Nuit Blanche 2008

I thought I'd stray from the topic of music just this once since I think my blog is just as much about Toronto as it is about the rock and/or roll. Last Saturday was the 3rd annual Scotiabank Nuit Blanche all night contemporary art festival, and as usual it was an opportunity for the city to display its community spirit and show us what it's made of.

Every year when the festival takes place, I'm left with a bit of a catch 22 since my circle of adventurous friends (who wants to come) seems to grow exponentially with each passing year. And as the group gets larger, the opportunity to see more things gets smaller. However, if I were to make a choice, friends always win out over art, and Nuit Blanche for me is an opportunity to hang out with some of the people that I don't get to see as often, as well as others that I see all the time. Like every year, we all met at the Red Room on Spadina at around 5:30pm so we could plan out our attack on the city.

This year became a game of Nuit Blanche Survivor as our group of 20+ eventually whittled away into the night, ending at 5:30am with only me, my wife and two of our good friends left fighting to stay awake. As expected we had a number of "what the?" moments, but we did see a few cool things. There was Michel de Broin's Overflow, which was a waterfall from a third story window, as well as the all night mascot dance-a-thon at Lamport Stadium. I was hoping to meet Yoko Ono at the Imagine Peace exhibit but apparently the rumours that she would be there proved to be just that: rumours. Probably my favourite exhibit was Tom Bendsten's Conversation #2 (pictured above) which was an elaborate colour coordinated fort made entirely of books. It was pretty cool. However, like I said, with such a big group, there were many things that I didn't get to see. We missed out on Fujiwara Takahiro's Into the Blue at the Eaton Centre, as well as the Stereoscope interactive light installation at City Hall. I also would've liked to see the recyclable plastic waterfall at the Ontario Power Generation Building. But ultimately bathroom breaks and filling our bizarre midnight culinary cravings had to take priority and I for one, am far from disappointed. Many people like to make fun of our fair city of Toronto, but personally I love it, and I'd take the opportunity to roam the streets with my friends into the wee hours of the night anytime, if the opportunity presented itself. Looking forward to next year...

My Photos: Nuit Blanche 2008
More photos of Nuit Blanche: Flickr Pool

More news:
Chairlift (whom I saw open for MGMT) are coming back in town to play The Horsehoe on October 25th and they're opening for Yeasayer. Tix are $13.50 adv; $15 at the door.

Myspace: Chairlift
Myspace: Yeasayer

Darren Gaines and the Key Party have put a track called Nightshade up on their myspace page. It's from their upcoming album called My Blacks Don't Match.

Myspace: Darren Gaines and the Key Party

Margot and the Nuclear So and So's have just released two new albums entitled Animal and Not Animal. They are both streaming in their entirety on Spinner.

Myspace: Margot and the Nuclear So and So's

That's all I got time for today, gotta run to work. Bye.