The Night Shift: We could be Sheroes. My column, this week: on the wickedness of last weekend’s woman realness summits all over Toronto: fashion oligarchs, interior design queens, and Erykah Badu. The girl power in full effect. For The Grid. Then read about this band Bizzrah (^) by my musically-tasteful friend Anupa. The next Sheroes is Etta James in Feb. - yeah, you should go.
The “scene” at Sheroes #6: Erykah Badu. Photo by Tony Halmos. Event GIF by Rea McNamara.
{ The Night Shift: Will Toronto ever really be able to embrace its greatness? (with notes from the cutting room floor) }
Ah, Toronto. This week, I asked a question that someone’s probably asked before, but, with everything that’s been going on in politics and the budget this year, it’s never been, or felt, as real as it does right now. At least to me it hasn’t. I’m not trying to answer whether or not we’re a world capital or if we’re even “great.” This, I know. But, ultimately, I’ve realized we are responsible for our own growth, so I put the question out there.
I cut this bit that follows from the original story, but now I think it was (perhaps) more necessary than I realized. It explains a lot about why I give a damn about this city now, but why it wasn’t always so easy to do so.
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I grew up in the Jane & Finch area in the ’90s, and lived there until I was about 16. Truth be told, it wasn’t exactly a place you could be proud of, at least not outside of our own community borders. (Just read these Urban Dictionary definitions to get a sense of what the reaction was like when you told people where you lived, and what they would automatically think about you.) I was around a lot of kids my age who, myself included, were sometimes made to feel like they “would never make it out the ‘hood.” To look back is to see how these experiences - these moments of doubt - really coloured a lot of what I thought about the city as a whole. Of course I knew there was more out there, but it either felt unavailable to me, or unable to provide what I really wanted out of life. I wanted to opt out, to go somewhere legendary. If Jane & Finch was any indication, this city wasn’t where dreams would come true, where people could “come up.” If anything, J&F made me hungry for better things, for more than what I thought Toronto could ever offer. (Plus, let’s remember: Toronto wasn’t even “all that” back in those days anyway, so…)
But then, things started to change, and the city started to change. I stopped letting things like my lack of money or my lack of pristine postal code define what was possible. I’ve watched this city grow tremendously in the past decade as an observer of it, and even more in the past year as a reporter of it. Each weekend, I get to see the interesting things people are doing and how this city really is better; my serious thoughts on its potential move even further away from that defeatist noise. On the worst days, I used to think about how these limits might be it for me; I used to hate that thought. But, for many reasons, it doesn’t feel like such a tragedy anymore. I want to be here. This is where the real action is happening - and, really, it’s still only the beginning. Why would you want to be anywhere else right now?
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Toronto is great, and I think that’s pretty clear. I just wanted to keep reminding people what we’ve got here now, and what we can look forward to. If we’re “pre-climax,” or on the cusp of a “moment” or whatever, the future of this town really could go either way. Especially if we keep undercutting our services and developments. Yeah, people don’t want to think of Toronto as NYC or LA or whatever (hey: we probs never will be), but we can build our own, even better thing if we can fucking take it seriously sometimes.
This was for The Grid.
(Toronto Tempo from Ryan Emond on Vimeo.)
{ The Night Shift: bars and recreation }
…or how Toronto is turning into a giant rec room, in The Grid.
An Electric Circus came to town… or what I did for New Year’s Eve. For The Grid.
{ Toronto's greatest nights out in 2011 }
I asked/texted/e-mail/etc a bunch of friends/strangers about their favourite 2011 things to do at night. It’s not a best of, or a top 10, but does quote Ellen Willis + other random shit
Party rmx feat. Andre 3000 & Kanye West
by Beyonce
The Nocturne: Happy Endings, a monthly dance party that lets you werq with wontons. I went dancing with all these random people in a random hole in the wall in Chinatown for The Grid. I walked up to this place (^) and hoped – for five seconds – that Roman Polanski would be inside. But a story’s a story, and sometimes the best kind leave you dazed and bemused. Starting to think the best stuff happens in places only we know. Read and then go, next month, for New Year’s. Lasers included.
flea market love
TorontoLife.com “Parkdale Vendors Market brings good stuff cheap - including, yes, grilled cheese - to the street.” ‘Nuff said. Go visit.
the infamy of post-mo
The Grid, June 9. “Dawn of a new gay.” So, I wrote this story on my experiences as a born-and-raised gay man living in Toronto in 2011. It’s not perfect, but it can be great if you let it. The response was unreal. The comments were out of this city - literally, as far as Oz. The debate went on for follow-up after follow-up (mostly calling for my head). The aftermath proved that every story is unique and there is no one way to be gay. More importantly, gay individuals are still struggling to be accepted in Toronto, the land of same-sex marriage and tolerance and cultural diversity. Let’s change that. Seriously. I’ll be doing my part, and if you cared enough to comment on this article or write your own responses, I hope you’ll do more than just sit behind a keyboard dishing out insults or posting the latest celeb penis leak. I’m not saying my views have necessarily changed (I mean, it’s my story at the end of the day and I can’t change that), but I’ve become much more aware and committed to creating a city where everyone feels as comfortable as I do - gay or straight, male or female, white or rainbow-coloured. There will always be assholes out there, but to them, I say, fuck you. We’ll show ‘em.
THE FOLLOW-UP: Read The Grid’s response to why they published me here, find the reader letters here and hear my commentary on the whole thing on CBC’s Metro Morning radio show here, a week after the piece was published. Google the rest, it’s worth a read.
*NB: I don’t know if I’ll ever talk about this again, but I do want to note that the guys in the photos had nothing to do with the piece; it was finished long before the concept became what it was. The Grid interviewed the guys independently of my piece to see if they could find any parallels, and those were the responses you saw in print, separate from what I wrote and the experiences I collected. It was not the other way around. The similarities you see between my piece and their responses weren’t calculated or deliberate - it is what it is. And they’re interesting. So please treat those boys kindly. They’re a great bunch of men.
yeah, powerball - this art gala in toronto - is sorta worth it
BlogTO “5 things that make Powerball worth $165 a ticket.” Plus the night in five tweets and other interesting photos.
jock yoga? yup, it’s a thing
Toronto Star. ”Jock Yoga brings guys to the mats.” Part one of my attempt to write more about things that interest me or that I haven’t really covered extensively. This time around, meet the man behind a new yoga practice that’s getting guys into downward dog.
