My Place: Tina Sixx
February 25, 2009
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Binti’s Journey
February 20, 2009Binti’s Journey is a play about many things. It gives faces and names to the AIDS epidemic in Africa — sometimes numbingly anonymous in its scale — while also managing to be about the end of innocence. Degrassi: The Next Generation actor Jajube Mandiela brings a touching naivety to Binti, the work’s teen narrator, that gives her story both pathos and humour.
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My Place: Jason Meyers
February 18, 2009
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Lucie Idlout
February 18, 2009Swagger ***
Sun Rev
Swagger, the second album from blues rocker Lucie Idlout, does just what the title claims to. Its opening track, “Berlin” finds the Nunavut-bred singer crooning an ode to a disastrous relationship (or one night stand?), that’s perfectly suited to Idlout’s low, stormy voice. Relationships gone wrong recur through the album, with songs like “You (Devil)” and “Lovely Irene,” about a woman escaping an abusive partner. It also packs a few surprises, like “For You,” which sounds tender and sweet until you realize Idlout is singing, “Not for you / I won’t be there for you.” But despite its heavy subject matter, most of Swagger is catchy, feel-good rock. It won’t blow you away with poetry or invention, but it’s good music to stride, or swagger, down the street to.
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The Sweet Smell of Success
February 13, 2009It was only a matter of time before companies tried to package and sell whatever chemical combination is responsible for that feeling that hits you when you meet somebody and instantly think, “I have to have you.”
Based in Ontario, Silent Seduction have done just that. They claim that with their bottled pheromones — the highest concentration on the market — they have successfully mimicked the “silent chemical messengers” responsible for all human attraction.
Not usually one to be taken in by pseudo-science, I decided to suspend my disbelief and do some experimenting.
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My Place: Rodrigo Gudino
February 11, 2009
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Lykke Li @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Feb. 6
February 9, 2009Swedish siren revitalizes her more wistful debut album in an effort to make us dance, dance, dance.
You’d be forgiven for having low expectations of Swedish pop sensation Lykke Li’s live performance. Her album, Youth Novels, is a catchy collection of synth-pop whistles and beeps and solid beats, but it’s not quite fast or hard-hitting enough to facilitate serious dancing. Friday night’s show at the Phoenix was a different story, revealing a live potential barely hinted at in the studio album.
The first 30 seconds of "Melodies & Desires" open Li’s show, segueing into a bass-heavy rendition of "Dance Dance Dance." Li’s stage presence is immediately obvious; she leaps over the microphone cord, dancing with her arms and employing various noise-making props — a tambourine, a tiny keyboard and, on two pleasing occasions, a megaphone.
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Get Laid This Winter
February 4, 2009Hooking up in winter comes with its own set of challenges — everyone’s either hibernating or
hidden away underneath clothing that obscures all vestiges of sex appeal. But we at EYE WEEKLY are nothing if not doggedly optimistic (about getting laid, anyway). Here are just a few ways you can use the season to your advantage.
1. Make someone feel sexy in their winter layers.
Compliments go further than usual when the recipient is wearing mittens and earflaps. Tell someone her thermals don’t make her look fat, and maybe she’ll shed them for you.
Disadvantage: It’s hard to tell whether someone is actually sexy beneath their winter clothing, so you’re going in blind.
2. Help someone up after they slip on ice, then invite him to come home with you and dry off.
This one works best if the incident happens close to your house, so it may require deliberately leaving your patch of sidewalk unsalted. (Hint: it’s more convincing if you’re not sitting on your front step waiting when the person falls over.) Disadvantage: Possible lawsuits.
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My Place: Ingrid Johansson
January 28, 2009
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Riding Off with the Trophy
January 21, 2009With snowbanks clogging up the city’s bike lanes and roads becoming icier by the day, Toronto’s cyclists could use an excuse for a party. And as parties go, the one that follows the 2008 City of Toronto Bicycle Friendly Businesses Awards on Tuesday night is not at all the sober affair you might expect. The Gladstone Ballroom is packed and buzzing well before the ceremony begins, this year taking place as part of the Toronto Bike Awards, co-presented by the Toronto Cyclists Union.
Representatives from the city are out in force, with awards presented by City Councillor and TTC Chair Adam Giambrone, Councillor Gord Perks and City Councillor and Cycling Committee Chair Adrian Heaps. The awards, Perks reminds us, also bear the signature of Mayor David Miller, whose name elicits a few derisory noises from the crowd. Later though, Heaps reminds us that without the Mayor’s $70 million investment in cycling, “the Bike Plan would not exist,” keeping with the positive tone of the evening.
In between awards, we are treated to a musical number by Clay and Paper Theatre (“Two Wheels Are Better than Four”), followed by a delightfully silly, and surprisingly provocative, “Winter Layering Reverse Strip Tease” (who knew it was possible to look alluring zipping up a dayglo orange jacket?).
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