The trip was amazing, but truly gruelling.
On the very last day we had planned to go to the Zoo. Everyone who had been to the Toronto Zoo told us it's an ABSOLUTE MUST-SEE! It's OUTSTANDING! You HAVE to SEE IT!!!!
Okay, okay. To me one zoo is like the next; wild animals imprisoned in a tiny cage without enough stimulation. Yes, they're safe from predators and poachers and disease. But they're in jail.
ANYWAY! I shouldn't go off on a tangent.
To get to the zoo would involve: a subway ride on one line; transfer to another subway line and ride it to the end; then wait God-knows-how-long for a bus; ride the bus for about 1/2 an hour. Then walk and walk and walk and walk around what is supposedly an ENORMOUS zoo all day. Then wait for the bus; take the bus for... well, you get the point.
At this stage of the game we were nearly dead. I have no idea how many miles we walked. We could have gone to the moon and back, I'm sure. Plus, our last day had high temperatures and the first smoggy haze I'd seen since I got there.
As amazing as the zoo sounded, frankly, we couldn't bear the thought of it. We wanted to stay close to the hotel, so we wandered around the waterfront for awhile.
Toronto sits on the shore of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes. But for the absence of the salt-water smell, you would swear you were on the ocean. This lake is utterly enormous.
The waterfront is developed all along the way; much of it is just pathways, but there are harbours and such as well. We stopped at one area that had shopping, showers, a ballet theatre (!), restaurants, chartered boat rides, the whole bit. I was absorbed in a very cool jewelry store that actually had stuff I'd never seen before. I ended up buying a cracked zircon pendant (the cracks were supposed to be there!) with a silver chain.
After this short trip we had crapped out completely. By noon our son and I were back in the hotel room. The smog may have been aggravating our asthma too -- my son and I both have it, lucky us.
I had forgotten to mention a musical I had seen earlier in the week.
When we first arrived at our hotel, which was situated in the Entertainment District, we unpacked our stuff then decided to wander around the corner for pizza. Well. I turned the corner, and what do I see? A marquee for:
Evil Dead: The Musical
EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!
I had watched Evil Dead so many times when it first came out, I probably wore out the tape! It was this campy horror movie that came out in 1981 or so, about five college kids breaking into a cabin in the woods and spending the night. They decided to explore the cellar (of course) and they found a chainsaw, an axe, a ceremonial dagger, and the Necronomicon. Of course, someone reads passages from the Necronomicon out loud. Of course, this raises evil spirits that possess the kids. Of course, the bridge leading to that part of the woods is suddenly broken into bits. Of course, the chainsaw and axe and dagger all come in handy. And of course, there is one survivor who went on to make Evil Dead 2: Still Dead and Army of Darkness, aka Evil Dead 3.
It's a gorefest that takes every stupid aspect of a horror movie and puts it all into one really stupid cult smash hit.
So, I see they've made it into a musical! Woo hooooo!!
At first I just looked at the marquee. A couple of days later I returned to take photos of it. Then I thought, you know, I'm staying right around the corner. Why the heck don't I go?
So I called the box office and bought a seat in The Woods. Seating was named according to how it might correspond with the show. The Woods is the farthest, crappiest seating. The Cabin had slightly better seating. The Cellar better yet. And the Splatter Zone and Splatter Zone Deluxe were exactly what you would imagine. They handed ponchos out to the people in the Splatter Zones. And boy, did they need them.
This show was like everything else in Toronto, utterly outstanding. The talent was fantastic -- these were real singers and dancers and actors. This was not like the community theatre we have here, where just anybody gets a part. These were professionals, and it showed.
The show played on the campiness of the original movie. For example, when the kids were trying to escape and they came to the bridge only to find the bridge was out, some stage hand shoved the bridge onto the stage (it was about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide) with yellow "Danger" tape wrapped around it. The cast all shrieked, "THE BRIDGE IS OUUUUT!!" You had to be there.
When the technical stuff mattered, they made it happen. There was one scene where the guy whacks the girl's head off with a chainsaw; they pulled a screen down on the scene, and you could see their shadows, and I swear, the chainsaw swinging and the head flying and the blood splattering was incredibly done. Click on the link earlier, to see that scene. There is a video running on the home page of the site that has that scene in it.
Near the end when almost all of the cast has been turned into Candarian demons and they are all being slaughtered, the blood was hysterical. There were literally FOUNTAINS of it spraying all over creation. If this show ever returns I will HAVE to sit in the Splatter Zone. :D
And that, my friends, is that.
What a fabulous trip.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Toronto Part 6
Three words: Back-to-school cold.
Is that three words? Meh. Whatever.
Whatever it is, I have it and have been trying to go to bed at a decent hour to try to get rid of it.
Anywhine, I promised an entry about the Hockey Hall of Fame -- unless you're Canadian you're probably not waiting with baited breath, but here it is nonetheless.
(As usual, thanks to Google Images for all the pics on here. Other people take way better pics than I do.)
By now we're reaching near the end of the trip, and to say we're exhausted is an understatement. We can hardly haul ourselves out of bed anymore. The miles we've walked could have taken us to the moon and back.
We had passes to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and since that was within *gasp* walking distance, we decided to check it out. My husband and I, avid hockey fans, could have really passed on it at this point, but our 7-year-old really wanted to go, so off we went.
If you like hockey, it's actually pretty cool. It's mainly several rooms of well-laid-out displays of memorabilia and milestone-hitting moments. There were jerseys and equipment from the 1920's up to current day, as well as hockey toys and such. My husband and I (this shows you how fuzzy my brain is; I just typed that, "My husband and eye,") were pointing at the toys and such from our childhoods, wishing we still had it all. Little did we know that crap would be worth collecting one day. :)
Have you ever watched hockey, or any team sport for that matter, and wondered whether you could keep up with a running commentary on the action? Well, at the Hall of Fame there was a booth where you could try just that; there was a clip of a hockey game with no sound, and you had to voice-over a colour commentary. Good luck. Mine turned out like, "And that guy shot the puck and it, um, hit the thingy, and uh, now whatziz has the puck... oh now number 23 has it and, uh..." Certainly not as easy as it looks.
Our favourite part was the room where the STANLEY CUP was not only on display, but you could go up to it and TOUCH IT and have your picture taken with it!! The Stanley Cup is the Holy Grail of hockey prizes. This is the big one folks; this is what the players sustain lifelong injuries for. The Stanley Cup.
If I EVER get around to uploading our pics I'll include one of us standing around the Cup. Ahhhhh.
After the Hall of Fame we were starving, so we went to a place that looked like a restaurant, but holy cow it was huge! It was absolutely enormous, and at first it looked like a bunch of different restaurants. We stepped in after passing numerous entrances, and found the most amazing eating experience. It was called the Richtree.
A lady handed us each a card, like a bank card or gift certificate card, and explained the set-up to us. There were dozens upon dozens of stations where you could get any kind of food and drink; you found the things you wanted, gave the card to the people behind the counter of that station, and they entered your purchase into it. You could do this all day. At the end you gave the card to the cashier and paid for everything you ate. Awesome, huh?
They had EVERYTHING there: Sushi, other fish, chicken, beef, burgers and hot dogs, crepes, Italian, antipasti, salads, tea bar, coffee bar, wine and beer, ice cream, cake, squares, pies, chocolates, fresh juices, deli meats, you name it.
After stuffing ourselves royally we carried on to my husband's favourite music store, Sonic Boom.
Now, I'm very good with directions. I'm not so hot with distances.
For over an hour I kept saying, "Oh, it should be over on the next block! Er, maybe the one after that. Uhhh, maybe it's the one at the light up there." We walked up Yonge Street for almost 2 hours before we got within sight of the store. Gad.
The effort wasn't wasted; at one point we actually stumbled upon the church of Scientology! Cults aren't prevalent in my part of the woods so I always get a kick out of seeing them in person somewhere else. Then, right across the street, who should we see but Anonymous! Yay! Anonymous is a grassroots international group determined to bring down Scientology. This has nothing to do with religious intolerance; Scientology is bogged down with all sorts of controversy. You can read about the controversies here and here. I'm not providing links to the sites of the cult itself because I'm sure they have ways of figuring out where the links are coming from. I'd rather not have them sniffing around here.
Finally we were within a block of the music store! Then, out of nowhere, a very large bird deposited a large, runny, black poo all over my husband's head and shirt. Augh. He took a cab back to the hotel then went back to the music store later. He did say that it's supposed to be good luck, and judging by the size of the poop, he's due to win the lottery.
Coming up: My final post about Toronto! We sure got our money's worth.
Is that three words? Meh. Whatever.
Whatever it is, I have it and have been trying to go to bed at a decent hour to try to get rid of it.
Anywhine, I promised an entry about the Hockey Hall of Fame -- unless you're Canadian you're probably not waiting with baited breath, but here it is nonetheless.
(As usual, thanks to Google Images for all the pics on here. Other people take way better pics than I do.)
By now we're reaching near the end of the trip, and to say we're exhausted is an understatement. We can hardly haul ourselves out of bed anymore. The miles we've walked could have taken us to the moon and back.
We had passes to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and since that was within *gasp* walking distance, we decided to check it out. My husband and I, avid hockey fans, could have really passed on it at this point, but our 7-year-old really wanted to go, so off we went.
If you like hockey, it's actually pretty cool. It's mainly several rooms of well-laid-out displays of memorabilia and milestone-hitting moments. There were jerseys and equipment from the 1920's up to current day, as well as hockey toys and such. My husband and I (this shows you how fuzzy my brain is; I just typed that, "My husband and eye,") were pointing at the toys and such from our childhoods, wishing we still had it all. Little did we know that crap would be worth collecting one day. :)
Have you ever watched hockey, or any team sport for that matter, and wondered whether you could keep up with a running commentary on the action? Well, at the Hall of Fame there was a booth where you could try just that; there was a clip of a hockey game with no sound, and you had to voice-over a colour commentary. Good luck. Mine turned out like, "And that guy shot the puck and it, um, hit the thingy, and uh, now whatziz has the puck... oh now number 23 has it and, uh..." Certainly not as easy as it looks.
Our favourite part was the room where the STANLEY CUP was not only on display, but you could go up to it and TOUCH IT and have your picture taken with it!! The Stanley Cup is the Holy Grail of hockey prizes. This is the big one folks; this is what the players sustain lifelong injuries for. The Stanley Cup.
If I EVER get around to uploading our pics I'll include one of us standing around the Cup. Ahhhhh.
After the Hall of Fame we were starving, so we went to a place that looked like a restaurant, but holy cow it was huge! It was absolutely enormous, and at first it looked like a bunch of different restaurants. We stepped in after passing numerous entrances, and found the most amazing eating experience. It was called the Richtree.
A lady handed us each a card, like a bank card or gift certificate card, and explained the set-up to us. There were dozens upon dozens of stations where you could get any kind of food and drink; you found the things you wanted, gave the card to the people behind the counter of that station, and they entered your purchase into it. You could do this all day. At the end you gave the card to the cashier and paid for everything you ate. Awesome, huh?
They had EVERYTHING there: Sushi, other fish, chicken, beef, burgers and hot dogs, crepes, Italian, antipasti, salads, tea bar, coffee bar, wine and beer, ice cream, cake, squares, pies, chocolates, fresh juices, deli meats, you name it.
After stuffing ourselves royally we carried on to my husband's favourite music store, Sonic Boom.
Now, I'm very good with directions. I'm not so hot with distances.
For over an hour I kept saying, "Oh, it should be over on the next block! Er, maybe the one after that. Uhhh, maybe it's the one at the light up there." We walked up Yonge Street for almost 2 hours before we got within sight of the store. Gad.
The effort wasn't wasted; at one point we actually stumbled upon the church of Scientology! Cults aren't prevalent in my part of the woods so I always get a kick out of seeing them in person somewhere else. Then, right across the street, who should we see but Anonymous! Yay! Anonymous is a grassroots international group determined to bring down Scientology. This has nothing to do with religious intolerance; Scientology is bogged down with all sorts of controversy. You can read about the controversies here and here. I'm not providing links to the sites of the cult itself because I'm sure they have ways of figuring out where the links are coming from. I'd rather not have them sniffing around here.
Finally we were within a block of the music store! Then, out of nowhere, a very large bird deposited a large, runny, black poo all over my husband's head and shirt. Augh. He took a cab back to the hotel then went back to the music store later. He did say that it's supposed to be good luck, and judging by the size of the poop, he's due to win the lottery.
Coming up: My final post about Toronto! We sure got our money's worth.
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