On the 'Playground' at Toronto's Nuit Blanche

 

Photos by Paul Eekhoff - http://www.pauleekhoffpicturelab.com/

It's been exactly one week since Toronto pulled an all-nighter for the fifth annual Nuit Blanche event sponsored by Scotiabank.   Every year at the beginning of October, art-goers and party-goers crash the metropolitan area from sunset to sunrise (7pm - 7am) in search of inspiring installations and frankly, a good time.  This year's installment drew approximately 1.2 million people out of their homes.  

 

I had the pleasure this year of assisting my partner Sabrina Richard and her friend Sara Atrvash on their public sculpture Playground (seen above) located in Trinity Bellwoods.  The sculpture, designed to invoke childhood memories and provide a reprieve from the grind of day to day adult life, was incredibly successful.  Children were clamoring to climb it, while adults lined up to  test themselves on the fifty foot long obstacle course.  Made from powder coated aluminum cylinders joined together by Euroklemp fittings, the Playground is reminiscent of construction scaffolding slung around homes and skyscrapers - only its gold.  Its precious sheen and scaffold-like structure function  poetically as a metaphor for growth, maturation, and aging, each of which progress at a fluctuating pace, up and down, with unforeseen hurdles to be met with along the way.  

Unfortunately, one of the downsides of installing - or in my case, helping to install someone's work - at Nuit Blanche, is that you invariably miss out on many of the other artworks/installations happening that evening.  Nevertheless, though tiring, installing Playground was a wonderful experience and my personal congratulations go out to both Sabrina and Sara for their beautiful work!

The Milk's Gone Bad

So we live in a generation coming to grips with the fact that nearly everything we've been eating for the past twenty to thirty years has been denaturalized and pumped with hormones, steroids, antibiotics, MSG, trans-fats, and various other forms of additives and preservatives.  Collectively, many of us are trying to reduce our dependence on these foods in favour of organic products.  While organic products are more expensive, particularly in Canada where they are not subsidized by the federal government, I cannot live with the fact that the products just do not seem to last very long.  I don't drink very much milk, but when I do buy it, it goes bad well before its 'Best Before' date.  I can't get this stuff to last 5 days, which is very frustrating.  I and Sabrina however, will continue along this path toward salvation (ha ha ha!), trying to avoid spoiled milk whenever we can.

Brett Favre demonstrates how best to seduce female NFL sideline reporters

Thanks for that demonstration Brett, what wonderful social etiquette you have!

Catch the...AIDS???

You know what they say:  Where there's smoke there's fire. 

It appears as though Roberto Alomar, celebrated Major League second baseman and soon to be Hall of Famer, is running out of chances to disprove the allegations of his ex-wife, who claimed he knowingly had the HIV virus when he had unprotected sex with her.  It is now being reported that Alomar's current wife, Maria Del Pilar Rivera Alomar, has filed for divorce on the very same grounds;  alleging that her husband "knew prior to his first sexual contact with (her) that he was HIV-positive."  If these allegations are in fact correct, it would be a devastating result for all parties and a tragic fall from grace for Alomar - one of the greatest second basemen to ever play.  Unfortunately, Alomar may soon be added to the long list of professional athletes involved in unceremonious endings.