Sarah and me managed to once again successfully infiltrate the CNE. Our reward: a unique lucha libre exhibition.
There was one more image in this series but it was just too gruesome so you’ll have to use your imagination. (hint: wee balls were involved)
Just happened to be wandering the vicinity when … look at what I spotted. Seem familiar?!
Yeah … hoisted dinghies in an urban jungle. Nice. I’ll be expecting my royalty cheque some time in September.
For the last two years the Canadian National Exhibition, a.k.a. The Ex, has been shut down due to the government’s benign love and concern for us all. So for a while there it was looking like The Ex was going to become The ex-Ex.
But it looks like management managed to turn it around and revive the moribund fair.
And we went.
Off the top I’d like to voice my disappointment at the entrance fees. Frankly, $25 for an adult with a measly $5 discount for junior or senior is a bit steep just to get you onto the grounds. And once you’re in, almost everything else costs extra.
By the time we got in it was starting to get dark and stormy and moody but in every other way it was the traditional ex-ex-Ex we remembered.
The same old (heavily weighted) games of chance line the main concourse. The games reluctantly release the same old ubiquitously crappy prizes into the stream of humanity as it flows by.
If I sound a bit snarky it’s only because I have some insight into those prizes beyond merely having them start to come apart a few weeks later. It’s not even that I remember the toys being of any better quality during my lifetime, it’s just that I got to look behind the curtain, as it were.
But I digress.
As you can see by the dearth of photos when compared to some past expeditions, we didn’t stick around too long. We’d gone out on a lark, not really expecting to be able to get in. I grabbed only the camera, and only “just in case”.
To our mild surprise we did find a way in but there would be no frozen ketchup or iced mustard, just mild paranoia followed by cops performing desperate CPR on a man with a cane and an artificial leg.
Should we manage to get in again, next time we’re coming prepared.
Believe it or not, despite taking inexorably long I actually had a point to make with this entire series. It has to do with the kinds of people that attend the C.N.E. (or even just the grounds), and I’m going to call these people Conservationist Urbanists.
As I’m sure I’ve already mentioned, the terminus of the CNE marks the official end of summer here in Toronto. Yes, the Grand Old Lady once again shutters her carnie abodes, winterizes her hot dog stands, and abandons the Exhibition grounds to make way for more indoor, agriculturally-based pursuits.
And a Grand Old Lady she is, probably because of all the foods that abound within the burgeoning fair. It’s the main reason I went this year! :)
That’s it, it’s officially the last day of summer.
The sun’s hanging lower in the sky, the CNE is shuttering up for another year, and the kids are going back to school tomorrow. That’s the end of the summer, no matter what the calendar says.
As part of that last effort to get kids to forget their miseries, the Ex has the annual closing-weekend air show.
The announcers always go into excruciating technical detail like maybe we’re looking to pick up a couple of the aircraft after the show. Fires a hundred rounds a second, you say? I may be interested, keep talking.
Then, while waiting for the planes to fly into the show, the announcers go into all the crazy certifications and programs you’d have to go through before you’re even allowed to approach one of these things. For who’s benefit is that? The three-year-old standing next to me who should realistically start thinking about university now if he wants to be a pilot?
Then, the Top Gun music kicks in:
The show’s not entirely ironic. There were plenty of jet fighters on hand going down the real danger zone highway:
This happened to be the air show’s 60th anniversary, so the Blue Angels flew up from the US and with a salute:
This is the second time I’ve attended the show and I’ve really enjoyed it both times. The planes fly close enough to knock toupees off and the little prop ones do some really crazy stuff. Like climbing up into the sky, then cutting the engine, starting a crazy wobbly spin around every possible axis of rotation while plummeting back toward the water, and mere moments before impact, straightening out, re-starting the engine, and pulling up. Just insane.
I didn’t get to chill with the horses in the horse pavilion this year. That’s a regret. But the holiday weekend tradition I like to call “the flu” probably needed a bit of sunshine, so it was good to get out. And, all in all, it’s been a pretty happening summer. Maybe too happening; next year I’d like to see some of those things I missed this time around. I figure it’ll probably take four to five years to properly see most of the concurrent festivals, parades, and events that happen around the city every year. And with all the random news, changes, and just interesting stuff around … good frickin’ luck with that timeline!
I’m going to have to learn to pace myself.
... with pictures
... with sounds
... with videos
... with opinions
... that's shorter
... that's longer