Memories of the Queen Mother Cafe

I don’t recall the first time I ever walked through the doors of this unique Queen Street West Cafe and I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve returned, but the Queen Mother Cafe (208 Queen Street West) is one of my favourite local Toronto landmarks.  So many memories of enjoying a cozy lunch, raving about their Pad Thai, asking if they had that special pie, rendezvousing with friends and remarking on the interesting selection of wall art.  It’s the kind of place where we Torontonians like to talk about how great our city is.  It’s often times a stop when shopping on Queen Street and it used to be a regular lunch spot for my wife and I when I was working downtown.  

My wife just read a great article in the Toronto Star about their history and surviving through this year’s pandemic times.  A wonderful coincidence we found out through the article is that the restaurant opened 42 years ago today, which was the day after I arrived in Canada from England. 

I’ve always loved the way the cafe is situated on the street with the large welcoming windows.  I actually used it as my cover photo for my photography book Urban Colour and Contrast: Toronto.

The last time I was there was with my Australian cousin and her husband on a bitterly cold January lunchtime in 2019.  I think I’ve taken a few visitors and family members there over the years and as it turned out, my cousin said I’d taken her there during one of her previous visits years before.  No worries, we all enjoyed our lunch - again.

I recall that the cafe was always busy and we often worried we wouldn’t find a table.  I’m not certain of the magic, but we always did get a table and was always served by its friendly staff.

Hoping to visit again when we get past these pandemic times.

Easton Town Centre - Columbus, Ohio

I had a short business trip to Columbus, Ohio this week. My colleague who lives in Columbus recommended staying at the Marriott Courtyard in Easton rather than downtown (my usual preference). He said downtown is quiet at night and they'd be much more to see and do in Easton. Well we was right. I had a few occasions to walk around Easton Town Centre which is a model-town version of upscale main street with an impressive atrium-like mall at its centre. Lots of good restaurant choices, every shopping destination from the usual mall choices, large department stores to an Apple store and Tiffany's. I even caught a movie (The Hunger Games; review on Flixster soon) at the AMC.

But there were things missing. The feeling of it reminded me of a trip to Disney World where a friend said the boardwalk area was like being inside The Truman Show.

There were people walking on the sidewalks, but the massive parking lots advertising 1000's of parking spaces were a constant reminder that there were very few local residents and it was a suburban destination rather than a true true uptown experience. There were a few strollers, but not a lot of school age kids during the evening and after-school hours Add to that the extreme restriction of not allowing pets on the (private) streets; the absence of many visible minorities and lower income folks; and no people hurrying to/from home, resulted in a feeling of a manufactured cityscape.

A good try Columbus and I will stay in Easton again if I return, but I'm afraid it's not so easy to manufacture the true uptown street feel of a large city. Looking forward to being home to my uptown Toronto neighbourhood.

A simple lesson learned on taking photos of people on the street

Love seat - #250/365, a photo by PJMixer on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I've been doing the 100 Strangers project for a couple of years and holding at no. 99 for a while. Around Yonge Dundas Square there's some new clever advertising on the benches and I noticed these folks enjoying a nice conversation framed perfectly for the "Love Seat" wording. I wanted a decent shot and couldn't easily take it without them knowing. So I approached them, deciding ahead of time that I wasn't going to formally ask their names and talk to them for my stranger project, but rather simply say hello and ask if it was ok to take their photograph. I gave them one of my cards and asked them to continue as they were, I took a few shots, then showed them what I'd taken. In comparison to the extra effort it takes to talk to people and find out a little more about them for the 100 Stranger project, I felt much more relaxed and less rushed. I'd read a guest post by David Powell on DPS about lessons learned from daily shooting and in point 3 he simply says "The approach I have taken that seems to work is being genuine and I simple ask ‘Do you mind if I take your photo?’. Often I will ask them to continue doing whatever they are doing and I take my shot." It definitely worked for me today.

Lots of coincidences

Flying home from my business trip to California yesterday and I noted 3 coincidences, incl. Santa Monica Blvd, neighbourhood limo riders and girls on motorcycles.  See my Only Coincidence ? blog for the details from the books, movies and life in the city.

Santa Monica Blvd.

I was in Santa Monica for our sales conference this week.  Mostly business, but I managed to see a some of the city with a little walkabout with work colleagues Thursday night, incl. Santa Monica Blvd.  On the flight home I was reading a novel called The Lock Artist and the main character was on Santa Monica Blvd.

Neighbourhood limo riders

I arrived home this evening from a business trip to California.  Lots of lineups, including a chilly 10 mins waiting for a limo ride home.  When it was close to my turn, I made eye contact with the gentleman behind me in line and we exchanged a few words.  Turns out he lives about 2 blocks from my house.

Desmond and a little bit of Toronto architectural history

Desmond - stranger #84 and daily photo #25/365 (or #441), originally uploaded by PJMixer.

I was photographing the old facade of O'Keefe House (Now Ryerson's G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education) when Desmond said hello and told me a little about himself and the building.

Desmond told me the building used to be the offices for O'Keefe breweries, with the top floor being the office of the business mogul E. P. Taylor. The brewery was located next door at the corner of Victoria and Dundas. I hadn't looked very closely at the sculpture on the building until Desmond pointed out they were holding barley grains designating the connection to brewing beer.

Desmond is a program director at The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, part of Ryerson University. Thanks for sharing a little about old Toronto and its architecture.

Desmond is #84 in my 100 strangers project.

Last post of 2010

With a hour to go before the New Year, I just got back from my evening walk with Kooper.   Here's the North Toronto neighbourhood New Year's Eve assessment:

• Number of house party's in full swing: 3
• Yonge Street restaurants catering to a good crowd for dinner and celebration: 4
• A little dose of some backyard fireworks
• Biggest party: big lineup, bass driving tunes and security at The Capitol
• Friendly dogs: 1
• Smoker's alley party: 1
• Best atmosphere: all windows open at Cam's Place

Happy New Year to all

Reasons to live in the city - #1 an interesting dog walk

I've been using the themed, numbered series idea for quite some time on one of my other blogs - in Tune in (music focus) with the series Where I find new music.  So as I was walking my dog tonight, I thought about a series I could develop here on PJMixer.

I often catch myself these days, wondering if I can really afford to live in Toronto, let alone my affluent North Toronto, uptown neighbourhood.  What's the point of owning a home in one of the city's best neighbourhoods if you really can't afford to enjoy its fine dining and shopping on a regular basis.  Sure, in better times and with less family expenses, my wife and I knew all the better restaurants and our wardrobe provided lots of options for our many evenings out.  But times are a little tight, so perhaps this outlet we help me reevaluate the value of my urban life.

I have an energetic 20 month old Australian Shepherd, named Kooper.  I typically walk Kooper a few kilometres around my neighbourhood every evening.  I usually take a path that heads North from my house toward Lytton Park and the larger homes, and then back via Yonge Street, walking along streets like Alexandra Blvd (one of my favourites).  I wonder whether walking by these beautiful homes, with their equally appealing collection of cars, the lovely restaurants, and doing some window shopping every evening is good for me.  Of course, the walk is good for my health, but what about my mental health, am I comfortable in this world, this city, surrounded by things that I desire, but can't really afford at this point in my life.

But let's take the wealth of the neighbourhood out of the equation for a moment.  I often take different routes around my neighbourhood, walking past large apartment buildings, small, poorly maintained homes and many  businesses.  What the common thread is in my neighbourhood, my city and likely many great cities in the world, is the variety and the people.  

Whether it's the multi-million dollar mansions, the apartment buildings with thousands of single people or new immigrants, the family run Thai restaurant, the greasy spoon or the #7 best restaurant in the city, the dollar store or the latest in ski apparel, there's so much to look at on my evening walks.  Combine the visual stimulus with the common occurrence of Kooper and I crossing paths with many other urbanites and urban dogs and stopping for a brief sniff and the chat, and you have my first reason to live the city - an interesting dog walk.

I really don't think I'd enjoy going out every evening in a rural or small town setting.  I guess if I had a large property in the country, I may not need to walk my dog on city streets, but that's not the point.  To be fair, taking in the beauty of the countryside, a sheep filled meadow, a Muskoka lake on a regular dog walk would be nice, but perhaps could get a little repetitive.  Plus my neighbourhood, like many in Toronto has a huge amount of trees that add some natural beauty to the cityscape.  And keep in mind, that for half the year, my evening walks are when the sun's down !  I enjoy walking my dog in my neighbourhood, it's rarely boring and there seems to be an ever changing urban landscape to soak up.  Adding the right personal soundtrack (I wear my iPod probably on half my walks) can also help complete the urban experience, but you've got to be careful there, there's only a few hours in a day where country music makes sense, and the Sex Pistols doesn't always fit a quiet Sunday morning walk.  But when it's dark, some mellow electronica usually hits the spot.

A friend of mine who's a real estate agent, recently asked if he could perhaps use some of my photos for his neighbourhood newsletter.  I often take shots when I'm out walking Kooper, or to and from the subway station or whenever something or someone catches my attention.  Hopefully you can get an impression of my neighbourhood from the Around the neighbourhood set I just created on Flickr.

So is it healthy for me to fill my head with desires for larger, more beautiful homes and luxury cars every night, probably not. But like the feeling you get from looking at glossy pictures in a magazine, or classic art at the gallery, or snapshots of everyday street life, admiring the beautiful things around you is good for the soul(1).

(1)Paula, a stranger I met in Washington in 2009, told me that looking at photography is good for the soul.


I've got quite a lot of draft blog articles that I haven't had to a chance to complete.  I'm on vacation for a few weeks over the holidays, so I'm hoping I can use some of my time off to catch up with some new posts.

A few life lessons inspired by Nina and a dog

Just got back from walking Kooper and while in the rhythm of the walk and enjoying the smooth remixed sounds of Nina Simone I had an opportunity to reflect on my day and compile a modest list of some life lessons for the day:

• Dogs are good.  They give you an excuse to get out of the house on a regular basis and they listen to anything you have to say.  And for men, yes, a dog is a perfect wing-dog to attract attractive ladies (proven tonight outside the event theatre on the corner).
• If you have a evening of adult beverage indulgence in mind, a quick paced dog walk is a perfect way to freshen up and move from dinner wine to the next stage of the evening.
• If you happen to have sustained a broken ankle at some point in the past and the hardware gets a little sore, then flat shoes are perhaps a better choice than supportive athletic shoes (this one may not apply to everyone).
• Music can always create and change a mood.  Think of music as fashion for the soul.
• If you've lost something and you really miss it, now and again, look for it again.  It's such a good feeling when you find something you've lost for a while (I found my iPod tonight).
• In a pinch, a Blackberry is a decent stand-in for music if you've lost your iPod.  Actually the search feature is better and on my Blackberry (v5 OS), I can create new playlists that I can't do on my iPod Nano (2nd gen).
• Whenever you get the chance, get out and enjoy your city - it will surprise you and show you sides of the city you may not know existed (I visited quite a few buildings today as part of Toronto's Doors Open event).
  
  

The Urban Cottage Weekend

I don't have a cottage.  I can't afford one and I'm not lucky enough to have one in the family.  I love visiting Ontario's beautiful lakes and enjoying cottage life.  Even a drive that passes through cottage country, freshens my wish list and tints my mood a little green with envy.  However, what many people say and I may have to agree, owning a cottage isn't all it's made up to be.  You have a second home to maintain and tackling the traffic really taints the whole experience.  I recently heard from one Muskoka regular, that he avoids the lakes on the weekend, because of the chaos on the water with the boom in powerboat action.


So, I decided that we'd have an urban cottage weekend.  Of course, we don't have a beautiful (but cold) lake on our doorstep, but there are many things we can simulate in the city that can give us the feel of cottage life.  My daughter wrote up our rules (version 2) and posted it on the fridge.  We managed to do most of the things on the list, including roasting marshmallows (in our living room fireplace) !  And funnily enough, the city on Sunday and holiday morning was quite quiet, maybe quieter that cottage country !

Although not specifically on the list, I avoided checking my Blackberry all weekend and didn't check email, blogs, Facebook and Twitter at all.  Although I felt a little disconnected from the world (isn't that one of the things you enjoy from being at the cottage), the odd feeling was that time slowed down.  I wasn't always distracted by an incoming email and social posts and neve had to say - just a minute, while I check something !  I managed to get outside a lot  and enjoy the glorious weather, which unfortunately limited the time to play one of my favourite games, but we did enjoy some movies and I had lots of time to read. 

The urban beauty of leafless trees and early darkness

Sure, fading daylight naturally comes with the fall of the leaves from our trees.  But for this urbanite, I've been noticing how beautiful the city is this time of year.  I've been taking my dog for walks in my North Toronto neighbourhood almost daily and the lack of leaves on the trees reveal some of the beautiful homes in this old and well kept part of our city.  In the early evening, the darkened residential streets, unmasked of tree foliage, produce a perfect backdrop to the welcoming glow of a house awaiting its owners return.  You add the occasional aroma of a wood burning fireplace and in a few weeks, the crunch of crisp snow underfoot, and you have a picture perfect winter neighbourhood walk.  In warmer months, seeing neighbours working on the yards or enjoying a patio provides the neighbourhood feel, but in the darker months, the homes themselves take on the character of the street, displacing the homeowner, but seem to provide an warm invitation for the passerby.

I'm also driving downtown once a week for an indoor ultimate [frisbee] at Lamport Stadium, and I'm enjoying the beauty of our busy night time street scenes. I'm thinking that for many reasons, a true city is at its best at night.  For a business focused city like Toronto, the day just shows us the work life of Torontians and our suburban neighbours.  But as soon as the clock strikes five, the city begins to transform into a living, social and artistic canvas.  You add the reflective properties of a damp and glistening street and you can be driving through a stellar light show.  Catching sight of friends chatting on the street, mates gathering at a local bar, or romantic couples in a cozy cafe, makes me want to pull over and soak up that urban life.  But with an appropriate accompanying soundtrack (urban, hip hop and electronic for upbeat hours and jazz for later hours) and a warm car, you can appreciate your city in a different way - taking in big slices of urban life, with the ever-changing lighting of the street scape, along with the constant trail of car taillights, sprinkled with sites of locales that trigger memories of your time with the city.

I love the oranges of the warm cafe, the bright whites of the mega billboards that temporarily turn a corner to day, the silhouetted office worker high up in his tower, the brick glow of history's landmarks, the faint din of music coming from a club or the rattle of a street car, and the neon pulses that are our city's heartbeat.  And over the last few weeks, the Christmas decorations and lighting have added to the blaze and colour on our city streets.  And don't forget those special Christmas shop window displays. 

On a somewhat related note, I have a strong feeling that black must be the predominant clothing colour these days.  The fashion of the youngster masses definitely skews the noir balance, but the preference for the ultra dark seems to span all walks of life.  Is this just a city thing ?  Is it a seasonal byproduct ?  Whatever it is, I don't like it.  Come on people, show some individuality, lighten up these dark nights and add some fresh colour to our often too somber world.

It may be my focus on photography these days is opening my eyes to new angles, interesting lighting and beauty of our everyday places, but I'm enjoying the beauty of the city as we close in our Christmas.  If you love city life, if you love this city, bundle up and go for a walk a night around your nighbourhood or get comfy and warm in your car and take a drive around your city.  If you want some iPod soundtrack recommendations for your nightime urban tour let me know, I've got lots of ideas.

Photo Blog #15: Finger by courier; Photograhpy is not a crime spinoff

I went out at lunch yesterday to practice my panning skills, trying to determine the best shutter speed to capture movement, not too fast because you don't want to stop the background (and wheels etc) and not too slow that you can't freeze the subject. I was getting some reasonable results with 1/125sec. To be honest it was kind of hard to even find fast moving objects around Yonge and Dundas as the traffic is pretty grid locked most of the time.

This was the last one I shot and as it happened, I think there's a story here. If you're not from Southern Ontario, then you've probably missed the news about a prominent politician who is being charged in the death of the bike courier earlier this week (Bryant quits post, declares innocence, cyclists ride in support of dead bike courier). This incident has sparked the debate again about cyclist safety on our city streets. I sometimes ride my bike around the city and I've had a few close calls with cars and experienced the tension of sharing busy city streets with mammoth SUV's, trucks and just plain, poor drivers. However, I must admit that I'm not always a model bike citizen and on occasion I'm guilty of disobeying some laws of the road. Another combustible element to the argument is the bike courier - urban hero or antihero ? So back to the photo, could my friendly subject be reacting to the possible negative slants towards couriers or is it simply capturing the stereotypical anti-establishment attitude of this urban figure ?

The other story that this photo perhaps captures is the growing negative attitudes towards photographers taking photos in and of the public. I've been personally tackling this one as I straddle the line between trying to capture unstaged urban street scenes versus approaching strangers for permission to take their picture as part of my 100 Stranger project. There is quite a lot of new commentary and a few organizations raising awareness on public photography, how it is legal - not a crime, how it is a creative art form to embrace, and in some parts of the world, how photographers are sometimes being suspected of being terrorists (something I haven't personally experienced).

So I'm going to keep taking pictures of people, because they are beautiful, interesting, funny, colourful and in many cases there's a story behind their photograph.

Photo Blog #8: Downtown Snow Scenes

University Avenue - Canada Life and CN Tower

Snowy Train Tracks taken from Strachan Avenue crossing

University of Toronto

[By the way I'm still adding photos to my Flickr and personal Picasa web albums]

Reporting live 3 days ago...

This "live report" at 4:26pm on Friday, December 19th got lost in the mash of the tech transfer circus...posting so I can document this weather related little adventure...

Trying to get home.

Subway cars are jammed packed, it's going to be a nightmare for those commuters transferring to surface routes - I'm lucky I just have a nasty 10 min walk home in the blizzard. But still, I'm sure driving is worse. Dumb thing is, I actually chose to go to the office, rather than work from home today - I chose poorly.

Blackberry shot from the office at 1:30pm on Friday

Make my day, shoot someone

I have been seeing signs for "Pixels for Pistols" around town over the last few months and got a bit of a clue as to the details behind the program. In today's Metro and saw some great news...Police trade digital cams for 1,900 guns !

I never would have thought such a simple, yet generous program would have such a large impact.

So make my day - shoot someone... shoot a friend laughing, your sibling teasing your Dad, a beautiful face of a girl on the street, or an old man whose face tells a thousand stories. I believe in shooting a lot and often, photography is a fantastic hobby, I love discovering great photography and love sharing my own shots.

Some links you might enjoy: Flickr portrait photographs; all my posts about photography; my page on Flickr; Digital Photography School blog. I have lots more, just let me know if you want some specific pointers.

Cheese.

A TTC rant - and not an obvious one

Why is it taking the TTC sssssssoooooooo long to repair the down escalator at the Eglinton Subway station ? I'm close to actually finding out what bureaucratic pin-head is behind this shameful example of incompetence and putting his name publicly on the virtual wall-of-shame. All public transit believers pay good money to take "the better way" and we patiently tolerate an occasional break in service. But this ? Come on red hats, get your act together. I photographed this same elevator debacle back in May and I'm sure we're past its anniversary. The result is the same - hundreds of people forced to navigate down a narrow, two-stage, side stairway. while others try to come up the stairs against the flow (either healthy types looking to burn a few extra calories, or those wanting a 6" short cut, or those not seeing the fully functional up escalator).

Yes, the sign says "maintenance", but I'm not sure what kind of maintenance takes over a year !

Mass transit can cause massive problems

I walked home with thousands of people last night.

A very busy section of the subway was shut down during the evening rush hour yesterday. It turns out electrical cables fell on the tracks near Eglinton station (my closest station). The trains were turning back at Bloor and Lawrence about 6 kms apart. Faced with a few of these situations in the past, I typically resort to walking. So I walked 4kms home with thousands of other people shoulder to shoulder on the street and surrounded by jammed roads and the overcrowded stand-in shuttle buses. It took me about an hour. A lady here at the office waited patiently for a shuttle bus and got home in 3 hours.

I contemplated my thoughts on the walk:

• A little irony here - this happens a day after the announcement of the massive regional transportation plan.
• I noticed that many people didn't seem to be used to walking. Perhaps the daily routine was a short shuffle to the bus stop and and a transfer to the subway, but a good healthy city walk was foreign to them. Walking etiquette and pace was inconsistent and of course footwear was an issue. I was hoping I wouldn't witness a heart attack. Surprisingly, I only saw a few smokers (or are smokers more likely to drive?) and every other person was telling the tale via their cell phone.
  
• The bars were doing a cracking business.
  
• I imagine that people driving their cars around the suburbs listening to this news on the radio, or even sitting in their cars along Yonge street were thinking - these people are crazy, why take the subway if you have a choice to take your car ? It just gives public transit a very bad image, especially in times when we're trying to promote it's environmental benefits.
• A lot of people don't know their city very well and rarely take a look around or get above ground for a peek. Some people were unclear of what the major streets were, how far they were walking and a few weren't even clear on the direction they should be walking. There was lots of people looking in shop and restaurant windows, obviously clueless to the wonderful shopping and dining you can find thru midtown Toronto.
  
• Canadians are often described as a tolerant bunch and I could say that that was evident last night. There wasn't a lot of yelling or complaining, just an acceptance that things don't always go to plan and you just get on with it.
  
• I was glad I'd decided to leave my laptop and (heavy) external drive at the office - it made the carry home a little more bearable.

When mass transit hits a serious snag like yesterday, it produces a massive problem for tens of thousands of people. I hope the TTC (disappointing there's no formal apology on their front page) and the regional public transportation authorities truly understand that the service they provide to the public is essential for the health of a modern thinking, metropolitan city.

Fancy meeting you here

I love it. I played ultimate last night against some familiar faces. Heading down in the elevator from my office just now and the door opens on a lower floor and who should walk in - a guy I was playing against last night. I've "known" him for years and knew his name but never said more than foul or nice game in the past.

Testerday, I also found out that a friend who also works in my office building who I know from my kids school - his daughter is now in my daughter's class.

It'll be nice to have some new people to invite for downtown lunches or beers.

Sometimes this metropolis really does feel like a small town.

Fresh (but quickly fading) observations of the city (post vacation)

20 minutes of photographing random people at lunch hour

I wanted to post a few thoughts before I simulate back to my urban life after being away from the city for a couple of weeks.

Large populations will naturally create more variety, however this city's ethnic diversity and tolerance for all tastes in personal fashion, visible social alignment and appearance can make walking down a city street a giddy affair.

Yesterday was my first day back in the office and I found I had a fresh view of the variety of people on the street, every ethnicity, every shape and size, every fashion statement, walking pattern, goddess or geek, the list of the observed differences in people just keeps going on and on and on. I'm finding that this urban visual landscape is extremely full and can be very distracting and tiring.

And of course with the size of a city like Toronto, the sheer number of people on the street, on the subway and in their cars is huge. With all these people (speaking every kind of language) and the infrastructure and services to support it all, also comes one hell of a noise.

Like the huge variety of music I listen to, I'm probably guilty of channel surfing through my day, without stopping and focusing on the best bits. I love having lots of variety in my life, but experiencing a simpler life away from the city for a few weeks, where choice is rather limited has hopefully made me realize that happiness can be found in simple, uncluttered places. Now the trick is filtering out the noise, selecting and then enjoying (a few) simple urban elements.