If I had to assign a colour to the cities I have visited, Toronto would be gray. Stale, slate, mid-March gray. Toronto should be the same hue as its concrete subway stations, the same shade as the late-summer rains that fall on congested Highway 401.
Portland would be a dark evergreen – the colour of a douglas fir. Seattle would be a deep sea blue, Santa Fe the burnt orange of adobe clay. Montreal would be red, as it is both the city in which I feel the most Canadian and the city that strikes me as the most socialist, the most creatively subversive. Tokyo would be neon yellow, the colour on the sides on the Canon Building in Shinjuku (or was it Ginza?). Of a more muted, spiced yellow is Kathmandu, the city of turmeric piled high in the marketplace. Kyoto, ever camoflaged with a veneer of projected and glorified history, would be the chalk-white of a geisha’s facepaint. Worcester will always be purple, Baltimore is the shade of its maroon-brick student row houses, and Honolulu is a bright, inviting teal. But Toronto will always be gray, no matter how much time I spend in or away from the city. We just were not meant to like one another, the GTA and I.
Portland would be a dark evergreen – the colour of a douglas fir. Seattle would be a deep sea blue, Santa Fe the burnt orange of adobe clay. Montreal would be red, as it is both the city in which I feel the most Canadian and the city that strikes me as the most socialist, the most creatively subversive. Tokyo would be neon yellow, the colour on the sides on the Canon Building in Shinjuku (or was it Ginza?). Of a more muted, spiced yellow is Kathmandu, the city of turmeric piled high in the marketplace. Kyoto, ever camoflaged with a veneer of projected and glorified history, would be the chalk-white of a geisha’s facepaint. Worcester will always be purple, Baltimore is the shade of its maroon-brick student row houses, and Honolulu is a bright, inviting teal. But Toronto will always be gray, no matter how much time I spend in or away from the city. We just were not meant to like one another, the GTA and I.
2 comments:
And the color of Boca? Plastic noses. Yeah. It's a color now.
Can Boca be the colour of Starbucks Coffee? Or a Starbucks Apron? Or maybe we could identify it with the SA Tartan? Or maybe Mercedes-Benz silver?? BMW black?? Pink like the architecture...
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