Return to the ROM, Fashion and Politics

Museums and movies were the order of today, not to mention lunch with a very dear friend from long ago now living and working in Toronto.

I haven't seen the inside of the Royal Ontario Museum in some time but I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

 

   

Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome were well represented, beautiful and evocative of another place and time:

The cultural displays were very brief, though - and I found the tiny one on the Philippines very lacking in...well, everything. It simply made the PH seem so far away, unknowable and alien. There was a pair of flip flops, a shirt, and a few hats. And some old black and white photos of people weaving baskets living in grass huts looking old and severe. Not remotely the Philippines I have come to know and love. No wonder many Canadians think of it as being so disconnected and far away in place and time, while for me it seems like just yesterday I was just there!

ROM display of the Philippines

The Philippines: as archived in the ROM

Seeing these woefully inadequate attempts at educational displays made me realize how desperately important it is for everyone to travel and see the world with their own eyes and not just take the word of experts and historians. There's so much more to people and life than a few artifacts. Here's my personal archive of a very much alive and non-dust-gathering-museum-artifact Philippines, to supplement the ROM display and also to indulge in a walk down memory lane!

Manila Bay

Facundo Street off Aurora just south of Arnaiz Blvd in Pasay City

Overlooking Coron Town, Palawan

Very energetic art by modern Philippine artists

My favorite bakery on Aurora Street in Pasay City.

Sampling the modern Philippine music scene.
Not something possible to skewer on a pin and put on display in a museum

Japanese Garden at the University of the Philippines.
With my own personal garden gnome!

Dancing the Tinikling at Barbara's -
not possible to do in a museum!

Non-dusty traditional hats on display on our heads, not behind glass cases.

Under a Dao tree at Biak na Bato National Park.

Traditional costumes worn by live children on
Facundo Street preparing for a Saint Day parade.

Sigh. I need to go back! Meanwhile, back at the ROM, I found great displays I'd like to one day take my nieces to see. A bat cave for the ones obsessed with Bat Man and bugs, and dinosaurs for the one obsessed with big scary monsters.

 

 
 





Later I caught a special exhibit at the DX (District Exchange) fashion gallery on Fashion and Politics. Among the interesting and thought-provoking items on display were Margaret Trudeau's simple wedding dress which she designed and made herself, and the clothes of her charismatic husband Pierre which inspired and alarmed the nation:
  
Also fascinating was the phenomenon of paper dresses - a fad that lasted about one year in 1967.

Yes, even Trudeau ended up on a paper dress, that fashionable man!

The highlight of my day, though was spending time with a very much living person and non-historical artifact, my friend Evan - a Canadian artist with no less than a book being recently published of his artistic legacy.

Evanus Tapperosaurus formerly native to the Great Lake Agassi region
now thriving in his adapted natural habitat, the region known as
Toronto-better-opportunitus artisticas.

 I ended the day catching a film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Light Box - an indie thing starring Jason Schwartzman as an annoying academic novelist consumed by his own ego who pushes away everyone in his life who attempts to love him by being an arrogant little s@$t. The many shaky close-ups and jump cuts made people leave and I felt a bit nauseous as well. Not a very uplifting film but rather one that leaves you feeling mildly sick and very irritated. Wow. Not a very flattering review! But an honest one!

Flying home tomorrow but packing in all I can. It's not often I'm here so I make the most of it!