Shopping Carts in Ravines

For me, one of the definite highlights of the trip to NYC was visiting The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill, an animatronics-based non-graffiti exhibit by infamous street and guerilla artist Banksy, who also happens to be my favourite contemporary artist. (Although for the record, Tom Green did the hang-your-own-painting-in-a-big-gallery trick in Ottawa first!)

I found out about the exhibit (and that it was by Banksy, as it exists anonymously and is staffed by randoms) from Wooster Collective, whose RSS feed I really need to stay up on because I just missed them speaking in Toronto by a day. I’m really glad they were careful about spoilers and left out some of my favourite things, like the leopard. (The exhibit is closed now.)

Many people who lined up did so only because they were walking down the rather busy street it was on and saw a line of people waiting to get into what appeared to be a pet store with a leopard in the window. I heard a lot of “Uh, I think it’s an art thing?”
Some things you had to see online though, like the record of the view from the mother CCTV camera’s lens:

Unlike his first North American exhibit in LA where Banksy painted an elephant to match a magenta-and-gold wallpaper print, officially decreed illegally animal abuse, much of this exhibit had strong anti-animal exploitation themes. Banksy not only said that this was a concious flip, but that much of the money from the elephant exhibit went into funding this one.

A woman outside was handing out Go Veg For Thanksgiving pamphlets but I rejected them because I’m already vegan, I already have good Thanksgiving recipes, and our Thanksgiving had already passed anyway. I don’t think she was officially associated with the exhibit, just using the opportunity.

taken in Brooklyn by Greenpoint station

people have been thinking too long that art is a privilege of the MUSEUMS & THE RICH. ART IS NOT BUSINESS! It does not belong to banks & fancy investors. ART IS FOOD. YOU CANT EAT IT BUT IT FEEDS you. ART HAS TO BE CHEAP & AVAILABLE to EVERYBODY. It needs to be EVERYWHERE because it is INSIDE of the WORLD. ART SOOTHES PAIN ART WAKES UP SLEEPERS! ART FIGHTS AGAINST WAR AND STUPIDITY! ART SINGS HALLELUJA! ART IS FOR KITCHENS! ART IS LIKE GOOD BREAD! ART IS LIKE GREEN TREES! ART IS WHITE CLOUDS IN BLUE SKY! ART IS CHEAP! HAZAAH FOR ART!

Photo in Chinatown, poster is quoting: Bread & Puppet, Glover, Vermont 1984

The Conservative party member running in York South-Weston (Toronto) Aydin Cocelli has been placing many signs around the area that I believe are in violation of either the Federal (Canada Elections Act) or municipal (Toronto Municipal Code) laws, or possibly both, requiring that signs only be posted on private property.

In this offensive example, he or his supporters (I seriously doubt he has many supporters in this riding who aren’t also named Cocelli) have NAILED a sign to a piece of local youth-created community artwork.

As King Harper said, ordinary Canadians don’t care about art - or ethically-run elections, or the people of Toronto, or…

From Zach at Cows By The Fence who is in South Korea struggling to explain Engrish to his ESL students to keep them from making embarrassingly hilarious mistakes on signage.

I was walking by the Student Centre with Mike and, given the issues in the air at the moment, noticed a cop car driving into the loop. Yeah, I would’ve obviously noticed the cop car anyway, one for it being on campus, two for it being a cop car at all regardless of context.

The thing is, two more drove up and parked behind the first, near Vari Hall. This was followed by a York Security car.

Given what’s been going on lately at York, I figured it’d be handy to have some shots of police vehicles with York buildings, even if there wasn’t anything going on at this moment. I also on a whim decided to take this photo from higher up.

Not one minute after I snapped that shot, this powerfully loud clanging alarm started ringing that could be heard in and on Behavioural Sciences, as well as in Vari and Ross.

We went downstairs and outside and were advised to remain outside by staff who said they were planning on going home, but wouldn’t state anything further towards an explanation for the alarm.

A crowd of people accumulated outside Vari, a fire prevention van showed up plus another cop car.

That’s all the information I’ve got so far, as we got on the Glendon bus and spent the rest of the daylight exploring over there.

I can say that if an alarm had been pulled, a firetruck would have responded, if anyone was injured a firetruck and/or ambulance would have come, and if there was any sort of a situation involving serious weapons then the police would’ve brought the ETF. So all of that sniffing lands me at the foot of a safety drill, but I’m not so sure that’s what it was.

We were specifically cautioned not to go back into the Behavioural Science building and police were questioning a woman inside, which was visible from the window.

Well, had some downtime there, so this post is slightly out of date now that the exhibit has closed… but oh well.

I was delivering flyers for The Power Plant (the art gallery) to various galleries and cafes and whatnot around town, which was pretty cool because I got a chance to check out all the little independent galleries around West Queen West.

One of these galleries is Mercer Union on Lisgar St. I’d been in only once before, during Nuit Blanche of this year, but this time I encountered something I was already familiar with but totally I hadn’t been expecting:

On display was Michel de Broin’s “Shared Propulsion Car.”

The thing is, this “car” is actually totally stripped down inside (the engine is gone, which is apparent from a quick glance through the window) and the seats have been replaced with four chairs, each with bicycle pedals, to create something between a four-person bike and a Flintstones car. In fact, the “headlights” glowing in that first photo actually have tealight candles burning away in them, as the car has no source of power.

I’d previously heard about this piece on blogTO when it was taken for a four-person test “drive” that resulted in a $500 fine which has turned into an upcoming trial.

I believe the woman working at the gallery said a court date of April 8th was set, and they and their legal counsel feel confident that the court will rule in their favour - i.e. that this is not a car and not subject to laws pertaining to automobiles, but rather that it is a decorated bicycle and just as legal for road use as much larger multi-person bikes.

These double-ad garbage/recycling bins are ubiquitous in Toronto, and in the lead-up to Buy Nothing Day 2007 an advertisement was switched out for a BND poster.

The poster originally included the Nov 23rd date, but this photo was taken a couple days after BND and someone had decided to wipe the date off once it had passed, leaving the rest intact.