Results tagged “phototo”

       

Above, a selection of photos—from Torontoist and from our Flickr Pool—of Toronto during Earth Hour.

                                        

Pillows and, yes, despite requests from organizers, feathers flew on Saturday as Newmindspace attracted several hundred people to Yonge-Dundas Square for their annual pillow fight. The good-natured battle started with an intensity and energy that only abated when the first feathered pillow burst, an eruption that was met with a sigh that rose quickly to a cheer. At the end of the event, the square's security personnel fretted about the amount of down covering the concrete, but plenty of volunteers stayed behind to help clean up.

                        

The highlight of the 2009 Bloor Yorkville Icefest last weekend was Saturday's Sassafraz Ice Carving Competition. While the carving ended this weekend, according to publicist Steven Carvalho, the pieces "will be up for the next week, or so—weather pending, since ice doesn't do too well in warm weather."

      

Last week's unseasonably high temperatures, combined with lots of wind and rain, brought chaos to some parts of the city, with roads flooding, power lines collapsing, and trees falling. Chris Dost, a member of Torontoist's Flickr Pool, captured the devastation at Étienne Brûlé Park, a park alongside the Humber River.

Rising from its Portlands location since a controversial inception in 2007, development at Filmport has reached the point where its largest stage—the Mega-Stage—is ready for business. The stage is a dizzying 45,900 square feet of uninterrupted floor space, the largest purpose-built stage in North America.

            

This weekend the Wintercity Festival comes to an end with your last chance to see the fiery Pi-Leau by Dutch street theatre troupe Close-Act. Pi-Leau is a sea-borne love story played out amongst the audience by performers on stilts in futuristic costumes or wielding flares and featuring environmental themes.

Looking back at Toronto's skyline from Algonquin Island with the ultimate backyard rink in the foreground.

                                                    

Thousands of protesters gathered at Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday to voice their opposition to the escalating violence in Gaza. Emotions were running high right from the beginning, with some protesters arguing over whether to chant in Arabic or in English. At one point a scuffle broke out between organizers and a protester who grabbed the microphone shouting, "Allahu Akbar"—Arabic for "God is great."

     

On Sunday afternoon, one of the coldest days of the year so far, the Art Attack wing of the Toronto Public Space Committee spent several hours turning a TTC shelter into a cozy igloo.

    

Following on from previous light-based-fun installations, Newmindspace set out on Saturday night to attach enough coloured LED lights onto fishing wire, suspended by helium-filled balloons, to reach higher than the CN Tower, over 1800 feet. About halfway to the goal, however, the wire snapped in half, sending several hundred lights soaring off into the night sky, trailing behind a cluster of white balloons. The rest of the lights snaked harmlessly down to earth on the King's College Circle lawn.

      

A field of crosses on the University of Toronto campus—set up by engineering students—commemorates the 628 students, faculty, staff, and alumni who were killed fighting in World War I, a war that ended ninety years ago yesterday. Each cross is marked with the name of one of the fallen.

                  

The Bike Polo Halloween Smackdown took place on the tennis courts at Trinity Bellwoods Park last weekend, with teams from across the country competing for honours, accompanied by a hard rock soundtrack and curious passersby.

                 

As the announcement of Barack Obama's victory neared last night, a group of about forty revellers gathered at Yonge and Dundas Square to celebrate and Welcome Back America. Public art group Newmindspace was also in attendance and provided music and encouragement to the crowd.

                                  

A small group of activists gathered outside the Royal Ontario Museum on Saturday to highlight the often-ignored plight of dinosaurs in captivity around the world. The energetic protesters from Dinosaurs In Need, Ontario, carried signs proclaiming "dinosaurs are people too" and pleading for help to "save steggy." A petition was available to sign, and copies of the group's newsletter, the T-Rex Times, were handed out to passersby. Children were targeted with small dinosaur-themed toys.

             

Fall seems to breeze by all too quickly between summer and winter. The first snow flurries have already fallen on the city and the chill in the wind only makes us think of the hardship to come. However, the season is punctuated by a wonderful display of colour that is often missed by those of us working and living in the city. For an accessible fix of it, High Park is well-worth a visit at this time of year; the leaves are reaching peak colour in the next few days.

                                     

As the war in Afghanistan enters its eighth year, more Canadians oppose the war than at any time since the country entered the conflict in 2002 (according to polls). Last Saturday, several hundred protesters gathered in Queen's Park to send Stephen Harper a message: bring the troops home. The protest was part of a pan-Canadian day of action organized by The Canadian Peace Alliance. Protests took place in sixteen cities across the country.

                                             

A stench of zombies stalked the streets of Toronto yesterday, shuffling and moaning from Trinity Bellwoods Park to the Bloor Cinema, where the Toronto After Dark Film Festival is taking place. The 2008 Zombie Walk was noticeably larger than last year's, with zombies snaking up Bathurst Street even as the last of the stragglers ambled out of the park. The undead proved to be very well behaved, with only a few—generally amused—police riders needed to keep them corralled on the sidewalks.

During Nuit Blanche last weekend the iconic Sam the Record Man sign was lit up over Yonge Street one last time. Now the sign is coming down as demolition begins and the new owners, Ryerson University, transform the site into a Student Learning Centre. It will not disappear for long, however: last year Toronto City Council voted to designate the entire building a heritage site in order to protect the sign, and Ryerson will remount the sign on the new building. The designs for the Student Learning Centre have yet to be finalized.

                  

Yesterday more than fifty musicians came out onto Toronto's streets to busk in support of War Child's Busking for Change event. Despite intermittent downpours, the performers were entertaining small and enthusiastic crowds—and many passersby seemed surprised when they realized the busker they were passing was actually Brian Melo or Chantal Kreviazuk. With more publicity, Busking for Change could become a must-see annual event.

                               

As part of International Car Free Day, organized in Toronto by Streets are for People, participants took over parking spaces along Queen Street West on Sunday and held concerts, played games, and generally had fun in their rented spots. The band Mr Something Something held a well-attended pedal-powered performance opposite Trinity Bellwoods Park. At 6 p.m., everyone joined together for a parade to Old City Hall, meeting up with the Bells on Bloor bikers at Spadina Avenue. At Queen and University, the parade circled the intersection, stopping traffic in all directions for about ten minutes before continuing on its way.

       

These skiing-related signs appeared yesterday along Macdonnell Avenue in Parkdale, between Queen Street and Garden Avenue. This doesn't seem to be an installation with any purpose or meaning, and there's no particular irony in this residential setting. It's amusing but random. Is there a wider message?

                 

On September 23, war resister Jeremy Hinzman—who has spent four and a half years living and working in Canada as a conscientious objector—is due to be deported back to the United States where he faces a dishonorable discharge, court martial, and sentence in a military prison, the equivalent of a felony record. A protest was held by the War Resister Support Campaign (WRSC) in Toronto and other cities across the country Saturday to rally support and raise awareness that the government continues to deport war resisters despite, as we previously reported, public and Parliamentary support for them to stay.

Sitting proudly at the intersection of King and York Streets is one of Astral Media's new transit shelters. The only problem is the street name displayed on the shelter is "University Ave"—which is the previous stop, a block west.

After last weekend's Style In Progress event the alleyways south of Queen Street West, between Spadina Avenue and Portland Street, are sporting a fresh coat of paint, or twenty. Every year the graffiti along the lanes is whitewashed and renewed during this event, and now is the best time to take a walk and appreciate this outdoor gallery before the taggers come along and scrawl over it all.

Seen at the Shoppers Drug Mart on the corner of Walmer Road and Bloor Street West.

Found at the end of the Centre Island pier.

Freddie Mercury, tied down on a flatbed trailer, was removed from the Canon Theatre on Yonge Street yesterday where he has been perched over the entrance during the 61-week run of the Queen musical We Will Rock You.

It's been a particularly tempestuous June this year, with storms rolling in under blue skies and dropping torrents of rain on the city before dissipating or meandering eastwards. There have even been reports of tornadoes touching down in southern Ontario.

                                          

Bubbles flew at the Harbourfront Center this past weekend as kids of all ages took part in Newmindspace's annual bubble battle.