Lately we’ve been describing This Must Be the Place: The CN Tower Show as a love letter to Toronto. So I found it intriguing to see a beautifully executed time lapse photography love letter to the city here. Entitled City Rising by Tom Ryaboi, it’s city scapes shot from very high up. It gives a great sense of the energy, movement and change that are central to the life of this city.
As a small town girl, when I moved here I found that very energy overwhelming and depressing. I couldn’t get a hold on anything. I wanted some sense of permanence. Now, living in quiet East York and working on Queen West, I’ve found my balance of permanence versus movement and energy. On weekends and many evenings I’m surrounded by well known neighbours wandering from porch to porch for a chat, children running back and forth between the houses. This is not a Toronto that I knew existed until the last two years. I’m endlessly grateful for this enclave.
Returning to Queen West my assumptions about the world that I live in are often challenged and debated. Things change. Fast. The other night at the CN Tower Show when the audience was asked what they would entitle a book about Toronto, they responded with “Go, Go, Go.” What’s your Toronto; where do you find your balance?
