An interesting take on "graffiti" or street art is KNITTA PLEASE's wildly coloured knit acts of vandalism. The crew, based out of Houston, uses half, quarter and almost finished knitting projects to decorate the urban landscape. Stop signs, parking metres and other elements presenting a suitable home for a "tag", are artfully decorated with a collar of knitted art. The crew boasts adds colour to the landscape in many other cities as seen from their web gallery. Here is just one example of the Knittas work.

While doing some research for a bit of work I'm doing, I came across this interesting project. "The Ark of Taste" is an offshoot project from the slowfood organisation that is designed to preserve foods that are at risk of becoming extinct. All participating countries have certain criteria that allow a certain food product, fruit or vegetable to enter into the "ark". Once a food is granted status, specific marketing and promotion are done to encourage the sale and consumption of this product, thereby saving it from becoming extinct.

One of the things that caught my attention about this whole project, was the idea that to prevent foods and tastes from becoming extinct, we must train ourselves to discern more and higher quality tastes. When we, as a society, begin to lose our ability to appreciate a variety of high quality flavours, we no longer desire such a broad range of products.

It's a great idea and really translates as "eat better quality foods, or be doomed to a lifetime of shitty produce". Who can't get on board with that?

The Ark of Taste

My recent trip to Montreal was fantastic. The city always revitalises me and shows me a different side. Though we went primarily for the Jazz festival (which of course did not dissapoint), the market at Jean Talon was the big winner. Fabulous ambiance, incredible local produce and products and great deals on everything. I really haven't seen a market like that since leaving the shores of Europe.

My favourite aspect was the amount of local producers and artisans. Preserves, juices, liquors and beers, cheeses and countless varieties of produce all grown within la belle province. The pride Quebeckers have for their land never ceases to amaze me and always rubs off on me.

Other big winners were a small arts festival we stumbled upon close to the downtown, finding a certain French language hip-hop CD I am interested in and meeting friends not seen since a years time. All great times set in a fabulous city.

One thing I did not manage to accomplish was renting a bike and seeing a bit more of the city on bike, however that is still on the plate and will have to wait till next year I suppose. Can't do it all and the market was really a bit one that occupied a good part of our day.

All in all, my visit was once again thoroughly satisfying. Great to speak the language again and great new finds around the city.

Haven't written for quite some time, yet I've wanted to a hundred times. Must get but in gear and make self write more and more. Ok.

One of the highlights of my summer to come is visiting the new addition to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). It officially opened this past weekend in Toronto, and has thus far received mixed reactions. Some glowing, others almost hateful. Really though, I can't wait to see it up close, as the pictures and plans can only say so much. I have decided I'm going to love it though.

The reason I'm going to love it is its boldness. Whatever your reaction to it, it does have people talking a great deal and is a huge focus for Toronto. The city isn't exactly known for world class architecture (the CN tower doesn't exactly count), but can now count the Daniel Libeskind designed addition among its sites to see and things to talk about. I too can't stop talking about it and haven't seen it yet.

Besides its boldness I do love the striking difference between the existing structure and the addition. One stone and Baroque, the other modern steel and glass. The lines of the addition are clean, but harsh. The addition juts out over Bloor street and demands to be seen, and seen it will be. All week tours are being offered and then the exhibits will be put in.

Regardless of my impressions, I'm sure I'll love it for some reasons, hate it for others and not stop talking about it for loads of other reasons.

** This was written quite some time ago, I only now posted it.**

Ça fait du temps! It's been quite some time since I've posted on this blog. In fact I think the one year "anniversary" of my writing came and went. Tant pis. In fact, the reason for my lack of posting is that I have been working on my french blog for a class that I am taking. Trying to force myself to improve my writing abilities in French. Maybe I should just stick to one language, instead of tormenting the multi-lingual.

The class is at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and is the first that I've taken at any school in Vancouver. The campus is a beautiful spread of concrete architecture, perched high on Burnaby mountain with a view of greater Vancouver and the North Shore mountains. Really quite spectacular on clear days. I do enjoy being back in the academic environment on the other side of the classroom. Challenging, balancing the two, but very helpful. I'm able to put a lot of what we are learning directly into practice, most times the very next day.

There really is something special about being at a school of higher learning. Just a lot of possibilities and intelligence whirling around. While I don't necessarily look at my university years as "the best years of my life", they were very formative and were filled with tons of interesting and thought-provoking experiences. Just taking this course has again, opened up lots of other possibilities and experiences that are available. I often see posters around campus for art exhibits or talks that would be fabulous to attend. Indeed I'd like to make more of an effort to see some of them.

Spring is approaching and I'm looking forward to the city coming back to life and participating in more and more activities as the days get longer and my work load gets shorter. Hopefully that will allow more time for writing and drinking of all varieties.

Body Worlds

An unbelievable exhibit that was in Vancouver for the better part of the fall until last weekend. I had slept on it for quite some time and finally got over to see it. Spectacular.

The exhibit uses real bodies to display the anatomical beauty of the human body. It uses some spectacular positions to highlight certain aspects of our physique, as well as some very interesting dissection techniques to present different views and parts of our body. Definitely worth checking out online and in the (excuse the cheese) flesh should it come to hood nearest you.

How Canadian are you?

A great article in the Globe and Mail about an issue I feel strongly about, national identity.It's something I often fret about and may be overly concerned about. According to the article, however my concerns may be justified. Focusing on the children of "visible-minority" immigrants, the article states that these individuals are identifying less and less with Canada and often integrate slower into Canadian society than their parents.

Given Canada's multicultural hodge podge, we really only have an identity if people integrate and contribute to the mix. Those marginalised, or those who marginalise themselves contribute little to Canadian culture and detract in some ways. Now I know stats can be misleading, but it is an issue that needs to be brought into the open and focused on if we are to be anything more than a land of satellite countries. Something to think about?

The "D" word

I was trying to think about when diversity could possibly be a bad thing. Take something like the concept of hot, and one can easily list many instances of when hot is good. By the same taken, one can also go on and on about when hot is not good. Hot car seats, hot lettuce, hot vodka and hot flashes are just a few examples. Diversity on the other hand, hell I can't possibly think of when you could have a negative aspect of diversity.

The reason for my train of thought came about while running through a slightly dodgy part of town. The area is a little run down, and suffers from some poor planning. It is, however in the process of revitalising itself thanks to some changes. I got to thinking about diversity while running through this area, because a friend had mentioned how building densely populated answers wasn't always a good thing in terms of planning. I agree, but density is needed to bring in adequate amounts of people to make a number of things viable. Transportation, a bustling street life and a mix of shops/services. Density by itself would not bring all the aforementioned things, but diversity sure would get you closer to that.

Building diverse living accomodations, diverse building types and trying to keep a mix of ethnicities in an area will all foster the types of places that are worth living, working, playing and being in. There is so much mono everything, and it seems like every time you stop there is a bit more. I say think diversity in everything we do and we'd all be a hell of a lot better. Although, if we all were thinking diversity, could diversity in itself be considered mono?

La vacance

Visiting family and friends in Toronto was a great experience. Never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to feel "at home" again after having been away for months. The conversation never dies and the only strangeness comes from the temporary nature of the relations. One week just isn't enough.

Seeing as many people as possible was great. Had the chance to see some friends that I haven't seen in quite some time which was excellent. Again though, it makes me sad when we get up to leave and I realise it will be months maybe even a year before we catch up again. There being no shortage of great places to be in and visit makes it even tougher to peg down when our next coffee will be.

Going downtown was great as always. Such a great feeling being in the mix of so many people and cultures. So many lifestyles crossing pathes over and over again. I especially enjoyed popping into the Opera house, which is a state of the art building. Gorgeous and another great landmark for Toronto.

A list of "to do's" awaits for the final days of my vacation. Not all of them are banal which is uplifting. We'll see how many end w/a line through their heart.