Jun 21, 2009

buddha bar

After spending a couple minutes remembering (or completely learning) how to work the tape player ever so conveniently located on my stereo, here we are. Honestly, about 9 hours or so ago, I forgot I owned it. But I do, and do I ever. Now I listen.

Our day begun with a mist hugging our city ever since the sun rose. Due to the fact that I woke up around eleven, that is complete guesswork. Steph warned me that she'd accidentally sleep in (is this making sense?) so I met up with her on the interweb to confirm plans once she too, rose.

My first destination was her place to sweep her up from Holly Hill and walk to Mack's for a (second, for me) lunch with Julienne (sp), and Alex was also there. We obviously had fresh salad with almonds and strawberries to compliment our foreign spread which I forget the name of completely, but maybe it began with a T? Smoothies too. Mack's father was into his golf and very into our lunch concoctions as well. This I liked. "Where's your hummus, Mack?"


This is an introduction to something I will have weekly throughout the summer. I'll be posting photos of fun meals to make or snacks to snack if I think of something that you will enjoy. So this, fellow youth, was delicious.

1. Grilled cheese on brown Weight Watcher's bread
2. Steamed rice with ground pepper to taste
3. Chunks? Shapes? ...of cucumber

Never have I heard anyone refer to hummus as it belongs to one person specifically. Where's the hummus. Where's your hummus? Get your hummus because someone may steal it from you and spread it on their 12 pack of multi grain wraps! If you go to Mack's, with this comes hummus. So keep this in mind anytime you want to have a party in your mouth.

Implied footnote: Is the word hummus beginning to look a lot like humans to you?

Greg came over too so him, Steph, Mack, Julienne (again, sp), Alex and I ran for the appropriately priced... Burlington transit. We saw Kate too. Hi Kate: I know you are reading this. We love your noo bloo shoo's. Upon arriving downtown, we also appropriately saw Mr. Ball drive by!!?? after sitting in a damp park for a little. We also saw Mack's older brother who essentially is Mack.

USS had started by the time we got there but we were reassured that it was okay because they needed the first couple songs to warm up - bull shit, they were on fire. That sounds lame on paper, or on line I guess, but it was a reference to how hyperactive they were. It was almost, almost overwhelming. I mean, their set consisted of standing on tall things and therefore making the crowd, or myself, a newbie, concerned for his safety, jumping (no brackets needed), eyes rolling into head while eyelids are fluttering (no sexual undertone though kids), grunting (are you in pain sir?), smoothie making (I'm talking full banana peeling and orange juice pouring and blending until smooth or desired consistency), and cardboard cut outs of Ellen Degeneres, David Suzuki, Barack Obama and Bob Marley. Of course?

I'm not sure if there's a band today that does, or has appealed to absolutely all of their listeners, but there are bands that come real close. I'm not sure if everyone was in love with USS that was present, but I suppose I was one of the ones who didn't really care for their creations. I appreciate their dedication and their passion for what they do, but the product of it all just didn't click with me. "I feel like I'm in Japan."

Right after we walked along the lake and sat on the metal benches that "encourage good posture." We talked of the dreams we had the previous night and then waited for the bus to head back in time to catch the train at the time of which I cannot remember. We discussed Michael Jackson's ability to sing the role of both male and female. We discussed the Mississauga ghetto. We discussed that night Mack got jumped. We got off the bus at Fortinos.

Mack, Julienne (the letters S and P are my best friend now), Steph and I walked home to Mack's and inserted the best pizza you'll ever have into the oven and filled our time with barbecue chips (and tried to define wtf chips are) and M and J's drumming and bassing, if that is a word. Somewhat later than we expected, we took the piazaz to go and ran through the creek, the muddiest thing you'll ever experience, to the GO station and had about a minute to wait. Mack was not present, but as the train was rolling in, he had his own personal marathon running up the stairs to the platform while that heroic song we all know was playing, in our minds of course. Although, Appleby GO has been doing some lifelong renovations so maybe they installed speakers for inspirational jingles that we were unaware of until now.

Sweaty like pigs, the pizza that was being thrown against the walls of my innards was slowly but absolutely surely beginning to digest. Insert many outbreaks into song and dance. J got off at Clarkson and had an hour and a half bikeride, uphill, ahead of him. Oh, GOD NO. That was painful to hear.

Insert more spontaneous oral instrumentation periods and we are at Union; the fastest train ride to Toronto, I noted. Following our God, Mack, he lead us to the subway where the obviously overworked and underpaid boothsman told me to listen to him and not Mack who was apparently giving the wrong(?) instructions as to how to use the TTC. Okay.

I won't lie, the subway scared the craps out of me at first, and I thank The Brave One with Jodi Foster's heroic female role for my crapping, so thanks Jode. I don't want to get shot today. 

Again, following Mack we transferred to another line and got off at Ossington where we unknowingly walked 20 minutes in the opposite, misty direction. All well though, children. We asked a man in all denim if we were facing North and turned Southwards upon the answering that we were not hoping for, but expected. It was 9ish.

Walking down Ossington, we found College, took a right, and contacted Steph's Mike to see whereabouts the venue was: The Smiling Buddha, 961 College. We immediately saw Warren and friends (hi Warren) just outside, talked for a few and sat down at a table and couch. It was such a nice, homey bar. Nice furniture, paintings, lighting, people. It was very relaxed. Lakeriser was warming up when we got there around 9:30 so it was hard to hear, and this is when Steph intro'd Mack and I to Mike. Mack, Mike. Mike, Mack.

Since I covered Mack's, well, cover fee, he bought the first pitcher. Cold beers is such a rare occasion for me for some reason, so this was nice. Lakeriser played first, whom consisted of 7 people, including a cellist; it was bigger than my body. Warren as Foxes in Fiction played second, and I don't think I can depict the performance with words. All I feel I can do is refer you to his blog, although it's so much different in person. It's more about the live experience over the soothing sounds in your bedroom with the dimmed lighting, I feel. Third was Paper Saw, the band in which Warren is also apart of. They, honestly, were nothing like I had heard before. Just when I thought I could define them or compare them, I lost it. These two bands, especially, stood alone. Blew me away. So impressed and grateful that I got the opportunity to see them at last, as Steph and I suck at finding our ways in Hamilton.

Warren was handing out mixtapes he made of Foxes in Fiction; Mack took 2, I took 1.



We all talked for a little and realized that it was now just after 12 and the last train left at 43 after. I thanked Warren for the tape and we fast-walked back to the Ossington station and crashed. Humidity! Again, realizing the time, now 12:45, we had missed the last route home. Thank you again, God-Mack, for remembering about the GO buses that left Union. The next one westwards was at 1:30, so we took a small walk around the area in the incalculable temperature, being reminded of the time Jesse and I walked down Lakeshore to the Sound Academy for Broken Social Scene in November. I was done!

I slept on the bus. A good night. We made a pact that we'd do this again soon and my (unusually young) cab driver arrived and took me home and I assured him to keep the change.

How dare my family order Chinese without me!

4 comments:

  1. Had you never been on the subway before?

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  2. the air is very heavy down there.

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  3. I really like your blog, you've got a really captivating writing style.
    Thanks for linking + writing about my weird music. I may hire you to write a 'descriptive blurb' for my MySpace someday. :D
    It was awesome seeing you guys. Enjoy the cassettes!

    ReplyDelete