Happy PRIDE everyone!

Last weekend I enjoyed the Toronto PRIDE festival. Although the weather was on and off w/scattered showers all week, overall the weather was great for the weekend.

Friday
On Friday, I got my SBF and another friend to see a comedy show called 'HOMO NIGHT IN CANADA', hosted by the B-Girlz. For those of you know don't know who the B-Girlz are, they're a very popular Canadian drag queen group. They are involved in Film and Television, Theatre, Festivals, and Cabaret shows. This night was fundraising for the Inside OUT queer movie festival as well as another group that i don't remember.

Most of the comedians were hilarious. It was great to be in a queer positive room where the jokes about every stereotype were made with queer references flying left right and centre. It was great! I was busting a gut throughout. It will be impossible to deliver the jokes over a blog, so you'll have to trust me. Here's a few lines paraphrasesd that made me laugh, however i'm sure it was a "had to be there moment".

1. "Are there any vegans in the house?" "...or is it you don't have the energy to put your hands up."
2. "What's with vegan cookies? Word of advice: Just becuase it LOOKS like a cookie, doesn't mean it will taste like a cookie. You need a LIQUID to keep it together ... looks like I'll need to order a pitcher of saliva to wash down those tasty treats"
3. "When i left to move to Toronto, it took me half as long to get over my bf then when we were actually dating.. so that was saturday afternoon"
4. "Twinks! Stop metabolizing!"
5. "It's so great to be at a queer positive space for a change. I'm used to performing at straight clubs where after the show these straight men ask, 'So are you REALLY gay??' (shrugs) I now have a response for them: 'No, actually I'm just still full from eating the last pussy" (under breath)"and a little SODOMY on the side!" :)

So yeah, it was good times indeed. The B-Girlz also had a few skits of their own, which were also hilarious. I have never seen them before and didn't think they would be THIS funny. Perhaps when I first saw them a few years ago I wasn't as deep into the queer culture as i am now, so i missed some of the embedded humour. They aired their "Toronto! Toronto!" promo movie, which was made to help attract people back to Toronto after SARS, West Nile etc. It was great! I was (again) busting a gut. Check out the trailer, or look online for the full version.

Saturday
On Saturday I was down enjoying the festivities on Church. The weather was fantastic and the energy was bubbling. I was super happy to see families down (gay or straight parents) on Church celebrating as well. It gave me that "warm and fuzzy" feeling inside :P. I spent the first bit by myself walking down church, allowing me to check out what i wanted and go at my own pace. The street food was also great- put to gay people to not just have hot dogs, but roasted corn, jamican cuisine, venecin, grilled chicken/vegetarian fajitas and home baked carrot cakes as options! As expected with the gay community, I ran into a bunch of people during my stroll. I even ran into 2 friends from Waterloo! It was great to see them out and to catch up on what they were doing.. 'Course, that just leads to a "we should get toegether sometime" type talk, and more dinner / coffee dates to schedule. It will be a busy summer indeed! :)

After meeting up with some friends we headed to see my SBF perform on stage. He was with Swingin' OUT, a Toronto-based queer swing group. It was so much fun! They had choreographed a number of pieces as well as taking a few moments to explain the history and type of dance they were performing. It was eduational and entertaining!

At night I went to a hotel party held by a wicked lesbian couple. We see them once a year (PRIDEs). Gotta love those hibernating lesbians. The hotel party was super cool b/c one of the ppl who I met there just graduated from Laurier Psychology! She was AMAZING! She had hilarous weed stories to share. She smoked up and devoured food with the best of us :). My friend put it best when he said:

"Excuse me darling, we 3 fags are taking applications for a Fag Hag... and YOU'RE the one chosen for the position!"

The party got really big as ppl kept coming and coming and coming. By about 11 a handful of us left to go to the clubs. By this time the lines were tremendous so we just chose a place and lined up.. for over an hour! Oi. Ah well. The music was pretty fun, being gay top 40 stuff -- from DIRRTY to Barbie Girl to Shiny Disco Ball! (We decided not to go with the usual gay circuit music this time around).

Sunday
On Sunday I actually skipped the parade. Heh. I was on the TTC right before and it was great b/c at least half of the riders were queer people! It was great to see a guy with his arm over his bf's shoulders on the car. I'm still too terrified to get the guts to do something like that, and i commend those who did so (even though it WAS during PRIDE :P). I wish we had our own queer car that ran say every hour, with good old gay music and rainbow colours. We'd employ the only 3-4 hot TTC guys/girls employed by the TTC to run it, accepting grahpically designed queer TTC cards to get on. I'm sure if we had that it would just become a moving circuit party though! :P

I did hear it was very big @ 1 Million people, and lots of families who came out to enjoy it as well. Isn't that great? I also read that it wasn't as risque as other years -- did anyone see it? What did you think?

Some Thoughts
My experience here just reminded me of how much more i need to stay in touch with the community. It's hard b/c i have to make a consious effort to keep active. Just sitting back will just pull me back to the regular straight status quo. It's a part of me that I have to keep active, yearing to come out (no pun intended). Sure, it has its SERIOUS down falls; I know you're saying, "What about dealing with all the saucy queens, drama, more drama, uber drugs/sex and more drama?" I say, "It'll give me more juicy stories and things to complain about w/my friends!" :) :)

May be it will involve working in the community for a year or so to "get it out of me", or perhaps just hanging out with some of those gay friends that i've lost touch with (okok let's not get ahead of ourselves here - of course not ALL of them). We'll see.

Happy Pride!

RE

"Eat drink and be merry"

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Answer to WiWCC: Spadina / Bloor area (specifically Spadina and Sussex)
Congrats Adam!

I just got back from a "new kidz" initiation at work. It was reminescent of frosh week, but not as vulgar :). There have been 4 new hires since the new year, and the other youger co-workers made us participate in the scavenger hunt / social night downtown with them.

The scavenger hunt was pretty funny, b/c it involved things like "Ask (a balding guy at work) if he's ever considered a toupee" or "does (IT services lady) or (Marketing Director) weigh more? By how much?" to "Ask (CEO of company) "What do you do all day??".

The inside joke was that everyone in the office knew we were doing this, but pretending like they didn't. Those bastards!! Anyway, today was the last day fo the scavenger hunt and tonight we had a BBQ and then went out to see Evil Dead: The Musical (1&2). It was based on the Evil Dead movie series (you know, the last of the series was Army of Darkness). It was great. It was at the playhouse by bathurst and bloor, hot as hell on the inside. What was funny was that getting a beer ($4.50) was only a buck fifty more then getting a water!! ($3.00). Crazy eh? It was toally packed solid. There were also lots of really hot artsy guys and girls there -- totally a type of guy that I haven't been surrounded in for some time (at least not as concentrated). Em, slightly beefy, black rimmed glasses, black shirt, short Gel / Pommade hairstyle kind of guys.

Anyway the musical was hilarious. It had the B-movie excessive gore horror that we all know and love. They have 'spray seats' where you could get hit with blood... and they're weren't kidding about that! What also made me love the musical was how it reminded me of the movie when i saw it. All the memories (and of joy) came flooding in, when i used to watch it with an old elementary school friend of mine....THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!!

Afterwards we got out to the bar. We ended up at Fez, which is near the GAP on Queen and Peter. It had some good music, and a set down memory lane ("Pump up the jam", "Mo money mo problems" for example!). What was also great was how cool the cooworkers are w/weed. That's right ladies and gentlemen, i was a least a litle baked since about 7 PM... And for the record, it is 2:45 AM and I am STILL AWAKE! Despite a few scares, i am still conscious and breathing :).

On my rant about my alert and awake state of mind, I am now off to bed. It's the big PRIDE weekend, so good times are ahead!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"

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Special Entry Supplement! Can you figure out WiWCC? (Where I Went Camera Crazy?)



...Answer coming soon..

On Saturday I went down to the Chester and Danforth area with a few friends. When i got there, the first words that came out of my mouth were: "THIS is where I want to live!!". I walk out and am surrounded by amazing restaurant after restaurant, (organic) cafes, nik nack stores, and a few used CDs stores. What more can i ask for? :)

After being overwhelmed with the number of resaturants, we decided to hit the patio on Pappas Grill. The food was great, eating succulent greek style lemon chicken, marinated with rosemary. The accompanying veggies were also very tastey, and not the run of the mill "seamed tasteless veggies" kind.

We went for a late afternoon/early dinner "dinner", at around 4:00. I find that when we go out for dinner at say 6:30, we don't meet until 7, get started at 7:30, then before you know it we're past 9 and you wonder where the time went. Plus, I always feel the need to go walking afterward, and by this time most shops are closed. This way, we got started at around 4:45 PM, finshed by 6 PM and had tons of time after to go around walking, and hitting an great cafe for some great tea and great chats afterwards.

More Rationale
My afternoon down by the Danforth only made me want to live there even more. There's just so much life in the area, with a touch of sofistication minus pretention. It's also quite queer friendly and very diverse (not just sexual, but ethnic/racial too). You can also walk a bit south and hit some great parks, and even further to the beaches. It's also very close to the subway and easy to commute to my job (just take the Pape bus north), which will help erraticate the reliance of a car. PLUS, SBF lives in the area as well (uber bonus!!)

I don't know how long the "charm" will last, but all i ask is for at last one full year there! It is an area of town that I know much less of, compared to places like Queen/Spadina, Annex/Kensington, Yonge/Wellesley. It would be great to live and learn a new vibrant area.

My one reservation is groceries. I'm not sure where the nearest grocery centre is, but i'm sure there's got to be one either north or south of danforth. Where would everyone get their food? The last thing I want to do is subway to get groceries. This reminds me of when i was living at Waterloo and my friend and I would make bus runs to Zhers. In Waterloo, you can ride unlimited for the full hour while your transfer is valid -- being "economically conscious" students, we would take the bus there (20 mins) get food (20-25 mins) and get back on the bus so we could save putting in another $2 ticket. It was quite the system! Anyway, I'm not too keen on doing that again!

I can't wait until my buddy from kingston comes back to Toronto. Then i can seriously start looking in the area and putting my money (well, what's actually saved up) where my mouth is to look at houses for rent. And what's also great is that his gf and her roomate will be in the area as well! They're both amazing women -- One of which I already have a music bond with! She rocks!

Soon soon soon soon...

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry

CAR ACCIDENT!

Yep, I was in a small parking lot accident. Yep, Miss Mazda got a sweet dinger on her right door. It was quite the doozy.

I was pulling a right inside the parking lot when someone parked pulled out and turned right as well, with this left bumper nailing the side of my door. It only felt like a small nick at first, but when I went to look it was HUGE!

Because it was in a parking lot and we were both turning, it was hard to put fault on either of us. I did try and say it was a bit more his fault, but he wouldn’t give in J. I thought I’d try J. We split the cost 50/50 and didn’t go through insurance to save on premiums. Arugh. That was a sign for me to drive LESS. So I’m taking the TTC as much as I can from now on. It’s been great so far since I can read on the subway/bus and don’t have issues of what the hell to do with Miss Mazda when I go downtown after work.

NXNE

Over the weekend I volunteered at the NXNE (North by North East) music festival. This is an annual music conference and festival in Toronto. This year there were 26 venues and about 400 artists playing. By day there was a conference at downtown hotel with panelists from the industry talking and giving advice about (what else) the industry.

I was assigned The Free Times Café, which was a venue that I’ve played a few times with my band. It was the “singer/songwriter” w/o bands venue, which basically meant solo acts all night.

There were artists coming from as far as Tennessee, North Carolina and Michigan. Not bad eh? The Nashville artists were great, although one was a little on the country side for me. I was there for 3 nights total (Thursday – Saturday) from 8 PM – 2 AM. There were 5 acts a night, starting at eight, resulting in a total of 15 acts over the weekend. I saw anything from airy female singers, to country/blues to folk/pop and everything in between.

One of the most interesting performers was one which described herself as “Americana, Punk and Blues”. I must say it was one of the more unique performances I have EVER seen! How many singer/songwriters wear cowboy hats, do front kicks, yodel and yell at the top of their lungs in one set? THIS ONE!*

One of the highlights was a guy named Will Hawkins coming in from Brooklyn, which I’d say has a Bob Dylan sound sprinkled with Bruce Springsteen on top. He was great. I could totally see myself listening to his music over the cottage. I can’t wait to hear what his full band material sounds like. During his set there was a women who bought his CD and was a movie producer wnating to collaborate for her next film!

I got in a short conversation with him, and he was telling me how he worked straight out of university, only to lose it after 4 years to start being a professional musician. He worked at a recording studio with 10-11 hour days. Playing more music and recording in a studio after 11 hours were the last things on his mind! He regrets working and losing those 4 years in the name of “stability” and succumbing to the social and parental pressures coming out of university. Course his advice to me was (paraphrasing) “There’s always bills to pay, and people to please. You’ve got to do you what love and everything else will fall into place from there”.

Geeze, he’s got a point, doesn’t he? There will always be bills to pay and people to please. At least I don’t have any dependants nor in a dire financial situation, so I can make a decision on my own free will - there's just the stress of social status and the shoulders of expectations to meet and exceed. I guess it’s the reverse, since I’m so privileged to be relatively financially stable. Am I doing what I love full time? No. Do I at least enjoy what i'm doing right now? Sometimes. Is there a dire or passion to put my talents somewhere else? Yep. Do I have leads or am aware of what steps to take to pursue my passion on the next level? Not really.

So that’s where I have to start. NXNE was GREAT in that I was surrounded by so many music lovers and musicians. It was incredible. The major difference in me and all of them was that I was in a stable "career". Most were doing PT jobs, contract jobs, artist freelance work or in school. I think I’ll be in this job for about a year, and while I’m here I’m going to save $$ and keep building those contacts. There are so many opportunities in downtown Toronto to meet more people in the music community, whether they be “connected” or not. I’ve already met some great people at NXNE. I just want to be a part of music more than just once a week with my band. As I did mention before, I’m going to start taking some vocal coaching this summer, followed by some more guitar schooling in the fall – I really need to learn some more theory to improve my technical skills. And of course going to as many concerts (whether large or small) as possible! :)

Take care,

RE

“Eat drink and be merry”

*you may need to brighten the video a bit – I have it low res to save space.

Now for part II.

The last half of May was lots of fun as well. During the week I went with SBF to a Loblaws Hand's On Cooking Class :). It was right by my work, so I could easily go straight from work.

Of course, SBF and I were the only 2 guys there, enjoying company from women between the ages of 25-45. On this class we were taught by a musician / caterer extrordinaire, teaching these classes for a few years now. Although she was Korean, she totally reminded of my ex-girlfriend in another 10 years. When she gave a little background about her life (graduated with a BA in music) I couldn't help but smile. I bet it was Piano*!! :P She also has similar mannerisms as her as well! Heh. ANYWAY...

For this evening, we made a whole slew of hors d'oeurves. Most of the dishes were Asian inspired, so I had an idea of where she was coming from when cooking/preparing the food (i.e. GARLIC!! GINGER!! GREEN ONION!! PAN FRY BABY!!). Here's a list of a few things we made (we broke into teams to make them):

-Crab, Vege, Pork, Beef Potstickers (what a fusion-funky name for fried dumpling!)
- Cajun shrimp
- Creole Lime Crab Cakes
- Vege Quesadillias (basically Asian stir-fry veggies w/cheese in mini-tortillas)
- Smoked Salmon Wraps
- Sweet Potato-Leek Pancakes
- A variety of sauces to go with them: Jalaeno chili, soy/balsamic, mango/plum, others..

Overall the dishes were easy to make and quite good. It's always amazing w/these kinds of dinner b/c you never think you'll get full, then suddenly you're stuffed and you don't know what you ate! I really enjoyed the mango/plum sauce w/pot stickers. It was a funny combo to try, but the salty/sweet taste worked quite nicely. There was even a dash of cilantro in it, which in most cases would have equalled disaster. But this time it was bareable, however I would sub in parsely instead if i made it myself.

I liked how this was a "hands on" class, rather than sitting and watching someone else give instructions you're gonna forget. It's not like i'll remember everything we did, but at least I actually made some the dishes. I could totally pull off doing these again sometime (no, this is not an open invite for me to make you food :P).

MAY 24
One of the other big things that happned was my May 24 weekend at my cottage! It was the first time i've gone up this year, and boy I wish i had been up sooner. Unfortunately the weather (just like everywere else in Southern Ontario) was crap, but at least I got to get out of the city for a bit an breathe some fresh(er) air, and may be some stars too!

In addition to SBF, 2 other friends came in from Kingston. I haven't seen them since I went to visit just before i started my new job. Boy, that seems like EONS ago, seeing how i feel like i've been at my job for a long time now. It was a very chill weekend, and that was exactly what I needed. My job was been VERY intense, the most intenst job i've ever had. It took me a 1/2 day just to unwind, but thanks to the company I could let go and get back to my roots. I wish some of my other friends could have made it, but b/c of the short notice and lack of rides they were unable to make it. There's always other cottage runs right?

Over the weekend we had some camera fun. I brought up my digital camera and this cool tripod that I got for my bday. What else to do but take a ridiculous amount of photos of everyone and everything!? I have a few very cool panoramic pictures of my cottage - when i look at it i feel like i'm right there!

More Camera Fun
We also spend a very good chunk of the evening taking funky night pictures using a flashlight and an open shutter. I kept the shutter open for a long time and let everyone do funky things the flashlight. Here's a few for your enjoyment:





We also drew out names w/the flashlight in the air. Here's one with my friend's names ALMOST completed -guess the name :). For the other we drew out "love" backwards and I had to go into photoshop and flip it.. course, while i was already in the program I had to add in a few layers and filters :)





Cottage Indulgence
As with all cottage runs, we had a FEAST for dinner. We made mandarin spinach salad, BBQ grilled chicken breast and rice. For dessert we had hot apple crumble pie. It was fantastic. For the following breakfast we had eggs w/green onions, bacon, a fresh French bread loaf, hot oven baked coissants (plain and milk-chocolate filled), hot tea biscuits (cheese as well as a sugar coated kind), and hashbrown! For dessert we had these INCREDIBLE pecan cookies. One of my friends works at a fine French cheese / bakery shoppe and kindly brought some baked goods over!

What a weekend! Sounds like all we did was eat and play with the camera. Damn right :). Well we did watch a movie and play some scrabble, battleship and SBF even gave us a Tarot reading. My reading on the first night was freakishly bang on, knowing how my job is eat away at me.. The cards gave a different perspetive on my job, as well as flagging a few things I had forgot about. It was one of those "WHAT? Now way, those cards are wrong, hahaha... [ponder].. [internalize]..[mild panic].. [no, don't publicize the panic]..[oh shit, it's right].. [i can't belive this]..[composure]..[deep breath].. [begin talking w/outside voice:] "Well guys, on second thought, there MAY be a legitimate cause for this insight" :) :)

Musical Growth .. maybe.. :)
I also had a great gig on May 31, with a VERY good turnout. It was much bigger than I had expected. Getting back on stage was great, but also showed me that i can't keep doing this w/o putting more effort on developing myself as a musician and with this band. I don't do much we'll just plateau at this stage and I don't want to be doing the same thing for the next 5 years. So i made a few calls and i've worked out a plan for personal musical development. There's a few things i'm considering, and the first is GETTING some LESSONS! Because I don't have the time / budget to have lessons on both voice and guitar, I thought I would go for one first and take it from there. I made a call for lessons on my voice and i just need to call back to confirm the set of lessons. It will be a great first step for me to develop my voice. I've also been trying to get the band in gear to keep the gas going this summer. Since I do the same sort of thing for clients at my job, I should do the same thing here! So we're going for weekly practices and attempts at recording bed tracks (drums, bass, guitars) if the pratice is going well.

On the other front i'm looking at volunteering as a kids music workshop, playing with kids aged 5 to make instruments out of fun materials to perform this summer. It will be a way to be in music as well as helping out inner city kids. I'll also be volunteering at North By North East in afew weeks, which i'm very excited about. I'm going to another meeting this weekend to discuss the event in more detail, and i'll be meeting up with so many other musicians. I may even find my band some other leads and meet some very cool ppl. I can't wait to be part of the festival and help out when i can!

Wow, i'm writing a lot here :). I hope some of you made it! Congrats!!
Now June approaches. More updates to come, like THE CAR ACCIDENT I WAS IN!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"



*FYI: My ex-girlfriend from OAC was a truely gifted piano player.