And Yet Another Adventure

Barbara: Deb and I have been regaling you this last week with stories of our happy adventures—and today will be no different. We hope you enjoy peaking into the “Spring into Fall” fun we’ve been having lately.

Don’t you love how life does that sometimes? I mean, sometimes it’s all seriousness and work and troubles and woes, and sometimes—even while the seriousness and work may still abound—there is a surfeit of interesting, eye-opening and wonderful new experiences to be had. And relished. And, well, shared here!

As you may remember, Deb is in New York this week with her man and several of their friends. It is a time to celebrate milestone birthdays and lifelong friendships. I’m sure when she gets back she’ll have more goodies to share with us, but for now she’s going to check in here only if she can (I reassured her we could carry on quite nicely without her for a few days … yes, only a few days!).

So today we’re going to pass the time by reveling in a bit of Nuit Blanche fun. For those of you who don’t know what Nuit Blanche is, you can read a past post about it here or you can just believe me when I say: it’s a one-night, all-night, all-city, free and open to the public contemporary art exhibit, where the wild, the amazing, the weird, the wonderful, the thought-provoking and the truly inspirational are thrown together with, like, oh, 1,000,000 excited fans. It’s an incredibly special night that Deb and I now look forward to (we’ve gone for 6 of its 7 Toronto-based years) like kids look forward to Christmas.

Obviously if you don’t live here, going to Nuit Blanche isn’t an option (and for some of you living here, it might still not be an option, for many reasons from lack of interest to lack of patience), but I still think it’s worth a page-full of blog time. Deb wanted to bring her shmancy camera that night so she could take some epic shots, but then realized she didn’t want to schlep the beast around for the 7 hours we spend hiking the city, so all the photos are from our iphones.

Hope you enjoy!

I'm too lazy to caption all the artists and piece titles, but if you're curious you can find the credits at the Nuit Blanche website. The theme this year was apocalypse and resurrection.

This entire exhibit took place in a parking garage under Nathan Philip Square, downtown Toronto. An amazing space for an apocalyptic exhibit. Creepy and lonely (even full of people). These pieces were very provocative.

Deb in art silhouette

The effect of these commercial images being "sucked" into this huge City Hall beam was eerie and mesmerizing. 

Another creepy discovery: we watched this real-life tableau of zombies on a set and took our photos, but it wasn't until Deb sent me this image that we both saw the aliens on the ground.

Candy!

Without flash.

With flash.

Nathan Philip Square and a stunning video montage.
To the right of this, a choir singing revival hymns to glorious perfection.

This Nuit Blanche was supposed to be a Pluie Blanche (which means we expected rain, rain, rain rain). But we had a spectacular night, warm and clear, and were doubly honoured to find ourselves near this church as the full moon floated into view near the spire. Thrilled to see this, Deb and I began snapping photos then sending them to our husbands. As you can see, the image did not quite capture the rapture. Aaaand the husbands weren't at all impressed. To add insult to injury, Deb captioned her email to Colin with "Best exhibit of all: God's handiwork.".Sadly, auto-correct sent the message to him as, "Best exhibit of all: Fob's instagram." ??? ... Haven't laughed so hard in years :)

An Arts Fart

Barbara: I know I just ranted about our recent national election, but I have one more point I want to make that’s very near and dear to my heart.

This rant started after I heard that someone yelled to our Prime Minister right after he won the election to “kill the CBC” (something he has in fact insinuated he might do). Now for those of you readers not from this country, this is an easy catch-up (for my point). The CBC is our national public broadcaster. They produce and air mostly Canadian content. Because it is government-owned, its Canadian content is largely protected. But because taxpayers pay for it to survive, its existence is often threatened.

“Kill the CBC” is a regular call to arms from certain types. And I always wonder why. I mean, first of all it’s a business like any other, filled with employees who rely on it for their paychecks (so they can, yes, pay their taxes and boost the economy with their confident spending). These people (whether writers, actors, producers or administrators) are as worthy of jobs as the next guy. Would people line up to shout at our elected officials to “Kill Schools” or “Kill the Bank of Canada” or even “Kill GE”?

So let’s ask those taxpayers who hate it––why do you gang up on the CBC? Is it because it’s an arts’ based forum and therefore not “serious”? The CBC features TV shows and radio programs and films and news and documentaries. Are TV and radio not as worthy as, say, drilling for oil? Now I’m not going to debate the merit of any specific show, but I will ask: who doesn’t friggin watch TV, listen to music, read, or watch a movie every now and then?! I mean what would we do without our arts? We’re not talking hoity, evening-gowned snobs sipping champagne and flicking channels with manicured fingernails (although let’s presume they do too). We’re talking virtually every single ordinary one of us!

All of us rely on some form of the arts to help us get by. To make us normal, functioning members of society and not just work-oriented automatons. The arts are as vital to our survival as healthcare and education. And they make us a hell of lot more fun and interesting to be around.

Deb: I have been employed by the CBC many times in my career. I have listened to CBC radio and I grew up on everything from the Friendly Giant to Rick Mercer. The CBC gives Canadians a starting point, a common ground if you will. Is it perfect? No. What is, I ask you? When I travel the country for Little Mosque and meet the fans, I see firsthand what the CBC means to Canada. Not everyone lives in the big cities, flipping through 200plus channels.

Can you imagine for one minute, Britain scrapping the BBC? It would never happen. They hold onto their precious institutions and so should we. 


PS You can also visit Friends of the CBC