The Feminine Mystique

Friday night, I went to The Harbourfront Centre to see Re-Quickening, a dance recital by native company Kaha:wi Dance Theatre. In invoking quickening, or the moment a woman feels her fetus move, the piece explored indigenous women's experience. But "re-quickening" itself is a ritual, the Onkwehon:we Condolence ceremony, which is meant to deal with loss and grief by "purging the eyes, ears, mouth so you can once again see, hear, and speak happy sights, sounds, and words."

As such, it had moments of pain including the opening scenes where the 3 dancers wore hoop dresses  and other times when they wrestled with chairs, sometimes worn over their necks like stocks, which evoked colonial oppression. As for myself, I found the scenes where indigenous culture was on display to be the most moving and exciting. There was one particular sequence where each woman mimicked a mythical being culminating in a fearsome haka display that thrilled me. Throughout the show, there was plenty of water and red-ness represent the pain but also the power (birth/life) of the female experience.

Praise The Sun

I was in the Coxwell and Danforth area on Thursday. Unlike the hipper areas closer to the west side, this area still has some rough edges, although I see that there are trendier spots in the neighbourhood. I decided to eat dinner in a non-descript Mexican place called El Sol.

Its bland exterior hid, some might say a hidden beauty, certainly a keen exuberance. The interior was chock-a-block full of decorations: carved Fabergé-like eggs, religious artefacts (or at least tchotchkes), ancestral shrine, and hundreds of wooden suns. I opted for some tacos sonorenses ($14.95). The plate came out with soft beans, crunchy tacos, fragrant rice, and two soft tacos stuffed with chorizo and potatoes. It was home-cooked flavour, stick-to-your-ribs tastiness. Unlike other places, the chorizo wasn't overly salty. El Sol won't be mistaken for a place like Playa Cabana, but I liked its cheeriness.

Hie Pie

Being off the main strip, Yauca's Lounge on Dovercourt never had much traction with the Bloorcourt Village neighbourhood. New spot Village Pizza is aiming to be different. They're off to a good start, earning a spot in Now's Best Pizza issue with their "authentic" Hawaiian pizza offering, complete with spam.

On Sunday, I dropped by for a slice ($5) and a pop ($2.50). With prices like that, it certainly won't be my go-to place for a quick bite. Two-fifty for a can of Coke? Sheesh. The slice of margherita was pretty good, certainly better than anything offered by the Pizza Pizza at the corner. On the other hand, it was pricier for a smaller slice. Yet despite being just out of the oven, it lacked that wonderful baked dough taste and flavour from places like Pizzeria Libretto. Certainly with a standard pizza oven, you can't really expect more. But on price, typically around $20+ for an entire pie, they are competing against these better restaurants. So they'd have to up their game. Will they last? They do have that trendy hipster vibe. But it is a hidden spot that likely won't get much foot traffic or business from the older working class residents.

We Scream

Later on Saturday, I trekked over to Smiling Buddha for some live, mostly electronic, music. Man Made Hill, in a silver mask make-up and wearing luca libre-esque costume, was committed to getting the crowd to dance to numbers like Clown Dick and Hot for Sloth. He mostly succeeded too, even when he sang about the freedom to Double Dippin' (that's not a metaphor).

Scott Hardware was more conventional, sticking to 4-on-the-floor dance beats. Perhaps because of their set, the crowd was expecting more upbeat from headliner Ice Cream. But despite their shiny lamé dresses, the duo's music from their debut LP was more repetitive and trance-y. It wasn't until about half way through their set that the skittery bass, pulsing synth chords, and harmonized chant-y lyrics finally got the audience to groove.