JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

A couple of graveyards have mysteriously popped up a few blocks west of my bunker, such as this one. Since I didn't feel like sticking around the house last night, I drove around the city to see what folks were wearing this year. I intended to snap some pics, but failed to get any decent shots. The best of the lot was this test shot while waiting for two lanes to merge into one on Queen West. There was one factor I hadn't accounted for. Last time I was downtown on a Halloween Saturday night, Church St (and other streets, for all I know) was closed so that everyone had more room to mull around. Not the case this year. I suspect the current police job action played a role. From the comfort of my car, these were the highlights. Church St - half-a-dozen drag queens in full Wagnerian regalia. Maybe they were off to audition for the Bugs Bunny part in a remake of What's Opera Doc? Also noticed the two styles of costumes that reigned across the core: ancient Egyptians ...

Pathmark Fruit Punch Soda Pathmark, Newark, NJ Package Notes : Dark pink can promises "tropical taste". Drawings of pineapples and cherries in the background. Drink itself is light red in colour. What's It Like? : In the battle between the natural and artificial flavours noted on the front of the can, the latter wins. Overly sweet, tasting closer to bubble gum than tropical fruit. Dumped it down the drain after a few sips. Stains tongue but good. Would You Buy It Again? : Doubt it. It was like going to a bad luau where everything is made out of sub-dollar-store plastic. - JB

Dad was right about most things, right up to the end. While on his deathbed nearly five years ago, one of our last conversations came around to a new guy Amy was dating. I admit, I wasn't always the most supportive brother when it came to earlier relationships, mostly because they tended to be short-lived (or were guys she eventually mocked too). I hadn't met Gavin yet - they'd only been together about a month and I hadn't heard too much about him. Dad told me to be kind, as he sensed she might have found the right guy. He was right. Again. Gavin fit into the family quickly. At Dad's funeral, several people thought he was a relative, as some of his facial features vaguely resembled ours. As time passed, everyone figured it was a matter of time before Amy and Gavin tied the knot. Except for their first photographer going bankrupt and a change in best men, the preparations for the wedding went fine. Amy avoided going bridezilla and one could notice her smile w...

( Part One | Part Two ) Before heading off to the final two segments of Croft St, we duck onto Harbord to look at one of the remaining colonies of Val Kilmer heads in the city. Looking north at the entire length of segment #2 of Croft St, running from Lenox to a short alley that leads to Borden St. Lenox St's most noteworthy feature was the Bathurst subway station-themed mural at the NW corner of Bathurst, recently painted over. No more concerned female commuter or old guy leafing through a copy of Fantastic Four #1. The mural had been deteriorating, so it wasn't a surprise to discover its days were numbered. The rear of various businesses along Bloor. Note the obsession with arrows. This alleyway starts around Robert St, then turns into Croft. Looks like there's plenty of parking. A devilish figure welcomes you to the last segment of Croft. Looking north on the final, short segment of Croft, barely half-a-block in length. Hello Bloor Street! We've rea...

Sitting outside of Guelph London House shortly before returning to Canada, April 1997. - JB

Tennis has never been a sport I followed closely. For my football/basketball/baseball-fan father, it ranked down there with golf and bowling as sports to watch on the boob tube. I didn't pick up a raquet until high school gym class and proved spectacularly inept. Matches were over in 30 seconds. When Jess offered up tickets to a Davis Cup doubles match up at York, it was hard to resist. Another new experience, an afternoon with friends, etc. Truelove, Janine and I landed good seats, close to the court. They were also directly in the sun. By the start of the fourth set, our faces had started to turn a nice shade of red. We fled to a shady section of the stands for the nail-biting final set. Canada, anchored by Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer, went down to the wire to beat Belarus in four sets. You could feel the tension in the stands as the teams went into the tennis equivalent of sudden-death overtime. The stands were livelier than I expected, with patriotic cheers all ...

Is this where west end girls hang out in Toronto? Sorauren, just north of Queen, Sep 17/05 - JB

Photo taken September 2005 - JB

With all the furor about the city's new garbage recepticles, I haven't seen much outcry about the new infomaps popping up in local parks. Their supposed raison d'etre, a neighbourhood map, is hidden by the ads on the outward panels. You'd think the maps would face the street... UPDATE SEP 26TH - Spacing magazine nicely sums up how crappy these are. Note the appropriate advertiser. *** It's official: the National Post reunion is being held at Macleans magazine. All you have to do is check any site following Canadian media. New editor Kenneth Whyte is piling on former Post writers as the magazine takes a more sensational right-wing tack to rebuild its sales. My department has a subscription and my jaw drops further with each issue...though it was funny to see the word "pecker" on this week's cover (the Brian Mulroney bio). Still, with each issue, the urge to take a match to it increases, especially after the friendly look at Wal-Mart. The othe...

Carrying on with our tour... Looking north at the first cross-street, Vankoughnet. Like most one-ways in the Annex, Croft switches directions here. This method of traffic calming confused me when I was little, especially on Brunswick Ave. Because I only ever saw Brunny from Bloor or Harbord, which provide no access onto it, how did cars find their way onto that street? The reversing one-ways may be confusing, and are hellish if looking for a park forces you onto Bloor on a busy night, but they beat the speed bumps favoured elsewhere. UPDATE: While passing Croft on the College streetcar on Saturday, I noticed the traffic direction had changed, so that it flowed southbound instead of northbound. I'll check later if the direction has changed for the rest of Croft. Modern architecture at #54. More car barn graffiti, near Ulster St. Mind-blowin'! The main stretch of Croft comes to a halt at Harbord St, as Central Tech blocks its path. Originally located at St. Lawr...

This white box came in a bag of coupons and storage containers given away by Sunrise Tofu at an Asian-themed food show at Exhibition Place. What surprises does it hold? The suspence mounts. What lurks beneath the wrapping? It's a pig! A glittery, gold piggy bank! A side view of Goldpig, with a word from its sponsor. Isn't it larve-ly? - JB

This post is the first of a series looking at some of Toronto's interesting sidestreets, roads waiting to be explored by bicycle or foot. If you have any suggestions for future installments, send them along. First up: Croft Street. Croft runs through an "in-between" area. The northern stumps fit in with the Annex, while the southern stretch doesn't feel like any neighbourhood in particular - you are within a 5-10 minute walk of Kensington Market (SE), U of T (E) and Little Italy (W). The sign greeting you at College. At first glance, it looks like a glorified alley that may have earned a name due to its length. Even as a one-way street, Croft can be a hair-raising trip, with little room for cars and pedestrians to share. Looking north from College. Our walk starts at the south end, with new murals at College commemorating the great Toronto fire of 1904 (also check the Ontario government site here ). The murals illustrate the origins of the street's ...

All summer, I've tried to visit Point Pelee . Lack of time or bad weather quashed most attempts, but Amy and I finally made to the southern tip of Canada on Saturday. We started off at the marsh boardwalk. This faded sign greeted us. (Note: picture altered to show text on sign - it was faded enough to be useless) The boardwalk was wobbly but busy. The furthest section and watchtower were closed due to decaying planks - a sign indicated discussion were underway as to its fate. The marsh itself was full of canoeists, which turned the gears in my head. We'd rented a canoe years ago and, other than one crash, suffered no mishaps. Attempts to convince Amy to rent one since were futile. This time, she was open to the idea, so we plonked down our $20 deposit and waiting for one to return (canoe rentals at Pelee are cheap - $10/hr!) I might have imagined myself as Pierre Trudeau, majestically paddling his canoe, clad in buckskin. The reality was Charles Tupper, John Turner or K...

As mentioned previously, I never finished the tale of my spring swing through New England and Montreal. We go to day 6 on the road, as the intrepid traveller leaves Boston to head back to the Great White North. Today's tale begins a few miles north of Beantown... Wandered into Lowell. I checked the Boston guide book and discovered this was where Jack Kerouac permanently left the road. I wasn't in a hurry and there wasn't a downpour. Why not look for it? The graveyard was listed in the guide book, so I checked a map in a grocery store for directions. Found Edson Cemetery, but the office was as lively as the folks in the ground. I drove up and down the numbered streets within the graveyard, looking for any unusual adornments to the graves. All I found was a giant elk. I asked him for directions. "What are you, some pinko from Soviet Canuckistan? Go away kid, ya bodder me!" Deciding it was best not to ask him any more questions, I continued criss-crossin...

Finally getting a chance to explore the city by bicycle again... This week's long ride started off in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. I usually discover one well-known tomb passing through - this time, pioneer hockey announcer Foster Hewitt, located close to the Eaton crypt. I couldn't get the Hockey Night in Canada theme out of my head for 10 minutes. From there, went along the crowded Belt Line trail. My internal radio switched from hockey to traffic reports. Thanks, John. Eastbound Belt Line is very busy, with walkers backed up between Avenue and Oriole, you may want to switch to Chaplin Cr to avoid delays. Westbound Belt Line is moving smoothly, but watch out for fresh gravel between Eglinton and Bathurst. Now over to Mary to check in on the Don Valley... Along the way, I discovered a new trail I'd never heard of, the York Belt Line, which runs from west of the Allen to a fence near Caledonia and Eglinton. Paved, fairly flat and relaxing. Several parks along the way ful...

In an optician's window at Duluth and St, Denis, more than eyeglasses were on display... Inside were two women with short black hair in white lab jumpsuits arranging mutilated/mutated baby dolls. The piece appeared to a statement on genetic manipulation, with videos of "ultrasounds" with deformed fetuses. It was credited to "Frank Ketchup", which isn't turning up in net searches. At St. Denis and Duluth, the mutated babies grow Between the plastic dividers Row on row - JB

Recent headlines surrounding the arrest of marijuana activist Marc Emery and a post on Blamblog yesterday stirred memories of some of my favourite family roadtrips of my early teens. Many moons ago, Emery ran City Lights book store in London. Two hours away from home, it was an excuse to get away for a whole day. We'd hit the road early, usually stopping for for a snack at the West Lorne service station (the Tim Horton's being a radical improvement over the 1867 restaurant that was there on childhood trips to Toronto, which I only remember for its dinginess and smelly clientele - no wonder we used to picnic on the way to my grandmother's house). Until we grew out of it, our usual first stop was the Superstore Mall on Wellington, due to the plastic ball room in Loblaws. Most of the day was spent downtown. After leaving the car in the crazy parking lot at Wellington Square/ Galleria , we'd split up - Mom sticking to the then-thriving mall, Dad and I wandering off to R...

Ah, summertime in Essex County. Time to hop in the car and head east of Essex on old Hwy 3 to the North Ridge Dairy Freez. Open since 1954, it's the last drive-in food stand in the area, a relic that hasn't gone mock-retro. Folks lined up for dairy goodness, while a carhop grabs an order. I don't recall ever ordering food, or ever figuring out what the "Charlie Special" was. This time round, Amy went for a sundae with fresh local peaches, while I had a Boston Cooler - traditionally made with Vernor's, in this case regular ginger ale and soft serve mixed together. Why is this gnome smiling? Is he proud of his ice cream? Is he surveying a backyard of of picnic tables filled with satisfied customers? Has he snapped from beheading his friend? pictures taken July 31/05, Dairy Freez, North Ridge, ON - JB

Soaking up some rays. Taken at Mersea Park, Leamington, Aug 1/05.