Visit 12 new places in my city in 2007

I visited the Textile Museum of Canada today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. My mom gave me some museum passes and this was one of them. I didn’t expect much from a fabric museum, and it didn’t look like much from the outside where it’s located at the side of a condo. This made me snicker inwardly, “What kind of a museum lives inside a condo?” And then I walked up a colourful, tightly spiraled staircase to get to the exhibits. On the forth floor was an Indigo dye exhibit with an excellent documentary showing the fascinating ways the dye’s made. Indigo actually comes from a green plant! I’ll never look at blue fabric the same again.

I visited the Japan Foundation to see their Japanese art exhibit. I’ve walked past the Foundation several times and was always intrigued by their beautiful logo. The letters J and F are written in script to form the outline of a graceful butterfly. How beautiful!, is what I think every time I see it.

I had drinks with a friend at a popular deli that I’ve walked past many, many times. I can’t remember the name of it and I’m counting it as a new place since it’s been there forever.

I want to Ward Island today and the place was poetic. It’s located on the eastern tip of an island just minutes away from downtown Toronto. A whole community actually live here in their small picturesque houses with lush, colourful gardens. It’s a part of Toronto and yet it’s separated by a vast, shimmering lake that makes it feel like it’s another world.

A large ferry carried me over to Ward Island. I enjoyed travelling on the lake and being in between the city and the island, where one side was filled with outlines of a cosmopolitan city and at the other filled out in promising green. It was an accidental adventure because I usually go to Centre Island which is to the west, but on a whim I took the ferry to Ward. And I’m thankful I did. There were less people there and with the great views, I felt peaceful and happy.

Our city’s Royal Ontario Museum just opened its spectacular new addition called the Michael Chin-Lee Crystal. The idea is that a large crystal falls from the sky and onto the Museum’s historic building to become a part of it. I explored it when it was still empty of installations. Being in the stark white, sharply angular rooms felt new and exciting, like I was discovering a new space entirely. There were oddly angled and shaped windows overlooking the busy street below. Finding the windows was fun and made me feel like a kid. I liked the way they married the new architecture with the old historic building, walking through the space I could see the old building peaking through. What a place! What a great city!

Parkdale used to be a neighbourhood known for it’s drug dealers, now it’s becoming our city’s hippest place with artist and their trippy shops. Today, I ventured into these shops and galleries. This neighbourhood is a place that’s full of change. Starbucks’ sit next to old rundown buildings and trendy shops, with their expensive T-shirts, are tucked in between neighbourhood eateries. Panhandlers and fashion plates share the sidewalks. What an interesting place.

I stumbled on some great old buildings in my city today. They were hidden in the financial district and they were stunning.

I had the greatest time laughing at a local improv theatre called BadDog. The performers were on last night, and the sketches had all of us roaring. It only costed $8 and was a total treat to be a part of so much fun energy. A great way to spend the night!

Who knew place settings could be so interesting?! I visited the Gardiner Ceramic Museum. It’s free on Friday afternoons, so I had a leisurely walk among the history of ceramics. This museum’s been here a long time, but I’ve never been because I thought it was it was filled with plates and teapots. It is. And there’s other stuff too, interesting stuff. I liked the tranquility of the place – it was sound proof. I dig that.

I went to one of our city’s contemporary art galleries, The Powerplant. It’s an amazing place with mind-opening installations. In the upstairs viewing room was a video installation by Yeal Bartana called “Wild Seeds”. It showed Israeli teens playing at a game that they made up, where policemen forcibly pry settlers off their land. It’s disturbing and fascinting watching these overtly happy teens playing a game that depicts so much violence and pain. It was even more compelling to watch them play this game while surrounded by scenic mountains.

Art when it’s most profound, makes the viewer feel it. This short video showed me what happens when violence and instability become the foundations of everyday life. It makes me grateful that I live in Canada, where peace upholds our everyday lives. The Powerplant’s an excellent place to visit.