my first torontoist post
Check it out!
My very first torontoist post!
Feel free to comment over there if you like it, or don’t like it, or just think indie rock pigeons making out is the most adorable thing, ever.
i know someone who was published in mcsweeney’s
Or at least, on McSweeney’s website, anyway.
Super-cool Travis!
big weekend
Yet another big weekend hereabouts.
First the kitten got sick, and we had to blow some money on taking her to the vet only to find out she was fine, but probably ate something she shouldn’t have.
Which sounds like her.
Now we call her the money pit.
Then I went to a blythe meet at the Magic Pony. I didn’t take pictures, but everyone else did, so it’s just a matter of waiting it out, and stealing them from Flickr (Hurry up new Blythe buddies!).
Then Travis was going to visit, but he couldn’t get on the bus so he didn’t.
Then something very, very cool happened:
I got hired to write for Torontoist!
Woo-woo! I now, officially join the ranks of the paid bloggers!
last night at greg graffin
First of all: Ron Hawkins showed up to open with an acoustic set!!!
I luuuuuuuurrrrrrve Ronnie! He is pretty much my favourite of all time.
That should have made my experience 100% delightful…
But I could barely hear the show.
Barely.
People yapped through the entire thing, Ron’s set, and Mr. Graffins (the one they actually came to see, on purpose!).
We had to move a couple times to get a better vantage/listening point. It was either next to the speakers (and more importantly a bunch of drunk frat boys), or at the back with a bunch of drunken concert goers who were too busy discussing how awesome Bad Religion used to be, to actually listen to the dude from Bad Religion who was actually up on stage.
Either way it was a bad scene.
The folks in the pit seemed to be having a better time, but maybe that’s just a ‘grass is always greener…’ thing.
I really did not believe that “Torontonians are bad concert goers” mumbo-jumbo until last night.
But I had never been to a concert that was totally awesome (musically speaking), and was then ruined by an obnoxious audience before.
There’s a first time for everything I guess.
It was still pretty awesome, musically speaking though. I just don’t think I could stomach it again.
Maybe someday far off when all Mr. Graffins fans are too geriatric to be rowdy…
i’m blogging for you again travis
Heads up kid, tonight we are going to go see Greg Graffin sing songs off his new folk album. I’m not sure if it’s sold out though, and it’s probably a far way for you to come on a weekday night.
But I promised, so there it is.
I’m not the Bad Religion fan (Liam is – they were a big deal for him in high school) but I liked what I heard off Mr. Graffin’s MySpace, when the full album was still up to listen to.
But then he took it down.
His backing band is the Weakerthans (sans John K. Samson) though. So to get an idea of what it sounds like, just imagine listening to sea shanties and classic folks songs played by the Weakerthans, and sung by Mr. Graffin, and you’re pretty much 98% there.
Also, you should know that I met Andy Cole on the weekend, and I didn’t even realize it. I kept bumping into this guys bag accidentally at a concert, and he got totally weirder out by it (even though we were cramped into a wet, hot, strangers basement and it was totally unavoidable). Then we both happened upon each other raving about it afterwards on Stillepost, and it turned out it was your pal Andy.
Toronto is, like, totally, a very small world, huh?
Oh, and are you actually coming to visit at some point, or are you just toying with my emotions?
more torontopian songs
The Toronto Stillepost message board has this really weird habit of sparking a discussion about something, exactly when I’ve been thinking quite deeply about it myself.
So, of course, someone over there was thinking about making a Toronto compilation, right around the time I posted mine here.
And of course, now all the music geeks are doing a very good version of putting my little list of songs to shame.
Treble Charger sang a song about Trinity Bellwoods Park? How could I have missed that?
weekend of a doosy
I am still recouperating from my weekend. It was a doosy.
We had friends stay with us who were driving across the country to celebrate their recent wedding.
So of course, we had to make sure Toronto was well represented – these kids were from Vancouver too, so it was a bit of a matter of urban pride.
Thus followed a couple overpacked days filled with: West Queen West, Kensington Market, tomatillo salsa, non-icy irish-cream ice-cream, eyes bigger than stomachs, yummy but expensive brunch, pitchers of beer, awesome concerts in stranger’s basements, art, artists, doggies, kitties, too much walking, sweat, extreme heat warnings, making fun of people who are jet lagged and drunk, wading pools in vacant lots and many empty promises of swimming.
This was our wedding present for the happy couple (other than my Toronto songs compilation, and giving them a place to stay in our tiny – but air conditioned – apartment).
I hope they had as much fun as we did!
torontopian songs
A while ago, I spent a whole day putting together a mix CD of the ultimate (relatively recent) Toronto songs. It was supposed to be for Travis Nicholson for sending me the cutest postcard from Amsterdam, but it is too good not to share (although I’m sure he will get his own copy eventually).
We have friends in town for the weekend, visiting from all the way over in Vancouver, and we are going to send a copy home with them too (I think I’m going to wait for them to blog about this weekend though, since they took pictures of our escapades.)
In order to avoid issues of bandwidth and illegalities, you will have to find/download these yourself – (though I could probably mail out a copy to a few of you if you asked real nice).
So without further ado, here is my list (it is by no means extensive but it had to fit on a two hour cd, so many cut’s were made – it was totally like Sophie’s choice):
Terminal City – Ron Hawkins And The Rusty Nails
Ron Hawkins is to Toronto as Grant-Lee Philips is to Stars Hollow. He’s totally this town’s troubadour. Here he sings about gentrification.
High School – The Flashing Lights
They were THE Toronto indie band for a while (even though they, like Sloan are originally from Halifax). This song is why.
Come for a Ride – By Divine Right
I looove this song. It reminds me of High School. This is especially suiting, because some of the members of this band went to my High School. Also, sometimes I get them confused with The Flashing lights, who sing a song called High School.
Now they are yet another casualty of Broken Social Scene.
Feist also played guitar for them for a while, apparently.
The Other Man – Sloan
Sloan is supposedly a Halifax band. But half the band lives in Toronto now, they play most of their concerts here, they got famous here and this song was written about Feist. That makes them effectively a Toronto band.
Mushaboom – Feist
It’s impossible to compile Toronto songs without brushing past a few Broken Socialites. She is one I don’t mind, and it would be pretty impossible to not mention her. I especially like this song. I think it captures a certain: Toronto cottager, let’s get outta here, frame of mind.
Poster Of A Girl – Metric
I don’t want to like Metric, but, this song is too catchy. They are somehow involved with BSS.
To The Lullabies – The Constantines
A classic styled Toronto indie band – in an old-school, rock-and-roll sense.
The Constant Lover – Magenta Lane
These chicks are hot right now. Both in the musical, and physical sense. They are not as good as the Like though.
Crabbuckit – k-os
I met k-os once at a private/industry De La Soul concert at Palais Royale. That makes me cool. Very cool. I could practically be in Broken Social Scene.
We R in Need of a Musical Revolution – Esthero
Esthero was part of that weird neo-soul/trip-hop thing that happened in Toronto a few years ago, and only Nelly Furtado managed to make a go of – which is too bad, because Esthero is pretty cool too. She has the most gorgeous voice.
F*** The Pain Away – Peaches
Apparently, Feist was Peaches’ roommate. That girl gets around.
NHS is gonna ROCK YOU – Ninja High School
One of the hottest bands to play:
a) at the boat
b) with Dollarama
PF – controller.controller
Disco rock, Toronto style.
CA Va Cool – Tangiers
Tangiers is pretty cool. I guess. They’re no Clash though.
Jealous Of Your Cigarette – Hawksley Workman
Hawksley is sexy and silly at the same time. One might sometimes see him biking down Queen Street (when he’s not holed up in Muskoka or Paris).
Weight – Sarah Slean
Sarah Slean makes me swoon.
This Lamb Sells Condos – Final Fantasy
Another song about downtown gentrification, from yet another hot Toronto band (although technically it’s not a band – technically it’s just one guy).
Mississauga Goddamn – The Hidden Cameras
No one from Toronto is really from Toronto – it’s like Manhattan that way. Rarely though, does a band write a song admitting to it’s suburban roots.
I Will Never See The Sun – Great Lake Swimmers
Total Toronto street name droppers, theses guys are.
Basement Apt. – Sarah Harmer
Living in a basement apartment is totally a Toronto thing. When you’re young and idealistic and move to the big city for the first time, you invariably end up in one.
Rosy & Grey – The Lowest of the Low
Possibly the most romantic song written about Toronto, ever, of all time.
a warning of wonkyness
I just massively updated my wordpress, which I have been avoiding doing for a while.
The back end (the stuff that you readers don’t see) looks much nicer now, but things might be a bit wonky on your end.
Sorry.
If you’ve got any issues with the ol’ blog’s functionality just give me a shout, and I’ll see what I can do.
new work
Before I left this last weekend, I actually did some art!
I painted this little painting/collage for my studio. It turned out pretty cute for a last minute project. Nicely graphic and cheerful (which is just what I need for inspiration).
Also on view, is my new red glass candy dish, and german transistor radio (from the early sixties), as well as a few of my little friends.
more cutesy sun flaring pics
If you’re so inclined, you can find more photos of our camping trip here, but it’s mostly for posterity’s sake. Although there are some fun captions.
the guelph trip run down
We finally (after much deliberation) decided on Guelph Lake. It was the result of a sudden compulsion to type the words “Guelph” and “camping” into a a search engine. Sure enough, there is a lake in Guelph, with a pretty little campsite run by the conservation authority. I immediately liked this idea because it meant that we could buy groceries in the town when we needed them, and visit touristy Guelph things when we got bored of staring at trees.
It wasn’t exactly real wilderness camping, but since Liam grew up in the wilderness, he’s kind of wildernessed out.
I really liked it, and would highly recommend it…
But don’t go when there’s a Girl Guide Jamboree in the park.
We learned this the hard way.
Thankfully the brats left us alone and did not makes lead them in a rousing sing along. They were too busy listening to Shania any way.
So, on Friday night, we made the quick drive into Guelph.
(Google maps said it would take an hour and a half but it was more like an hour.)
We put up the tent and then went into town for dinner (we had bangers and mash and fish and chips at a Irish pub – yum).
We watched a downloaded episode of the new season of Entourage and went to sleep on the very cold, very hard ground.
The next morning we made a resolution to finally find a reasonably priced air mattress.
(We are wimps, but I am okay with it.)
We ate our Pop-Tart breakfast (we would make up for it later) and headed to St. Jacobs a “quaint” little Mennonite town filled with lot’s of boring things like quilts and handmade brooms and a few very exciting things like the best picnic fixens in the whole region!
We headed up to the farmers market where we bought a few slices of the local summer sausage (sooooooooo good!) along with chive and garlic brick cheese, a tomato, a green pepper, handmade pepperettes, honey garlic sausage and handmade perogies (!!!).
Back in St. Jacobs proper we visited the bakery and bought some fresh buns and some cheese scones for breakfast.
And thusly we procured our breakfast (scones) lunch (sandwiches) and dinner (perogies sautéed with peppers and sausage).
Then we drove back to Guelph, stopping at the Canadian Tire for a new air-mattress.
We found out Guelph doesn’t have any Wal-Marts.
Isn’t that cool?
Besides, the ol’ Tire’s camping supplies are far, far superior. They have this new line of incredibly well designed Scandinavian camping products that makes my bank account a little bit frightened.
I did not walk out without one of those neat-o fire sticks I’ve always wanted. It was cheap. I played with it all weekend.
Then I spotted a Value Village and made Liam let me go in – because I know small towns like this are always great for finding interesting thrifted goods.
No 1972 Blythe dolls, but I did buy a cute cut glass candy dish.
We got back to the site, ate lunch, swam (I always like swimming later in the afternoon when everyone has headed home for dinner and the water been warmed by the sun all day) and took seventies style pictures of ourselves in a field of wildflowers with flaring sun because it was the magic hour.
That night we settled in with our freshly blown up air-mattress to the Adventures of Baron Munchausen and actually slept well.
I will never camp without one of those godsends again.
On Sunday morning we got up (bright eyed and bushy-tailed this time) and packed up the site.
We drove back into Guelph and explored the town. It’s very nice actually.
Wholesome and quaint indeed. So many cute little cafe’s that stay open late and have reasonably priced goods (why can’t Toronto have some of those? It’s only 30 times bigger, for goodness sake).
We had lunch at a little cafe and bakery called With the Grain that was AMAZING. Go there if you are ever in the area. GO THERE!
I had this brownie there.
This amazing brownie.
It was covered in a thick layer of crumbly ground hazelnuts and a thin layer of fresh HOME-MADE raspberry preserves.
Oh.
Man.
After that we headed back up the highway
So that ended our trip. It was a good one. I definitely feel rejuvenated.
went camping after all
We just got back in camping a few hours ago (early enough to beat traffic from both the World Cup and the Indy).
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!
We ended up heading towards Guelph Lake. I would highly recommend it to any other Torontonians looking for a (very) quick getaway. It fulfilled all our requirements and it only took us an hour to get there!
camping maybe/maybe not
Why is going camping so hard?
I really want to go away for the weekend (because the Molson Indy is coming to my neighbourhood – and no matter who wins the World Cup there’s going to be some loudness – though thankfully less than if Portugal had made it to the finals), but I want to be lame about it and get a site that has electricity so I can get all cosy and relaxed in my tent and watch movies on my laptop.
Is that so much to ask?
Is it?
Anybody know a spot that is close to Toronto, relatively cheap, picturesque, has electricity, a clean swimming lake, and isn’t sucky? Anyone? Before you respond – is it up the 400?
Yes?
No. I’m Trying to avoid traffic, not hunt and bag it.
What with Liam actually having employment (sorta) we have to leave on Friday night or Saturday morning and be back Sunday night – the classic cottagers weekend – and I do not want to be stuck in a gaggle of SUV’s on the highway down from Muskoka.
This is trickier than I imagined.
(Links added for non locals.)
camera obscura – live and in person
If you ever get the chance to see Camera Obscura live – GO!
We saw them at their sold-out show at the Horseshoe last night and they were amazing
It was one of those rare occurrences where the tracks off the album just do not accurately represent the awesomosity of their musicality.
Tracey Ann is also a rock goddess, in the most unexpected and surprising way. She’s all shy, deadpan, pouty and mopey, and she only smiles when she turns around to look at her band-mates, even though you just want her to smile at you because she’s soooo pretty and has the cutest little Scottish accent in the world.
And her voice, man her voice. Chills. She has a simple and honest voice, not unlike a young girl doing a solo in church, but she hits each note better than on the album, better then good. It is perfection when she sings – especially Teenager off Underacheivers Please Try Harder.
They were jetlagged, and this was the very first show of their world tour, and they do not have a “guitar monkey” (as Tracey Ann put it) to tune their instruments, so they spent a lot of time doing that – but it just gave Tracey Ann more time to interact with the audience.
She’s the kinda girl who could start insulting you and swearing up a storm and you still just look at her and say:
“Awwwww… Look at you! You’re so adorable!”
The music was clear and bright, a bit more country in person than the twee girl-group vibe you get off the record. For pretty much every song they brought out an unexpected instrument (whether it was tambourine, trumpet, or the audiences own clapping) that brightened up their simple melodies and turned each song into something whimsical, nostalgic and vaguely familiar – but new and surprising at the same time.
I’m telling you.
It’s all worth a listen and a look-see.
the Sis on 