OH NOES! Toxic Belly Bugs!! – From the Spambox
If you get this email in your spam/inbox, you would be most wise to NOT click on it, but luckily for weirdos like me who live for the bizarre underbellies of the internet, the contents of the mail were a harmless .jpg. I imagine following through on the proposal would link to something far nastier than tummy bugs for your beloved pc.
Are toxic tummy bugs the next wave in shock internet advertising? Remember the attack of the white teeth people? Let me know where you think this is all going.
Bloody Beet Roots break the speakers at the Phoenix – BlogTO
If you were looking for vitamin rich vegetables at the Phoenix when the Bloody Beet Roots rolled through town, then you had come to the wrong place. If you had a hankering for big, bloody, over the top beats, however, then this was indeed the venue you were looking for.
Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo has been crafting his gothabilly EDM luchadore act for a number of years since entering the electro scene with his high-energy remixes, but I get the impression that this was never enough for him. He needs Venom-inspired masks, stage dives, drop kicks, electric baby grand pianos and microphone stands to hurl around. A male fan mounted the stage and it seemed he lost his nerve because before he had time to make the move, Sir Bob, ever the trickster, gleefully made up his mind for him and pushed him over the edge.
Material from his past Dim Mak albums like Romborama, were treated with intense manic energy, cycling from soft piano to high energy EDM stabs, to Rob Zombie-esque psychedelic surf thrash, to full on punk songs. After one particularly epic drop, he rushed back to the piano, only to find it horribly out of tune.
But he played on, feedback and all, until the speakers gave way entirely to crackling feedback. Oh the drama… the horror! Shouldn’t he be terribly embarrassed? OK, so the sound recovered and we realized it was just all just a gimmick, but an incredibly clever one. While the cycle of manic energy became a tad repetitive, if anything, it was a metaphor to say if a routine ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.
Photos by Jesse Ship
Natasha Kudashkina “DOTS” show @ Cabal
Natasha Kudashkina is an award winning visonary artist/body painter/tattoo artist and doer of many things! Check out some shots from last Friday night’s art show. In 2011 she placed second at the North American Body Painting Awards in Dallas, Texas (yes this exists!) In 2011 she placed second at the North American Body Painting Awards in Dallas, Texas (yes, this exists!). She’s also a very funny and lively creature and I’m glad that I know her :)
Max’s Restaurant aka Max’s of Manilla – Canadian Philippine Fashion Week
I went to a press announcement last week for the first ever Canadian Philippine Fashion Week (June 10-15), hosted by the extravagant and eccentric former MTV Philippine’s host and media personality, Jeff Rustia and went home with a lunch box from Max’s Restaurant aka Max’s of Manilla, aka Max’s Chicken (yes all three titles exist in their branding separately. Consolidate guys! ;p) . I’m not as experienced in Philippino food as I’d liek to be and I’ve never heard of Max’s but from what I gather they have quite the following in the community!
The rice came wrapped in paper like a Big Mac, but actually reminded me more of the rice burgers you’d get from fastfood joints in Asia like Mos Burger or, just plain old McD’s even. Adobo chicken with a few chunks of beef and some stir fried noodles both came in tupperware-styled containers. The food didn’t stand out in a big way but it was tasty none the less. You never know who’s going to be attending these media events, so I guess they wanted to keep it safe.
The fashion week it’s self looks quite promising, with major funding from the Philipino telecom giant PLDT, Philippine Airways, Mary Kay and others. Proceeds from the event will all go to the Kol Hope Foundation, a society that Mr. Rustia set up in memory of his own son Kol, who was born with Trisomy-related disabilities and chromosomal disorders.
Pedestrian Sundays return to Kensington for 10th year – BlogTO
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years that Kensington Market has been closing off its major arteries on the last Sunday of the summer months from May to September, allowing music-food-and-fun-loving pedestrians to roam wild and free.
As a resident of the ‘hood, I always look forward to spending the day immersed in some of the city’s richest street culture. Some of yesterday’s highlights had me hunting for great deals at Bungalow’sannual clothing clearance sale, enjoying a Chilean steak sandwich while watching a reggae band play on the rooftop of Zimmerman’s Foodmart and introducing a visiting German friend to Tootsie Rolls outside of Pretty Freedom watching Torontonians attempt to Double Dutch jump rope.
Closing down the day was Samba Elegue, the 20 or-so piece Brazilian marching band, which eventually gave way to hora-dancing hippies and Lemon Bucket Orkestra’s gypsy-folk-klezmer tunes. Jewish wedding? Nope, but the borscht was surely missing, so I made do with Waterfalls Indian Tapas’Aloo Gobi with rice and salad, a hearty deal at $5.00 a serving.
Check out all the photos of the action in the BlogTO Pedestrian Sundays stream.
Canada Philippine Fashion Week
I’ll be at the media announcement for Canada Philippine Fashion week in an hour!
Kol Hope Foundation for Children will serve as the beneficiary of the inaugural launch of Canada Philippine Fashion Week, to be held from Monday, June 10th to Saturday, June 15th, 2013. It also celebrates Philippine Independence Day on the 12th day of June, and is proudly presented by internationally renowned sponsors.
This dazzling week of Filipino fashion, culture, entertainment, and philanthropy, founded by Jeff Rustia, will feature a series of events spread over six days at incredible venues like Roy Thompson Hall and TIFF Bell Lightbox. There will be runway shows by top fashion designers from Canada and the Philippines, legendary exhibits from Fashion Statement of Jose Rizal and a special Mangyan Tribes Exhibit, toFrancis Libiran’s 100 Dress Collection, as well as a spectacular array of Filipino performances, world première film screenings, live music, art and food.
Also note the VIP film screening on Wednesday, June 12th at TIFF Bell Lightbox and fashion show gala on Friday, June 14th at Roy Thompson Hall. Refer to event listing for more details: http://www.canadaphilippinefashionweek.com/schedule/.
Hourglass Sea – Richard III
Everyone once in a while, a new song or artist renews my faith in music blogging. Take for example, Richard III by Hourglass Sea, who uses tags for this tune like popstep (twice even lol) maximalism, and RAW! It sounds like a big old bite off of Rustie, but I am definitely not complaining about that. His tunes have already been picked up by BBC, Diplo, XLR8R and others. The world needs more light-hearted glitch. The full album is coming soon, to a free inbox near you. Let it rain, yo!
Electric Island turns on for Victoria Day techno party – BlogTO
The Toronto Island has had a long history of music festivals, from Toronto’s first Love Ins with the Mariposa folk Festival in the late 60s to most recently Virgin Music Fest in 2009, but the island’s been relatively quiet since. By some strokes of luck and organization, Electric Island was born as a four part summer music series, perhaps dreamt up by the city’s tourism board, to compete with Montreal’s Picnic Electronique?
Regardless, Platform events has stepped up to the plate along with Embrace, and Footwork night club to bring Toronto’s techno-heads a Victoria day to remember with a handful of locals and the larger than life Seth Troxler. Platform’s Jeremy K is here to tell us all about it.
Tell me a bit about Platform.
We’ve been doing events since 2006. Our first was with Adam Beyer at 99 Sudbury on Halloween. We’ve been ramping up our shows every year, and it seems to be every weekend now. Our original goals was to bring bigger acts to the city and create a platform for local up and coming DJs to get in front of a bigger audience, and I think that we’ve achieved that. Electric Island is a vision we’ve had for a while, and the evolution of that original Platform dream because this is a really big stage that people are going to get in front of. Also, we will never repeat any DJs on the line-ups so it will give lots of opportunity for locals.
How did Electric Island come about?
Platform has done an event on this weekend for the last five years and this year we were looking at other options that were available to us. Last year we did the WKD Beach party at Sugar Beach, we do annual community events at Cherry Beach and we also do an annual Bohemian Yacht Club cruise party in Miami during the WMC. This year, we’re working with Embrace and Footwork nightclub to bring it together. Embrace has worked with the city through shows at Fort York, also affiliated with the city, so we decided to jump on the island to do something different this time.
The Toronto Island hasn’t been used for events like this since the Virgin Music Festival in 2009. How did this become available?
I’m not sure why the city was open to us doing it on the island. I know the city doesn’t like people to use other parks due to noise complaints, and some sites on the island aren’t available because the noise could affect the new condo developments, but the Olympic Island site is a little further away, and it’s really set up for events. They have things like onsite washrooms there even. We’re smaller than the Virgin Fest but we’ll have a licensed area. People are welcome to bring blankets and chill on other parts of the park. Some people were talking about bringing badminton gear even to play and that’s totally cool by us, although since we’re licensed, you can’t bring in any outside drinks. But we do want people to come out and enjoy the parks and the island.
I see you have a tasty menu set up for the event.
Yeah, Sliced (650 Bay St.) is going to do the food. The menu looks amazing with a wide variety of stuff from sirloin burgers ($7.00), fish tacos ($8.00), fries ($4.00), to watermelon wedges ($2.00) and handmade fruit popsicles ($3). Their food is all fresh and local, and at the end of the day their food is donated to the Daily Bread food bank. They’re going to bring a grill to make things more like a picnic. People have been asking if they can bring food, and we’re not saying no, but it’s not necessary for people to bring their own.
Tell us about the Electric Island Series.
We’re doing this for the love of it and it’s grown more organically than past events, now that it’s an official event. I think that the passion will translate over, although we don’t have as many acts as some other huge festivals, I don’t think it matters. I think the vibe will be just as good or even better. We’re trying to keep the cost low ($17.50) and make it accessible to everyone but still book some solid names. Since we’re doing four of these, we definitely want people to come back and realize that we’re making an effort to be sustainable.
So what will make the Island so electric on Monday?
Well we have a number of different visuals that we’ll be installing. One artist present will be Christian Skjødt; he’s a VJ who will be doing a back projected visual once it gets dark. He’ll be doing visuals behind the DJ for the last two hours. Lumatronic is a crew that does LED lighting for events like Harvest Festival, Alien Influx etc. They have an LED that’s timed to the music. The whole place will really get electric and light up the whole park.
What kind of sound system will you be using?
We’re really lucky that Sennheiser’s come on board with Moog Audio and they’ve donated this brand new K-Array sound system with a new flat speaker technology. They look like they’re from space and they’re amazing. I saw them in Miami ant a venue called The Villa. I’m really happy that we can use it, it’s also very easy to transport since they fold together and they do go up to 12,000 Watts of bass! We’re so excited that they’re loaning this to us.
How did you get Seth Troxler as a headliner?
He was our headliner for our first Bohemian Yacht Club cruise in Miami, and it was the same year they recorded that video of him with the boat hat on YouTube, hehe. He’s definitely a character with a larger than life personality, and the best selection of music. Caller No. 7 is one of my favourite tracks. When you’re booking a stage show, it’s good to have a guy like that. It’s really cool that he’s kicking off two inaugural events in a row. We’ve also got Nitin (No. 19), My Favourite Robot (My Favourite Robot Records), Nathan Barato (Roots and Wings), Jonathan Rosa (Hot Fingers), and a special guest that we can’t announce yet.
Can you drop any hints?
Nope! But it will be announced later in the weekend.
Damn, ok. How do you feel about the growth in Toronto’s techno scene?
It’s bigger than it’s ever been in the last decade. We’re starting to see the thousands coming out that we had in the earlier Toronto rave scene. I think it’s just going to get bigger. Electronic music has been turned into pop now. Whether that’s good or bad, nobody knows. It depends on how it’s operated and hopefully the heads of our city will keep making it better rather than turning it into something we all hope it doesn’t become, haha.
Photos by Jose and TesseractPhoto
Cove Thirtyone – BlogTO
Cove Thirtyone gets me thinking of The Little Mermaid – or at least a song that you’re bound to get stuck in your head.
“Under the sea, darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, take it from meee” … and take it from Tommy King, a veteran in clubland since the mid-90s with spots like Exit 2 Eden, X-it, and IT Nightclub. Today he’s fixated on Mediterranean locations like Ibiza, Tel Aviv and Mykonos as his latest source of inspiration.
“I was in Ibiza two years ago with my girlfriend and we stopped by the side of the road to go swimming in this cove. The colours and the water were so magical that I knew my next club in Toronto would have this theme.” In case you weren’t sure, a cove is an underwater cave that reveals itself at low tide, engulfed in water when the moon is at its highest point in the sky.
This description lends itself quite well to Cove Thirtyone’s Mercer St. layout. The ground level has an underwater theme with LA-sourced paper thin jellyfish lamps dangling above the booths, green tinted poured concrete for a watery effect, bubbly water decals on parts of the ceiling, and monitors with jellyfish being played in a loop. The bars are outfitted with a beautiful green, gold and aquamarine onyx counter. As a committed club owner, King knows his interior decorating.
Following the sleek 1940s (preserved by order of the city) stairway leads you up to a beachy area, perhaps the cove at low tide, where all the exotic creatures come out to play in the tide pools. Six months were spent creating the grotto-like walls in the upper area, the stucco of which has been sanded to just the perfect texture to contrast the sheep’s wool pillows outfitting the banquettes in the booth areas. Attractive live-edged wood block stools also line the sitting areas
Cove Thirtyone hopes to attract a passionate and creative crowd that enjoys the limelight and the club life they might have experienced in the Mediterranean. If you’re lucky you might get a pass to come back next time with your entry “covered” (cove-covered. Clever, huh?) or even acquire an exclusive lifetime pass, in the form of a sand dollar-fashioned disc.
Additional Details
- BEERS ON TAP:
- None
- SIGNATURE DRINK:
- The Water Goddess, The Berry Cove, The Campari Treasure
- BAR SNACKS:
- Nope
- PATIO:
- Yes
- MUSIC/GENRE:
- Downstairs: 90s, retro, hiphop, commercial. Upstairs: House (vocal, deep, tribal)
- LIVE MUSIC:
- No
- WHO GOES THERE:
- Fashionably attired Ibiza lovers, overflow from neighboring Maison, Sea Punks (Ok, not really)
- HOURS:
- Friday-Saturday 10 pm-3 am.
In search of perfection at the Toronto Wing Festival – BlogTO
One celebrity host, four media-industry judges, 10 restaurants, 600 tickets, three winners and 20,000 wings served. Such was the outcome of the Toronto Wing Festival held at 99 Sudbury.
Our host for the evening, celebrity TV chef, Bob Blumer of the Surreal Gourmet, Glutton For Punishment and World’s Weirdest Restaurants, may not have cooked wings on his show before but he admits, he is “a closet wing fanatic,” at least when it comes to a wing fest. Wasting no time, I dove straight in.
Real Sports Bar had real sports wings. I understand why they won last year’s people’s choice award, and why they won it again this time around. Imagine a coconut-breaded shrimp, but with the batter coating a chicken drumstick instead, and then doused in flavours like Thai Sweet Chili, or Go For Gold (golden barbecue sauce and jalapeno). If you buy them at the bar ($14.99) they are a bit pricier than what you would usually pay, but they are a fairly unique experience nonetheless.
While Real Sports had surprisingly no line, their neighbors Right Wing had a steady flow of traffic, which wasn’t the end of the world. There’s something about waiting in line that is probably good for digestion. Available were a standard Medium BBQ and an anything but standard Exorcist wing flavour. I don’t know how many millions of Scoville units were in the sauce, but I was warned, and given a swag bag just for trying them. Luckily I have had my oral cavities scorched by insanely spicey wings before, so my caution paid off. I took a bite, and waited for the rollercoaster ride to begin. A slow peak lead to a 10-minute ordeal of mouth burning, sweats, while I literally hotfooted on the spot to keep myself sane.
Which is close to the position that I found judge and Canadian media personality, Nobu Adilman of the Food Network’s hit show Food Jammers. “This is actually my first time judging wings, but I have judged chowder before,” he tells me in all seriousness, eyes slightly tearing up from the insanely hot chili of the Exorcist. “I’m an avid eater of wings, but I found it very challenging to keep my hands clean and judge them properly on the score card.” I empathized deeply, as I was having similar issues with my own note taking.
Without crackers to cleanse his palate with, Adilman was forced to resort to…gasp…. beer! “It felt like I was traveling around the world. Some times I thought I was in Asia, other times I was in the Southern US, or eastern Canada. I felt like some chefs were inspired by architecture or design. Like one of the wings actually looked like a 1970s chesterfield, it had that weird plaid texture on it. The one with plantain chips (from the Tilted Kilt) was quite wild, and one even looked like vomit, but I got excited because I wanted to vomit with it, it was like good vomit. It was super hot and super tasty.”
Perhaps they came from Hey, Meatball’s Rod Bowers, who’s wings took home the best ‘exotic’ category for their take on a Korean sauce smothered in scallions, sweet red pepper paste, and Korean hot peppers. The other offerings were their unique Honey Garlic wings marinated in pickled Ontario garlic, wild ramps (a breed of leek), scallions, bacon, and maple syrup instead of honey, for a real Canadian flavour.
They definitely didn’t come from Hooters, who although took home the best in the classic wings category for their Daytona flavour, were skimpy in size (ironic considering it’s Hooters, right?) had a rubbery consistency (well that rings true at least) and were over all mild in flavour with a low sauce saturation in the meat.
The Pour House servers, Av & Dav’s longstanding Irish institution, were dunking their heavy battered Kinsale County wings in either a tangy Raspberry Chipotle sauce bucket that tasted a bit like a raspberry salad dressing, as well as Chili Lime option. Special mentions also must be given toWhistler’s Grille, who boldly went with the underdog dry spice rub, a preparation that tends to give way to a homier flavour, but healthier too, as they were baked in the oven and delicately flavoured.
The event is only in it’s toddler years but some of the big chains were stepping up their games with swag bags from Hard Rock Café, who’s wings were actually exceptionally tangy, and were a winner in the classic section in the year before.
The Toronto Wing Festival will be returning next year, in steroidal proportions, upgrading from a few hundred-person event, to one of a few thousand.
Photos by Morris Lum
