Posts from — April 2010

Queen West is mostly a nightmare of gentrification, but in between the clubs and boutiques you will find it is still full of relics of the old city.

You don’t see many phone booths at all around town anymore, let alone these receiver-shaped phones.

And you know it’s an oldie by the price—most phone booths have gone to 50 cents by now. I remember when they switched to 35 cents in 1998 and I was pissed.

The Big Bop closed this last January after 25 years on that corner. The building is historical and won’t be knocked down for any developments, barring any mysterious fires like the one that coincidentally occurred just after a strip of buildings wanted for condo redevelopment had been designated historical landmarks in 2008 (which the police took all of one afternoon to investigate…hmmm). The Big Bop was a cornerstone of Toronto’s club history. You can learn more about it and the historical context it occupied with this little video farewell to the place.

The Punk likes to sit in the window in the morning, plotting our ultimate demise.

She bats her pretty eyelashes and looks innocent.

But do not be fooled by her fuzzy little face and gentle demeanor…

She is plotting world domination.

And she is not amused.

Well by now Spring has pretty much sprung here in Toronto, but a few weeks ago the ice was still clinging to the grass, which made the discovery of rose petals randomly scattered on the walk in front of my apartment building all the more stark.

Happy Spring!