Friday, October 28, 2016

Ontario 2016: Vignettes.


"Pooh, his nose stuck in a honey jar."

In front of a used media store on Danforth Avenue in Toronto.  In an odd coincidence, we'd watched the referenced episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation about a week before we left.

Missed Opportunities. 

I've been casually aware of the fact that the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy was located in Toronto almost since its inception in 1970, but somehow I've never managed to pay it a visit at any of the locations it has occupied over the years.  It may be based in fear of disappointment - I hope that the collection will look like this:

 

But fear that it will actually look like this:


 "What do you plan to be after the zombie apocalypse?"

Now that's planning.

The Road.

Speaking of apocalypses, film makers, take note:  this is what a highway looks like after about 50 years of neglect.*

Although, obviously, not the same movies.

The Norwood Theatre in Bracebridge, Ontario, where I saw my first commercial release movie - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.  They say that Time is a river into which you cannot step twice, but honestly, based on my recollection the Norwood has exactly the same signage that it had in 1977. And I still have the multi-page glossy programme that they handed out before the movie. (As requested by studio executives, who felt that no one would understand what was going on without some sort of explanation.)


It's a little bit the worse for wear after all these years, but then, aren't we all?

- Sid

* To clarify, this isn't a criticism of Ontario's public works systems.  There are stub bits of highway scattered all over Ontario as a result of the Department of Transportation deciding to straighten out the curves on a particular piece of road.  The first hundred feet of pavement from the resulting leftovers was bulldozed, and the balance left for nature to have its way with - as above.

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