Author: Joey deVilla
Over at the Greater Toronto Area Bloggers (GTABloggers) site, Aaron sings the praises of a new coffee shop in the Roncesvalles area of Accordion City — Cherry Bomb Coffee:
A new coffee shop just opened on the south end of Roncesvalles – Cherry
Bomb Coffee. It’s half a block from my apartment, so I’ve been
anxiously awaiting this. I went in today and had a slice of their
Ontario sour cherry pie…delicious
The owners are earth-friendly; the plates and cups are all
post-consumer recycled, and the plastic cups made from corn –
biodegradable, and very cool. They have vegetarian soups and
sandwiches, organic teas, loads of baked goods, etc.
Cherry Bomb Coffee is located at 67 Roncesvalles, just north of Marion. I’ll have to drop by sometime.
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The Pink Wig Gig
I thought I’d post some more “crazy hair from my past” photos.
Before I was an accordion player, I played synths. I owned a number of synths and samplers through my years at Crazy Go Nuts University.
During my time there — September 1987 through December 1994, guitar
players were worshipped and synth guys were viewed with some suspicion.
It was a time bookended by the jingle-jangle of U2 and R.E.M. at the
beginning and grunge at the end. Being a small college town like
Athens, Georgia or Olympia, Washington, the guitar was also king in
Kingston, Ontario. Those damned plank-spankers, as I used to refer to
guitarists, got all the attention, love and respect, leaving we few
keyboard players — namely myself, my buddy Karl Mohr and
“Craigertronic” — in our own quiet musical backwater. My friend Sarah
English once wrote in a music review in the Queen’s Journal that she could never trust a band with a keyboard player in it.
This ghettoization made us synth players a closely-knit bunch, and we
often gigged together, even after graduation. For the April 1999 launch
party of his mother Merilyn Simond’s book, The Lion in the Room Next
Door, Karl invited me and another Kingston-based synth guy, Steve
Skratt, to be the entertainment. Along with our friend Chantal from a
gazillion Kingston bands as well as Rachel Smith and Krista “Lederhosen
Lucil” Muir, we formed the improv synth trip-hop band Lion.
On a lark, we decided that we’d all wear wigs for the gig. I went for
the “anime hair” look, but since Rachel had already claimed the blue
one, I had to take the pink. It didn’t look too bad…
The wig. Attention Mom, Dad and parents-in-law: I promise not to wear this at the wedding…much.
Kraftwerk ain’t got nuthin’ on us!
From left to right: Karl Mohr (who’s switched from wig to fez), Steve
Skratt, me and Rachel Smith. I’m playing my Ensoniq EPS Sampler and
Roland MC-303 GrooveBox.
Not all the instruments were synthetic…but our hair was!
In the background: Rachel, Chantal and Krista, who also
played violin at the gig. Krista is now the Montreal indie pop darling
known to the world as Lederhosen Lucil.
“More major sevenths! MORE MAJOR SEVENTHS!”
Categories
Another Real Estate Find
As long as I’ve got house-hunting on the brain, how ’bout another story about US$200K+ property rife with drug activity?
An appraiser somewhere in the southwestern US posted some photos of a
house located in “an area undergoing intense renovation right now”. Three of the photos are shown below, and you can click here to see the full set.
The leaning toilet of Pisa! Perfect for those hung-over mornings wehn you need to rest your head against the wall. Click the photo to see the full set.
Fully-equipped laundry room. Bonus: if you’re too short time to do a wash, you can always simply hose your clothes down. Click the photo to see the full set.
The living room — best-kept room in the house.
It’s quite telling that the most pristine object in the place is the TV
set. The doilie is a nice touch too — the appraiser reports that the
owner uses it for his bong. Click the photo to see the full set.
The
appraiser says:
The current owner’s “ol’ lady” left him last year and he’s been on an
eleven month drug binge because she won’t let him see his daughter
anymore. He was a very nice guy, he even offered me a hit of meth or
pot or “whatever else I can find around here.” I declined, but he
continued on saying he would be getting about $30k out of the sale of
his house, and the only thing he could think to do with it is to buy
more drugs.
The
appraiser reports that the appraisal value is expected to be around
US$105K and that after renovation, the place should sell for about
US$245K.
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RIP Pope John Paul II
…and in tribute, my favourite photo of the Pontiff (yes, it’s real):
Vaya con Dios.
Seen at “Super 88 Grocery” the last time I was in Boston…
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Free Icons!
In addition to writing a Blogware article, I’ve also made some royalty-free icons called “Dread Pirate Roberts”, just for kicks. Feel free to grab ’em from the Blogware blog.