Opinion

Alice in Chains at the Sound Academy

New photos posted on Flickr.

Review written and published for AUX.

Former Alice in Chains singer and songwriter Layne Staley died in 2002. A few years later the band reformed with new member William DuVall, a black afro haired singer who befriended guitarist Jerry Cantrell earlier on in the decade. Last night, March 17, 2010, Alice in Chains, fronted by DuVall, who may not look or have the same vocal style as Staley, played at the Sound Academy in Toronto to a sold out audience.

Playing mostly new material from their latest album, Black Gives Way to Blue, released last year, Alice in Chains ripped up the stage and showed no remorse for people with glow sticks. Midway through their set, which also included older Alice songs such as “Them Bones,” “Down in a Hole,” “Angry Chair,” and “Man in the Box,” an audience member threw a glow stick onstage. Using the opportunity to catch their breath the band, consisting of other original member Sean Kinney on drums and bassist Mike Inez who replaced former bassist Mike Starr in 1993, went back to their metal influenced alternative rock tunes, a staple of the band since the early days. The performance of the track “Your Decision” featuring DuVall on acoustic guitar certainly gave the enthusiastic crowd some respite before launching into the hard rock favourite “We Die Young” off Facelift, the band’s first album after changing their name from Sleeze.

Ending the set with “Man in the Box” where for once the crowd’s vocals outsoared DuVall’s take on Staley, the band returned for a three song encore and played “No Excuses,” “Would” and “Rooster,” all songs off previous albums. The last song, written by Cantrell and said to be about his father who served in Vietnam, truly ended the night with both the band and crowd harmonizing on the intro and outro.

Despite losing Staley, Alice in Chains have done what so many other bands couldn’t do. They have put out a fresh batch of new tunes fans of old love containing the loud ‘90s rock aesthetic. The band has also attracted newcomers to the sound to explore the band’s current and past catalogue. In a way it’s refreshing to see older bands still playing hard rocking music without the use of electronic equipment. They reinforce the idea that songs from early ‘90s Seattle bands are timeless pieces of art made by those who struggled with no money and crappy weather. Hearing the songs live, even with DuVall instead of Staley, is a thrilling experience that any fan or appreciator of alternative rock and its roots should not overlook.

Learn to love gardening…and wine

To garden, or not to garden?

That was the question put forth by writer Paul Knowles at the Leaside Garden Society meeting on Oct. 8.

Writer Paul Knowles at the Leaside Garden Society meeting on Oct. 8
Writer Paul Knowles at the Leaside Garden Society meeting on Oct. 8

Knowles was the guest speaker as part of the society’s session called ‘Escaping Eden’ at the Leaside Library. He discussed the magic and wonder that comes with gardening and nailed down what makes gardeners like him tick.

 “I love speaking to groups of gardeners,” he said. “Gardeners are very special people and I would like to commend you for the stuff you do. What you do gets noticed maybe weeks or months after you do it.”

Knowles asked gardeners at the session why they do what they do.

“We garden in the rain…covered in mud,” he said. “We rejoice in the richness of rotten manure. What makes a gardener a gardener?”

Knowles said all gardeners have their own story of how they started creating beauty. His story includes magic, wonder and a little help from Mother Nature.

“My dad was an absolutely devoted gardener,” he said. “His idea of a garden is quite different from mine today. His idea of a perfect garden was three acres of potatoes and a son with a hoe.”

Knowles grew up in the small town of Eden, Ont. The thoughts and memories of this place were the inspiration for his latest book, Escaping Eden.

“It’s not a theological treatise,” he said. “In fact, the first part of the book talks about how I became a gardener.”
As a kid harvesting potatoes and cucumbers, Knowles decided he would never garden again.

 “I vowed that if I ever escaped Eden, I would never garden as long as I lived, ever,” he said.
Like most adolescent statements about the future, Knowles was proved wrong.

He moved to New Hamburg, Ont. to work as publisher of a newspaper. There, he met two people: his wife Mary and Paul Knowles the gardening expeditionary.

“She tricked me. She didn’t mention when I was falling in love with her that she was a dedicated gardener,” he said of how his wife tried to show him the beauty of gardening. “She asked me to help and I said no. ‘No, I’m going to sit over here, drink wine and read a book in the shade.’ I stuck by this for maybe a season.”

But during a trip to England, where he saw the magnificent Sissinghust Castle Gardens, Knowles remembered leaning over to his wife and finally giving in.

“This little bit right here, we could do that in our garden back home. And I became a gardener,” he said. “Mary had chosen exactly the right place to seduce me back to the garden.”

After 10 years of marriage, his wife died from cancer.

“When she passed away and I moved to a new home, I had to make a decision. It wasn’t hard,” he said. “I separated the plants and took at least a sample of everything from Mary’s garden with me.”

Knowles said that before his wife died, she and his father dug up a rose that was at the old house back in Eden. 
In his new garden, Knowles planted a hydrangea from his wife’s garden and the rose from Eden.

“I was planting memories and smiles and maybe a couple tears and joy and magic all at once,” he said. “This summer, they both bloomed at the same time.”

Before telling his story, Knowles informed those present that he would not be giving gardening advice. However, at the end he offered some inspiration and a little tidbit to enhance one’s taste for gardening.

“When you are doing your community gardens, you’re not just planting plants. You’re not just fighting weeds. You’re planting magic,” he said, adding that every garden “is dramatically improved with the addition of a wine bar. If you don’t drink wine, start.”

The Leaside Garden Society meets nine times a year. The next meeting is on Nov. 12.

Want some bucks? Find the duck

It might seem a little odd to travel the world three times in search of a stuffed bird that has been extinct for over 100 years. It might also seem strange to offer $10,000 to whoever finds the next stuffed specimen.

Dr. Glen Chilton and the ROM's stuffed Labrador duck
Dr. Glen Chilton and the ROM's stuffed Labrador duck

But Canadian ornithologist Dr. Glen Chilton, who attended Sunday’s first-ever viewing of the Royal Ontario Museum’s stuffed Labrador duck, is doing just that. According to Chilton, the black and white Labrador duck – also known as pied duck, skunk duck and sand-shoal duck – became extinct around 1875.

“We didn’t know about this bird, we don’t even know why it was extinct,” Chilton said. “They weren’t paying attention in the 19th century.”

Chilton, however, has been paying attention since a young age.

Growing up in Toronto, Chilton found solace not in the swimming pool with other kids his age, but with a book about birds given to him by his parents; that book would be the foundation of his career.

“They were trying to keep me from getting bored,” he said. “I tried to spell out the names, sound out the names… learn all the birds. At that age – seven years old – I could have told you I wanted to be a bird biologist,” he said.

After writing an account of the white-crowned sparrow and the short, mysterious account of the Labrador duck, Chilton was enthralled by the stories that came with this lost creature. His journey to track down the 55 known stuffed Labrador ducks had begun. Chilton would travel to Germany, Russia, France and finally to England, where he would see the final specimen.

“There was a duck that had been in the Middle East… I was told ‘If you can get to London at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning, you can see this duck,’” he said.

The duck was owned by a sheik and was sent to England for a one-time viewing.

“When I opened (the box), it was still so beautiful it took my breath away. Each one has taken my breath away. That’s probably my defining moment, when I saw the last ever specimen after taking years to find all of them.”

Chilton has adapted the stories from his travels into a book called The Curse of the Labrador Duck and has also offered the $10,000 reward for anyone who finds another stuffed Labrador duck.

“Maybe this will cause people to go out and check their grandmother’s attic, check smaller museums… because if another specimen is found, it’s invaluable,” he said. “In terms of money it’s valuable, but for the scientific community it would be the 56th.”

Chilton sees both the positives and negatives of finding another specimen.

“If somebody finds another Labrador duck, what will it tell us? Maybe it has information tied around its leg, where it was shot, or what date it was shot. It’s new information and it’s all valuable. It would be worth $10,000 to me.”

“Part of me hopes I can keep my $10,000,” he added.

If one is found, it may solve the mystery of the bird’s extinction. From his research, Chilton believes there may be two reasons why the duck did not survive.

“There is no evidence to believe that hunting pressure drove them to extinction,” he said. “This is one of those extraordinary rare examples of natural extinction. That’s uncommon, but it does happen. I think it is more likely that this bird made the mistake of wintering around New York City at a time when the population of NYC was going up.”

Chilton said that as the population went up, there was a rise in untreated water being flushed into the ocean where the Labrador ducks would feed for mussels in shallow waters.

Although the cause of its extinction remains hidden, Chilton still finds joy when viewing these creatures he has spent so much time researching. The only other duck on display in Canada is at McGill University in Montreal.

And while the journey to see and examine every stuffed Labrador duck has ended for now, Chilton turns back to his younger days to help him pursue new projects.

“It’s like playing every day to study birds,” he said. “You go out into woods to study birds, you go to museums to study birds; it’s like being a child and given new toys every day.”

NINJA show in Chula Vista

Seconds after singing the last words of the song ‘Hurt,’ Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor said goodnight to the audience and led his band offstage to conclude the first two performances of the night.

Playing what seemed to be a short set of mostly new songs, NIN certainly warmed up the stage both physically, with the smoke machines, and metaphorically for the headliners. The night was certainly not over yet.

Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and Street Sweeper Social Club played at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, California on May 16.

Nine Inch Nails perform at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, California
Nine Inch Nails perform at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, California

Located just a few miles north of the American Mexican border, the venue started to fill up as the sun set. For those who needed to be welcomed, ‘California Love’ by Dr. Dre and 2pac blasted through the speakers as the opening act took the stage.

Street Sweeper Social Club, with former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, performed an energetic set with a blend of alternative rock and MC style vocals. Morello’s guitar playing has lost none of its potency from the Rage days as he still looks, guitar held high above his waist, and sounds the same with classic screeching riffs. The band finished the half hour set with a cover of MC5’s ‘Kick out the jams.’

The Night now in full swing, concert goers admired the backdrop of the southern Californian mountains behind the stage as they waited for NIN to come on. Had you have closed your eyes absorbing the cool night air for too long and you would have missed the first song. The quartet went on stage and erupted through the speakers. So much so that after the first song, the PA system stopped working properly and only those seated in the lower bowl of the venue could hear anything. “I’ll rip the fucking speakers down if that happens again,” Reznor told the audience. “It’s not a nails’ show unless it’s loud.”

With the speakers fixed and as loud as ever, NIN ripped through material from their latest album. They did pause however between some songs to perform various piano/keyboard instrumentals. But after the momentary settle, NIN changed pace and again the place was rocking. If it wasn’t their sound that stimulated the crowd, the stage show had both fans and non fans wide eyed. A sign had been placed at the entrance of the venue warning those who have problems with strobe lighting. The organizers weren’t kidding. Each song brought upon different lighting effects that was matched perfectly with the sound, putting those in attendance in a trance like state.

During the set, the stage was flooded with smoke which Reznor would often disappear in and then remerge just in time to scream out the words to the song. It was all business for NIN as they hardly let any ears escape their guitars, bass, drums, piano/keyboard and synthesizers. They finished their set with ‘Hurt’ with the spotlight solely on Reznor and the crowd joining him for the chorus.

Naked girls from the 50s and a scene from the flick The River Wild were the intros on the screen for headliners Jane’s Addiction. Saluting their fellow Californians, lead singer Perry Ferrell revealed all members live nearby, Jane’s played a set of new and old favourites such as ‘Been Caught Stealing’ and ‘Jane says.’ Throughout each song, Ferrell danced across the stage while guitarist Dave Navarro, down on his knees, played nail biting solos to the crowd.

A change in tempo from the NIN set, but it was a change that worked. Jane’s played both harder and softer songs and pleased the audience with two encores. After the final lyric and riff from Navarro, all members paid tribute to the audience, especially Farrell who stayed on stage longer than the others. The thousands who came south from Mexico and north from San Diego and Los Angeles left satisfied knowing that they had witnessed a once in a lifetime event.

All in the family at Butcher Shop

-taken from The East Toronto Observer

Pavlo Tzompras
Pavlo Tzompras

Pape Village Meat and Deli shop owner Pavlo Tzompras remembers a time when his father would take him to work.

“I was always there, was always watching,” Tzompras said. “It is always a privilege for when you are a young kid for your father to take you to work.”

Having left the Danforth area, where he worked in restaurants for the past three years, 21-year-old Tzompras has carried on the family tradition and become a butcher.

“My godfather is a butcher, a lot of family, uncles are all butchers,” he said.
Tzompras’s first work experience took place in his uncle’s butcher shop, and like any other first job, he didn’t know what to expect.

“I was a little nervous, because you don’t know how it’s going to go,” he said. “But at the same time you think it’s going to be easier because you’re family or something like that, but it’s not really true.”

Despite the tough treatment from his boss, Tzompras grew fond of the job and knew this wouldn’t be the last time he would be involved in the business.

“I saw myself working in the industry…. When you are growing up your parents always want what is best for you,” he said. “My father always told me to go work with your uncle. From the first day I ever did the job I always enjoyed it.”

Born and raised in East York, Tzompras followed his instincts and decided to reopen the business that his father once owned.

“When I saw the place I said to myself, here’s my chance to get something going for myself,” he said.

Despite the usual competition from larger grocery stores, Tzompras’s new project seems to be doing fine. The shop has now been open for a month.

“You have big grocery stores like Food Basics and Sobey’s and the huge Loblaws Superstores all over the place nowadays,” he said. “Their meat comes pre-packaged on the shelf, ready to go home.”

But worrying about what the competitors are doing is not something that troubles Tzompras too much.

“I try to just stay focused on my store. I want to try and make sure that I always have product; just concentrate on my business and get everything going,” he said.

Getting the store on its feet was a bit of challenge, but members of Tzompras’s family were willing to give their support.

“I’ve gotten a lot of help from my uncles and aunts. A couple of my uncles are in construction helping me fix it up and stuff so I’ve been working really hard on that,” he said.

In starting a business like this, Tzompras realizes that some people from the area might be wary of a young shopkeeper.

“A lot of the older people in the area, they see such a young guy in business; they are kind of nervous I guess,” he said. “At the same time, my father was in the industry for so many years, people know me from the area here where I grew up.”

His father is still offering his guidance today.

“I have gotten a lot of support from my dad. He helps me if I need something. I trust his word,” he said. “He taught me a lot and I’m thankful for that. I kind of feel that I have to live up to his potential, but at the same time we all decide our own. As long as I work hard I think he’ll be happy.”

Bob Dylan at the crossroads

I used to have a tumblr website and I posted this video in a piece I wrote about how everyone likes Bob Dylan, they just haven’t realized it yet. After watching this video recently, I thought I would post it again on my new site and write something different about it.

There are dozens of videos of Bob Dylan online, but this one I keep coming back to if I want to see one of his live performances. When this video was shot, Dylan was just about to reach ‘the crossroads.’

Kudos to author/journalist Greil Marcus for writing a book entitled ‘Like a rolling stone: Bob Dylan at the crossroads.’ Although the book focuses heavily on the song ‘Like a rolling stone,’ Marcus uses the song as a springboard to explain Dylan’s new musical exploration.

On his tour of England in 1965, the setting for this performance, Dylan had already been to ‘the crossroads’. He had started using and recording with electric instruments as oppose to the usual guitar/harmonica sound that appeared on his earlier albums.

Earlier that year, Dylan had recorded his fifth studio album called ‘Bringing it all back home.’ The record seemed to be cut in half between folk (acoustic/harmonica) songs that featured Dylan alone and folk rock (electric guitars, bass, acoustics, piano, harmonica) which had a band accompanying him. The record created a divide between his fans, those who liked this change in sound and those who wanted him to stay as the folk/protest singer .

On this tour Dylan performed alone on stage. Most of the material he choose to sing were the songs his fans had come to expect of him. However, his Woody Guthrie/Huck Finn stage was at an end. He had stopped writing topical songs and his works reflected a more prose style.

In this video Dylan barely tries. His improvisation on the harmonica at the beginning of the song is a sign that he needs to do something different to escape the boredom. Amidst his lack of effort, the performance is still extraordinary. Dylan had already been to ‘the crossroads.’ Playing his new material to an English audience would have created uproar…something that eventually ended up happening.

New magazine ON the DANFORTH

-taken from the East Toronto Observer

Publisher Stan Byrne (centre) stands between editors-in-chief Nicole Chaplin (left) and Jason Rhyno at the 2009 launch celebration of On the Danforth magazine, held at Myth Restaurant and Lounge on March 18.
Publisher Stan Byrne (centre) stands between editors-in-chief Nicole Chaplin (left) and Jason Rhyno at the 2009 launch celebration of On the Danforth magazine, held at Myth Restaurant and Lounge on March 18

Inside the Myth Restaurant and Lounge on Danforth Avenue, students, teachers, family and friends have gathered together to welcome spring — and summer.

The weather outside isn’t quite conducive, but the front cover of the new spring and summer issues of On the Danforth magazine reflect
change and new beginnings.

“Spring was about how young people and old people work together in this neighbourhood in a really interesting way,” publisher Stan Byrne said. “(Summer) has kind of like an entrepreneurial spirit of the Danforth — people coming to the Danforth, like artists and new businesses.”

On the Danforth magazine is a biannual produced by the book and magazine publishing students at Centennial College’s East York campus.

The magazine, now in its sixth year, allows students from the program to create, design and sell their own magazine with little or no faculty involvement.

Denise Schon is the co-ordinator for the one-year post-graduate program.

“The faculty is barely involved at all,” Schon said. “We try to keep students out of trouble and we exercise some guidance to them in how the money flows.”

Besides selling ad space, which helps fund the magazine, students begin the process of creating the magazine in October of each year.

“First of all, they come up with what they want the overarching theme of the magazine to be,” Schon said. “Then they come up with stories within that theme, they write all the stories, they edit all the stories, they do all the design and they sell all the advertising.”

The amount of time producing the magazine and the effort put forth by the students is something similar to what will be expected of them after graduation.

“It can demonstrate they have had experience,” Schon said. “They just have to go out and show the magazine to a prospective employer and it’s a very impressive calling card.”

Applying for the various editorial and staff positions within the magazine helps give students a chance to see how a real magazine works.

Hesitant at first, student Byrne chose to be the publisher for both issues.

“When I first got into the program, I thought I would take a small role in the magazine,” Byrne said. “After I was in the program for a couple of months I just realized that it was supposed to be about putting yourself forward and learning something and wasn’t supposed to be about taking the easy route.”

Fellow student Lindsay Benjamin felt the uneasiness that comes with writing for a different kind of audience.

“It was a kind of overwhelming for me at first,” Benjamin said. “Once I got past the intimidation factor I guess that was probably it — just trying to write something that people would find interesting.”

Benjamin, who wrote a story about the history of the Bloor Street Viaduct for the spring issue, enjoyed seeing her story in the magazine… and now on the street.

“It was a lot of hard work and a long process,” she said. “It was nice to write something and have a tangible copy, something you could hold in your hand and read and show to your friends and family.”

Now that the magazine has been released, the publisher is pleased with the success of the project.

“I’m really happy with how it turned out,” Byrne said. “We are only here for a year and we just get to do it once, so in some ways it kind of reinvents itself each year.”

“I’m excited to read next year’s and see how it’s reinvented,” she said.
Copies of On the Danforth are distributed free to some households in the East York area — and at the annual Taste of the Danforth food festival.

Obama v.s. Harper

-taken from the Toronto Observer website

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said the world needs a leader who cares about the environment and if he is anything like U.S. president Barrack Obama, we are in good hands.

“Barrack Obama understands the science and recognizes that if we don’t address the climate crisis nothing else matters,” May told a Toronto audience on Wednesday night at the St. Paul’s Annual 2009 General Meeting.

“(Prime Minister) Stephen Harper doesn’t think the climate crisis is real; he just thinks it is a public relations problem and his real goal is expanding the (Alberta) tar sands,” she said.

The Green Party, which earned 6.8 per cent of the overall vote in last year’s federal election, but still won no seats, admires the environmental approach Obama has taken through his inauguration address, his campaign commitments and his cabinet appointments.

One of his appointments includes a national science advisor Dr. John P. Holdren. Harper dismissed his former science advisor, Dr. Arthur Carty, in January of last year. Industry Canada said the government decided to phase out the office of the national science advisor.

“At every level if you compare what Barrack Obama is doing to what Stephen Harper is doing we are falling miles and miles behind,” May said.

According to May, a very thin line divided the relationship between Harper and former U.S. president George W. Bush’s environmental policies.

“We were exactly in lock stock with George Bush in terms of climate policies with Stephen Harper, but Barrack Obama is not George Bush and for that we can all be grateful,” she said

Although there is a lot of support for climate and environmental change within the country, May said the government that is currently in place refuses to budge

“We have a Parliament and the majority of votes in this country and the majority of MP’s support real action on climate change and unfortunately we have a minority government that doesn’t,” she said.
Jordy Gold, a campaigner for the Greens, said Canadians don’t see the leadership qualities in Harper that compare to Obama.

“I think a lot of people are watching him (Obama) with great interest and are probably wishing they saw a little bit more of that leadership in our own country,” Gold said.

Gold thinks the ideas Obama talked about in his last major speech, an address to Congress, encouraged taking a greener approach to the economic crisis, something he believes Harper does not focus on.

“It appears that the Harper government is completely off on another planet trying to pursue a totally different agenda that really doesn’t mesh at all with green party values,” he said.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May
Green Party leader Elizabeth May