The Scribble

After a year of traveling and playing shows in the UK this past September, local singer-songwriter Zara is back with a slew of brand new tracks and reworked older songs, and a new band of friends to help her jam ‘em out.  We’ll get a peek at everything they’ve been working on when Zara joins Vermont’s the Flood for a Thursday June 3rd show at Trois Minots. 

Montreal’s Withwords Press recently confirmed that Zara will be on their roster of artists published this coming fall/winter. She’ll be putting out a limited-press, handmade book of poetry along with a new album. The two will be available together and the album will also be available online through www.myspace.com/zarazara.

She’s also been brushing up on her Bangla in preparation for a prospective thesis involving Bangladeshi poetry by women, eventually hoping to use her new-found language skills to sing in Bangla.

Those unable to catch this Thursday’s Mtl show need not worry: Zara will be coming soon to a venue near you. She plans to tour Eastern Canada this fall and Western Canada this winter in support of the new album. (To anyone with booking hookups: let her know!)

Zara + The Flood
Thursday June 3rd @ Trois Minots - 3812 St Laurent.
Doors 8:30. $8.
www.myspace.com/zarazara

by Kait Fowlie
With the hot weather upon us, and lots of travelling via bicycle, that means copious opportunities for sullying your two wheeled steed. ‘Tis the season for bike repairs, but it’s not always easy to get around to it - perhaps as much as my heart always breaks when I see the mangled corpse of a bike frame chained up somewhere in the city, it pains me to shell out a wad of cash for upkeep. Luckily, Bike Pirates is making it easy for you. “Fix Your Bike Day” is taking place at Holy Oak Café (1241 Bloor St. West, at Lansdowne) this Sunday June 6th. From noon to 4 pm, bring your bike to Holy Oak for repairs or advice from the independent DIY collective for free. This event will go down on the first Sunday of every month from May to October. Bike Pirates have you covered during the summer months !

The Empire 
1018 Bloor St. W. (at Rusholme) 416 532 5511
The tastiest and cheapest falafel sandwiches, chicken & beef shawarma, bbq chicken and lamb shank sandwiches I’ve found, all $2.99-4.99. Freshly made beef and veggie samosa’s for under $1. Crispy, perfectly seasoned, and slightly different every time, which tells me they are home made.

Ciccio’s Pizza 
796 Dundas St. W. (at Palmerston) 416 363 8686
Authentic slices with multiple fresh toppings for only $2.75, tax included. You can get a drink with that kind of deal! Usually they have bruschetta (my pic), hawaiian, pepperoni and roasted veg to choose from. Dining for 2 and you can split a homemade Italian pasta for just under $5/person.

Bar Nazareth
969 Bloor St. W. (at Dovercourt) 416 535 0797
Huge Ethiopian plates of seasoned meat or vegetables, comes with Injera (like naan or roti bread, but softer and not fried) and cheese. Dinner for 2, just over $5 with tax and tip. Don’t knock Ethiopian food until you go here.

Perola’s Supermarket
247 Augusta Ave. (at Nassau) 416 593 9728
Mexican staples like tacos and papusas in the back of this Kensington Market grocery store, Friday Saturday and Sundays only. Get 2 freshly made ones of your choice for $5. Choices of pork, chicken, veggie and cactus (!).

Banh Mi Ba Le 2
538 Dundas St. W. (at Spadina) 416 977 2168 – 
Choose from over 10 different types of Vietnamese subs, both veggie and meat. Get ready to be stuffed to the gills for only $2.25, or live dangerously and buy 2. A favorite of Chinatown.  

Chinese Bakery
433 Dundas St. W (at Huron) 416 260 0305
With a $5 budget, get up to 15 buns at one of Chinatown’s cheapest and best bun places. Meat or veggie, sweet, salty, savory, get your dinner and dessert and probably a drink too, without going much over a crisp fiver. 

Tom’s Family Restaurant
996 Queen St. W (at Ossington) 416 535 4955
Hungover and need breakfast? Go to Tom’s for the food, stay for the atmosphere. Head to the back and chill out in the dining room. Breakfast special before 11am is only $3.99 including coffee, among many other satisfying items on the menu for $5 or under. Small pints of beer for a toonie.

Island Foods
1182 King St. W (at Dufferin) 416 532 6298
Never been to the Caribbean? Just swing by Parkdale. And when one goes to Parkdale, one must get a roti, and Island Foods is one of the cheapest, and tastiest. Veg choices for under $5; be prepared to spend more on the meat. Sit by the window and people watch, but maybe not for too long…  

by Louisa Cohen 

This week in Vancouver’s rail-town: a trunk show for women who, for once, are not rail-thin.

Women with money, power, and style come in all sizes, and Laura Caravaggio of the web-boutique Lola & Gigi is helping to pave the way to bring +SIZE fashions to curvy women. Curvy women who already have the “it” bag, Louboutin shoes…but are frustrated trying to find clothing to match.

Lola & Gigi is a Canadian, online high-end fashion boutique that features a carefully edited selection of designer pieces that showcase the curvy figure, along with styling tips for women sizes 12 to 24.

Below, a chat with Laura Caravaggio – the +size stylist behind it all.

Shedoesthecity: How did you get into plus size styling?
Laura Caravaggio:  Being a stylish size 14 (and over) most of my adult life forced me to get to know my body and to know what suited my shape.  It helped to really hone in on what worked for me and in the process, what worked for other curvy women.  It meant that I could walk into a store or shop online and pick out the pieces that would flatter my figure the most.

I found myself being called in by all the curvy women in my life (and the not so curvy for that matter) when they needed help finding something to wear.  They would go shopping and end up feeling terrible because they couldn’t find something that worked for their body.   Inevitably, I would either lend them something from my own closet that would work or we’d go shopping together to choose the right look to make them feel fabulous. 

We all have parts of our body that we like & want to highlight and other bits that we’d like to skim over.  It is just a matter of identifying those things and working with them to feel comfortable in our own skin and let who we are on the inside shine out.

SDTC: What has changed in plus size fashion over the past few years?
LC:  Choice!  There are a lot more designers and clothing companies extending their size ranges.We’re now seeing some great high-end designers who are figuring out how to cut clothing to enhance a curvy figure, instead of trying to hide it.  I’m lucky enough to have found some great boutique brands to carry at LolaandGigi.com that are right on trend.  For example, both Melissa Masse and Anna Scholz design their own digital prints and MonifC constantly pushes the envelope with pieces like her St. Tropez Fringe Swimsuit.  It also doesn’t hurt to have so many gorgeous, strong, curvy role models in the media and on the pages of magazines.

SDTC: As a curvy girl, did you always embrace your body?
LC:  I have always tried to focus on the great things about my figure and not worry too much about what I like to downplay.  I certainly have always had days when I put on something black because I want to hide a bit.  Who doesn’t?  The important thing is to give myself a break when I’m feeling a little less than fabulous.  I think about what my body does for me everyday and how far it takes me.  Then I put on some red shoes and a statement necklace with that black outfit and I go about my business.

SDTC: What voluptuous celebrities would you love to dress?
LC:  One of my mottos is “What would Queen Latifah wear?”  I think she is so bold & elegant in her choices and she always looks so well put together.  I also love Christina Hendricks from “Mad Men”.   She’s taken some flack for her red carpet looks, so I’d love to help her knock the next one out of the park.

SDTC: I think Marilyn Monroe was a size 14… do you think the celebrity culture will ever revert back and begin to embrace full figures again?
LC:  I certainly think we are getting there!  The media attention right now on “plus size” models is amazing and I think it helps retrain our brains into seeing all different shapes & sizes as beautiful.  Hopefully one day it won’t be such a big deal and we can lose the labels.

SDTC: What is the most common mistake made when a curvacious lady is shopping for clothes or putting together an outfit?
LC:  I think that most women need a little help understanding their shape and knowing what enhances it.  We shouldn’t be afraid of the fitting room.  Try things on!  Try on different shapes and sizes, experiment to see what works.You might be surprised that something you thought you’d love just doesn’t suit you, or that a dress that looks completely unappealing on the hanger just needs your curves inside it to make it pop.

My other tip is to have a proper bra fitting.  You might hear a letter of the alphabet you never thought existed in a bra, but it will make a huge difference to how your clothes fit.

Trunk show June 2 & 3 @ 11am – 7pm, 130 - 49 Dunlevy Ave (Railtown).
www.lolaandgigi.ca

SDTC writer/photog, Becca Lemire, poses a question to 8 sunshine revellers at the first PS Kensington of the summer.

What do you love about Pedestrian Sunday in Kensington Market?

Jasmyn Burke – Barista

I love the live music. My band RatTail played in front of the Kensington Bike Rack, and its fun to play in the street.

Maylee Todd - Musician and Comedian

The madness!

Mike – Musician

I love the live music, the unpredictability, and the community.

Meghan – Sales Associate

I love walking in the closed off streets.

April – Student

All the different types of acts.

Monika – Student

The whole community gets together, and awareness is raised for great causes.

Roxy – Barista, Kensington Café

I love the music, it’s everywhere

Karuna – Community Worker

My boyfriend’s Organic fruit juice stand, Yufi Juice!

Tawny Autumn – Model

All the music is amazing.

Zoe – Traveler and Student

I love the no cars! We own the streets today. 

By Becca Lemire

The first Pedestrian Sunday for 2010 (from May to October, visit http://www.pskensington.ca/ for more info) went off joyously, with the streets packed, people getting jiggy with it and everyone and everything in Toronto right there at your fingertips, taking up only a few small blocks. I went yesterday, May 30th, with a few objectives: to see my friend’s bands play, eat tasty food, take pictures and wander around....which is, something I am embarrassed to say I have hardly ever gone to, but always hear so much about. Eventually by around 6pm I checked of my to-dos and finished the day fanning myself with a piece of paper over a pint in the back room at Ronnie’s (patio seats, I wish…those are hard to come by). Here are my favorite things from the day, narrated with photos. See you next month!

1. The puppies! I love that this is the type of event that people bring their pets too. And for some reason there was a very high concentration of cute dogs and puppies this time. I pretty much was speaking in cute-puppy-language as Oprah calls it for half the day. Oh-ma-guh!
2. The music, the music, the music. All types, everywhere, blending in to each other. Rock and roll, jazz, Latin, Caribbean, full out traveling drum circles, didgeridoos, beautiful and powerfully loud.
3. It was really inspiring to see all the children experiencing the day. They are our future, and they’re more cultured than ever! It really makes it feel like a community, with whole families being there. Imagine how cool you are going to be if you grow up at Pedestrian Sundays. Just saying.
4. The plethora of non-wallet-busting fresh snacks every 10 steps. So many different cultural tasty experiences, all right there in front of you, for under $5. Personally, my version of paradisio. I tried a chicken empanada, classic British deep fried shrimp skewers, fish and pepper kabobs, a nice helping of fresh fruit, fresh watermelon slurpee, cheese croissant, melon Popsicle and Thai spring roll. Think I’m going to walk home…
5. The art and creative expression! If you have the craving to dance in circles for hours on a Sunday, I’m glad you feel comfortable doing it here. It helps to take the edge off the long work week after all. Open galleries, mini-yard sales, hula-hooping, teaching Capoeira to children, bubble blowing, face painting, rickshaw riding, belly dancing, harp playing, bands powered by bicycles; it was a very artsy affair.

by Becca Lemire
Who: Darrell Simpson, film scorer, graphic arts wizard and Medical Records Clerk, and Aynsley Amy, seamstress, stylist, extreme DIY-er and Retail Manager at Yorkville’s Anthropologie.
What: A 3-bedroom apartment converted into a functional 2-office-1-bedroom apartment
When: Moved from Montreal, September 2009
Where: Dundas and Ossington
Why: Shinier job prospects, French speaking not-required, better winters 

A unique couple with unique decorating tastes, Darrell and Aynsley have been collecting things for years from all over North America and Europe and religiously U-Haul them around, and set them up everywhere the wind takes them (8 moves in the past 5 years). Aynsley says it’s the only time she wishes they were minimalists, but surprisingly very little has been lost or broken along the way. Walking through the apartment is like a walk backwards in time. It’s a museum of the interesting, with macabre and classy elements all at the same time. Nature (antlers, wilderness landscapes, wood), vintage (everything, everywhere) and death (gas masks, skulls, guns, to name a few) themes stand out against white walls and soft lighting.  

They don’t try to stick to one style per se, but if they like something and they can afford it, they’ll get it and make it work, and find a home for it later. Aynsley is a self described organizational nerd, so everything has its place and she likes to keep things clean and neat. One, because she wants it that way, and two, because if things weren’t organized they would be buried alive by all their odd collections. Dresses, dolls (or doll parts), old books, games and artifacts, old medical supplies, records, music equipment and war artifacts are among some of their collections. Possessions have been hoarded and carried around from England, Vancouver, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Croatia, France, and various other places in the United States and Canada. They got married on 06-06-06 on a graveyard in Saignon, France. The Mayor tried to bribe them to get married somewhere else for free, but they were like “No way, man!” and gladly paid him the 500 Euros. They do things their way, and they don’t really need anyone’s approval. It’s just who they are, and what they love. 

Darrell and Aynsley’s  special message to friends and fans: "Friends are always welcome for a visit and a cocktail,  but if you're thinking of breaking into our place to steal all our awesome stuff, please be advised that meat cleavers, saws and knives are hanging by the front door and we are not afraid to use them." 

1: They keep a beautiful scrap book of their life and marriage in a music book from Prague from the 1900’s. It only contains photos of the 2 of them, so even photos from places like New York City only have either Darrell or Aynsley in them.
2, 3,4: One of the bedrooms has been converted into Aynsley’s walk-in closet. Think Carrie Bradshaw meets Burning Man, with wall to wall racks and shelves filled with pretty dresses in every colour, dozens of shoes as well as bags, skirts, hats and shirts. Probably not too many pairs of pants. A sewing table with a pink bust decoupaged by Aynsley. This is a very fashion-focused couple and Darrell has quite the collection of clothes as well; every day in 2009 they took a photo of each others outfits and will be publishing a book of it sometime this year. The photo at the top is from that collection.  

1: A gift from a friend from the Winnipeg Goodwill.
2: A Russian Engraving in a vintage gold frame.
3: Aynsley’s Vintage red lamp from Vancouver.
4: Lady tray from Value Village in Montreal, Aynsley drew the tattoos on.  

1: Some of Darrell’s old medicines, artifacts and a tiny skull
2: Darrell stuck feathers into the doll head and found the sign outside their place
3: Hand-held Operation game.
4: Darrell’s medical arm, bought from Rogue’s gallery in Leslieville.
5: Aynsley’s childhood roller-skates.
6: Darrell’s great Uncle’s  Veterinary equipment.
7: Living room; money tree.  

Darrell’s music collection includes:  4 guitars, a mandolin, an autoharp, a cello, 3 amps, 20 keyboards, and counting. You can hear some from his latest project at Shame Agent (his solo stuff is at August Hell). Shame Agent is a collaboration with The Best front man Tai Lee, and it’s all recorded by the two of them using live instruments and samples in his music studio in the apartment. It’s pretty far out stuff. Any attempt to describe it will probably suffocate the origonality with silly words, so I suggest you give a listen and decide for yourself what it sounds like.  

1: Aynsley likes to have a bit of Jesus and Elvis in every room, and the bathroom is no exception.
2: A friend from Ireland, Daire Lynch, painted this of them.
3: Waterfall and rainbow shower curtain from a department store.

1: Pink phone from a junk store in Montreal, and works, except the previous tenants kicked in the phone jacks at their place. Doll from east London, England.
2: Antlers were a Christmas present from Darrell to Aynsley; wood was a gift from a friend.
3: Another page in their scrapbook.

What's fun about Sex and the City 2 is arriving at a theatre packed full of smiling women wearing frilly dresses, overhearing them gush about their favourite episodes and feeling the flutter of excitement in the air. Yes the reviews are unfavourable, and if I were a film critic I'd thumb it down too but I'm not - I'm a woman who loved Sex and the City.

Is this film sequel as good as the show? Certainly not. Did we expect it to be? No. It is what it is - which is a ridiculous and extravagant ride in and through over-the-top glamour wherein the characters we love play into their stereotypes. Carrie's hats (tiaras?) become harebrained, Charlotte preaches the sanctity of marriage until we want to slap her in the face, Miranda has a blackberry addiction and Samantha becomes an out-of-control parody of her horny self - to the point where even pervs like us feel grossed out. We sympathize and relate to their meltdowns, laugh at dick jokes, critique the fashion and walk out yammering about which one we are most like; a conversation that never tires. Like a microwavable Hungry-Man dinner - we thought we knew exactly what we were getting....comfort food but then we arrive in Abu Dhabi (actually Morocco), which leaves me feeling totally tongue-tied and uncomfortable.

Camels and deserts make for exotic shots and it's fun to play dress-up like an Arabian genie - but is it fun to mock women wearing burkas? I don't know about you, but I view the burka as a form of oppression. In post-premiere chit-chat many moviegoers didn't seem to think this was worth addressing....after all the film is fancy and fun. But if, at its core, the series is about friendship and female support, then is it not our responsibility to address this?

Perhaps Carrie's curiousity of watching an Arab woman eat a french fry through her burka, and Samantha's near brush with violence for exposing too much skin in a crowded local market, will encourage discourse. However, as one friend mentioned last night, "will it be helpful discourse?" The film paints a shallow portrait that portrays the women from the United Arab Emirates as being just like Carrie and the girls. They sport the latest Louis Vuitton and Chanel, idolize Suzanne Somers and giggle about the backward thinking men they have to put up with. Beneath the veil, everything is just like Sex and the City! Yeah…I don't think so.

While at the after-party at Hazelton’s One, I shared my opinions of the film with Susur Lee, who asked me if I was a feminist. We talked about post-feminism for far longer than I could have ever predicted. Frankly, I don't even know what I was saying but Canada's master chef was interested to the point that he suggested doing an entire menu at Lee around this theme. I hope this happens. What does feminism taste like?

I wish that this post could be, as Carrie would say full of 'sparkle', but it can't. I left wanting to walk into a university lecture for a course called "Women in Pop Culture" where some smart academic professor could explain to me what I just saw. Instead I just drank SKYY Vodka cocktails named Glamour Girl and Park Avenue Princess, ogled dresses and twirled around in my puffy chiffon.

It is what it is - which is what we love until we are confronted with a stylish burkini. So I guess, go see it with your girlfriends and then start a conversation about Louboutin heels and women's rights in the United Arab Emirates.