Northern Soul is a little film by director Elaine Constantine that came and went without so much as a whisper. Released in the UK in 2014, Northern Soul debuted in North America at TIFF in September 2015 and opened to a limited release in October, disappearing the following week. In as much as the […]
Author: Sheryl Kirby
10 Fabulous Fashion Bloggers Who Are Keeping It Weird
So… there are a lot of fashion bloggers out there. And while they all have their own following and style niche, as a Still Weird Gen Xer, I’ve personally found it hard to track down bloggers whose style speaks to me. I can’t recall the number of times I’ve hit someone’s site and had my eyes […]
Book Review – Punk Books For Kids
One of the toughest things for the still weird is explaining to their kids (or grandkids) about punk or the other sub-cultures that remain a big part of our lives. This gets easier with books written specifically for kids, and there are a small handful that do a great job of explaining different aspects of the […]
I’m An Adult Now – Winter Boot Care
Today we’ll be going over how to take care of your winter boots, something that, surprisingly, many people don’t know how to do. Maybe it’s our attitude of fashion being disposable – we don’t care for and repair our clothes, we just buy new ones. But a bit of effort, at least on the waterproofing […]
Book Review – Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s
Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein Lipstick, big hair, floppy shirts and synthesizers. “New wave” was a unique trend that was the conglomeration of many things – punk, post punk, new romanticism, technology and attitude. And in the early 1980s it […]
Chauffeurs, Hairdressers and Tambourine Shakers – Girl in a Band: Tales From the Rock’n’Roll Front Line
I have a great tattoo on my right wrist – a bracelet of cartoon cameos of old Hollywood movie stars, all women. I’ve always wanted to add another bracelet tat just above it – the same concept, only with cameos of the great women of rock (or at least the ones I admire enough to […]
Style Icon – How to Dress Like Miss Fisher
Like a good detective, she managed to slip in without us realizing. The Australian hit series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries starring Essie Davis, based on the books by Kerry Greenwood were, for a time, only available in North America on the small UK-centric streaming service Acorn and select PBS stations. But once Netflix picked it up, […]
Happy Anniversary to the Miniskirt
While it would have happened eventually, a slow burn rather than an explosion, on this day in 1965 the mini skirt had its official debut as worn by model Jean Shrimpton at the Derby Day races in Melbourne, Australia. The invention of the modern day mini is attributed to British designer Mary Quant (there is […]
Book Review – A Treasury of Great Recipes
A Treasury of Great Recipes Mary and Vincent Price Dover Publications; 50 Anv edition, 512 pages You’d hear stories about people finding copies in used book stores. Or thrift shops where an unknowing relative had dumped the belongings of a deceased loved one, never knowing what an actual treasure they were giving away. There was […]
When Style and Art Combine
Most of the people I know who have come out of alternative music scenes also tend to have an alternative sense of style. They work really hard to ensure they look unique, avoiding the mall or mainstream stores, as well as specific sub-culture clichés, in order to rock a look that is all their own. They usually […]
A Letter to Myself on the Occasion of My 47th Birthday
Dear Self, 47, huh? That’s one of those totally irrelevant birthdays that you pretty much just ignore. No milestone, no novelty balloons, probably not even a cake, just you and maybe a loved one out for a nice dinner and home and in bed at a reasonable hour. You could just be easing up to […]
Alo! Alo!
So these are from a visit on July 29th (was sick, then travelling, then sick again… really. Stupid recirculated airplane air.), so the menu at Alo might have completely changed in the meantime, but we were so taken with Chef Patrick Kriss’ lovely new spot at Queen and Spadina that I couldn’t just leave these photos […]
Book Review – Stir
Stir – My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home Jessica Fechtor In February of this year, I got knocked down in the street. A complete accident, it occurred as a woman was stepping out of a shop door and wasn’t watching where she was going. She slammed into my back and sent […]
Smörgåsbord – The Tastes of Hamilton: Brux House and Quatrefoil
Recently my husband Greg and I got to spend a day in Hamilton. For a variety of reasons, we haven’t travelled a lot in the past few years, so a trip – even just as far as Hamilton, even if we had to take a stinky Greyhound, and even if the main purpose was for […]
Review – Fixing Fashion: Rethinking the Way We Make, Market and Buy Our Clothes by Michael Lavergne
Fixing Fashion: Rethinking the Way We Make, Market and Buy Our Clothes by Michael Lavergne There are plenty of books on the market bemoaning the sad state of the mainstream fashion industry from working conditions to the life-cycle of the average fast fashion garment. And while they are all well-written, carefully researched, and offer inspiration to […]
Boralia – Historical Canadian Cuisine for the Modern Palate
Boralia 59 Ossington Avenue 647-351-5100 @Boralia_To Smoke gets in your eyes. Just momentarily, but as we enter Boralia, a server walks past with a dish of mussels smoked in pine needles leaving a waft of wood smoke behind them. It’s a good smell – not just camp-fire-like, but green and woodsy. As other tables order […]
Toronto’s Got Fleas!
While most people will still flock to the mall for their shopping needs, Toronto has a whole sub-culture of individuals who are looking for unique and interesting stuff – whether that’s clothing, food, or gift and decor items – and they’ve been finding these cool and creative wares at one of the many neighbourhood-based flea […]
Chicklit Pulp Fiction – When Novels Are So Bad, They’re Good
I don’t read a lot of pulp novels. There are so many great books being written all the time, it’s all I can do to keep up with new releases while fulfilling my desire for the “must-read” classics. The Corinna Chapman series by Australian author Kerry Greenwood is neither new nor classic, nor especially… good, […]
Taste of Toronto Festival
Toronto may not be included in the Michelin guide, but we’re the only North American city to be part of the Taste Festival series, which visits 22 cities each year, bringing together some of the best local food businesses and restaurants for a weekend-long celebration of cuisine. A well-curated selection of small food businesses (Mad […]
Book Review – Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World’s Greatest Tea by Jeff Koehler
Twice as much tea is sold as “Darjeeling” each year than is grown on the 87 tea estates in the Darjeeling region of India in the Himalaya mountains between Nepal and Bhutan. This “champagne of teas” is much coveted, and factors such as weather, politics and working conditions mean that tea sellers are more than […]
If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked a (Local, Historical, British) Cake – Book Review – A Slice of Britain
I blame Nigel Slater. Were it not for his BBC show back in November, Nigel Slater’s Icing on the Cake (the third in a series that also includes candy and biscuits), I’d never even have heard of Caroline Taggart’s A Slice of Britain. But in his search for British cake, Slater encountered Taggert and her […]
The Introvert’s Guide to Killing Media Clutter
How much media clutter do you experience each day? A few months back, that old guesstimate that we each see around 5000 pieces of advertising each day was revised to be around 300, which makes more sense but is still way too much. Turns out our brains only absorb about half of that… but what […]
The Genuine Marriage Test – And Why I’d Fail
First, an upfront – my marriage isn’t technically “genuine” since Greg and I never bothered with a license. In Canada, common law relationships carry the same legal status as married, so there is no financial benefit to paying for the piece of paper if you are a Canadian citizen. So while we’d immediately set off […]
Review – The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu by Dan Jurafsky
The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu by Dan Jurafsky W. W. Norton & Company, 2014 Fresh. Delicious. Perfectly cooked (oh, how I hate that one). The way we talk about food, especially how it’s described on menus, plays a huge role in how much we’re going to end up paying for those […]
Join Me For Dinner – May 5th at The Depanneur
So the brilliant folks at The Depanneur have started a cool weekly new program called Table Talks where they invite people involved in the Toronto food scene – from farmers and producers to local food writers – to drop by each week for an hour-long informal “around the kitchen table” sort of talk. Owner Len […]
The Girl in Dior by Annie Goetzinger
While it’s often easy to think of fashion as mere frippery, looking back on changing styles reveals a clear indication of society’s attitudes and politics of a particular era. As the western world adjusted to peacetime after a long and terrible war, women were trying to find their new place in society after years of […]
Why We Should Mourn For Worn
The WORN Archive: Fashion Journal about the Art, Ideas, & History of What We Wear Serah-Marie McMahon 416 pages, April 2014, Drawn & Quarterly I’m not sure how I missed the boat when it comes to Worn. I had always sort of known of their existence, but maybe I wrote them off as being a […]
Got Game?
Hey y’all! A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to write a feature on local game meat for Toronto’s weekly indie NOW Magazine. Just adding some linkage here to prove it actually happened. 🙂 Got Game – why more Toronto shops and restaurants don’t offer wild-caught meat. Top 5 places to buy game meat […]
Arthur Elgort’s The Big Picture
The photographs are, of course, iconic. As in, I remember exactly where I was when I opened that September 1991 issue of Vogue to flip to the page of Linda Evangelista kicking that bagpiper (plaids are hot for fall, ladies!). But Arthur Elgort’s The Big Picture (Amazon, Powell’s) is about more than pretty fashion models. Oh, […]
A Little Squirt of Crazy
To begin, an apology to anyone with an anxiety-related mental illness. I have no intention of implying that anyone with an anxiety disorder is “crazy” (which is considered an inappropriate usage) but really, crazy is the only reasonable term I can come up with to describe what I recently experienced. It was a really brief […]
What We Do in the Shadows – Review
For more than two decades, Nicholas Cage’s Vampire’s Kiss has been my hands down favourite vampire movie. But recently, that place of honour has been usurped by a group of flatmates from New Zealand. What We Do In the Shadows is a mockumentary-style film about a group of vampires living together in Wellington, New Zealand. […]
A Food Writer’s Favourite Food Books
If you ask most people, their best-loved books about food are probably cookbooks. They likely don’t actually cook from these tomes but rather consider them light entertainment, to be read in bed, provoking dreams of meals they’ll probably never prepare. As someone who spends most of the day reading and writing about food, books have […]
Billy By Numbers – or – How the Future Fascist State Will Control Us With Free Concert Tickets
1 sweaty t-shirt thrown to a fan in the front row 3 songs from the new album 2 Generation X tracks (one obscure) for the old punks in the house 4 costume changes 1 in-joke (in this case about Gordon Lightfoot and Massey Hall) 12 frisbees tossed into the crowd 2 of the biggest hits […]
Up The Women – Lady-Positive TV
A few days ago, I came across an article on Bust that made me terribly sad. The article was about how women are mostly left out of Superbowl programming and the best we can hope for, if we don’t like football, is a selection of assorted oddities on other channels, including a marathon of Law […]
Chowing Down for Change
Last week I had the chance to attend a fantastic dinner event called Chefs For Change. Yes, there are a variety of these types of events taking place throughout the year, many of which are formal with a high ticket price. However, this very reasonably-priced event ($75, drinks extra) not only directed funds to a […]
Step Away From the Yarn! I Repeat, Step Away From the Yarn!
Alright hipsters, enough is enough. I don’t care if it’s art. I don’t care if it’s all adorably cute… y’all really need to stop with the crocheting/knitting of unnecessary items and find a new hobby. I get it. When you first learn a craft, especially a yarn craft, you’re so excited to make things that […]
Theatre Review – BOOM
In my house, the correct answer to the question “Beatles or Stones?” is “The Kinks”; the defining event of 1969 is not the moon landing but the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family. Which is to say, and is probably said so often I might sound like a broken record, I don’t have a […]
The Not So Secret (And Actually Overtly Sexual) History of Wonder Woman
At the Toronto book signing for Jill Lepore’s The Secret History of Wonder Woman, a guy at the back of the room got up during the Q&A section and asked an elaborate question about a specific story in a specific issue of the comic. Before Lepore could reply, another audience member stood up, vehemently yelled, […]
Lucky Dip – A Selection of Strange and Awesome Stuff – January 15th, 2015
If you’re in Los Angeles, stop by the Los Angeles Public Library and check out the fantastic exhibit From Pop to the Pit: LAPL Photo Collection Celebrates the Los Angeles Music Scene, 1978-1989. Full of photos of some of your favourite bands (especially if you’re a GenXer) from gigs to publicity shots, and encompassing the […]
Book Review – Tasty by John McQuaid
Liver, blue cheese, candy, chili peppers. Some people like these foods, others loathe them. But why? How is it that some humans love sweets but hate hot stuff? How can some beer drinkers go crazy for hops while others prefer nothing but sweet, malty stouts? The secret goes beyond our tongues to our very DNA. […]
Lucky Dip – A Selection of Strange and Awesome Stuff – January 8th, 2015
Tired of space ships and castles? LEGO occasionally opens up their design process and accepts submissions, which people can then vote on. This set of UK birds by bird enthusiast Thomas Poulson was the latest set on offer and the original release sold out on the first day. [Via This Is Colossal]
Awesome Thing – Geraldine’s Parisienne Milk Punch
At the beginning of January, the last thing anybody wants to hear about is milk punch, am I right? Weeks of parties full of cloying egg nog, resolutions to get fit… there is no place in there for a punch made with milk. Or so I thought. On New Year’s Eve the hubbs and I […]
Happy Winter Solstice
To friends and readers far and near, best wishes for a bright and joyous winter solstice. May the cold months offer you rest and renewal, and may your coming year be full of happiness and delight.
Where To Eat in Toronto on Christmas Day – 2014 Edition
You crazy kids have been hitting the 2012 edition of this post so much (there wasn’t one last year), my site stats are going to be pitiful come December 26th. But it seems that there are an awful lot of you out there who have no intention of sitting around with the family wearing those […]
Book Review – Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie and the Advent of Punk
Chris Stein /Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk Chris Stein Rizzoli, 2014, 208 pages Chris love Debbie. If you got to spend your youth with the most beautiful woman in the world, wouldn’t you take a lot of pictures of her? While Chris Stein is well known as the driving musical force behind […]
Book Reviews – Women In Clothes & It’s So You
Women In Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton 2014, Blue Rider Press, 528 pages It’s So You: 35 Women Write About Personal Expression Through Fashion and Style edited by Michelle Tea 2007, Seal Press, 300 pages No matter what we wear, we all think about fashion to some extent, even if it’s […]
Theatre Review – The Stronger Variations
Christmas Eve – a woman walks into a cafe to see her friend, who also happens to be her husband’s mistress, sitting alone at a table. A confrontation ensues – one-sided, in which the wife talks and the mistress listens, reacting only via facial expressions or laughter. The play from 1889 by August Strindberg is […]
People of the 1980s: The Street Fashion Photography of Derek Ridgers and Amy Arbus
When I say 1980s fashion, most people are probably prone to shudder and reply “ugh!” Yes, the 80s were a bad time for mainstream fashion – big hair, big shoulders, jelly bracelets, parachute pants… it was all pretty awful. Which undoubtedly makes it confusing when I then say that the 80s were the best era […]
Smörgåsbord – A Week of Meat at Amsterdam Brewhouse, Canoe and Pork Ninjas
Good luck, bad luck and multi-course dinners with lots of meat – all things that come in threes, apparently, as Greg and I discovered this past week as we tucked in to three very different mighty meaty meals, each amazing in its own way. On Thursday, November 20th, we joined the brewers at Amsterdam Brewhouse […]
Awesome Thing (That I Made!) – Scones That Are Flaky not Cakey
When did flaky scones become a thing? Growing up in Nova Scotia, scones in our house were always fried. We had tea biscuits, which are the closest in texture to what we now refer to as a scone, but they were dense and cakey, never flaky with discernible layers. We had heard of Southern biscuits, […]
Book Review – Eating Delancey – A Celebration of Jewish Food
Eating Delancey: A Celebration of Jewish Food Aaron Rezny and Jordan Schaps Powerhouse Books, 224 pages In olde tymes, publishers would send a hard copy of a book to critics for review. In rare cases, this would be a galley copy, with a weird cerlox binding and double-wide pages, but usually it was something that […]
Awesome Thing (That I Made!) – Feathered Hat Pins
For decades, I wasn’t able to wear hats. The things just didn’t look right on me. Then a year or so ago I changed my hair slightly and all of a sudden, hats looked grand! I celebrated by buying many of the things. Which was suddenly easy because hats had become stylish again. Or at […]
War Stories – The Great War as Seen on Television
Canadians have given more attention to Remembrance Day this year, mostly due to the death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo, the Hamilton-based soldier who was killed last month by a lone shooter who also breached security on Parliament Hill. The death of a soldier defending a cenotaph is most definitely an understandable reason to set aside […]
Here, There, Everywhere Vermeer
The inscrutable Johannes Vermeer – a limited number of photo-realistic paintings, not a great deal of information available about the painter himself (at a time when artists tended to be very proud of the CVs), x-rayed works that show no sketches on the canvas meaning he worked without an outline, and an ongoing furor over […]
Book Review – Stitched Up – The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion
Stitched Up – The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion Tansy E. Hoskins Pluto Press © 2014 Many books over the past few years have detailed the myriad wrongs of the fashion industry. Sweatshops, environmental damage, classism, racism, sizism, misogyny, not to mention the overall affect of rampant consumerism and debt on Western culture – all of […]
Awesome Thing – Halloween Greetings
Back in olde times, Halloween wasn’t the big deal it is today. The trick or treating, the parties, it just wasn’t as prominent. Although, as the ladies above demonstrate, the “sexy” costume dates back to at least the 1920s (honestly, no idea where this image came from or if it’s at all Halloween-related, I just […]
Awesome Thing – 3D Gifs
I hate those 3D glasses at the movies, they give me killer migraines. But it turns out that someone has discovered a way to make gif files look 3D. At the moment, it involves adding two white lines to the image, but here’s hoping that this can be tweaked to apply the technology to images […]
Awesome Thing – Fashion Blows
Anyone who follows fashion will have heard of Isabella Blow, the iconic stylist who was fixture on the UK fashion scene. She was known for her fantastic wardrobe, purchasing Alexander McQueen’s entire 1992 St. Martin’s College MA collection and launching his career. Blow committed suicide in 2007 and her entire wardrobe was sold to another […]
Fixing the Vote – or Why Toronto Needs to Find a Better Way to Choose Its Politicians
It’s the day after election day, and like most people, you’re probably exhausted and feeling full of ennui. After a 10 month campaign, Toronto finally got rid of Rob Ford (sort of, but not really) and chose that other guy, solely because he is not a Ford. The problem is less about our actual politicians, […]
Awesome Thing – Brooches from StoryFolk
Who is your favourite fictional character? Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice? Goldilocks? Romeo and Juliet? Maybe Anna Karenina? Wouldn’t you love to have an adorable brooch with their image on it? Christine Su is the mastermind behind StoryFolk, and creates felt brooches of a vast array of characters from literature, from the gingerbread man […]
The Best of British TV
Best may be a loaded term for a list such as this. Let’s say “best” given my own interests and predilections, which tend to run to the dark, weird, and slightly kooky, as opposed to more mainstream offerings. Because while my preference of UK over US shows is obvious, there are still travesties such […]
Awesome Thing – That Time DEVO was on Square Pegs
Someone posted this yesterday on Facebook and, well, I had to re-post it here and share it with the world. Watching Square Pegs after 30 years is definitely (mostly) cringe-inducing, but the show was such an inspiration, and a weekly does of courage, for anyone who didn’t fit into the standard high school tropes. Plus, […]
Awesome Thing – A Floating Historical Garden
Barges used to make up a large percentage of England’s boats. Used to haul pretty much everything up and down the interior waterways of the UK, the bottoms of these flat boats would be filled with ballast (rocks, earth, etc) to weigh down the vessels when they docked. This ballast was often dumped, leaving behind […]
Smörgåsbord – Nuit Social
Nuit Social 1168 Queen Street West 647-350-6848 While Toronto is generally tired of “small plates” (which were really just a way to charge big prices for not much food), real tapas bars are still a novelty. Ones that pull off an authentic style of service as well as serving great food are even more rare, […]
Awesome Thing – Toy Rebuilds from Professor Morbius
They walk, they talk, they play music. They’re cool and creepy at the same time. They’re the fantastical creations of one Professor Morbius who takes old toys, rebuilds them, steampunks the crap out of them, and sells them at local craft fairs as cool curiosities. Each piece moves, walks, sings, or crawls. All are one […]
Theatre Review – Concord Floral
Do you remember being bullied as a teenager? Pretty much anyone who was ever a victim can probably relate their experiences down to the last detail – the pain, the humiliation, the embarrassment. But what about if you were the bully? By all accounts, the flow of time for bullies is elastic and forgiving, and […]
Awesome Thing – Tibetan Shabaley
The shabaley, which doesn’t seem to exist on the Internets at all, although all of the Tibetan restaurants in Toronto’s Parkdale have their own version, is a heftier cousin to the traditional Tibetan momo. The momo, Tibet’s version of the dumpling, can be steamed or fried, and comes with a variety of fillings, usually vegetable […]
Awesome Thing – the Tourtiere at Victor
With no family nearby and a great fear and loathing of travelling during peak times, the husband and I typically spend the winter Solstice holidays in Toronto, just the two of us. Over the years we have made up our own traditions, which usually includes going out somewhere for dinner on Christmas Eve. Last year […]
Awesome Thing – Nature-Inspired Glassware
I’ve got a bit of a tree theme going on this week, but I was too enamoured of artist and glass blower Brad Copping‘s fantastic glassware, I had to share it. Copping makes these fantastic shot glasses, tumblers and pitchers by shaping molten glass around the end of a tree branch, dusting the outside with […]
Awesome Thing – Scones from Baker & Scone
I am so addicted to the scones at Baker & Scone (693 St. Clair Avenue West) that I have started to make up excuses to go to the Hillcrest neighbourhood. Thankfully there’s often something going on at Wychwood Barns, so it’s easy to make a stop on the corner of Christie and St. Clair West […]
Awesome Thing – Skeletons as Art
I want to be able to tell you all more about today’s Awesome Thing but the URL on the card I got doesn’t mention any work with skeletons or reconstruction. Brian Martland is a Toronto-area artist, but his website hasn’t been updated since 2012. What I can tell you is that I came across this […]
Awesome Thing – Soma’s Birch Branch
Two secrets that I will admit to you about today’s awesome thing – I have been known to break into the log song while cutting slices of this delicious treat. I have also been known to cradle it in my arm like the log lady from Twin Peaks (timely, huh?), except you can’t do that […]
Awesome Thing – Modern Tea Cosies
At first glance, they look like hats. Beautiful, thick, felted wool, with nifty little flowers or fringe at the top. And then Flock of Tea Cosy creator Michaelle McLean pulls one up to reveal a teapot underneath. Or a bodum. For tea drinkers with modern decor, grandma’s knitted tea cosy might look a bit out […]
Awesome Thing – Vintage Glassware
This festive display of fall-themed glassware caught my eye at a recent Annex Flea and drew me to it like a moth to a flame. Sonja Stefanovic of Woo Hoo Decor has a great eye and finds some really cool things that she then passes on to the public (at great prices – the two […]
Film Review – 20,000 Days on Earth
For what I am about to admit, the great Goth council will show up at my door and take away my Goth Card ™. But… I’ve never been a fan of Nick Cave. I appreciate what he does. I understand and respect his influence. But his music has never moved me, and he doesn’t make […]
Awesome Thing – Cashmere Jockstraps
So… being neither a guy, or a jock, I can’t speak to the quality and comfort of the wares of Happenis Jockstraps (Get the play on words? Cute, huh?), but when I came across Phred Stewart and his display at the Etsy Made In Canada event, I had to declare the things awesome. Each jockstrap […]
Awesome Thing – Rose Hot Chocolate
It’s fairly common for rose flavour to appear in tea. But outside of the UK, it seldom appears in candy. To the North American palate, it can go a little soapy. The funny thing is, this hot chocolate mix from Flying Bird Botanicals in Washington state flavoured with vanilla and rose is lush and sweet […]
Awesome Thing – The Adora Belle Pin Up Art of Nic ter Horst
This is another great score from last weekend’s Etsy Made In Canada Day. Illustrator/animator Nic ter Horst was at the event selling prints and copies of her zine, full of the most, well, adorable pin-up art I’ve come across in a long while. Adora Belles features a number of quite adorable characters, two poses to […]
Vive Le Québec Dîner at Biff’s
The Oliver & Bonacini Group is a diverse collection of restaurants, many of which serve a specific niche, and a specific style of food. Biff’s Bistro is well known for their French bistro cuisine, but the food tends to be more France-French than Quebec-French. Fortunately, O&B also gives their chefs creative license to do special […]
Review – Fictitious Dishes by Dinah Fried
The sign of a good writer is whether or not the imagery they commit to the page elicits a response in the reader. Can they make the place, the character, or the event vivid and real to the person reading the story? Oddly, one of the most difficult things for fiction writers to describe is […]
Awesome Thing – Blueberry, Vanilla & Coffee Jam
I know. But it works. No, wait, just listen… it shouldn’t. It should be awful. But it’s not. It’s actually quite lovely. I met Camilla Wynne Ingr of Preservation Society a couple of weeks back at the Well Preserved Kitchen Party event at Harbourfront Centre. She was one of the vendors set up selling various […]
Review – Erasure at Danforth Music Hall – Needs More Vince Clarke
Pared down. While Vince Clarke and Andy Bell showed up and delivered the goods last night at the Danforth Music Hall, long-term fans, and anybody who has seen their previous live shows, would have come away with the same term – pared down. Working with a basic laptop, and occasionally an acoustic guitar, Clarke’s synth […]
Awesome Thing – Fabulous Felted Jewellery
Cute right? Look again… these beaded necklaces are fuzzy! Which makes them even cooler, if you ask me. I came across Sandra Negrete of Azul Nocturno at the Etsy Made In Canada event this past weekend, and I absolutely adore her jewellery made of felted beads. She makes a whole variety of bracelets and necklaces, […]
Exhibit – Politics of Fashion – Fashion of Politics
When you choose your outfit in the morning, do you ever think about the statement you’re making? Sure, what we wears tells the world about who we are, but what about consciously choosing to make a political statement to the world? The latest exhibit at the Design Exchange is all about people who do just […]
Awesome Thing – Charley Harper Pint Glasses
Have you ever come across something that you needed desperately but didn’t know you needed desperately because you didn’t know it existed? For me, that thing was this set of bird glasses by artist Charley Harper. I’ve been a Harper fan for years, and my dream sleeve tattoo (come on, everyone has a dream sleeve […]
Awesome Thing – Chocolate from Sugah!
My wee niece has discerning tastes, so for my birthday recently, she sent Aunty Sheryl something wonderfully awesome – some chocolate bars from Sugah! in Halifax. Sugah! is a confectionery shop on the boardwalk in downtown Halifax, and they make a point of using local ingredients in their unique products whenever possible. Which is how […]
Awesome Thing – Artsy Sunday – Malkovich, A Clockwork Orange, Chalk Art
Some awesome art I’ve come across online this week… Yes, that is actor John Malkovich, recreating the photo of Alfred Hitchcock by Albert Watson. Photographer Sandro Miller teamed up with Malkovich for an exhibit entitled Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich, Homage to Photographic Masters in which the actor poses for recreations of 35 iconic images from American […]
Awesome Thing – Mid-Century Modern Lamp
I’m all up in the mid-century modern decor lately, and I’ve been on the look-out for amazing lamps, ideally in great condition. This baby jumped out at me during a visit to Mrs. Huizenga (28 Roncesvalles Avenue) recently and I decided on the spot that it had to come home with me. At a reasonable […]
Awesome Thing – SOMA’s Calamansi Lime Chocolate Bark
How does that song go? You put the lime in the coconut… If lime and coconut are your thing, then this chocolate bark might also be for you. The awesome folks at SOMA Chocolatemaker have come up with this great combination, pairing the sour/sweet duo of the calamansi lime (sour juice and pulp but a […]
Awesome Thing – Plates Covered in Ants (Sort Of)
Yesterday, my awesome thing involved picnics, so I thought today would be a great day to promote ants. Actually, this plate is the work of German artist Evelyn Bracklow of La Philie. Each piece is handpainted and fired and is available via the artist’s Etsy page. Why it’s awesome: because it’s disconcerting – bugs in […]
Awesome Thing – Well Preserved Picnic Blankets
Last weekend, the husband and I headed down to Well Preserved‘s Home Ec Big Outdoor Kitchen Party event at Harbourfront. It was a wonderful gathering of producers of preserved food, as well as a series of lectures and presentations on the various aspects of preserving. Joel MacCharles and Dana Harrison at Well Preserved have done […]
Awesome Thing – Funky Festive Gourds
Festive gourd season! I know. It brings up images of dusty gourds, arranged in a basket, maybe with some Thanksgiving or Halloween tat to dress it up. But these are not the festive gourds of Grandma’s autumn table setting. These little guys are way cooler. I came across this collection of festive gourds in a […]
Awesome Thing – The Bristol’s Chicken and Waffles
Sure, you can get chicken and waffles lots of place. The southern delicacy is pretty much ubiquitous in Toronto these days and the quality varies greatly. So what makes a dish that has otherwise been done to death stand out? Well, you’ve gotta put your own twist on it. At The Bristol (1087 Queen Street […]
Book Review – Cat Person by Seo Kim
Cat Person is a mostly charming collection of comics by Toronto artist Seo Kim. Full of cute, predominantly autobiographical strips about Kim, her cat Jimmy, her life, and her boyfriend Eddie, the book works either as individual strips, chapters (Jimmy the cat mostly appears in the first chapter titled Jimmy and Me) or an ongoing […]
The Mahvellous Bill Cunningham
Street fashion – and street fashion photography – is now ubiquitous in most cities. Online, there are even niche sites dedicated to older women, people of colour or particular style trends. But most of these blogs tend to simply record what’s out there, and what’s currently hot within mainstream fashion. Here in Toronto, where we’re […]
August Sunset Market – Don’t Miss It!
I made this! Come check it out – free admission, 30 amazing artisans, live performances by violinist Isaac Eng, and a meet and greet with Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow. Plus everyone through the door gets a 2-for-1 pass for our Fall Fashion Festival.
You Can Call Me Shithead
First, some background – I am a fat lady. I am okay with being a fat lady, but like everyone, I need clothing. I am lucky in that I work from home, so I can spend my days in cheap yoga pants and t-shirts, and don’t need a lot of “work clothes”. I’m also lucky […]
When Even Your Food Tries to Food Shame You
Wandering through the frozen food aisle of the supermarket yesterday, I spied something that made me livid. And the more I think about it, the angrier I become. A selection of frozen cupcakes, most with cute and reasonable names until we got to… Cheat Day Chocolate Cupcakes. I know, it’s supposed to be cute. Funny, […]
Book Review – Overwhelmed
Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time Brigid Schulte Harper Collins 2014, 353 pages Busy? Aren’t we all, right? Or maybe… we just think we are. Time management is a skill that very few people are taught as kids, so as adults, we take on more and more responsibilities and succumb […]
My Friend, Steven Davey, aka Frank
I first met Steven Davey, restaurant critic for NOW magazine, more than 10 years ago. I was running a monthly dining group called Gothic Diners in which Toronto Goths gathered for dinner at local restaurants, usually in all their black finery. Davey heard about our group through a friend of a friend and invited Greg […]