Plastic Surgery

It seems like the only comments i've been getting on my posts are spam from some plastic surgery blog. what the fuck?

Big Update

Its been far to long since I've last posted so I have a lot to report. I have done a lot of eating in the last month or so and and picked up a few dollar bin gems along the way.

Went to The Skyline with Aurora for lunch about a month ago. This place is proud to offer "Affordable Family Dining in Parkdale" or somethig like that which was printed on their menus. The sign outfront is one of the highlights here - an old style neon/light bulb outlined combo in blue and red which is all a big arrow pointing down at the restaurant. Inside the decor is just as classic - a lunch counter at the front with low, round stools topped in red faux-leather red and the same faux-leather covers the bench seating at the booths in the middle of the restaurant.
I had toasted western on brown deluxe. The sandwhich itself was a little below par, the eggs were rather dry, a result of being over cooked i guess. Also, by the time I got to the second half of my sandwhich the bottom piece of toast had become quite soggy, but I suppose that is no fault of this specific sandwhich but more a consequence of any toasted sandwhich with egg on it. A possible solution could be to eat the entire sandwhich first while its still fresh before moving on to whatever else is on your plate, but this is just not my style. I like to alternate fries and sandwhich as I move through a meal. The fries were pretty good, but nothing special. The coleslaw was quite good, suprisingly good actually. Its rare to get good slaw at a diner. I also got a pickle, which was a nice touch. The only other strike against them was that they charged us for a coffee refill. WTF? For some reason after I finished I was filled with regret and wished that I had've gotten a grilled cheese instead. Perhaps next time.

A few weekends later the breakfast tour moved to Mimi's. Mimi's is a tiny little place on Bathurst north of Queen which you've probably walked by dozens of times and never even noticed. Its occupies part of the first floor of the notoriously myseterious 24hr Oak Leaf Steam Baths but has nothing to do with late night male encounters. Mimi's has three small booths, a short counter and a open kithcen. Everything is litteraly packed into that little room. The walls are covered with all kinds of interesting memorabilia - everything from old hockey players, to Fred Eaglesmith posters to old Woody Allen vodka ads. The food here is different that your average greasy spoon - things are much more on the home cooking tip. I had the El Vez omlette which is a filled with chili and topped with melted maple cheddar cheese. The eggs came with a pile of mulitgrain toast and a side of excellent homefries. They also have 10 out of 10 fresh squeezed grapefruit juice which is enough alone to make me a happy man. Eat your heart out Java House. Lots of free coffee refils too.

Been to the Stem twice in the last little while - once with Greenwood and once with Aurora. With Greenwood he had a cheeseburger and I had a BLT. The BLT was ok, but nothing amazing. The bacon was way overcooked, which I'm not a fan of, I like by bacon chewy. Chris said his burger was top notch, which I don't doubt for a second. We spent a good portion of the afternoon shooting the shit and getting hepped up the bottomless coffee cup. A few weeks later Aurora and I hit the Stem for lunch and I had tuna salad on brown toast which also had tomato and lettuce on it. This sandwhich was excellent. Understated and modest tuna salad with a bit of minced celery in there, fresh crispy lettuce and juicy tomato. The Stem's fries were top notch as usual.

Last week we went for lunch at Maggie's and it was a disaster. Other than us there was only one other table of people there and our order took almost 45 minutes. I don't know what the hell they were doing in there but it took way too long. I've been there on a saturday morning when its completely packed and the service is usually pretty fast so this had me quite confused. The english muffin on my eggs florentine was so soggy it seemed it had been sitting under a heat lamp for a while. Looks like the gourmet college street breakfast award has been returned to Aunties and Uncles, I used to like Maggies just as well but now I'm not so sure. Even the decent grapefruit juice wasn't enough to sweeten my sour mood which stuck with me for the rest of the day.

Last week Jon and I went down to Mars for some evening eats and solice. I had a cheeseburger and fries. He just had a coffee and sketched. The atmosphere at Mars is that of a classic 50s diner but apparently it was all installed in the 80s with an attempt to make it look classic. Their lack of honesty here lowers my trust of the place. The cheeseburger was a little unsettling - too much mayonaise combined with the melted processed cheese made for a slimy mess that was all over the place by the time I neared finishing it.

Last weekend an attempt was made to go to People's Foods up on Dupont but it was closed so we settled for the Veata Lunch which was ok, nothing too exciting though and nothing new to report there.

BLT Please

Satuday night was The Gossip show at X-Space. The Gossip were great, lots of fun all around. We Are Wolves were total poo. I just didn't get it, it was so cheesy. They were lucky that i was an all ages show because the audience was eating up everything. I would be curious to see these guys infront of a different audience. French electroclash? What is this, 2003? Also, holy shit Bush League. They sounded so good and brought tons of energy. Funny to see Darren perform infront of a bunch of 16 year old female Gossip fans. He will be the subject of many conversations to their friends "so i went to see The Gossip and this weird band opened and their singer kept putting his head up people shirts and rubbing their heads and trying to dance with people and grind with them." Mikey and I DJed at the afterparty next door. It was a decent time, save for my shit box of a mixer which kept cutting out. I really can't rely on that thing for anymore gigs. As the night wore on the crowd got weirder - lots of odd characters seemed to find their way. I guess the word of late beer spreads quickly.

Next morning (well, afternoon) Aurora and I went searching for breakfast. We made it to the Stem only to be dissapointed by a locked door. The place we decided on after that was Java. She said that she liked the food but I couldn't get my head around it. SO many things wrong. First of all I didn't know it was possible to fuck up a BLT but they did a good job at it. For some reason they fry their bread in butter instead of toasting it, so it has this weird grilled butter taste and odd crunchy texture. The texture makes the sandwhich fall apart when you try to bite it. Also, there was no mayo! What the shit is that? The bacon was too fatty and chewy so when i tried to take a bite the whole piece would pull out of the sandwhich. Also they don't have french fries, only home fries and they were pretty average. I ordered a "Fresh Grapefruit Juice" from the menu for 2.75 and what arrived was just Ocean Spray from a bottle sweetened juice. I suppose it was "fresh" in the sense that the bottle was likely opened in the recent past, but I was dooped into thinking I was getting freshly squeezed.

Later that evening I got a call from Jess and we decided that we should meet up later for a bite. The Vesta Lunch was soon picked as the destination due to its convienent proximity between our respective houses. After scanning the menu I thought that the only right thing to do was order a BLT to cheer me up and renew my faith in the sandwhich after the awful Java meal earlier. We decided since we both were about half hungry that we would order one to split. We go the patrician, which is basically a BLT club style with cheese. The Vesta man (George?) was very nice to us and cut it in half and divided the fries and closeslaw onto two seperate plates for us. The sandwhich was just what I needed, a perfect BLT in every way. The Vesta's fries leave something to the imagination, nothing too exciting and their coleslaw wasn't great either, kinda oily.

The time to get over to the East side for some more diner action is now - Jim's, The Patrician and Gale's are next on the list.

Tonight I have listened to lots of Son House, good late night stuff.

GLA

Was DJing at PostMod last friday and it went really well. Nice to see a packed dance floor all night. I was a little nervous about trying out a few new blends - walk like a hollaback girl and last night a DJ saved my life in herre - but they both went well.

Was down in the Greater London Area on the weekend to see family and friends. Highlights included poker at the Thuss farm, Mackie's at Port Stanley, and thrifting with Mom and Aunt Donna in Cambridge.

Records I got in Cambridge:
The Human League - Dare! (two copies!)
Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby (fantastic Moroder production highlighted by the epic title track which runs the entire length of the first side)
Its Ed Allen Time (great men's workout record from 1965)
I also got a few cassette tapes:
Maestro Fresh Wes - Symphony in Effect (This album is really good, people need to show Wes some love. His music has aged really well - lots of fast breakbeats and fast rhyming.)
Young MC - Stone Cold Rhymin'
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet (oh my, the first side of this is intense - shot through the heart, livin on a prayer and wanted dead or alive)

Caught Bush League last wednesday at the Social. They haven't played in a while but where in top form. Darren is such a good front man; a true performer. It was all guitars this night though - super loud buzzsaws blasting all night. My ears were actually ringing for about 30 minutes after their set, it was pretty intense. I look forward to their set in a few weeks opening for The Gossip.

Got some good records the other day at the rummage sale at the Buddist Temple across the street:
Sesame Disco (the elusive companion to Sesame Street Fever is finally mine, includes future dance floor smash "Me Left Me Cookie at the Disco")
Jimmy Cliff - Reggae Greats
Toots and the Maytals - Reggae Greats
Lee Perry - Reggae Greats
Heart - Little Queen
The Band - Music From Big Pink
The Wrestling Album (WWF stars from 1985 record novelty songs and the like)
There were tons of other good records there that I would have bought if I didn't already have copies of them. The Buddist have good taste.

Now shows us some love

Ben Bowles shows us some love

DITD was good times last week. Lots of people but many of them drawn out back by Thymelesses studly back patio. Not as much dancing as last month but people were still having a good time so its all good.

This morning I was woken at 8am on the dot by roofers banging away next door. Its 1pm now and they're still going. Our kitchen window faces the house next door (landlord's house) that is being re-roofed. Everything that was on the kitchen counter is covered by a fine layer of black dust because the kitchen window was open. Thats great.

Back in the spring I was crate digging at the old Goodwill on Javis at by the pound and came home with a huge stack of records. I was a little suprised that they were a dollar each. No 'by the pound' deal for the records I guess. Last time I was at the Goodwill in London the records were 5 for a dollar or something crazy like that. Thats the price that they have to be if they actually want to move and volume of old records. Anyways, one of the records I got at By The Pound was the song Monday Night Football by Hurt 'Em Bad and the S.C. Band. Now I didn't know anything about this track at the time but bought it based on a few things. Its from 1982 on Profile (cool old school Profile logo) and is called Monday Night Football! Well after giving it a spin when I got it home I discovered that it was mos def worth the $1. The vocal side is rather cheesy as is the case with a lot of old dance records, but the flip is out of control. A huge bumping bass electro funk monster that runs almost ten minutes. Some killer vocoder action comes in near the end to bring things home. Playing this record out a few weeks ago Jason pointed out that i was sampled by Cee-Lo. I think thats what he said. Or maybe Camp-Lo, i'm not sure.

I seem to be getting busier with gigs lately which is nice. On friday I've got a guest set at the Post Mod party at The Lab Lounge. Should be a good time as I'll be playing lots of dance floor stuff that hasn't gotten a burn in a while. Also at the end of Sept. I'm DJing with Dave at the next Shit La Merde party which will be more of the same hotness.

This weekend I'm going down to London for some time with family and friends which I'm really looking forward to. Also I hope to get a chance to do some thrifting...records and clothes and whatever else I can find at the Goodwill.

current song: 9-5 by Lady Sovereign
current waste of my time: Lord of the Rings: Two Towers on our borrowed PS2

UPdate

Well, its been a while since I've posted so I've got a few things to get through.

About a month ago Aurora, Jaime and I found ourselves on the east side looking for a place to eat after checking out some of Old Toronto's architecture during Open Doors Toronto. First we attempted to go to The Canary Diner but it was closed for a film shoot. Then we biked all the way down Cherry Street to the Cherry St. Diner to find it closed also! It looks like it might be closed for good which would be a real shame and a loss to Toronto's diner scene. Anyone know anything more about this? Eventually we ended up on King East at a place called Betty's.
It was a strange place, hard to describe exactly why but it had a real bizzaro feel to it. Like everything was seemingly normal, but just off a bit. The burger that I had was ok, but it seemed a little undercooked which was odd. It had asiago on it which was nice and the patty itself was handmade. The fries were pretty awful - soggy, greasy McCain's.

Two weeks ago a bunch of us went up to Heather's cottage on Lake Muskoka. Aurora, Luca, Heather, Dan Brown and myself drove up in one car and we stopped at Webers
Webers is probably one of Ontario's most famous hamburger stands. Its history dates back to 1963 and when it opened it was the first of its kind on Highway 11. It catered to all of the families who drive north from Toronto to the Muskoka region during the summers. I was sad to find out that some of the other independant burger stands on highway 11 have been closed in favour of chain places. Now Webers is the only original one remaining. The burgers themselves are pretty good - flame grilled and fresh toppings. Also their fries are pretty good. They have this yummy cajun seasoning salt that they put on them. We also got ice cream from the stand next door.

More recently Chris and Scott Ysebert met up with me and I took them to The Stem. Now the Ysebert brothers are respectable burger connoisseurs in their own right and they expected nothing short of a great burger. I considered taking them up to People's Foods but in the essence of time I decided on the Stem. Needless to say the burgers were fantastic and so were the fries. The Stem's fries have this great cripsy batter on them. We discused the importance ratio of patty size to bun size. This combined with proper eating technique prevents topping or patty slippage when approaching the end of the burger. You know what i mean, when the whole thing falls apart and gets on your hands...this didn't happen with the Stem burger. It stays together right to the last bite.

Also, a few weeks ago at a garage sale I picked up a copy of Queen's LP Hot Space. It has Under Pressure on it. There is a big chunk of the record that broke off and is missing so the first two tracks on both sides are unplayable but that doesn't effect Under Pressure as its tucked nicely in on the inside of the record as the last track.

Monster

Was at Monster Records last week. I spent close to an hour going through almost evertying they had and found absolutely nothing. It was amazing. They have so much of nothing there. It seems like they specialize in having non-relevant records of previously relevant bands. For example in the Stones section they had nothing that predated like '75 or something. Basically just all the bad stuff; amazing. This was the case for every band basically. Just lots of really bad rock and pop records from the 70s and 80s. They maintain a very specific aesthetic there. They have an embaressing blues section which is made up mostly of white bands like Powder Blues Band and other equal crap. I don't plan to return there anytime soon as I was thoroughly dissapointed. I need to get back to Around Again as its been a while since I've been there.

Times at The Stem

Went to the stem for breakfast/lunch with Aurora on saturday. The stem is one of the oldest diners in the city, occupying the same narrow Queen Street location since the 50s. As with many of the great diners in the city its run by a Greek family. My dad used to go there all the time back in the 70s when he was playing at the Horseshoe a lot. A few years ago Prairie Oyster was playing at the Shoe and after their soundcheck he went down the street to the Stem to get a sandwhich or something. The same guy who was running the grill 30s years ago was still there and he looked exactly the same. We were able to snag the coveted window booth. The Stem is long and narrow and only has one booth at the front. It offers some of the best people watching on Queen street. There was a woman flying miniature hand-made kites just infront of the restaurant. Aurora got eggs and hash browns. The potatoes weren't that great - kind of cold and unflavoured. I got a hamburger and fries and oh man was it great. The Stem's fries are done in the cripsy style and are really done well. Theit texture is perfect. The burger was great too - fresh, juicy beef patty. They also gave me four (!) pickels - Crazy! The Coffee was also top notch. The burger and fries runs at a pretty standard $5.25.

Vesta Dinner

Friday night Jon and I biked uptown to the truly legendary Toronto diner, The Vesta Lunch. The Vesta has been open 24 hours a day every day since it opened in 1955. It must be one of the most narrow diners in the city as it has no booths, just a lunch counter with stools running paralell to the small open kithcen. The whole place can't be more than 10 feet wide. It proved a good place for Jon and I to regroup our thoughts after each having very long days. There was little talk as he sketched the iconic interior and I focued on my food mostly. Jon got a chocolate milkshake which is quite reasonably priced at $3. He said it was very thick and quite excellent. I ordered the Cheeseburger Deluxe which supposedly came with fries and coleslaw, but I only got fries. Despite the lacking coleslaw the meal was quite excellent. The patty itself was a little on the small side compared to that of say a Friendly's or a People's Food patty but it was still an excellent burger. The fries were quite good too - the 'golden fry' style done quite well. I think it cost me 5.50 or something around there. Also the old guy at the grill was amazing. He looked like he had been waring the same shirt for the last 30 years, not that it was dirty or anything, it wasn't, but his whole style was a complete time capsule. Also the other guy runnin' the place and taking the orders reminded me of the old SNL skit where the guy kept goin' "chesseburger, chesseburger, chesseburger, chesseburger" and so on as thats pretty much all he was sayin as we were there. So in conclusion, the food is decent, the price is good but the Vesta gets full maks for atmosphere.

Electric Phonecall

I recieved a call yesteday from one excited Calvin MacLean. He had found "the holy grail" as he put it - a copy of an Eddy Grant album with Electric Avenue on it. Now I'm sure this album itself isn't all that rare but for whatever reason the search for this album has become a bit of a joke between myself and Calvin. Flashback three years, I'm DJing at the Cat's Eye and he requests the song, I tell him that I don't have it. A few months later I'm DJing there again and he asks for it again and I tell him the same thing. We get into a heated but good natured argument and I tell him that if he ever finds a copy of it that I'll glady play it for him. So then it begins, every time either of us are out shopping or digging thats an album thats on the wish list. To our suprise the song proved quite difficult to find. Who knew that Eddy Grant had so many albums; we discovered that he was infact quite a prolific recording artist desipite the fact that we knew him just for that one hit. So everytime I was at Around Again or Monster or Vintage Sound or Sonic Boom there would be 5 or so of his records, none with Electric Avenue on them. But all that has come to an end. Calvin got the album, he's going to give it to me and I will play it for him. I guess the best venue to play it out will be the next Santa Cruz. Its got a good, but short, drum break intro that will make for a nice, quick mix. I just hope Calvin can make it out for the next SC cause I expect to see him right in the middle of the dance floor.

theme song - Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue (obviously) or John Lennon - (Just Like) Starting Over

Western at Friendly's

Breakfast today at Friendly's with Aurora.
I had a western sandwhich on brown. It was pretty good, good veggies - tomatoes, green pepper, onion. The bread got a little soggy though, but thats to be expected. Friendly's does the "golden french fry" style really well and they were in top form today. The menu said that it came with a "fresh garden salad" but instead I got flavourless cole slaw and an old soggy dill pickle. All things considered their burger is much better than the Western but would be too heavy for the first meal of the day.
Money has been a little tight lately so i haven't been eating out at all the last few weeks.

Last night we saw No Dynamics and Lenin I Shumov at Dovercourt House. Not the best venue for a rock show but the bands were still great. ND still excites me every time I see them. That band is going places; I'm sure of it. I can't wait to hear the stuff that Rob recorded of them. They might be the best band this city has seen since The Sick Lipstick. I can't stop singing their songs.

Big things coming up at the end of the month for Doing It To Death. We're going to be celebrating James Brown's 72nd birthday on April 29th at Thymeless with a special edition of DITD.

the crust of this pizza tastes like melba toast...

Burger Week

Last week turned into a serious burger week for me. I had 4 burgers in 8 days. Now my body is feeling the consequences - I think I'm getting sick.

Anyways, last week, wednesday I believe I met up with Drew and we headed to the Duke of G for the always classic Duke Burger. This is one of the best burgers in the city. The G is one of the only places that I know that makes its own patties by hand. They have that true homemade taste that just doesn't come through in frozen/store bought patties, excellent seasoning. The burger was topped with excellent topping - fresh green leaf lettuce (no iceburg here folks), red tomato and red onion. Also an added bonus is the dill pickle relish. Also, the Duke's fries are superb. Drew and I debated on whether they were fresh hand cut or not, but regardless these are good fries. The Malt Vinegar makes it all that much better. The Duke Burger and Fries goes for about 8 Bucks I believe.

Last night Luca, Heather and I went on a little dinner mission up to Bloor. After a nice stroll around on a temperate spring evening we decided on The Tap due to its genericy. We wanted something honky. They had a banquet burger special goin' last night listed for 6 bux. The topping didn't dissapoint with cheddar cheese and two strips of bacon along with lettuce, tomate, onion and pickle. The toasted bun was nice but the patty itself wasn't that great - very processed taste and texture. The fries weren't that great either - extremely greasy. Luca and I again debated weather they were frozen or fresh cut. We need to get an authority to weigh in on the issue. We had a good time at the Tap playing NTN.

Last weekend in Kingston I ate a burger that wasn't too great at Bubba's. The thin patty was over cooked and crispy around the edges - the toppings were shoddy. But this was to be expected in a place like this. Bubba had the horseracing statellite channel going on the tv, it was good entertainment while I ate my bad burger.

SO, i might be getting sick - gotta lay off the burgers this week and step up the healthy food. But more stops on the diner/burger tour to come including a return to People's Food up on Dupont which Chris and I were at last summer. Its the only other place that I know of that makes their own patties in house. Other places to hit eventually include reviews of the Vesta Lunch and the Stem. Eventually I'll make it over to the east side and head to the New York Cafe Restaurant for their cheeseburger (good memories of last march going there for lunch), and also some places that I have yet to visit.

Friendly's

Was down at Queen and Dovercourt tonight for a vaudville show that Jon's theatre group was in. I had a bit part in their play so was down early to help them set up and stuff. Before the show I strolled down Queen to look for a place to grab some dinner and strolled into Friendly's.
I got their Deluxe Burger Special (fries and cole slaw)
The burger was very good - great sized patty, fresh taste. tomatoes, pickels, onions - decent toppings. The bun was toasted which was a nice touch and it fit the size of the patty which isn't always the case with some places. The Fries were ok, but nothing special. The Cole Slaw was decent, but it was the vinegar style dressing stuff which isn't as great as the creamy style. Also got a dill pickel on the side which was nice. They had certificate that claimed 'best queen st. burger' I'm not sure if that was true but it is definately worth a repeat visit.

Brian's Record Option

Holy Hell!
I was in Kingston on the weekend for a gig at the Grad Club. I spent the better part of the afternoon before the party at Brian's Record Option. This was my first time in Kingston but I had been told to make sure I check out Brian's when I was there. The place seems like total chaos - thousands of records everywhere, but Brian seems to know exactly where everything is. I got some great deals on some rock stuff..
Clash s/t and London Calling
AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Thin Lizzy - Johnny the Fox
Stones - England's Newest Hit Makers
Giorgio Moroder - From Here to Eternity
Eurythmics - Sweet Dream are Made of These
James White and the Blacks - Off White

Also grabbed a few things for doubles routines I'm workin on but those are secrets...

but the real gold mine was the 80s 12"s--
Madonna - Like a Virgin
Madonna - Vogue
Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait (dutch and english versions)
Rolling Stones - Miss You (8 min. disco version which I didn't even know existed)
Eddie Murphy (!) - Party All the Time
Bangels - Walk Like an Egyptian (supadoopa 12 inch edit that I hadn't heard before)
Yaz(oo) - Situation/Only You (standard versions but nice to get 'em on 12 inch as the LP is a little lo-fi)
Kano - Another Life

I could've easily spent an entire day in there as i didn't even really look through the rock stuff and only got about half though the disco section but its best that I left when i did as too much money was spent.

Crazier than a bad of fuckin' angel dust...

A few months ago Jon brought home about 500 records from a house that they cleaned out at Got Junk. At first we were like "oh shit!" this is the greatest thing we've ever seen. But then after going through them for a while we were amazed at how someone with such bad taste could own so many records. They were about 75% Broadway soundtracks, 20% bad bad jazz and 5% other stuff. He even had some James Brown records, but there were the ones from the late 70s and 80s when James had completely fallen off. We guessed that this guy was either a homosexual or a serious musical theatre enthusiast...wait...

stuff that I actually bothered to grab -
Rusty Warren - Songs for Sinners (some 'adult' comedy album from the 50s)
The Bold Humor of Davey Bold
The Best of the Pointer Sisters (eihn)
Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye
Rocky Soundtrack
A Phil Silvers album
James Brown - Jam 1980s, The Original Disco Man (1979) and Body Heat (1976)
Some other crap not even worth mentioning.
SO now we have all these records in our basement and we're not sure what to do with them...many people have dug through them but there's still too many there. Jon says he knows someone who might be willing to take them all. At least there are crates that we can grab.

Ok ok

Well, it seems as though I have negelected The Second Line as of late. Perhaps my initial interest in blogging can be related to when you get a new hobby as a kid - karate, uni cycle, etc. something you're really excited about and then lose interest. I resolve to not let that happen. More regular updates to come.
Lots has happened since I've posted last. Stories to come involving Jonny's 500 (12 crates?) strong record addition to out basement, late night pillaging of an abandoned record store, and a trip to By the Pound with Jess (she bought clothes, I bought records).

Went to see Keb Darge spin at Supermarket last night. more about that later.

Also last weekend was the Wavelength 5th anniversary weekend. After seeing a lot of music I have resolutions to see the following bands as soon as possible: Jon-Rae and the River, Final Fantasy, The Pauls, SS Cardiacs, No Dynamics and the Creeping Nobodies. Yay Toronto!