This was on Bank St. downtown someplace. I can’t get over how suspicious people get when they see a camera. Maybe they think they’re going to end up in a blog.

Pic 542
Thrift

August 12, 2009

730 Bank St., the Glebe.

I like this picture because it seems like something is going on. I think it’s mysterious. But if for some reason you don’t like pictures of grumpy old men on Somerset St, here are some leaves in the snow.

Watawa Life is a finalist for the Canadian Blog Awards in the category of Best Photo/Art Blog. Voting ends today.
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Bronson isn’t exactly a friendly street.

Here’s where I work. Look at all the cool stuff that’s in the building these days. Naturopaths on 6, midwives on 7. And Katimavik is still on 3.

I work for Beyond 20/20 on 5. If anybody asks me, I always say we provide do-it-yourself laser eye surgery. I write the manual.

I like the colours inside the elevator.

There are several of these figures tacked onto the telephone poles on Bronson. They were put up with the intention of humanizing the street and calming the traffic. I’d have to say they are a complete failure – it would take a lot more than that to calm the traffic on Bronson – but they’re kind of neat anyway. Maybe sometime I’ll go around and photograph all of them. Sometime when it’s warm out.

January 1998 – 1999 The Bronson People

The Bronson People are innovative traffic calming art pieces designed to slow down traffic on Bronson Avenue. The Bronson People are figures representing the community mounted on telephone poles to help remind drivers where they are as they drive through the community. Bhat Boy conceived and implemented this project in cooperation with the City of Ottawa. The project was carried out with the help of local artists, Glebe Collegiate students, and other members of the community who assisted in painting the figures. Funded by the City of Ottawa, the Regional Municipality of Ottawa -Carleton, the Glebe Community Association, and the Glebe Bank Street Business Association. The project required approvals from several levels of government as well as Ottawa Hydro.

These people weren’t sure if they liked getting their picture taken. Too bad! Hey, it’s for art.

I was about half a block away when I took that picture, but there is something about a camera lens that magnetically attracts people’s eyes and makes them feel frightened and hostile. What a great hobby photography is!

Other than that, my favourite pic of the day is this one of a sign.

I like these shiny wires too.

That’s all for now.

I think these are really ingenious, and they’re surprisingly comfortable. And you can get out of them without a crane.

But as much as I liked my new chair, I didn’t actually sit on it at the folk festival, except for a brief test sit. I just never found a place where I wanted to be. I wandered around for awhile, and then I left.

Nothing against the folk festival. It’s not the folk festival, it’s me. It’s just a malaise I’ve been feeling, and a general sadness. Maybe it’s the coming of fall and another year gone.

I listened to Eliza Gilkyson, who is one of my favourite musicians, but I didn’t think she sounded as good live as she does on her CDs. For one thing, she didn’t have her band with her, and she was performing at a workshop, so I kept having to wait for other people to get finished their songs so I could hear her again. (I admit that I’m not the ideal festival goer.) This is a picture I took of her.

I thought this thing was really silly. It’s a battery-assisted recumbent trike with a bright red fairing on it. Mid-life crisis anybody? Step right up! Only $8500.

This little girl is pretty cute. I wonder what happened to her chin.

Come to think of it, she looks like she’s planning to punch me in the nose. Maybe that’s what happened. Kid’s a born street fighter.

That’s all for now. Next year is another year.