The Mayor of Photo City
If Toronto isn’t the world capital of photoblogging, it’s certainly near the top of the heap. In last week’s Photoblog Awards — handed out each year by CoolPhotoblogs.com – Toronto photographers captured four of the top 12 spots in the Best American Blog category. Sam Javanrouh, above, the shooter behind daily dose of imagery, was a finalist in three categories (Most Popular Photoblog, Best American Photoblog and Best Street Photography) and beat all comers to take the Most Popular crown.
Javanrouh is happy to add the accolade to his long list of recognitions. He’s been blogging since 2003 when hardly anyone had heard of a photoblog. His goal then, as now, was simply to capture and portray his adopted city – Javanrouh emigrated from Tehran in 1999 – in an effort to show his friends and family back home how his new life was unfolding.
Rollicking Pedestrian Sunday
Kensington Market’s final Pedestrian Sunday of the season hit the streets yesterday with live music, sidewalk barbeques, an art market, skateboard demos, a giant Scrabble game and lots of costumed revelers marking Halloween. From acoustic Latin jazz (Drumhand, above) to thrash metal (Terminalx, below) there was something for pretty much every taste.
Pedestrian Sundays close down the main market thoroughfares to car traffic on the last Sunday of the month from May ’til October with a fresh theme each week. Yesterday’s season send-off culminated with a Halloween parade through the streets at 6 pm.
Queen West Crawling with Art
Queen West is always buzzing but never more than during the annual Queen West Art Crawl (QWAC), which hits Trinity Bellwoods Park and beyond into Parkdale beginning Friday (Sept. 16) and running throughout the weekend. Studio tours, curator walks and talks and a major juried art sale and exhibition are all in the cards both day and evening. One of the highlights of the Parkdale Nightcrawl is a special edition of Art Battle featuring “cage matches” where two painters go head-to-head and only one painting survives to be auctioned while the other is ignominiously destroyed.
“We’ve got a ton of stuff happening,” assures QWAC Associate Director Lanie Treen. “Everybody’s getting involved and it’s really, really exciting this year.”
Art Spin Season Finale
This was the scene last night as the summer season’s final Art Spin got underway in Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park. More than 300 cyclists — a 50 per cent increase over the previous record attendance — saddled up to tour West Queen West galleries and take part in an impromptu tribute to the late Jack Layton, a cycling advocate and long-time City Councillor before he went on to pursue federal politics.
Clay & Paper Theatre put on a bicycle-themed puppet show before the massive group set off on their bikes. READ MORE
Lots For Kids at Buskerfest
Scotiabank BuskerFest, the largest festival of its kind, returns to the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood this weekend for the 12th consecutive year featuring more than 100 of the world’s top street performers. Running from Thursday thru Sunday (August 25 – 28), Buskerfest is a charity event in support of Epilepsy Toronto. Highlights this year include a special kids play area (located in Market Lane Park) with family-oriented performances by The Ben Show, Mr. Toons, Cyclops, Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein, Yoshi and Scott Jackson.
The sixth annual Fire Show combines the best of all the festival’s fire acts, and features Pyromancer, Fireguy, FlameOz, Pancho Libre and Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein, as well as appearances by the XL-INSECTS (above right). The festival wraps up Sunday at 6:30 pm on the Metro Stage in Berczy Park with the Grande Finale, featuring performances by some of the festival’s top international performers, as well as the announcement of this year’s Metro People’s Choice Award winner.
Photos by SevenStock
