The More You Know

It's interesting to see things you are familiar with in a slightly new light. I've been practicing yoga at the West End YMCA for years now. Most other participants have come and on, even the instructors. On a bright sunny afternoon, one of the instructors organized a vegetarian pot-luck on the rooftop garden at the Y so we can get to know some of our fellow yogis. The 18 or so people who showed up made for a fun encounter. Though upon further thought it's probably only about 10% of all people who practice there which is disappointing.

Everyone brought a dish, though I pleaded cooking ignorance and brought 2 types of vegetarian fresh rolls from White Lotus, a Vietnamese vegan restaurant just up the street at College and Lansdowne. Although I already knew some by name, it was nice to put a name to other recognizable faces and learn a bit of their personal history. So things I learnt at the pot-luck:

• No one is a native Torontonian, let alone grew up in the local neighbourhood. The closest is from Brampton. Everyone came from other parts of Canada and all over the world (Brazil, Japan, Ukraine, etc.)
• Though some live in the neighbourhood, others live farther away in High Park, The Junction, and even across town in Leslieville.
• No one is the stereotypical New-Age yoga hippie, though the Y isn't a hard-core yoga studio like Downward Dog. We have PhD students, social workers, theatre folks, and business people. Some are lucky enough to work in a downtown location.
• The best vegetarian dishes are the substantial ones like Indian tofu curry and Mexican chilli. Freshly baked pretzels with a spicy honey mustard dip are also delicious.
• Fruit salads are tasty but easy to make. I should try my hands at an Asian fruit salad some time. Although depending on the tropical fruit, that might make for an expensive dish.
• Vegan coconut mango ice cream is yummy but it's not ice cream. The coconut milk does give it that rich mouth-feel but without emulsifiers it's just a runny yogurt.
• Fresh Ontario peaches baked with cream and sugar, and dusted with icing sugar is heavenly. Nothing like caramelized sugar and fruit to give you that great smoky sweetness.

Every year, a pow-wow is held at Dufferin Park in late September, drawing Native folks from all over the area but also from the States and other Provinces as well. I always enjoy watching the dances and eating the barbecued food, though I'm usually slightly disappointed that there are no truly Aboriginal dishes to try. But this is the first year that I recall that the emcee explained what each of the dances were.

• The cooks are getting much better at barbecue. The hamburgers were delicious unlike the dried buffalo burger I had a few years back.
• I didn't know scones were fried. In any case, they went well with the chilli.
• Grass dance is the dance from which all other pow-wow dances originate. The dancers wear grass costumes, porcupine quills, and other animal parts to inherit their protective properties. They usually open a pow-wow by blessing the ground, spinning and stomping the grass.
• The other sacred dance is the Women's Traditional. The elder women move stately around the dance circle, sometimes raising up a feather or fan. Everyone stands to pay respect, since in some tribes it is the female elders who choose the clan chief.
• In contrast, the Men's Traditional is more frenetic. Costumed warriors wearing outfits stuffed with feathers, carrying wooden rifles or other weapons scuttle low through the grass to avoid gun-fight and then leaping up, trying to outdo each other in energetic movements.
• Only Fancy Dancers wear even more outrageous costumes and have more energetic moves. This dance came from the Buffalo Bill traveling show era, when Native performers were encouraged to add a little more razzle-dazzle to their act.
• The Shawl Dancers spin around, spreading their colourful shawls for all to see. In the old days, it was the matronly women who wore them to gather berries, and spread them out so the children can sit on them. Now, it is young attractive women who do the dance.
• Women also do the Jingle dance, wearing dresses sewn with hundreds of horn-shaped bells. This dance came from the Lake of the Woods area in North-East Ontario. Maggie White was a sick young girl when her father made for her the first jingle dress. Her illness was cured after the dance. Now, it is requested for any healing needs.
• Chicken Dancers are fun to watch with their feather costumes and head-dresses. They try to resemble the cocky roosters in their head and body movements.
• There are of course inter-tribal dances when everyone is invited to dance. These often turn into a Spot dance where a judge will give a dancer at the end of the dance some money, either because they landed on some physical spot in the circle, or perhaps for the quality of their dance or their smile. Of course, you don't need to wait for a Spot dance to add some money to the pot. During an individual dance, if you get a Fancy from their performance, you can always put some money on the ground in front of them as they move around the dance circle.

Red Rover, When Is it Over?

Saturday evening I headed down to the Fleck Theatre down at Harbourfront to see a contemporary dance recital called Red Brick. It's a program of dance pieces interspersed with musical performances created by Marie-Josée Chartier. The night is a tribute to the 10th year anniversity of the death of her composer husband, Michael J. Baker. All musical selections was composed by Baker and played by Array Ensemble.

I found this music very alienating. It's what people think of when they disparagingly talk about "modern music". It's fragmentary, with numerous repetitive passages, and no clear chord progressions. In many cases, for example in the piece "The Place of the Twins" for clarinet and violin, it has the drone-like quality of a gamelan ensemble: a continuous repetition of sound with a very minor progression of changes. However, it is nowhere near as hypnotic. The only interesting piece was "Train" which contained strong percussive rhythm. Unsurprisingly this got the loudest applause from the audience, who seemed glad to hear something recognizably musical.

The dance pieces were also "modern". This is the first time I've seen contemporary dance where I feel more like Homer than Frasier. The strongest piece was the first piece called "C.V." by Kudelka. Dancers in trios, duos, and single execute a series of friezes; that is, a 2-5 second burst of dance and lifts followed by a brief pause where they hold a tableau of gestures. And repeat for the entire piece. As the gestures included contorted faces and limbs, it prompted 3 young boys in the 3rd row just in front of me to bury their head in their hands, trying to stifle their laughter. The other pieces: Encoded Revision, Red Brick, and One Day were less strong. You had to look carefully to see the underlying discipline and skill; otherwise you'd simply conclude that these are people who just flail around and call it dance.

I think the evening was a disappointment for most people, including me. The music was just too strange for most people, and there's too much of it. I'm sure the dance students filling the side rows would have preferred more dancing and less "weird" music, as well as more accessible dance movements. When dance students waggle their hips in imitation of the pieces and then burst out laughing, your choreography might be a little bit too avant-garde.

For a different take on the show, see this Globe and Mail review.

Cobra Kai

No Shame was sponsoring an evening of indie acts at the Garrison on Friday. I seem to be going there a fair amount given that I'm not thrilled about their sound system. But one of my favourite local band, Hooded Fang, was making an appearance.

This was one of those late shows where the first act doesn't come on until 10 pm and the last act takes to the stage at 1 am. I gave Slowhand Motem a listen online. Their sampled techno style didn't really appeal to me so I stayed home until about 10:20 pm. Upon arriving around just before Hooded Fang played the set, I noticed that it was a sparser crowd than other shows: maybe about 50-60 people. With a cover of $3, I thought there would be more people.

Hooded Fang gave a typical fun set although some of them missed some cues here and there. Overall, it was a relaxed performance from the 7 members. I'm happy to learn that they have finished recording their debut LP and will be having a CD release in a few weeks.

Steve McKay was the main act at 12 am. He is the drummer for Bruce Peninsula and has put out a solo effort. His back-up band is also composed of 7 members including the drummer from Hooded Fang. They are friends from other musical acts including Allie Hughes and members of Bruce Peninsula. Interestingly, though the crowd still numbered the same, I'd say about half are different people from the previous set. His light indie pop didn't really stick with me. The lyrics sounded interesting but I couldn't really decipher most of it. I gave a pass on his debut CD, though the various arts and crafts items, as well as some baked goods at the merchandise table did tempt me. I headed home at 12:30 because I had an early day tomorrow.

Saturday morning at 8:15 am I headed down to the Varsity to see a TIFF movie. I wanted to see some more cerebral fares including Nostalgia For the Light and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives but they were sold out. I decided to try and get rush tickets for Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen starring Donnie Yen. I guess martial arts film don't appeal to the typical TIFF crowd because I was able to get a ticket right away and the theatre was only 60% full - although Varsity 8 is a rather large theatre.

But instead of some bone-crunching action, it turned out to be a melodrama. A period set in Shanghai in the 1920s, it had beautiful sets, costumes, and classic cars. The sky-line of old-time Shanghai was a shoddy piece of CGI though. Although the actors were competent, it's nothing more than a glorified soap opera. Chen Zhen (Donnie Yen), a role made famous by Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury and reprised by Yen in the 1995 TV series Fist of Fury, returns to Shanghai after working at the front-lines in WWI France with other Chinese labourers. He befriends a mobster and joins in with the Chinese resistance against both the increasingly powerless British and the evil Japanese. The nationalistic rhetoric (e.g., "Jap dogs", "Chinese is not the sick man of Asia", "We Chinese must unite", and so on) got tiresome fast.

Sadly, the fighting was few and far between and suffered from the recent Hollywood style of erratic, close-up action shots usually meant to disguise the poor martial prowess of the actors. I can't believe Donnie Yen and producer Gordon Chan would resort to it in a Hong Kong action film. I can only think of 3 reasons. One, it was stunt heavy and Donnie Yen is not Jackie Chan. Two, his main opponents were not trained in stunt fighting. Third, he had a hard time emulating Bruce Lee's fighting style. Though Yen did throw in a couple of Lee-inspired "Hee-ya" in the final Dojo scene, I thought the jumpy camera shots during his awkward nun-chuk scene illustrated rather clearly why this sleight-of-hand was needed. He needs to stick to his usual brutal, MMA-style technique.

Apparently, this film has been optioned for a North American release in 2011; it will open in Asia in September of this year. I'd be surprised if it doesn't go straight to DVD here.

Play - Do

The Bell House, Brooklyn (c) TheMst.com

I sometimes complain about the lateness of some music acts. Some of us have to get up early the next day. So a pair of acts at Wrongbar scheduled for Saturday from 6-10pm sounded just up my alley. Having bought my ticket at Soundscapes (original concert location: The Mod Club), I spent a lazy afternoon doing acro yoga at the park. A leisurely dinner until 8 or so was the plan until I found out from a Facebook post that the opening act was at 7 pm. They're serious about that early start!

I saw Allie Hughes back in March. Back then, I thought she had a powerful voice but not much else going on. I wanted to see if things have changed. A sparse crowd of about 20 was scattered around the room when I arrived at 7:20 pm. I caught the last 3 songs in her set. Her band was much more polished and greatly benefited from the good sound system and smaller venue. She still likes to harness that big voice to some quirky tunes but she's growing into her style. But her last number, a more mainstream duet called "Not The Stars" (1st track here), was an excellent crowd-pleaser. I wonder if she should grow her concert fan-base with these conventional songs and let them discover her more avant-garde stuff when they buy the CD.

The ♩ø (as in do-re-mi) is a Finnish-French duo who had success with their debut album, A Mouthful, when it was released in France in 2008. Not sure how they were received in Toronto last year but only about 50 or so people came to see them tonight. Well, they missed a fun show and gave me a chance to stand right up at the stage and discover this great act.

The Bell House, Brooklyn (c) TheMst.com

Dan Levy is a multi-instrumentalist who stayed mainly with his electric bass though he will occasionally play the electric organ or reach into his grab-bag of instruments (flute, percussion, chimes). A twin to Johnny Depp, he spent the night either strutting or hopping around on stage, laying down some groovy bass. Early on though, he did give an appreciate Gallic stare at some girls next to me. And well he should. One cute girl, in a chin-length bowl cut, was bobbing along in a 60s-style dress - snug to the body with a loose knee-length skirt. The other girl was Robyn sexy with a blond bob and a red top.

The Bell House, Brooklyn (c) TheMst.com

Olivia Merilahti out-shoned them though in her white suede boots and a red-yellow designer dress. A tiny tricorne perched fetchingly on one side of her red-maned head for half the night. They say Finland has some of the most beautiful women in the world; she is rather spectacular but in an otherworldly super-model way (all high cheek-bones and strong jawline) instead of your everyday attractive woman (round faces and soft cheeks). Her breathy alto voice is more full-bodied live than on the album and she also played guitar on some songs. An interesting guitarist and able drummer rounded out the band.

Their dance pop style sounds even better live. With the studio instrumentation stripped away, they acquire a rawer, more rock sound while still retaining those catchy beats and rhythms. Their cover of Janelle Monae's Tightrope is a blues-rock number with a massive crescendo. Their newer tracks are also fun to listen to. In fact, their last number - and one of their best - is a new song called "Dust It Off". A folk-like ballad that became a sonic explosion as Olivia layered on looping samples of her singing and the two guitar players abandoned their instrument to simply play with their effects pedals.

It was on the strength of that number, and the rest of the set, that got them an encore. Though most of the audience was packed right up against the small stage, it wasn't a big crowd. So they and the management thought the show was over when they stepped off. The house music had already come on. But the persistent clapping of the audience convinced the technicians to run backstage to grab them for another song. They seemed genuinely surprised and pleased, and ended the night with "Travel Light" - a song whose announcement elicited a delightful shriek from one of their fans.

The Do is the first act since Basia Bulat where I became a fan right after the concert. Having bought their debut CD afterward, I hope they release their second album soon and come back to Toronto again.

EDIT: Photos of the Wrongbar concert can be found at Chromewaves.

MORE EDIT: 2 acoustic songs (The Bridge is Broken, and new song Dust It Off) filmed in Toronto by Mitch Fillion.

Rap Vs Indie

Yonge-Dundas Square hosts a number of free music concerts profiling Canadian artists. I went down to one of their Urban Groove concert to check out Masia One, a Singaporean-Canadian female rapper. It was a gusty evening that promised rain. Opening for Masia was a Jamaican MC, spinning some Caribbean tracks. His efforts to get the Toronto crowd to get up and dance was a failure. Then Masia One came on with an MC, 2 back-up singers and 4 dancers.

For her first set, she decided to do some of her older tracks such as Return of the B-girl, New Love, and Halfway Through The City. I really like the smooth, jazzy beats of these songs. But she kept stopping the songs halfway through ostensibly because these are old songs and the audience didn't seem to recognize them. Not to disrespect Masia but I think most of the people have never heard of her and were just hanging around the square. When one of her backup singer got profiled in a solo song, the rain came pouring down and that was that.

I enjoy her even flow but I prefer a little more punch, syncopation, and internal rhyme to my rap. So as far as female Canadian rappers go, I will have to give a slight edge to the hard stylings of Eternia.

I didn't think Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was my kind of movie because of, um, Michael Cera but I gave it a shot because of all positive reviews. I like the comic-book and video game aesthetic of the movie, there were also some funny retorts and exchanges. Overall though, I thought it was a dud. First reason, well, Michael Cera ... who plays Scott Pilgrim Michael Cera the same mumbling introvert in every movie. Second reason is Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is an enigma. There might be more to her in the graphic novels but here she's just a cute girl with funky hair. In real life, this is more than enough for a guy to find her interesting enough to pursue. But for a movie, it's hard to the rest of us to care. Third, Scott is (metaphorically) fighting her past by (literally) fighting her exes in combat. Sounds like a fun conceit. After all, we all carry baggage from our past.But 4 of her exes are just short term middle-school dates, the 5th is a bi-curious make-out, the 6th are generic twins (titillating!), leaving only the last ex, a record executive named Gideon Graves, to have been in a serious relationship with her. As far as relationship scars go, that's not much to get anxious about, let alone 2 hours of it. Finally, there's a weird prudishness to the movie, culminating in Scott accusing her: "Isn't there anybody at this party you haven't slept with?" A nasty barb that's probably a deal breaker in the real world. But it's particularly odd with regards to Ramona. After they met, she changed her mind about sleeping with him on the first date. In fact, he doesn't have sex with her at all during their courtship for the entire movie. And as far as her exes go, the only ones she might have slept with are the Japanese twins and her current ex. By the sexual mores of the last 50 years, she's practically a virgin. Maybe he'd be happier with one of those Christian girls who wear purity rings.

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