In The Long Cold Winter

When the weather outside is frightful like it usually is in January, it's hard to find motivation to venture outside. Even during normal years, I might only venture out for a handful of shows, maybe catch a Fringe remount at the Next Stage festival. With Toronto still in a pandemic lock-down this year, I've become mostly a homebody except for daily strolls to get a bit of fresh air and some rare sunshine.

On one walk, I noticed that new eateries were still opening along College St. The shuttered Bake Shoppe has re-opened as Barbershop Patisserie. Long-time Southern Accent called it quits after 37 years, having recently moved to this street from Mirvish Village. But a Hakka diner has put up a Coming Soon sign in its window. Sharwarma Grill in Little Italy barely lasted 2 years and was now Tsu Chi, a plant-based Japanese café.

From the outside of the café, with its minimal décor, tiny sign, and the array of tasteful offerings in the window, I thought it was a beauty shop or spa. The menu had a number of intriguing items including mains but today, I only ordered a Vanilla Flan ($6.80). It was wonderfully fragrant and authentic despite being a vegan dessert and containing no eggs or dairy. The portion was a bit small for the price but you are paying for the aesthetic: glass bottle, paper wrap, and rope ties.

As for regular haunts, I found out that the owners of Pam's Roti were hospitalized with Covid. They weren't just away for an extended Christmas break! I sincerely hope for good news from them. Meanwhile, the proprietor of African Palace also caught the virus from her room-mate and had to close the restaurant and quarantine for 2 weeks. It seemed as if my predictions for Bloordale/Bloorcourt are coming true.

I'm not watching much online content. A Long Winter livestream on Youtube had some interesting moments, but I'm indifferent to pre-recorded performances (even if the post-interviews are live). This past Saturday, I caught a fun Instagram show from ZINNIA. She played her own music but also hosted other musicians including Charlotte Cornfield. I was on-the-fence with Cornfield a few years back, but In My Corner was a revelation. Her songcraft has improved tremendously.

Since all of Zinnia's videos from her last release comprised of modern dance choreography, she invited individual dancers to join her tonight. Like all online platforms, Instagram cannot handle collaborative playing. But the combination of live music and solo dance worked surprisingly well. It helped that Zinnia's pensive, stripped-down performance didn't need accurate synchronization so internet lags could be masked by the drawn-out movements.

Mashud Rolled It

When returning to Toronto, I'm always excited to immediately visit my regular food joints. It seems a bit silly since I'm away for only a few weeks. But this time, there was a big change. I went to get a roti at Vena's last week but noticed that the store was closed. Perhaps the owner was on an extended holiday break. Given the current COVID situation, I might too. No matter: I got my fix at Caribbean Queen. Her veggie roti was better in some ways since she'll use whatever was available that day so every visit was different. On the other hand, she recently switched from a delicate dhal puri shell to a thick, heavy, and doughy replacement that was definitely sub-par.

I tried Vena's again this week but it was still closed. Then I noticed a letter newly taped to the window. A local resident wrote that the owner of Vena's Mashud Siddique had passed away. It was quite a shock. I suspected that these affordable, mom-and-pop shops were likely to go (the owners of Pam's Roti have also been absent though their diner is still open), but I expected a retirement not a sudden death.

I consider myself Vena's most loyal customer. Some Torontonians may have sampled their food back in 1991 when they first opened on Queen St. But I doubt any have made it a weekly ritual like I have since 2003. I've been to the Bloordale location since the titular Vena herself still had her regular shift. I've never tipped though because I figured that the thousands of dollars I've spent outweighed any $2 pourboir done a handful of times. But with these tough conditions for local businesses, I had planned to kick in a few hundred dollars. I was rushing to wrap things up before my vacation to Ottawa so I missed my visit in late November. "OK," I thought, "instead of a Christmas present I'll make it a New Year's gift". I've expressed my appreciation to Mr. Siddique before but I really wanted to offer a more pragmatic thank-you. But now, a few weeks has turned a small delay into a lost chance.

In With The Old

Cover band Dwayne Gretzky usually hosts a sold-out New Year's Eve show at The Danforth Music Hall. I have been to many of their other gigs but never that shindig as I am usually in Ottawa over the holidays. The closest was attending an NYE concert that opened with Sheezer since DG member Robin Hatch also played that night with them at The Palais Royale.

But with live concerts disallowed due to COVID-19, DG was streaming a live show from their new studio in The Junction area of Toronto. Probably thanks to financial support from their sponsor Smirnoff and radio partners from Corus Entertainment, DG had 3 roving cameramen, a production team, and an impeccable sound mix. People stumbling across the Youtube feed from the U.S., Brazil, Europe and even Australia were flabbergasted that it was live.

Another cause for their astonishment was likely due to the passion of these musicians. DG has never been a tired bar band. Whether it was Nick Rose, Tyler Kite, Jill Harris, or Lydia Persaud's turn on vocals (and Carleigh Aikins pre-recorded from the day before), some deft guitar work and solos from "Champagne" James Robertson or Ian Doherty, or the tight cohesion from the rest of the band, superlatives would scroll up the chat box.

If there was one "complaint" from me, it was that outside of a smattering of songs from the 90s (Shania, Sloan) which themselves are almost 25-years-old, their repertoire tonight (Bruce Springteen, Paul Simon, Dusty Springfield, ABBA) were 40 to 60-years-old songs. But most viewers didn't mind the classic/dad rock and oldies format.

The DG crew reported that the audience would eventually total over 100,000 (Youtube had a view count of just over 78K the next day). During the show itself, I saw that it peaked around 8,000 simultaneous viewers and ebbed to about 2,800 at the end. This was understandable as the stream lasted 4.5 hours! DG wanted to ring in the New Year for every time zone in Canada. To that end, they played 5 sets starting at 10:30 pm (EST) interspersed with short breaks. During these intermissions, they had special "pop-up video"-style recordings of live performances from other shows. For each time zone, they also covered an artist from that region just after "midnight": The Tragically Hip and BTO went over well for Ontario and Manitoba, Coldplay did not for Alberta. The audience could also vote for the final song of each set.

Originally, I had planned on staying up only until midnight (EST) or maybe even 11 pm (adopting Atlantic Standard Time as my NYE). But I ended up watching the entire show until a superb The Weight (The Band) brought down the house at 3:15 am. If you remember your exam-cramming days (or read the excellent book Why We Sleep), after a certain point you're no longer tired. So I'm currently paying for that indulgence since I have not slept for 24 hours.

Year End Review

A friend invited me to a Zoom chat for our university group. So on Wednesday, I logged in after dinner to virtually meet up with the old gang. Like any dinner party, it overstayed its welcome; this 5-hour hang was probably 90 minutes too long. But it was good to see familiar faces, some of whom I haven't seen in almost 15 years.

Given this year, COVID news cropped up several times. No one was personally affected health-wise and everyone was lucky enough to be able to work from home. Most had kids so there was a lot kvetching around that, regardless if they were physically back in school or studying online. The challenges between managing work-life and home-life remained even when you didn't have to commute. Other annoyances included cutting your own hair, sharing the internet, or finding time to eat as a family. A few lamented that they were surprised how little together-time they actually had despite so much time spent at home.

These experiences were bemusing as I didn't have these responsibilities. I had to admit to my buddies that overall it has been enjoyable for me: eating in the park at lunchtime, walking all over Toronto; I have never spent so much time outdoors. One thing we did have in common was the march of time. So there was much commiseration (and comparison) about all the ways our bodies were failing us.

One family was building their house from the ground up after a fire. They regaled us with 3 years of bureaucratic run-arounds and contractor woes. And they still have 4 more months to go (in the best case scenario). Others had less dramatic home ownership problems. As a renter, I only contributed the bizarre situation of my landlord in his last few months.

One thing that stood out for me was an interaction with an old friend within the larger group chat. I had forgotten about our camaraderie since we lost touch. I don't usually enjoy being around loud people but I found their boisterousness charming. Perhaps it was self-serving since tonight they thought all my corny jokes and quips utterly hysterical! So I lamented that this easy rapport with another person was something rare for me. If only I could be this copacetic with more people.