I Love the Nightlife

by Tanya Scholes
There was a whole lot of wine-ing going on last week at Santé Toronto International Wine Festival. If you missed it, any ‘whining’ you’ll be doing is of a whole other variety. Which is what I did when I realized that I had missed NINE years of this super fun, free-flowing wine festival. If you’ve been ignorant up to this point about how fab a festival it is, fear not friends, there is a silver lining to this cloud, as Santé will be back next year. And trust me, pen it in. It’s an event ‘not to miss’!  

From May 5th – 10th, last week, Santé Toronto International Wine Festival celebrated a ‘party ten years in the making’. The revelry showcased 74 International wineries, including 375 wines from 12 countries, an estimated 7,000 opened bottles of wine and featuring tastings, seminars, dinners and shopping with wine in hand throughout the Bloor-Yorkville neighbourhood (a dangerous thing after a few smooth glasses of wine while in Hazelton Lanes and finding those shoes and that bag that you have to have OR you find yourself in Lovecraft with liquid courage in hand and reservations left at the door…I’ll leave that story for my husband to tell).

Bonde Do Role & The Death Set @ The Social

by Robyn Sprott

There is nothing elegant, refined nor graceful when it comes to Bonde Do Role.  Nonetheless from the second I locked eyes on M.C. Marina I knew we had something special. Initially I imagined our mutual specialness be attributed to a common worship of the gold Lamé Onezee she ornamented. This only naturally encouraged a greater appreciation towards her seemingly riled attitude as she blasted out infectious, frenzied and ultimately obscene lyrics so enthusiastically I questioned her sanity.  

While I naively questioned her judgment, it was only after a convo with the gal that I was able to detect some eerily Gingy-esque resemblance.  I swiftly learned that this wild-eyed seemingly nuts-o was actually an extremely ‘down to earth’ (for whatever that’s worth), articulate, educated and worldly lil’ fucker that opted to discuss Latin politics, learn English and share her vast knowledge gained through working in Brazil at the University library in her former years; considerably more than indulging in the vice ridden antics that she was so successfully providing the soundtrack for.