Ride On

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I was pretty psyched to see an announcement from Jack White about a month ago saying he was going to reissue Big Sugar‘s classic album Five Hundred Pounds, or 500 Pounds as it was labelled in the US.

It’s one of my favourite albums of all time. It came out over 30 years ago, but I still listen to it regularly. My brother, my dad, and I all picked the song “Wild Ox Moan” when we independently made our 50-best-songs-of-all-time lists fifteen years ago. It was one of the best (and probably one of the two loudest) concerts I’ve ever seen.

It’s a nice feeling that so many more people will get to experience this album, and this band, now. Thanks Jack.

Look, look: an American fox

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Last night we saw American Fiction (imdb | rotten tomatoes) at the Fox Theatre, followed by dinner at Mira Mira.

So, first things first: what an excellent movie. Funny, insightful, multi-layered. Jeffrey Wright was outstanding, but everyone in it was just so strong. I want to watch it again right now.

It was my first time at the Fox, an independent community theatre in the Beaches. Old-school feel, and very much a neighbourhood place. Given the strength of the lineup they have there, I can see us going there a lot.

Mira Mira used to be an ordering mainstay for us, though I think the food was probably coming from their other, now-closed location. This was our first time at the sit-down diner/restaurant though. Pretty good, even though we were in and out quickly because of how late we arrived.

  • Appetizers
    • Ontario burrata w/ warm peach & honey cardamom compote, toasted pistachios, grilled sourdough
    • Cocktails (Negroni, whisky sour)
  • Mains
    • 10oz bone-in Kassler pork chop, brined & smoked w/ sauerkraut, cherry jus
    • seafood bisque w/ saffron, scallops, tiger shrimp, mussels, sweet corn, chives & toasted challah
    • glasses of cab sauv and chard

Fun things I’ve done in the last couple weeks

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  • Went to an extensive Ontario cab franc tasting at Chez Nous. Like, 40-odd different bottles. It would have felt overwhelming if it hadn’t been a dream come true for a CF nerd like me. It also afforded me a chance to ask Ricky + Olivia about their soon-to-open restaurant.
  • Drank some very yummy older wine.
  • Saw Mitski on Superbowl Sunday, her second show in three nights at Massey Hall. Her setlist was heavily weighted to her new album, but there were plenty from previous albums as well. I assumed there would be few if any changes from the previous night’s setlist (there were none, in fact) so I knew I wouldn’t hear “Best American Girl” or “My Body’s Made Of Crushed Little Stars” (I think the chorus from that one is going to keep it out of rotation for a while) but I did get an excellent rendition of “Washing Machine Heart” to close out the night. Emilie Hanskap in The Star does a more eloquent job of describing the concert than I could; suffice it to say it was a pretty landmark show.
  • Finished Doctors and Distillers (goodreads), a book I’ve been slowly reading for months. A really fascinating look at the history of spirits, cocktails, wine, and so on, and how they were used medicinally throughout the ages. I learned a lot, and wanted a lot of cocktails. (Also, I now know the etymology of the word cocktail.)
  • Had dinner & drinks at our friends Shannon & Warren’s place last night. Warren made excellent Detroit-style pizza, and we drank some good wine (probably slightly too much of it) and were sent home with surplus tiramisu.

My pedestrian brushes with Canadian rock royalty

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Some people have stories about opening for or partying with rock stars*. My handful of interactions with Canadian musicians I’ve admired have been significantly more boring. In chronological order:

  • In high school I attended a two-week music camp in Halifax called Summer Rock. In attendance were Joel Plaskett and the rest of Thrush Hermit. I didn’t meet them; they were just there. Also, one of Anne Murray’s kids was in the same music camp, which meant she was there for the final show.
  • At a …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead / Explosions In The Sky show in 2002 Danko Jones tried to push me out of the way so he could see the stage better. The man is very very short.
  • In the year I lived around Yonge & Bloor in Toronto I’d see Geddy Lee a lot, either walking around Rosedale or occasionally at the Varsity movie theatre. I think I exchanged pleasantries with him in the theatre one time.
  • I met Mark Holmes, formerly of Platinum Blonde (though I guess they’re still touring?) when he co-owned the Mod Club in Toronto.
  • At a beer & cheese tasting Lindsay and I sat at a table with Nils Edenloff from The Rural Alberta Advantage. It was the first time I worked up the courage to introduce myself and say what a big fan I was.
  • Because I was a subscriber and donor to the West End Phoenix I’ve traded circulation/delivery-related emails and texts with Dave Bidini who’s the editor-in-chief of the paper, but also a noted author and guitarist/vocalist in the Rheostatics.
  • Dallas Wehrle, bass player for The Constantines, ate dinner in our back yard along with his partner who’s our friend and former colleague.

* I do have a near-miss on this front though: my brother worked with a guy who knew Martin Bulloch from Mogwai, and they got me on the guest list when I saw them in…probably 2001 or so? I thought being on the guest list just meant we had free admission to the show; I didn’t know it also meant I could meet the band. Apparently after we left Marty was wandering around Lee’s Palace looking for us. Dumb Dan. Probably just as well; Mike and I were utterly deaf after that show.

TV is a flat circle

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I’ve been very into the new season of True Detective. I loved season one, which I believe was also early in the McConaissance. Season two was garbage; season three was better.

Part of why I’m liking season four is the linkages to season one. It made me want to go back and watch season one, which I did last week whilst in Moncton. I’d forgotten how good it was.

One other linkage in season four: the appearance of Nivi Pedersen, who I just finished watching in season four of Borgen.

Pretty Polly

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I’m back in New Brunswick for work this week. Actually, as I write this, I’m in Nova Scotia on the farm — I flew down early to spend a few days here with my family and meet my brother’s new puppy, Polly.

We’ve packed in lots of cribbage (on the new board we got my dad for Christmas) and eating. I even got a bonus visit from brother #1 and his family who were skiing not far away — they came for dinner on Saturday night, and then drove back. That was the good. The bad was me totally wiping out on the snow-covered ice between the two houses one night; luckily no major injuries to me, nor to the bottle of wine I was carrying, apart from a slightly-tweaked knee…but that knee has been 10% tweaked since I was a kid anyway. (Thanks a lot, Osgood-Schlatter disease.)

I was also supposed to see my old friend Adam this time around, but the timing didn’t work out. Next time though.

In the next few hours I’ll head to Moncton to avoid the storm that’s meant to hit overnight. I can’t remember my crib record whilst here so I’m just going to go ahead and declare myself the champion.

“A darker grey is breaking through a lighter one”

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I spent three days this week on a quick work trip to two western provinces: Manitoba (where I’ve visited just once) and Saskatchewan (where I’ve never been before). I met up with three colleagues at Pearson airport, and boarded the first of four flights to come in the next 48 hours. It was an Air Canada Express flight, meaning the planes didn’t have screens in the seats, so I got caught up on podcasts.

First on the agenda was Saskatoon. We landed (achievement unlocked: visit all ten provinces), buttoned our coats, and hurriedly walked to the rental car. We’d been dreading the western weather for days — and it was definitely still in the -20s — but luckily arrived just after the worst of it. (The day before it had felt like -48 with the windchill). We grabbed coffee from Museo, then later had fun with colleagues at Mar’s Mini-Golf and Earl’s.

The next day we had a 6:30 flight, so we were all up stupid-early. We were flying to Winnipeg, but because flights in the prairies are non-sensical, one of us had to fly to Calgary first, while the rest of us flew via Vancouver. If you understand Canadian geography at all, you’ll know how insane that is. Anyway, it gave me a chance to watch a movie (Dumb Money) and try out the first two episodes of a new-to-me TV show (For All Mankind). It also gave me a chance to marvel at the snowy BC landscape and see the sun glint off the Rockies, which is always a thrill. However, somewhere along the way I lost my Nexus card, which is going to be a pain in the butt.

We finally arrived in Winnipeg. Same sort of schedule as the Saskatoon: coffee (Thom Bargen, which was excellent), a fun group event (go-carting at Speedworld, which was very fun), and dinner at One Great City brewpub (which had me singing the Weakerthans song of the same name in my head the whole time).

I wish I’d had more (or maybe different?) time in both cities. I have friends in Winnipeg I’d have like to have seen — in hindsight I should have just stayed for the weekend. Then again, the middle of January probably isn’t the right time to spend extra days in cities like that. The crew I was with, who’ve done these trips many times, swear Saskatoon is beautiful in the summer, so maybe someday I’ll aim for that.

Or maybe it’s time to get to work on the territories?

“It’s the most dangerous wine in the world.”

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Earlier this week we went to the Paradise Theatre on Bloor to see the fourth SOMM documentary, Cup Of Salvation. This was a different format than the previous three SOMM films (and most of their Somm TV content) — it followed a father/daughter winemaking team as they sought to (a) make great wine in a war-torn part of Armenia, and (b) smuggle grapes from northern Iran back into Armenia to produce the first high-quality modern wine made from Iranian grapes in more than forty years. The stars of the doc were so charismatic (including the Armenian scenery…my goodness!) that it felt at once light, important, educational, and intriguing…and it made me want a glass of wine very, very much.

And so it was that we walked down the street to Michelin-noted restaurant Giulietta, to see if we could snag a table. Luckily we got the last one, and had a fantastic meal.

  • starters
    • polpo e fagioli (grilled octopus w/ cannellini beans & salsa verde)
    • belgioioso burrata con uva (burrata w/ roasted grapes, vin cotto & grilled sourdough)
    • glasses of Catarratto and Chardonnay
  • mains
    • risotto ai gamberi (riso di carnaroli, Patagonian prawns, tomato, fennel soffritto & herbs)
    • tonnarelli cacio e pepe (traditional long roman pasta, kampot black pepper & pecorino)
    • insalata di radicchio (heirloom radicchio, beets, hazelnuts, white balsamic & ricotta salata)
    • bottle of Godello ‘21 Albamar ‘Ceibo’ from Castilla y Leon
  • dessert
    • glass of Recioto for me
    • glass of Nero d’Avola & espresso for Lindsay

An excellent meal all around. Once again, the tactic of asking the somm what they would drink worked out — that bottle of Godello was stunning.

Faded cities

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We finished season 1 of the board game Pandemic: Legacy today. We began playing it 3.5 years ago, taking some very long breaks in between, but wrapping up the final month yesterday and today. We won, but it was a pyrrhic victory.

We started playing it in the middle of a…well, global pandemic. It was a little on the nose, but it entertained us for ~20 sessions at 2+ hours a pop, so even though you can never play it again (you tear up cards, put stickers on everything, etc., etc.) it feels well worth it. We might pick up another season, but for now we can play the original as often as we want.

[Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash]

2023 Annual Report: Sickness

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It’s worth noting this represents my first annual report since 2019 that wasn’t written in the throes — or at least the wake — of COVID-19. And yet, the theme this year is sickness, since a ton of non-COVID situations really derailed us this year.

First, there’s how we became sick (in the figurative sense) of many aspects of living and commuting in Toronto. From the difficulties of moving around it, to housing prices and various other ills, the city is wearing on us — and on me especially since I’ve been living there 26 years.

Then there’s the literal sicknesses that disrupted a bunch of our plans this year:

  • My reaction to a COVID booster flattened me such that I couldn’t go to a wine club event in May.
  • I got sick immediately after leaving my job in August, just as I was about to begin a month of vacation.
  • Lindsay and I both got sick at different times on a trip to New York, which caused us to miss a Pavement concert, a Broadway show, and a Janelle Monae concert (and skip the Philadelphia portion of the trip altogether, though Lindsay returned later).
  • I got a 24-hour bug while in Moncton that delayed us driving to the farm.
  • During our Christmas visit a norovirus ripped through me and half my family. I spent Christmas Day quarantined in bed.

Despite all this, we did get some modest trips in: New York two times; Nova Scotia in May for my dad’s 80th birthday and again for Christmas; Ottawa in June; and Prince Edward County in July. Still nothing off-continent, but we expect that to change next year.

We did also tack on a few weekends away at the nearby Stratford festival, our first time attending. In addition to discovering new favourite restaurants like Lovage (where are ate four times) and Bluebird, we saw four plays over three visits (Women of the Fur Trade, Richard II, Les Belles Soeurs, and the excellent Frankenstein Revived), while also seeing one in Toronto (the crushing Girls & Boys) and one on Broadway (the Tony-nominated revival of A Doll’s House). We seem to have swapped Niagara visits (only one this year, for a Leaning Post 10th birthday celebration) for drives to Stratford.

I also ended up travelling to the Maritimes several times for work in the fall. After leaving the wine industry in August and taking September off, in October I joined a Moncton-based company; not only am I enjoying the job, it’s given me a great opportunity to see my family more often.

We did also manage to enjoy ourselves in Toronto a bit, with dinners out at restaurants (Gare de l’Est, Richmond Station (twice), George, Greta Solomon, Carisma w/ MLK, Ascari, Ardo, Grey Gardens, and Blue Blood Steakhouse, the lone new Toronto restaurant I tried this year…sad), get-togethers with friends (Shannon & Dallas, CBGB for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving, brunch at White Lily with MLK, and Mike & Heather), and out-of-town visitors (Naakita, Patrick, Naakita + Jess, brother #2 and his wife), and a Jays game. No concerts, but we have two lined up in the first few months of 2024.

Our enjoyment of the year was tempered, though, by the worst sickness of all this year: at the end of February, Kramer suddenly fell ill and we lost him just hours later. It was a devastating blow for a still-young cat who’d come so far since we adopted him, and for Lindsay and I who loved him so dearly. It took weeks for the spontaneous tears to wind down; they still come now and then, even ten months later. That’s the sickness that’s reverberated the most throughout our year. Miss you, Kramer. (and Ayce & Aly too.)

As far as our own sicknesses, I recognize that if the worst that comes from them is a few missed concerts or interrupted vacations, then we have it pretty easy. There’s nothing debilitating or life-altering here. All in all, we continue to be safe, prosperous, and (largely) healthy. For that, we’re grateful.

.:.

Annual reports from past years:

.:.

[Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash]