Saturday, March 9, 2024

Murdock Mysteries Live



Since the days of ‘Silent Movies’ ended, there is usually a soundtrack behind the video story in movies and TV shows. Sometimes these soundtracks actually become hits in themselves and often have big name music stars singing and performing in the background. But . . . have you ever wondered how these soundtracks are planned and performed?


We got a chance to see exactly how one of these soundtracks was made. We had an opportunity to go to Roy Thompson Hall to preview an episode of the Canadian TV hit show Murdock Mysteries and see how the soundtrack for the show was written and performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. 

The Concert Program


The concert was held in the Roy Thompson Hall which is the spectacular home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. It is a huge beautiful concert hall designed to provide a comfortable venue to enjoy the music. 


The concert started with music from the show played by the orchestra, and then Robert Carli, the composer, Yannick Bisson (Detective Murdock) and Thomas Craig (Inspector Brackenreid), spent the first hour explaining how the music is written to go with the TV Show. Scenes from an episode of the show were shown without sound and then how particular music was written to enhance the action of the show. You do not really notice the music in the background when you are watching the action on the screen, but when you compare the silent and musical versions the value of the music is obvious. In addition the composer introduced some other music pieces that contained mysterious sections. I did not know that composers sometimes composed pieces which hid their names in the scores. 

Roy Thompson Hall


After an intermission the concert turned to a screening of a new episode of Murdock Mysteries especially written for the concert with a musical theme. As the show was projected onto a huge screen, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra played the soundtrack live behind the screen. I will admit that I have never been a fan of the show, and often when Regis wanted to watch an episode I’d respond with “That’s fine, I will be able to fall asleep for a nap.”, but this time I managed enjoy the entire episode. 


Apparently the episode of Murdock Mysteries, entitled “Rhapsody in Blood” will be shown on Monday Night, March 11th, 2024, so be sure to watch it and listen to the soundtrack behind the mystery. I’ve already seen it, so there will be no “spoilers” from me.

There's Regis waiting for the show to start


Thursday, March 7, 2024

Toronto Street Art

Whenever I go out exploring I am always on the lookout for interesting Street Art. I have collected over 200 photos since I arrived here in September. Some are massive multi-story high commissioned art work, and some are simply graffiti. Some of the artwork is absolutely amazing, and some makes you wonder “What on earth were they trying to say?”. Many interesting examples are on the side of building down alleyways and lanes, so I often take detours when I see flashes of colours in out of the way locations. 


Here are some of the most recent examples I have found. 



Also in my photo collection of "doors"



Part of a series on Music

This was inside a restaurant



Disappointing that this has been tagged


The beast guarding the Garbage Cans




This was part of a much larger mural





Monday, March 4, 2024

No Snow

As I work my way through “The 111 Places in Toronto That You Must Not Miss”, I am finding that many of the suggestions really would be nicer to visit in warmer summer weather. I will admit to pushing some of my walks a bit; I did go to see Woodbine Beach which is renowned for it’s impressive volleyball facilities, only I went on a February day to see “Winter Stations”, so I have decided to slow down and save some of the attractions for the nicer weather. 



One of the suggestion is “Christie Pits Tobogganing”, so at least that is a “Winter” activity . . . only problem is that winter never really happened here in Toronto; any snow that fell usually melted the next day, so there was not a lot of Tobogganing happening this winter. So today, we decided to go see this “Place not to be missed” even if it was not to slide down snow covered hills. 


The park is situated on the site of the Christie Sand Pit which was excavated for the sand, gravel and clay found there. It was named for the street it is on, Christie St., which is actually named after the famous “Mr. Christie” of cookie fame. As the sand, gravel and clay was removed, the pit was formed and once it was no longer useful it was turned into a park. Because it is a pit with steep slopes on all sides it has become a popular area to toboggan in winters when Toronto actually gets some winter snow. 


Christie Pits Park

Christie Pits Park is called “a city within a park”, and although this park in the western end of downtown Toronto is only one block square, it really does pack a lot into a small area. The park now contains a full sized regulation baseball diamond and several smaller softball fields. There is a swimming pool complex with water slides and a regulation sized outdoor hockey rink with artificial ice (VERY useful this winter). The park also has a skateboard park, a labyrinth, a picnic area, a playground for little people, basketball courts, and an outdoor wood fired oven. There are trails through the park  to get you to all the handy facilities and lots of comfortable benches. 


The Labyrinth used to be a fountain

We headed out to the park via Subway line two and arrived at the Christie station right beside the park. We walked all the way around the park and then took one of the pathways down into the “pit“ where we wandered around the many pathways and even found our way through the Labyrinth to the very centre. On a cloudy foggy Sunday, the park was well used and it was nice to see the public washrooms were open rather than the usual “Closed for the season” signs we often see in the winter.


Our visit to the park was a pleasant way to pass the day, and we were impressed with the facility; it really is a nice community park and the neighbourhood must be pleased to have a park so well equipped to enjoy even if there was little tobogganing this year.




Thursday, February 22, 2024

Bits of exotica . . .

I spent the day at the International Auto Show here in Toronto, and enjoyed taking photos of some of the beautiful vehicles there. I took lots of pictures, but all I am giving you here in the blog are some of my detail shots of little bits of some of the cars. I like to look at the cars and find interesting areas and parts of the cars to photograph. Some of these vehicles I am sure you will be able to identify, but some, I suspect no one will know where the bits came from. 

























Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Winter Stations

A nice February Day at the beach


A sunny February day . . . . a perfect day to spend the day at the beach!


No bikinis, or speedos though, but at least all the Lifeguard stations were occupied and busy. You might think that a February beach day would not be a good idea, but that is exactly what we did today, took a streetcar and a bus down to Woodbine Beach and spent the day there. We were there to explore the annual Toronto “Winter Stations” event. 

Walking the boardwalk


Winter Stations is an International competition where the Arts and Design community is challenged to reimagine the lifeguard stations along Toronto’s East end beaches. The event has been running for 14 years and has seen entries from over 90 countries. The object is to use one of the unused leftguard Stations to create and build an art installation on the beach. I read about it on the internet and decided to go and see what it was all about. A 27 minute, 25 stop  streetcar ride and then a seven stop, seven minute bus ride took us to Woodbine Beach in Toronto’s East end, which runs for almost three kilometres along Lake Ontario. 


The beach was not crowded as it would have been in the summer, but I would call it well used, especially by Toronto’s dog community and as we walked down the beach we met many friendly canine beach goers. Scattered down the beach were the actual Winter Station installations. There was . . . .


We Caught a UFO by Xavier Madden & Katja Banovic from Croatia and Australia


A Kaleidoscopic Odyssey by Adam Brander, Nilesh P, Ingrid Garcia & Mayam Emadzadeh from Canada


Nimbus by David Stein from Canada


Bobbin’ by University of Waterloo School of Architecture


Winteraction by Department of Landscape Architecture & Ashari Architects for Canada & Iran


Nova by Toronto Metropolitan University of Architectural Science from Canada  


Each of these installations was designed and built around one of the beach’s lifeguard stations and the public was encouraged to explore and get involved in the displays. As we walked down the beach, we tried each one, climbing into the UFO, Walking through the Kaleidoscopic Odyssey, and titter-tottering in the Bobber. The rain falling from Nimbus’ cloud did not get us wet, and the fallen star Nova sheltered us from the wind and provided a view along the beach. Unfortunately the Labyrinth in Winteraction required an app that did not want to install on my phone so we could not do it, but the rest were imaginative and interesting. 


Not having visited this beach previously, we continued on down the boardwalk along the lakes edge visiting other beaches and enjoying a pleasant afternoon walk before taking a different streetcar and bus route back to the condo.