Not only that, it’s FREE rock and roll too!
Damn, I’m going to miss Chuck Klosterman (who wrote the rock/pop culture book Sex and Drugs and Cocoa Puffs), who’ll be speaking tonight at 7:00 p.m. at The Rivoli (334 Queen Street West, half a block east of Spadina, right around the corner from my house).
The super fun band known as Super Furry Animals will have an in-store concert on Monday, September 15th at Soundscapes on 572 College Street West at 7:00 p.m.
(It’s a busy day, so today’s entries will come out in snippets. Check back regularly!)
Forget SARStock. Accordion City’s concert of the year was last night’s Bjork on the Island, which took place on Toronto’s Centre Island, a serene park environment a mere ten-minute ferry ride south of the city.
The first act was young teddy bear Asian turntablist Kid Koala, who did his usual amazing job of stitching together sound collage masterpieces — Dada you can dance to — with three turntables and a couple of cases of vinyl LPs. The highlights of his performance were:
Koala was a last-minute addition to the lineup, and according to a friend of a friend who was on the guest list because her cousin is part of his entourage, he’d just thrown together a couple of boxes of vinyl without much planning. He admitted to the crowd that he was nervous, and although he looked a little flustered and made some funny faces the few times he made a mistake (which were inaudible), he put on an amazing show and frequently gots bursts of applause after particularly stunning “solos”. Koala’s sweet nature was quite evident, what with his soft-spoken introductions and “thank yous”, his giving a copy of his cute book Nufonia Must Fall to someone in the front row, and the way he bade the audience farewell: “Have a good night, enjoy yourseves, and be good to each other.”
Pound Magazine’s coverage of turntablism.
Nufonia Must Fall. A book with a soundtrack! It’s the tragic tale of a robot who tries to woo a girl with his less-than-stellar love poetry. It’s accompanied by a CD with music arranged by Koala to match the story; you read along with the music and turn the page at the audio cues.
You know, I don’t own this book and my birthday’s coming in a couple of months…
A special entry for the attendees of this weekend’s WorldCon:
Hello, Writers! Hello, Fans! Welcome to Accordion City!
If you look to the south of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (the location of the Con) and upwards, you’ll see the CN Tower. If you look elsewhere, you’ll see…
Nothing.
Well, you’ll see an office complex and some pretty sad-and-generic resto-bars across the street from the Convention Centre. West of it is a lot of condos and construction sites for more condos. To the east is the south end of the Financial District, which is pretty quiet at night.
Don’t let the boringness of the area around the Convention Centre (or the recent Simpsons episode set in Toronto) fool you into thinking that Accordion City is the Canadian Cleveland! Toronto, long-derided for being “too boring” by the Americans, “too American” by Montrealers and “too uptight” by Vancouverites, is none of those. Instead, it’s North America’s most multicultural city, a city the size and population of Chicago but much, much safer, has waaaay more nightlife than San Francisco (I know, I lived there) and hey, the weed’s pretty good (so I’m told).
Watch this space for places to go. I’ll mention lots of places that are either within walking distance or a quick cab ride away from the Con that get the Accordion Guy seal of approval. And if you can’t trust a guy who walks around with an accordion, who can you trust?
Alernately, you can hire me as your guide for a night out on the town. For the low, low price of a couple of pints of Guinness, the use of your powers to get me invited to a suite party or a signed copy of your book/graphic novel/model lightsaber, I will take you out on a Saturday night tour of various hangouts mentioned on this blog, including Toronto’s most notorious speakeasy. Drop me a line if you’re interested.
I am also available for accordion performances and am not above filking. I am not proud.
And once again, welcome to Accordion City!
As I type this, I’m sitting at a table at the Lettieri Cafe at the corner of Queen and Spadina, where someone has been cool enough to leave an open WiFi connection.
I’m doing some PHP coding for a client. A couple of passers-by stopped to say hello. “Accordion Guy, I didn’t know you were a computer dude, I thought you were a full-time musician!” said one of them. Robbie’s just started his shift at the 24-hour hot dog stand across the street and is waving to me. I’m enjoying an excellent large moccacino and watching the streetcars and club kids go by.
I should do this more often while the weather’s still good.