JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

The last Sunday of summer. Sunny skies, comfortable temperatures. Good conditions to spend an afternoon reaquainting myself with certain parts of downtown. I went on an amended version of the old "Sunday constitutional" route I used to walk most Sundays—instead of starting at Osgoode station and succumbing to the lure of a cheap Indian buffet, I took the Spadina car down to the top of Kensington Market. From there, it was a meandering trek down to Queen West, followed by a (brief) stop amid the crowd at the art show in Trinity-Bellwoods (the tight cluster of those browsing proved claustrophobic). From there, I strolled up Montrose to College, passing neighbours shooting the breeze on their porches and men pruning front yard foliage for elderly residents. And then there was a sight that provides a good opportunity to haul out a well-worn logo used on this website... Election signs will soon become chic decor items in apartment windows and on city lawns. The odd poster ...

It's been awhile since I've written about a psychogeography walk. Blame it on an inability to keep track of time—I've been lucky to post photos from recent strolls within a reasonable amount of time. Let's see if this entry will break the cycle...probably not, but it's worth a shot. *** Last week's walk began at Union Station, where I positioned my mini-tripod to snap the shot above of the Royal York Hotel. From Union, we headed to the new underpass on Simcoe Street south of Front. The abrupt truncation of the bike lanes at Front was noted. It's grey, spare and nothing that will invoke dramatic oohing and aahing. We stopped at Roundhouse Park to see if several vintage train cars destined to be displayed in the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre could be viewed. They were there, but under wraps. The roundhouse was a hive of activity, thanks to a raucous crowd that we initially thought was a film festival tie-in party at Steam Whistle Brewery. It tu...

Just before Christmas, a notice for an upcoming activity in Windsor caught my eye : On December 28th, when your body is overstuffed with food and in need of a good evening walk, head to Phog Lounge and take one with some friends and strangers. When we move through cities we tend to stay on the beaten path, rarely diverting. We see Windsor from the same perspective each time. Psychogeography is a way of breaking out of that routine and paying attention to and getting excited about the locations in the city. Two of my favourite Windsor websites, International Metropolis and Scaledown , had teamed up with Murmur/Spacing/Toronto Psychogeography's Shawn Micallef to organize a walk. I brought Amy along to sample a slightly more formalized version of what has occupied many a night for me over the past few years. The night lived up to the billing, as I discovered parts of downtown Windsor I didn't know mixed among the familiar, even if the familiar is starting to look alien to...