Sjs & I spent this past weekend in Toronto. I visited Michael Reichmann's Luminous Landscape (photography) Exhibit at the Pikto Gallery in the morning on Saturday, and then went (geo)caching.

I'm a huge fan of Michael's website, but think his photos are not as great as his ego at times. This was a good chance to see large prints of his up close. Three of them were tres excellent to my eye, and the rest were definitely decent. Very much worth the admission (free!).

The second geocache later in the day led me to an alleyway FULL of colourful paintwork. Since I had my camera in hand, a number of the best of those have now found their way onto my web site.

Style in Progress, now playing: http://rtr.ca/toronto_style/

Cheers

Also, if anyone out there can read these artworks (especially the ones with all of the interwoven arrows), I'd love to hear the translation to English!

Cheers

The first one says "Jafar's got the time". Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. Queen West and Spadina area, eh? I might have to take a looky-loo next time I'm up there...

Edit: Oh, I think "the wise eliger" should be "the wise elicser" (elixer).

It seems the kids in Toronto are a little more artistic than ours in the UK (about half way down the page), either that or Mark is better at taking photos of them than I am

P.S. that album of photos was the result of a 5 hour wait to have my car's MOT test done in desolate Thurrock. A very strange place, with abandoned churches next to chemical works and the like (the church is owned by the chemical company and used for film and TV work).

Thurrock. A very strange place

We have a client who recruits HGV drivers for tankers all over the UK, the only major problem area is Thurrock, we've advertised widely on both sides of the river: No takers.
When Asda opened in Thurrock, recruiting was so difficult that Managers, Office Staff and coachloads of northern staff had to be shipped in to open the store.
A place as barren, uninhabited and pipe laden as the Wirral....aren't there more hospitable places to get an MOT!

that album of photos was the result of a 5 hour wait to have my car's MOT test done in desolate Thurrock. A very strange place, with abandoned churches next to chemical works and the like (the church is owned by the chemical company and used for film and TV work).

Nice church, next time tou're in the area take a drive down to Coryton (Canvey Island) there's enough pipework there to go to the moon & back.

A place as barren, uninhabited and pipe laden as the Wirral....aren't there more hospitable places to get an MOT!

There are indeed. As per usual however I left it until the last moment to try and find somewhere and the only place I could find open on a Saturday with time to fit me in was the AA service place in Halfords at Thurrock.

It is a horrible, but at the same time interesting, place.

Personally, I prefer Chicano Park.

Thurrock. A very strange place

Indeed. The company I was CTO of (KPNQwest) was building a huge hosting center there. Don't think it was ever finished. But my visits there were interesting....

I thought this was a cool use of flash to show time lapse on grafitti.

http://www.otherthings.com/grafarc/flash/view.htm

I was back in this area ten days ago, and met up with some of the local artists, who pointed me a block further east for MORE images..

Now updated. The new stuff begins here, though there are a few updates sprinkled among the earlier images as well

Cheers

Interestingly enough, there's a great Leather'n'Latex shop on Queen St. E, just around the corner from the Sunflowers. They had two live mannequins in leather and fishnets slow-dancing in the shop windows when I wandered by. Sure does drawn in the customers, that!

Cheers

Another of my fav's:

I was back in this area ten days ago, and met up with some of the local artists,

Did you ask for a translation of all the words?

Yeah, I did. One guy rattled off the first six words of what he claimed was a full paragraph on one of the paintings, and then told me to just stare at it a while to figure out the rest. Then he left, the bastard!

Cheers

Which painting, and what were the first 6 words?