Blog # 154...June, 2024
Big news these days is a Canadian team joining the WNBA. Women are appearing everywhere in sports now...boxing rings, soccer fields, hockey rinks and now the basketball courts. Goody for them and for us, hope the guys will welcome them gracefully, seeing it as an addition to the sport rather than competition. The team, yet to be named, will play in the Coca Cola Coliseum, that beautiful art deco building hiding on the CNE grounds.
Thinking about women and how circumstances have changed makes me think of our dear treasure Alice Munro. I'm re-reading her stories and realize that emotions are pretty much the same in many ways as they were in the 50's when the stories were set. My delight in her writing makes me wonder why I waited so long to really appreciate them.
Back to the Coliseum for a minute though. Originally built in 1921 to house The Royal Winter Fair. it has a personal history for me and hundreds of others who finished every summer with a gig working at Beasley's Bingo. The horses that featured in many Coliseum activities were housed and fed in the adjacent Horse Palace, across from the Bingo where we spent our breaks, smoking and laughing, when we weren't cadging free rides on the roller coaster...we got paid a decent rate for all this fun too! The Coliseum is quite an amazing and little known venue - as well as the horse rings and basketball court, it has stages for concerts and an ice rink for minor league hockey. It's also connected to the Enercare Centre which boasts the largest indoor lake in the world for the annual the Boat Show (installed by our cousin Clint and his crew). How all these things are done beats me.
Lots of things these days amaze me, some in a good way, others not so much - and I sometimes like writing about them. AI and other technologies are scary but have made life easier and in some cases possible for folks with disabilities. My neighbour Ed is able to live fairly independently in his wheelchair with the assistance of Alexa and some electronics. As an OT and physio, I notice these things, particularly when they're about making art forms more accessible to everyone.
So my ears perked up when I heard about a new device being pioneered at Toronto's Factory Theatre recently. Aimed at hearing impaired individuals, it involves wearing a small fairly light pair of clear glasses, not too conspicuous. There's a small screen in the upper right corner where a video of the play's dialogue being signed by the actors is being projected with the option of subtitles across the bottom. The video is timed to line up exactly with the action on stage. as are the subtitles. It works pretty well, and although I don't understand ASL I spoke to someone after the performance who does and we agreed that it was a significant move forward in accessibility. The play was Tyson's Song, written by Peter Bailey and directed by Ash Knight, Pleiades Theatre's artistic director. Pleiades is dedicated to intersectionality in theatre, a word being used now to mean inclusivity in all realms... nothing gets by me.
So, on to the month of June as the world teeters on the brink of...who knows what, but we seek solace in each other and the art of living as best we can.
A la prochaine chicane, but wait, I've discovered a brilliant writer - Tan Twan Eng- more about him and his books in July's blog.
Your referebce to the CNE grounds reminds me of our own fairgrounds in Trois-Rivieres which included a hippodrome, a baseball stadium, a colosseum as well as an outdoor pool where I learned to swim and eventually join swim club and compete. We had an indoor skating rink too but I never got proficient at that. The annual fair would come to town in August and that was always the highlight of the summer!
ReplyDeleteSo many things to comment on here......I recall dipping into the works of Alice Munro because she captured so well my small town upbringing, having been born in Walkerton myself, with Wingham literally just down the road. When I was young, it felt like there was a true star who was from the same place as me! Now, i am dipping into her works again; hopefully with a better appreciation of her skill. And the CocaCola coliseum (!)....now caught up in active discussions about where the Toronto Women's team will play hockey next season. I was able to attend the playoff games held there just last month and that really did bring back memories, especially when I had to navigate around all the horses that were being loaded up right along the path we were heading down to get into the building.....watch where you walk!!
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