Urban Oases Tribute

September 19 is actually Jeff's birthday, after a fancy dinner in Jeff's honor I made plans with Adam to finally get a fountain picture for him. He had just returned from Italy and had no idea for a long time that Jeff had died or that this tribute idea existed. The short excursion to get a fountain picture ended up being a nearly four-hour trip where we thoroughly experienced many, many fountains.
Without intending to do so, we went in a large number of the same fountains that Jeff had already been in, pictured on his Urban Oases page for Canada

We got off the subway at King because I recalled an abundance of fountains in the area. In particular there was this one on Front Street where Adam and I had waited a long time the previous November in order to be fashionably not early to a party. He told me there was nothing in the middle of these benches as he remembered it; he was wrong.
Jeff's name for this fountain was Cold Toronto Fountain.

Cold Toronto Fountain: Adam hasn't realized that his wallet is still in his pants.
A young lady was sitting on the other side of the fountain, visible in this picture. When she noticed that a guy was walking around in the fountain being photographed, she silently stood up and walked away. I thought that was pretty funny.

Cold Toronto Fountain: Adam is uncomfortable because (a) the fountan is cold, (b) there is water shooting at his butt and (c) he's realized that his wallet is still in his pants.

I decided to start with something simple.
Jeff's name for this fountain was Historic Fountain. On the way to it, we passed another one, the Rhythmically Splattering Fountain.

We passed the Dog Fountain, which I actually remembered and recognized from Jeff's picture and the commercial in which it was featured. We didn't go in because it looked disgusting.
Despite me telling him about all of the funky bubbles in this fountain, Adam wanted to dunk his face. The first picture was a failed attempt to get him with his face in it. Then he got up for a minute, so although these pictures look fluid enough to be in immediate succession, they aren't.

Actually, that should be obvious if you look at the positions of the nasty bubbles on the water's surface.

All night, I kept telling Adam about a little area with lots of fountains between a bunch of tall office buildings near Yonge and Adelaide. He kept telling me about a little area off Yonge Street where a professor had shown him some work. We found it, and it turned out it was the same little area.
This face is also the same face that Jeff called the Cage Fountain. Unfortunately it wasn't on, which made Adam sad.

Cage Fountain: I remembered this one from Urban Oases, and asked Adam to reinact Jeff's pose.

The Cage Fountain happens to be in the same little area (little area little area little area) with two other fountains that, sadly, were not active. Jeff named those two the Jacuzzi Fountain and the Uprooted Tree With Spiralling Spout Fountain.

Adam and I were extremely excited to find this massive geyser amongst the tall buildings near an exit from King Station. We both wanted to play in it, so we set up the camera to take timed pictures; this isn't something that either of us are used to.
Jeff named this one this one Big Round Fountain. I didn't recall it from his page when we saw it, probably because it looks huge in person. Actually, the spray looks a lot higher in our pictures than in his for some reason.

Big Round Fountain: This is another test shot for the timed pictures.

Big Round Fountain: Adam wanted to make sure that the timer length gave him enough time to run to the middle of this fountain. Despite his posture in this picture, it does.

Big Round Fountain: Frolicking attempt 1: Camera picked up a lot of spray for some reason. The picture is extremely blurry. I'm not visible because I fell down in the centre just before the camera shot.

Big Round Fountain: Frolicking attempt 2: Marginally more successful. There is no spray, and the picture isn't blurry. In fact, the only problem is that I fell down in the centre... again. I fell down well before the camera took the picture, but I got my jeans stuck on some pipe or something. Oh well, it's a pretty funny picture.

Big Round Fountain: Adam wanted an after picture, ostensibly to verify to the audience that we got wet.

Quoth Adam, "It feels like I'm milking my shoe."
He appears highly jaundiced, probably something to do with having been in Italy. I left a nice assprint here, too.

These sharks live near the building that should be called SkyDome. They're on the north side of a big fountain that we hadn't seen yet when we took this picture. To get to this side of the fountain we had to walk through some trees and crap.

Adam braves the shark-filled depths of the much more impressive side of the same fountain as the previous shot.
Whoa. That sentence is complicated.

Adam posed in the centre of this shark-infested tiered fountain for a long time, but it was very hard to get a good shot. There was pretty much zero natural light, and he was too distant for any mode of flash to help.

So we decided to get his picture on the left edge of the shark wall.

Finally. This is much more normal.

Adam wanted to take this doctored shot. This water wasn't flowing, though I was standing in another pool. I guess he just thought that I wouldn't do anything too intense while enjoying a Diet Pepsi.

Adam thought it was pretty incredible that Adam Beck had the same first name as him.

This is the larger of the two fountains on the road islands on Univeristy Avenue. We passed the small one (which Jeff called the Small University Avenue Fountain) because it looked disgusting. I was surprised to find the middle was quite a bit deeper than the rest of the pond.
Believe it or not, Jeff called this one the Big University Avenue Fountain.

Big University Avenue Fountain: Despite my goofy pose in my effort to avoid the water for some reason, this is a pretty neat shot!
Steve and Jenn were in this same fountain in their pictures on the Urban Oases Tribute page for Canada.

Big University Avenue Fountain: I felt deceived by how deep the center parts of the fountain were. It was this anger that made us quit for the night, at 2:00 AM or so.

Back to the Main Page

Please send your comments and fountain pictures/experiences to Kyle.

		We got off the subway at King because I recalled an abundance of fountains in the area. In particular there was this one on Front Street where Adam and I had waited a long time the previous November in order to be fashionably not early to a party. He told me there was nothing in the middle of these benches as he remembered it; he was wrong. Jeff's name for this fountain was Cold Toronto Fountain.
		Cold Toronto Fountain: Adam hasn't realized that his wallet is still in his pants. A young lady was sitting on the other side of the fountain, visible in this picture. When she noticed that a guy was walking around in the fountain being photographed, she silently stood up and walked away. I thought that was pretty funny.
		Cold Toronto Fountain: Adam is uncomfortable because (a) the fountan is cold, (b) there is water shooting at his butt and (c) he's realized that his wallet is still in his pants.
		I decided to start with something simple. Jeff's name for this fountain was Historic Fountain. On the way to it, we passed another one, the Rhythmically Splattering Fountain.
		We passed the Dog Fountain, which I actually remembered and recognized from Jeff's picture and the commercial in which it was featured. We didn't go in because it looked disgusting. Despite me telling him about all of the funky bubbles in this fountain, Adam wanted to dunk his face. The first picture was a failed attempt to get him with his face in it. Then he got up for a minute, so although these pictures look fluid enough to be in immediate succession, they aren't.
		Actually, that should be obvious if you look at the positions of the nasty bubbles on the water's surface.
		All night, I kept telling Adam about a little area with lots of fountains between a bunch of tall office buildings near Yonge and Adelaide. He kept telling me about a little area off Yonge Street where a professor had shown him some work. We found it, and it turned out it was the same little area. This face is also the same face that Jeff called the Cage Fountain. Unfortunately it wasn't on, which made Adam sad.
		Cage Fountain: I remembered this one from Urban Oases, and asked Adam to reinact Jeff's pose.
		The Cage Fountain happens to be in the same little area (little area little area little area) with two other fountains that, sadly, were not active. Jeff named those two the Jacuzzi Fountain and the Uprooted Tree With Spiralling Spout Fountain.
		Adam and I were extremely excited to find this massive geyser amongst the tall buildings near an exit from King Station. We both wanted to play in it, so we set up the camera to take timed pictures; this isn't something that either of us are used to. Jeff named this one this one Big Round Fountain. I didn't recall it from his page when we saw it, probably because it looks huge in person. Actually, the spray looks a lot higher in our pictures than in his for some reason.
		Big Round Fountain: This is another test shot for the timed pictures.
		Big Round Fountain: Adam wanted to make sure that the timer length gave him enough time to run to the middle of this fountain. Despite his posture in this picture, it does.
		Big Round Fountain: Frolicking attempt 1: Camera picked up a lot of spray for some reason. The picture is extremely blurry. I'm not visible because I fell down in the centre just before the camera shot.
		Big Round Fountain: Frolicking attempt 2: Marginally more successful. There is no spray, and the picture isn't blurry. In fact, the only problem is that I fell down in the centre... again. I fell down well before the camera took the picture, but I got my jeans stuck on some pipe or something. Oh well, it's a pretty funny picture.
		Big Round Fountain: Adam wanted an after picture, ostensibly to verify to the audience that we got wet.
		Quoth Adam, "It feels like I'm milking my shoe." He appears highly jaundiced, probably something to do with having been in Italy. I left a nice assprint here, too.
		These sharks live near the building that should be called SkyDome. They're on the north side of a big fountain that we hadn't seen yet when we took this picture. To get to this side of the fountain we had to walk through some trees and crap.
		Adam braves the shark-filled depths of the much more impressive side of the same fountain as the previous shot. Whoa. That sentence is complicated.
		Adam posed in the centre of this shark-infested tiered fountain for a long time, but it was very hard to get a good shot. There was pretty much zero natural light, and he was too distant for any mode of flash to help.
		So we decided to get his picture on the left edge of the shark wall.
		Finally. This is much more normal.
		Adam wanted to take this doctored shot. This water wasn't flowing, though I was standing in another pool. I guess he just thought that I wouldn't do anything too intense while enjoying a Diet Pepsi.
		Adam thought it was pretty incredible that Adam Beck had the same first name as him.
		This is the larger of the two fountains on the road islands on Univeristy Avenue. We passed the small one (which Jeff called the Small University Avenue Fountain) because it looked disgusting. I was surprised to find the middle was quite a bit deeper than the rest of the pond. Believe it or not, Jeff called this one the Big University Avenue Fountain.
		Big University Avenue Fountain: Despite my goofy pose in my effort to avoid the water for some reason, this is a pretty neat shot! Steve and Jenn were in this same fountain in their pictures on the Urban Oases Tribute page for Canada.
		Big University Avenue Fountain: I felt deceived by how deep the center parts of the fountain were. It was this anger that made us quit for the night, at 2:00 AM or so.