Monday Munch

My summer course was filled with people looking to make big changes: more than half had quit their job. I guess something is in the air because the long-time instructor of my Monday yoga class announced she was leaving Toronto permanently and heading for Bali, India, and parts unknown.

I bid her adieu and found myself passing by Parka Food. Unlike the Mother Earth vegetarian restaurants of old, this spot belonged to the new generation of "plant-based" eateries like Virtuous Pie: all gleaming, shiny Scandinavian décor. Looking over the menu, I chose the sundried tomato mac and cheese ($7.90) and a coleslaw side ($2.50). Both dishes were delicious, the ingredients tasted rich and fresh. The only minor complaint was the vegan cheese; no acceptable substitute has been concocted that can replicate cheese's creaminess.

As I ate my dinner, I thought about whether I should make changes. As someone who likes routine, I'm definitely happiest with the easy rhythm of a settled life. But with question marks surrounding my employment, apartment, and physical health, things don't seem settled right now. See if my life naturally finds another equilibrium or shake things up and force a new state? I don't know. At least the meal was good.

Apprentice Junior Edition

It has been a long while since I attended any dance showcase of young dancers. But I have always been impressed by the contemporary ballet strength of company proartedanza. So I was curious to see their Summer Intensive Program (SIP) performances on Saturday. 3 levels of young dancers (Apprentice, Aspirante, Junior Aspirante) joined them for 4 weeks of daily practices.

Looking over the large cast list for each piece, I was skeptical that it would be 90 minutes of dizzying and frenetic dance. But the choreographers did a good job of giving space to highlight the dancers in short segments of solos, duos and other small groups. When an entire cast was used, it was usually in exciting formation dancing especially in the second piece which used excerpts from The National Ballet repertoire (Fearful Symmetries and Fractals).

I was impressed with all dancers but was a bit shocked at the talent of the Junior Aspirantes in When I Was Older. I wasn't expecting 12-14 year olds to be that skilled. This company typically uses classical music in their pieces but tonight's incorporation of pop and hip-hop was nicely done and appropriate given the dancers' youthfulness.

Pass Puff Puff

It has been 4 years since I was in the Parliament Street area. I thought big changes were about to happen for me back then. I was curious tonight to see if this neighbourhood has underwent any major additions. It looks like various shops have come and gone, though there was less businesses than I falsely recollected. This was more College and Dufferin than Queen Street West.

I passed by a pizzeria celebrating their 3rd anniversary and decided to stop in. Salt and Tobacco was laid out almost exactly like Maker Pizza with high, long communal tables with a few single seats by the wall and window. I suppose there's only so many ways you can maximize the typical tiny Toronto restaurant space.

Looking over the menu, I picked the 8" Margherita ($15). Since they didn't have the official Neapolitan stone oven, I wasn't expecting that level of pizza making. But they weren't quite as good as even Maker Pizza, which is my current standard for good (but not fussily fancy) pizza. The crust was slightly over-salted and though chewy, didn't have enough of that freshly baked dough flavour. The cheese seemed to sit a bit heavy instead of soft and gooey. Their website claimed Roman style but now defunct Lo Zingaro was crunchier. Overall, it was good pizza but not travel destination good.

Dynamic Duo

On Friday, I was at The Painted Lady for an early show. I haven't been to this cozy bar and music venue in 5 years. Tonight was the final show (for a while) of duo Chris & Nicole. The latter was heading off to law school and possibly a more lucrative career. Surprisingly, I saw one of my classmates from my summer courses, a cheery Barre instructor who was planning to move to NYC. She was friends with the duo. In fact, the packed bar was filled with friends and family.

Taylor Guitard (Goodnight Jasmine) opened the show with a solo set. Perhaps she had movies on her mind because her set was dominated by songs inspired by film: an ode to friendship (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), and a celebration of weird people (Lydia from Beetlejuice). She even did a cover of Tonight You Belong To Me (Steve Martin from The Jerk).

It wasn't just a temporary goodbye show for Chris & Nicole, but also the release of their first EP which has taken awhile to get done. So they were backed tonight by a full band, the same one that played on their recording. They had an alt-country sound but I liked it best when they added more bluesy punch or pure country and not so much when they move into country-pop. As a culmination of several events, the evening ended on an emotional note when the bar joined them on the final number Keep Me In Your Heart Til I Get Home.

My Body My Choice

On Wednesday, I was at the Great Hall for an important cause. The Women's College Hospital was having a fund-raiser to benefit initiatives that continue to provide birth control and abortion options for women. In addition to ticket sales, there was a raffle for a plethora of gifts from businesses. Local bands provided the entertainment with short sets.

The first two performers Dae the Poet and Prince Innocence seemed like neophytes. They were a bit tentative and haven't created a strong stage presence. The former had a sort of Eryka Badu vibe with a combination of spoken word, pseudo-rap, and some singing. The latter had a 90s Savage Garden sound. She probably should stick to her middle register.

Ralph got the crowd dancing with songs like Tease and Gravity. She was recently picked to open for Carly Rae Jepsen across Canada. Appropriate to the evening, she did a cover of Okay Kaya's IUD ("baby, you're so baby but I don't want your baby").

The Beaches ended the evening with a powerful, abbreviated set. I haven't seen them since they closed their Canadian tour at The Opera House. They already had plenty of stage experience. But since then, they have played some huge gigs (mostly as openers) including with The Rolling Stones at Burl's Creek. So these young women were completely at ease on stage and provided plenty of swagger and punchy anthems including new number Snake Tongue.

Great Service

On Tuesday, I was at The Baby G for a show sponsored by Venus Fest. Opener Bad Waitress set a pretty high bar for the night. I had heard something about them at the punk show last week. Then I found out they were opening for Wolf Parade at the Danforth Music Hall last Friday. I can see how they might be gaining some momentum. My first exposure to this all-female punk-rock was a great one. The glitter make-up disguised a band that played hard. Bad Waitress is as if The Bangles, Henry Rollins, and Tool collided.

Nyssa brought androgynous swagger, an Elvis dressed in back, and kept the energy going strong. But if the crowd was head-banging before, now they were dancing with joy. Her lyrics was nihilistic and a bit despairing, but wrapped up in an alluring musical package.

Gauche from Washington, D.C. was done wrong by the venue. The Baby G and its older sibling The Garrison usually have mediocre sound. Tonight it was both muddily mixed and too loud for the headliner. Their complex B52s meets The Sugarcubes sound became a cacophonous assault that quickly thinned out the crowd. Despite wearing high-quality ear plugs, I gave up after about 4 songs. It was a shame because they sounded great on their latest album.

Death Becomes Her

I had a choice of two shows on Tuesday and decided to go to the Baby G because it has been awhile since I went to one without knowing any of the bands. Tonight, it turned out to be 3 acts playing variations of the garage rock/punk sound. The crowd was unsurprisingly dressed mostly in black and mostly young although there was a sprinkle of grizzled veterans.

Wine Lips played a jammy garage rock with extended bluesy passages sandwiched in between speedy bits. Vypers was more chuggy and grimey. Headliner Death Valley Girls from L.A. had a psychedelic punk feel, often times augmented by 60s-esque organ synth sound. In fact, there was a 50s vibe underlying their heavy rock. It made me think that if Back To The Future was a historical event, and some of the kids at the Under The Sea prom had fully embraced Marty McFly's over-the-top solo at the end, Death Valley Girls might have been a 50s band from that alternate timeline.

Silver Fox

On a 25th anniversary of the outdoor festival Dusk Dances, I headed over to Withrow Park for an evening of dance. It has been more than a decade since I've attended, ever since they moved from Dufferin Park. But I had a number of pleasant memories especially during one of their final years there. At the time, I was briefly living for a few weeks in a boarding house. So I spent my evenings watching rehearsals instead of suffering through the heat in my room.

Both Withrow Park and the audience tonight were several times bigger than Dufferin. Hostess Madame Beaucoup (Lisa Anne Ross) led us all over the park for 5 performances. Fall was about the giddiness of being in love while Space Within Us played with the interactions between people. Both combined athletic hip-hop moves with elegant contemporary steps. Follow Me was the most fun; it was essentially 5 women out on the town, but they happened to be supremely talented dancers. Imprint and Moving Parts involved non-professionals. The first had non-dancers in its choreography and the latter had a volunteer "community choir" providing the music. They both presented themes of how to live in the world. Imprint posited friendly connections of neighbours and helpfulness. Parts was more pessimistic in its conflict: from dancers throwing projectiles during protests, to pas-de-deux that devolved into aikido take-downs.

Dusk Dances founder Sylvie Bouchard was feted tonight. Hopefully, this popular show will continue to its golden anniversary.

Return of the Sheez

On Thursday, I went to the Monarch Tavern for Laura Barrett's first solo album in 11 years. There were a couple of surprises. First, I was expecting more people from the indie scene circa 2010 but there was only a smattering of familiar faces despite the packed room. Second, someone has gone to the trouble to get a baby grand for this concert.

Robin Hatch was up first, playing her modern, partly improvised, piano compositions. It was received a bit tentatively by the audience. For a casual listener, her music was a bit frustrating: hints of beautiful, shimmery chords often disappeared within a cacophonous noise. Hatch should also experiment more with dynamics.

Dr Moyo Mutamba treated the crowd to a set of tranquil and playful music. This Toronto professor played the mbira (thumb piano) which is native to his Zimbabwe. He eloquently explained the meaning behind each song, whether it was a prayer to the ancestors, a song for peace, or a mischievous number whose title translated to "I Told You So". Since the mbira used different scales and tunings, Mutamba had a collection of mbiras that he switched between. His singing voice was rich and melodious.

Headliner Laura Barrett sat down to the piano to loud cheer. This was the first time I've heard her on the piano and she often played with complex, arpeggiated chords. Perhaps this was an influence from her days of playing the kalimba (a Western adaptation of the mbira). In fact, she brought out several kalimbas both on new songs (The Humble Fawn) and old numbers (Robot Ponies, Deception Island Optimists Club). Barrett was joined by several friends including Dana Snell (who along with Hatch and Barrett was part of Sheezer). Snell provided drums, flute, and weaving harmony on several numbers. Barrett remains too non-mainstream to get much radio play, but those of us who enjoy her delicate music are glad to have her back. I was especially taken with No Crime In Loving.

Sunshine of Your Love

On a Holiday Monday, I made it north to the grounds of York University for the Rogers Cup. This year, they were hosting the women tennis players. The first match on centre court was exciting and resulted in an upset with Dayana Yastremska beating Johanna Konta. Yastremska was the better player today, especially on her second serve. After eating a bland and overpriced veggie burger ($9.75) from Marigolds & Onions Catering, I stopped by court 1 for a second match. This had its moments with long rallies. But overall, Sofia Kenin dominated Su-Wei Hsieh after falling 1-4 in the first set to win 6-4, 6-2.

Although I could have stayed for a 3rd game: either Eugenie Bouchard's doubles match or Wozniacki's main draw, hours of sitting in the sun had sapped my energy. I decided to call it a day and head home.