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The Danforth Music Hall is 90 years young

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The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto has just celebrated it’s 90th year of operations in my neighbourhood. It’s one of those great buildings that you drive by every day, but are not aware of it’s importance to the area. It’s seen it’s ups and downs over the years and now it’s time to place it in it’s proper place in history!

Originally this great gal on the Danforth was called the Allen Theatre Chain. Back in the day they referred to it as a grand “photo-play palace.” The Theatre chain was owed by Julie and John J. Allen.

This grand venue was home to both Vaudeville and theatrical acts as well as silent movies, which were accompanied by live piano. It has a single screen, holds multiple types of events, has 1800 seats and has been use in many movie scenes. To name just a few of the feature films shot there were Chicago, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, (Studio) 54, Bulletproof Monk and some scenes of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Their first theatre was in Brantford Ontario. In 1920 Julie and John J. Allen returned to Brantford and bought the now Sanderson Centre. After remodeling and redecorating it was opened on February 2, 1920 as the Allen Theatre.

Then the location changed hands in about 1929 and was called Century Theatre. They kept the inside and outside look of the building pretty much as the original.

Some of the past acts that performed at the historic Danforth Theatre & Concert Hall in the 80s and 90s were The Police, Bruce Cockburn, James Brown, Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Tom Waits, Barenaked Ladies, The Tea Party and Blue Rodeo just to name a few.

I’ve only witnessed two events there, Amos Lee and Rick Wakeman. Both shows were great, the sound was beautiful, the hall itself was majestic and the seats were GREAT!

So here is to the old Danforth Music Hall and many more years to come!

Keep on jammin’




The Hour on CBC TV

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The Hour is a Canadian TV talk show with host George Stroumboulopoulos. The Hour has had some fabulous guests in the past and I’m more then sure many more to come.

It’s one of those great Canadian shows that allows their guests to be perfectly relaxed to in a public forum. George provides us a candid glimpse into his guests personal and private lives. He it seems to make his new friends feel like they’re all just sitting around the kitchen table, having a coffee and shooting the breeze. in my eyes, George is one of Canada’s greatest interviewers today!

George was first brought to the public’s attention way back when he was a young video VJ from the old Much Music scene. This is a music station in Canada that shares a similar format to music channel MTV in the US.

The musician’s that have been on the show are perfectly suited to his hosting skill set.
Some of the more resent ones that I really liked was the Canadian singer called K-os. George invites him to just relax and chill on his show.

Some non musicians that have been on the show is impressive as well. Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter’s piece was very insightful and moving to my wife and I. You know I did not realize that bob Dylan’s song Hurricane was about this great man, huh!

Has anyone seen The Hour on CBC? If so, what do you think! should he continue in this format Or should he be back at Much Music?

George, Keep on Jammin’

A Tribute to Neil Young

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There was a tribute show celebrating the musical life of Neil Young that was tied into this years Luminato 2009 Festival in Toronto. The line up was fabulous and tickets were gone in no time at all! Man, I wish I was one of those lucky one!

Relive a milestone in Canadian music history.

On January 19, 1971, Canada’s legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young gave a solo concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall. Audiences there heard for the first time several of the iconic songs that would later appear on his albums, including his best-selling LP Harvest – yet the live concert recording itself wasn’t released until 2007.

I was so pissed that I didn’t get any that I put the show out of my mind. Then today I came across this site, with complete audio of the show! It was just out of the blue that I found it and i just wanted to share it with all those Neil Young fans out there. Even the lucky bastards that went to the show!

“There is in Young so much talent and so much quiet charm that he’s bound to stick around for a long time, maturing and writing and rewarding his audiences.” Jack Batten, Globe and Mail, Massey Hall concert review, January 20, 1971.

Listening to Colin James do Heart of Gold was great! He did it in a reggae format, very different. Steve Page, ex-Bare Naked Ladies front man, did his first public appearance at the tribute, since his arrest in Buffalo. He performed Journey through the Past. Sister Euclid did a cool version of Helpless. As a matter of fact, I was in downtown Toronto when we attempted to break the record for most guitarist in an ensemble playing that very song! They called it “The Great Canadian Tune!”.

So check it out, you might just find some neat new versions of an out classic there.

Neil Young just Keeps on Jammin’

I got a Match PIK for a birthday present

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I recently received a belated birthday present from a volunteer at our hospital.

She came up to me in my work area and told me to close my eyes and hold out my hand. I thought it was a joke and I thought it would be nice to be at the butt end of one for a change, so I did what I was told. She then dropped what seemed to feel like a piece of cardboard in my hand and excitedly opened my eyes! What I found was what looked like a match pack, but the wording on it said Match Pik?

At that time, everyone around me was looking at me including Connie and they were all smiling. I thought wow, a pack of matches, how nice?! She then said “Happy Birthday Chris!”. I followed up with “Oh, you shouldn’t have!”.

Upon further examination of this bright red pack of matches that I just accepted as a birthday gift, I saw the words “Jim Dunlop USA” near the bottom of it. At this point I was thinking to myself “What the hell is this?”.

matchpik

Looking back at Connie, she was laughing at this point and said “Open it!” When I did, I found six .88 mm grey guitar picks inside! What a fabulous gift! I’ve never seen anything quite like this before so I gave her a little hug and we all had a laugh at my expense.

Keep on Jammin’

You know the Toronto garbage strike is over when …

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The City of Toronto and the striking outside workers union has just about reached a conclusion to their 39 day labour dispute.

My wife and I, living in the Danforth/Beach area, have not noticed that much of a garbage issue during the strike. For the most part, people here have been stepping up to the civic plate and helping keep our little area clean for all of us. Well except for our renter Redneck Neighbors that is! Unfortunately, I’ve seen on TV some parts of the city have not been that successful. Some people here can be quite the bunch of “City’its”! (Ha!)

As a matter of fact, last weekend I decided to drop off 4 bags of garbage at the Bermondsey Transfer station. I’ve heard that the waiting time for drop off was around an hour long. So, I brought along the Saturday Star newspaper, a coffee and some juice with me in anticipation of a long lineup.

As I drove there, I was wondering what I would be up against. On most TV reports, you see angry citizens screaming at the striking workers. On other news clips, you see strikers screaming at angry citizens. You think to yourself, why can’t we just get along?

To my pleasant surprise, I was the only one in line … besides the strikers that is. I slowly drove up to the gate. I was greeted by these two really nice guys. We chatted for around 3 minutes and they said ” if you want, you can just drive right on up?”. Wow, absolutely NO CONFRONTATION so far.

Then I drove up to the gate. There were around 8-10 guys just milling around and talking. Beside them under a really big tree was about 20 strikers, just passing the time by playing cards and drinking coffee.

The guy at the other gate was really cool. I stopped the car, got out and started a conversation with him. It was nice to see that the stories the TV stations were airing where totally opposite to what I was going through.

Now a bunch of guys came up, around 10 of them, we shook hands, talked for a while, had a smoke, I finished my coffee and then they asked very politely “Do you have any garbage you’d like to drop off?” I then said yes and all of them proceeded to the back of my car!

At this point, I was starting to get nervous. We are only allotted 2 bags per car and I had 4. We’ve been told through out the dispute to save all of our recycling for later date and the four bags was our total of garbage for what had been a month or more of garbage strike (maybe 6 weeks if you count when the last garbage pick up was!). I opened the trunk and they just went in and grabbed everything! I sheepishly asked if that was ok and they replied “Sure, why not?”

So that was my big experience with the BIG GARBAGE STRIKE OF 2009! Through all of the gloom and doom that the media was portraying to us and the rest of the world, it was not as bad as they said – at least in my experience.

The latest news regarding the garbage and civil workers strike …

Garbage collectors were back on the streets early this morning, clearing out the trash from overflowing garbage bins after they – and other outside workers – ratified the latest settlement Thursday.

Whew! Glad that’s over with!

The Toronto Beaches Jazz Festival was a blast!

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My wife and I went to the 21st Annual Toronto Beaches Jazz Festival and we just fell in love with this event! Imagine, 2 km of closed street with 50, yes you read that correctly, 50 bands playing on street! They were at just about every other corner. Each band that night played 3 sets from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm. They all staggered their performances so as not to drown out each other.

It really was a magical night! We quickly found some parking, walked along the boardwalk and got to the beginning of the street fest faster then I thought we would.

We were first greeted by the sounds of a jazz fusion band with this fabulous violinist graciously blasting out solo with all he had! Then came the smell of the Beaches Festival, the FOOD! Note: if you plan to attend next years event, GO HUNGRY. Too many types of food to mention in this post.

The atmosphere was really electrifying. The relaxing buzz, that seemed to be coming from everywhere, was quite family friendly. Kidz, dogs and everything in between where out there last night. There weren’t all that many people walking around at first, but that certainly changed 2 hours later.

The styles were very diverse. We first witnessed a fusion band, then a Dixie land band, followed by Salsa/flamenco guitar players, a BIG BAND (all were really tight) then a blues band. The organizers were trying to highlight Big Band’s, Swing, Dixieland, Smooth, Post-Bop, Afro-Cuban, Fusion, Funk, R&B and Soul sounds. Wow, is to put it lightly.

This video captures the sounds of this band correctly. The Visual well …

At the end of the night the band we both found the most intriguing was a band called Project Phoenix. We were so impressed that we bought one of their CD’s titled Milestone. Go and listen to the song called “Jump for it” on their site. It was the last song they played last night and it was purely brilliant!

So if you love any of the styles that the Beaches Jazz Festival provides us at their event, then this is a must see for next year! See ya then!

Beaches Jazz Festival, Keep on Jammin’

It’s the summer time and making posts ain’t easy

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So I hope that everyone out there is having a great start to their summer!

As you may all ready have known, I have not been posting that much on this site. Well to tell you the truth, I’ve been working in the backyard gardening! Yes gardening! And let’s not forget the odd family adventure!

My wife and I have both been blessed with being bit by the gardening bug. We’ve had around 56 roses and about 1100 plants in there and loving every minute of it. We tend to be of the extreme variety.

Ever since I was quite young, I’ve had my fingers in the soil. It started off cutting the grass, de-weeding the flower beds and a bit of planting. Truth be told, I’m not that great at planting the greenery, my wife is strictly in charge of that area!

She is the one who does all the research into it and I must say that I do catch on eventually to her technique. There is so much to learn on gardening forums about this hobby that even to this day, it really blows my mind!

As for the family thing, I’ve been in Brantford more lately (sorry for not calling ya Dom, I will get around to it next time I’m there!) the biggest thing I had to do was putting up this massive fence at my parents.

Figuring out where exactly to start digging post holes, cementing them (I hope that they’re all relatively straight), placing the horizontal 2 x 4’s, making sure all is level … It was a hectic couple of days in the sun and rain, but it was all worth it. The multiple hangover days I could have done without.

So hopefully I get back to the task at hand that is to start to entertain you all with my less the grammatically correct writing/English!

Keep on Jammin’

Busker Of The Beaches Attends His Own Wake

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The well known beaches busker, 59 year old Dan Cole, is dying of in-operable lung cancer, but has a funny way of showing it.

Dan Cole is having a wake … but the thing is, it’s for him and he will be there … alive and kicking/laughing or juggling. The man who just can’t stop loves performing on cruise ships and entertaining UN peacekeepers in war zones far away from the comforts of home.

The event was put together by his friends and admirers to help him with the cost of his own funeral expenses. I realize this is a bizarre story to write about, but this was intended to be a nice piece. It’s about an artist who in the past has helped others drift away from their day to day troubles or fears and bring them a laugh or smile. These are the ones society should be idolizing!

“I didn’t want to miss people saying good things about me by waiting until I died,”

My wife found this story while going through some e-mails. The local TV news station, city tv, had picked up this story and then ran another article that was just as nice. The Star had also wrote a piece on Dan’s story as well.

I can’t recall seeing Dan perform on the boardwalk, but if I did I now wish that I may have paid more attention to his act! So hats off to the Busker of Kew Beach!

Keep on Jammin’

Canada’s got the Blues

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Well fellow readers, it is finally time to shake the cob webs out of your head and get rid of those dreaded winter blues away! The blues come from those of us who have been deprived way too long of the sun’s healing properties. The medical term is called seasonal defective disorder (SAD). It’s when we do not receive enough vitamin D from that big orange thing in the sky! For some of us this is not a bad thing cause The Blues is making head way into the Canadian music scene!

The blues has always had a negative feel associated with it for ages. The Blues music is another story completely.

A dear friend of mine, way back in my college days, was a fabulous guitar player with immense guitar skills. Peter Schmidt is his name and his style of guitar playing just screams the blues. He is one of those unsung local talents who has not made it to the big stage yet, but there are many more where he came from. So, is Canada really that gifted in this area of music?

The answer seems to be YES! We have tons of blue society’s that are very active in the city. They hold concerts (Winter and Summer events), untold internet forums and have work shops everywhere, no matter the age.

We have bluesy greats such as the late, great Jeff Healey, Danny Marks, Kenny Brown, Ted Leonard, Steve Grisbrook or big Buzz Upshaw, just to name a few that I know of.
Even Leon Redbone was links to Canada!

There was this great article in this magazine called Chill that I was reading the other day. The article called “The state of the blues in Canada” was bringing to everyone’s attention the rise of Blues and who is the up and coming stars to watch out for. It’s a great read to check out!

So, are we going to shake off or embrace the blues? It’s your call.

Keep on Jammin’

The Shmenge Brothers

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The Schmenge Brothers, like many of the Canadians of the day, were a happy bunch that didn’t mind making fun of themselves in front of the world. We could all relate to these overly happy go lucky guys. When ever watching these guys on SCTV, they made me feel like I was in the show because the circle of friends I had back then, acted like them from time to time.

While growing up in Brantford, I had tons of Polish friends that I went to school with.

These guys and girls were really the salt of the earth bunch. Like all good R.C.-ers, X-mas was a big part of our lives and the Schmenge brothers just loved to celebrate and share their Lutonian Christmas traditions with others.

The traditional polish, polka band stereo type was always a silly topic that we constantly brought up in conversation.

This was because everyone, at least that I knew, back then had someone who was in one of these types of bands. When you got to know the band members and see them live, most of them had those similar on stage persona’s, just like that of the Schmenge Brothers characters!

So this post is dedicated to all my old happy wanderers polish buddies who had rock and roll polka bands in the past! Thanx for the memories guys.

Keep on Polka-in’

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