Brilliant!

WC shared this with me last night so I'm sharing it with you.

Enjoy!

A Wild and Live Friday

After spending last weekend holed up at home watching the complete first and last season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - I'm still sad it was cancelled - I decided I should get out this weekend and, you know, be social.

So last night, N and I watched the last showing of Where The Wild Things Are. I don't remember reading the book as a child so I had no expectations about the story, but this was one of the sweetest and most charming films I've watched in recent memory.


Afterwards, we headed over to The Horseshoe Tavern to catch KC Roberts & the Live Revolution perform. I've never been to The Horseshoe because frankly, my tastes run more to wine bars than dive bars, but I made the exception last night because I really enjoyed their performance when I first saw them at the Beaches Jazz Festival in July. They were just as good last night and they got me all nostalgic with their unexpected, yet funky rendition of the Thundercats theme song. Incidentally, there's a movie in development according to imdb.



I picked up their latest disc, Parkdale Funk I, at the show and am actually a bit disappointed that their ode to Toronto, City by the Lake, isn't on it. Ah well.

Sunny Summer Saturday

It's a gorgeous day in Toronto with the summer weather we've been due FINALLY having arrived. Believe it or not, I started the day early - I was up and out before 8:30 in search of a paper but all the shops in my neighbourhood don't open until 9. I didn't have change to buy a paper from the box, so I had to make change, stopping at Tim Horton's for a large regular before heading back to the last Toronto Star box I saw at Queen and Spadina.

I was back at my place just after 9, made myself a quick breakfast sandwich and relaxed with the paper on my balcony. I recalled the last time I was out there and the sunburn and subsequent sexy snakeskin peel I got so I loaded up on the SPF 55 and soaked in the heat. So nice!

I spent the rest of the day doing a few things indoors, like brewing some black currant iced tea in my Crazy Daisy pitcher:

It's perfectly refreshing but needs to be sweetened...so after coming back from a grocery run, ahem, glistening with perspiration, I decided I needed a drink. So my brilliant brainstorm? A black currant caipirinha while I prepared the mango salsa to go with the grilled chicken for dinner tonight!

Then I'm off to see the geek in the pink, Jason Mraz, at the Molson Ampitheatre! I'm really looking forward to the concert and have been listening to his tunes most of the day.

KC Roberts & the Live Revolution

I love that Matt Fullbrook, who plays bass, wears the original Blue Jays cap - even though I'm not a baseball fan.

N and I checked out the Beaches Jazz Festival at Woodbine Park this afternoon and this is where I heard the rockin' cool sounds of KC Roberts and his band, the Live Revolution. His funky beats and singing style reminded me a bit of Jamiroquai and the way he threw in rapping rhymes brought to mind Jason Mraz.

My favourite songs of the 75 minute set were Play My Life, which you can give a listen to here, City By The Lake which he introduced as his rap love song to Toronto, and Let's Get Outta Here - all of which I suspect will be on his upcoming release, Parkdale Funk.

They're performing again Thursday through Saturday in front of the LCBO as part of the Streetfest so if you're in town and are looking for some beats to shake your ass to, check them out.

For more tunes head on over to the MySpace page.

I want this...

I saw this headline about the "funnest" ipod ever and of course I had to read the article and when I checked out the apple website, my heart skipped a bit because how happy and pretty are these gorgeous colours!?

I've got my eye on the indigo one...but I also like the pink, green and orange ones too...one for every mood...? :)

Summer Sounds

The boxed set of The Bossa Nova Years by Stan Getz has been on my wishlist for a few years now but it's a little dear for me to pay so how happy was I when I stopped by HMV during my lunch hour today at First Canadian and found a copy of Verve's Jazz 'Round Midnight series featuring Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto and Joao Gilberto for the value price of $12.99?? It has a good sample of the songs I'm familiar with, like The Girl from Ipanema, Corcovado and It Might As Well Be Spring. Listening to the tracks on this disc immediately bring to mind refreshingly cool caipirinhas sipped out on the patio under a smiling sun. Mmmm...

Feist counting on Sesame Street

via

Laila Biali

The TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival is on right now and there are free noon-hour concerts at Nathan Phillips Square which I've partaken in this week.

I had the pleasure today of being entertained by the Laila Biali Trio. She was commisioned by the CBC to produce her latest disc, From Sea to Sky, which is a selection of 10 songs by Canadian songwriters that she arranged and covered, plus her own original composition, Radiance. Her version of Feist's Secret Heart and Sarah MacLachlan's Ice Cream are fantastic.

I'd never heard of her before but she's got quite the bio per her MySpace page, including being named “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year” at the Canadian National Jazz Awards in 2005. She's toured with Grammy Award winning artists including Chris Botti, Paula Cole, and Suzanne Vega, and is also frequently invited to teach at Stanford University’s summer jazz workshop.

'Officially Yours'

Craig David's latest disc, Trust Me, has been out for awhile and I've only just realized after getting an email from his site about the third single, Officially Yours, dropping today. I've been a fan of his smooth vocals since his debut in 2001 with Born To Do It. I was in Europe that summer and he was literally EVERYWHERE! For whatever reason - maybe because his lyrics err on the side of sweet and sappy as opposed to hard and raunchy which is rather typical of the RnB on the radio here? - his subsequent discs haven't met with the same success as his debut did in North America, which is disappointing because he's an act I would definitely see live.

Maybe I'll be able to catch him when I'm across the pond next spring if he happens to be touring?? Here's to hoping....In the meantime, check out the the video for Officially Yours below:



And here he is in Rise and Fall with Sting:

Lovin' The Feeling

I'd never heard of The Feeling until I watched them perform live on the broadcast of the Concert For Diana on July 1st. If this isn't catchy, happy pop music that's sure to lift anyone's spirits, I don't know what is.

Here's the (really cheesy) video for Love It When You Call, one of my favourites. :)

I'm smitten

Michael Buble was on Cityline this morning with Marilyn Denis and I am now smitten.

I love his latest single, Everything - the melody is happy and the lyrics are so sweet and romantic - and when I saw the commercials last week advertising his appearance on the show, I set the timer on the VCR to tape it, and am I glad I did!

He's so genuine and charming and funny (which I didn't know) and babyface cute (which I did know, but babyface cute has never been my type), and I wish I could embed a link to the show here so that you could see for yourself - instead I've included a link to his video below!

When talking about women dragging their husbands to the show, Marilyn brings up the fact that he often jokes during his show about it being the lead up to sex, to wit:

I say, all the time, that my responsibility is simply to come on stage, we make the best music we can make, I put a little air in the tire, and that's it. And by putting a little air in the tire, I hope that the gentlemen get to go home and ride the bikes all night long.

(I'm reading this now and, taken out of context it sounds kind of ick and arrogant, but he's soo not.)

According to his website, he's appearing on CBC's The Hour with George Stromboulopoulos tonight at 11pm. Here's the link to his appearance.

Misery and Ecstasy...sort of

I overdid it Friday night with drinks after dinner and woke up Saturday morning completely hung over and utterly miserable. It started off innocently enough with dinner at the Denver Chop House. I was craving red meat so we sat down for dinner where I had a pomegranate martini and then a glass of red wine. Then we went to Lime for margaritas and that's where it got ugly.

I pride myself on not being a cheap drunk. I'm usually good for about 5 or 6 martinis before I get smashed, which is not bad for a girl. Anyway. N ordered a Mighty Margarita for me - 21 oz of alcoholic goodness. And if I'd stopped at that, I probably would have been fine. But no. I foolishly followed that up with a couple Lemon Drops (so tasty) and a shot of Black Cherry something-or-other. Soon after getting home, I bowed before the porcelain goddess.

I'm also rather particular about showering before bed having never gotten into the habit of morning showers, and I must admit, the thought had crossed my drunken mind. In the end, I don't even remember if I bothered to brush my teeth. I just drank some water, changed into my pjs and fell into bed. I woke up the next morning to find the bedside lamp still on and thirsty as hell.

N had give me a bottle of Gatorade to drink the night before which I had ignored but decided to drink that morning. I was fine for the first hour and a half - I brushed my teeth, did some reading and wrote in my journal - but the goddess called again so before her I prayed. I don't think I can ever drink the tropical flavour again without feeling sick to my stomach.

N woke up an hour later and I didn't let on that I had been sick again. I suffered silently and was rather subdued when we went out for lunch. I was still feeling rather queasy at the restaurant so I didn't finish my chicken sandwich. We went back to his place afterwards where I napped for a couple hours and woke up feeling noticably more chipper.

We spent the lovely afternoon walking along the Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall in Boulder, which was so pretty with the spring flowers in full bloom.

We stopped at a Super Target on the way back to Denver since I had never been to a Target and wanted to see what all the hype was about. I was impressed by the housewares but underwhelmed by the fashion. Perhaps the selection would have been better if we had gone to a regular Target. Oh well.

We had a quick dinner at Steubens and then headed to Dazzle where we had reservations to see Joel Harrison perform. I wasn't familiar with his music but a friend had recommended him and I like to check out jazz venues whenever I'm travelling in lieu of going to a club. We sat about 15 feet from the stage near the front and to the side where I had the perfect view of the very cute drummer. He was just my type with dark hair and eyes, and I remember thinking that all he needed was a pair of glasses and he'd be perfect. And whaddayknow, after the performance, he slipped on a pair of glasses and my heart smiled. Silly, I know, but eye candy is always appreciated!

Aside: It's obviously prom season in Denver because I saw teenagers decked out in their formal wear Friday and Saturday night out for dinner at various restaurants. It's different from my (Canadian) prom experience since our prom tickets included dinner along with the dance. N's friend D who grew up in Illinois said that his prom didn't include dinner either, so I guess it's an American thing.

Spotty Leopards

One thing I learned: Leopards don't change their spots - no matter that you wish they did.

One thing I'm grateful for: my friend WL, who reminded me that leopards don't change their spots.

One thing that made me laugh: OK, this one didn't make me laugh, but it did make me smile and bop along - Today's Traffic Flow Mix Show with DJ Starting from Scratch. I tuned in on my way home and it was a sample of some good 'ol 90s RnB (for the most part) bookended by the (New Edition alum) Bell Biv Devoe-produced Another Bad Creation at the start and New Edition at the end. The mix was as follows:

Aisha - Another Bad Creation

Motownphilly - Boyz II Men

Rub You The Right Way - Johnny Gill

Candy - Cameo

It Takes Two - James Brown/Lynn Collins

Rock With You - Michael Jackson

Cool It Now - New Edition

The Traffic Flow Mix sees me through

After my miserably rainy drive in this morning, I was dreading the rainy drive home...but it turned out to be not so bad after all. And it was all thanks to the Traffic Flow Mix with DJ Starting From Scratch on Flow 93.5:

I was greeted by some great tunes from the Bad Boy era of Biggie Smalls and Total, which flowed into Donnell Jones' Knocks Me Off My Feet...NeYo's Sexy Love...TLC's Baby Baby Baby...SWV and Love Will Be Right Here...which, interestingly enough segued perfectly into Maroon 5's This Love, thanks to the rockin' bass in the background....the perfect drive home mix that had me bopping my head and singing along despite the gloomy skies and gridlock! : )

Mimi is da Bomb

Photo courtesy of mariahdaily.com

Just got back from seeing Mariah Carey in concert at the ACC and she was amazing!

I'm not much of a concert-goer and hadn't planned on attending since I'm not a huge Mimi fan, but my friend had an extra ticket in the 100s and offered it to me, so I thought, why not?

I didn't realize how many of her songs I really enjoyed, and she covered the range of her discography, including Vision of Love, Hero, Make it Happen, Always Be My Baby, Heartbreaker, Fantasy, Dreamlover. Of course, the hits off her latest Emancipation of Mimi were performed. The encore was We Belong Together...one miserly song in the encore. :(

Trey Lorenz was on hand for background vocals so they performed I'll Be There. I was a bit annoyed by the hardsell since he's got an album coming out in September, so they kept announcing that.

That's all for now as it's a school night. More on Mariah at a later date.

Oh, Canada!

On this day, 139 years ago, the British North America Act created the dominion of Canada, uniting the British colonies of Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario & Quebec), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Reading my paper this morning, there were the usual articles about things to do in and around the city, and festivities that will be taking place across the country and elsewhere around the world where ex-pats have settled: I was amused by this story about the first-ever festival to celebrate Canada Day in London. Imagine playing in a ball hockey tourney in the middle of Trafalgar Square! There was the usual mention of the Maple Leaf Pub, where Canadian ex-pats gather annually for a big Canada Day celebration. There was a heartwarming story published in the Toronto Star a few years back about a father who flew to London to surprise his son at the Maple Leaf.

I never did make it out to the Maple Leaf although I must have been through Covent Garden at least twice during my trip to London in April. Since my cousin has recently moved there, a trip back will definitely be in my future. Maybe I can time it so I'm there to take in the festivities first-hand.

Aside from all the good news stories, there are the usual reflective "what does it mean to be Canadian?" stories. Inspired by the Danish government's initiative to establish a canon of Danish arts and culture, the Toronto Star undertook a project to come up with a "definitive" guide to the works Canadians need to know in order to understand their cultural history. They called the guide, Essentially Canadian and in the week leading up to Canada day, published the long lists for their 9 categories: Children's Entertainment, Movies, Visual Arts, Books, Design, Music, Architecture, Theatre and Television.

The Top Ten lists, as determined by their 36 panellists, was published today, and based on the lists that would probably be most relevant to me, I must say that there’s much Canadian Culture that I have not been exposed to. On the Essential Music list, I know about ½ the names on the list, but have only ever heard 3 of the songs: Joni Mitchell’s 2 entries and The Guess Who’s American Woman.

On the Essential Architecture list, I must agree with the iconic Chateau Frontenac and the TD Centre as they are so clearly identified with their respective city’s skylines.

The only play on the Essential Theatre list I had seen was Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Goodnight, Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, which was staged by CanStage about 5 years ago—the cool thing about that production was seeing MacDonald, who is also an actor, portray the title roles she had penned.

I thought I might have done better on the Essential Books list since I like to think I do a pretty good job of supporting Canadian authors and reading their works, but sadly, I’ve only read Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of A Lion. I’m not so much a fan of what I call “Old School Can-Lit” by authors like Alice Munro, Gabrielle Roy, Robertson Davies and Margaret Laurence (I had to read The Stone Angel in school and couldn’t relate at all to the experiences of small town life; Fifth Business was OK, but still not a fave.)

The entry of the CN Logo in the Essential Design list elicited a smile because it reminded me of the co-op work term I spent at CN Rail. One of my “special projects” was ensuring the integrity of the logo on the various documents and reports that our group published.

The one pessimistic article in today’s news kicked off the paper’s series of essays that will run from July to November called Canada in 2020. Andrew Cohen’s A Virtual Country suggests that thanks to rising immigration levels, Canada would be a nation in name only. Given that the word nation refers to two quite distinct ideas, he can be both right and wrong in his assertion.

On the one hand, there’s the definition of a nation as “a relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country”, and then there’s the definition of nation as “a people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently language; a nationality.” By the former definition, he may very well be right. But if the later, than I would argue that Canada, as a country of immigrants, never had a common nationality to begin with: the French and the English who first settled in Canada, displacing the Native American’s might have both been European, but they both have distinct cultures—a point that is a bone of contention to this day amongst the Quebecois and the “Rest of Canada.”

Yes, Canada as a country is inclusive and we promote multiculturalism, perhaps at the expense of a national identity. But who says that my Canada has to be the same as your Canada? We all have different views on what being a Canadian means, and I’m not about to impose mine onto you. We ain’t them Americans, and that’s how we like it here.

Anyway, I never really meant for this to turn into a rant…but that’s what happened so I’m going to stop. I’ve a long cool drink and a BBQ to look forward to, so Happy Canada Day to you and yours.

The art of grace

This article about Chinese brush painting and Toronto-based artist William Ho brought back childhood memories of taking the 505 streetcar down Dundas to my painting and calligraphy lessons at Ming Ming Kids Club on Spadina.

I remember the sense of independence and freedom I felt that my mother allowed me and my siblings to travel the distance alone by streetcar and then walk from Dundas to almost Queen along Spadina when we were so young…I must have been about 10 or 11. Nowadays, I don’t think any parent would allow their child to travel too far from their sight…the city was a safer, kinder place back then.

When I was a kid, China Book Store on Gerrard Street was one of my favourite places in the world. I loved to browse the cute stationary on display there. I still have the Little Twin Star lead pencil set that my parents bought for me….and the Leslie Cheung music tape that my grandfather gave me because my dad wouldn’t allow us to listen to pop music…

One of the aisles at the China Book Store stocked Chinese brushes, beautiful rolls of rice paper, watercolour paint sets and the cakes of black paint for calligraphy. I loved to visit this aisle to pick out the supplies for my lessons. My one specialty was painting bamboo stalks. It was the easiest thing to paint and was just about the ONLY thing I could paint well.

I’m rather inspired to look into one of Mr. Ho’s painting seminars at the ROM. I have no delusions of suddenly becoming an artiste…I’m far too critical for that…but it would certainly be nice to relive the sensation of holding a Chinese paint brush and dabbling in watercolours again…if nothing else, I’d just like to unroll that beautiful rice paper and feel its thick texture between my fingers…

What I'll miss about my 20s...

One thing I’ll miss about my 20s, aside from the fact that I will no longer be a twenty-something, is all the theatre and cultural discounts I will no longer be eligible for. I was reminded of this when I was reading about the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, which is the new home of the Canadian Opera Company. There was mention of a program for patrons under 30 that made available 120 seats for $30 each. When the new season opens in the fall, it will be too late for me to take advantage of this program. I'll have to pay regular price like everyone else.

I’m not a big symphony fan and never have been, even though I was a member of the "symphonic band" at school—memories of sitting through TSO rehearsals at Roy Thompson Hall on high school field trips and trying really hard not to fall asleep come to mind—but because of tsoundcheck, which makes available $12 tickets to young people aged 15-29, I went to quite a few performances in the last couple years—without falling asleep, even. I guess taking away the “must-do” element of school helped alleviate the boredom and want-to-fall-asleep factor. They also occasionally offered special ticket prices to performances by the National Ballet of Canada and productions by the Canadian Stage Company, which I also took advantage of.

As a theatre fan, what I will really miss are the discount programs at Stratford Festival and the Shaw: Stratford’s Play On lets anyone aged 18 – 29 buy tickets to selected performances for only $20—BUT! It seems after visiting their website, that Stratford has a new program called Play Encore, for people aged 30-35, which affords savings of up to 50% on designated performances all season long. Yay!

Shaw Festival also has a similar Pay $30 if you’re under 30 program for regularly-priced performances at all three theatres. For whatever reason, I was always a Stratford Festival chick as opposed to a Shaw Fest chick, despite the latter's close proximity to the Niagara wine region. (Last year was actually the first year I had gone to the Shaw and the $30 tickets certainly made it more appealing.) Too bad there isn’t an extension for those 30+. Boo.

The stereotypical profile of a patron of the arts as one who is well-to-do, older, and white is not sustainable. It's to the benefit of cultural institutions to reach out and target young people. If you hook 'em while they're young, there's a greater chance that these young people will remain patrons and supporters of the arts.

These discount programs make culture more accessible and affordable. A classical concert isn't necessarily something that would appeal to the regular twenty-something at regular prices starting at about $30. But at $12, less than it costs to go to a movie, it might be considered a viable option when considering what to do on a week night after work. It certainly was for me.