Earth Hour 2010 Toronto

I dropped by Dundas Square on Saturday night to see the Earth Hour celebrations in Toronto. They had a few performers there. I missed the first performer Justin Nozuka, but I arrived in time to catch part of Jarvis Church's act. He's a Jamaican born Canadian R&B singer. His band played until about 8:15 p.m.

Co-hosts Kevin Frankish and Dina Pugliese from Citytv's Breakfast Television took up the slack after that. With 15 minutes to kill before the "dimming of the lights" they called upon Toronto mayor, David Miller, and WWF Canada president, Gerald Butts, to say a few words. They only managed to speak a few minutes each. So being sort of desperate they appealed to a group of performers who were at the back of the crowd of 10,000 to make their way up to the stage to perform. They didn't quite make it through. Instead a fellow dressed in clown garb went up and pulled one of those long, skinny balloons through his right nostril and out his mouth. That seemed to both thrill and gross the audience out at the same time and took us to 8:30 where mayor Miller pulled the switch and somewhat plunged Dundas Square into darkness.

Unfortunately not everyone in the area got the Earth Hour memo. They had to leave a few street lights on for safety purposes the organizers explained. But, a few buildings surrounding the square failed to turn their lights off for the one hour period. Now we all know the amount of electricity being saved is marginal. But, it's the spirit of Earth Hour that we want to honour.

Canadian songstress Chantal Kreviazuk performed next with a couple of her bandmates. She's a pretty funny girl. She explained how she was quite happy that evening due to the fact that her husband, Raine Maida, from Our Lady Peace was returning home after being on the road with his band for a month. She couldn't wait to see him for obvious reasons. Please, Chantal... there are young children in the audience ;-)

All in all Torontonians saved 10% in power usage. That was down from 15% last year. The 5% increase in energy usage could have been due to the fact it was much colder this year than last. Or, perhaps, people are more blasé about Earth Hour and energy conservation now. Let's hope not. We still have a long way to go towards reducing our carbon footprint and restoring our planet to its former glory.

Pedestrian Sunday - Kensington Market

After church, yesterday, I walked over to Kensington Market for their last Pedestrian Sunday of the year. They hold it the last Sunday of every month from May to October.

Pedestrian Sunday first started in 2004. The idea was to close certain neighbourhood streets to vehicular traffic and open them up for people to stroll through while enjoying a diverse assortment of food, music and other performances put on by the local community. At the same time they were trying to "make a statement about climate change, while creating the experience of what a livable city and a sustainable future could be simply by giving walking priority over the habit of driving. It’s a local action that joins a global ecological movement. By hosting a Pedestrian Sunday, a community takes back their common space and celebrates a day of cleaner air." or so says their website.

I arrived in the area at about 3:30 p.m. Pedestrian Sunday was already in full swing. The streets were bustling with people taking in a multitude of sights and sounds. While down here you'll find a myriad of ethnic groups represented by both merchants and residents alike. As well, there's an eclectic mix of cafés, restaurants and vintage clothing stores that's sure to put a smile on the face of any humdrum guy or gal you know. It's a kaleidoscopic ride for the senses to say the least. Musicians were playing curbside with their bands. Various street performers entertained the mass of onlookers. You could grab a chicken empanada from Jumbo Empanadas to go, or sit on a patio at Aspetta with a cold bottle of Peroni and watch the world go by. The choice was yours.

Two performers of note I enjoyed watching were the crazy, half-baked, half-naked, sword-juggling unicyclist DynaMike (Michael Bonnici) and the improv song and dance puppetry of Mr. Verg's Theatre of the Absurd (pictured above). He's an artist I've had the pleasure of seeing in various incarnations a couple times in the past.

DynaMike is totally nutty. But, in an amusing and entertaining way. He plays well to the crowd often getting them to take part in his performance. He starts by gathering everyone around and picking certain audience members to help him with his props such as his swords for juggling or stretch unicycle. This is followed by a balancing act with various objects and a finale that has him strip down to his skivvies then juggle three swords while balancing high atop his unicycle, all the while poking fun everyone that helps him.

Mr. Verg (a.k.a Alexander Winfield) is a little more cerebral. His creative and highly amusing, one man puppet show is utterly charming to both adults and children alike. For the price of a handful of spare change he will sing a song with his funny accent about any topic you care to put forth. According to his CityNews.ca interview he came upon the idea of performing his show back in 2006 when, in his words, he "had enough of trying to make do with very poor part-time jobs." He can be reached at sheepWpunks@gmail.com if you wish to inquire about his services or where he may be performing next.

All-in-all, it was a delightful way to pass a couple of hours on a lovely fall afternoon in the city. Next time you're here, you should make a point of dropping by.