The Peeing Archangel

Update: I had a chance to visit St. Michael’s Hospital in an emergency situation, and it’s a pretty decent hospital, despite the logo.

University of Toronto made a pretty poor design decision by fading out St. Michael’s lower extremities in the hospital logo. To me it looks like he’s taking a leak. To others it might look like something else, not so uncommon amongst sexual deviants in Toronto downtown parks. Here is my artistic rendition of what I see every time I pass by the hospital:

There is also a massive billboard adoring the wall of the hospital – in this one steamy clouds are rising as St. Michael is taking a satisfying urban leak on our great city of Toronto. “$5 if you can hit the CN Tower!”

Below is what the original statue in the lobby of St. Michael’s looks like. This photo was taken by a Flickr user jp1958. If you have the time, you can  read a brief touching story about the statue and it’s importance to the hospital on St. Michael’s website.

Now, traditionally, St. Michael is portrayed treading on Satan or a serpent, carrying a banner, scales, and sword. A good example is a painting by Guido Reni.

Why did the University of Toronto and the hospital make this poor choice? Who knows, but it makes me wonder how many sets of eyes have seen what I see. And how many hospital admins thought this was a great rendition of the logo and rubber-stamped it all the way to the billboard.

Disclaimer: I have no doubt that St. Michael’s Hospital is a fantastic teaching hospital that does a lot of great work. I would not hesitate to be treated there in case of a medical mishap. Unfortunately, it does not reflect in their logo. It does not do their symbol great justice. Instead it opens up it’s interpretation to various wondering, perverted minds, like mine.

Online and on the street

Skip Schreiber, 64, gets online in his van, which is also his home, in the Bayview district of San Francisco. For his 60th birthday, he dipped into his monthly disability check to buy a laptop, connected it to his car battery, and taught himself to use it.

Read the rest on WSJ

Fantastic bus shelter ad

A bus shelter ad for TV showing of Marie Antoinette in Auckland, New Zealand.
Not sure who is behind it, but it’s brilliant.

TTC part of “Doors Open Toronto”

As part of Doors Open Toronto initiative, on Saturday, May 23rd, TTC is opening doors to its Greenwood Shop and Eglinton Garage, where they maintain our buses and subway cars from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. Sounds really cool – unfortunately I found out about it way too late and made other weekend plans. But I think you should go! I am going to be checking out a few other Toronto landmarks on Sunday.

Greenwood  Maintenance Shop

Greenwood Shop is one of two heavy repair and overhaul facilities for the TTC. It is part of the 31 acre Greenwood Complex which opened in March 1960.The shop covers approx. 190,000 square feet and is the workplace of almost 200 employees. Major vehicle overhaul work and component rebuilds to support the fleet of subway vehicles is done here. The Shop also maintains the TTC fleet of workcars that are used by other TTC Departments in the maintenance of subway track, tunnels and wayside equipment.

Visitors will have a behind-the-scenes tour featuring machinery and equipment used in the overhaul and repair of big subway cars and the various work cars used by the TTC.

Eglinton Garage

Eglinton Garage/Division opened on March 31, 2002 and consists of 121,000 square feet situated on a 15.7 acre site. The garage services a fleet of 250 buses. The facility also features two bus wash racks, 12 indoor repair spaces and an outdoor bus storage area with a unique heating system which allows parked buses to be connected so that their engines are warm and ready to drive during the winter season.

A behind the scenes tour of the garage including a ride on a bus through the bus wash.

A ride through a bus wash!

More information on Doors Open Toronto and more places to visit.

P.S. Here’s a tip, City of Toronto – why not use a free open map API (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc) to place all of the locations on one map and give users an opportunity to print out customized lists instead of putting them all in one loooooong list. Even your downloadable PDF seems to be maintained by an accountant in Excel.

“Then and Now” photos of cities around the world

I was researching “before and after” urban photography and came across a myriad of resources. Since all of them are really fascinating, I decided to share them. I am obsessed with public space and urban history and these are great places to feed my addiction. Looking at these puts life into perspective and helps define a concrete (quite literally) reference point amongst constant change of daily life.

“The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.”

– Aldous Huxley

Toronto Before
A great Toronto-specific blog with historical visual comparisons.

Toronto Then and Now (Part 1, Part 2) by CityNews
A special prepared by CityNews to commemorate Toronto’s 170th anniversary.

Then and Now Flickr Pool
Probably the best place online for Then and Now shots. Especially for North American cities. When I visited, there were close to 1200 photos in the pool.

Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Siege: Now and Then (Part 1, Part 2)
A  great series comparing modern photos to photos from the siege of Leningrad during WWII.

Auschwitz Then and Now
A look back at Auchwitz that is a little less sentimental than the rest of the comparison sets. In this feature, the drawings from WWII are compared to new photos.

Sydney Then and Now
Some historical and modern shots of Sydney, Australia.

New York Then and Now
A collection of great shots of New York.

Then/Now Series by The New York Times
An interactive then and now feature by The New York Times. It features interactive photos that you can scrub to compare the two states.

London Then and Now Flickr Group
A Flickr group dedicated to recreating historical photos of London.

Thames Then and Now
A look at river Thames and how it’s banks have changed over the years.

Paris Then and Now
Ah, of course. How can a list like this be made without Paris?

Moscow Then and Now
To break the monotony of Western cities, I had to include beautiful Moscow.

Please feel free to share your own Then and Now finds in the comments below.