I haven’t been able to tell over the past week whether my clients have been sniffing at the properties I’m showing them or if they’re fighting the nasty cold slash flu which is making its way around the population. Ever since our mass return from Summer Vacation everyone has been air-kissing viruses.

Alas, said malaise left me curled up in bed surrounded by NeoCitran wrappers and crumpled tissues this weekend. Di’m D’all Stubbed D’up!

So instead of a high-brow Saturday night at a David Sedaris reading followed by an artful all-nighter of Nuit Blanche I ended up slumming it at home with my low-brow alternative. It was a pj-wearing Swiss Chalet roasted quarter chicken with baked potato dinner in bed while watching the ‘Sex And The City’ movie on tv. Brutal eh?

I adore author and funnyman David Sedaris. I was first introduced to his witty repartee in his book ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’. I love books where you are suddenly consumed with laughter that you can’t contain the shriek within and it erupts in full glory causing heads to spin. Like when you’re stealing a few moments over a latte in a cafe alone, or ensconced in your cabin seat with the lights dimmed low on a silver tin can hurtling you to your destination at 33,000 feet in the air. All of David Sedaris’ books make me laugh out loud, so I was hoping to enjoy him at Massey Hall last night reading from his new book ‘Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Model Bestiary’. Alas, twas not for me, but my friend thoroughly enjoyed the event. Here’s a link to a funny clip of David Sedaris reading on David Letterman.

It was also the night for our city’s fascinating Nuit Blanche. Once a small arts festival, in five shorts years it has exploded into a massive all-night venue with over 130 exhibits organized in three cross city zones. Several main streets were closed to vehicles to accommodate all of the foot-traffic, making the city feel very special in its pro-pedestrian-friendly set-up. Despite the cold, one highlight my friends especially enjoyed was the installation ‘Monument to Smile’ by artist Agnes Winter, in partnership with students from the photography program of OCAD University. Asking “Can you smile for me?”, the students photographed several hundred smiling locals in different neighbourhoods across the city in partnership with the artist over some weeks. In the end, 250 smiling faces of Torontonians transformed the facade of the Holt Renfre Centre into a mosaic of portraits transmitted by 3 video projectors in front of the building. The installation cycled every 20 minutes accompanied by Michael Jackson’s rendition of Smile.

My pals also raved about the exhibit “Aurora’ by Philip Beesley Architect Inc. Within the new atrium that borders the south flank of the old Royal Conservatory of Music building on Bloor Street West, a responsive ‘forest of light’ created with curtain-like layers of vertical cables carrying chains of microprocessor-driven lights were draped within the space like an ‘aerial textile’. As viewers walked through the atrium, “rippling patterns of softly glowing lights produced waves of empathic motion organized much like water-borne waves that might emanate out from pebbles cast in a pond”. My buds thought it magical.

I also would have loved to have seen this Max Streicher installation recommended by Toronto Life (which is where this amazing photograph is from too!)

Toronto has its groove on most weekends with some very cool events, but this is one I was sad to miss. I already can’t wait til next year!

~ Steven

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