Sid

 

Here’s looking at you.

As I mentioned a couple of postings ago, this site has been abandoned for nearly a year. That there has been any movement on it recently is likely the direct result of one person, and he knows who he is.

I am also relatively sure that the person in question is the only one that visits this site on a regular basis (and possibly the only one who visits the site at all), checking in as it were from time to time, and leaving behind little messages to let me know he poked his head in. I wanted to leave something for him too.

Thinking that, I had developed this mental image.

There is this dark and quiet room somewhere in my imagination. The door is closed. Without warning the door is thrown open and a head appears in the opening. It scans the room and asks, “Anybody here?” waits for a second to check for an answer, and then says to itself, “I guess not.” A hand reaches in and tosses a business card on the floor near the small pile of other cards there, and then disappears. The door closes.

Now the cards themselves are interesting. They aren’t really business cards as I initially described them. They are more like the old Victorian calling or visiting cards, carte de visite actually. They show images of the caller.

Something like these images.

 Sid and I at Ryerson, dress optional

I’ve been intending to do something like this for a while, again another pot on the back burner looking to be stirred.

 Sid and Jack Daniels

What this really is is a posting about friendship, and appreciation too. Also I was hoping to give him a little surprise and make him laugh.

 

Sid on the Alabama

As a note for person or persons unknown who may have stumbled on this site and have stopped long enough to scan the pictures and text I should like to offer a word of explanation. I have known Sid for many years now and I am fortunate to count him as friend. We met at Ryerson (when it wasn’t a University) in front of the doors of the lecture hall in the Film and Photography building in Toronto, Ontario. We struck up a conversation that day and have been friends ever since. We have hung out together, traveled together, and even though the courses of our lives have caused us to be separated physically by thousands of miles, we still take the time out to keep in touch. 

Pilot Sid

Sid of Muskoka

These are a few of the images and times that we share.

The Port Perry Fair (part the second)

 

Actually the clown in the car from the previous post was the official 'balloon lady' and I was told that she is something of an institution at these events. Clowns and institutions, hmmm.  There’s something in that combination of words that is worrying. Doctor, I don't want to talk about the clowns right now, okay?

Anyway, as I was saying, because things go in circles, there just had to be a carousel, and there just had to be a cute girl and her mom riding it, and they were nice enough to let me photograph them. I was already in the process of taking pictures of the ride itself. Look at that face.

Now look at these faces.

One of the things that fascinates me about carousels is the look in the animal’s faces. I see things there that are not all nicey, nicey.  I see panic, and fear, and sometimes other emotions. The people riding the ‘pretty ponies’ are oblivious to that fact. Odd, isn’t it?

 

The bonus round at the Port Perry Fair:

There was actually a 2^nd carousel there as well, this one in miniature. 

And  I spent a while talking to it’s creator, Gord Fraser, about carousels and other things. I told him that I really liked his work. I also, of course, spent more than a little time photographing the wonderful menagerie of animals that he had carved, painted, and set in place, like this dragon...

... stork

... tiger

...goat

...and camel.

But you can also see in the pictures a number of other animals that he had done a remarkable job on as well. Way to go Gord.

Pretty cool, eh?

All the photographs in this and the last posting are mine by the way.

The Port Perry Fair (part the one)

 

It was just about a year ago that I made my last posting. It’s kind of funny because I even knew what  I was going to be posting next. This is it believe it or not. And then things got in the way, life mainly, and other things happened, hairstyles changed, and writing stuff was relegated to the back burner. Wow, it really must be time to add a bit of water to the stew. Do you smell anything burning?

I have to say that I really like country fairs. Living in the Toronto area you get a lot of hype and advertisement about the big fair, the Canadian National Exhibition, and it’s okay in it’s own way, there’s a lot of things to see and a lot of things going on, but for me it’s just too big (and too expensive to go to, particularly if you’re planning to take your family with you). Parking is always extra.

Now the country fair is another thing entirely. It’s geared for family and, in a way, community. The rides aren’t necessarily as big or as gaudy as most of those in The EX, but I don’t really find that to be a drawback either. Parking is closer as well.

I have a couple of very cherished moments that are centered on fairs like this.

I like the fact that it takes place in a large field somewhere. I like the green of the turf played off the big blue sky. On this particular day the clouds just added to the pretty picture.

So how did I get to this particular fair? It was about an hour’s drive from where I live outside Toronto (in Scarborough, which I often refer to as Scarberia). The reason I went there was, well I got this new car you see (new to me as they say) and I just wanted to get out of town and go for a drive, and I thought I’d like to see my brother Ralph and his family, and I wanted to take some photographs.

My brothers, his wife Linda, and their daughter Taya, are all involved in a clogging dance group (the family that clogs together stays together?). During the summer months this group make a number of appearances at local fairs and events, and they were appearing at the Port Perry Fair.

The covered pavilion they were dancing in is not very conducive to glamour photography but sometimes it’s just important to do what you can do and grab a couple of shots for the archive. Here’s a shot of a group of them clogging like gangbusters. I still remember the reverberating sound of the cleats on the stage floor. The last three in the line at the right, starting with the big fella’, are Ralph, Taya, and Linda. Hi guys.

So that’s what got me ‘oot and aboot’ on that particular day.

And so I made my merry way, listening to music on the stereo of my car (I’ve maintained to a number of people that this car is the best sounding stereo I ever owned. And you can even move it around with you too.). I didn’t drive directly to Port Perry though. First I went to check out and photograph the exterior of an abandoned Slavic cathedral just north of Toronto in Markham. No foolin’. Then it was to pastures new.

So I arrived at the fairgrounds, parked, paid my fee, and sauntered in to the grounds. It was great. There’s all sorts of stuff to see and do; there were live shows, lots of music, animals (domestic, tamed and otherwise), and families milling and laughing all around.

And lots of stuff to photograph, from old farm machinery…

…to new tractors. That’s my brother again, by the way, next to the John Deere.

…and the food. There was ice cream, and candyfloss, pizza, hamburgers and sausages, and more. Oh my. The smell of fried onions made my mouth water. And you get the chance to talk to people. It’s only in settings like these, I think, that you actually might get the opportunity, like Ralph and I did, to talk to the guy who actually made the sausages that he sold, and we bought, hot and juicy from the grill. Did I mention fried onions?

Another bonus that day was that they were having trotter races going on at the same time.

I was amused that the whole of the midway appeared to be only 3 trailers long.

And I do like the little rides. I like the way that the ferris wheel seems to rise up through the ground and soar into the sky.

Here you can see ‘Avalanche’ loaded up in the background, and they had one of those variations on a theme rotating tea cup rides, this one featured rotating strawberries if you can believe (and a country fair is a place of magic my friend so it makes belief possible).

 

And because things go in circles, there just had to be a carousel.

And then some clown drives their car right up behind you as you’re just standing there minding your own business.

Wouldn't you know it.