Celebrity Stalker

Okay, so I don't really stalk the stars but I am privy to some insider info because of my connections to film and TV people and I thought, in the spirit of Gawker, I'd give you the dish on celebs running about the 416. I know you Toronto kids like your celebrity gossip too. So here's the latest...

Miss Drew Barrymore's been spotted regularly sucking back bevies at Ossington hideaway Sweaty Betty's. She's in town filming the HBO MOW version of documentary classic Grey Gardens. Friends caught lovely Jude Law at a Leafs game, and I spotted model, coach and Canada's Next Top Model judge Stacy McKenzie (pictured above) riffling through the racks at a GSUS sindustries sample sale this afternoon (runs until Friday at 6PM).

Shades of High Park

shades of high park
Originally uploaded by 416style

Lately I've been spending a fair bit of time along the banks of Grenadier Pond in High Park taking video and snapping photos. Sunset by the pond is stunning. Milky mauve shades stretch across the water and dim as yellow leaves gather at the glowing shore. This latest favourite still photo I've captured reveals a fishing platform jutting out over the pond, a little slice of paradise among the giant trees that burst with autumn colour.

Finding Union at the Station

It's always brought a pang of jealousy when I visit other cities who have managed to create transportation hubs that compell us to stay and soak up the energy of people on the move. Osaka, New York, Kyoto and Copenhagen all enjoy train stations that serve not only as destinations for travellers but also those who live in the city and just want to feel the buzz. Union Station in Toronto has never excited me. There is no decades old Oyster bar to entice me to its lower levels like Grand Central or soaring sky yard to explore as in Kyoto's Central Station, but at least now there is a vision. Mayor Miller wants to give Union Station a well-overdue facelift. I certainly hope this doesn't just culminate in some updated retail spaces, reminiscent of the bland shops in our underground shopping mall, just to generate more city revenue. Whatever changes are made should dazzle tourists and Torontonians alike. Open up the space. Lift those weary travellers out of their tunnel vision. Sweep away the dingy and haphazard and make its history shine once more. Most of of all I'd love to see the city revive some of the grandeur of the station's origins on Front Street when it was the Grand Trunk Railway.