Your Victory Garden

I've gotten an early start on the garden this year due to the unseasonably mild march we are having. A few days ago I noticed a few things sprouting up so I knew the ground was thawed and it was time to turn some soil over and plant some cool weather stuff. I had half packets of spinach and radishes so those went in today. On thursday I'm planning to pick up some more cool weather seeds from the Urban Harvest people if they are back at the Dufferin Grove Farmer's Market. This early spring works out well for me as I'm going to be away from April 1st until the 22nd. Thats the normal time for getting spring planting done. Hopefully some of the stuff I put in will survive until I get back. That might be a tough challenge for many of the little sprouting seedlings as there will be no one here to combat the massive slug offensive.

Things look pretty dead out there from the back steps.


But upon closer inspection there is indeed life out there.
Chives-


This is the thing I was most surprised by. Due to our fairly mild winter it looks like two or three spinach plants that I planted last fall have survived and are showing signs of new growth.


The sorrel is also getting an early start.


The rhubarb is peaking through the soil to see what's going on.


Tulips and stone crop.

winter composting

I have been pilling up kitchen scraps and the odd handful of shredded newspaper on my compost pile this winter. We have had lots of snow so far so usually by the time i get another containerful out there the previous one is covered by snow. I don't think my initial pile that was built up in the summer and fall is big enough to stay warm enough to keep breaking down in the winter. But when things start to thaw I will have lots of ready to use compost hopefully and lots of new material for breaking down (the stuff i've been piling out there in the winter.) I'm looking forward to seeing what the pile will look like when things start to thaw and melt. When will that be? Usually not till April i'm thinking. All the snow means that the ground will have lots of moisture this spring which will be good.

A Historic Moment for Quebec

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/07/08/qc-margarine0708.html

Barack

Next friday is Doing it to Death at The Boat. Around this time each month I get excited about what I'm going to play, putting together new playlists, checking out new songs, re-listening to old songs, albums, 45s, etc. I'm not going to need to do any of it this month cause I'm going to be playing this song on repeat all night.


Cocoa Tea - Barack Obama

Carter III

The new Lil Wayne album leaked on the weekend. Two early favourites are the Lollipop b-side, A Milli and Phone Home. The latter is produced by David Banner and is a clever (obviously, its wayne) take on ET. The hook: WEEEE-ZY, PHONE HOME, etc etc etc

Brief end of the year list

UGK - Underground Kingz
Legends return for the comeback of the decade. A deep record that takes some time to
sift through but its worth it. Yeah there's some filler but the gold is serious gold on there. RIP PIMP C

Lil' Wayne - Da Drought 3
Mixtape thats not a mixtape, Wayne is releasing stuff whenever he feels like it. Again,
a lot to sift through and you can say he's not sayin that much which is true but dude's got the best word
play. My favourite moments are when he breaks down into this free form word association
style - look for it! The Crazy version is a misstep though, ah well.

Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Beach Boys are back from the grave

Charlie Louvin - s/t
Living Gospel Legend just keeps going

v/a - Studio One Rub-A-Dub
70s JA, nuff said
v/a - Studio One Dub Vol. 2
again, nuff said

Kanye West - Graduation
His rapping has actually gotten pretty good on this record. Somehow its a
singer/songwriter/folk record mixed with his own brand of emo hip-hop. Everything is
great except Drunk and Hot Girls, just skip that song. Also the Chris Martin collab
isn't bad! Woah

I'm probably missing a lot but from the top of my head this is new stuff I was digging this year.

latex gloves

Next time I go to thrift stores to crate dig I'm bringing a pair of disposable latex gloves. After an hour or so of going through old records your hands are just filthy. Compounded with that is my dry, chapped hands that I get in the winter. Cool yeah?
They will be in my bag at all times as digging opportunities can come up when you least expect it sometimes.

1 for 3

Last tuesday I tried to go to the Belmont Restuarant. This place is up at Yonge and Belmont, just north of Davenport. Its a little lunch counter/coffee place that its the basement of a fairly nondescript lowrise office building. I was up there about a month ago only to find that it was closed for renovations. That day I decided to hear farther up Yonge by jumping on the subway and trecking up to St.Clair. I had lunch at Senior's which is a fancy steakhouse upstairs and a no frills family restaurant/spoon on the mainfloor. I had a tuna sanwhich on brown with a side of fries. Naively I asked for mayo on the sandwhich. Needless to say there was too much mayo as the tuna salad itself was already very mayo heavy. The coffee and fries were nothing memorable either. I would like to come back here some other time to give them another chance though. A burger seems like it might be good here.
Anyways, back to last tuesday. I was disspointed to find that the Belmont was closed again. Also, with no posted hours it was difficult to discern whether they had closed for the day or were just closed. This was around 4pm.
I was feeling ambitious so I decided to head down to the Patrician Grill on King street. This is a place that I'd been meaning to get to for quite a while and now with the warmer, bike friendly weather, the east side isn't so far out of reach.
On my way I stopped to take a few pictures at the magnificenct 70s time warp donut shop that is "Donut World". This place can be found on church just east of yonge.






I biked down Church, to Wellesley, then across Wellesley to Sherbourne, then south on Sherbourne. Moss Park stand up! The Wellesley Restaurant has a nice old sign. I wonder if the neon still works.




Sherbourne and Queen

As was my luck that day by the time I got down to the Patrician it was closed. I got there at 4:55 and it said it closes at 5 on the door. I will get back there soon though. Word is they have good burgers.
By this time I was very hungry and frustrated with my luck. I began biking west on King, with plans to hit the Peter Street Deli at Peter and Richmond. I'm not used to being down on King Street at 5pm on a weekday. Its madness! So many cabs lined up in front of all the big office buildings and bank towers. People everywhere, just off work, whistle gone, wanting to get home. It was around all this pedestrian and street chaos that I began to marvel at the beauty and towering magnificance of the buildings along King here. The art deco stone of the 30s and 40s and the steel modernism of the 50s and 60s. I never really thought to much about these buildings but I have to go back soon when I have more time to check them out.
Here is a quick shot I grabbed of the Bank of Nova Soctia building



The Peter Street Deli is a funny little place. Looks like its quite old but its now owned by a Chinese couple. This arrangement is fairly common amoung old diners. You get "chinese and canadian food" as they always advertise. This usually means bad, bad chinese food and decent sandwhiches and burgers. The Queen Star beside the Drake on Queen st. is very similar to this place. I had a BLT with fries and a coffee. The coffee was pretty bad, tasted stale and bitter, as if the pot had been sitting there all day. The fries were overcooked and of low quality too. But the BLT was out of this world! One of the best I've ever had. I don't know how they did it. It was dead simple, no secret ingredients or anything. One of the keys was the chewy bacon I think, I don't like my bacon crispy. It was just the perfect combination of the chewey bacon, soft, juicy tomato, cripsy iceberg lettuce, crunchy brown toast and oozey mayo that made this BLT perfection. DO IT UP.

Friday

NYC is out of business





Barber Shops at Bloor and Ossington



St. George


On friday I bought a used copy of Paul's Boutique by Beastie Boys. I have had a non-original pressing of the album on vinyl for a while but have always been dissapointed by the low mastering quality of my version. It sounded really bad and quiet. When the Grand Royal double vinyl reissue came and went in '98 I kicked myself for never picking up a copy. That was 8 years ago and it was a limited, one time batch. Well, I got a used copy at Play D vintage on friday and I am a happy man. I'm listening to it now and it sounds so great; everything this record should be. The full sound of the high quality double pressing can't be matched. Needless to say its one of my favoutire records of all time for many reasons and I'm very happy to own it in this superior format.

V for Verses

Today I had lunch at The Stem with Aurora. I ate at friend egg sandwich with cheddar chesse on toasted brown bread. It came with a side of fries and some pickles. I drank 3 cups of coffee, one glass of fresh squeezed OJ and one glass of water. Needless to say everything was great and The Stem continues to not dissapoint. Everything is always consistent there - quick service, concise, dependable menu, great food and great value. It is perhaps the best all around diner in the city.

Something that is not easy to find in Toronto is a good smoked meat sandwich. Now I do admit that my standards are very high after enjoying world class smoked meat at Katz's Deli in NYC's Lower East Side and Montreal's Schwartz's over the last few years. Perhaps this is why I was so dissapointed by the offerings of the Bloor St's Mel's Montreal Dellicatessen. On their menu they make the claim that their smoked meat is directly imported from Montreal. Now this really doesn't mean anything, as it could easily just come from a Montreal supermarket. They also make a big deal about how their meat is handcut against the grain in order to retain juicyness, etc. If you have to go to these lengths to explain how and why your product is so good its probably not actually that good. The places that have the best food are always the most modest. They know the food is good, their customers know its good but they don't brag about it. The Meat at Mel's was cut into slick, smooth slices that looked like ham from a supermarket. There was no noticeble "smoked meat style" texture. I was supremely dissapointed.
Jump ahead to a few months later...the New Yorker Deli. Hidden on Bay St. just south of Bloor I'm sure this is a popular spot with those employeed around here. The "New York" theme is a little kitschy but the sandwiches are fantastic. Definately the best smoked meat I've had in Toronto. Big portions of fatty, tender meat, light rye, yellow mustard and great fries and cole slaw. Its not cheap, I think the aformentioned combo runs around 11 bucks with tax or something, but man is it a nice treat to have once and a while. The New Yorker will have to tide over my smoked meat cravings until I make it back to Montreal or New York.

You Tube

Basically YouTube is killing it right now. Of the moment clip is this live action Simpsons intro that was apparently done as a promo for some network in UK.
Live Action Simpsons Intro

Also on the Simpsons tip is the clip of the cast on Inside the Actors Studio, great stuff. Another recent discovery is the Mr.T be kind to you mother clip.
A few heavies have weighed in on copyright infringement. I think Prince's lawyers have had all his stuff removed. And there are rumours going around that YouTube is on the brink of being shut down all together. So don't walk, run, to your nearest internet browser and watch all the amazing clips you never thought you'd see. I spent hours watching all kinds of rare music stuff - The Meters, James Brown, Funkadelic, Jacko, Velvet Underground, Stones and I mean this is just scratching the surface. There is so much weirdo 80s tv kitsch (see Mr.T thing as noted above). You can also watch full episodes of current TV shows and it seems like people are uploading sports highlights and stuff soon after their are airing.

Queen Street Man

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=60615&cdate=20060109

I saw this back in Decemeber at the Joke Club that I DJed at.  I had tried looking for it a while ago on the internet with no success but it seem that someone has now posted it.  ITS FUNNY.

Tims

Tim Horton's has been going downhill for the last few years in several areas.  Firstly, their blue berry fritters used to be my doughnut of choice up until about two years ago when then, for no apparent reason, completely switched things up.  They still had a blueberry fritter but it was no longer the odd shaped ball of blueberry studded dough with a shot of blueberry filling in the middle.  The new look fritter wasn't a fritter at all.  What they now have is more like a dutchie with blueberries instead of raisins.  The apple fritter soon followed suit to this new look doughnut.  Why the change Tims?

My other primary beef with the Horton's has been the constant and gradual reduction in size of their muffins over the years.  The current offered muffin is a shadow of its former self in the size category.  Now, I've heard something about how when Tims opened in the States, they had to reduce the size of their muffins in order to reduce the fat content of them so they could meet some FDA rule about fat content in muffins.  I really don't know what this is all about but needless to say they sure don't make 'em like they used to.  Now Coffee Time, there's a big muffin for ya.  But you have to watch out that they're not too stale as CT isn't quite up to Tim's freshness standards.

 

Powered By Qumana

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.