Train of Thought

Part of a train sits idle next to the Mark Goodman trail

Today after a feast of dim sum with Colin at the usual place, the new treasure restaurant, I decided to take in a walk along the harbourfront area and ended up walking along the Mark Goodman trail.

For years there's been this line of train cars parked next to the trail. It's possible it's a different set of train cars and I haven't noticed the change up. Today I decided I'd climb the train cars just to shoot the top. It had been awhile since the last train climb I did. That would have been back in 2003 when I climbed on top of a VIA train to get reference photos for a show called "Blueprint for Disaster". I forgot how high up these things are.

Things feel higher for me if there's no hand railing or enclosure. Plus the metal planks on the roof of the train have a bit of give and there's the fat factor. Although I don't feel my body type is fat I do think it's heavy. Dense bones? I have broken a few chairs in my day after all and the way companies are cheaping out on building things of quality... well it kind of makes you wonder.


Standing on the train

When shooting on the top of the train one of the things I realized is that it's hard to determine how high up you are just from the picture. Sure there's a guy on a bike riding on the trail next to me but for the most part the train roof looks like it's flat and level with the ground. Perhaps if I was on a train on curved tracks?


A golden cotton candy type sunset

Somewhere further down the trail I noticed the sunset and the weird ass clouds and decided to shoot some pictures. It would be another hour until getting home.


some weeds

This is London

Juliet, Sandra, and Paul at "This is London"

Tonight there was some bra thing at "this is london", a bar/night club hidden away behind the north east corner of Spadina and Richmond. My editor, Juliet, decided that we should go cover this event. Like any good photographer with the mantra "Ours is to not question why" I decided to go. Twist that rubber arm.

Upon arrival we met up with Andrew Majtenyi. He had heard there was a fashion runway type of thing happening. Kind of like the big fish stories, the event had ballooned into some large scale
fashion mecca. The reality was that there were girls lounging around in lingere but for the most part it was like any other night at the club (so I was told).


Amy poses for people passing by.


The good thing to come out of all this was that I ran into Amy, the fashion model from the playboy runway show I shot a few months ago and Tammy, another model I orginally met last year at a christmas party. It's always good to bump into people you know and it doesn't hurt if they're good looking.

Dog Day Afternoon

Dog waiting in car

Get off the streetcar, cross the street, look up... hey there's this dog looking at me. Of course assoon as I take out the camera the dog looks away off to the side. Maybe to reveal the more photogenic side?

The Brown Hornets

The Brown Hornets vocalist Dan Walters

Tonight at the Silver Dollar I went to shoot a rock and roll group known as the Brown Hornets (wasn't that a Spin off from the Fat Albert show?). Anyhoo...

One of their gimmicks is to give out assorted fruit throughout the performance. Bananas, Pineapples, maybe even a sandwich. There's definately showmanship with this bunch. It's a nice break from shooting all those bands that just stand in one spot for their whole set.


Kim - Pineapple Winner

Hello? What are you saying?

Sasha talks to Paul.

This evening I found myself at a nightclub, bar called Cache. Maybe I'm getting old but it's seems that I can't really hear anyone talking anymore at these things. At one point I was just staring at Paul and Sasha as they talked with a quizical look on my face. Couldn't hear them thanks to the loud, hip hoppy, new wavy music.


The above panels show Sasha talking to Paul about something. What exactly, who knows?
I thought I'd write a bit of fiction here...
Panel 1 "What? You lost your wallet?"
Panel 2 "You want me to pay for the drinks... I don't know..."
Panel 3 "Maybe you should ask someone else..."

Tacoma Redd

Tacoma Redd's Vocals Doug Smart

Tonight at the Horseshoe Tavern I went to check out Tacoma Redd. A band that Roger of Monster Records recommended. Or was it to just meet up for drinks?? Well whatever the case may be I ended up having to shoot around a rather large crowd of people. There was some other band that opened that night but as soon as Tacoma Redd popped on to the stage it was jammed packed.


Nice T-shirt! You can buy them at Monster Records.


One of Roger's favorite Doug pictures (it looks like it was taken in a stadium).


Another one of Doug



Hey! it's Roger from Monster Records

Boredom

Camera Bag

I was working on set today and for a time didn't have anything to do while the main unit shot in a location that didn't require my 24 frame playback services (ie. There were no monitors). So I pulled out the camera and just started shooting random things.


Sunrise


Mini bagels

Photo Prep Day

Daniel near Downtown Camera

After a not so secret meeting with Leanna (the makeup artist) and Vaia (the model), we had to go over the shoot we were going to do, I ventured off towards the camera district. For this blog's purposes the camera district is located at Church and Queen street. There used to be a bunch of various camera places but they've mostly gone out of business. The only two remaining stores are Henry's and Downtown Camera. The later being the one I frequent more often.

It was while going there to pick up a lens cloth and price out some visatek lighting gear that I bumped into Daniel (a 3D animator from my days at Calibre). He was getting his video camera fixed. What are the odds of running into someone you know on the street?

In my heyday I ran into people I knew quite often. At least that's what most of my friends would tell me. Not so much now. Different time schedules? People moved away? Who knows.

The Dinner Party

Me, prepping dessert (photo taken by Emmanuel Lopez)

Noon. Still groggy from the roller derby, punk shows, birthday celebrating I managed to wake up to get to the local "no frills" (grocery store). The night before, I back timed the amount of hours I would require to make three loaves of corn bread and a dessert for Juliet's dinner party.

The dinner party was scheduled for 4pm. By my calculations I would have at least four hours to run to the store, buy the ingredients, prep the ingredients and bake. The corn bread took a bit longer than anticipated and I ended up having to prep and finish the dessert in Juliet's kitchen. The dessert was a cheesecake with strawberry chunks, banana filling, and a crusty graham cracker crust seperated with a thin caramelized chocolate layer.


Juliet and Emmanuel in the kitchen

Mike Demonte's Party

Mike Demonte hosts his 40th birthday party.

At about 3am I managed to get back into Toronto from the pub/bar in Hamilton. Just in time to catch Mike DeMonte's party winding down. There were two backyards, a hot tub, and booze. Nice.


"Is she fat? uh... no!"

At one point I had met this girl (see above) with a tattoo running down her back. She thought she was fat. The first thing to come to my head was "She's insane" then it came out my mouth. A bunch of others seemed to agree.

I stayed until the sun started to come up at which point Neil and I walked up the street to take the 24 hour streetcar home. It had been a long shooting day and by the time I got home (around 8am) I was left with about 4 hours of sleep before having to wake up to go to the grocery store. More on this in tomorrow's blog entry.


Neil makes his way home at 6:30am.

CorkTown

Horror Biz plays at CorkTown (assorted pictures)

Later on after the roller derby bout and the Sons of Butcher performance we travelled over to Hamilton to a bar called CorkTown. This is where the post celebration (or drinking) comenced. Horror Biz and Screwed played a few sets.





The Screwed (assorted pictures)

Sons of Butcher

Doug Borski

In a room next to the main arena, Sons of Butcher played a set including the ever popular hits "We F*ckin' Rule" and "F*ck the Sh*t". Who exactly are Sons of Butcher? Hell did I know, but damn they played a good show. They even had a cover for Journey's "Any way you want it". I'll have to make an effort to see them live on stage should they ever pop by Toronto.

In the meantime check out their MySpace page and download some tunes. Better yet buy their CD. They're BagelHot!


Ricky Butcher


Sol Butcher


Beverlee Crush-Her a Steel Tank girl after the victory over the Harlots.

Roller Derby!

Susie Sizzlelips, roller derby ref.

Saturday. Burlington. The City arena. The bout between the Hamilton Harlots and the Steel Tank girls took place. It's Canadian roller derby at it's finest.

Having never shot a roller derby event before or knowing the rules I found it a bit odd keeping track of who was winning and what people were actually doing. The last roller derby thing I seem to recall was a movie called "The Big Brawl" a movie starring Jackie Chan. Other than that what exactly are the rules anyway?

Thank goodness for the internet. Here's a short blurb.


Jammers racing around the track

The Burlington bout was a lot of fun even though the lighting was pretty terrible from a photographers stand point. I had a bunch of remote flashes positioned off to the side of the rink but it meant that if there was a wipe out on the other side of the rink I didn't get it.


"Out of the way!"


"Yikes!"


Miss Carriage closes in on the Harlot Jammer

New photos added august 9th, 2006
(not in original post)

Al and Craig - fans of 33 1/3, Miss Carriage


It's not a sport until there's a streaker.


"Take that"


"On your marks..."


Fan of the Cheese Grater (#2 of the Steel Tank Girls)

Surprise Birthday

Cupcake watches the Dad sing

A surprise birthday party took place tonight for Cupcake's dad who turned 70 a few months ago. The family had managed to assemble a bunch of friends in a restaurant setting complete with a Karaoke set up. Yes, as it turns out some of the dad's friends were singing fools. As an outsider it was interesting to watch them sing the various renditions of "I did it my way". The age of the group could be deteremined by the songs that were picked.

All in all it was good to see a bunch of friends get together and just have fun.

Neil's Birthday

Sandy and Mike celebrate with Neil

Neil Hollands. The only known human being to win life time achievement award at Darryl's Hard liquor and Porn party and also the only one to actually enter a film for every hard liquor and porn party (yes including the ones in Montreal) had his birthday today.

We celebrated at the "Wheat Sheaf", a restaurant/Pub type place down on King and Bathurst. Not to be confused with the "Wee Chief" a name I thought I heard originally and was lost looking for a little Indian dude.

Island Picnic

Looking at the CN Tower from the ferry

After shooting the house at Sherwood Forest inside out I took a boat (the Toronto Ferry actually) over to the Toronto Islands to meet up with Michelle for the CBC picnic. Free burger, hot dog, and drink. Those were the magic words that got me there. Also going to the island is always nice to get away from all the Toronto smog without really getting away from Toronto.

The picnic was the typical company picnic one would imagine. There were tons of kids beating each other up with inflatable sticks. Sticks or tubes that you bang them together at football, baseball or basketball games to make noise. Off to the side of the large gathering of people were two guys playing cover music "Time in a bottle", the assortment of Simon and Garfunkle, that sort of stuff.

The burgers were pretty mediocre but hey they were free!




Is that a military plane taking off from the island airport?


A bunch of birds looked like they were following the boat.


This flag indicates the end of the area that is patrolled by the resident lifeguard.


The Centre and Wards Island ferry