Caravaggio in Ottawa

Caravaggio does light and dark really well. -- he's a master at shadows. That's all I knew about him when my sister and I headed out to Ottawa recently to see an exhibit at the National Art Gallery (NAG ... gotta love that acronym!)

He is so much more, and it was so interesting. First of all, turns out the guy  was a bit of  a rake. Well, not just a bit.  I'd seen some of the religious paintings before.. I discovered the drinking/gambling/cheating pictures at the exhibit. And that he used a whore as a model for the Virgin Mary, among others. I can see why his talent was not enough to keep him out of trouble... this was the time of the Inquisition. They didn't  have much of a sense of humour in those days.

The contradiction between the man and the art are fascinating. He was a brawler, a jailbird, had powerful patrons who gave up on his because of his crude ways ... yet, he always seemed to land back on his feet, his talent was so great. He had just been pardoned for murder when he died, at 38. I can barely imagine what he could have produced if he'd lived.

So back to the NAG show. The curating is excellent -- although I would have liked a bit more from the man himself. His works hang alongside works by his contemporaries, usually on the same subject. It's fascinating to compare themes and techniques. The audio guide is very well done, and does a beautiful job putting his work in context.

I don't usually spend hours at an exhibit... I prefer to go several times and take it in little by little. But since we were only there for the day (we promised each other next time we'll stay overnight), we took in the exhibit in about 3 hours, which I find draining. I was ready for a nap after, but we had 3 hours' driving ahead of us instead!

The NAG is a beautiful, light filled art gallery right by the river. We had a light lunch in the Atrium, a simple salad with a glass of wine. It was quite good, reasonably priced, and the server was charming.

Too bad we couldn't stay an extra day. Ottawa is so beautiful in summer, and I would have loved to spend a bit more time just hanging. And I do want to see the war museum., if only for its stunning architecture.

Learning to read in Toronto

This past week, I met daily with a group  to discuss two books. We were one of 11 different groups, all meeting up daily on the U of T campus to discuss different books, and in some instances art and music. About 100 people -- mostly from the US and Canada -- attend this program every year.

Welcome to Classical Pursuits -- a learning vacation that I have now added to my list of annual must-dos.

I was not a total stranger to the group. They have a travel component -- Travel Pursuits -- and I've taken 3 of their trips and plan to take more. (I'm thinking of Savannah next spring....)

So what's this about learning to read?

The discussions at Classical Pursuits are based on the Shared Inquiry method of the Great Books Foundation in Chicago, which attempts to get to the truth of a book through leader-led questions that invite debate. (A gross oversimplification, but I don't want to take up too much of your time. Check out their website and read what participants have to say.)

You don't necessarily walk away from these discussions feeling you now understand the book. Most of the time, I walk away feeling I know less than when I walked in. But it's exhilarating to have these discussions, to hear different interpretations and, in some instances, to given the opportunity to complete change your point of view!

If you love books and are looking for a vacation with a difference, this could be what you're looking for.

(And did I mention the afternoon opera discussions? The plays? The cocktails? The art walks? The time off if you want it?)

Toronto Fringe Festival, 2011 edition

What's a Fringe Festival, you ask?

Wikipedia's definition is "Fringe theatre is a term used to describe theatre not of the mainstream. The term comes from [...] Robert Kemp, who described the unofficial companies performing at the same time as the second Edinburgh International Festival (1948) as a ‘fringe’ [...] The term has since been adopted by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and thence by alternative theatres and alternative theatre festivals."

There are more than 20 Fringe festivals in North America alone. Fringe shows are mostly 60 minutes long, about $10 a ticket. Most are held in regular theatres, but some are site-specific (like a great walking tour a few years ago based on Canterbury's Tales). Performances are chosen by lottery (no risk of favouritism), and performers, while mostly North American, come from around the world.

I saw about 8 shows this year, a record for me, and I'm happy to say that, after years of "'fringing," I'm finally getting the hang of it.

First: don't buy tickets in advance. Half the fun is making decisions based on conversations you strike up while waiting in line.

Second: venues are spread out. You may want to focus on one area a day rather than waste time commuting. Unless you have a bike, in which case, you're golden.

Third: bring change. Lots of it. Fringe is fully funded by grants and donations. 100% of the ticket sales go to the performers. So they collect loose change before every event, and you don't want to feel cheap, do you? After all, you're getting such great entertainment for so little.

Last: bring your own food and refreshments. I went 8 hours yesterday with no food except junk from the one vending machine I saw all day. At least I had my water bottle -- but I was starving by the end. Bad planning on my part, but it's all because I heard of a great show at the last minute and the time I'd set aside for lunch was sacrificed. Yes, it was worth it, but I won't let that happen again.

My favourites this year are When Harry met Harry, Pitch Blonde, the Giant's Garden -- bring the kids to this one -- and Mickey and Judy. Check them out if they show up somewhere near you.

At home, cursing

Every year, my neighbours throw a summer party.

By neighbours, I don't mean the condo next door. I mean the building 2 buildings over.

The party is always on the Tuesday following Canada Day.

How do I know this about something that happens only once a year 2 buildings away? Simple, its an outdoor party with the most annoying DJ ever!!!!!!

So, if I know all this, why is it I always forget to stay way that night?

2 hours later: that DJ must die!

Pride Toronto - or my bah-humbug weekend

The Church and Wellesley intersection -- Toronto Pride Central -- lies one short northwest block from my home of the past 16 years.  Here, Pride is a week-long affair.

In the early days, I went to everything: the bars, the street events, the concerts. OK, maybe not everything: I skipped the hairy butt contests.

This weekend, I stopped for a nano-second to listen to a outdoor concert but got turned off by the rowdy drunks poring out of the subway just behind us and decided to go home.

I'm sad to say I no longer go to Pride, and now you now why.

There is still a lot of good to be said about Pride, and I'm happy that I live in the heart of the LGBT community the rest of the year, but Pride weekend has been taken over by people who just want to ogle bare tits (or asses) and get drunk. Not my thing anymore, if it ever was.

I did go for brunch in the hood while most people were watching the parade -- figured it would be safe from the a-holes, and it was -- and my server forgave me for skipping Pride because I was reading a book on Breakfast at Tiffany's (little did he know I'd just found out the narrator is gay. I'm slow that way.).

I am glad to report, however, that not everyone is an ole curmudgeon like me. Read this lovely account from a first-timer (and forgive him or her the tacky virgin reference.)

Happy Pride, everyone!

Corporate cooking classes at Great Cooks on Eight

Great Cooks on Eight used to be in the Bay's basement cookware department. They sold great tea, gave cooking classes with top chefs (I'm pretty sure I  took one), and sold great meals to go. Then they moved to some obscure  adjacent building, and I promptly forgot about them.

I heard about them now and then, of course, their classes are well known, but I was still surprised when someone at work decided to organize a cooking class for our team. I don't know why, I just figured that was something other companies did, not mine. Frankly, I always thought team building outings were kind of weird, and team cooking was one of the weirder ones. (Dropping from on high into the arms of your colleagues would be one of the scarier ones!)

Let me tell you that this was one seriously well-organized class. We worked in teams, and I'm pretty sure each team learned a new skill. We had 5 staff keeping us busy so there was never a dull moment. No one had only one task nor were there really boring tasks.


I can't stress that last part enough: I once took a class at Dish and my role was to stir milk for 20 minutes to make Dulce de Leche. I was not pleased and have not gone back since.

The food was delicious, the company was great, we all had lots of fun, and the fun continued the next day at work.

I get it now.

The ROM for the Water exhibit

My employeers being a sponsor of the exhibit, about 25 of my colleagues and I team went to the ROM to see the water exhibit. We had 2 docents assigned to us. Docents are not for everybody. I do better alone at this type of show. I can read the information, touch the exhibits, and watch the videos at my leisure. I felt rushed today, and rightly so -- we went through it in an hour. I'd say it would normally take at least double that to do it justice.  By the end , I was hot and tired, so I left but I'll go back to see it again, more slowly this time.

It's a great exhibit. It takes you through the origins of water, the uses of water preservation through time, the technology -- young and old, natural or manmade -- used to harvest, distribute, preserve, and clean water, and kinds of other neat water-related facts.

The live exhibit is particularly enlightening: animals that don't drink water; animals that can only access salt water and how they've evolved to live on that; camels that survive for days without water (no, it's not in their hump!). This is the kind of information that I just soak up like a sponge, and that museums present so well.

The exhibit is still on for a month or so, so try to see it if you can. It's time well spent.

So quick, can you name the 3 states of water?

Breakfast at Tiffany's at the TIFF Bell Lightbox

Since they moved into their new headquarters, the TIFF Bell Lightbox (quite a mouthful - I really wish naming rights had never been invented!), almost a year ago, I've been dropping by at least once a week, and often more, to see great movies. (Tiff, by the way, stands for Toronto International Film Festival.)

You see, seeing a movie at the Lightbox is not your typical movie-going experience.

First, it's a beautiful bright and airy building. You walk into a large 2-story atrium flooded with light. The ground floors has a small store that sells mostly movies, books about movies, and TIFF merchandise; a gallery for  movie-related exhibits; a casual restaurant with better-than-decent food -- great breakfasts! -- and a big outdoor terrace; and lastly, the box office.

On the 2nd floor, we have 3 theatres, a formal restaurant, the Blackberry lounge, a bar-cum hangout sponsored by.... why Blackberry, of course. (I love it 'cos I can charge by Bberry there which I often need to do.). There's 2 more theatres on the 3rd floor, plus Learning Labs -- studios, editing suites, and rehearsal halls for cinema students. 

There are 2 more floors, with offices, the Cinematheque film archives, and much more.

But it's also what's not there that I love: no gaudy decor, no video arcade, no greasy food or stale popcorn smell, no dirty carpets, no loud music. In other words, this is a cinema for grownups. 

The programming is pretty cool too. Tonight I sawBreakfast at Tiffany's, part of their Books on Film series.Thursday is the start of a Raj Kapoor retrospective, running simultaneously with a Fellini mini-fest. They're showing musicals outdoors this summer (West Side Story, here I come!). Well, you can check it out for yourself.

Me, I'll be back there Friday, for Armadillo.

Royal Ontario Museum (the ROM) for the Ed Burtynsky exhibit

I rarely go to the ROM. It's a fine museum, with interesting exhibits thanks to a wide and deep permanent collection, but I'm just rarely in the mood for the kind of shows museums curate.

Today, we went to see an exhibit of Ed Burtynsky photographs on oil. This type of exhibit should be held in an art gallery, but the lines are getting increasingly blurred between art galleries and museums, so to the museum we went.

First, we had brunch in C5, a beautiful restaurant at the top of the building. Scrambled eggs & lobster -- the eggs perfectly fluffy, the lobster a teeny bit overdone but not so much to make it unpleasantly chewy, a beautifully creamy avocado puree, the whole topped with a sprinkle fried black beans. A great way to start the day. The restaurant is big, bright and inviting; the staff warm and unpretentious. I loved it.

Next we headed down a floor to the Burtynsky show. It did not disappoint. Over the years, I've seen a number of his oil photographs, but to have most of them in one place really brings it all together, from how we get our oil to to the residues of using it. It's only when you see the mountains of discarded tires, empty oil drums, rusted car batteries, and dismantled cars; only when you see those mountains of waste do you begin to understand the full impact of the oil industry.

I did spend some time visiting the other floors, but not in great depth -- I did overhear that the other exhibit they're holding now, on water, is worth it. So I will be back at the ROM soon, and suggest you drop in if you're in the neighbourhood.

FrancoFete at Harbourfront

Today I volunteered at the cooking demos of the FrancoFete, the annual celebration of French culture at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.

For those who don't know, Harbourfront is a cultural centre that hosts festivals each weekend throughout the summer, each with a different theme. Next week is Canada Day, the week after is Mexico, just to name few.

The first food demo today was spectacular... and the food samples more than generous! The hosts were Les Touilleurs from Montreal, a foodie store with their own TV show. I discovered the joys of smoking .... smoking fish, smoking duck, cold smoking, hot smoking. Not only is it super easy to do (who knew!) and you don't need special tools -- unless you think of woodchips as tools -- it was delicious. First we had fish: smoked sturgeon, black cod and scallops, each prepared a bit differently. Then we had a smoked duck sample in a lovely mixed salad. And they topped it off with banana cheese cake.

Lucky me, I'm going to Montreal soon, so I'm definitely dropping by their store.