I have written several articles about Canada, but my favourite was a piece I did about "Film in Toronto." My article isn't online any more but I found a quote in a piece about Reg Hartt . Reg is one of those people you only meet once in a lifetime. Eccentric, sure, but one of those eccentrics who gets out into the world and lives his life the way he wants on very little money.
Here he is (top right), with friends. He screened classic movies on 16mm in his own dilapidated home on Bathurst, and sent out for pizza for his audience at half time. It was all very friendly, like attending a really rather strange party. I thought he'd been closed down (read the story here) when the landlord tried to throw him out, but I just found his website and now I'm not so sure....
I also liked Cinecycle, a bike shop that shows silent movies. Struggled there through three feet of snow, but what an atmosphere after dark, with the lights down, the bikes everywhere, loads of people and a bloke in a bowler hat playing the piano to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Also visited the IMAX research and development, in Mississuaga, just outside Toronto which was so slick and professional and in great contrast to the city's old hippies doing their own dotty thing. I've always yearned to accompany an IMAX crew and write about it. The film quality is stunning and they take those gigantic cameras into all kinds of unexpected places.
Toronto's very much my kind of city. So I'm rather sad I don't meet the criteria for this trip - they're searching for people who have never been to Canada before. So if you apply for the trip and get it, let me know.
PS. Talking of film, here's one from John, on "Don't Unplug your Hub" blog, another of my favourites. It's all about a really terrifying Big Cat, as you'll see if you watch.
