The Big City

My Dad was in town yesterday, just a brief visit before some meetings he had in the city. So I took the chance to get out with him, do a few things in the big city. Always lots to do here.

First stop was the Royal Ontario Museum downtown. Cool building with the Michael Lee Chin Crystal as the front. Our stop was with a purpose, we were here to see the famous Dead Sea Scrolls which are on exhibit until January (in case you're planning on popping by). It was neat to see in person what is perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery of the past decade. Most interesting was how they were found, the lengths that have been gone through to preserve them, the sect that hid them in the caves, etc... Being an archaeologist would be cool if you could discover something as cool as this, say, every month. Otherwise it seems kinda dusty and kinda less fun.

Then we went off to the CBC building downtown to sit in on a pre-taping of The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

He's doing a bunch of pre-tapings because the TIFF is in town and so are all the actors (I haven't seen George Clooney or Drew Barrymore yet but supposedly they're here in town).

So we got to see interviews with 3 guests: the experimentally funny A.J. Jacobs (seriously, check him out - ridiculous stuff such as a month of doing whatever his wife told him, a month of saying whatever his wife told him to do, a month of saying whatever came to his mind, a year of living biblically (literally), outsourcing his life to India, etc..); actress Isabella Rossellini (who I can't say I knew); and author Douglas Coupland (whose book we got given free!).
(commercial break with Coupland)

It was a neat experience to see how it all works ("We're going to shoot that ending again") and, heck, it was free to do! Always lots to do in the big city.