NIGHT MOVES
How we spent Nuit Blanche
Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche, a welcome fall all-nighter celebrating all forms of art in downtown Toronto, is easily one of our favourite excuses to tour the city and our own neighbourhood. While we didn’t venture that far out of Zone C, we heard rumours of 45-min lineups at 3am for the Bay Street ghost subway station light installation, as well as major streets, Yonge and Bloor streets included, being closed to traffic, allowing pedestrians to roam freely.
We began our night at the Art of Fashion, event at King West Fitness in Liberty Village a major NB centre last year. The Village was slightly more subdued for 2010, but we did find ghouls and goddesses traipsing around the parking lot of Lamport Stadium, as well as the field covered with 1×1 boxes, all filled with various, and seemingly random, items. Think: old photos, newspaper articles, passports, vintage clothing and even a teddy bear. From there we ventured north to Queen Street and took in the sights from the Gladstone Hotel all the way to Ossington Ave. We stopped in our tracks (and grabbed a beer!) at Sweaty Betty’s, which had displayed naughty Smurf drawings throughout the packed bar. Perhaps an homage to the upcoming live-action movie? With bartenders dressed as the little blue characters and lewd, but hilarious, sketches throughout, we couldn’t help but think this wasn’t the cartoon we grew up watching with our mom!
To end our exploration of the city, we hopped on a very packed streetcar and went east to Nathan Phillips Square to take in producer Daniel Lanois’ musical installation. Some were calling it the best of Nuit Blanche, and we were blown away by the production, which included a massive reflective surface placed above the crew so that the crowd could see all the equipment as the music played, all set to videos by Toronto videographers displayed on large projection screens throughout the square. Unfortunately we missed Lanois’ premiere of the new Neil Young record at midnight (true Canadiana at its best!), but we certainly felt the eerie, well-timed and thought-out vibe that the musical legend, who’s worked with U2, Bob Dylan and The Tragically Hip, was putting down.
