Natural Plasticity Toronto

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 55 St. Clair Avenue West
Date: April 2019
Website:  www.naturalplasticity.com

    Toronto has a big plastic problem.  Actually, the whole world does.  Right now on St. Clair West there are larger than life plastic replicas of water bottles and disposable cups.  These almost 30 foot tall replicas have been touring the world to make people think before they use single-use plastics.

    Natural Plasticity's Bottle Project has placed a giant water bottle and straw at 2 St Clair West and a giant cup with a green straw at 55 St. Clair West.  The green straw and cup look like they would hold a summer Starbuck's drink.

   We were already aware of how much plastic pollution is created in our city every day.  You don't have to go far to find discarded garbage in the streets.  There is still hope.  A lot of places in the city are using paper straws which is great.  We also bring our own reusable cups for coffee and thermoses for water when we are out and about.  Brita filtered water for when we are at home.

    The Bottle Project will be on display until May 1st.  Take a look at the big inflatable plastic and then see how you can reduce the amount of waste that you create.  Think before you drink.

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This location is near St. Clair subway. Visit other Toronto TTC stations.

Map of Our World
Natural Plasticity Toronto

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Post # 248

The Sun Voyager

Location: Reykjavik, Iceland
Address: Keilugrandi Sculpture & Shore Walk
Date: September 2015
Website:  visitreykjavik.is

  A curved steel boat points out to the water in Reykjavik's harbour.  It is a beautiful piece of art that reflects the light from the sun.  It is known as Solfar, or the Sun Voyager.

  The Sun Voyager was the winning artwork in a competition to celebrate Rekjavik's 200th anniversary.  The sculpture was created by Icelander Jon Gunnar Arnason.  Sadly, Gunnar died of leukemia before the sculpture was placed at the water's edge.

  There is a walking path that follows the water around Reykjavik.  There is lots of room to add more sculptures in the future.  Sun Voyager was the main attraction when we visited.

  Behind Sun Voyager stood some temporary artwork of a raven.  Further in the distance beyond that stands Hallgrimskirkja.  Hallgrimskirkja is a church which took 41 years to build.  It was finally consecrated in 1986 which is the same year that Sun Voyager won the art competition.

Sun Voyager looks out across the water at Mount Esja.  The steel looks like people rowing with their oars curved down into the water, striving forward towards new adventures.

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Map of Our World
The Sun Voyager

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Post # 247

Big City Nights (Da Funk)

Location: New York, New York, USA
Address: 139 2nd Ave #1
Date: January 2019
Website:  daftpunk.com

  Daft Punk caught the world's attention with their single Da Funk back in 1996.  It was a purely instrumental song with a driving beat and funky synthesizers.  The music video directed by Spike Jonze brought even more attention.  The video was a short film called Big City Nights. In the video, Da Funk played in the background behind the dialogue.

  We were watching the music video for Da Funk and after the dog missed his bus (more on the video's plot later) we noticed something.   Down the street we could see a sign for the musical percussion peformance group STOMP.  In New York, STOMP has been performing at the Orpheum Theatre since 1994.  They are still going strong after more than 10,000 performances.

  We did some research and found that a large part of the music video was filmed in New York's East Village on 2nd Avenue near the Ottendorfer Library.  The building was built in 1883 and one part is the library and another part is the Deutsches Dispensary (pictured above).  The building does not make an appearance in the video but its bus stop does as do some of the surrounding buildings.

  The video follows Charles the dog as he hobbles through the street on crutches.  All the while his boom box with a broken volume knob is blasting Da Funk.  Charles is not a real dog but an actor in a costume.  Daft Punk also like to hide behind costumes and usually appear in public dressed as robots.  Charles tries to take a survey, buys a two dollar book called Big City Nights and eventually runs into an old neighbour.

  Charles the dog runs into Beatrice inside a variety store and they walk out into the street.  Beatrice invites Charles to "come with" for dinner downtown.  Charles agrees.  They wait for a bus outside of the East Village Meat Market.  The gold door on the left looks about the same but the white door (pictured above) used to also be gold back in the 90s. 

  We know this is the right place as across the road is a restaurant.  You can see the words Ukranian Restaurant reflected in the window behind Charles.

  A bus pulls up and Beatrice gets on.  Charles wants to follow her but sees a sign stating "No Radios. No Smoking. No Spitting".  Now he must choose between his music and a girl.   The bus closes its doors and drives away.  Charles hobbles down the street alone.

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Map of Our World

Ottendorfer Public Library
Orpheum Theatre
East Village Ukranian Restaurant
East Village Meat Market

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Post # 246