Adelaide & John : Parlour's New Menu

Last night, Parlour, the entertainment district's vintage bar/lounge, held an invite-only soft opening to test out their new food menu. Their decently sized menu features far more than your average bar snacks, and everything is delicious to boot!

vintage sofas and chandeliers

For ease of ordering, the menu is divided into three sections: snacks, boards, and flatbreads; and we were just hungry enough to sample some of each:

For starters we had a grilled zucchini crostini with mascarpone: a perfect balance of savoury, salty, and just a little sweet.

Along side it came a cheesy artichoke dip with fresh bread and focaccia (all made in house!) and crudites. I secretly love the so-bad-its-good cheesy artichoke dips you get at low-end chain restaurants, but you can't go wrong with this fresh, higher quality version made all in house.

I always forget to take pictures before we start eating...

Next we shared a charcuterie board and a cheese board. (Not yet on the menu, but coming soon will be a mixed board with both meats and cheeses) The charcuterie features a spicy keilbasa, truffle salami, cured ham, picked vegetables, and grainy mustard. The cheeses could be a little more varied with two similar hard cheeses (a parmesan and an aged gouda from Thunder Bay), only one soft cheese, and all three coming from cow's milk. They were all very good, I was just expecting a little more variety. The cheeses came with cooked pears, more pickled veggies, grapes, and an out-of-this-world truffle honey, so I couldn't possibly be disappointed. Both boards feature that same soft bread I couldn't get enough of.

Finally (after a break we filled with a nice house pinot grigio), we came to the flatbread course. We went with the grilled vegetable and goat cheese which was, unsurprisingly, very tasty. The flatbreads are a good size, enough for one to eat alone, or two to share with other dishes.

Although in a district that I think of more for dancing and cocktail drinking than for its culinary offerings, Parlour's new menu rivals any of the traditional tapas spots. I fully anticipate this cozy lounge to become the new hot spot for a light, pre-dancing dinner, or a fabulous late-night snack.

For more information on Parlour, visit their website.
The menu is still not available online, but it's all coming very soon!

Queen & Gladstone: The Annual

The second floor of the Gladstone hotel is currently home to The Annual, a contemporary art exhibit featuring works by a number of artists united by a common theme. This year's topic: Shifting Ground. 
As is almost always the case with contemporary art, the pieces in this multi-media exhibit explore their theme literally, metaphorically, and, occasionally, quite elusively.  

My favourite piece was an interactive installation by Marc De Pape titled Neighborhood Watch. I put on the headphones and sat on the sun-soaked balcony overlooking Queen St. W. The chair's legs are cut to different lengths so that, as you sit, you can tilt yourself in all directions. Doing so triggers the audio instillation in different ways so that the live sounds of the street are mixed in varying degrees with amplified street sounds coming through the headphones. Essentially, you create your own soundtrack to  the live action of daily life at Queen & Gladstone.

Marc De Pape, Neighborhood Watch, 2013
audio and physical computing

Another Toronto-based piece is Mel Coleman's fittingly titled Condoscape. The collage of condo buildings reflects what's going on right outside the gallery doors as Toronto continues to grow at exponential rates.

Mel Coleman, Condoscape, 2012
collage on canvas

A more metaphorical look at shifting grounds is the (very) short film Lug Me Islandia by Maria Flawia Litwin. The interactions between the artist and her suitcase are meant to express her relationship to her personal "immigrant journey". Those finer intentions may not come across to every viewer, but the suitcase is such a universal symbol of change and of covering new ground that the theme manages to come together.

Maria Flawia Litwin, Lug Me Islandia
film

Some of the other pieces which feature landscape or architectural collage and photography have a less clear connection to the theme. Closer inspection of the description next to one photograph revealed that the building pictured was in Detroit, a city currently in a state of serious flux; but I've never been a fan of art that relies on a description to connect with the viewer or the spirit of the exhibit.

The hotel-turned gallery makes for a beautiful exhibition space. The architecture adds a vintage touch and makes the rooms feel much warmer than a sparse modern art gallery.

Even the bathroom has character! Terrible lighting, but a beautiful claw-foot tub.

If you're looking to see a variety of art without being overwhelmed by the volume of work, The Annual is the place for you! It's also very reasonably priced at just $5 a ticket and students get in for free.

Dates: October 10-13 2013
Location: Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St W at Gladstone.

For more information on hours and special events visit their website.

Queen & Shaw: Public Art

There's a new addition to the courtyard in front of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.

Bathurst & Adelaide : How to Disappear Completely at the SummerWorks Performance Festival

How to Disappear Completely is not your average piece of theatre. Created and performed by award-winning lighting designer Itai Erdal, this production combines the heart-felt storytelling, documentary filmmaking, and the artistry and mechanics of light to create a piece that is altogether spellbinding.

Erdal is a story-teller, plain and simple. Being in the audience of How to Disappear Completely feels more like you're catching up with an old friend than witnessing a traditional narrative unfold onstage. Erdal tells us about his friends, family, goals, and dreams with such openness and generosity that his one-man show never borders on self-indulgence.

How to Disappear Completely has two distinct sides. The first is Erdal's abridged autobiography: the story of his life and family with a focus on his mother's terminal illness and eventual death. Erdal projects film footage of his family that he took himself during this time to bring the other characters to life and allow their own voices to speak onstage. The second is a mini-lesson on the mechanic and art of lighting design. Erdal operates the majority of the lighting cues himself from onstage and takes the audience through some of the artistic and technical process of lighting for the theatre.

Each of these stories alone could not sustain an entire full-length performance, but together they complement each other by their opposites. Together, they create a fully varied emotional and intellectual experience despite being very weakly linked thematically and structurally. Regardless, this is an autobiography, and perhaps family and light are both such large parts of Erdal's life that they cannot be separated.

Since life is not crafted as simply and carefully as a piece of fiction, we cannot ask that a biography be perfectly structured and still expect truthfulness and accuracy in the story-telling. Structural issues are why I usually steer clear of biopics and biographies, but Erdal has created a piece of theatre so unique in its use of lighting and documentary film that it never ceases to entertain. How to Disappear Completely manages to keep you on board wherever it may decide to ramble.


Remaining Performances at SummerWorks:
Friday August 16 at 3:00pm
Sunday August 18 at 12:30pm

Remaining Performances at the Stratford Festival (as part of The Forum series):
Thursday August 15 at 2:00pm
Saturday August 17 at 2:00pm

For more information check out the Facebook page or the SummerWorks website.
The annual Summerworks Performance Festival runs until August 18.

Dundas & Crawford: An Interview with Musician Brooklyn Doran

Brooklyn Doran is a Toronto based theatre artist and musician, originally from Kenora, Ontario. Her debut EP, written this past year, is set to be recorded in fall 2013 and released in early 2014. For a preview, check out her website.

Photo by Adrienne Callan Photography and Mathias Semmann

On August 1st, Brooklyn launched an indiegogo campaign to fund the production costs of the record, with the goal of making all five songs available online for free. Her campaign includes better-than-average indiegogo perks which encourage donors to commission her talents. For a $40 donation you can be Brooklyn's cover song DJ and request an original B. Doran cover of any song you like! And for $60, Brooklyn will write you a song about anything your heart desires. It isn't often that a fundraising campaign has the potential to be almost as fun and rewarding for the donors as it is for the fundraisers.

I caught up with Brooklyn in Trinity Bellwoods Park for an interview on her new music, the realities of crowd-funding, and how a small town girl came to write songs in the big city.

Design by Maddy Haney at Faith.Trust.Pixiedust

nl: It's been five years since you released your first original song on iTunes, and it remains the only song you've released to date, what re-ignited the desire to start writing and recording original music?

bd: I don't know why I wasn't writing between then and now. I was always playing music but I think I felt like I needed to get better at singing other people's material before I felt comfortable creating my own. In the winter of 2012 that's when I started writing again and I was really excited about it. I guess it was at a point in my life when I realized that I don't have to be just a theatre artist or just one type of person. I can be a musician, and I came to a realization where I gained confidence in myself [...] and some songs just sort of came to me during a weird, rough couple of weeks in my life. And I liked them, and other people seemed to like them, so I thought "why not? let's go for this". There's always going to be someone who may be better than me, but what I have that other people don't is my own perspective and my own experience that I can bring to songwriting.

nl: How would you describe the spirit of the album?

bd: This is going to be my first EP so it's my chance to really establish myself, who I am, my style, and my sound. What I'm really going for is an exploration between where I cam from and where I'm at now. I grew up in a really small town, a really beautiful place and then I moved to Toronto. So with that, the feel of the album would be unplugged, organic material that really personifies the idea of woodsiness and that clash against the idea of urban-ness.

nl: You have a song called "Lansdowne" which, for Torontonians, is going to stand out as a familiar place, so how much does your environment, and especially the city of Toronto, influence your writing?

bd: What I'm writing is coming from what I'm seeing on a day-to-day basis. I feel really strongly about writing what I know. I don't feel like I'm entitled to tell other people's stories, I feel like I'm entitled to tell my story and ask people if they can relate to it.

nl: Speaking more about the type of music we can expect to hear on the EP, who would you say are your top musical influences?

bd: Musically, I'm a little bit stuck in the 2004-2007 indie-folk scene, that was a really good time for indie-folk music. I'm really inspired by Ani DiFranco and Anais Mitchell, two really great female folk artists. I'm into anyone who may have recorded on Righteous Babe Records.

nl: A large part of your current fundraising campaign is that you're going to make your EP available for free. Why is it important to you?

bd: I think that it's important, as a musician whose starting out nowadays, to make your music accessible. People are, in this age of technology, less likely to put money into buying a piece a music unless they already know what it will sound like. So I think that, by making it free, it's opening up my music to people who don't already know about me. The people who are supporting me right now would probably buy the EP anyway, so I think that by donating they're making it possible for other people to discover my music.

nl: Your indiegogo fundraising campaign has been live for five days, how do you feel so far about the success or usefulness of indiegogo as a fundraising platform?

bd: In the first four days I raised over $1000. I'm really excited and really overwhelmed. When you make an indiegogo campaign, you expect your friends and your parents to contribute. When other people contribute unexpectedly it's really overwhelming, and exciting, and moving that someone who I might not necessarily have a direct relationship with would believe in my music enough to give.

nl: What do you project for the next 55 days of indiegogo fundraising?

bd: You can expect me to be way more present on social media than I've ever been in my life. I think something that's very important when crowd-funding is to let people know what's going on. People don't just want to support someone who is cool and mysterious who they don't know. They want to see exactly how their money is affecting that person. None of the money from the indiegogo campaign will go to me personally. It's all going toward the project and toward paying the musicians and artists involved. I think so often people working in the arts don't get paid what they should.

nl: Can you tell me about some of the artists at you're working with on the EP?

bd: I'm working with Mark Koecher who is my producer. Jeff Gunn and Aaron Corbett will be playing guitar. Aaron also helps me out creatively, we jam together and he plays with me for most of my gigs. I have Jon Foster playing drums, Erik Lindemann on stand-up base, and the artwork and logo design is done by my friend Maddy Haney through her company Faith.Trust.Pixiedust. I've also been so grateful to have (world musician) Kae Sun take me under his wing and mentor me a bit with songwriting over the past few months. I think working with him and taking his advice has really helped me grow as a musician. It's always nice to have someone who you admire and respect be able to speak to you as a peer.

nl: When can we next hear you play live?

bd: I will be playing at Tight-Knit Syria on August 14th at the Mojo Lounge. It is a fundraiser to help a not-for-profit organization so tickets are $20, but all of that money is going to support their cause.

nl: What is your favourite Toronto live music venue, whether you're onstage or in the audience?

bd: I really like playing at The Central. I like the people, and I really like the vibe of the place. It's a really chill spot to hear new music and it's getting big.

Want more information on the talented Brooklyn Doran? Check out the links below to listen to her demos and the songs her donors are commissioning.

Website: www.brooklyndoran.com
Bandcamp: www.brooklyndoran.bandcamp.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/brooklyndoranmusic
Twitter: @brooklyndoran

Bathurst & Bloor : 20 Feet From Stardom

20 Feet from Stardom is the documentary story of the voices behind some of the greatest songs recorded in the last fifty years.

The film is mostly a series of interviews with some of American music's most successful and prolific back-up singers, mixed with some phenomenal singing, killer dance moves, and colourful retro clothing. The focus of many of the interviews tries to shed light on why these amazing voices remained at the back of the stage throughout their careers, so close, and yet so far, from super-stardom.

Some women have tragic stories of the unsuccessful solo albums and cut-throat producers who stole their songs, causing them to fall back down to earth where the harsh realities of every day life meant cleaning houses and teaching school to make ends meet. But showbiz wasn't so tough on everyone, some of the interviews suggest that some artists, like Lisa Fischer, prefer to be just on the edge of the spotlight.

Lisa Fischer has arguably one of the strongest voices showcased in the film, a Grammy award winning solo single, and is considered to be one of the most successful session singers of her time. She's sung backup for a number of superstars including Tina Turner, Sting, and Luther Vandross, and has been the lead female vocalist on every Rolling Stones tour since 1989. But I'd never heard of her.

Is that because she prefers a steady and enduringly successful career singing backup to the potential flash-in-the-pan success of a solo-artist? Or was something or someone keeping her "20 Feet from Stardom" her whole career?

A recurring theme among many of the singers interviewed in the film is the struggle to find the time, energy, and resources to put toward a solo career when they're working constantly for other people. Do you sacrifice a steady (and reasonable) income doing what you love for a chance to stand alone in the spotlight? Or are you content to spend your career as a relative unknown if it means you get paid to sing your heart out on stage, like so many people only ever dream of doing?

Check out the trailer:

I caught 20 Feet From Stardom at the Bloor Cinema on its last night there, but it's still playing in Toronto at the Yonge Dundas and Varsity Cinemas. Click here for showtimes.

Bathurst & Lennox : MSM at the Toronto Fringe Festival

Last night was the opening of lemonTree creations' MSM [men seeking men] at the Toronto Fringe Festival. The culture of online-dating and hookups in the queer community is expressed onstage through a mix of contemporary dance, abstract movement, chat-room transcripts, and living spinning by DJ Scooter of Cub Camp.

Like much of the dance theatre pieces I've seen, this show vacillates between pure dance in which meaning gives way to expression and interpretation, and text-based story-telling that never quite reaches full enough plot lines or characterizations to stand alone. MSM manages to utilize both mediums in such a way that they support one another. Meaning and story are not always clear, but the images and physical work provoke a response on a less intellectual level, creating a gripping and visceral experience.

Not being a member of the queer male community, this piece offered a tiny glimpse into a fascinating world of sex and dating that I know very little about. I wish that glimpse could have been larger, perhaps to satisfy my own curiosity, but there feels like there is room to expand deeper into the culture of the world that inspired the piece. Never-the-less, when we do get a peek inside, MSM offers an unabashed look at their version of the gay online dating experience.

MSM [men seeking men] runs until July 13 at the Randolph Theatre as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Visit their website or Facebook page for more details.
Tickets are $10 at the door; $11 in advance (plus fees)
Call 416.966.1062 or visit www.fringetoronto.com 

At Home: Cupcake Experiments

These cupcakes came to me in a dream. I was sleeping on a couch in Winnipeg in the middle of winter, and something about those uncomfortable circumstances had me dreaming up deserts.

And here they are in the flesh (so to speak...)

Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry Filling
&
Earl Grey Icing

Having dreamt these into existence, I wasn't sure what to expect. But it turns out that making fruit-filled cupcakes is super easy and delicious!

I took my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe and added the zest and juice of one lemon to get a simple batter. My recipe for vanilla cake is so easy and takes so few ingredients that this was much easier and simpler that using an actual lemon cake recipe, and this way you have more control over how strong you want the lemon flavour to be.  

I found my vanilla cake recipe here a few years ago and have never needed another. (Although you do need to couple the recipe to make a two-layer cake, but that's another topic)

I filled each cupcake cup half full and spooned in a healthy dollop of blueberry jam. 

Next, I simply filled each cup to the top with the remaining cake batter, and baked it all according to the original recipe.

before

after

This is when I celebrated! It worked! I didn't worry about the little bits of jam showing through the tops because next up was the icing...

My mom taught me how to make icing when I was a little kid. It was probably one of the first recipes in my baking arsenal, and it's definitely one of the easiest. The only downside is that I've never used a written recipe which makes it hard to share with others... but the upside is that the only way to know if it's right is to taste it!

To make buttercream icing, throw some butter and icing sugar into a bowl and mix until creamy. Keep tasting and adjusting the butter/sugar ratio until it tastes right. The great thing about this recipe is that if you accidentally add to much of one ingredient you can balance it out by adding more of another. You'll just end up with more icing overall, but that's a good thing because it freezes super well! Next, add a little milk or cream until it's perfectly spreadable. For vanilla icing, add vanilla. For chocolate, add cocoa powder. 

But what to do for Earl Grey?

I started by making some Earl Grey tea and adding to the icing instead of milk or cream. This got it to the right texture, but it didn't have enough flavour so I threw in the tea itself. It tasted right in the bowl and I kind of liked the fun texture it gave tops of the cupcakes. 

delicious!

The only thing was that once the icing was on the cupcakes the tea flavour didn't come through nearly as much. It was too subtle compared to the lemon and blueberry. Next time I'll try making a syrupy Earl Grey reduction to strengthen the flavours. Stay tuned for more culinary adventures...

King & Simcoe : The Toronto Symphony Orchestra

When I was maybe six years old, my parents took me to the edge of the orchestra pit at the theatre so I could say hello to a family friend and his bass. I remember feeling confused. Why do they make him sit in the dark? What else was down there? What if I fall in?

Even after almost two decades, the intricacies of an orchestral performance remained a mystery. As a frequent theatre-goer and an occasional patron of live dance, music was always heard and not seen. Any live music I saw involved guitars, beer, and musicians dressed in plaid, not tails. Until last night that is, when my memories of a darkened orchestra pit came to life and finally took centre stage under the bright lights of Roy Thomson Hall at the Toronto Symphony.

My first symphony performance included featured artists Joshua Bell on violin, Edgar Meyer on double bass, and conductor Peter Oundjian. The highlighted piece of the evening was a composition by Meyer himself : Concerto for Violin and Double Bass, which placed the Symphony's esteemed guests well at the forefront.

I first heard of Joshua Bell when someone told me a story about him busking on the Washington Metro System. Bell was already an internationally acclaimed violinist when he took up his bow for an audience of commuters, playing an anonymous 45 minute set including Bach's D minor Chaconne (which the more musically inclined call "one of the peaks of the solo violin repertoire") [source]. According to The Guardian, only seven people out of 1097 stopped to listen for more than a minute and Bell earned a mere $32 and change. For the full article click here.

Even as an orchestral neophyte, it's easy to see that Bell is phenomenal. So I ask myself, would I have stopped to listen on that subway? I hope so. What if I'd been late for work? Probably not. Would I have missed an incredible performance? Absolutely.

Before going to the symphony I sometimes wondered why people paid so much money to watch orchestras perform live. Isn't the music supposed to be about the sound anyway? What's the point of spending all that money to watch something that it just supposed to be listened to? Because let's face it, most orchestras don't include the witty banter and raw sex appeal of a mainstream indie-rock concert. But, as always, the virtues of live performance never disappoint. Witnessing the dexterity, speed, synchronicity, and talent it takes to make a piece of classical music come alive is an experience that cannot be enjoyed by the ears alone. It took seeing the music performed live for me to truly appreciate the beauty of a symphony orchestra. And if I ever see a performer of that caliber on the subway, I think that now I'll know that it's worth it to stop and watch.

Pro Tip for anyone wanting to check out the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on a budget : visit TSoundcheck for $14 tickets!

My last piece of advice : you can't pick up these tickets at the regular box office. You have to go down past the entrances to a special line further south, where your tickets will be waiting next to a big "Soundcheck" sign. Despite the sign being huge, you can't see it from the regular box office entrance. My one problem with Roy Thomson Hall was crowd control. There were way too many people in all sorts of criss-crossing lines throughout the box office, and no one thought to mention that Soundcheck tickets were in another line all together... that would have definitely have helped with traffic flow and gotten a large number of people out of the way and into their seats faster.

Queen & Ossington : The Mute Book

If Cindy Sherman and Gustav Klimt had a lovechild, the photographic evidence of their coupling is hanging on the walls of the Katharine Mulherin Gallery on Queen Street. The Mute Book, a series of photographs by the intriguingly named Janieta Eyre, is on display until June 9th 2013 in conjunction with the CONTACT photography festival.

These large-scale black and white photographs have a collage-like feel to them, combining pattern and decoration style textiles and Klimt-like textures with female portraits. There is an oppressed feeling to the depictions of these women. Perhaps its a combination of the abstract makeup dissecting their features, the monochromatic colour palette, and the use of patterns & images that can't help but throw back to an older time of domestic femininity.

The pattern & decoration movement and the photographs of Cindy Sherman seek to challenge traditional depictions of domestic or feminine stereotypes. It was all a part of the art world's answer to second-wave feminism.

But what now? This is 2013 and we are moving far beyond the days of burning bras. How does the work of Janieta Eyre (whose very name is a strikingly convenient reference to a classic female icon) speak to where feminism is today? Do images of mute women surrounded by floral prints really speak to today's feminists? And what has Klimt got to do with it?

Perhaps Eyre's work is intended to be more personal than socio-political, but with such strong references to feminist artists and art movements how can we not wonder about what this means for contemporary art by women?

I would like to see a female artist create a work that doesn't remind me of an art history lecture on the 1970s & 80s. Do these references to past generations mean that we haven't come as far as we'd hoped? Or that we have yet to figure out what it means to be a feminist today? Or maybe we no longer need a movement. Maybe what I'm looking for is proof that women have finally gotten what we've always wanted : the freedom to live and make art without our gender being an inherent political statement.

The Mute Book
Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Projects
1086 Queen St W
416-993-6510
www.katharinemulherin.com 

Queen & Brock : Electric Mud BBQ

I'd been dying to eat at Electric Mud BBQ since they opened in March, but stories of three-hour waits and a strict no reservations policy had me waiting weeks for the hype to die down before I even tried to get my name on their ever-popular wait list. So what made this tiny Parkdale restaurant an instant hit? It's the second culinary venture of nearby Grand Electric owners Ian McGrenaghan and Colin Tooke. These two have already mastered the art of creating a hipster hot spot, and it looks like, in this case, success begets success. To be perfectly honest, it was my love of Grand Electric that made me so eager to see what else these guys could cook up.

hushpuppies

fried chicken with honey and coleslaw

pork belly with toast and honey mustard

hot links with pimento cheese spread

look at the mess we made!

We arrived around 6:30pm on a Friday night, thinking that we would put our names down early and expecting a long wait. I don't know if we got lucky or if business picks up more later on in the evening, but we only had to wait half an hour. They take your name and phone number down on the waitlist so you're free to go around the corner for a pre-dinner cocktail without fear of losing your place in line. They call when you're table is ready, but don't go too far because as soon as they make that call they can only hold the table for 5-10 minutes. Good news for locals is that walk-in guests can pick up takeout to avoid the wait. 

Time for the verdict. Is Electric Mud BBQ worth the hype and the wait? The food is delicious, simple, reasonably priced, and falls neatly into the current food trend of dishing up homestyle classics. The atmosphere and decor fit the American BBQ aesthetic, and if you're looking for trendy comfort food, this definitely fits the bill. McGrenaghan and Tooke know how to build buzz. With seating for less than thirty people, wait times are bound to skyrocket no matter what, creating the immediate illusion of an elite instant hit. It's easy to create a demand for tables that greatly exceeds the supply when you've only got room for thirty people, and about a third of those seats are at the bar. Don't get me wrong, Electric Mud is worth the trip, but the success and popularity of this new spot may be slightly overestimated by inflated wait times. I'd be curious to see how an extra twenty tables would shift the volume of traffic outside their doors. 

Regardless of trends, marketing tricks, and rave reviews, good food will keep me coming back to see what this team has to offer. That being said, I'll never wait longer than 45 minutes for a table, no matter how big the buzz. 

Electric Mud BBQ

5 Brock Ave.

416-516-8286

Open Wednesday - Sunday from 5pm-2am

Cash Only

No Reservations

Queen & Walnut : Altered Perspectives at the Alison Milne Gallery

Wednesday night was the opening reception for photographer Anthony Macri's Altered Perspectives, which appears as part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Altered Perspectives primarily features photographs taken of an airplane graveyard deep in the Mojave desert. The photographs are beautiful, but perhaps they play all too well into the current trends of photographing urban industrial decay and juxtaposing the man-made against the organic. It's pretty, but familiar.

Photo by Anthony Macri

Altered Perspectives will be exhibited from May 8th to June 22nd 2013 at the Alison Milne Gallery.
Wednesday to Saturday - 12pm to 6pm
198 Walnut Ave. #3
416.203.6266
www.gallery.alisonmilne.com

The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, the largest photography event in the world, runs throughout the month of May at various galleries across the GTA and features works by over 1500 artists. Visit their website for more info on the festival.

Church & Wellesley : Woody's

Despite having moved to the GTA five years ago and having lived in the downtown core for over a year, there are still neighbourhoods which are completely foreign to me, and which never fail to remind me that I'll always be a transplanted small town girl. One minute I'm traipsing through the city like a Torontonian born-and-raised, and the next I'm on some unrecognizable street corner using my iPhone as a compass and wondering (for the millionth time) how city dwellers can be content with a starless sky and never seeing any deer.

But that's another story...

Last weekend, after only two wrong turns and a lot of googling, I found myself in the front row of the Sunday night drag show at Woody's, "everyone's first gay bar". In the past, I've always been so busy meeting straight boys that I neglected a whole world of my favourite guilty pleasure pop songs and fabulously sequinned dresses. But it's not just the outfits that are impressive, these performers can really dance. There aren't many people who can whip themselves across a stage so aggressively, while still managing to be graceful and fearless in four-inch stilettos. While the rest of the world is tucked in bed on a school night, the fast-paced entertainment at Woody's is just getting started, and it's definitely worth the trip across town.

Since opening in 1989, Woody's appears to have become, not only a neighbourhood staple, but a major player in Toronto's queer community. The bar is sponsors sports teams, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and Pride Week, and has raised over $300 000 for the AIDS Committee of Toronto through fundraising events. Check out their website or Facebook for more information on nightly events.

John & Richmond : Hot Docs Double Feature

Last night, I went to, not just one -- but two feature films screened at Hot Docs, the Canadian International Documentary Film Festival.

This year, Hot Docs is celebrating their 20th anniversary with film screenings from April 25-May 5 2013 at select theatres across downtown Toronto. The films cover all topics imaginable and feature stories from both home and abroad. For many of these films, their run at Hot Docs represents a World or North American Premier.

Aside from the obvious, what makes Hot Docs extra special for us non-industry folks? No doubt it's the moment after the house lights come up and the filmmaker emerges from the audience, often with other key members of the cast and crew, for an open Q&A session. These moments allow us a glimpse into what was going on behind the lens and after the cameras stopped rolling.

For more information on the festival, films, showtimes etc. visit www.hotdocs.ca

And without further delay, here's my take on the two films I've seen so far.

FELIX AUSTRIA!

A people who understand their history, have hope for the future.

Feliz Austria! takes us into the world of the eccentric Felix Pfeifle (born Brian Scott Pfeifle), an average American from California with a deep connection to Vienna, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the remnants of the Habsburg dynasty. Many years ago, Felix was left 60 years worth of written correspondence between Otto von Habsburg, the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary, and another seemingly average American named Herbert Hinckle. Felix Austria! documents the highlights of Pfeifle's everyday life as he attempts to discover both the meaning of this correspondence and the nature of his own personal investment in the history and aristocracy of Central Europe. 

Felix Pfeifle in Vienna
Screenshot from Felix Austria!

Meanwhile, back in California, Felix's father is suffering from Huntington's, a fatal degenerative disease which results in poor muscle coordination, cognitive decline, and other psychiatric problems. Huntington disease is a genetic disorder, meaning that someone like Felix has a 50% chance of developing these irreversible symptoms. There is no preventative treatment for Huntington's, a person either has the gene variant or does not. Genetic testing, for those who chose it, can offer psychic-like insights into what the future holds for individuals with a family history of the disease. We watch Felix grapple throughout the film with whether or not he wants to know what his genetic history has in store. 

Felix Austria! Trailer

Filmmaker Christine Beebe doesn't seem to know if she's making a film about the relationship between the aristocracy and the average civilian in the modern era, or a film about the inescapability of our genetic predispositions. Both stories have their compelling elements but the thematic links between the two are a stretch. We're offered a glimpse into what Beebe may have been going for with the words of Otto von Habsburg, who tells Felix : "A people who understand their history, have hope for the future".   

With this one line, we see that Beebe may have been trying to weave together these stories through the idea that we cannot ignore our pasts, whether we're speaking of our cultural or biological histories. This one line; however, isn't enough to hold the two plot lines together. The film lacks a clear, strong narrative and thematic journey, and ultimately doesn't feel like much more than a day in the life of an eccentric character. 

The final screening of Felix Austria! will be on Sunday May 5th at 3:30pm at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Buy advance tickets here or visit www.felixaustriafilm.com for more info.

* * *

SICK BIRDS DIE EASY

Every second, 7 billion moments are happening simultaneously.

Sick Birds Die Easy takes a group of American recreational drug users deep into the jungle of Gabon, Africa in search of spiritual enlightenment and the ultimate hallucinogenic trip. In this cradle of civilization grows the iboga plant, a powerful hallucinogen which has been known to cure hardcore drug addicts of heroin and/or cocaine dependancies. The side effects of the drug make it illegal in the United States, among other countries, but here in Canada it is not regulated and has been used in detoxification therapies for chemically dependant drug addicts. 

Screenshot from Sick Birds Die Easy

In Gabon, the cast and crew of Sick Birds Die Easy are introduced to Bwiti a heavily spiritual and shamanistic belief system which includes ritual ingestion of the iboga plant as a rite of passage and a method of attaining what Westerners may call "spiritual enlightenment" or a "higher plane". Peppered among the native peoples live a handful of Western ex-drug addicts who, in Gabon and the iboga plant, have found physical and mental healing for their addictions, and a unique spiritual awakening. 

Sick Birds Die Easy Teaser Trailer

Sick Birds Die Easy is a hilarious, quirky, and unpredictable quest for healing, sobriety, psychedelic adventure, and God, which challenges us to question our definition of reality. Just because experiences may exist only in our minds, does that make them less real? As filmmaker Nik Fackler says in his voiceover, "every second, 7 billion moments are happening simultaneously". Meaning that every moment is at the mercy of the subjective experience of the individual. According to Fackler, there are over 7 billion realities (and counting) in existence on Earth today at any given moment, and no one's reality is more or less real than the others. So amidst all of those planes of being, where do we find God? Can a drug trip be a gateway to a greater understanding of the universe, or all we all just hooked on the high of everything this physical world has to offer? 

Sick Birds Die Easy is playing Tuesday April 30th at 11:59pm at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema and Friday May 3rd at 7pm at the Royal Cinema. One of these screenings will feature a surprise musical performance by the film's composer Sam Martin, but no one's saying which show that will be!

Buy advance tickets here or visit www.sickbirdsdieeasy.com for more info. 

Queen & Shaw : The County General featuring Jonathan Goodyear

Last weekend, The County General restaurant teamed up with Top Chef Canada Competitor Jonathan Goodyear to serve up a special six-course tasting menu. Goodyear was joined in the kitchen by Splendido chef and The Country General co-owner Victor Barry to create this exclusive experience. The feature menu was offered for two days only and all the hype had the restaurant fully booked days in advance.

We started off with two of the restaurant's signature cocktails: the County Drive In (pictured on the left) and the Sunday Picnic. For some reason, I always feel a little strange ordering drinks with seemingly arbitrary and overly cutesy names, but these were so good that I'm willing to overlook it and order them again.

The Country Drive In : Bourbon, Lime Juice, Cream Soda - 2oz, $12
The Sunday Picnic : Rum, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Root Beer - 2oz, $12

Hard liquor and soda pop always remind me of the days when my idea of a cocktail was rum & coke, but neither of these drinks taste anything like a high school house party. In both cases, the flavours are perfectly balanced: a little sweet, a little sour, and just the right amount of boozy kick.

It's lucky that I was so into my drink, because the first course took 45 minutes to arrive! Considering we had a reservation and the entire menu was chef's choice, this was a bit frustrating, but at least I was good and hungry by the time the food finally appeared.

I won't describe the food itself in detail since it's no longer available, but here are some photos to give you an idea of what two great chefs can come up with when they put their heads together.

oyster with yukon gold potato puree and potato chip garnish
(you can't see the oyster, but it's hiding under the puree)

salmon and beef nigiri with ginger teriyaki sauce 

crispy tofu with kewpie mayo and apple slaw

chicken with black bean paste, mayo, & cilantro

steamed pork bun with pickled veg & cilantro
(this wasn't included in the prix fixe menu, but was offered as an optional add-on between regular courses)

lamb with fresh chickpeas and pickled onion

beaver tail

The food was good overall, the nigiri and chicken courses were nothing special but the rest was fantastic. I found that the sauces on the nigiri and the amount of rice overwhelmed the flavour of the meats. The chicken itself lacked any seasoning and didn't have much flavour but the black bean paste helped balance it out a bit. The other courses were all delicious and featured a combination of tangy, crispy, and fresh flavours. The pork bun add-on was one of my favourite courses and I'm glad we got them since the portions were not very large and I think I would have been left hungry without that extra little course.

The true disappointment of the evening came when we got the bill. The prix fixe menu was advertised in The Grid and on The Country General twitter feed as $25 per person. I confirmed this price over the phone when I made our reservation; however, when the bill arrived we were charged $29 per person. To make matters worse, when we were sold the extra course we were told the pork buns were $3 each, but on the bill they came to $4 apiece. None of these prices are necessarily unreasonable but I resent the false advertising. I understand that it may have come down to a miscommunication on some level between the many people involved in making the event happen, but it's bad business when a company refuses to acknowledge their advertised prices.

All-in-all, I'm glad we went for the experience. I'm always up for the adventure of a chef's choice menu and I love being able to try a number of different dishes in one meal. The price issues left me with a bad feeling when it comes to customer service at The County General, but I'll probably still go back one day. I've heard good things about their regular menu, and it may be that a shift back to business as usual is all it will take to avoid similar misunderstandings.

Yonge & Carlton : Molly Maxwell Film Review

Written and Directed by : Sara St. Onge

Starring : Lola Tash, Charlie Carrick, Krista Bridges, and Rob Stewart

14A

Molly Maxwell is just your average teenage girl, but in the classrooms of Phoenix Progressive School every student is a "precious snowflake". Shot and set in Toronto, Molly Maxwell takes us into the world of the alternative and artsy west-end teenager. At the risk of failing her extra-curriculars, Molly launches into a last-minute independent study project and manages to wrangle her impossibly sexy English teacher into serving as her staff advisor. The story that follows is a touchingly honest look into their undeniable attraction. Take a look at the trailer below:

Although Molly's experiences may not be those of your average teen, this sweet and simple story manages to capture the universal feeling of being sixteen. Writer/Director Sara St. Onge has created characters we can all relate to, and who remind us of what it was like to feel misunderstood, wise beyond our years, and sexually awakening. The story and characters all shine with a ring of truthfulness and honesty without ever slipping into the overdone cliches of teenage angst and inappropriate love affairs. 

An extra treat for Torontonians is the far too rare opportunity to see our city shine as the setting of a feature film. Locals will be pleased to see scenes filmed in Parkdale, on Toronto Island, and on TTC streetcars. The film also features original music written and performed by Toronto based actor/singer Brendee Green.

 Molly Maxwell is playing a very limited, one-week engagement at the Carlton Cinema until April 25th.

Carlton Cinema

20 Carlton St. 

Daily : 1:25pm, 4:05pm, 6:45pm, 9:05pm

Buy tickets online here

Check out the facebook page here

At Home : 2013 Juno Award Predictions

Just when you thought award season was over, here they come : the 2013 Juno Awards! Once the Hollywood glitterati have put away the red carpets for another year, it's time to give out what is arguably the most prestigious award in Canadian Music. 

Not being particularly gifted in divination, music, or knowledge of popular culture, I can claim no credit for these predictions. They all come courtesy of my very own Canadian musician. His past successful conjectures include predicting the win of Carrie Underwood on American Idol, and that I'm guaranteed to fall asleep before midnight on a Sunday. 

So, without further delay, here are his picks for 2013 Juno Wins :

Juno Fan Choice Award : Metric

Single of the Year : Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe

International Album of the Year : Mumford & Sons - Babel

Album of the Year : Justin Bieber - Believe

Artist of the Year : Justin Bieber

Group of the Year : Metric

Breakthrough Artist of the Year : The Weeknd

Songwriter of the Year : Afie Jurvanen

Alternative Album of the Year : Metric - Synthetica

Pop Album of the Year : Justin Bieber - Believe

Rock Album of the Year : The Tragically Hip - Now for Plan A

These predictions are based primarily on who he thinks was the most popular in the past year. Who got the most radio plays? Who sold the most albums and booked the most concerts? Who is guaranteed to fill an arena with screaming, adoring fans? Whose success took the largest leap forward in 2012?

We'll have to wait until Sunday night to find out if mass popularity and sales records are what Canadian musicians need to win that shiny statuette. 

The 2013 Juno Award Ceremony, hosted by Michael Buble, will feature performances by Metric, Billy Talent, Carly Rae Jepsen, Hannah Georgas, k.d. lang, Mariannas Trench, Serena Ryder, The Sheepdogs, and Buble himself. 

The ceremony will be aired live from the Brandt Centre in Regina on Sunday April 21st at 8pm EST.

Visit www.junoawards.ca for more info, including the full list of nominees. 

Bathurst & Bloor : Aveda Eaton Centre Walk for Water Fundraiser

Last weekend I went to a fundraising party hosted by the staff at Aveda Eaton Centre. The event was to raise money and awareness for the 2013 Aveda Earth Month project. The month of fundraising and promoting culminates in the nation-wide Walk for Water on April 22 2013. This Earth Day, Aveda employees and friends in 16 cities across Canada will walk 6km in the hope of improving clean water and sanitation conditions across the globe. 6km is the average distance a person in East Africa must walk to access clean water.

Last year, the Aveda campaign raised over $529 000 for WaterCan, a Canadian charity dedicated to hygiene education, sanitation, and improved access to clean water. This year, they've up their game and hope to raise $590 000 by the end of April. So far, the project has generated $135 456.07, with the main event still to come.

Walk for Water Toronto will begin and end on April 22 at the Aveda Institute : 125 King Street East.

To donate or to register as a participant in the Water for Water visit www.iwalkforwater.ca or stop by your local Aveda Salon or retail store.

Ossington & Argyle : Rock Lobster Food Co.

The spontaneous decision to eat out on a Tuesday night had me tromping through Parkdale in the rain, well after dark, in search of the perfect last-minute meal. After hearing that the wait time at the ever-cool, ever-popular Grand Electric was (unsurprisingly) at least an hour, we decided to try someplace new. On Ossington, between Queen and Dundas, Rock Lobster Food Co. is serving up maritime classics with an urban twist. 

The menu takes on a real urban-foodie-vibe off the top. The first main course on the list is the fancy-sounding Lobster Cappuccino ($6), which is described as Bisque + Creme Fraiche + Fresh Lobster + Chives. In contrast, the rest of the menu focuses more on seafood staples : oysters ($2.25 each), shrimp (6 for $12), Crab Cluster ($10), and classic Lobster Supper ($39). They also feature homestyle mains with an ocean touch. The Lobster Mac N Cheese ($14) and Lobster Poutine ($13) both feel like a grown-up version of our childhood favourites. For those who prefer the taste of dry land, the chef offers Crispy Maple Pork Belly ($12) and Flank Steak ($14). 

At first glance, the prices seem very reasonable, but the portions are not large. We ordered the Lobster Poutine and the Flank Steak, and since both are heavy in protein and carbs we didn't leave hungry, perhaps just wanting a little bit more. 

Photo by Paul S. Manson

The Lobster Poutine was true to its name. Instead of traditional beef gravy, the fresh-cut fries were coated in just the right amount of lobster bisque gravy, ensuring that the seafood flavour was carried through the entire dish. Generous helpings of lobster and Quebec cheese curds topped it all off to perfection. 

Photo by Paul S. Manson

The Flank Steak is served Medium Rare unless specified otherwise. The steak strips are nestled in next to simple hickory sticks topped with a fried duck egg, and are served with a side of Crown Royal Whiskey Barbecue Sauce. This dish was good, but not great. The steak was tender and flavourful, but it was the kind of simple dish I could easily have made at home. The hickory sticks were addictively crispy but lacked that smokey hickory flavour, and the side sauce didn't differ from classic barbecue. All in all, next time I would stick to the seafood at Rock Lobster, it's definitely what they do best. 

Photo by Paul S. Manson

Desert was delicious and made it relatively easy to overlook the fact that they only offer one desert option. The Whale Tail ($6) is the Rock Lobster version of a Beaver Tail. A generous portion of deep-fried dough is topped with plenty of cinnamon sugar, maple sugar, and creme anglaise. The Whale Tail is sweet enough to satisfy without feeling too rich or heavy. 

The desert is perhaps one of the strongest culinary elements to highlight the restaurant's clear bent toward Canadiana. The servers were both wearing plaid, which managed to be a nod to both Canadian clichés and the west-end hipster uniform. The artwork on the walls feature a Canadian flag, a Canadian postage stamp, and an RCMP officer. Both the atmosphere and the food succeed in emphasizing that you are in the world of homegrown, maritime Canadiana without going over the top with the theme and walking the line between hometown tradition and urban trend.  

Rock Lobster Food Co.

110 Ossington Ave.

416-533-1800

Tuesday - Thursday : 5pm - 12am

Friday - Sunday : 5pm - 2am

Closed Monday

No Reservations