Spent Labour Day in Kingston, Where It’s Awesome

Sep 6 2011

Spent the long weekend in Kingston, Ontario, visiting friends, a photoshoot with Suzy (I’m not allowed to show you anything yet) and celebrating a 60th birthday.

If you would like to get away for a weekend, come here. There’s 1000 Islands, 1000 things to do, and Kingstonians are known as party-ers.

Let’s start with these four places:

1 – Go there for a beer – The Toucan

2 – Buy your books there – Wayfarer Books (smells so good)

3 – Pan Chancho – get a coffee and chocolate croissant

4 – I never go here, it’s for hippies, but green arrow: she’s _still_ there :O

Or, you could go see me on the walls of here.

My favourite ever army suprlus store is here – Smith Army Surplus. If you’re lucky Kyle will be working, say hi.

I cruise through, sift through the patches, talk shop and swap lies.

You can shoot in Kingston, too. Well I can, you might have a bit harder time.

This was S&R – Canada’s oldest (50+) independently owned department store.

It closed two summers ago, which I went around for weeks proclaiming sad and wrong.

I wish I had video of inside here; places like this don’t exist anymore. I heard some mid-level-restaurant-franchise is going in. Golf claps.

70% of all Kingstonians own something from here, maybe one of those glass balls, likely received as a gift.

I’m being dramatic, but not really.

Where you should be buying gifts from is Dwell Boutique, which I should have taken a photo of.

It’s a great place for Morning Drive.

YA BUDDY! THE STUDIO LIVES!

Thanks Claus! <3

He also gave me silver dollar. I put it on my fridge.

I left it there though, my car. It’s no longer fit for the highway, not even I’m that wacked. So kinda cool eh….

Me – “Pardon me? Oh yes yes, I do keep a car in Kingston” :|

Ha.

This place below is my personal real estate brokering deal dream… it’s the old Psyc Ward down on the water.

Executed correctly, it could be one of the premiere mini-areas in Southern Ontario.

Kingston is a good-sized city that you’ll be leaning on a wall texting, someone strolls by you know, now you’re on a patio making jokes.

The streetlights are an inside joke.

Kingston is filled with buildings like this, Canada’s very first bank.

The arrow is pointing to my old apartment. I was the last person to live in it before the City took it over.

There was a restaurant on the main floor, who’d pass me ahi tuna on my way up the stairs, which I’d eat on the fire-escape (they removed it), from which I may have once thrown handfuls of mini-bouncy-balls from, to see what would happen (fun happens).

Go to Kingston, you’ll love it!

A Girl in a Masonic Lodge VERY RARE

Aug 31 2011

Freemasonry is the oldest and largest world-wide fraternity, founded in the 1500s. It relies heavily on symbolism derived from classical architecture. The 3 Main Tenents of Freemasonry are: Brotherly Love, Relief (help), and Truth. You’re encouraged to keep your own religion, doesn’t matter. There’s more than 6 million all-male members world wide (Grand Lodge of Ontario, Wiki)

That’s why this post is titled like that.

There’s over 600 Lodges in Ontario alone. This is the East Toronto Masonic Temple, where they meet.

I’ve blogged about the Masons before, this is not a new fascination.

– their Canadian headquarters in Hamilton

– the Toronto Stock Exchange was founded in 1850 by 24 Masons

– one of the most detailed Masonic buildings in the world is the Manitoba Legislative Building

See the lightbulb top right? It was the most asked about item in the room, and that was disappointing to hear. Because the photos below, it’s rare to get to see this stuff.

Click here for a list of famous Freemasons, you’re going to be surprised at how many you know.

Discussing politics and religion is forbidden inside all Lodges, cool eh.

You know the Shriners? That’s them, too. Their hospitals treat any kid, regardless of any relation to a Freemason, race, ethnicity, even if they can’t pay.

See the arrows? Symbolism. You start as a rough stone, and through study, giving and hard work, you elevate yourself to be like the smooth stone.

There are 33 levels to ascend, the 33rd is done at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

Everything detail you see, colour, every single thing has a reason behind it, symboloism, a purpose.

I love it.

The Mason origins also come from one of my personal favourites, the Knights Templar.

The Knights Templar were the most skilled fighting force for 200 years during the Crusades and Middle Ages, and they did it all for charity. They were officially endorsed by the Catholic Church, guarded roads, the public, and fortified things.

The Knights Templar also:

– innovated and established banking methods that are in use today

– in 1307 the majority of all Knights were captured and burned at the stake on… Friday the 13th. Some say that’s why it’s unlucky.

– built Rosslyn Chapel, one of my favourite places on Earth. Look how beautiful.

Hope I’ve got this all right Masons, if not, please correct me in the comments. Last thing I want to do is spread mis-information, aiming for the opposite here.

RIP Jack Layton

Aug 29 2011

Loved him.

So did the crowd that came out to see him off. Downtown was packed, all demographics, age, race creed colour everything. And it was quite sad.

When people heard a commotion coming out the front doors here, they started running. Running! Speaks volumes.

So do all the chalk messages covering Nathan Phillips Square.

If you can, go. You’ve never seen anything like it. When was someone this universally loved in Canada? Nothing in recent memory pops up.

Here’s what I wrote.

RIP Jack, thank you for making Canada better, and I hope your heart is holding up okay Olivia.

xo Keri

I Loved Last Sunday

Aug 18 2011

Not in the city anymore.

This is CFB Borden, our Forces largest training facility, and birthplace of our Air Force. I came to cheer on my friends who competed all weekend in a long range rifle competition.

En route to the range, I saw this.

They were filming a helicopter scene, kinda neat. Here’s the IMDB page, here’s some good photos at BlogTO.

I doubt this applies to me. Carry on. Keri on.

Found my friends, watched the award ceremony. The ORA is 130 years old this year; that’s old.

That’s how long range rifle wins are celebrated.

Bet you an Eos has never before been photographed in this setting.

We always go to Tim’s after.

These guys have been my pals for years, and they know me well. Left is Mark and on the right is Andy, to whom I gave the first quilt I ever made, click here to see.

While I was away from the table they put part of my cookie in a tiny ziploc bag. Then when taking this photo, I turned back and they’d been holding it up for the camera.

I’m not even gonna try to explain the joke, but all of Borden heard my laugh. That ziploc is on my fridge now.

Then I came home to these giant Twitter threads.

I found this extremely funny.

The green arrow points to what kicked it all off, and this will likely make zero sense to you, but just know: the top right was how it was.

Twitter has changed a lot, back in 2008 it was just… different. If you don’t use Twitter you won’t understand this.

Actually, if you don’t, I don’t understand you. It’s the great equalizer! Like, you _do_ realize you can now reach anyone in the world. That’s never existed before.

Then to cap off my fantastic Sunday, random fireworks #GoodSign

Remember the Olympics? Van2010

Jul 14 2011

Last week, South Korea was awarded the Games in 2018. Good luck to them.

Let’s take a look back at ours last year. Many of these photos you’ve not seen, I’ll throw in a couple episodes, too.

The photo text is true; there’s almost no point to posting that photo. H U G E.

‘Irish House’ was out my window, where I lived.

Right in the middle of everything. Irish House was THE place, not being dramatic. They were collecting noise violation fines before the Games even started.

We’d hear ‘I Would Walk 500 Miles’, and ‘Small Town Girl’, three times a night minimum. Fortunately, by day 10 neither Mary or I could hear it anymore… that thing that humans have kicked in and tuned it out. Like the people who live beside train tracks.

Mary and me.

We’re at a club, my editor gave me tickets and said, take the night off.

Thanks to Mary is why my Olympics was as great as it was. I went out there, without a place to stay (no really – there was talk at my newspaper of some empty moved-out apartment, I had a towel with me, just figured I’d wing it all).

Mary offered her couch, I crashed onto it three days into the Games, then never left.

I thanked her by leaving a bunch of swag hidden around her house, including a cowbell in her freezer. Which she recently moved to her freezer … 5 provinces away, see it here.

I had this great morning routine going by the end… wake up, walk down to my coffee spot, pick up a paper along the way, read my article and eat a gingersnap cookie, back home and get online, and start working.

I was there representing Canoe.ca and, in addition to producing videos, I wrote for Vancouver 24 Hours. Read them all here. Third largest newspaper in BC!

“Social Keri”; I had not input there.

That backpack, my mobile studio – 22 pounds.

I was the only person at the paper, left to her own devices, not tasked with a story. Instead, I was expected to chase down and produce my own. Proud of that.

I met Carol Huynh on the Alberta Train. She’s our first ever Gold Medalist for Women’s Wrestling (2008). Click here for her podium moment when our anthem plays, very cute.

I don’t remember this photo being taken… at this point, I’ve been awake for 36 hours, filmed and produced two videos, and was en route to film a third.

This is Exploring Whistler Village, shot that day, I really like this episode.

I squished so much into three weeks, I didn’t stop.

There’s so many stories and behind-the-scenes stuff I could tell you, cue up another video series.