Monday, June 30, 2014

World Pride 2014

John and I like to go picture hunting in the Rosedale Valley where the Pride Parade groups and floats prepare for their trip down Yonge Street. The valley is a-buzz with cheerful activity in the hours before the Parade begins.
For World Pride 2014 we were told the staging area extended from Park Road all the way to Bayview Avenue.
Rosedale Valley Road is shady and cool, a nice break from the sweltering city.
John marched in the original spontaneous protest march against the Toronto Police Bath House Raids of 1981. The annual protest that followed morphed into what we now call the Toronto Pride Parade.
This year we were touched to find the police lining up to be part of it all.
This police band, The Heat, was great fun. We laughed when they launched into "Bad boy, bad boy. Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you."
John wanted to have his picture taken with this Mountie but was too shy to ask. If I'd only known!
It's always fun to see people get into costume.
Everyone looked gorgeous against the greenery.

We noticed a lot of Caribanna influence in the costumes.
This fellow could't find his float. We found it difficult to imagine that his float wouldn't be able to find him!
The Hilton Hotel truck had living dioramas on either side. Is that Paris?
John said "Note to self: bring your parasol".
We cheered for A Pied Levés, from Montreal as they rehearsed their routines.
The ghostly Two-Spirit float was dynamite.
As the parade got rolling we climbed the Park Road hill and ran into this fabulous creature.
We slipped away to find some lunch while he entered the biggest Pride Parade in the history of Toronto.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Over the Rainbow at MOCCA

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is hosting a show of works from the collection of Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex in honour of World Pride 2014. It's called Over the Rainbow; Seduction and Identity and is not to be missed.
John and I visited the show last Saturday. We entered through the MOCCA courtyard past Jim Naughton's photo-mural, Herero Women Marching (2012) created for CONTACT 2014.
 On entering the gallery John was drawn to some Warhol silk-screen prints.
 Then we were drawn to three paintings by Attila Richard Lukacs.
 John is zeroing in on one of Stephen Andrews' pencil portraits of vintage models from physique magazines.
Three works by Betty Goodwin. 
Andy Fabo's beautiful and moving portrait series of his deceased partner, Michael Balser. I believe they were painted from memory.
More Lukacs.
 The Bachir collection includes celebrity photography 
 by the likes of Herb Ritts and Annie Leibowitz
 as well as artwork by international art stars like General Idea.
In the back gallery we were pleased to see the late Robert Flack's wonderful Madala series.
We remember them well from the 1980s.
The gallery featured the original 80s soundtrack composed by Andrew Zealey.
Let's finish with this magnificent lithograph by Stephen Andrews, Crowd, linocut, 2004.