A Little Pick-Me-Up

Rock-em Sock-em robot enjoying Turbo Street Funk

Saturday was another bright day in a string of hot summer week-ends. I stopped off at Yonge and Dundas, the heart of the city, to check out the new pedestrian-friendly changes. For the last few weeks of summer, the local BIA has closed off one lane of traffic along Yonge from Gerrard to Dundas. They have put in some planter boxes, cottage lounge chairs, picnic benches, etc. in an effort to make it friendlier to foot traffic.

The effort looked underwhelming on TV, you could tell by all the close zooms, and it was especially so in real-life. They should have closed off the entire area, like similar initiatives in Times Square and elsewhere. Leaving space for 1-lane of traffic both ways and not blocking intersections to side streets meant narrow, disconnected islands of forlorn outdoor furniture. Furthermore, with some local businesses co-opting the space to create their own patios meant few public spaces to sit and lounge around.

3-on-3 tournament

Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself sitting back and listening to Turbo Street Funk, a group of young musicians on sax, trombone, sousaphone, drums, and guitar playing pop hits. I guess this town is big enough for 2 hip pop-friendly jazz outfits (see also Heavyweight Brass Band.) They got curious passerbys clapping to Ghostbusters, Inspector Gadget, and Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Their specialty was infectious pop mash-up such as Seven Nation Army/Sweet Dreams.

Meanwhile, over by Dundas Square, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament (NBA 3X) was taking place. Local teams were duking it out in the blazing heat (although there was a single team from Japan who got eliminated in the 1st round.) Even non-professional pick-up basketball players are freakishly tall. Having said that, on a court set aside for a skills competition, a pint-size (5'5") teenager scored a Canadian tour record with 15 baskets in the 3-point contest. So there's hope for me yet.