Author: Joey deVilla

I am presented with two diametrically-opposed social opportunities tomorrow night.

The first is Reclaim the Streets. Long-time readers of The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century may recall my blog entry covering last year’s events in both words and pictures. Essentially a done-without-permission street party, Reclaim the Streets is about organizating to celebrate without the requirement of corporate or governmental approval. In spite of my annoyances with the fact that a lot of attendees seem to be living out their long-repressed rebellion-against-mommy-and-daddy fantasies, I actually believe that Reclaim the Streets is important, necessary and is one of those things that makes the city interesting.

Since tomorrow is the last Friday of the month, the Critical Mass bike rally will also be taking place. Since the meeting place for Reclaim the Streets — the bike courier cafe on Temperance Street near Yonge — is also the meeting place for Critical Mass, I suspect that the two events will be merged.

Since I already attended Reclaim the Streets last year and have had enough of Critical Mass the way it’s done right now (long story, to be covered later), I don’t think I’ll be attending.

I will instead be opting for the white collar route. It’s part of an personal social experiment, which I will talk about at greater length at some later time, perhaps tomorrow.

My co-worker Darryl tells me that a club called Shmooze (yes, they misspelled the word, which as a schmoozemeister offends me to no end) is having its first “at cost drinks” day this Friday — tomorrow. That’s right, on a Friday night, typically one of the “big money” nights for any club, they’re selling drinks at cost.

Shmooze is in the yuppified clubbing district, and it shows on their website. The rather cheesy ad copy — in their “top ten reasons” to go there, the site lists reason number one as “a roomful of like-minded downtown professionals to hang out with” — is clearly geared at people who are, depending on your point of view, “working professionals” or “yuppie scum”.

Some of you may be reeling in horror, to which I say, “But hey, CHEAP DRINKS and CAREER WOMEN!”

As I said earlier, it’s part of a personal social experiment, the theme of which is “No Scrubs”. More details later.

If you’re in Accordion City and interested in checking out this place tomorrow night, phone, or drop me a line either via email or in the comments.

Recommended Reading

The lyrics to Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent. Okay, this particular song is a bit colder than the message I’m actually trying to convey, but think of it as an appetizer for tomorrow’s entry.

It’s that time of the year again: The Word on the Street festival takes place this Sunday in several cities across Canada: Accordion City, Vangroovy, Calgary, Halifax and Kitchener!

This is The Word on the Street’s fourteenth year of hosting a giant celebration of books and reading. here in Accordion City, the festival takes place in the trendy Queen Street West neighbourhood, which is closed to traffic for a seven-block stretch between Spadina and University Avenues. Publishers, from huge companies with their hardcovers to indie outfits with their photocopied-and-stapled chapbooks will have their wares for sale, often at discounted prices. Authors will take the stage, read passages from their works, answer questions and sign autographs. There will be a number of special events, including lots of things for the kids to do and see.

The Toronto Word on the Street is located near lots of good places to grab a bite to eat: Queen Street West itself, downtown Chinatown, Baldwin Street and King Street West. You might want to consider spending the afternoon at Word on the Street followed by dinner out (may I suggest Korean Grill House?).