Tag: 80s 1980s

Toronto: city with a future (random updates on Hogtown, October 2023)

It’s been a season since I last wrote about Toronto. In that time our new mayor has been in office roughly 100 days. The Toronto Star has a rundown of what election pledges by Mayor Olivia Chow that she already has accomplished, as well as what she is working on. Not surprisingly some of them have been rather straightforward to achieve (e.g. keeping libraries open on Sunday), while some will be much harder to do (e.g., stopping the Gardner expressway rebuild). It’s a promising start, and she seems to have momentum. Of course much depends on the will of other councillors, not to mention people like Premier Ford. I’m hopeful for now.

One good thing she is working on is expanding the TTC by spending $10 million on staffing to curb transit crimes. Good. The best way to keep transit safer is having more people on it dedicated to the task. Let’s hope they do a good job. We need a safe and vibrant transit system.

In other transit news, one of the things that will be more difficult to fix is the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line. I’m not hopeful for that being done any time soon. It doesn’t help that the communications of the people building it has been poor. For example, one time their website quietly disappeared. Another time Metrolinx straight up refused to say when long-delayed LRT might finally open (see here). Terrible and unacceptable.

As for the mayor’s partner, Premier Ford, he has been up to his neck in hot water, mainly due to his involvement in Ontario’s Greenbelt. After Ford apologized for his ‘wrong’ Greenbelt decision, and  vowing to reverse it, he finally cancelled the Greenbelt land swap. While that was good, he is not out of hot water yet, as there is another scandal with his plans to have Ontario Place developed, a plan blogTO says no one wants (other than Ford and the developers). I am sure there will be more news developing on that scandal before the end of 2023.

From a real-estate viewpoint, Toronto’s downtown core has major troubles as office vacancy rates soar. I know some businesses are trying to get people to go back into the office, but many workers are resistant and I don’t think that is going to be enough to reverse those troubles. In other real-estate news, experts revise Toronto housing forecast due to a tanking market. Prices are still going up, but for how long?

Other workers have been striking in Toronto since the summer. The Metro grocery strike is finally over after a month-long walkout. More on that, here. Meanwhile the TVO strike continues to drag on with no end in sight. 2023 is a year of striking workers.

In other business news, the book chain Indigo is looking to offer alcohol to its customers. I dunno how successful that will be. The company has suffered big problems, including losing $50M last year. It doesn’t help their execs are heading for the exits. Let’s hope it can get corrected: I’d hate to lose that chain of stores.

Foodwise, the folks from Michelin have come to town and passed out more awards. Last year was the first time they did that and it got a lot of attention. This year…not so much. The Star had something on it, here. BlogTO put together a list of all the restaurants here for easy reference. If that’s your jam, this links to the Michelin site with more info.

Raccoons continue to own Toronto: we humans just live here. Recently they’ve taken over the roof of Union Station. They are a weird nuisance: not as scary as rats and not as hostile as Canada Geese. Just charming enough to offset anyone taking major steps to get rid of them.

I really enjoy Jamie Bradburn’s blog and the pieces he writes on old Toronto. Here’s something on subway interlining, or why does lower Bay Station exists. If you ever get a chance to go down to lower Bay, I highly recommend you do. Other than the benches, it does not seem too out of place from the rest of the subway. It’s fascinating to see.

As I was poking around Jamie’s site I came across this post on the Book City store on Bloor in the Annex closing. That was a sad event for me when that happened. I had gone there for years, ever since I moved into the area in the 80s. I loved that store. Loved checking out all the magazines, the books on the tables on the first floor, and taking the funky stairs up to the second floor to just hang around. It was a great place. There are still Book City stores in Toronto and they are fine, but I miss that one.

I also came across the image below on his site. It’s an IBM ad from back in the day when it’s headquarters were in the Don Mills and Eglinton area. Toronto was a city with a future back then…and it still is.

The Wham! documentary is surprising and good and watch it you should

Like Austin Kleon, I found the Wham! documentary a “delight”. He adds (and it’s true) that it is “tight, light, well-edited, and stylistically coherent”. It’s also 90 minutes, and on Netflix. If want to watch something good to watch this week, make it that.

There’s no spoilers here but I must say I found the documentary surprising in several ways. Surprised at how different the men were than I thought they were. Surprised they achieved fame well before fortune. Surprised how lots of things I thought about their career and their music were very different than I imagined.

The documentary also cleared up one of the biggest mysteries I had about the band, which was what was the point of Andrew Ridgeley in Wham. I just thought he was some weird side performer that managed to get stuck to George Michael. After watching this, I can see there would be no George Michael without Andrew Ridgeley. The evolution of Michael from shy guy to major star would not have been possible without Ridgeley and Wham.

There’s been a number of good reviews of the documentary. This take at the New York Times I found interesting, especially this comment: “born during Motown’s ascent in the early 1960s and, in adolescence, bonded to each other as disco was handing the party baton to new wave and rap. They synthesized it all (plus a little Barry Manilow and Freddie Mercury, and some Billy Joel) into a genre whose only other alchemists, really, were Hall and Oates.” Once that thought is stuck in your brain, you can clearly hear all the influences Wham! bleeding into their music.

Besides that, this piece from the San Francisco Chronicle really understands the two men. This review at rogerebert.com was the one I most agreed with. Here’s something from the Guardian for those who like that sort of thing.

I’m glad Ridgeley is having a moment. He seems like he deserves it. More from him, here.

All that said, go watch it. You’ll be glad you did.

On Warhol, Basquiat, and Haring too. All three in the news.

Three of my favorite artists were in the news recently. Andy Warhol made the front page as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him and his estate in the Prince Photo Copyright Case. I found that concerning, but less so after I read this good analysis by Blake Gopnik: Supreme Court Warhol Ruling Shouldn’t Hurt Artists. But It Might. I feel it will be ok.

Speaking of Warhol, here’s a good piece in artsy talking about how the once dismissed colloboration between him and Basquiat is gaining greater appreciation as time goes by. A recent showing at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris of 70 joint works should help with that.

A long running story has been these so called discovered Basquiats that were on display at a museum in Florida. It turns out that one of the people involved confessed to a forgery scheme regarding these paintings. No surprise there. Glad it’s over.

And why would anyone do that? Well his work now’s the time (shown above) was expected to fetch $30,000,000 at least by the good people at Sotheby’s.

Finally, I was glad to see that Keith Haring is getting a new show at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. I was less glad to read about how the curator diminished Haring as she spoke about him. Haring was always a serious artist taken seriously. His work is joyful and playful and sexy at times, but it was and is never second rate. That said, see the show. Get more Haring in your life.

Old parts of Toronto: the 80s

To close off Toronto week here on the blog, here’s two pieces on what it was like to grow up in Toronto in the 1980s. First,  Toronto Life has 15 signs you grew up in Toronto in the 1980s. Not to be outdone, blogTO doubles that and shares 30 signs you grew up in Toronto in the 1980s 🙂

(Image from the Toronto Life piece. I loved going to Toby’s when I was in Toronto in the 80s. They were everywhere and they had good burgs. )

On Haring, Basquiat and the art that defined 80s New York


Some good links on the art of the 1980s, of which Basquiat and Haring played a big part, here and here.

Most of the time the links I post are mostly because I want other people to know about them. Links that talk about my youth are mainly for me. 🙂 But fans of either painter or art of that time should click through.

Painting above by Haring in tribute to Basquiat. May they both RIP.