First, I closely followed Dessert By Candy's Toronto West Walking Tour knowing that I won't complete all of it. She said it took 6 hours, but I most of it, walking all the way to Spadina, in three hours.
I had never visited this part of Toronto before, so west, and I was excited. Of course I picked up a huge amount of business cards along the way. I missed many galleries along the way since I didn't want to keep on crisscrossing the streets right when I saw another potential for a great card (note: you can spot them by the design of their shops and signs), something I was already doing constantly. As I collected more and more cards along the way, my puny bag was bursting to the brim with cards and I was so afraid it would drop or burst and scatter all the cards everywhere right at the moment when I would be asking a shop for a business card. I blushed just thinking about the results of that disaster-to-be.
In following a tour I had printed out on paper in someone else's words, I kept on walking past stores I was supposed to go in on the tour since I was so caught up in collecting business cards. I'd realize that I was at store 703 already and I passed 956 three blocks ago.
On Queen West near the Dollarama I saw a random poem by Michael Roberts posted on a window. I wanted to take a picture but didn't have my camera with me.
I've heard about Terroni's before and I walked in thinking I could get just a slice of their $14 pizzas. No such thing. Dang. I was so full (and broke) from the desserts, I didn't know what to do. I mentally planned on coming straight down to Terroni's another time and this time just settled for their business card.
When I reached walked past Fressen and saw Augusta leading into Kensington Market, it made me think of Joyce and I decided to call her to see whether or not she'd like to meet up with me later. I asked where she was and told her I was at Augusta. "I'm at Augusta too!" she said. I looked across the street and there she was! That was the weirdest thing. She just had lunch so she couldn't go anywhere with me and had to go back to work. I still had Le Gourmand of my tour to complete and she got off work in 2.5 hours, so I thought I could spend that much time in Queen West. Well, I had overestimated my patience. My leg was killing me, first my knee on my right foot and then my thigh of the left. I had to sit down. I killed 40 minutes at Le Gourmand but after that I became restless and headed off again...to where, though? I wandered around. This part of town isn't extremely new to me so I didn't want to go around killing my leg exploring that much. Luckily, I came across the store Criminal Records. I've been past this place many times whenever I come to Queen St. but I never got a chance to go inside until yesterday. It is AMAZING! It was my dream one-shop-for-rock store. I was always wondering where I could buy band t-shirts without having to a) have gone to a concert or b) endure the shipping and handling charges through online vendors. Well, here is the solution. I browsed the shirts but since I have little money right now I placed some orders for CDs instead. I was going to buy these CDs on Amazon anyway but I felt like supporting local shops. I always feel guilty when I buy something for very cheap on Amazon. It reminds me of going to a virtual Wal-Mart.
After that my right knee felt like it was (happily) tearing itself apart from my leg, and my stomach had nothing to eat but desserts all day. I quickly bought some Tums from a convenience store and chewed, hoping to speed up the process. After a few more minutes I hurried into a random restaurant and asked meekly if I could use their washroom.
This was at Spadina and Adelaide. As I walked back, I thought about dinner options for my sister and I. I've been craving Fresh for a while so I was happy to see one on Richmond so close by, but I knew J would hate me if I "dragged" her to another vegetarian place again so I thought of Terroni's just in case, although I didn't want to mess up my evening plans for Terroni's.
By this time I arrived on the southwest corner of Spadina and Queen and I just had to sit down for a bit. I rested on the steps of the bank and looked southeast. There was the CN Tower looming so very close, midday sun in the sky, streetcars and cars zooming past. I just had to take a picture so I used my camera phone. Funny, my camera phone is filled with all these pictures of downtown Toronto. Last year I did a whirlwind tour of all the sites (for free! because of the reciprocal program at Canada's Wonderland) and also didn't have a phone with me.
After a little more impatience and grumbling and tired legs and wasted time, I met J after work and coincidentally she had purchased a day pass! She gave it to me and bought tickets instead, since we had to go back and forth to her place. I discussed the Terroni's/Fresh thing with her and she decided she felt like pizza. I thought the Queen St. location of Terroni's was too far (and would therefore mess up my night plans) so I checked my business card, which took me forever to find and dig out since it was at the bottom of my massive pile, to see if there were closer locations. There was one on Victoria and though J claimed it was nearby we couldn't find it when we were heading east to her place. We were all the way in Regent Park and we took the bus down Parliament, then was heading for the Queen St. location by streetcar when it stopped right at Victoria. Taking a gamble, I looked closely at the street sign to see if we were at all close to 106 Victoria, which is where the restaurant is. The sign said we were right at 106 so we quickly got off the streetcar.
We ordered Gigarnelli pasta and Peppino pizza, and I ended up liking the pasta more than the pizza, although I loved both. I tend to usually do a bad thing and give better tips when the food is better so I felt guilty giving a small tip but I was completely broke. Well, not completely because we then headed to the Eaton Centre where I had hoped there was a Jacob Connexion so that I could buy the tank top I've been wanting. That's where I spent my last $10.
I then said goodbye to J as she headed off to H&M and I went up to...Dundas Square!
It so happened that Yonge-Dundas Square was going to show a public screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey (must I do the italics? I think not) outside, in public, amongst so many other people, in the heart of T.O, in the heart of a miniature NYTimesSqaure wannabe, and the movie was on my "To Watch" list!
I tried watching this movie when I was still too young and VCRs were still the main type of home video entertainment recording/watching device. I had barely watched any movies older than me, so I thought I'd get through this old, boring, classical music-infused thing of a doowopper by fast-forwarding through most of it. By the time I got to the part where the monkey started smashing the bones I was laughing uncontrollably and fast forwarded some more. I then got to the space apparatus and Blue Danube part and I started falling asleep, and once I saw people actually inside the spaceship it freaked me out and I gave up on watching it.
Jump to about 6 years later and I must admit, in public, under the stars, six years after the actual 2001, aircraft flying overhead with their red lights flashing, it was much more interesting than before.
I got there way too early for fear I would sit in the very back. I got a nice seat in the middle, but the only problem was everybody else was with somebody else and I was completely alone, nobody sitting beside me. Then a couple came and they sat beside me. This made me feel very depressed, actually, because the antics of the guy reminded me of those of MP. Anyway, right before the movie started this girl sat beside me. She was alone! She was from Mississauga and had seen the "Creatures" theme of the YDSquare screenings from last year (next year's theme is "Date Movies"). Before the movie was an episode of Flash Gordon, an extremely campy version of sci-fi movies and I lost interest in it quickly.
When the theme song for 2001 finally came on, I felt a chill up my spine, and it wasn't just because of the cold although it was getting dark and I was, in fact already quite cold at the time. It was because the sound was so frickin' loud! That would turn out to be a problem later on in the movie when the there were shrieks of high-pitchedness that would cause rock concert-goers to wince. I figured I'd probably be deaf by the time I hit 30 anyway, so I sort of shrugged it off, once, twice, the third time I plugged my ears.
When the monkey part was getting near, the MP-behave-alike half of the couple got up. The girl whipped out her camera and I was thinking, "I was going to take a picture too. Maybe I'll do that later." Suddenly this creature donning a hairy ape mask ran in front of the screen making monkey sounds and the girl was laughing, filming the whole thing. I wonder if it's on YouTube now.
Some notes on the actual film:
- I don't really know who the actor is (Keir Dullea) or what other films he's been in, but he looked a lot like Daniel Bruhl.
- IBM is from every letter next to HAL in the alphabet
The fetus-in-space scared and amazed me at the same time, and as it floated into space, the music signalling the beginning of the end of the movie started and I was so entranced by it that when something touched my thigh I jumped right out of my seat. I had my cellphone in my pant pocket on to vibrate during the movie, just in case going home arrangements would be changed. My dad called to say he'd pick me up at the subway station, but at that time I thought it was the baby actually floating towards me and touching me or something. I was surprised that I didn't scream.
Well, that was that, I got back on the subway and went home although by that time I was dying for McDonald's fries because I saw everybody having Mickey D's for dinner (even though I had excellent Terroni's leftovers in my hands). The first time I went downtown by myself I remember by the time I got onto the subway to go back north I was exhausted, my eyes barely awake, leaning against the window, looking out, just wanting to sleep. I passed the station going from Davisville to Eglinton and I remember I felt as if the lighted condos were castles and I was floating in the sky. It was a magical moment only a city could give me and ever since I've come to Toronto I always wanted to experience it again. This time it was dark enough to see the lights come on, but way too dark so that the other side of the metro was reflected in the glass and I couldn't see anything else. Next time, I guess. I knew I couldn't have that much of a perfect day, but it was close. There were so many coincidences that I wonder if it wasn't the day made for me--I always had the exact amount of money, timing, and weather for me to go anywhere and do everything I wanted to on that day.
National Post's weekendly Toronto Magazine had in its previous edition "84 reasons to not leave Toronto for the summer". I've done a lot of them in a day, and so I guess I can say goodbye to Toronto for these hot days ahead. Hello Ottawa, next week!
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