Polar Bear Dip 2011

Participants jump for joy after taking part in the Chill.

Toronto has at least two Polar Bear Dips going on New Year's Day January 1, 2011 - 12 noon at Sunnyside Beach (Habitat for Humanity) and 1:30pm at Ashbridges Bay (Sears Great Canadian Chill) and the waters of Lake Ontario are ready for the plunge. Temperatures are expected above the freezing mark so we may only have to watch for rain - you don't want to get wet before the dip! Update: It was both foggy and rainy!

The plunge into Lake Ontario at Sunnyside Beach.

Bring your costumes, thongs and footwear then some warm clothes for afterwards.

The blue hair group wait for the Dip.

The Sears Great Canadian Chill had a large heated tent with a DJ and a costume contest - thermometer man was a little chilly; he had blue balls.

Costume contest including the Santas and Heidi.

See more of my pictures of the Dip and the Chill after the jump.

The Stanley Cup makes it into the water.

Heidi.

Cape Cod shrinkage.

The first group lines up at the Chill.

And in they go at Ashbridges Bay.

The mass plunge at Sunnyside Beach.

Victory.

Wet Elvis.

The Blues are ready.

Santa and his helpers.

Jump in.

Child cancer survivor Tobin Haas makes a inspiring speech at the Sears Chill.

See more lots more photos of the 2011 fun on my earlier post here.

You can also check out my 2010 photos from the Sunnyside Habitat for Humanity Polar Bear Dip.

Happy New Year Toronto

New Years is like a birthday party for the planet - so here is a cool shot of the planet, part of the blue marble series from NASA. I tried to get this shot but my tripod kept floating away. If you squint you might be able to see me in the photo below.

It's the end of the year as we know it

And I feel fine. It has been a great year of events and photographs and I say thanks to all my visitors, thanks for all the comments and emails and I look forward to another year of fun. Like many people I will make some New Year's resolutions but the fun is breaking them - so make some doozies.

Here are some other beautiful ends (after the jump) to keep you warm over the winter.

yoda/krieg der sterne george lucas hommage

 

yoda - krieg der sterne

george lucas hommage
illustration/interpretation

malgrund: bristol zeichenkarton 300 g/m2

480 mm x 630 mm

farbe: e´tac private stock

deckend schwarz

mit wasser verduennt

1 teil farbe/7 teile wasser

airbrush: harder und steenbeck colani mit 0,2 mm duese

arno schaetzle arnoschaetzle.de

moebius starwatcher hommage

 

starwatcher

moebius starwatcher hommage
illustration/interpretation

malgrund: bristol zeichenkarton 300 g/m2

480 mm x 630 mm

farbe: e´tac private stock

deckend schwarz

mit wasser verduennt

1 teil farbe/7 teile wasser

airbrush: harder und steenbeck colani mit 0,2 mm duese

arno schaetzle arnoschaetzle.de

7 Innovative Traffic Lights

1.UniSignal Traffic Light



2.Hourglass Traffic Light



3.Street Lamp Traffic Light



4.LED Traffic Lights



5.Projected Traffic Light



6.Droplet Traffic Light




7.Countdown Traffic Light

New Years Eve in Toronto

Totally unrelated fireworks.

GIF animations generator gifup.com

Sort of related fireworks - taken at City Hall.

That little kid in diapers is about to come and kick the old year's ass as we finish 2010 and start the new year of 2011 - like the start and finish line being painted by the Honda Indy Toronto people (they foretold the future, is there anything that the Honda Indy Toronto can't do?).

Start/finish line totally related to story.

It's probably good that we use so few checks anymore because you always wrote the wrong year for a couple months, you would cross off the date, add the new date and initial the changes - every time. Young people are going what's a check? Young people don't even know things like today's hot movie True Grit is a remake of a movie of the same name starring John Wayne.  Young people are going who is John Wayne? Now I feel old, thanks you young pilgrim.

Totally unrelated party.

There are a million parties going on in the Big Smoke. The biggest will be the free annual CityTV New Year's Eve Bash at City Hall's Nathan Phillips Square with ice skating, free concerts and fireworks hosted by television personalities Gord Martineau, Tracy Moore, Kevin Frankish and Dina Pugliese. You can see Shawn Desman, Danny Fernandes, Stereos, These Kids Wear Crowns, Divine Brown and Blake McGrath.
The show starts at 10:00pm and the countdown at midnight is a chance to kiss your significant other. Try to get one of the neon balloons and don't swallow any confetti.

New Years is the time you make resolutions where you end the bad stuff and start doing the good stuff. While it seems like the good stuff should include partying and drinking generally these fall into the category of bad stuff, especially if you do it to excess. However, party like it's 1999, eat and drink then ride the free New Years morning TTC (12:01am to 4am) or take a taxi home and if you wear a lampshade or your girlfriend flashes don't forget to send a picture. Here is a great website to find a party in Toronto on New Year's Eve.

Shangri-La DiDa: Post-its in the sky

When you build a fancy new hotel and condominium sometimes you forget how to put it together so sometimes you have to leave big pink post-its to remind yourself of the next step. The 65-storey Shangri-La luxury hotel and condos goes up on University Avenue. The hotel is on the bottom 17 floors and the condos take over the upper floors.

Big Red Tongue

I found this big, red tongue hanging out just off Queen Street East and I have to admit that it is very familiar. It seems like I have seen it before, but it is so big and red that I think I would remember where I saw it. Obviously the artist is so creative that he has painted something so meaningful that it might be a shared memory buried deep within our genes. And here is a graffiti door, less powerful, less meaningful, it could just be a door and not art, sometimes I never know.

This river I step in is not the river I stand in

The drugged up bridge namers came up with one long bridge name: "This river I step in is not the river I stand in". The sign maker, grinning, asked if they wanted another paragraph, but they were resting after coming up with that doozy. And so the Don River bridge crossing at Queen Street East was named in 1996, long after the original bridge was replaced in 1911. Just for fun they added a clock to the mix, "shall we make the clock last for hundreds of years so that future generations can weep at the beauty of the words and know what time their tears fell to the ground?" and they answered "no, we wont have enough money left over after we get all the letters made." And so the clock worked for a day or two, then crapped out, probably because three levels of government were involved. Although, as the old saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

I believe the bridge writing (described as a river of text) is based on a saying from a Greek philosopher Heracleitus who said "You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you" - from Plato in Cratylus. So ... nothing stays the same and things change even as you experience them in the moment. So the river you stepped in (i.e. the water) has already changed and is different than the one you stand in. And don't stand in the middle of the bridge because the traffic and streetcars will make sure you won't be in the same shape you were before you stepped in the middle of the bridge - ha, that should have been put on the bridge. Thanks to the artist Eldon Garnet.

High Park in winter

Fun in High Park happens year round and it is much easier to get parking in the winter than it is in the other seasons. Besides the restaurant, cool wooden castles and playground, the ice skating and hiking you can still see the animals in the zoo. Many of the animals even come up to say hi - I think they are looking for food but you shouldn't feed them, besides most of them slobber on your fingers if you try to give them peanuts or anything.

Another must see place to visit in the park is the leash free dog zone. The large area on a hill has it's own doggie fire hydrant, poster stand and picnic tables where you can relax and watch the dogs sniff, run, play and  engage in other fun doggie entertainment. On the doggie hill you can also find a tree, strangely not a coniferous tree, that has been decked with various Christmas decorations.

Awesome Paper Sculpture by Cheong-ah Hwang

Self-taught Korean artist Cheong-ah Hwang creates beautiful and intricate works of art that are made entirely out of paper. We have featured many amazing paper sculptures on this site, while Cheong-ah Hwang’s work is definitely one of the most impressive ones.