NOVEMBER 15, 2004 - NOVEMBER 15, 2024

💔💔💔

OUT ON THE TOWN: (I May Not Know Art, But I Know What I Like)

 I was going westbound along Dupont Street a few weeks ago when I nearly drove off the road. An art gallery had just opened, named Caviar20, and in the window I saw a piece of....well, art.  Pretty much the only way I buy anything is because I've seen it in a shop window and I feel such a strong magnetic pull to it that I can't think of anything else.  (This may explain why I don't have a lot of stuff, because I clearly don't look in shop windows enough).  

Life is busy and I had to wait two weeks till I was again headed westbound on Dupont.  The same piece was in the window.  I went online that night, looked for the gallery's website, and on it was the same piece of art. Heart pounding, I drove back to the vicinity of the gallery, and the piece in the window was gone.  I made an immediate plan to go into the gallery, find out the name and address of the buyer, kill them, and slip out the door with the piece of art (it was a lithograph) under my arm.

Luckily, I didn't have to follow through, because the gallery owner had merely changed the window display, and my piece was framed and carefully wrapped in vapour barrier (that's how I know Troy Seidman and I can be friends, because I like vapour barrier too) on the lower level of the gallery.

It's the centenary of the birth of Harold Town, and this is one of a series of Town paintings and lithographs from the very early 1970s.  There was no hesitation in my mind as to where I'd hang it. That it worked perfectly on that wall goes without saying.  I'm very mindful of the fact that I now occupy a tiny co-own in a gritty part of town (okay, I lied.  The only thing gritty about my new address is the ongoing construction of several nine-million-dollar houses on the next street over).  Be that as it may, I live a spare life.  I don't even buy a cabbage till I desperately need one.

I had a quick look around the gallery while Troy was doing the paperwork, and I saw some quite excellent artwork on the walls.  Galleries are like icebergs: 90% of the beauty is not available to the eye.  Caviar20 is an exception.  I'd have stayed longer, but I was desperate to get Blue Raspberry Stretch onto my wall.

If you're in Toronto on a Saturday and you want something to fill up your eyes, you might want to stop in at 647 Dupont.  Tell Troy I sent you.

NEW KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

 I've been heard to say (frequently and at great length) that the anticipation of an event is often more of a pleasure than the event itself.  And so it was with my tiny kitchen here at the Rabbit Warren.  I dreamed of it nightly for the three and a half long months it took to have it built.  I am no architect, God knows, but I have one absolute law about small spaces:  Go Big Or Go Home.

None of these tiny bar sinks for me.  

I want the polar opposite.  Who cares if I can't fit the fridge in alongside it?  (Actually, I can't, but that's a whole other story).  Just give me the biggest, whitest, shiniest sink there is.  I first saw this sink in the kitchen and bath department at the hardware store across from my former commercial building on Dupont.  And I bought it.  Well, I ordered it.  And waited....for weeks.  Finally, the manager of the store phoned me and tried to persuade me to buy a smaller sink.  He had lots of reasons:

#1  The price was going up.

#2  I might have to wait even longer.

#3  The price was going up.

#4  Customers weren't exactly falling over themselves to buy the sink, because it was huge and heavy.

#5  The price was going up.

#6  He was sure I wouldn't want the display model, would I now?

"Steve", I said, (because that was his name), "the heart knows what it wants".  Desperate, he offered me the display model, at a substantially discounted price, and threw in the metal grate at the bottom of the sink, free of charge.

I said yes.  I got in the car, drove right over, and we did the paperwork.  I got the display model, which was in brand new condition, plus I got three hardware store guys with strong backs to deliver it to the back of my car.  And I drove the sink directly to Fox Custom Woodworks, who were building my kitchen and needed the actual sink immediately to do precise measurements on it.

This was pretty brilliant thinking.  Let the Fox guys bring it to my new place!  Otherwise I'd have it in the back of my car for weeks. 

Right after Thanksgiving, my kitchen cabinets and sink were installed.  Two weeks later, the quartz countertops.  An electrician hooked up the dishwasher.  A plumber hooked up the faucet and sink.  An appliance installer hooked up the water and drain lines for the dishwasher.  And, just like that, I had a kitchen.

Of course, it's been so long since I cooked anything, I've forgotten what a kitchen is for. No worries.  This will be my show kitchen.  It's the display model.  And it's perfect.

Here's a photo taken just before the faucet was installed.