New Year’s Eve Dance Party at The Velvet Underground
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone was doing exactly what they wanted to be doing, as the clock struck midnight and the year 2014 turned to 2015.
We were dancing with wild abandon, arms in the air, both feet leaving the ground. After a year spent with a sore foot, which led to surgery in August and then two-plus months of barely moving as it healed up, I was one happy dancing girl.
As we did last New Year's Eve, we, along with our friend George, went to a nightclub we like called The Velvet Underground. Although we don't go there that often these days, it is a place we both know well. In fact, while seated in the very same seats we were in for the photos below, Nick asked me if I'd like to see where he lived and meet his adorable little orange cat Johnson for the first time, a month after we had begun dating. I'm not sure how long the place has been going, but that was 16 years ago, and it had already been open for years before that. The Velvet has hardly changed, except for the replacement of furniture and upholstering. This is definitely a case of, 'If it works, don't change it'.
Well, there is one aspect that hasn't changed over the years, which could have stood to be improved upon, and that was the fact that by 1 am there wasn't a scrap of paper in the women's washroom. Even a request to the woman servicing the nearby coat check, reaped no reward. When asked, she said she already knew about the situation, but didn't know how to go about getting it fixed. Not so good, particularly on a night that patrons had paid a relatively high cover-charge to get in (versus what they usually charge, not versus what other downtown clubs charge). Thankfully, I had some tissues in my small party purse, but not enough to share around.
The music, selected by DJ Lazarus, was excellent and kept the crowd moving. Given that he has over 22 years of experience in getting dance floors hopping, it is no surprise.
I hope you agree that a set of dark and grainy photographs to commemorate the night is better than no pictures at all.
Live Music and a Tiki Bar : July Talk
A week ago Saturday, my friend Meghan and I went to see some bands at The Phoenix Concert Theatre. The headliners, July Talk, are from Toronto. She had seen them before and wanted me to check them out, and had actually tried to get us some tickets to see them during the summer but they were sold out. Not only had that previous show sold out, but this one at The Phoenix, a relatively large venue, was also sold out. So, as you can imagine, I was very interested in hearing a local band that was filling up venues like that.
Other fans of live music may know otherwise (and I'd love to hear about it if you do), but I have not heard of a Toronto-based indie band doing so well in their own city, since Broken Social Scene and Metric broke, back in the late 90s. And even those bands had to live and/or tour extensively outside the city before they were embraced here. It seems that Toronto fans tend to wait to recognize the talent within their own midst, until people elsewhere do. July Talk, having formed a mere 2 years ago, has been an exception; the place was crammed with devoted fans. I woman I spoke to in the restrooms told me that this was her fourth time seeing them. Then she offered to lend me her red lipstick, (which I declined). I mention that part as an example of how happy and friendly the people were.
Something normal about going to see bands in non-stadium venues is that you never know when the show will start. The tickets always say when the doors open, (in this case 7pm), but that has little to do with actual showtimes. This means that you often find yourself standing around for a really long time before the concerts begin. As a result of this quirk, which is probably done so the venues who rely on drink sales will have more time to make those sales (with good reason), frequent show goers like ourselves tend to just automatically assume we can arrive at least 2 hours after the doors open, and still see everything. And yes, we have missed a few opening bands by doing this, but honestly, not very many.
This is all to say that we nearly missed the opening band this time, as we could hear them start their set as we were checking our coats at 8:45.
We were glad we hadn't arrived any later, because this Vancouver-based band, The Gay Nineties, were great. We got to speak to the bass player later and he said they often perform in Toronto, so I'm looking forward to seeing them again when I'll make sure Nick comes, because he will surely dig them too.
Our Christmas Week 2014
I hope that everyone who celebrates the holiday had a good Christmas.
I surprised myself and put the camera down for most of the week. While I did enjoy the break I am a bit disappointed now for not having capturing some of the moments I missed.
I do have one file of fun shots that I'll post next week, that were taken the Saturday before Christmas, when I went out with Meghan.
So, in lieu of photos, here is what we did in writing ...
On Sunday, Nick and I joined Andrea and her friend Rian, who was visiting from Montreal, for a dinner of Sushi at To-Ne (which I wrote about here).
On Monday, I made these Cranberry and Pistachio Cookies (putting half the dough into the freezer to be enjoyed some other time) and followed this recipe for Sweet and Spicy Almond Clusters. I did actually do a full staging and photo-shoot of this delicious treat, but then accidentally deleted the pictures before downloading to my computer. Doh.
I also finished a really fun game I'd been playing on XBox, called Assassin's Creed Black Flag (which is the pirate one, for any other gamers reading.)
On Tuesday, I met two (of the four) ladies I had lived with while away at university, Laurie and Cyndy. Cyndy lives in California so we hadn't seen her in a long time so that was a very nice visit indeed. We went to The Queen Mother Cafe (which I wrote about here). After lunch Cyndy and I did a bit of last minute Christmas shopping on Queen Street West.
On Wednesday (Christmas Eve), Nick and I had homemade pea soup, (using this recipe, for dinner and I had some Rum and Eggnog, while Nick had some Jagermeister. (He's not an eggnog guy.) We watched the classic 1938 version (albeit colourized) of The Christmas Carol. I've missed seeing it in recent years so was glad to have caught the entire thing, with my beloved on Christmas eve.
During the movie we took a break to serve up some Christmas Pudding that Nick made. This year was his first time tackling the dish, which his mother has made as long as he can remember, and which several generations used to make before that. He did a great job! In this picture, you see it on fire - you pour some brandy on it and light it up. Then it is served warm with a dollop of brandy butter, which is butter mixed with icing sugar, and of course, brandy.
A Christmas Market in Toronto’s Historic Distillery District
A week ago Sunday, Andrea, Nick and I went to the Christmas Market in Toronto's Distillery District. Website http://thedistillerywintervillage.com
The buildings in this area were erected in the 1830s, making them some of the oldest buildings still standing in this city. As the name hints at, it was originally a large distillery, started by the extended family of a clan that had come here from England. Andrea and I went last year too, and I included more of the history on this unique place in the post I wrote then, found here.
The place went from a state of abandonment to being refurbished in the early 2000s, and I just love how it was done. All the doors and fixtures are painted with the same green paint, and you can tell that it was painted over the layers of ancient paint. The thick brick walls are all original, giving the shops and restaurants a look that would be impossible to achieve with new construction.
A cool aspect about the Christmas Market they hold here every year is that, being a former distillery, you can enjoy alcoholic beverages while you look around. And since much of it is outdoors, many of the drinks are served hot.
We had three hot drinks : One was some mulled beer, another some mulled red wine, and the third a Drambuie Hot Apple Toddy. They were all very nice but the beer cocktail was my favourite. I'd never heard of mulled beer before and would never have thought to have hot beer. So when we heard it was on offer at the outdoor patio at the Mill Street Brew Pub where we stopped for a snack, Andrea and I were keen to try some. It was good stuff!
In addition to those drinks, there were free samples of all kinds of wintery cocktails to be had. These tiny servings were a great way to taste a variety of creative cocktails. An interesting one that I tried but the others declined was a drink made with vodka, raspberry syrup and hot sauce. Sounds strange, right? It was remarkably tasty.
Aside from drinking and eating, we did a bit of shopping at the booths, went into a couple of stores (that operate in the Distillery District year 'round), and watched a dance performance by a group of Ukrainian dancers.
Gift Tags Made With Sequins and Beads
