SloE Lane

(c) Julia Sasso Dances

Saturday night at Harbourfront, Julia Sasso Dances presented SloE, a work based on Ann Southam's Simple Lines of Enquiry. Eve Egoyan played the composition near the back of the stage on a Faziolli grand piano. The piece was primarily a series of sparse, quivering, and intermittent scales. For her, it spoke of a feeling that "[p]iano is so connected to decay ... there is no way to hold on."

This theme was prefigured by the show's opening and informed the choreography. An enormous bare branch, made out of wire-frame links, loomed over the stage. While the music played hesitantly for a long stretch, a white light slowly transitioned to a darkening red, casting the branch's shadow onto the floor. Finally, the 6 dancers, 5 female and 1 male, moved slowly into view and surrounded the piano.

They would return to this position 2 more times, neatly dividing the recital into 3 acts. In the first, they were joyous and celebratory with fast movements and high lifts especially for the slightest member (Susan Lee). It ended with each dancer's limbs being mischievously manipulated by the others in turn. In the second, the movements turned fraught as dancers fell insensate, found their partner out of reach, or required help for wobbly legs and arms. Now and then, all 6 came together for a sequence of synchronized turns and jumps. In the final act, after Irvin Chow collapsed multiple times into each dancer's grasps, a procession of slow walks criss-crossed the stage, with individual dancers breaking out into short sequences.

Susan dazzled with her many lifts, but was also emotive in the quieter movements. Irvin, as the sole male dancer, provided an anchor that the dancers often returned to. His interactions with Susan had additional resonance because of an interesting but perhaps unintended "Other"/unassimilated feel since they were both minorities and dressed subtly different from the other dancers. Jesse Dell and Deanna Peters exuded strength and power, Vanessa Goodman was a contrast of smooth turns and jerky motions, and Angela Blumberg had a delicacy of movement.

It was an enjoyable recital though some of ideas wore out their impact: the bare stage with the shifting light ran on for too long, and the long gazes signifying some sort of profound attachment got old. But I was taken with the gentle hand pushes that propelled a dancer into motion or stopped them mid-stride. And the group manipulation in the first act was pure fun.

Indian Summer

On a bright and warm Saturday, the annual pow-wow returned to Dufferin Grove. Surrounded by an array of vendors, dancers from various tribes moved in a clockwise circle accompanied by the insistent pounding of drums and chants. There were inter-tribal dances as well as individual groups divided into categories such as Shawl Dancers or Teens. This year, a police horse made his leisure way around the camp to the delight of both young and "old" children.

After watching the dancing and going over the items for sale, I went to get some burgers and Indian taco. Unfortunately, both food disappointed. The burgers were generic and not the bison burgers of past years, and had grown cold in the food tray though they were grilled on site. The taco was fried dough topped with beef chili and beans. This would have alright if the dough was still hot, but the addition of store-bought sour cream, processed cheese, and salsa made the whole thing a gloppy mess. The logistics of a community event may have necessitated these measures, but I wonder if they would have been better off partnering with Keriwa, which is winning raves with its upscale take on traditional Indian fare and ingredients combined with classical French cooking.

Power in The Blood

Wednesday night at the Danforth Music Hall, a music venue painted a pale blue with fresco decorations, saw the young Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara of First Aid Kit making an appearance in Toronto. It had excellent light and sound, speakers along the stage for the front row and line array speakers for the back. But the 400-or-so crowd only filled half of the cavernous space.

First up was Dylan Leblanc, a singer from Louisiana who didn't connect much with the audience, though they were generously prepared to support him. His high voice with slurred vowels, like a hipster Kermit, made his lyrics unintelligible. And his sketchy stories, whether it was an ex-girlfriend who left him because of his drinking or his coke-dealing "only black guy I know", didn't make him very sympathetic.

Dressed like hippie Amish in big flowy ankle-length dresses patterned with muted fractals, the sisters started the show with In The Morning. The a capella sections of the song showcased their greatest strength: the intertwining harmonies of their vocals. But the next two, Blue and Hard Believer, also showed their drawback: anemic folk pop arrangements. Case in point: twice in the evening, I thought they were continuing a song interrupted by the crowd's enthusiastic clapping; it turns out they were starting a new song.

They fared best on simpler arrangements which let their rich voices fill the room: New Year's Eve with guitar and auto-harp, and the unamplified Ghost Town. The lyrics didn't have quite the emotional heft of their cover of Paul Simon's America during the encore, but then they are only 22 and 20 years-old.

It was a fun show with sing-a-longs like Emmylou but hopefully they will have more performances like the set's closer Lion's Roar, where Johanna and Klara abandoned themselves to the music and flung their hair about in rippling waves. Sometimes you have to bleed a little to show that you're alive.

Mighty Whitey

Over-easy with sage sausage and beef bacon

On Saturday, I went to a new eatery located in Koreatown at Bloor and Euclid called White Brick Kitchen. The room was cozy with both tables and diner-style booths done up in dark wood and chocolate upholstered seats. For brunch, I got the Classic with over-easy eggs and sage sausage ($8) and an intriguing side order of beef bacon ($4).

The eggs were nicely made with the yolk still very soft and runny. The herb potato was lightly fried and toothsome. The loosely packed sausage fell apart in your mouth. The beef bacon was a perfect copy: fatty, crispy, and salty. Only after several chews do you realize that the texture is not the same as pork. This is a great substitute for those not incline toward porcine products.

There were other interesting items on the menu including a southern-fried chicken dish. Given the excellent quality of the brunch, a dinner excursion back to this casual spot is in order.

How Time Flies

On Friday, the 25-piece Motown cover band The Big Sound celebrated their 1-year anniversary, and 7th show, at The Great Hall. At previous shows, I spent my time right up against the stage. But tonight, I decided to be up on the balcony looking over the masses. With 500 people crammed into the venue, it was a throbbing pack that danced and clapped the whole night. For local musicians who have not yet gained wider exposure, it must be a thrill to perform to this larger audience.

From the first song, This Old Heart Of Mine to the last number, River Deep, Mountain High, the band played with energy and fun blasting through 20 tunes. Unlike last time, where they covered less well-known tunes, they kept pumping out the hits like Tears of A Clown, Superstition, and You're All I Need To Get By. But they did sneak in less familiar songs: Clapping Song and Knock On My Door. The stand-out song of the evening was Tanika Charles' emotional and powerful take on Otis Redding's I've Been Loving You Too Long. The hooting, hollering, and cheering started 3 minutes in and grew until the final note.

Set List:
This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You) - Aria Zenua
Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Andre Edwards-Roderique
Come On Do The Jerk - Drew Smith
Clapping Song - Maylee Todd
Nowhere To Run - Tanika Charles
Knock On My Door - Aria
Tears Of A Clown - Drew
You're All I Need To Get By - Maylee Todd & Gary Beals
Reach Out (I'll Be There) - Gary
Come See About Me - Allie Ho-Sang
Tell Mama - Maylee
Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While) - Aria
You Can't Hurry Love - Allie
Stubborn Kind Of Fellow - Drew
I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Aria
Superstition - Andre
Twenty Five Miles - Gary
I Want You Back - Maylee
River Deep, Mountain High - Tanika

Get Me From The Greek

On Sunday, I dropped by Aziza for brunch. This new diner took over from venerable Kubata on College St. Upon entry, the room was bright and spacious. Compared to the cramp eateries that have been popping up, the English-style table with plush chairs were generously spaced. A faux fire-place with low arm-chairs and North African prints gave it a feel of someone's living space. Yet it felt unwelcoming, perhaps due to the empty room and silent waitstaff.

I ordered a Greek omelette ($10.95) and freshly squeezed carrot and beet juice ($5.50). The beet was a little too dirt strong, a bit of sweetness would be nice. The fruit salad and roasted potatoes were good, but the omelette with onions, red peppers, and feta cheese was average. Crucially, the promised olives were missing. I would have mentioned it, but my server had disappeared entirely until the bill came.

Despite the prettified get-up, this was basic diner fare. Compared to the other options on the same block: Bestellen, Hadley's, and Urban Herbivore, Aziza is an also-ran.

Fall Score

With a crisp feel to Saturday evening, I headed over to Gallery 345 for a classical recital. Talisa Blackman (piano) and Jane Yang (violin) were scheduled to play 3 violin sonatas. The small venue had a good turn-out for the young women.

The first piece was Prokofiev's Violin Sonata no. 2, Op. 94 which was based on his flute sonata. The 4 movement work had a modern feel reminiscent of a movie score with swooping melodies, triumphant marches, and sinister interludes. I was taken with the 3rd movement which had odd, atonal slides on the violin and the 4th whose processional passages harkened to the composer's Romeo and Juliet score.

The second piece was Violin Sonata no. 2, a piece composed by their friend Kevin Lau, who was recently appointed as an affiliate composer with the TSO. This work was also modern with atonal sounds and odd transitions. But it also included accessible elements from the Romantic tradition. There were parts where it reminded me of a Hitchcockian thriller.

After the intermission, Talisa and Jane played Strauss' Violin Sonata in Eb, Op. 18. You didn't have to tell me this work evokes the height of Romanticism, the vibrato violin lines and the shimmering piano runs made that quite obvious. The swelling music hinted at passionate emoting in 40s musical. Though the most accessible, its decadence was almost too much of a good thing, like eating a creme brule stuffed with truffle chocolate.

TIFF Music

The Cliks

The Drake Underground is having live music every night during the TIFF movie festival. First up on Saturday night was The Cliks. The bassist from Hill and The Sky Heroes was the singer on this band while the singer from Hill moonlighted as the bassist. Given this commonality, it was not a surprise that their book-end songs shared the same surf rock aesthetic: running guitar lines and punchy drums. But the bulk of their material fell into the intersection between loud blues/rock and boy band. With a slight pompadour and a smooth warm delivery, Lucas Silveira stuck to love angst (Cry Me A River, Whatever You Like) but the loud guitar and bass gave the material some edge.

After Hill and Lucas switched instruments and waited on the arrival of the other band members, Hill and The Sky Heroes took to the stage. They were missing the wild harmonies of Saidah Baba Talibah, but the other singers compensated. With fast numbers The Moon and No Man's Land, their distinctive driving guitars and drum style characterized most of the songs, with slight detours into twangy reverb and slide guitar. They stuck mostly to rocking numbers though they did slow down for Love Isn't Safe and Doctor, Doctor. With the ticket desk abandoned later on in the night, curious listeners from the upstairs lounge came down for a free introduction to songs like In Retrospect (You Were The Asshole). Despite the slightly bitter, confrontational tone of typical Hill Kourkoutis' lyrics, the night ended on an optimistic note with The Better Way, complete with extended kazoo coda.

Dream On

It was a magical Friday night to attend a performance of Midsummer's Night Dream at High Park, with a rare blue moon shining through the trees. The outdoor stage was at the bottom of a hill with grassy seats rising in tiers. The show was full with standing room only . The actors' voices carried clearly from the stage. The whole set-up reminded me of ancient Athenian stages given the play's setting.

But this interpretation of the play was set in present day. Theseus and Hippolyta was a royal celebrity couple; their counterpart Oberon and Titania resembled more a bohemian hippie pairing; and Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia were respectively an uptight businessman, a fitness freak, a partying meat-head, and a red-headed naif. Even the comedy players came from the modern world including Nick Bottom as a glad-handing real estate agent.

Some of the staging was inspired. Actors walked, climbed, and even leapt through various openings in the hedges that formed the backdrop. Giant blooms unfurled in the forest. The fairies attending Bottom as Ass were his fellow players enchanted by Puck to speak with (pre-recorded) children's voices.

The acting was good overall but disappointing in one respect. Most of the principals could not consistently speak their lines in a modern natural cadence except for Egeus. Shakespeare's poetical iambic pentameters often reduced their speech to a quizzical sing-song. This dissonance was especially jarring with a thoroughly modern character like the Jersey Shore-esque Lysander.

The comedy players are always good for a laugh with their hammy acting and low-brow talk. But there were also laughter because the actors added winking sexual innuendo to some of their lines and situations. Who knew that Demetrius and Helena might harbor latent S&M leanings!

The play itself is not much more than a rom-com and this version emphasized that fact. A fun evening but not quite as magical as that blue moon.