Toronto Airshow

On Friday I went down to the waterfront to catch some of the CIAS practice. Unfortunately, it was extremely hazy.
So on Saturday, I joined my brother to bike over to the Toronto Islands to watch the show from the beach. It was extremely hot, so it was nice to cool off in the Lake. But I did burn the top of my foot! Yikes.
The show was called early, as the radio indicated that rain was happening at Pearson, so the snowbirds stayed on the ground.
On Monday, I parked in a lot along Lakeshore and road towards the centre stage area. It was cloudy and grey, but the planes were pretty close.

Some of the aircarft included the A10 Warthog, a tank buster plane. I've always like the plane, with its massive gatling gun. This plane was designed to survive a hit, because it would spend its life down low on the battleground.





The MV-22 Osprey, from the Marine Corps was on hand for its first visit to Toronto. This is a Tilt Rotor aircraft, having the speed of a conventional plane, and the landing ability of a helicopter.



The Canadian CF-18 Hornet performed, and this year was done up to salute the families that support the military.





The CF also had the CP-140 Aurora, which is basically a sub hunter, making a bunch of passes down the show line.



The Canadian Armed Forces also had the Snowbirds on hand. Saturdays show never made it to the lakefront due to rain, but they were able to perform on sunday and monday.
On monday, at the scheduled time for the Snowbirds I heard over my scanner that number 7 had to turn back and pick up the backup aircraft, which delayed the show for 10 minutes. (you can see plane 10 has replaced number 7 in the picture below)



Once they got going, they only had 7 aircraft in the formation, and by the end, an 8th had joined in.







A great jet demonstration team was the privately owned Heavy Metal jet team. Flying 5 L-39 Albatros planes,



plus an amazing Mig 17.



Also in their team is a former RCAF T-33 Shooting Star, which was not at the show.









These guys had the best seat in the house during the show!



Prop planes included the Lucas Oil Pitts flown by Mike Wiskus



The Edge 540 of Pete McLeod





the Sukhoi SU-26M of Rick Volker



And the great Avro Lancaster of the Hamilton Warplane Heritage Museum, with its 4 Merlin engines, which powered the spitfire!







The Misty Blues, an all female parachute team, landed in the water to be picked up by the Police Marine Unit,



while the HMCS Shawinigan was part of the show on Saturday. Its a Coastal Defense Ship, of the Kingston Class.

Santa Time

Well, Sunday afternoon found the sun shinny on a relatively cool day, perfect conditions for the Toronto Santa Claus Parade.

There was a large crowd on both sides of the street. I started at Dundas and University, and the crowd continued all the way to Christie Pits, the start of the parade.





Leading the way was the Mayor,



and the Chief


Kids, both the big kind,





and the little were mixed into the parade.







Fortunately, its still an old fashion parade at its heart.Commercialism doesn't really enter into the picture.
So there were clowns,



bears,



mascots,



kids in go karts,



and a giraffe



which took part in the parade.

And everyone was their to see the magical reindeer,



and the big guy himself, Santa Claus!

Nuit Blanche 2010

Well, it was time for the latest all night event in Toronto, the Nuit Blanche Festival. Billed as an all night contemporary art event, this is the second year I attended.
I should start out by saying that in general, I was dissapointed with my first experience. I don't like "modern" art, as many times I just feel its people with limited skills being lazy, and then convincing someone that what they created was "art". So that will definately paint my views of the event.

The fact that it was a grey, cold nite didn't help either!



We set off from City Hall, where the first exhibit was on the go. A recessed stage, with a 45 degree mirror overhead



provided a view of the musicians performing.



The music was projected to a variety of both speakers and screens. While entertaining, I felt nothing in regards to the impact of the "art" scene, although the series of mirrors provided interesting photos.



Walking along Queen and up to Yonge, we found this van, carefully cut out in a decorative way, with lights inside showing the patterns.



Also downtown at the Holy Trinity church beside the Eaton Centre was the Day for Night exhibit, which slowed down the Beatles A Hard Days Night to 3 frames a second, with 4 musicians providing the equally slow sound track.



And on a similar music theme, there was an opera singer belting out Bruce Springsteen hits just east of Yonge Dundas Square.



We hoped on our bikes and headed to the U of T for a series of events, which included two women, naked, standing inside of either side of a doorway. It also included a big pile of pennies, a video of a man saying "true....false...I'm getting physicriatic care, a video of dripping water, and an ice fishing hut. Remember my comment about lazy people convincing you its art? This is what I'm talking about!

While in the area, we also headed to the ROM, which was packed. At 10;02 a counter renegade version of the event was being held. The Les Rues des Refuses was having a parade, whith a truck hauling speakers and a DJ playing rave music lead a parade down University, through U of T and on towards Yonge Dundas Square. In the crowd were some fire jugglers;





one of the participents shows off her massive shoes!



Following them down the road, we jumped up onto a streetcar barrier to catch the parade pass by.



Everyone was great except for the doorknob on the right of the following picture, who yelled out "F**ck the corporate media" while giving us the finger. Ya, two guys on freaking bikes, standing on the centre of a streetcar barrier are the corporate media!! What a douche!!



Eventually we ended up in the Distillery District where the exhibits featured plaster hands,



a burning budha,



a dance grounp,



and an amazing "picture" of the famous "hand of god" painting entirely made from Rubicks Cubes.



Then heading west to the Queen/Dufferin area, we encountered the renegade group, with a bondage display. Very strange things going on there!



And with that, we headed home. Lots of problems with the streetcars (one broke, causing a huge backup), lots of party couples stumbling down the street, and because of the blocked roads, lots of dressed up girls wearing their best party clothes, freezing cold walking down the middle of the road looking for a cab.