Can You Hear Me Now?

Thursday I got up early to shower, dress, pack, and be ready to check out of my hotel when my cousin Sherry came to get me around around 11:00 a.m. I was leaving downtown Toronto sniffffffff for the small town of Acton, about an hour NW of Toronto. It was relaxing with family time!

Sherry asked me if I had been to Port Credit since I had lived there (Port Credit is about a 20 minute Go-Train ride from downtown Toronto and where I lived about half the time during the 3 years I lived in Toronto). I hadn’t, so she decided that’s where we’d be heading for a drive!

We passed by my old apartment, the main floor of a two level duplex. It hit me that my address there was 1-11 Mississauga Road… and my hotel for the past 6 nights had been Room 111. (Insert eerie music).

We NEVER locked our doors when I lived here. NEVER. I still can’t believe we did that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday morning I was able to sleep in a bit (I think the cleaning staff had finally learned that knocking on my door at 9:30 a.m. was not the smartest idea. No “Do Not Disturb” signs there). After I showered and dressed I decided to call Katherine at the Orange Record Label to say hello and find out if she would be at the Mod Club to see Lindy that night. I missed her earlier because she had been out of town for a few days. We chatted for a bit and she asked “do you want me to put you on the guest list for tonight?” Hmmmm, silly question! Ha ha Katherine had a stagette to attend that night, but hoped to pop in during Lindy for a little while.

I took myself out for lunch to a little restaurant called “Taro Grill” on Queen Street and had the Chicken Yummy Sandwich (and it was!) I sat out on their patio in the sun for awhile. I can’t get over the great weather Toronto had that week. After a bit of a walk I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in my room.

The doors at the Mod Club opened at 8:00 I was told, and remembering the lack of seating on Saturday, I wanted to be there right when the doors opened to be sure to get a table. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday was a very quiet day I spent resting in my hotel room. It was around this time I realized I would not be making a visit to Paramount Pictures to catch up with my old boss there. (It’s not like we keep in touch anyway… but I thought it might be nice to see him and say “hello” if I had a chance, like I did last time in 1997). With my busy nights, I just did not have the energy to get up and go every day and spend hours gallivanting around Toronto (not to mention my ankle was shot and walking was a bother) and then head out for the night again (plus, on Thursday I was checking out and heading to Acton to stay at my cousin’s, a good hour outside of Toronto)… So I dropped some of the plans I’d hoped on, like visiting Paramount and tracking down my old friend Keith and meeting up with him, as well as my friend Blair and the drummer boy. I decided to stick with meeting up with the people who had also made efforts/shown interest in seeing me too! The most I did this day was wander out to buy a gossip magazine so I could have something to entertain me for part of the day between “Ellen” and “Oprah”. I have never read “In Touch” magazine before, and most likely never will again LOL Tooo funny, the shit they come up with… I also made phone calls to arrange to meet with my cousins later, and for dinner with Jerome. He suggested we meet at “The Jug”, which was “right beside Grossman’s” (where he was playing later and I was most certainly going!) Read the rest of this entry »

So now it is Sunday (the 19th). Saturday was a long day with a lot of walking and activity, so I took it easy Sunday. Needed to conserve energy for the next few nights!! I did wander up to Queen Street again and enjoyed coffee and lunch at ‘Still’ again, and enjoyed the sun for a couple hours in the afternoon.

I got in touch with my dear old friend Anna-Marie and we decided to get together for a bit that night. I met Anna-Marie when I was about 19, and she is now married with two young boys. She picked me up (she looks fantastic) and after hugs and kisses, we headed down to The Danforth to a pub I had read about in “Where Toronto” magazine as “one of Toronto’s most popular hangouts” called Allen’s. I was very happy to see I could get my Big Rock Grasshopper beer there! I ordered their chicken curry dish and it was DELICIOUS. We just spent a couple hours there yakking, about her kids and marriage and the wedding she was preparing to attend Saturday. I never got to meet her boys… this was not the best week for Anna-Marie as she was super busy, but next time I come I will probably stay with her part of the time and get to know the boys. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m going to do this in parts…- upload an entry every day or so until I have written out most of the details. This will give me a chance to make sure I don’t forget things, and give my friends who read this a chance to read it in bits and pieces over the week. I have a tendency to ramble (me??) and want to get all the details in. Except a few choice private bits that friends will only hear over the phone or in person. Heh. This will be a novel by the time I’m finished! I don’t want to forget anything though, so bear with me…

The trip didn’t start OFF very well, but at least that wasn’t an indication of the rest of it!! The first thing was my flight being over an hour late. When I finally arrived in Toronto, I could not find my cousin Carrie. I was driven to the baggage claim on this little Jetsgo cart and was told anyone meeting me would be there. Well, I got my walker and balanced my luggage on it, all the while looking for my cousin. I waited over half an hour after getting my luggage and did not see her, so I assumed maybe because my flight was so late she wasn’t able to meet me after all, and had no way of letting me know that. So I went outside, grabbed a cab, and went to my hotel on my own. I called my mom when I got there, and it turned out Carrie was still at the airport looking for me, and she had called her mom in Winnipeg who in turn called my mom… and everyone was all worried. I felt TERRIBLE, but I had waited and looked for her too! I have no idea how we missed each other! Arghhh. Read the rest of this entry »

That title puts that song by The La’s in my head! Hmmmm wonder if I have it on my computer…. yup! Okay, it’s on.

Today is the BIG DAY! Toronto, here I come! I can’t believe the day is here already… seems like I have been looking forward to it for so long. Now it is HERE. So I arrive tonight and my cousin Carrie is meeting me at the airport (sooooooo happy she was able to!!) and we will cab it to my hotel. I guess it depends how I’m feeling… I am on a clock that is two hours earlier, and I’ll probably be pretty pumped, so maybe we’ll go for a drink or something. If Carrie is up for it; she works so damn hard she may not be. She is… this amazing girl who earned a double major in 4 years at the U of W with a GPO of 4.0 and was hunted down to go to school in Toronto and THEY are paying HER to take THEIR Master’s program. I remember receiving emails from her during the many months she was over in India working on missionaries with Mother Theresa-type groups. Anyway, she is brilliant, and I can’t wait to see her and catch up and hear her stories!

As for the rest of my plans for my oh-so-exciting trip, they involve a whole-lotta live music, meeting up with old friends, and relaxing with my cousins and their families. I’m not going to get into details until I get back, because my exact whereabouts every single day is just TOO much information for the stalkers who may be reading this. Hee!

I’m 99% packed… Mandy is on her way over soon to say g’bye, then I’ll finish up anything I have left to do and pray that I didn’t forget anything! I’m just happy everything on my list fit into my 2 little suitcases.

No Kitchen Radio for OVER A WEEK!!! HOW WILL I SURVIVE!!!!!!!!

If I find the time at an internet cafe or something over the next week, I may pop in and update. Since I can’t handwrite in a journal, I have no other way to keep a “travel diary” and I don’t want to forget a thing! Ahhhh a laptop would be handy right about now…

Wheeeeeeeeee! I’m outta here!!!!!

It’s C-Jazz Festival time in Calgary again! I love music festivals of any kind, but this one in particular I enjoy because a) it’s FREE, b) it’s downtown and easy for me to get to, and c) jazz has, over the years, found a way to dig itself a comfortable place into the depths of my soul (and CD collection). I am loving it more and more all the time. My Stepdad gave me some inquisitive looks when he recently saw I have CD’s by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Chet Baker on my shelf. I think he was impressed!

I have always loved the Blues… thanks in part to Jerome Godboo who I met 18 years ago when he fronted The Phantoms, the Toronto in-yo-face blues rock band I worked with in the late 80’s. Blues and Jazz tend to go together, and falling right beside them is swing and big band…

Remember the 1989 Canadian movie “Bye Bye Blues” with Rebecca Jenkins and Michael Ontkean? No? Well, I sure do, and I bought that soundtrack and played it CONSTANTLY and sang along with every word and decided I was born in the wrong era. I was SUPPOSED to be a singer in a Big Band in the 40’s!! Hmmm maybe I was, if you believe in reincarnation like me.

In the mid 90’s I made a friend who enjoyed going to see live jazz. Yay! We frequented Mona’s Kitchen to see The Swinging Bovines and The Beat Niq (where I first saw/heard Jason Valleau. More on him later). The Beat Niq still thrives as the best live jazz venue in Calgary.

A few years ago I had a bookkeeping client who enjoyed his wine (a little TOO much, as I soon found out)… and “work” would turn into hanging out in his living room, drinking wine and listening to Chet Baker. Ahhhhhhhhh CHET!!! That became my new obsession. That client didn’t stick around too long (he was crazy… this is an example of a typical 3:00 a.m. message he would leave on my machine ha ha ha I HAD TO SAVE SOME, they still crack me up to this day) but my love for Chet Baker’s music did not go anywhere, it just grew.

Next came The Polyjesters. Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!! My friend Christine worked at a pub they played at one night, and she cleverly decided everyone needed their CD for Christmas. She gave me one, and while listening, I thought… I KNOW that voice… and went to their website. As soon as I saw his face I realized it was “that guy I saw playing the stand up bass and doing a KICK ASS impression (of his Dad doing an impression) of Louis Armstrong” at The Beat Niq all those years ago. Jason Valleau… the single most talented human being on the face of this earth (in my oh-so-humble opinion). Seriously.

The Polyjesters mix it all together… “swingin’ folk chunk” they call it. They are my absolute most favourite band on the planet, no question. Once I saw them live a couple years ago, after Christine gave me that CD (for which I will forever be grateful) I never looked back! It doesn’t hurt that they are incredibly fun and personable, on stage and off. There isn’t much, if anything, that makes me happier than a Polyjester gig (and now we have Kitchen Radio to tide me over between Polytours. I fear I may never leave my computer).

Last year I attended the Jazz Festival to catch The Polyjesters. When I arrived at Olympic Plaza, I caught the last half of Johnny Summer’s set. I was VERY impressed, this kid reminded me of a young Chet Baker. Only cuter ha ha ha (someone recently referred to me as “lover of all things musical and guys who are cute”. He hit the nail right on the head with that one!) Anyway, Johnny is one hell of a trumpet player and smooooooooth vocalist. I chatted with him a bit afterwards and he spoke the words to me every woman (or maybe just me?) wants to hear… “We will be doing a tribute to Chet Baker in a couple months…” droooooool I attended that tribute, and Johnny Summers shot right up to the top of my favourite musical performers list immediately! His version of “My Funny Valentine” had me so dizzy I thought poor Cara was going to have to peel me up from the floor.

This year the Jazz Festival brought me out to see Steve Pineo at Murrieta’s Friday night. I first saw Steve Pineo about 14 years ago… when he opened for The Phantoms! (Yeah, I’m old). Anyway, I have been following his career since then. He’s another one that mixes it all together… you will find him at the Folk Festival, Blues and Roots Festival, and/or the Jazz Festival any given year. Blues, rock, country, swing, folk, jazz… he does it all. He is the songwriter behind Paul Brandt’s hit “Canadian Man”. The only website I can ever find for him is this very outdated one HERE. “Perfectly Good Friendship” is one of my favourite CD’s, and on Friday I picked up his new one “Around The Horn”. Good fun!

Yesterday I went to Olympic Plaza to take in some more. It was a gorgeous day (as opposed to Day Two last year, when I was the only person besides the volunteers sitting there freezing my ass off in the cold wind and rain watching Steve Pineo! Hardcore, I am) I went to see Tim Tamashiro with Johnny Summers and they put on a great show as was expected!

So what’s next for me on the jazz/blues/swing front… well, Jerome’s CD release party while I am in Toronto (as well as many other non-bluesy jazzy live performances I’m taking in!) and shortly after I return, The Polyjesters will be releasing their new CD!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Watch for it!!!

Ghazi burst my bubble when he started talking about his ex and their daughter. ACK!!! He’s not gay!!!

That’s okay, he is forgiven, ’cause he does great hair. I love it! Donna has funky hair for once in her life!

Heading out to show it off now with the girls. Ciao!