The Wizard in Toronto

Friends suggested we go to see a pantomime of “The Wizard of Oz” here in Toronto at the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre on Yonge St, just down from Dundas Square. It was a pleasant evening out for dinner and a play, we got to try a new pub and the play was very entertaining, a pantomime of “The wizard Of Oz”, where Dorothy was deposited in downtown Toronto from the farm in Guelph. I learned that rather than being a play where the characters express meaning through mime or gestures which is that a Pantomime was in ancient Roman theatres, the English reimagined it as a musical comedy with slapstick and topical jokes and based on fairy tales or nursery rhymes produced for families around Christmas time. This production of “The Wizard of Oz” certainly fit the English definition, with the setting in downtown Toronto , the Emerald Palace being the CN “power”, and Mayor Chou as the wizard. The music and singing were excellent, and the production was full of jokes and slapstick, but what was most interesting was the amazing theatre where it was presented. 

We have walked by the Elgin & Winter Garden theatre many times as we explored Toronto, and thought it was just one of the many old theatres around the city, but actually going into the building for a play showed just what an amazing place this was. Originally built in 1913, it is the last remaining example where two theatres were built in a stacked arrangement with one on top of the other.  Both theatres were originally intended for vaudeville productions. During this era many stars such as Joan Crawford & Clark Gable, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Milton Berle, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy were featured there. 

The two theatres were vastly different, the Elgin was a traditional gold and marble decorated venue, but the Winter Garden upstairs was decorated to make you feel you were outside in a garden with the ceiling decorated with leaves and lit with lanterns and the columns fashioned to look like trees. This was the theatre we saw the Wizard of Oz in and it really does make you feel you are sitting under big trees in a garden. 

The Elgin theatre was converted to a movie theatre in 1928 and the Winter Garden theatre was closed and remained shuttered for 60 years. By the 70’s, the Elgin was mostly showing low budget B films or mild pornography, but the theatre was purchased by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1981 and a full restoration was started in 1987. This involved using hundreds of pounds of raw bread dough to clean the long unused Winter Garden’s elaborate watercolour decorations. The theatres reopened in 1989 and are now one of the finest theatre venues in Canada. 

So, if you ever get a chance to see a play in this beautiful theatre complex you will be amazed at the beautiful venue. 

Close-ups

One city block from our Toronto Condo is Allan Gardens which has a beautiful conservatory full of beautiful plants. I have visited a couple of times and always enjoy it, finding new things to see every visit. At Christmas it is especially nice with an amazing display of Poinsettias. I went there recently with my sister when she visited and this time I looked at things a bit differently, taking close-ups of some of the plants. It made for some interesting patterns and photos. 

So, this post there is not much to read but some interesting pictures I hope. However, don’t ask me what the plants are.

The Story of a Borrowed Pup

This is a post that I borrowed from my brother Norman's Facebook page about their "borrowed" dog Alma. I liked the story as much as I liked little Alma so I asked if I could use it in my Blog.

Alma

My Brother Norman and his wife Sarah are not dog people, never were, but then they met Alma - their son-in-law's chronically cute possible-Malt-Chi. Five pounds of fluffy cuteness in perpetual need of grooming. It was love at first head-scritch. She was 12, and starting to find her home (5 other dogs, 4 kids, various cats and small exotics) a bit overwhelming. Norm and Sarah asked if their quiet household could be her old-folks-home and her "owners" (nobody owns Alma - she owns the world) agreed. She came to live with them and they were smitten; as were our entire families (special mention of Norm's mother-in-law Joanie), their neighbours, every kid at the elementary school across the street, and pretty much everyone who had occasion to come to their house (read friends, Amazon drivers, Mormons, and campaigning politicians.)

Norm, Alma & Sarah

Alma spent most of her days on her bed on their couch keeping an eye on them every second of every day looking for clues as to what they might be up to: eating (Which required her participation), heading out for a walk, going someplace fun where other people might be, or heaven forbid, going someplace that didn't allow pets (i.e. cruelly abandoning her).

Out for a walk

She basically lead the life of Riley, hiking, and camping back when she was 100%, chilling on her bed or cuddling up to watch TV or listen to music as she slid into her senior years. She was a happy, cheeky, playful pup till the very end. It turned out that the "very end" was one morning after a tough night; her little murmuring heart could keep up no longer and she passed in Sarah's arms as Jessica (her "sort of" actual owner) was helping get her ready to go to the vet.

It's all very sad, but like with so many beloved pets, the silver lining is that she could not have been more loved and could not have led a longer, happier, more pampered dog's life.

R.I.P little Alma, you brought so much joy to so many. everyone will all miss you.

Brickworks Again

I wrote a few years ago about the lovely brick houses in Toronto and the more I explore the city I more I realize that the city really was built out of bricks. You see very few houses built of wood, and of course the new high-rises are concrete and metal, but most houses are completely made of bricks. Even many of the older apartment and condo buildings are faced with bricks. That third little pig would have been proud. 

A nice old Toronto House

The other day I was walking down Sherbourne St to check on my son’s condo and discovered a very interesting case of working with bricks or I suppose you could call it “Brickworks”. There was an old elegant looking house that had been converted to a rooming house a few doors down from my son’s condo and I walked past it on many occasions. The neighbourhood is currently undergoing a bit of a rebuilding or a gentrification and some of the old houses are being torn down to make room for more high-rises. On one of my walks by the house one of the “A Change Is Proposed for this Site” signs went up in front of the house and soon it was closed and the windows covered with plywood. 

Tearing down the walls

Then the other day I found that the house is finally being torn down, but I was impressed with how they were doing it. I saw two workers in front of the house carefully chipping the mortar off the bricks as they were taken down from the walls of the house. Instead of just knocking the house down with heavy machinery and carting everything away in big trucks, the bricks were being carefully chipped off the walls, cleaned up and stacked on the driveway to be reused somewhere else. 

Bricks cleaned and ready to recycle

I wonder where these nice recycled bricks will be used next?

This is what was behind the "good" bricks

Ready to be reused . . .

Walking with the Queen

Today I went for a walk along one of Toronto’s main streets, Queen. This street runs east/west for 18 kilometres through Toronto’s downtown. Seems to me that a lot of Canadian cities have streets named “Queen”, but Toronto’s version of Queen St. Is worth a visit. Running right through the downtown area, it is one of the busiest streets in the city. It has multiple streetcar routes running along it and intersects with the main subway line in two places. As I am still working in my new hip, I cannot claim to have walked the entire 18 km, but I walked in both the west end and the east end and connected them with a streetcar ride. 

Queen St has a little of everything, restaurants, bars, shops businesses and residences. There are areas that are modern with the usual tall condo and office buildings, but one of the things I like best about Queen St, is the amount of old houses and buildings that remain. They are not all in good repair, but it is nice to see the variety of old style architecture along the street. The 18 km, run through a number of neighbourhoods, The Beaches, Leslieville, Riverdale, Queen West, West Queen West, and Parkdale. Although Toronto hosts a number of ethnic neighbourhoods Queen St. Seems to skirt a number of them including Chinatown West and Little Tibet. 

You can find most anything you need on Queen St. I found three bead shops in the West end, and I had to choose between four pubs in one block in the East end for a beer and a burger, while waiting for my Joy of Writing meeting to start. The following photos will give you some idea of the variety of building on Toronto’s Queen Street. 

I can't resist the Street Art

Street Art and a Door!

WOW!

Bridge over the Don River