[CAT] Shakespeare, against brown and red blankets

[URBAN NOTE] Twelve Toronto links

• Edward Keenan is entirely right to praise the idea of exploring the cherry blossoms of Toronto by foot. The Toronto Star has it.


• Mark Cullen noted last week the struggle to keep what may be the oldest tree in Toronto, a red soak more than three centuries old, alive, over at the Toronto Star.


• John Tory is quite right to note that Toronto needs to prepare for possible surges of refugees. CBC reports.


• A Scarborough mansion that has been abandoned for years has just sold for $C 3.8 million. The Toronto Star reports.


• The infamous Giraffe building on the northwest corner of Dundas West and Bloor may be set to disappear, finally, under a wave of new construction there. Toronto Life reports.


• blogTO makes the case that west-end Rogers Road is becoming the new centre of the Portuguese-Canadian community, here.


• Orfus Road, off Dufferin Street near Yorkdale, is a place to go for outlet stores and discounted merchandise. blogTO notes.


• The TTC has cancelled its weekend closures of parts of different subway routes after disputes with the union. The Toronto Star reports.


• By one metric, Toronto falls behind only New York City in the race for the Amazon HQ2. The Toronto Star reports.


• NOW Toronto tells the story of someone who grew marijuana in their backyard, here.


• An AI Weiwei show will be coming to Toronto in 2019. NOW Toronto reports.


• Peter Knegt profiles Toronto drag queen Sofonda Cox, over at CBC.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Saint John, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Atlantic City, Cairo

• A Casavant pipe organ in a church in Saint John, New Brunswick, is up for sale, with an uncertain future. Will it be played again? CBC reports.


• Syrian refugees resettled in a Hamilton highrise tower have encountered bedbug-related nightmares. The Toronto Star reports.


• Radio Canada suggests that the substantial Francophone minority in Winnipeg--the largest such community in western Canada--may have helped the city attract investment from France and Québec, here.


• JSTOR Daily notes the disastrous experience of Atlantic City with casinos.


• Egypt is planning to deal with congestion and pollution in its capital city of Cairo by building a new capital city. The Guardian reports.

[ISL] Five islands links: Toronto Islands, South Georgia, Haida Gwaii, Guadeloupe, New Caledonia

• The Toronto Islands are open for business this year, hopefully without any hitches. (Let there not be unexpected flooding.) Global News reports.


• The sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia has been freed from rat infestations, helping native life recover. National Geographic reports.


• Killing invasive deer on Haida Gwaii is the task of recruited sharpshooters from New Zealand. MacLean's reports.


• Controversy over a new museum to slavery on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe draws on all sorts of political and cultural and economic issues besetting the territory. The Atlantic reports.


• The exact language of the question to be asked of voters in the New Caledonia referendum on independence, coming this year, is a critical question. The Lowy Institute examines the issue.

[PHOTO] Ten photos of Trinity Bellwoods Park

I took ten photos of Trinity Bellwoods Park early on the afternoon of the 10th of May, walking south from Dundas Street West south towards the cherry blossoms by Queen West, The park was vivifying, becoming ever greener almost with every step I took.

















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[PHOTO] Twenty-three photos of the works of David Hockney at the Met (#hockney, @metmuseum)

The winter's David Hockney exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, conveniently located next to the Michaelangelo show, covered everything there was to see, from his student art to his latest iPad art. I have to say that Hockney really only came into his own as an artist once he moved to North America in the mid-1960s, and came to enjoy the sunshine and the space of California (among others). Seeing notable works like A Bigger Splash, or his double portraits of couples, or some of his photo mosaics, was truly an experience to be appreciated. Michael Valinsky's recent Them article does a great job outlining Hockney's importance, not least as a queer artist out practically from the beginning of his career.