I visited Ontario College of Art and Design at the end of July 2006. Here are a few pictures of the city, which I liked a lot.

Viewing instructions. (1) Some of these pictures are fairly big so that you can see details I point to in text. Try to click them, if your browser supports such function. (2) There are four movies. To hear MPG files properly, use earphones or loudspeakers.

Two BIG files, essentiall experiments with Sony Vegas software. 

MOVIE 28MB, 2 min: A musical essay from Niagara Falls.

MOVIE 11MB, ca. 46 sec: Toronto city hall in the dusk, with Art Blakey's music.

CN Tower, still the highest man-made observatory in the world: 

A view towards the downtown.

There was a skydeck (called Sky Dome) in 448 meters if I remember correctly. In a few places, the concrete was only about 50 cm in width, so you had to look down in several places. The windows were so built that they leaned outwards. Thus, by leaning against the rail, you could see directly about 450 meters downwards. Pretty scary first, but you got used to it quickly.

From 448 meters, cars look pretty small and people disappear completely out of sight. The big arena in the middle is the Rogers arena, home of the Blue Jays. Note that the picture is good; it just happened that a cloud came to obstruct the view when I was taking this picture.

THIS was scary: a glass floor about 100 meters below the Sky Dome. It took a fool like me to walk over it. 350 meters didn't stop kids, though.

Views and buildings from the city: 

The downtown waterfront from Toronto Islands.

The Kensington market neighborhood is pictoresque.

OCAD: the new extension, by Will Alsop.

Animation, ca. 20 sec: City Hall, design by Viljo Revell. I didn't have a pod, which explains variations in angle.

Revell's City Hall without animation for those interested in the building.

Misc artsy observations: 

King Edward VII had a horse had a cap.

There were murals all over the place. This one was painted on a carpet shop on Bloor St. West...

...and this one tells the story of John Croft, the only victim of the Great Toronto fire on April 19, 1904, who had a street named after him.

Yorkville galleries. This ex-immigrant corner of Toronto is a posh district these days.

A designer on Queen St. East didn't like him.

Toronto has a strong culture in comics an graphic novels.

Life art? In front of one gallery on Queen St. E., I found this little creature, a baby sparrow that had been taken care of by the shopkeeper. Read the text in the picture, and you understand the point. Canadians are civilized people, said a Scottish friend some time ago, and was right.

MOVIE 4MB!Jazz on Queen Street West. Remember earphones!

Beach life in Ontario: 

Beach life in the North. Toronto Islands' Centre Island from the pier at the end of Avenue of the Islands. As you see, the CN Tower is ubiquitous.

MOVIE 3.3MB! After sitting on the pier watching Lake Ontario & cooling off in the breeze from the lake, I went to a bar to sample Labatt. However, pretty soon the clouds came, and the light sort of disappeared... Nothing wrong with music, though, but I didn't even remember when I had heard Bob Seger for the last time (remember earphones)!

MOVIE 3MB! And soon: it pours, man, it pours. The thunderstorm suggested by the previous picture got there when I was sipping my beer and reading under the shade. The bartender's response was the only sensible one in this situation: she played songs about rain. Use earphones or speakers, if you got them! (Sorry: the quality of sound is in parts awful because I placed my finger on the oddly placed microphone.)

...but a few raindrops do not stop echt Canadians from having beer...

...QED. The waitress on the right is bringing Budweiser to the neighboring table. She protected beer with plastic cups, as you see if you look closely.

MOVIE 10.6MB! And, as we all know, if you play Albert Hammond's rain song, rain stops. Among other things, you see in this movie how the waitress opens her hair and tries to make it dry. However, be careful with sound, it is quiet in the beginning, but the volume jumps up after 2,5 seconds!

Niagara Falls: 

An overview of Horseshoe Falls.

A detail of the Horseshoe.

With a "few" others, I took a tour into the middle of the waterfall in a boat called the Maid of the Mist VI.

MOVIE 1.2MB. This short movie gives an idea of the power of the falls.

The second fall on the U.S. side. To get an idea of its scale, try to get a look at people on the lower right corner. They are truly tiny.

The Niagara River Whirlpool, an amazing natural phenomenon about 5 few km downstream from the falls.