Can’t go wrong with a good dose of colour when things begin to get gloomy outdoors and there is a place to go in Toronto that can always deliver on that front.
Going to Kensington Market is a bit like entering an artwork and then buying your fruits and vegetables within the swirling paints and broad brushstrokes.
Recently there has been some hubbub going on because a developer wants to put a big Walmart store in near enough to this market that it will negatively effect the trade of the vendors. As you can imagine local residents are completely against this, with more than fifty thousand signing a petition to stop it.
I have never been inside a Walmart store so won’t miss this one if it never gets built, but I would certainly miss the market if it no longer existed. Its mismatched glory never gets old. No matter how often you go to Kensington Market there are always new elements to notice, be they temporary works of street art, or old tiled rooftops that hadn’t caught your eye before.
↑↑ A little word about Graffiti’s Bar and Grill (which is still in operation … the For Lease sign in the picture is for the space above it.) Nick and I began working on music together right from our very first dates. He had lots of stage experience by then, and I had absolutely none. After we’d been practicing our original songs for about 6 months at home, we got a call from his buddy one Sunday, to see if we wanted to do a live gig that very afternoon. I nervously agreed to it and so we did our first live show at Graffiti’s. I can’t judge how it went but I do remember tripping over Nick’s cable at one point, which unplugged his guitar from the amplifier. Smooth.
A few years after this show, my friend met a man (who she eventually married) who just happened to be at that show. He recognized us as soon as he met us. A funny coincidence, because there weren’t very many people there as we hadn’t promoted it at all. In fact, at the time I was hoping there wouldn’t be many people there! ↑↑
↑↑ Gotta get my hot sauce! ↑↑
These several blocks, north of Dundas and West of Spadina, have been an area where homes and shops have mixed since the early 1900, but of course time changes things, and even without a Walmart, anyone who knows it well will have noticed the gradual changes taking place, with old stores being replaced with shiny new ones. No doubt that with all the development going on in Toronto these days, this location has become prime downtown real estate, that flashier retailers want to take advantage of. We all just hope that someone in charge of making the decisions where Kensington is concerned, recognizes that the place is so much more than somewhere to buy things.
And keeping with the notion of adding colour when times get darker, my online friend Shoko has just done a post for the Etsy blog, where she has picked out some great colourful winter accessories that will give your look a good jolt. I really like what she selected and now feel the need for a new hat with a huge pompom. Check out her post here, and consider subscribing to her blog Sho and Tell, where she writes a regular column called ‘Point of View’ that is always so beautifully worded, plus she regularly finds the best art projects to share with her readers.
Thanks for dropping over and wishing you a terrific Thursday. We have friends coming over for dinner tonight, which we’re looking forward to.
xo loulou