A Tale of Two Shitties: Vancouver versus Toronto Part One

First of all, I'm a hater. We all know that. Second, everyone loves to hate Toronto, especially if you're from Vancouver. They even made a movie about it. Third, I didn't hate Toronto. I know. It doesn't add up. Sure, it had some spectacular moments of ineptitude which of course I will elaborate upon, but how refreshing to be in a city with a real taste for all things cultural, not just spirit orcas, and accidentally seeing the Choir Practice at a Canucks game.

Unlike my brief visit to Montreal, and unlike Vancouver it seems, Toronto doesn't appear to have vast segments of population that exist in isolation, or in autonomy, of the wider population. In Vancouver however, this exists in the psyche, manifesting itself in anti-social solitude for fear that someone will ask you for change, for your signature, to buy whatever they're giving out, or to to buy drugs. My god, in Toronto its actually possible to start up a random conversation with a stranger on the bus, or in the street.

There is a tangible working class in TO, an actual middle that runs in that seems diametrically opposed to Vancouver's black and right economic divide. Its like the inverse of the respective city's weather; Toronto's extremes make for a sense of camaraderie, while the dull grey khaki skies of the West Coast clash with extreme poverty and extreme wealth. And maybe its just me, but everyone in Toronto is nicer and less cliquey. There is much less focus on what you look like and it seems everyone just wants to party because its not winter anymore. Sure, Toronto has its share of fiberglass moose, bad fashion, wildcat-striking subway workers, wankers, and whatnot, but per capita (which means you can blame it on the fact that Toronto is a bigger city), they have more restaurants, art galleries, cafes film, venues, boutiques, and pubs. There is just way more going on. Contact and Over the Top Festival being the two that kept me busy during my visit.

With Contact, nothing in Vancouver can compare to it in scope. The whole city was part of the exhibit, from the exterior of the under construction AGO, to projections onto the Yale, to Robert Burley's wall piece in the parking lot of the MOCCA, to tiny cafes, even to a post and beam reclamation store. Sure, some of it was spread a little thin but there were some obvious gems, The Martin Parr series and the Nan Golden slides at the MOCCA, Flicker, Evan Lee's work in the distillery, Landlocked and Aerials at Pearson, the bike rack shadow stickers by Anthony Kourtras, Zoe Jarumus at Whippersnapper, Don't Mess with the Pediment (a collection of decommissioned Bank of Montreal locations throughout Canada), Burtynski at David Mirvish books on art, Obstacle at Engine Gallery and of course the Rodney Graham trees on expressway columns.

At Over the Top, we met Crispin Glover and saw High Places in a church, as well as Aa, An Abaltross, DD/MM/YYYY, Our Brother the Native, Huckleberry Friends, Revolution Love, Shpilberg. Oh and we almost saw Midnight Juggernauts and Shy Child but according to the Rob Lowe impersonator at the door of the Mod Club, who wouldn't give is our money back on account that "no band in North America has ever gone on after midnight" and that the "Midnight" Juggernauts had played "ages ago", take off the fedora geek, you're not in LA. We also almost went to see Silver Apples, but it was too pricey at $38 to convince Jessica to go in. Whatever, High Places made up for everything.