indulging my subliminal desire for adventure

I went to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) to see the dinosaurs!

It was awesome. More photos when it isn’t 2am.

Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra,

Pheonix Concert Theatre, Toronto.

Fucking brilliant.

Switcheroo

Business at the back, party at the front.

The other day, Wren and I went to Niagara Falls. It was pretty awesome. There was a lot of water there. 

Being super American in Canadia.

Lots of NSFW images beneath the cut.

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Last weekend was Nuit Blanche, an all-night, free, city-wide art project with hundreds of little events, experiences and art projects popping up all over the city. An amazing premise and something I’d never heard of before, so I was pretty excited. 

It’s been many a year since I’ve been out all night until 7am though, so I was armed with a giant can of Rockstar (which served me exceptionally well) and my camera. 

I’ll warn you now, some of the later photos will be a little racy. I’ll put them behind a cut though, so if you’re of a delicate disposition, I’d recommend you don’t click the link (And I’m looking at you, parents…). 

The above photo was a landscape of tubing and lights. It was one of the prettier things I saw and amusingly accompanied by a guide repeatedly shouting “Feel free to walk on the landscape but please stay off the hills and stick to the valleys. Stick to the valleys, people!”

This one was a little boring. You could send messages to the ‘thought balloons’ and they’d be displayed. I think they was a really dodgy keyboard though because everything was appallingly badly spelled (as well as uninspiring). 

This one we were sold on because a very enthusiastic guide told us it was “just like watching people dance on a baby’s back!!”  I think she must have been on some really great drugs because it was literally nothing like that, but it was interesting to watch nonetheless. I sort of want them to keep it there as a fun jungle gym. 

This was supposed to be a lighthouse (lit up in pink), but I think it was horribly overshadowed by being in such a beautiful building. Look at the buildings that look outside but are inside! So great. 

Jellyfish! And space! And giant disk things! 

Here are some people tying knots in ribbon. I forget why, but it was late at this point and I was amped on a lifetime’s worth of caffeine. 

This one was cute. Run by a knitting shop, they had a matryoshka doll and every hour, unravelled the outer doll. You can see the size progression marked on the board behind it. Also, look how cute it is!

This was a social project which encouraged social interaction between strangers. There were step-by-step signs to guide you and leaflets to help get around social awkwardness. I didn’t actually do it though as it was about 5am at this point and I don’t have social interaction problems at 5am. That one time would am a shining butterfly of social interaction. 

A thing in a place.

These were some lights that you could push and pull to change the shadows. That was sort of fun for a bit.

I’d been past this much earlier in the evening, when there were still thousands of people swarming the streets, so it was nice to go back and get a better look at the dog head car thingy.

This was a great project. They made lots of these plastic people and they were given out to whoever wanted one. You took them with you and left them somewhere for someone else to pick up and take with them, so they dispersed across the city. This was my 5am friend for a while, until he went on an adventure with a group of drunk hipster kids instead.

Earlier in the evening, we dropped by to see the exhibition at OCAD and there was a ginormous queue, so we skipped it. Funnily enough, the dawn end of the evening was much quieter and I had most of the place to myself. 

They had a lovely holographic choir singing a nice song about turds. 

Also this.

A motor in one of the hammocky things would vibrate and move the water in the other ones. It was mesmerising and all the better for the big room being empty. 

Actually, I think I’m going to put the smutty photos in a separate post. Watch this space (or don’t). 

Taking the confusion out of Oreos. Thanks.

Though I’m loathed to be one of those people who wanders about taking photos of graffiti, this was especially wonderful.

I think I killed one of these yesterday. Oops.

The highlight of my trip to the middle of nowhere.