Musique Plus

(c) Geoff Thomlinson

It was a Saturday night of Montreal indie music at Lee's Palace as all 3 acts made the trip from La Belle Province. Additionally, all three like to combine rock music with other genres.

First up was Valleys. A 3 member band comprising of 2 male guitarists, one of whom sometimes does double duty on a floor tom, and a female synthesizer player. The lead guitarist and the pianist often sing together in soft breathy tones. The other guitarist spent most of his time staring at his array of effects pedals, which is no doubt why they classify their own music in the shoe-gaze genre. It was dreamy, ambient music with occasional sonic bursts from the guitar or drum.

Next was Suuns. This all-male band can best be described as dance music/electronica meets hard rock. The pianist typically lays down looping samples and fat beats (all the while twitching like mad) backed by the drummer. Eventually the other 2 guitarists come in with cacophonous chords, riffs, and pedal effects. The energy level was very high, and they were the highlight of the night for me.

The main act was Besnard Lakes. I'm a bit surprised at the ages of the group's husband-and-wife leads. It's a bit strange to see people in their 40s/50s still tour the smaller clubs. But if you still have passion for the music I suppose you keep at it. Their music was in the same vein as the previous two bands, mainly rock with lots of layered effects. They did bring their own light show. But for some reason, I wasn't as into them. After a couple of songs, I realize why. If you strip away the guitar effects and other accoutrements, the bass, drums, and arrangements have a very middle-of-the-road "classic" rock sound. Besnard Lakes are at their best when the male lead, Jace Lasek, plays the piano and uses his falsetto voice. This really elevated their atmospheric music to something unusual and interesting.

Eat, Pray, Love

Batifole was on my radar about a year ago. I learned about the french bean stew called cassoulet after buying a small cassoulet pot as a Christmas present. This was one of the few French restaurants in Toronto that has this dish on the menu. But various attempts to schedule a dinner here fell through and I had forgotten about it. This past Friday, since I was attending an AIDS/HIV benefit in the East End, an area I rarely venture to, I decided it was about time I checked out Batifole.

As the snow came down,  I settled into this cozy bistro on the edge of Chinatown East. There it was on the menu, Le Cassoulet Royal: "Rustic baked white beans with duck confit, sausages & crispy pork belly." As I sat there waiting for my stew, sipping my scotch, watching the slender short-bobbed waitress in a slim black dress sashaying back and forth, and listening to French ballads piping in through the speakers, I wondered why I didn't move to Paris in my 20s.

The dish seemed to take a bit longer to come out than I thought, but the bartender refilled my scotch for free so I wasn't complaining. Finally, the food arrived. The beans were delicious, soft but not mushy. I enjoyed the slices of sausages as well as the chicken, though it wasn't listed in the ingredients. The duck was decent but it seemed a bit dry with the skin not sufficiently crispy. But the pork belly was odd, and not in a good way. The outer skin was so overcooked that it was a hard shell, yet the inner side of that was too soft and gooey. It was like chewing a toffee, with the typical result of having it stuck to your teeth. I enjoyed my first cassoulet, but unless the duck and pork were better done, I would replace them with more "peasant" meat.

I then made my way to the Live Love Large Benefit Concert which took place just around the corner at the Metropolitan Community Church. This church was the first in Ontario to have a same-sex wedding 10 years ago. The benefit was to raise money for the PWA (People with Aids) charity. In addition to the concert, there was a bar with booze donated by the restaurant Big Mamma's Boy, a 50/50 draw, and numerous items for both a live and silent auction. Not being particularly religious, I was still bemused at the idea of alcohol and money inside a church, but this part of the event took place in the community hall at the back.

The altar was set up for the concert. The first three singers were Kimberley Ann O'Connor, Sarah Gerber (the organizer of this event), and The A-Men, an a capella male quartet. I have to say this portion of the concert was strictly easy-listening classic top 40 karaoke music which seems to match the average age of the attendees. To be fair, they were doing covers for this concert. After the 1st intermission, Hooded Fang came on. This young septet added some needed energy to the proceedings, prompting some people to stand up and boogie. But oh, no. It looks like the female bass player, April, has been replaced. This band is skewing more and more male as time passes. This is a shame since when I first saw them over 2 years ago, one of the fun things about them was their 50/50 gender mix. It also wasn't their best sound mix, as their mike requirements overwhelmed the small set-up available at the Church. But they still sounded good enough to attract some new fans, or at least CD buyers. I bought a Hooded Fang t-shirt and an older Gentlemen Reg CD to also support the artists.

After the 2nd intermission, Kat Burns of Forest City Lovers and Gentlemen Reg were scheduled to come on. But the scotch and beans have put me into a stupor, so I hopped onto a Broadview station-bound streetcar and made my way home.

Vajrasana

The Facebook grapevine told me that 2 people that I practice yoga with, Ryan and Claire, will be part of a Smashing Pumpkins tribute night this Friday at the Piston. Intrigued, I made my way to this local bar where I had last listened to Otouto. I timed my visit too early. Apparently 9 pm is only start of sound check and with 2 bands bowing out for various reasons, the first act won't come on until 10:30 pm. With so much time on my hands, I drank too much beer and don't recall much past 10. That's it for this post.

Seriously though, I met up with Ryan and Claire. We had an interesting chat about the vagaries of being in a small indie band. The consensus is that even with crashing on the floor in someone else's place while touring because you can't afford a hotel, it's still better than working a 9-5 office job.

First up was a solo performer who sang exactly one song. I think he might have been the organizer trying to fill some time. In any case, while I do admit to only knowing the more popular Pumpkins songs especially from their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness double album, this seems to be the first of the night's trend to sing obscure Pumpkins songs. Next came Luau Or Die, a local surf-rock band who covered two songs before playing 3 of their own material. Then came a 22 year old male singer, since he was all of 10 years old when his hot camp counsellor gave him a Pumpkins concert t-shirt. He didn't say his name though he had some merchandise for sale at the back. I don't know if that was his normal singing voice, but he had Billy Corgan's irritating nasally whine down pat.

The highlight of the night was the one-night-only "super-band" of 4 musicians who play in other groups. I didn't catch the drummer's or other guitarist's name. On bass was Claire, who is the bassist for the all-girls pop punk group Tuuli. They probably had the biggest success in the early to mid 2000s. On vocals and guitar was Ryan, who is usually behind the drum kit with the drum-and-synth duo Lovely Killbots. They brought the energy of the room way up with their tight set including the hit Bullet With Butterfly Wings. That song was thrown in at the last minute and they had never practiced it together but it sounded great. Destructicus, a last minute band name in reference to the Killbots' video Hello My Dear, did a great job as evidenced by the many (ironic) cries of "Destructicus!" that echoed through the crowd. MJ Cyr was up next but being past 12:30 am I was ready for bed.

It was interesting to watch people that I usually interact with in more serene settings scream and thrash on stage. An amusing contradiction? Well, in yoga, you're supposed to be able to hold a contradiction in your head. Ommm. But maybe it wasn't such a contradiction in the end. What is the ultimate goal of a live music performance and a yoga class? To be fully in the present moment with no thoughts of the past or future. So I say, "It's time to rock out with your coc(cyx) out!"

20 GOTO 10

On a snowy Saturday afternoon, I made the 1.5 hour trek out to Brantford to visit the Personal Computer Museum. Although at the outset it seemed like a silly trip, when I saw those old computers, my inner (and outer) nerd took over and I spent the next 1.5 hours playing happily with these abandoned tech until closing time.

I talked to Sid the owner, who is a late 30-something who has been collecting personal computers since his teens. He now has over 1000 in his collection, as well as large collections of console and console games. He renovated a small building next to his house for the Personal Computer Museum which is open 1 day a month. However, there are sometimes small group tours for kids during the week. He is hoping to get funding to open an 8000 square foot space.

There were about a hundred or so computers on display, most them displayed in overhead shelves and in various nooks and crannies. But there were about 30 that were booted up, arrayed along 4 rows. Various old flavours of Apple products were show-cased; I played Choplifter on an IIe. There were also numerous Amigas/Commodores: the Pet, VIC-20, C-64 and some Amigas. A Hot Wheels branded PC, a Sun Solaris running Java Desktop, several versions of TRS and Tandys, a Coleco Adam, and some arcane machines I've never heard of. Apparently this is a rotating showcase so that other machines might be profiled at other times.

Upon seeing the black version of my first computer, a TI 99/4A, I went over and wrote a BASIC program of, what else, "Hello, world". Unfortunately, this particular machine had a malfunctioning cartridge slot so I was unable to load up the Ti Extended Basic module that I had spied sitting on the floor-to-ceiling wall full of software. This was a coveted item in my youth, but never owned. It gave the home programmer access to the larger sprites, among other additional capabilities, only available to the cartridge-based games. I should have asked to switch this one out for the beige version, which was my computer back in the 80s, sitting on the shelf.

There were also some consoles sitting around. I played Mouse Trap on the Atari 2600. I don't recall ever using the Atari joystick. What a clunky hunk of plastic. I would much prefer my own Gemini, a Atari clone made by ColecoVision. There was also a rousing game of Pong on a Sears Tele-Game hooked up to an old wood-grained television.

I was most impressed with the number of "portable" computers whose existence was unknown to me back in the day. These were not laptops since back then, laptops would have still weighed several lbs. They looked to be a cross between a calculator, a digital "typewriter", and some other computing functionalities. Unfortunately, none of them were up and running.

The only disappointment was that none of the ICONs were running. A file-server based networked computer found in Ontario high schools, they were an Ontario government boondoggle. Too bad the personal PC took off at about the same time, making these government-mandated computers look like crap. Still, it would have been nice to play a quick game of Offshore Fishing or A Week In The Life Of, where as a virtual teen you could sneak into a theatre to watch the 18-only art flick "Mon Ami, Mon Amour". Somewhere in a landfill sits an ICON file server containing my first text RPG and my graphical Tank game shoot-em-up.

I left the museum at 4 pm and got into Toronto at 5:30. This was the ideal time to visit Guu. Just like before, it was a cacophony of patrons and waitstaff. To the usual beef tongue, pork cheek, natto, and so on I had some daily specials including marinated tuna and pressed mackerel sushi. Pressed sushi are tightly packed blocks of rice instead of the ovoid nigiri or the cubish maki. The mackerel was ok, but the pressed sushi was done better at Rikishi. Afterward, I had some chocolate ice cream at Marble Slab Creamery. The marble slab was definitely over-rated, and in my opinion made the ice cream too cold to appreciate the flavour.

Tiger Road

(c) www.platoputas.com

On a chilly Thursday evening, I attended a pre-opening tasting event at Khao San Road, a soon to be opened restaurant. The chef of the popular but tiny Sukho Thai has decided to leave her old haunt for bigger digs. I felt a frisson of excitement as I entered the restaurant since the front to the place was still covered up - it's almost like I was a well-connected cool guy ("Hey, ladies"). But that faded a bit as the smell of new paint tickled my nose and the electricians wandered around hooking up lamps. It turns out the kitchen equipment was only installed that day.

No matter, Nuit is here to tempt us with some victuals. First, a Thai salad came out. I enjoyed the savoury curry taste, a nice change from the typical Thai mango salad which is too sour for my taste. I would prefer a little bit more kick like the delicious laab gai, or Laotian chicken salad. I was also a little disappointed with the lettuce base. This is standard issue for Westernized Asian dishes but I think there could be more exciting alternatives. For example, there is a Vietnamese salad that uses Chinese water spinach and banana flowers. However, the rest of the ingredients including chicken, boiled egg, and basil are tasty.

The second dish is a definite winner: deep-fried shrimp. The breaded coating had the deep brown hue of KFC chicken but it was not oily. The sauce that came with it was a slightly viscous, sweet garlic dip. I believe this is the same sauce, or very similar, to the one that accompanies Thai spring rolls. I'm not sure if the dish will be less plentiful once the restaurant opens, but on this night the shrimp was piled high. A pint of beer would have been perfect but the bar, made from recycled wooden planks, was still a work in progress.

The next two dishes were more typical Thai dishes: a yellow curry chicken with rice, and a pad Thai dish topped with shrimp. Both dishes were a little salty though the rice mitigated the saltiness. The pad Thai had a subtler flavour than the bad orange noodles you get in most Thai restaurants.

For me, the wow factor was in the last dish, or rather drink. Thai iced tea was served last as a sweet refreshment. Yum! How have I never tried or heard of this drink in all the times I've eaten Thai food? A cross between a spiced tea like masala chai and those sweet Vietnamese shakes or Taiwanese bubble tea, it went down so smoothly. Khao San has got to push this concoction on its clientele.

I think this new restaurant will do very well on Adelaide once it opens. Compared to the tired Thai restaurants on nearby Queen St. W., there's no contest. Nuit hinted that with a bigger kitchen, she will be able to make more interesting dishes. As well, Khao San will use fresh and local ingredients so the menu may be changing fairly regularly. This is all excellent news. The only downside is that it is sufficiently far from my West end digs for me to spontaneously drop by for a quick dinner after work.

Happily Never After?

I first saw Fairy Tale Ending at the Fringe Festival last summer in a small theatre located inside the Palmerston Library. It had sold out all its shows and I was at an extra show added on the last day. It was voted one of the Best of the Fringe shows and went on for 2 weeks as part of the Best of the Fringe Festival. Now it's back as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival at the Factory Theatre. I went to a Saturday matinee show.

Originally created for the Toronto Youth Theatre by Kieren MacMillan and Jeremy Hutton, it is a cross between Into The Woods and Fractured Fairy Tale. A cop (Cristina Gordon) is investigating a series of fairy tales gone wrong and calls on the eye-witness testimony of a young girl named Jill (Meagan Tuck) to identify the culprit from the list of usual suspects. First, the asthmatic Big Bad Wolf (Andrew Moyes) got his hairy paws on the Three Little Pigs (J.P. Baldwin, Carl Swanson, Mike Wisniowski) in a number called "Addicted" ("He's a porkoholic"). Second, Goldilocks (Jennifer Walls) never learned from her selfish behaviour ("I Totally Don't Even Give a Care") in destroying the Three Bears' stuff. Finally, the Troll (Amanda Leigh) turned the Three Billy Goats Gruff into a beauty product called "Gruff Exterior".

What could be making these beloved tales go so wrong? Is it the mysterious boy Jack (Maksym Shkvorets) that frightens everyone except Jill? The answer is a tragic accident that have made the Land of Far, Far Away no longer a haven from the changes of everyday life.

All the actors were fine and funny, though some were given leave to really ham it up, given the material. The singing was competent, though a few could not sufficiently project their voice into this larger space. As such, some of the reasonably clever lyrics were probably lost on the audience unless you were in the first 3 rows. The only negative to the afternoon performance was a cell-phone ringing behind me during a dramatic scene where Jill received some truths from the oracular Three Blind Mice.

Though not quite at the level of Sondheim's Into The Woods, this musical is an amusing 75 min for children from ages 5 to 95. Well, maybe 7.

Funny Or Die?

During first week of January, Comedy Bar had the Festival of New Formats. Every night, there was up to 4 1-hour shows, all free, where local comics can try out material. I presume that most of it was new stuff that needed to be audience-tested.

On Thursday, I saw 2 shows. First up was "The Celebrity Stand-up Hour". Comedians came up, pretending to be celebrities who want to try their hand at stand-up comedy. It sounded like a hit-or-miss concept and it was mostly misses. The real Al Gore doing comedy would probably not be that funny. A bad impersonation where Gore = stiff, wears a suit, "into the environment", is at a 2nd level of not funny. Kate Middleton (the future Mrs. Prince Williams) has practically no known "personality" or caricature traits. So to present her, in a badly-done "posh" British accent, as an upper-class heiress with a penchant for dirty words isn't shocking, merely painful. I was never so happy to have a beer in hand. The hour was partially saved by a mildly amusing take on Taylor Swift, a bubbly teen whose observational humour on any topic eventually circles back to boys; and M. Night Shyamalan as a comic who's into twist ending for his jokes. But the final comedian was a genuinely funny Superman. His take on the Man of Steel is that jokes let comic and audience find humour in a common experience but as Superman points out to laughter multiple times, he can't actually relate to any situation described in the jokes he give because ... well, he's Superman, an alien being from Krypton who lives a fortress of ice.

The 2nd show saved the evening for me. A much more veteran line-up of comedians (Ashley Botting, Jan Caruana, Matt Folliot, Chris Gibbs, Sean Tabares) did an improv version of "This Is Your Life". An MC (Darryl Pring) would bring up an audience member and probe them for bits of personal history. If some situation sounded promising, he would get the cast to "re-enact" the memory. Of course, it's never quite what the guest had experienced (not even close I'm sure), but the audience found it hilarious. I've never been partial to Improv. Back in high school, I thought improv students were 2nd rate comics and 3rd rate actors. Nothing about the American version of "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" changed my mind. But these comics cracked me up with their quick thinking and off-the-cuff jokes. For example, a guest belonged to a dodge-ball team called Abusement Park. During the subsequent re-enactment, one of the improv women introduced a rival team called Bruise On Your Own Adventure. Though the cast was a disparate group of comics, although there were a couple of best Improv winners, they sustained an hour of great comedy. I might have to give an estalblished Improv troupe like Second City another look.