Pedestrian Sundays Rock Toronto’s Kensington Market

Mike — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:55:29 +0000

< Photo of Maracatu Nunca Antes, Toronto-based Brazilian music group, by Yvonne Bambrick

Kensington Market is a colorful, lively place chock full of quaint shops and colorful characters. On the last Sunday of every month they hold an innovative, car-free, pedestrian-only street festival.

My pal Grey Coyote is the President of the Kensington Market Action Committee and a loyal supporter of community events like Pedestrian Sundays. I asked him to write about the event and tell us what we might expect for the last two events on September 26th and October 31st.

“With the summer quickly fading away, the hotter days of Pedestrian Sundays is now behind us, but there are still two left to go. On September 26th, the theme will be fall harvest time – and on October 31st, it will be a Halloween theme as we honour our ancestors. As with every street closure, there will be giant games in the middle of the street, buskers and musicians spread out the whole length of the Market, and as far as the eye can see – food – food – FOOD! So far, with absolutely no corporate funding whatsoever, we’ll pulled off most of our 7th season without a hitch. Belly-dancers warmed things up in anticipation of summer on the May 30th opener. The June 27th event was a fire theme, and I almost got heat stroke shaking my percussion along with the Samba Elegua! On July 25th, we had a water theme to try to cool things down, and on August 15th, we all tried to turn off as much power as possible to remember the great blackout of 2003. August 29th saw the Kensington Air show (our way of saying that we don’t need the war planes that come for the other air show at the lake). For each and every one, the streets were packed with a multicultural melange of people enjoying the streets without any vehicular intrusion – something that can be instituted in any community that wants to band together and have a street closure day. – For me, that’s the most important part of it all – knowing that this is our town and our streets and that bowing to the convenience of cars is not something that we have to do every day.”

Grey Coyote
greycoyote.net
paradisebound.ca

THANKS to my contributors: Grey Coyote and Yvonne Bambrick

More info: P.S. Kensington

Style Garage Rocks Gus Modern and Canadiana-Themed Furniture

Mike — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:09 +0000

Yesterday I was walking along “West Queen St. West”, the hipper cousin to the commercial strip known as Queen West, and I came across a funky furniture store with some real Canadian flavour and heavy style going on (hence the name “Style Garage” I guess!). Style Garage has been at the corner of Queen and Shaw St. for at least a decade, and it’s a little slice of slick but homey/comfy design sense, midway between downtown and Parkdale, in the “Art and Design” district.

Style Garage’s designs are “made to order” and the showroom shows off some really cool furniture (such as that from associates “Gus Modern”), along with funky accessories, many with a heavy Canadiana theme that immediately brought Douglas Coupland to mind. There’s nothing tacky or old-fashioned here though, it’s a fairly serious but friendly vibe at the same time. Nifty pillows with screen printed maps of Canada, and a handful of books on art/design/photography (Bauhaus, Edward Burtynsky’s “Oil”) round out the shop – giving it the feel of a highly artistic and design-centric endeavor. It’s not too far from Trinity Bellwoods Park and I suggest it’s a great place to stop on a crosstown walk, after you have a lunch at a cafe and check out some of the art galleries in the area.

For more info and to peep some of their amazing furniture design go to http://www.stylegarage.com/

Mike Simpson » Shopping

Pedestrian Sundays Rock Toronto’s Kensington Market

Style Garage Rocks Gus Modern and Canadiana-Themed Furniture