aquarium delirium

February 26th we went to Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto. Took the train, stayed at the Royal York.

Seems like a year ago already, when really it's just a few snowstorms/brainfreezings since. So bitterly cold on the garbage-strewn streets of Toronto. 

But the aquarium – if you have kids – is great. Feels just like a giant cineplex. Purple walls, atrocious carpets. Crowds, weeping children. Play areas, gift shop. The only thing missing is spilled popcorn and that vague (fart?) smell. And then there's the fish!

Aquariums thirty feet high. All kinds of sharks and terrible (terrifying?) toothy creatures. Drifting, lurking. Probably just sleeping. Lots of interactive displays. 

Oona loved it.

The next day we went to the AGO. And taking a four year-old to an art gallery is kind of like taking Charles Bukowski for high tea in an oxygen tent. 

Best behaviour all day.

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Obviously: have not been good about blogging, posting. Can I blame this winter? Because it seems like everyone else is, pretty much all the time, for everything. And for once I have some sympathy. I mean, it has just gone on and on, hasn't it?

The ten winters I did in Winnipeg were just as brutal but there it was expected; winter was something that punched you in the face and pushed you down and sat on you (humming) for four months and that was it. While in a place like Kingston there's always this *hope* kicking around, O maybe now it's done.

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Some things in the shop, lately. I've been doing a lot for something I imagine as Weimar Art Party, which is really just cabaret and noir glamour and art house decadence, all big city girls, doomed, somewhere like Berlin.

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Two mornings ago: Oona and I had to stand in the street and wait on a crazy man, who was taking up all the pavement with his moving imaginary objects around. Don't mind me, he said, picking up an invisible something with two fingers, I just don't like magic. 

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If you live in the Kingston area and would like to be part of a once-a-week writer's group: please email me . Our little group at the Ban Righ is at a low-attendance point (again, the long winter) and we could use a new voice or two. We're a friendly but serious bunch (as in: we actually write) and very welcoming/supportive.