Ward & Patch Sports

The history which lurks in unlikely places is amazing. After paying a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered Zellers over at the Galleria, I headed west along Dupont/Annette Street and saw an incredibly-preserved piece of sporting goodness.

Just east of Jane Street, in the Baby Point neighbourhood, Annette Street hosts a number of locally-focused shops such as florists, dry cleaners and restaurants. Until fairly recently, one such shop was Ward & Patch Sports. The store was located at 777 Annette Street since 1950 and catered to the athletic needs of active west-enders until relocating to Richmond Hill as The Goalie Crease in 2010. The new shop caters specifically to hockey goaltenders and are one of the few retailers in the world with such a specialization.

As you can see in the above photos, Ward & Patch had somewhat of a wider range of products, from hunting and fishing gear to electronics, specifically radios, from all the big names like Admiral and Rogers. Yes, that Rogers.

On the day of my visit, renovations were underway to convert the space into another neighbourhood institution, a hardware store. The sign was going up for auction.

Here is what Ward & Patch looked like when the Google Street View car paid a visit in July 2009.

Photos taken on May 25, 2012 on Annette Street in Toronto, Ontario 

Florida Southern College - Frank Lloyd Wright Campus

 Annie Pfeiffer Chapel

Watson-Fine Administration Building behind The Water Dome

 Esplanade toward Emile E. Watson - Benjamine Fine Administration Building

 Watson-Fine Administration Building

  Watson-Fine Administration Building

 Esplanade

Annie Pfeiffer Chapel

 Polk County Science Building

 Polk County Science Building

 Covered Esplanades

 Polk County Science Building

 Child of the Sun Visitor Center - Interior

 The Water Dome

E.T. Roux Library

It started with a telegram from FSC founder Dr. Ludd Spivey to renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1938 requesting a meeting "concerning plans for (a) great education temple in Florida" which set in motion plans for the construction of one of the largest concentrations of Wright-designed buildings in the world.

A thorough overview of the history of the campus can be found here.

Photos taken at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida on May 18, 2012.

Above The City Of Toronto

(It's good to be home)

 

Photo taken from the air over Humber Bay on May 20, 2012.

Supermoon 2012

Photo taken from my front porch in Leslieville, Toronto, Ontario on May 5, 2012.

Meeting Gordon Lightfoot

Last night I had the privilege of seeing, listening to, and meeting Canadian Icon Gordon Lightfoot. As anyone who grew up in the post-folkie/hippie 70s, my earliest exposure to Gord was somewhat forced. Canadian radio, AM in particular, had a government-mandated duty to expose and promote (and subsequently play to death) Canadian music. Artists like Lightfoot, Burton Cummings and Anne Murray could basically record anything they wanted knowing that they had a built-in armada of outlets to foist their sometimes-questionable wares upon the good listenership of the Great White North. Sure enough, with my parents' radio locked on 590 CKEY, I heard plenty of Gord, even if it was the same 5 songs over and over....

Over time, I got to explore Lightfoot's deeper catalogue, beyond the hits, and dreadful "Gord's Gold-esque" re-recordings of same and discovered that for every "Sundown", there was a "Song For A Winter's Night". For every "Everything For Love", there was a "For Lovin' Me". Sometimes lush, but always melodic, the songs were indeed beautiful, even if the trademark Lightfoot whine made the lyrics somewhat of a mystery.

Which brings us up to our meeting. On this rainy day, people queued for over an hour to hear Gord speak of his history, his craft, his family, his near-death experience, and name-drop not only his fellow troubadours, but also the names of widows of the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald, with whom he's consulted not only for lyrical accuracy, but also out of respect for their loss. Fascinating stuff. A bonus performance on a borrowed guitar, and dime, gave everyone what they truly wanted to hear.

Like most old men, particularly of his vocation, Gord has a tendency to, let's say, extrapolate. His lengthy responses to questions posed by Indigo owner Heather Reisman, flustered the chief bookstore killer book lover, but it allowed us some insight into the well-worn mind of a true poet.
  

 

Photos taken on April 23, 2012 at Indigo Books, Manulife Centre, Toronto, Ontario. 

Samsung EX1 Test Shots

 (Sketch effect applied on-camera)

 (Nothing other than a hit on "I'm Feeling Lucky" in Picasa)

(Minor increase in colour saturation) 

As a gift to me, I purchased a Samsung EX1 at a Henry's Outlet Store open box sale yesterday for $225. Half of its original $449 list price, the camera was basically new. I won't give it a review, since nobody really wants to read things like "cool", "neat" or "both cool and neat" in a camera review, so I'll leave that to people with less ADD than I. Suffice to say that it's a solid, 10MP metal-bodied upper-level P&S, with an extra-bright F1.8 lens (cool!) and a rotating AMOLED display (neat!), but only a 3X zoom (not so neat, nor cool, but it'll do). After 24 hours, I'm impressed. Hopefully the photos it takes will impress as well. 

 Photos taken on April 11 and 12 somewhere in the LeslieDaleWood Axis of East End Elite Evil in Toronto, Ontario. 

Vermont/Santa Monica Station

Photos taken at, near and below Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California on January 11, 2012.

Shots From A Train

Shots taken from the upper deck of a Barrie-bound GO Train in Innisfil, Ontario on February 15, 2012