"POSITIVE ENERGY! POSITIVE ENERGY!"
That is what a lady shouted as she waved her hands at me when I was walking into a church last night. It was the first time I'd been inside a church in almost ten years. It made me think, whoa, church has really changed since I was last there! I actually feel like I almost have too much positive energy these days. I am struggling to keep my apartment clean, but succeding in all the other avenues. I am suddenly starting to dress a little like a Nietzsche scholar or something, which I think is just because I like contradiction. I like looking bleak when I don't at all feel it.
Last night in Toronto we had the free, all-night, all-over-town contempoary art extravagaza, Nuit Blanche. It is exactly the kind of urban experience I love best. I just kept being struck by how surreal it was to look around me and see a version of the world that's pretty close to being how you want it to be, and to be reminded that that could be how life is.
By far, the most awesome thing was the "Ballroom Dancing" performance exhibit. The same people who did "Haircuts By Children" put this on. They took a school gymnasium, turned off the lights, filled it with thousands of multicoloured and multi-sized rubber balls, had a video projection screen and a DJ for an all-ages all night dance party meets dodgeball game?! It was among the most surreal and wonderful things I have ever seen. I kinda feel that all of the world's problems could be sorted out within the confines of this exhibit.
It was really difficult to capture with the camera, so we tried taking little videos! They are really dark and the sound is awful, but I think you can get the idea.
Inside the fog sculpture! My companions, a bunch of Ontarians and displaced Westerners, find the idea of fog so spooky and novel and exotic, probably because they only ever really see it in movies. Whereas I found it beautiful and peaceful and a little homesickness inducing, because it reminded me of quiet 2am walks home when you feel like the only person awake in the whole world. As the night went on, there actually started to be a huge lineup of people waiting to get in. People lining up to see fog!
Little aliens in a sandbox! I want one!
The "wish tree" was kind of cute. Some of the things people wrote were really sad. Most had something to do with unrequited love or love gone wrong, and some person wrote "BLOOD" in their own actual blood. But there were also really funny and cute ones.
"I WISH... FOR AWESOME RIFFS"
"I WISH... they would bring back Captain Picard"
Not pictured, but should have been: Huge scale corn roast (for the record, lime juice and cayenne on corn is very recommended!) / colonialism and biodiversity commentary, the room of miniature children's art at the AGO, giant Twister game, all-night pool party, graffitied AIDS memorial, sketchy all-girl street pillow fight in rich neighbourhood (one of my companions aptly noted, "art is supposed to reinforce gender roles, right?").
It was just unspeakably amazing to be out and about in your city at 3am and the streets are overflowing with people who are just SO EXCITED ABOUT ART! Back alleys and parks that would otherwise be so sketchy at that hour were instead full of people bouncing balls around or queuing up to go play in man-made fog.
These days I feel like I am getting good at being a grown up, because I remember to do things like buy more soymilk before it goes sour in the fridge. But then I come home and see the same homeless man curled up on the radiator in the lobby of my building, trying to sleep and hoping nobody will kick him out into the cold. And the way that makes me feel, I think that there are things about being a grown up I will never be good at.
Last night in Toronto we had the free, all-night, all-over-town contempoary art extravagaza, Nuit Blanche. It is exactly the kind of urban experience I love best. I just kept being struck by how surreal it was to look around me and see a version of the world that's pretty close to being how you want it to be, and to be reminded that that could be how life is.
By far, the most awesome thing was the "Ballroom Dancing" performance exhibit. The same people who did "Haircuts By Children" put this on. They took a school gymnasium, turned off the lights, filled it with thousands of multicoloured and multi-sized rubber balls, had a video projection screen and a DJ for an all-ages all night dance party meets dodgeball game?! It was among the most surreal and wonderful things I have ever seen. I kinda feel that all of the world's problems could be sorted out within the confines of this exhibit.
It was really difficult to capture with the camera, so we tried taking little videos! They are really dark and the sound is awful, but I think you can get the idea.
Inside the fog sculpture! My companions, a bunch of Ontarians and displaced Westerners, find the idea of fog so spooky and novel and exotic, probably because they only ever really see it in movies. Whereas I found it beautiful and peaceful and a little homesickness inducing, because it reminded me of quiet 2am walks home when you feel like the only person awake in the whole world. As the night went on, there actually started to be a huge lineup of people waiting to get in. People lining up to see fog!
Little aliens in a sandbox! I want one!
The "wish tree" was kind of cute. Some of the things people wrote were really sad. Most had something to do with unrequited love or love gone wrong, and some person wrote "BLOOD" in their own actual blood. But there were also really funny and cute ones.
"I WISH... FOR AWESOME RIFFS"
"I WISH... they would bring back Captain Picard"
Not pictured, but should have been: Huge scale corn roast (for the record, lime juice and cayenne on corn is very recommended!) / colonialism and biodiversity commentary, the room of miniature children's art at the AGO, giant Twister game, all-night pool party, graffitied AIDS memorial, sketchy all-girl street pillow fight in rich neighbourhood (one of my companions aptly noted, "art is supposed to reinforce gender roles, right?").
It was just unspeakably amazing to be out and about in your city at 3am and the streets are overflowing with people who are just SO EXCITED ABOUT ART! Back alleys and parks that would otherwise be so sketchy at that hour were instead full of people bouncing balls around or queuing up to go play in man-made fog.
These days I feel like I am getting good at being a grown up, because I remember to do things like buy more soymilk before it goes sour in the fridge. But then I come home and see the same homeless man curled up on the radiator in the lobby of my building, trying to sleep and hoping nobody will kick him out into the cold. And the way that makes me feel, I think that there are things about being a grown up I will never be good at.