Staying Yonge

December 8, 2009 1:17 PM

At 9 a.m. on a clear day in April, Ismail Atievand his friend, D.J. Pataeve, armed themselves with two cameras and walked forty-two kilometres from Yonge and Wellington Streets in Aurora to the point where Yonge Street begins at Queens Quay in Toronto—a journey that took them fourteen hours to complete.
posted by gman (36 comments total)

And now I'm a bit dizzy from focusing on the people, not the scenery. I think they should have gone up one way from one guy's perspective, then back via the other guy's point of view.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:29 PM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

You should see the slow motion version of this video. It's 140 years long.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:32 PM on December 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

I will never get sick of stop-motion anything.
posted by not_on_display at 1:33 PM on December 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Neat. I drove the lenght from TO to the Manitoba a few years back. Definitely worth it.
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:34 PM on December 8, 2009

Only relevant to Canadian MeFites, so sorry.
posted by fixedgear at 1:35 PM on December 8, 2009

The Manitoba border, that is.
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:36 PM on December 8, 2009

Only relevant to Canadian MeFites, so sorry.

Eh?
posted by kmz at 1:38 PM on December 8, 2009

Pretty nicely done. Makes me nostalgic. Doing the downtown part at night seems fitting with the garish lights in what is the shittiest part of the street, excepting the redevelopment from Dundas south.
posted by GuyZero at 1:40 PM on December 8, 2009

Cool stuff, but could the second guy really only think of one pose in 14 hours?
posted by Corduroy at 1:40 PM on December 8, 2009

Neat. I drove the lenght from TO to the Manitoba a few years back. Definitely worth it.

Toronto to Vancouver via the Trans-Can two years ago. Everyone should do it.
posted by GuyZero at 1:41 PM on December 8, 2009

What's the longest street, I wonder — anyone else know?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:42 PM on December 8, 2009

I liked the first sentence because until I got to "Toronto"I tried to guess where in the world the following nouns would make sense:

"Ismail Atievand", "D.J. Pataeve", "forty-two kilometres", "Yonge", "Wellington Street", "Aurora", and "Queens Quay"

I guessed New Zealand.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:44 PM on December 8, 2009

I set out to walk the entire length of Broadway in Manhattan when I lived in NYC many years ago; I only got from Marble Hill (now part of the Bronx, but formerly part of Manhattan before the Spuyten Duyvil was rerouted) to Times Square before I had to leave off and make a previous appointment, but I'd previously walked Broadway from Battery Park to the Upper West Side on a different day, so I'd covered the whole thing. Quite a nice hike.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:44 PM on December 8, 2009

Per the article, Guinness lists the Pan-American highway as the longest navigable road. I'm pretty sure if you discount the whole Yonge St vs Highway 11 thing then it's still the longest road by a conventional definition that excludes highways.
posted by GuyZero at 1:45 PM on December 8, 2009

That was great, and I'm not Canadian or Canadist.
posted by Elmore at 2:01 PM on December 8, 2009

Also, I regret to inform all and sundry that the Copyright Party Poopers have pulled "Garth and Gord and Fiona and Alice", an SCTV sketch which was my introduction to Yonge Street, from YooChoob. Bah.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:03 PM on December 8, 2009

I will never get sick of stop -motion any thing.>I will never get sick of stop -motion any thing.

Those are e x c e l l e n t .
posted by Elmore at 2:11 PM on December 8, 2009

A map for those who, like me, are obsessed with maps...
posted by sriracha at 2:21 PM on December 8, 2009

I tried to do something similar once, going on a 24 hour walk. no stop motion, but the effect of speeding up that length of film is similar.
posted by CharlesV42 at 2:33 PM on December 8, 2009

As I watched it I was wondering why it sometimes seemed like he was coming forwards and at other times seemed to be going backwards. I think it was because of the sequences (in particular, the cars) of the objects in the background. If you get several (different) objects that step backwards in a linear sequence, it creates the illusion of him walking forward and vice versa. Interesting. Sort of related (in terms of linear motion illusions) – Rewound!
posted by tellurian at 2:35 PM on December 8, 2009

If we're talking about Yonge Street, and things everybody ought to try once, let me recommend the Vomit Comet.
posted by stinkycheese at 2:38 PM on December 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

damn do I miss Yonge st. After 2 or 3 am that street attracts the oddest collection of sketchy people, and none of them seem to be heading anywhere or doing anything useful.

also, Vancouver has a nice equivalent to the Vomit Comet - the N20, which is the nightbus that runs from downtown up Commercial Drive. I have, on occasion, gone out and caught that bus just for the pure spectacle of it.
posted by mannequito at 2:53 PM on December 8, 2009

nicely done.... fun..

You know they said at the beginning.. "center that dot in the middle of the viewfinder on my nose...."
posted by HuronBob at 3:02 PM on December 8, 2009

What's the longest street, I wonder — anyone else know?

In ancient times, Via Appia (The Appian Way) would likely place high on the list.
posted by ericb at 3:10 PM on December 8, 2009

as you’re going, you can just see the buildings getting bigger and higher and the more lights and cars

Wouldn't you get that same effect by, you know, DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 3:15 PM on December 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Depending on traffic, it may be faster to walk 40km down Yonge St versus driving.
posted by GuyZero at 3:21 PM on December 8, 2009

What font are they using in their titles? It looks like the roman characters from a Chinese language font like SimSun.
posted by delmoi at 3:38 PM on December 8, 2009

> If we're talking about Yonge Street, and things everybody ought to try once, let me recommend the Vomit Comet.

Disclaimer: not recommended for those over the age of 30 and/or sober.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:43 PM on December 8, 2009

I'd previously walked Broadway from Battery Park to the Upper West Side on a different day a different day, so I'd covered the whole thing. Quite a nice hike.

Not to pick nits, but unless you mean Inwood when you say the Upper West Side (and that is the WAY Upper West Side) you didn't even get close. Even assuming you're only interested in Manhattan, Broadway keeps going all the way, up past Washington Heights and Fort Tryon Park (around the back of The Cloisters) and right up to the tip of the island and on into the Bronx.
posted by The Bellman at 3:52 PM on December 8, 2009

Should have taken photos slightly more frequently.
posted by autodidact at 3:59 PM on December 8, 2009

Not to pick nits, but unless you mean Inwood when you say the Upper West Side (and that is the WAY Upper West Side) you didn't even get close.

Whoa, halt the New York-off, brother! Mr. Jack noted that he had covered the distance from Marble Hill to Times Square on a previous day, so his combined efforts yielded a complete traverse of Broadway, Manhattan-side.

Also, I thought the second guy's pose was great. It made his side of the journey look like the Exorcist on vacation.
posted by invitapriore at 4:16 PM on December 8, 2009

It's sad to say, but I've actually been up and down Yonge St. so many times that by the time they got to about Finch station, I could pin-point where they were from then on simply by the background. I'm sure many other GTA residents could as well.

Great vid.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 4:54 PM on December 8, 2009

A tie, with coinciding Aurora.
posted by hortense at 10:15 PM on December 8, 2009

Whoa, halt the New York-off, brother! Mr. Jack noted that he had covered the distance from Marble Hill to Times Square on a previous day, so his combined efforts yielded a complete traverse of Broadway, Manhattan-side.

Ah! So he did. Good on you, Mr. Jack and my apologies for hating on your Broadway cred.
posted by The Bellman at 7:09 AM on December 9, 2009

That video does something weird to my brain. The first guy is on the "right" side of the street, and the second guy is on the "wrong" side of the street. I have no idea where this impression comes from, but it is absolutely unshakable.

Anyway, very cool video, thanks!
posted by ErikaB at 10:25 AM on December 9, 2009

These guys made it much harder for themselves by taking such small steps. Wow!
posted by Partial Panel at 10:39 AM on December 9, 2009