seen a therapist?"

"Mr Kellar you may have to see a doctor"

"Why is that?"

"Because I may shoot you in the scrotum"

"Wow, been a while since you dated eh"

"Let's get back to the tunnel"

"We're going to a tunnel? Can I take my chair? After all you gave it to me"

"Why did you dig the tunnel"

"For my own personal reasons"

"So, Mr Kellar, let me get this straight, you go on to public property, you spend several days digging and excavating and hauling dirt and running heavy equipment and digging this huge tunnel and you tell me you did for personal reasons and you expect me to just let you get away with that?"

"Yes"

"Ok then, you are free to go"

"Awesome! Can I take my chair?"

"Mr Kellar I'm loading my pistol"

"I see, well I'll leave you two alone, should I dim the lights?"

"They don't pay me enough to do this job"

THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE WILL BE FACEBOOKED

It's the zombie apocalypse! With a marching band! And Mickey Mouse!

No wait .. it's Toronto's annual Zombie Crawl. Thousands of zombies gathered at City Hall but the ravenous undead realized they would starve at that location .. ain't many brains at city hall

So they gathered themselves and began to shamble through the city, seeking  brains (and this being Toronto) lattes.

Organic and fan based, this event has grown over the years. I don't really know why people dress up as zombies and lurch through the streets. Yes, it's close to Halloween. And zombies are as popular, if not more so, than ever before.

The degree of effort and work put into these costumes always astonishes me. Anyone, apparently, is ripe to be zombified. Mickey Mouse, Batman, Elvis ... and creatures I can't even describe. People are into this, to put it mildly.

And not just costumes, but performances as well. People were more than willing to put on their best zombie crawl and try to attack me and camera. Poor things. They would starve. Everyone knows that cameramen don't have brains

Speaking of cameras: Like the Fan Expo, this is an event that brings Toronto's cameramen, professional and amateur and aspiring, out of the woodwork. There were a lot of cameras there, both still and video. Hundreds of camera phones, and dozens of more professional outfits, including some with huge reflectors and even gigantic lights. DSLR rigs with steadicams, GoPros on booms and even "traditional" camcorders like mine. We may be a dying breed but we're out there.

And a dying breed just makes sense at the Zombie Crawl

So, on that note:
Toronto Zombie Crawl 2014 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

NUIT BLANCHE 2014: VISION OBSTRUCTED

To make any kind of art, be it a painting or a piece of music or a video, you have to have a vision. In your mind you have an idea of the art which you want to create. It can be something fully realized, every brush stroke on the painting, the range of colours, the direction of the light across the canvas. Or the vision can be "soft", incorporeal, loosely defined. An idea, an emotion, a soft shape existing at the corner of your eye.

This part is actually easy. The difficult part is realizing these visions. That's where technique comes in.

nuit blanche is an yearly event in Toronto, an all night (mostly) outdoor art festival. There are nuit blanche events in other cities but this is the one that I attend. Duh. I live here.

I have made many nuit blanche videos. The event lends itself to the visual. Duh. It's art. Sort of.

This year I wanted to try something different. Instead of just a document of the festival I wanted to do something a bit more impressionistic. Even before I saw what the night had to offer, I had a vision in my mind. But each nuit blanche is different, which makes it worth attending but also makes it difficult to plan for.

For me, people wandering through the city all night long has become as compelling at the art itself. The intangible of nuit blanche is that the entire city becomes an art piece, and with the addition of us the people, a performance piece. And that's what I wanted to capture.

I'm not sure if the video is entirely successful. It is not my fully realized vision but it satisfies the idea very well. Technically, I'm not entirely happy with it. I decided to shoot at 24 fps (frames per second). It is not a setting which I normally use but I used it to film the exterior of the CNE video below on that setting and I was very pleased with the result, I thought the frame rate added an attractive depth and contrast range to the video

C.N.E. 2014 Day One from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

But the midway at the CNE has a tremendous amount of ambient light, the streets of Toronto not so much. Also, slow down 24 fps is not as clear and clean as slowing down 60 fps on which I normally shoot.

I did not spend near as much time at the event as I should have. The layout was very different this year and there was a lot of space between the "zones" where the art was distributed. So, I probably did not give myself the best opportunity to duplicate the vision in my mind.

Still, I was able to do something different. And at my age, something different is always a triumph.

The Dreaming City: nuit blanche Toronto 2014 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

FAN EXPO 2014: IF IT'S FRIDAY, YOU MUST BE POKEMAN

As stated in my previous post, the end of summer in Toronto means it's C.N.E. time; jet planes, Superdogs and carnival games

But it also means Fan Expo time: X wing fighter planes, superheroes and video games.

Fan Expo is an increasingly massive event that fills both halls of the enormous Metro Covention Centre and runs for four days (well three and a half) Normally I go for only one of those days. It gives me an opportunity to buy some graphic novels, some video games, maybe some anime and lately, sit in on some workshops as I continue to try to delve into the world of graphic novel creation.

This year I went for every day of the Expo. Every freaking day. All together, about 30 hours. Thirty freaking hours. Yeh. You know. I ain't as young as these people

I did attend a couple of writing/publishing/promotions workshops but those were not my main emphasis this year. This year I went to make a video. I always smack together a little music video from the show, and I have done that, as you can see below. But I also wanted to make a different kind of video. Fan Expo attracts something in the area of half a million people over its three days. Many of them, like myself, come for the entire run of the show. I've seen these people, I've bumped into these people, I've taken their pictures

Fan Expo is a cross platform fan experience. Comics, anime, sci fi, horror .. as it is billed. People come to meet their idols in all these genres, to cosplay, to express themselves and whatever world it is that they love.

So I conducted a bunch of interviews of people, you will see a bit of that in the video below, and I followed a girl on her first Fan Expo experience. She is a different kind of girl, she was after a different kind of experience, but she did it in costume, with Spiderman, so who am I to complain

For any of those interested, I'm documenting the process of making this video on my other blog, Idiot With A Camera And no, for those wondering, it will not have any Power Rangers in it

The experience was exhausting for me but a lot of fun. I enjoyed the workshops and I enjoyed the filming; I did not shop as much but that is better for my wallet I suppose. I was more in work mode for the weekend and I sort of missed my "fan experience" But I got to watch many others enjoy their own

I don't know if I'd do the four days again, not if I was not making a film. I think two days would be perfect, if I could cram a bunch of workshops and networking into a day and another day to wander around, buy some shit, meet some people shoot some video for fun. Still, it was an interesting experience and I got to see some things that I never have before. It was exhausting but it's always nice to know that if I got into trouble, I had lots of people who could help me out .. or make it worse ... at Fan Expo, you never know

So, here's the video, mostly the usual music video but a little preview (sort of) of what is yet to come

Fan Expo Toronto 2014 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

C.N.E. 2014 DAY ONE

End of the summer in Toronto: People dream of the end of road work, they scramble madly to catch the last rays of sunlight on a beer patio, they stare at the kids that have been around for two months and wondered why they ever loved them .. but really, the end of summer means the return of the Canadian National Exhibition

We plan three trips to the Ex year, and for the first time in many years we started to go opening day, or opening late afternoon, after I finished with the dogs. This would give us several hours to wander around and to take pics and video at the Ex after dark.

There were a few shows we wanted to see at the Ex this year but most of them had finished their final viewing of the day by the time we got there. We did, however, manage to catch the Flying Walendas who we also saw last year

The Walendas are a family troupe. This year they featured their newest member, a daughter in law. Yeh, here's a thought people: If you have a fear of heights, never marry anyone called Walenda.

Lately the Ex has been working hard on bringing in new things. Mostly, of course, these things have been very family oriented. This year they decided to do something specially for us so called grown ups. The Wild Whiskey Saloon, sponsored by Jack Daniels is, after 6 pm, adults only. It's a replica saloon, cheesey around the edges but it's a big airy tent with a patio, live country bands, pool tables, ribs and a mechanical bull .. yeh, I said it, mechanical bull

Another new feature and one that's fun for the kiddies (but who says a little Jack Daniels in the baby bottle isn't fun for the kiddies) is a little pop culture display, kind of like the Ex's very own mini Fan Expo .. very mini

One thing about the display that is not so mini is there Optimus Prime. Don't let the aforementioned kiddies too close to this big guy, he may be hungry

Back outside, the Ex is beautiful at night in the Vegas sort of way. I decided to hop on the Skyride which takes you along the midway, to take some video. Collette did not accompany. Those who know will not ask. Those who don't know .. well, don't ask anyway

After taping the lights of the Ex I caught up with Collette and we went up Princess Blvd to watch a light show that could she could actually enjoy

Nice to end our night with a bang .. and some pops, and a few explosions. More of the Ex to come

C.N.E. 2014 Day One from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

WHEELS ON THE DANFORTH CAR SHOW: GENTLEMEN YOU MAY PARK YOUR CARS

Earlier this summer we went to the Molson Indy to watch cars driving very fast.

This past weekend we went to Danforth Avenue to watch cars .. not move at all. And yeh, we had fun

This was our first visit to Wheels on the Danforth, a community based care show where they close off a few blocks of the eastern Danforth and fill them with cars.

Like most competitions there are prizes so they move different classes of cars along the street as the day goes on. We got there just when I wanted: Classic muscle cars, mostly, with some older hot rods thrown in. It was mostly American muscle but a few foreign interlopers did find their way in

But it was mostly about the Detroit cars that I think were enfused with their own singular sense of style. Not to mention their own hugeness. Damn, some of these cars are enormous. A two door coupe is bigger than most SUVs today .. and some vans

There is of course nostalgia in my admiration of these cars. Some of them are just flat out beautiful but others, while not esthically pleasing, triggered an emotional response; both Collette and I saw this truck and realized that how many of these we had seen or ridden in as kids. She's pretty sure her dad owned one at one point. Beautiful no, but something built and built well for a purpose that gives it its own unique charm

And while this Ford pickup had been restored to pretty much original, others decided to put their own spins on their trucks, turning something prosaic and purpose designed, into something beautiful and individual.

That's always the interesting thing about these car shows; who chose to restore their vehicles and who chose to customize them. I have to say in terms of the classic muscle cars I am not a big fan of heavy customization. Many of these cars back in the day were sold with options and in GT packages etc that provided the owner with mag wheels, hood scoops, spoilers etc. I like to see them like that, as I remembered them back in the day

But every owner who struggles to restore their ride to the original, there are those who just want to chop it, lower it, paint stripes on it, put on the widest tires possible and fill it with some engine entirely inappropriate: Long live the hot rod

Not all of the cars on the street were muscle or hot rods but they had their own appeal. A vintage VW but is not muscle but it has a classic charm all its own. And the bottom pic below is a Pinto, a car not considered muscle back in the day but here some creative mechanic filled it full of mechanical testosterone

The organizers of the event did a great job, lots of cars, a live band, some food stands. The rain kept the crowds down (not a bad thing) and it made the cars all wet and shiny so it wasn't bad from a visual sense but yeh, it got a bit cool and dreary.

Still, we had fun and we will be back next year

All of the photo's on this post are Collette's work. My work is the video below. Now, go shine up your car and park it
Wheels On The Danforth from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.