Author: Dan Dickinson

A new hope

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The Raptors won yesterday against the 76ers, staving off the sweep. (Sorry, Shaq.) Despite no team ever coming back from 3-0 down, I’ll keep the faith until the end. This team has earned it.

Meanwhile, my only excitement surrounding the Canadiens has been hoping they finish dead last so they have the best shot at the #1 draft pick.

Apart from the Raps overachievement, most of my excitement lately has been for the start of the Blue Jays season. They look awfully good this year, and they’ve been fun to watch.

And so it goes. One team playing well (and favoured to win it all); one occupying the middle, and one in dead last. Logically, it’s so rare that all your teams would be at the top at the same time. I guess the closest I ever got was 1993:

  • the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup
  • the Blue Jays won their second world series in a row
  • The Edmonton Eskimos (I used to watch way more CFL) won the Grey Cup
  • The New York Knicks (the team I considered my favourite, until the Raptors were created) lost in the Eastern Conference finals to the Bulls

At the time I probably didn’t appreciate how rare all that combined success was.

So, go Jays. And c’mon, Shane Wright.

Meat. Sports. Good.

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Last Saturday I went to my first hockey game since the pre-Omicron home opener. The game was, just like said opener, Leafs against Habs. I’d managed to get my hands on some tickets, so I brought a former colleague who’s a big Leafs fan. We had dinner before at the Hot Stove Club, where we indulged in huge steaks and a 2001 Rioja, which might have been a tiny bit past its peak (no tannin or acid left, just fruit — dried fruit, given the age — and relatively subtle oak, but it hadn’t tipped over into a vegetal note. In retrospect I might have ordered a more delicate cut than my ribeye to match it properly, but we’re niggling now. It was a lovely meal, and chance to catch up. I also got to see Auston Matthews hit fifty goals in his last fifty games, even if it did come at the expense of my team. Nonetheless, a good night all around.

The first rule of flight club

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Earlier this week we joined a handful of other patrons at Chez Nous Wine Bar’s inaugural Flight Club. It involved samples of 11 different Ontario wines (see below) some of which were the acknowledged stars of Niagara, while others snuck up on us.

It was terrific fun, to where Lindsay had to restrain me from excitedly blabbing too much. If this is a monthly event, we’ll happily keep signing up. Though, given how we felt Tuesday morning, we probably won’t share a bottle of wine before we go to the next one. That wasn’t our best call.

The wines:

  • Meldville Muscat Bubble 2020
  • 2027 Cellars Pinot Gris 2020
  • Leaning Post Riesling 2018
  • Flat Rock Gewuztraminer 2020
  • 13th Street Maximum Intervention 2020 (Riesling; orange wine)
  • Big Head Rosé 2020 (Malbec)
  • Westcott Temperance 2020 (Pinot Noir / Gamay)
  • Bachelder “Les Villages” Gamay 2019
  • Malivoire Analog 2020 (Cabernet Franc / Gamay)
  • Ravine “Sand & Gravel” Cabernet Franc 2019
  • Black Bank Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

One year ago

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A year ago today I tested positive for COVID. I’d felt bad for several days, then felt better to the point of being pretty surprised at testing positive, and shortly after the diagnosis went through the worst of it. Our neighbours and their neighbours were a few days ahead of me; Lindsay was a few days behind.

We made it through okay, obviously, but it’s pretty freaky to think about.

Dune

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When I made my list of favourite movies of 2021, Dune (imdb | rotten tomatoes) made the cut. I mentioned that I’d never read any of the books, even though my dad loved them. I decided to change that, and bought — and read — a copy of Dune (goodreads) in February. It was pretty good too — a dense little sci-fi switch-em-up amidst nonfiction.

I also grabbed the second and third books in the series — Dune Messiah and Children Of Dune — for later. Maybe they’ll be a palate cleanser when I finish The Lynching (goodreads) in a week or so.

Two years

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Yesterday, March 18, marked exactly two years since my last day at the office (at my previous company), and, for all intents and purposes, the start of the lockdown for Lindsay and I.

No point rehashing the last two years, but it does feel like we’re now — for better or worse, and perhaps only temporarily — tentatively re-entering the world, at least in Toronto. Last Friday we went to see a (very excellent) Jacqueline Novak comedy show; last night I met up with some old Delano colleagues, one of whom I hadn’t seen in 21 years, at Craft Beer Market, which was pretty much full. On Monday, I start working in the office again, a few days a week.

I hope we can keep things under control. I hope we can restart our social lives in some way without endangering the most vulnerable. Even I, Captain Introvert, crave interaction and dinners out and travel experiences. But not at all costs, so…fingers crossed for safe re-entry.

Mark Lanegan

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I was saddened to read a few weeks ago that Mark Lanegan had died. The Screaming Trees were a huge part of my cliched-but-true grunge-fueled musical awakening, and I’d happily (but a bit gloomily, if I’m honest) consumed the scattered bits of material he released over the past couple decades. Solo material (especially Whiskey For The Holy Ghost; “Borracho” is among my favourite songs of all time, alongside the Trees’ “Julie Paradise”), collaborations with the likes of Isobel Campbell and Duke Garwood, and so on. His voice affected me in a way few could.

Reading this article, I realized that I never actually listened to his influential 1990 solo album The Winding Sheet. Nor did I realize Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic played on it, including on a cover of Lead Belly‘s “In the Pines” (aka “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”) which Nirvana then recorded for their MTV Live album. So there’s a weekend project then. I’m glad I’ll get to discover something from him once again, even after so many years.

Ukraine

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I am watching Chernobyl (imdb | rotten tomatoes) again, probably because Russian troops decided to fire huge guns at a Ukranian nuclear facility several times larger than the afore-mentioned one whose reactor exploded in 1986. Great idea, Russia. Why not flirt with global catastrophe whilst carrying out an illegal invasion?

I must say, while re-watching it, a line in the script from Scherbina struck me, given the current situation:

“This is what has always set our people apart. A thousand years of sacrifice in our veins. And every generation must know its own suffering. I spit on the people who did this, and I curse the price I have to pay. But I’m making my peace with it, now you make yours…because it must be done.”

Staycanndore

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Since I had some Hyatt loyalty points expiring on Dec 31, I used them to book us a little staycation in the city. In fact, back in my old neighbourhood of Yonge & Bloor: a room at the Anndore House. The points bought us a loft for the night, though between a long work day yesterday and an early-ish checkout this morning we didn’t get to spend much time there. We spent most of our time there downstairs, having dinner at Constantine with a friend.

Said dinner was pretty damn good too:

  • Food
    • Lucky Limes oysters
    • Muhammara w/ za’atar, walnut, wood-fired pita
    • ‘Nduja Flatbread w/ ricotta, honey, oregano
    • Burratini w/ coronation grape puree, pickled grape, marinated cherry tomato, pine nut dukkah, focaccia
    • Ricotta Gnocchi w/ Kendall Hills oyster mushroom, chantrelle, Shogun maitake, swiss chard, focaccia crumble, grana padano
    • Lamb Cavatelli w/ broccolini, pepper soffritto, mint pesto, pecorino
  • Wine
    • glasses of Monmarthe ‘Secret de Famille’ Champagne
    • glasses of Pinot Gris and Langhe red
    • a bottle of Chateau Musar 2014
    • glasses of late harvest Riesling

I wanna be your double-axle

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I don’t care at all for figure skating, but as of yesterday I have a favourite figure skater: the Russian athlete who skated to “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges, won the silver medal, and then seemingly quit.

Seventeen-year-old Russian figure skating prodigy Alexandra Trusova earned a silver medal after skating to the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing yesterday. She won the free skate with an impressive routine that saw her attempting five quadruple jumps, but ultimately came in second to her teammate Anna Shcherbakova, who scored better in the short program on Tuesday.

Trusova was not happy with silver, Reuters reports, breaking down in tears before the podium ceremony for the women’s single event. “Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating. I hate it,” she was heard saying. “I hate this sport. I will never skate again. Never.”

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images