[PHOTO] Looking west, Wellesley at Church, 9:03 pm

[MUSIC] Martha and the Muffins, “Echo Beach”

I first blogged about the Martha and the Muffins 1980 hit “Echo Beach” back in May 2005, noting how the song resonated with me. The narrator, dreaming of an escape to an idyll beyond in the mid of a boring conventional job, speaks to me.

On a silent summer evening
The sky’s alive with lights
A building in the distance
Surrealistic sight
On Echo Beach
Waves make the only sound
On Echo Beach
There’s not a soul around

I was also amused to learn in 2011 that the song was going to give its name to a new performance space down at Ontario Place.

I heard the song again, sitting on my lunch break at patio of the Church and Wellesley Second Cup coffee shop when the song came on the speakers. Again, it resonated deeply: Who would not prefer a summer rather different from this one?

As I noted back in 2005, the song is a classic. It lasts; it not merely endures the decades, it thrives.

[PHOTO] Looking west towards Bloordale

[PHOTO] The six painted rhinoceri of Woody’s, Church Street (#woodystoronto)

Church and Wellesley bar Woody’s has taken advantage of the CaféTO program, setting up tables on sidewalks and parking areas to make up for the inaccessibility of its interior spaces. The barriers protecting the street spaces of Woody’s were painted with images of the bar’s rhinoceros, each one with different colours and patterns.

[PHOTO] Church Street, just after midnight, Sunday morning

[PHOTO] Socially distanced at St. Alban’s Square, after 10 pm

St. Alban’s Square, in the Annex, was rather socially distanced earlier this week.

[PHOTO] Five photos of Exhibition GO station, taken just before midnight

This weekend just past, I was wandering through Exhibition Place down by the waterfront just before midnight when I came upon the Exhibition GO Station. I thought it a handsome station, all poured-concrete and cinematic lighting, but was also struck by its disconnect from the rest of the city grid. The 29 Dufferin bus runs in this area relatively rarely, for instance, and only in 2027 will it be plugged into the Ontario Line as a terminal station when that subway line is built. (If it is built. Let us hope.)