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Kel & I just got back from a long weekend up in Toronto, Ontatio. It was a mixed bag of great food & experiences and horrible weather.

We booked the trip thinking it’d be a little cooler than Connecticut and (having consulted the weather forcast) packed accordingly. We were completely unprepared for the record-breaking heatwave they’ve been experiencing (the hottest in 70 years according to Joe Clark). I have never sweat so much in my life, and that’s saying a lot… I lived in Florida for 13 years. The heat was oppressive and the city was filled with smog and haze, making the ambiance a little less than we’d hoped for.

That said, we did have fun shopping (or was that running down Queen Street ducking into whatever shops had AC?) and eating throughout the city. I touched base with Joe a few times on the phone while we were there and he made recommendations on the best places to eat in the city. Queen Mother Cafe was a fantastic little Asian fusion restaurant on Queen St near McCaul. It was very cozy and café/pub-ish in feel and decor and the food was unbelievable. We took a few shots of our entreés, if you’re interested. Another notable was Udupi Palace in Little India. It is purely vegetarian and serves South Indian cuisine. We got their just before they closed (10PM on Sundays… make a note) and the food was quite tasty and different from the North Indian fare we are used to. Also of note is Tea Shop 168, a cute little coffee/tea chain which serves tean and coffee with “bubbles” (tapioca beads). It brought back memories of the Cassava Lounge in Boston a bunch of us met up at during MacWorld 2004. “Tea with balls” – I love it.

On Sunday, I went off exploring on my own while Kel napped (exhausted from the heat). My mission was to pick up some new music and I set my sights on visiting Rotate This!, a great little indie record/CD on Queen Street, west of Bathhurst. I thumbed through some of the LPs and CDs before deciding that I was not sure where to begin reimursing myself in Canadian indie rock, so I asked the girl behind the counter to pick out some stuff for me to listen to. After listening to a few records, I left with Death From Above 1979’s You’re A Woman, I’m a Machine, Arcade Fire’s Funeral and The Russian Futurists’ Our Thickness. Each band is quite different from the others, so it provides a nice balance of the different sounds developing in Canada right now. I am sure I will write more on these later, once I have time to digest.

On the way back to the hotel from Rotate This!, I stopped off to take some photos of the massive hip-hop/graffiti festival which was taking place in the alleys south of Queen Street. At first it seemed like some brazen taggers out in the middle of the day, but then, there were so many people involved, it became obvious it was some sort of organized event. The art was amazing and was all part of Style In Progress 2005. It was pretty incredible to watch true graffiti artists at work (something normally only possible with night vision goggles). There are some great shots in our Flickr gallery from the trip.

Monday was another scorcher, but we took a short cab ride over to the Distillery District to have a mid-morning coffee with Joe at Balzac’s Coffee House. We had a good time (it was the first time Kel had met Joe and they got along rather famously) and introduced Joe to the art of Alphonse Mucha. After catching up for an hour or so, we headed back into the heat and up to Kensington Market and Chinatown before walking back onto Queen Street and, finally, back to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the airport.

The trip home was a disaster. Our 8PM flight out was cancelled, but we managed to make it out on an earlier one, only to get stuck in Philadelphia until some time after 1AM (I really have no idea what time it was). We finally arrived back in Hartford at close to 3:30AM Tuesday morning. Exhausted, we still had to drive the 45 minutes home. Not the best travel experience by far. I can’t say I will be rushing to travel with US Airways again any time soon. I could go on and on about the airline industry, but I’ll save that for another post on another day.

Anyway, if your’re interested, you can see our shots from the trip on Flickr.

This little meme’s been racing ’round the net like a bad case of mono, but I’ll chip in my 2¢ since I am such a music freak. Thanks Krista.

Total volume of music files on my computer

55.44GB – 16,287 songs

The last CD I bought

Actually I bought 2 at the same time: Weezer’s Make Believe (for me) and Dave Matthews Band’s Stand Up (for Kel).

Song playing right now:

“1976” by RJD2 (from Since We Last Spoke)

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me

There are so many bands I love, making this a really tough choice. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Cake, Jurassic 5, The Beta Band, Soul Coughing and XTC have all been there for me at varying times in my life (and continue to be a part of my personal soundtrack). The songs below fit one or both of the criteria for this meme, but this was a really hard list to compile.

• It’s hard to pick a favorite Belle & Sebastian song, but I do love “The Model” from Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant.
• “This Woman’s Work” by Kate Bush always makes me cry, but I love it. It’s from The Sensual World and is featured in a touching montage in She’s Having a Baby (it is also available on the soundtrack).
• Ben Folds’ “The Luckiest” is another song that makes me misty. Not only an incredible pianist, Ben’s an amazing songwriter. Other faves from that album (Rockin’ the Suburbs) include the title track, “The Ascent of Stan” and “Zak and Sara”.
• “Everywhere” by Bran Van 3000 is another great track from yet another stellar album, Glee.
• I had to include some Pixies, and, after much thought, I think “Where Is My Mind?” is probably my favorite (“Gigantic” and “Here Comes Your Man” were it’s toughest competition). It’s on Surfer Rosa, which I consider one of the few perfect albums (Doolittle also makes that list).

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton

The question really is “Who do you know who a) has a blog; and b) has not already received the baton.” I’ll try Scott Hoosier, Peter-Paul Koch, Jason Landry, Dave Stewart and Brian R. Williams