[taal]

It's was extremely busy ... everywhere ... this year. Somewhat surprised as there was much less advertisement this year I found - I guess the word's out now.

I found the installation at RCM was really great - unfortunately the line to get in was about 30+ min, also, the installation is best experienced with fewer people (it reacts to sound / movement) - it's probably thrown off when there's a huge crowd underneath

Apparently whatever was at lower bay was pretty cool as well, but the line was even worse (granted this around around 9ish).

While I very much liked the RCM exhibit nothing else had that 'wow' factor, just like last year, and the year before ... and that's okay ... as many people seem to be realizing this isn't really about any one thing (maybe for those very much into art, but even then, I'm sure they would tell me there are much better events for that sort of thing) it's about the experience, which is great!

Not really sure how to improve it, I think the lines are going to happen and going to keep getting worse - maybe some more interesting outdoor venues - but unless those are on a stage, you'll basically see nothing - given the huge crowds today most outdoor events were hard to see.

I didn't make it out to the distillery or Queen W, I have a feeling those areas will be much less busy so if there was something interesting there that'd be nice.

 

[picard102]

For goodness sake, I feel safer in downtown Toronto than I do anywhere in Winnipeg.

To be fair, Winnipeg is the worst city in this country.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Great night! We started off in the Yorkville area at 1am & finished at about 6:20 at the Lightbox where they shut down half an hour early and moved us out. Saw lots of great stuff, I'd say the only disappointments were Whimisical Wabi-sabi at the Bata Shoe Museum & Dune in the lower Bay station. Didn't see any improve anywhere, only a brawl on Bloor Street in front of the ROM. Highlights, Later That Night at the Drive In, Sing-a-long & Grind-box at the Lightbox and Sight Unseen in the courtyard behind old City Hall. Photos tomorrow. Oh, and the subways didn't run all night. We paid to get into St. Andrew station at about 6:40 to get home as our legs were starting to give out, "next train in 10 minutes" (southbound) read the board but when it came it was out of service. At 7:15 some rude TTC prick started yelling no more trains, the station is closed and kicked us out leaving us stranded after paying.

 

[neuhaus]

I had a great night too.
I really enjoyed the exhibitions at Nathan Philips Square and the TIFF Bell Centre. I really like Grindhouse at TIFF, very entertaining and funny, also the host of the Sing-a-long was a riot.
The bus shelters turned DJ booths were very cool, and everyone had fun time with those.
I gave up at Bata, RCM and ROM as the lines were crazy long.

The huge Ford Focus exhibition was obnoxious. Part of it looked more like a dealership, with their lame answer to art was to have some disinterested person painting a Focus with kids paint, and some boring obstacle course.

I would like to see more physical installations and more museum/gallery-like spaces, rather than video/projection displays. Showing films seems a bit of a cop out.
Next year I will definitely stay up through the night and experience more of the different zones.

 

[Chuck]

As per previous years, I found the art itself to be lame and underwhelming. It's amazing what people will take pictures of these days. People watching was much more entertaining. The subway was mad busy at 3:30 am, and the station guard was letting everyone in for free. Some work trains drove by the platform before getting on the train, which was another novelty.

 

[Redroom Studios]

Nuit Blanche = an opportunity for Torontonians to litter en masse! pretty much the only thing I enjoyed was the music, video and light installation at City Hall. Looking back on the rest of the night I wish I had just decided to sit there and space out the whole time. Lesser highlights of the night for me were dinner at a Korean restaurant on Queen W. and then late night snacks at Canteen before heading home around 230. (sorry, I'm too old for the all nighter!)

 

[Tuscani01]

By far the worst Nuit Blanche to date. I was incredibly disappointed. The first three years set the tone for what Nuit Blanche should be, and the last 2 years have just taken things back. Good on the city for closing off some streets, but what was the point if there was nothing on them to see? The walk up Yonge to Bloor was a complete dead zone. Way to take advantage of closed streets. My favourite exhibit was the clown heads tucked between two buildings downtown. Nothing else really caught my attention, and the line ups for things I wanted to see were way worse than lines in previous years.

While attendance has grown, I feel like the event itself has shrunk in size. I've gone to the event since year one, and stayed out until around 4-5 am every year. This year I called it quits by 1am.

 

[picard102]

Ya, I can't help but feel they could get rid of all the art instiliations and it would be roughly the same experiance.

 

[Benc7]

I tend to agree with picard 102; the art installations (what there were) were incidental to the mass street party atmosphere. I got into the ROM;the "Spirit House" is finally worthy of the name. RCM was too crowded to consider going in. The "pulsing rock" in Yorkville needed a defibrillator. I declined to squeeze between the two naked young women at Hart House, was properly appalled at the shenanigans in Trinity Chapel, one of the most beautiful places in the city, transformed into a plague clinic. Was unimpressed by the OCAD and AGO films. Loved the illuminated cyclist who showed up and was swarmed by eager photographers. I was amused at Campbell house by the numbers of people who identified the pine cones as "acorns". Loved Nathan Philip's Square, especially from the green roof garden. Warmed up at Trinity, plunged into the madness of Yonge street, got high from the amount of dope being smoked around me.(that was nice!) We boarded the subway home, and that was an art experience in itself.

What is needed is MORE and BIG ,BIGGER, BIGGEST! People were wandering the streets, looking to be "wowed".

 

[khris]

I was one of those people looking to be WOWED. I was definitely not wowed. What a huge disappointment. Was my first Nuit Blanche, and most likely my last.

Boring video installations, pools of vomit everywhere, and douchebags galore. No thanks.

There was only two things that caught my eye. One was the clowns in the alley, and the other was the magnetic tape in Bay-Adelaide-Centre.

Many things were closed really early. Like before 4 am early. The ROM piece was closed when I went to check it out at 4:30. So was Cortune Fookie on Yonge.

Changes I would make:
Fire pits in the streets to warm up.
Hot beverages like cocoa. Bowls of ramen, instead of corn.
Close Adelaide and Richmond, and maybe Wellington too. That way the streetcars can stay open, and you have more room for pedestrians to walk, as those streets are wider, plus more room for exhibits. Yonge Street is just way too skinny of a street to host such an event.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

dt_toronto_geek does ZONE 1

Boring video installations, pools of vomit everywhere, and douchebags galore. No thanks.

Many things were closed really early. Like before 4 am early. The ROM piece was closed when I went to check it out at 4:30. So was Cortune Fookie on Yonge.

Changes I would make:
Fire pits in the streets to warm up.
Hot beverages like cocoa. Bowls of ramen, instead of corn.
Close Adelaide and Richmond, and maybe Wellington too. That way the streetcars can stay open, and you have more room for pedestrians to walk, as those streets are wider, plus more room for exhibits. Yonge Street is just way too skinny of a street to host such an event.

Unfortunately pools of vomit & yahoo's are part of all festivals, from the Jazz Festival, Woofstock, Taste of the Danforth to Pride. There's no excuse for shutting down events early though, that just sucks. Do it right or don't do it at all. We got turfed from Bell Lightbox about 40 minutes early too.

I only saw two things on Yonge Street between Wellesley & Bloor, a model inside the window at Northbound Leather and something else that I don't remember closer to Bloor, there should have been better co-ordination along here with more going on since they moved the walking path off Queens Park & over to Yonge. There wasn't a lot happening on Bloor until Avenue Road either.

"Monument to Smile" projected onto Holt Renfrew, (2/5).

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.



Luminato twitter messages projected onto the Pottery Barn facade (formally the University Theatre) - one of several locations for this useless banter



I then met my friend around 1:30 when he finished work at Bloor & St. George and we started with "Whimsical Wabi-sabi" (1/5). My photo didn't turn out but I was reminded how much fun the Bata Shoe Museum is.

In the Royal Conservatory of Music/Telus Centre was "Aurora" which was pretty good but it looked incomplete (3/5). Inside Koerner Hall was "Music all around U", when we were there a lone piano was playing itself on the big beautiful stage in the stunning auditorium which seemed ironic (2/5). Being inside the Centre again is a 5/5! Four colourful silhouettes of women playing instruments illuminated the east facing windows of Telus Centre on Bloor which was simple but beautiful (3/5).



"Crossings" on the Crystal at the ROM (2/5)



"XXIX" in Spirit House at the ROM was simple, but beautiful. Photo is too blurry (4/5)

"El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa" was open to the public at the ROM. Among some of his work, El Anatsui creates three dimensional art from discarded materials which was really engaging (4/5)



The Church of the Redeemer had an unscheduled event of balls on chains at the front of the church. There were too many people crowded around the limited space to get a shot but I didn't get it anyway (1/5)

I was eating street meat as we passed "Iskootao", beating heart with red lighting and sound pulsating on "the rock" in Yorkville Park on Cumberland Street (3/5). The whole idea creeped me out while inserting poison into my arteries but it was effective. My hands were full as I wolfed down food while rushing over to lower Bay station so unfortunately no photo here.

"Dune" in the lower Bay station (3/5). One of those damn pieces of plastic from the exhibit got wedged into the bottom of my sneaker and I slipped coming up the stairs. So with a sore (now bruised) knee we skipped our planned visits to see "Ephemera", "Odd Spaces" & The Gardiner Museum and hooked a free ride on the TTC downtown to Dundas station.



Off to zone 2....

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

dt_toronto_geek does ZONE 2

At Yonge-Dundas Square we started with "Just because you can feel it, doesn't mean it's there". Glimpsed briefly - didn't get it plus I don't like the Square for Nuit Blanche events. It's too bright and the flashing ad panels everywhere distract from whatever is trying to be accomplished with the piece. (2/5, for effort).

Over at the north-east corner of Bay & Dundas was "False Kraftwerk". Being a huge fan of Kraftwerk in the early-mid 80's and the huge influence they had made it a must see for me, but was somewhat of a disappointment. If the speakers had have been better (they sucked) it would have got another point, (2/5).

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.



In behind the courtyard at Old City Hall we took in "Sight Unseen". Moving and still images on two large side-by-side screens and another medium sized screen in behind sets the mood for really interesting and curious visuals with loud, pulsating audio. I couldn't figure out what the swinging guitar in front of the two major screens did but the piece engaged me. It's a sensational visual and acoustical space in the courtyard with old City Hall surrounding the audience, (4/5)



Over at Nathan Phillips Square Daniel Lanois' "Later That Night at the Drive-In" was a true highlight. Lanois worked the multimedia show which was spread out onto numerous screens of various shapes and sizes around the Square and even onto the Square itself from a booth set up within the pit of a stage. To see him work his magic you needed to get to the front row of the ramp and look down, or else look above the pit at the angled reflective mirrors. I could have spent an hour here, I loved it. Nathan Phillips Square was magically transformed like never before. I don't know how anyone in the Sheraton Centre Hotel got any sleep! (5/5)



We skipped three exhibits that we wanted to see in zone B as it was nearing 4am & we still had a couple of Zone C things to see, off we go....

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

dt_toronto_geek does ZONE 3

With sunrise under two hours away we only scoped out two events in this zone from eight planned which was heartbreaking. We started with something at OCAD, don't know what it was and sadly had to finish off at the Lightbox. In fairness whatever it was at OCAD, we were so rushed at this point that we didn't take the time to find out what it was, but it was kinda' cute. (2/5)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.



"E-Tower", texting increases the colour energy on the tower - the more texts, the more colours based on participation. (2/5).



We finish off at the Bell Lightbox. Took in a few minutes of "A Girl and a Gun", seemed a little pretentious to me but what do I know. Moved on to cinema 1 with "Singing In the Dark". There was a g-rated version prior to midnight, we were treated to the r-rated version when we arrived. Projected in digital with a great quality picture on the screen there were hilarious scenes from movies with subtitles included so that the audience could sing along. We arrived as "Stuck in the Middle With You" from the brilliant, "Resevoir Dogs" was playing as Michael Madsen cuts the ear off a guy - hilarious, sing along! Also "Hot Patotie" from "Rocky Horror", Dean Stockwell doing his classic lip-sync scene to "In Dreams" from "Blue Velvet" (I was on the floor laughing) of course "Blame Canada" from "South Park Bigger, Longer, Uncut" etc. Shortly after we then moved on to "Grindbox", an assortment of exploitation trailers from the late '60's, 70's & early 80's. These were original 35MM trailers that were spliced together, many were faded, badly scratched and missing parts due to splices which was perfect! I saw a few trailers of films I'd never even heard of before, and a few that shocked even jaded old me including an "x-rated" trailer for the ultra violent, "Make Them Die Slowly" aka "Cannibal Ferox" (with Italian voice-over!). What fun! To be fair some of the trailers weren't real grindhouse trailers, but most were so it was forgivable. Being a movie junkie since I was a kid and as I hung around the Yonge Street grindhouses in the late 70's/early 80's it was like a trip back through time. During the screening the film broke twice, just like it used to in the grindhouses! The only things missing was cigarette smoke, a smelly, snoring homeless fella' and people having sex in the back few rows. (5/5).

I got the idea about half way through to grab snaps of some of the trailer titles as they appeared. I wish I'd started earlier and grabbed a few from the sing-a-long too. These are from my iPhone so they're not the best quality.



That's a wrap for our 2010 Nuit Blanche escapade. Overall from what we chose and got to see, I give the event an overall 4/5. Well done. Can't wait until next year!

 

[adma]

I declined to squeeze between the two naked young women at Hart House,

Wasn't that a man and a woman?

 

[junctionist]

There was some great art and some duds, but not that much spectacle. Nathan Phillips Square is the place for spectacle, and in that sense, the video installation was disappointing.

Also disappointing was how the city handled the event. Garbage cans weren't being emptied, streets weren't being swept until later in the morning. Queen Street downtown and Nathan Phillips Square looked like a dump and it was avoidable. The fact that they closed Yonge Street was great, but why did they put all those barriers at intersections with streets open to traffic? It created pinch points that forced the crowds back onto the sidewalks. A sign reminding people of a street open to traffic and a police officer should have sufficed. People would have stopped at red lights and kept walking along Yonge on green through the centre of the intersection rather than being jammed onto the sidewalk; it's how pedestrian malls work at intersections with non-pedestrianized streets.