Wednesday, September 02, 2015

An unfortunate surfeit of vinyl...

Playlist
Alice Cooper - Zipper Catches Skin
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
Rheostatics - Double Live
Françoise Hardy - In Vogue
Jackie McLean - Fire & Love
Ornette Coleman - New York Is Now!
Steve Roach & Jeffrey Feyman - Trance Spirits
Michael Rother - Flammende Herzen (Remaster)
Drumheller - Wives
Medeski Martin & Wood - Shack Man
Pete Namlook & Robert Görl - Elektro II

Day three and I was up and out before eight to get provisions...


...which, as would become the norm, were enjoyed in the garden...






Some pics of the artworks and artefacts around the house...

There's a lot of art in this entry...












We didn't break the fish...







Liza's film posters...



A forgotten Canadian actor from the 80's, who is now unemployed and living with his parents, somehow became a superstar to Serbians in their fight for freedom...



Out and heading for the districts of Kensington and Chinatown - this, Tiny Records, was noted - but, like quite a few stores in Toronto, stocked mostly vinyl - just a handful of the much better sounding CD medium...


A streetcar into town then a walk up past the AGO, pictured yesterday from the CN Tower...




...under the baking hot sun...


Into Kensington Market - which is a district more than a market...






An interesting car was spotted...





...as were some posters for the underlying reason for our trip...



It was still early and a few shops, ok, a few record shops, I was looking to visit, were not yet open...


So we headed down through China Town towards Queen Street...







...where, after much walking about, refuge was taken from the sun...



...in another disappointing record shop...


...disappointing because it only stocked vinyl - what's wrong with these Canadians?


Back out, noting this oblique reference to Queen of the South...




...and into the welcoming air conditioned coffee shop, Early Bird...







Then, a search for a contemporary art gallery noted in our guide book as being here...


...but this was all that was left of it...


Back up to Kensington...


..and this now open shop proved to have better pickings for Mr CBQ...


An excellent selection of keenly priced second hand CDs was on offer, your correspondent partaking of four...


Lunch at what turned out to be the best burger place in the world...



We awaited fulfilment of our order...


...and organised our sauces etc...


Yum...


More walking in the hot sun...


I did not partake...


Adios Kensington...



Then, we returned here, which had also been shut earlier...


...and more items were acquired...


...before we made our way back to the centre - sun still burning us at every opportunity...


Tonight we would visit the blue building here, the AGO, for the first of three nights during our trip...


But, for now, it was back home for a rest...




...some listening to the new acquisitions...









...and some more coffee...


...before returning to the fray...

Past the Art School...


...to the AGO, the Art Gallery of Toronto,,,


They were setting up for four nights of sold out Rheostatics music...


..and who's this watching proceedings?


Why it's Martim Tielli of said Rheostatics...

  

We took the lift to the top floor to start there and make our way down through the collection...



This statue was submerged in Lake Ontario for a year to allow the local life to attach itself and naturally age the piece...




I wasn't expecting to see works by my favourite living painter...


...but here they were...




Yowsah!


As we made our way down the stairs, these views became available from the circling stairway which makes its way beyond the confines of the building...




Meanwhile, back inside...






...the stairs provided aerial views of the upcoming performance space...


Now to the majority of the art, celebrating Canada...



















Not Tom Thompson...
























  







This really was a beautiful building - designed by local boy, Frank Gehry...



And now, a surfeit of pictures by The Group of Seven...















































...and on...
























...and back to the ground floor...


...for art from the last 60 years or so...

Pollock...


Warhol...


Miro...



The unmistakable Franz Kline...



Picasso...





This too, is a Pollock, though an early one...




More Picasso...




And then, an exhibition on the nuclear age...








This display took us through every nuclear explosion from the very first pre Hiroshima tests to almost the present day...


We were nearly all arted out...


...but looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday, the two gigs we would attend...




We saw Mr Tielli again outside...



...before heading to the Village Idiot Pub for cooling drinks (although the AGO is wonderfully air-conditioned, it was like stepping into a jungle when we emerged)...



A walk in the dark on beyond the AGO to Chinatown...



...where a very tasty meal rounded off the day at the Lee Garden on Spadina...




...before heading home...


A packed day...

Highlight of the Day : Kensington and the AGO...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What a magical gallery. Loved the paintings by the GROUP OF SEVEN. It would have taken me a month to take all that in, I would have enjoyed the hot sun. Think I'd like Toronto.