Fifty-two things to do

On Thursday's walk we were accompanied by a crew from 52 Mondays. (Above, you can see them interviewing Alison, while Jamie takes a picture.) Every week they post a video clip about a different way to spend Monday night in Toronto, other than watching TV. We walk on Thursdays, but there's no reason you couldn't walk on a Monday.

The amount of attention the Toronto Psychogeography Society has received in the time I've been walking with them is amusing to me. We've been written up in Canadian Art, the Globe and Mail, and 24 Hours; we've had students and writers join the walks out of curiosity. We tell everyone the same thing: "Yes, we go on walks. No, we're not jogging, or trying to raise money for charity, or heading for any particular destination. We just go out and walk around and look at stuff. Sometimes we take pictures." I'm not complaining, it's nice that people are interested in what we do, I just think it's funny that this is news.

We began at St. Clair West station this time, and soon found ourselves in a ravine. Under a bridge in the ravine we found some new-looking graffiti; the kids on bikes who hung around there deciphered the lettering for us, and told us the graffiti had gone up a couple of days ago.

We came out of the ravine and walked down Vaughn Road, past locksmiths and laundromats, churches, the Tibetan Buddhist Temple and the Wiccan Canadian headquarters. The Wiccans had some kind of worship ceremony going on; the windows on the second floor were open & we could hear ritual drumming, though from the sidewalk all we could see was a black ceiling and a string or two of white Christmas lights.

And then we wound up at Dutch Dreams. What's special about Dutch Dreams isn't the quality of the ice cream so much as the fact that, even if you order the smallest, plainest single-scoop cone, they'll crown it with whipped cream studded with fresh fruit and maybe some sprinkles. It's the most baroque ice-cream place in Toronto. And check out the decor:


All in all I think the video crew got some good material. So did I: More pics here.

Update: The Psychogeography video is up!