Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2006 > September > 14 > Entry
No agony of the feet
One great thing about the Toronto fest is that so many of the screens are in such proximity to each other. Where Sundancers must trudge over snowy hills and SXSWers must shuttle from Arbor to South Lamar Boulevard and points in between, Toronto has clusters of theaters so dense that you can hop from one to another all day without breaking a sweat: Eight active screens are housed under one roof, two other multiplexes offer four each. And if, Heaven forbid, you have to catch the Metro and travel a few blocks to a standalone theater, you may be rewarded with the movie-palace opulence of the Elgin Theater. (A big, big brother to our Paramount.)
A downside: Hopping from Screen One to Screen Seven is so easy that walkouts are epidemic. It’s difficult to lose yourself in a film when literally dozens of people around you are leaving to find greener cinematic pastures. (To be fair, I would have left a few of the things I’ve seen, had I not been assigned to write about them.)
And now, with apologies to Stephen Colbert, a Toronto edition of “Tip of the Hat / Wag of the Finger:
TIP OF THE HAT: To Toronto’s sanitation department, which has made recycling so easy you really have to be a lout not to do it. At almost every intersection (with more regularity, I think, than regular trash cans on Austin sidewalks), there is a three-compartment bin with slots for paper, bottles/cans, and general trash.
WAG OF THE FINGER: To Toronto’s public-transport folks, who sell weekly all-you-can-ride cards with a catch: They have a set time period (from Monday through the following Sunday), instead of just covering seven days from the date of purchase.
Then again, at least Toronto has a subway system …
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