sketches of the mind

Today I attended the Photographic, Video, & Digital Imaging Show in Mississauga with my friend Carole. We met Chris (a mutual friend from photography class) and Kayvan at the show.

The day started off beautifully. I got my Starbucks coffee and banana choc-chip cake before heading to Carole’s new place (which she recently purchased with her bf) in the same neighbourhood as me. I even had time to stop at a nearby park and take a snap of the wonderful autumn leaves. Carole’s place was lovely, as was her gorgeous cat Prune (which means “plum” in French so Carole tells me).

It didn’t take us too long to drive to the show, and considering neither of us had been there before we did pretty well to get there without getting lost.

The show itself was OK, nothing to write home to mum about.

The Good
———-
- free entry
- Flash Fundamentals workshop (learn about camera flash)
- Enhancing Landscapes and Portraits workshop (requires previous experience of photoshop tools)
- Posing Techniques workshop
- fun people to attend the show with
- there is a small deals section but i didn’t really look at it

The Bad
———-
- Making Money with Digital Photography workshop (had nothing to do with the topic, it was some guy selling his software)
- Travel Photography workshop (good for basic/beginner/casual travel photographers)
- limited food options. $3.50 pretzel was all salt!
- ’ssauga! (not too bad if traffic is good I suppose)
- camera equipment being sold at retail (even above retail) prices. You can find cheaper elsewhere.
- most of the workshops were a sample of the 3-hr workshops that Henry’s is selling so it’s limited content.

Overall: workshops are better suited to beginners I think. Lots of equipment if you’re prepared to pay retail price.

After the show we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby and had yummy food. It was cheap too… bonus! TGarry, Silvia and Gabi joined us after they found the show to be unexciting. After everybody was full we ended up at Bowlarama at Finch and Yonge but we didn’t bowl (I would have loved to but others weren’t up for it… boooo!). After a few rounds of foosball (so cool!) Carole, Chris and I stopped by Baskin Robbins for some icecream. It was my first ever BR experience. They sure do have great variety but I found the pistachio almond icecream that I had to be nothing special, and a tad bit pricey.

All in all a fun day with great company.

Photos from today:

Nuit Blanche (literal French to English translation “White Night”) is an annual arts festival in Toronto. This year it ran from 6:52pm Saturday evening to sunrise on Sunday morning. A group of my friends and I met up inside a mall and proceeded to apply our makeup and finalise our costumes. I was wearing an old suit that a CS/veggie/biking friend of mine (Dave) had given to me that I’d cut/torn up as per this video tutorial an hour or so before we left home.

When our makeup was done the group of us participated in Zombies in Condoland - a performance for Nuit Blanche Toronto by Jillian Mcdonald, a Canadian artist living in Brooklyn. It was like being on set for a film shoot. There were cameras, makeup and costume tents, actor training sessions, and a director screaming orders down a megaphone.

I spent most of my time at Zombies in Condoland with my Zombie crew and by the time we got to walking around (in complete zombie gear) the queues were massive and we were stopped frequently by people who wanted to takes pics with us. So I didn’t really see much, and of the installations that we did see nothing really stood out as amazing.

Notable sights were a music and laser show eminating from a street corner bin (one of the ones you see all the time here where you can dispose of garbage, paper or plastic) and pong being played on city hall. Those were cool.

There was a recycled plastic waterfall thing and an installation inside the Eaton Centre which were just weird.

I had hoped to sidewalk salsa outside the Royal Ontario Museum between 8:30 - 10:30pm but there was just no time.

So the highlight for me was definitely dressing up zombie and walking around with the crew freaking people out. We even scared a waitress inside a restaurant when we stared through the window at diners! lol.

Here are the rest of my pics:

Thanks goes to Jose-Jose for taking over my camera for the night and being our zombie manager. Major respect to Lena, Sandy, Marie-France & Richard who came from Montreal to join in the weekend festivities! Special mention to Andres who drove them all (and back today) too.

For those in Toronto who are interested in participating in more zombie wackiness be sure to check out the Zombie Walk on Sunday Oct 19th at 3pm!

You know, there’s just not enough random fun and silliness in the world today. That’s just me generalising of course but that’s how I feel sometimes. So I’m thankful that groups such as Improv Everywhere and Newmindspace continue to come up with some crazily creative concepts like today’s MP3 Experiment.

The mission was simple enough:

1. Download the Mp3.
2. Load the track onto your mp3 player (iPod, etc) or burn to a CD for use with a “Discman.”
3. Do not listen to the track.
4. On Sunday, wear a t-shirt that is one of the following colors: Red, Blue, Yellow, or Green. (Long sleeves / sweaters are OK too.)
5. Bring an umbrella and an uninflated balloon. (Any kind of umbrella. Any kind of balloon that can be blown up.)
6. Bring a watch with a second hand (or use your cell phone if it displays seconds.) Before you leave, sync it up to this atomic clock.
7. As 2:00 approaches, take a seat anywhere on the field. Spread out and don’t sit too close to others who look like they might be a part of it.
8. At exactly 2:00 PM, press play.

The meeting point was the Southern end of Riverdale Park, and when I arrived there by bike I was surprised to see all the people there dressed in reds, blues, yellows and greens. The sight was just great!

At 2pm the fun began. Soon everybody was following the instructions on the MP3 and that made for some hilarious moments. I thumb-wrestled, hugged, played twister, and balloon battled with total strangers and there were a few familiar faces in the crowd too (glad to know I’m not the only crazy person amongst my circle of friends!).

I was far too busy participating to take any real decent photos, and I didn’t even have my DSLR anyway. To view some awesome captures from the event refer here.

Other people who attended the event thought it was a success too. Can’t wait to see what IE & NMS come up with next!

Speaking of MP3s if you’re not a fan of iTunes (like me) then check out Floola. It’s a small and cool self-executable application that a CS friend of mine (Bernard) put me onto. Works really well with any Apple Ipod product. Doesn’t work at all with my Samsung MP3 player unfortunately.

The vegetarian challenge continues and I’m past half way!

Day 4

I made tofu & veggie Stir Fry w/ brown rice. A little too much fake oyster sauce but otherwise… nice!

I didn’t really have time for dinner as I attended my first Salsaholics Anonymous instructor training session followed by Sidewalk Salsa on Cumberland St (near Bay) and had fun teaching basic salsa to people off the street! By the time I got home it was nearly midnight so I had a piece or two of banana cake and went to bed.

Day 5

For lunch I had left over stir fry from the day before. In the afternoon I bought some fries and an apple pie at McDonalds *shock-horror!* before boarding my bus to Montreal. At the stopover in Kingston I bought a chocolate danish and a maple-pecan danish with a small French Vanilla coffee at Tim Hortons. Yes, not exactly the healthiest eating day so far but it was convenient and NO MEAT right?

I’m almost mid way through the challenge and I’m surviving!

Earlier in the day I found myself to be extremely hungry. The fact that I only had a slice of toast, a slice of banana cake (that I had purchased for my couch surfers from Montreal who are currently surfing with me), and a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast didn’t help. I usually eat more for breakfast.

I went to the local IGA and bought myself some spicy Italian veggie sausages, veggie patties, salad, tomatoes and onion bread rolls.

This was my lunch:

Spicy Italian Veggie Hot Dogs w/ salad, tomatoes and onion bread. Made it myself and it was actually pretty good.

I also walked to Chinatown before going to the Rivoli for the weekly CS meeting and bought some fried tofu for day 4. I made lunch late in the afternoon so I wasn’t really hungry at dinner time. So I bought myself a plate of sweet potato fries at the Rivoli and that was enough for the evening.

Bring on day 4!