Rina Piccolo
Description
An interview with cartoonist, Rina Piccolo, for the Lillian H. Smith Story Project.
Creator
Piccolo, Rina
Contributor
Wong, Christina
Format
MP3
Date Created
August 8, 2015
Spatial Coverage
Downtown (Toronto, Ont.)
Kensington-Chinatown (Toronto, Ont.)
Rights Holder
Wong, Christina
Interviewer
Wong, Christina
Interviewee
Piccolo, Rina
Location
Lillian H. Smith Branch
Transcription
00:00 Speaker 1: Like how can you ever have a happy moment that involves a rat, especially a city rat, they're the most disgusting kind. In fact, I don't think there are any other kinds of rats they're all living in cities, aren't they? But anyway so, I'm sitting in the garden, the Lillian... The library's garden, and I'm just drawing in my sketch book or maybe I was reading, I can't remember what I was doing, but I was just sitting there, and I noticed that the sparrows were like going in a frenzy just eating someone must have dump some breadcrumbs or something like that. And so they're like, wow eating away, and they're all chirping and the sun was out. It was very nice day and so I start focusing in on those sparrows and amongst them I see a rat. At first I thought it was a mouse but then I look closer, I thought, "No, I don't think that's a mouse it's much too long, it was maybe twice the size of a sparrow", and I just thought that was so funny. It was like, "wow, this is the city life, the city wildlife sparrows getting along with rats and sharing their food with them". That's what my happy moment that involves a rat which is hard to come by I think. And if they were cooperating, birds would like literally rubbing elbows or rubbing what? Wings. Rubbing limbs with the rat and the rat didn't seem to mind that the birds were fluttering all over him. They were just sharing a meal together. I thought that was really cool.
[laughter]
02:00 Speaker 2: Do you use the garden often to... At the library?
02:03 S1: Yeah. I come here often just to see nature, the beautiful vegetable garden, the flowers, to draw on my sketch book, to read, sit in the sun. Yeah, I do come here a lot.
02:26 S2: What's your memorable moment with the library aside from...
02:34 S1: Aside from rats?
02:36 S2: And sparrows.
02:37 S1: Rats and sparrows? Well I could tell you that when I move back to Canada from New York, 'cause I'd been living there for a number of years. It was rough for me because I just had a divorce, so that was hard. What made it more aggravating was that I had to go thorough all the immigration stuff. Well, integrating myself back into my home country it was so difficult and so time-consuming and so it felt like to me because I was coming from the States that I had to prove each and every step of the way I had to prove credit rating that kind of thing. My status, like what was my status was I gonna be a resident again as a citizen of Canada or was I just physically... There was a lot of stuff that I had to get through. And it felt like to me, especially the bit with my credit rating because it was coming from America there were a lot of questions there and I had no idea it would be so difficult for me to be financed to buy a condo.
04:11 S1: And so I felt like I had to prove myself each and every step of the way and I had of course the United States and that I had to, while I was closing all that off, I was opening up everything else in Canada and so, it felt like as though I had to prove myself to the States that I was not a resident because they believed I was and then I had to prove that I was a resident to my own government in Canada. So, it was like I just want this to end. It was just that they needed proof every step of the way. And luckily I had the documentation to prove it but that took a lot of time and aggravation. When I went to get my library card and it wasn't here by they way because I transferred 'cause at first I was staying with my parents temporarily before I could move into this neighbourhood. I went to the Bloor/Gladstone branch to get a library card because that's one of the first things I do is moving anywhere is you make sure you've got your local library.
05:14 S2: Me too. I always have a library card quickly.
05:16 S1: Yeah. It's so important to me and so I go in there, "I'd like to apply", and they asked me for proof of residence. It was like, "Oh my God, you too? Here too? I can't believe this." But that was easier, that was a lot easier it was like, "Okay. I'll go home, get my passport, get a phone bill or whatever to prove to you that I am living in Canada now, in this neighbourhood". So my good memory of Lillian H. Smith branch is that I had already had a library card so by the time I got here, I didn't have to prove anything. I was like, "yeah man".
06:00 S1: I'm like part of this library system and this was a rare moment where I had to sign up for something or transfer my card, in this case, without any kind of bullshit. It was like, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, you're transferring, no problem." And it made me feel "wow, you know what, I'm in a good neighbourhood. Nobody's gonna ask me to prove myself in this neighbourhood."
06:30 S2: Except when you renew your card. [chuckle]
06:32 S1: Right. Well, that was easy just I brought my hydro bill.
06:36 S2: Okay.
06:37 S1: So that was very simple. And, I feel so at home here, because it's such a great... Like physically it's a fun library. It's got two galleries or what do you call them galleries upstairs the science fiction, which I came to right away. And, again, I felt, "Wow! I'm in the right neighbourhood." Not only is it downtown so it's got that nice vibe to it. But I've got great exhibitions of artwork and literature a block away from me, and that is so important to me.
07:15 S2: Do you have anything to add?
07:17 S1: When I was... The first days of my condo I would look out all the buildings and the city scapes and all that. And whenever I looked out of my kitchen window it'd be like, "What's that weird, cool-looking deco kind of building there?" I was like, "What is that?" It's got diamonds on the side of it, kinda looks like deco art to me, probably wrong about that. But, anyway, I was like, "What is that? That is the coolest building in that window frame." So, I took a walk and I was like, "Oh wait a minute, it's the duh! It's the Library, which I had been coming to all this time, right?" I just noticed it's physically a nice piece of architecture, too. And I read somewhere, I don't know how I know this, but the weird triangles or diamond shapes on the side of the building is to make it look like a castle.
08:18 S2: Yes, you're right.
08:19 S1: Maybe you told me that, I don't know.
08:21 S2: I can't remember. But it's...
08:23 S1: But, it does look like that. Definitely, like a medieval...
08:26 S2: And like the side. It's got the draw bridge, [08:29] ____.
08:30 S1: I know, right? And it's one of the nicest... Never mind one of the nicest library branches, I'd say it's one of the nicest buildings in Toronto.
[laughter]
02:00 Speaker 2: Do you use the garden often to... At the library?
02:03 S1: Yeah. I come here often just to see nature, the beautiful vegetable garden, the flowers, to draw on my sketch book, to read, sit in the sun. Yeah, I do come here a lot.
02:26 S2: What's your memorable moment with the library aside from...
02:34 S1: Aside from rats?
02:36 S2: And sparrows.
02:37 S1: Rats and sparrows? Well I could tell you that when I move back to Canada from New York, 'cause I'd been living there for a number of years. It was rough for me because I just had a divorce, so that was hard. What made it more aggravating was that I had to go thorough all the immigration stuff. Well, integrating myself back into my home country it was so difficult and so time-consuming and so it felt like to me because I was coming from the States that I had to prove each and every step of the way I had to prove credit rating that kind of thing. My status, like what was my status was I gonna be a resident again as a citizen of Canada or was I just physically... There was a lot of stuff that I had to get through. And it felt like to me, especially the bit with my credit rating because it was coming from America there were a lot of questions there and I had no idea it would be so difficult for me to be financed to buy a condo.
04:11 S1: And so I felt like I had to prove myself each and every step of the way and I had of course the United States and that I had to, while I was closing all that off, I was opening up everything else in Canada and so, it felt like as though I had to prove myself to the States that I was not a resident because they believed I was and then I had to prove that I was a resident to my own government in Canada. So, it was like I just want this to end. It was just that they needed proof every step of the way. And luckily I had the documentation to prove it but that took a lot of time and aggravation. When I went to get my library card and it wasn't here by they way because I transferred 'cause at first I was staying with my parents temporarily before I could move into this neighbourhood. I went to the Bloor/Gladstone branch to get a library card because that's one of the first things I do is moving anywhere is you make sure you've got your local library.
05:14 S2: Me too. I always have a library card quickly.
05:16 S1: Yeah. It's so important to me and so I go in there, "I'd like to apply", and they asked me for proof of residence. It was like, "Oh my God, you too? Here too? I can't believe this." But that was easier, that was a lot easier it was like, "Okay. I'll go home, get my passport, get a phone bill or whatever to prove to you that I am living in Canada now, in this neighbourhood". So my good memory of Lillian H. Smith branch is that I had already had a library card so by the time I got here, I didn't have to prove anything. I was like, "yeah man".
06:00 S1: I'm like part of this library system and this was a rare moment where I had to sign up for something or transfer my card, in this case, without any kind of bullshit. It was like, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, you're transferring, no problem." And it made me feel "wow, you know what, I'm in a good neighbourhood. Nobody's gonna ask me to prove myself in this neighbourhood."
06:30 S2: Except when you renew your card. [chuckle]
06:32 S1: Right. Well, that was easy just I brought my hydro bill.
06:36 S2: Okay.
06:37 S1: So that was very simple. And, I feel so at home here, because it's such a great... Like physically it's a fun library. It's got two galleries or what do you call them galleries upstairs the science fiction, which I came to right away. And, again, I felt, "Wow! I'm in the right neighbourhood." Not only is it downtown so it's got that nice vibe to it. But I've got great exhibitions of artwork and literature a block away from me, and that is so important to me.
07:15 S2: Do you have anything to add?
07:17 S1: When I was... The first days of my condo I would look out all the buildings and the city scapes and all that. And whenever I looked out of my kitchen window it'd be like, "What's that weird, cool-looking deco kind of building there?" I was like, "What is that?" It's got diamonds on the side of it, kinda looks like deco art to me, probably wrong about that. But, anyway, I was like, "What is that? That is the coolest building in that window frame." So, I took a walk and I was like, "Oh wait a minute, it's the duh! It's the Library, which I had been coming to all this time, right?" I just noticed it's physically a nice piece of architecture, too. And I read somewhere, I don't know how I know this, but the weird triangles or diamond shapes on the side of the building is to make it look like a castle.
08:18 S2: Yes, you're right.
08:19 S1: Maybe you told me that, I don't know.
08:21 S2: I can't remember. But it's...
08:23 S1: But, it does look like that. Definitely, like a medieval...
08:26 S2: And like the side. It's got the draw bridge, [08:29] ____.
08:30 S1: I know, right? And it's one of the nicest... Never mind one of the nicest library branches, I'd say it's one of the nicest buildings in Toronto.
Files
Collection
Citation
Piccolo, Rina, “Rina Piccolo,” TPL Virtual Exhibits, accessed April 28, 2024, http://omeka.tplcs.ca/virtual-exhibits/items/show/1791.