Forest Hill Peeping Tom

Tuesday morning I woke up and turned on CP24 to check the highways for my morning commute to work. Quickly I glanced back and forth, between images of the 404 and the headlines just left of the screen. After six months of living in Toronto and having this morning routine, my neighbourhood finally made it into the headlines! "Police are investigating a possible sexual offender operating in the Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue West area."

I wanted to cheer for my neighbourhood, but then I thought, "Uh...this headline isn't good." I went to google news to get the story. Turns out there's a peeping tom targeting female homes in my area. One woman living in a ground floor apartment just down my street had her window screen cut open by the dude.

This is particularly disconcerting because: 1) I live pretty much sandwiched between the location of both incidents. 2) I live with a female friend. 3) We share a ground floor apartment.

But after some thought, I realized how silly it is to worry myself over a headline from CP24. Besides getting traffic reports every morning, I enjoy making fun of about 90% of their headlines. Why should this be any different? So, to ease my worries, I've already started making jokes about the peeping tom. (Mostly based on his description fitting people I know).

Speaking of making fun - everyone who visits my new home has made fun of the four different types of locks I have on the door to my bedroom patio. Who's laughing now?!

Machete Maidens and Waffle Making

This weekend the Bloor Cinema was showing Machete Maidens Unleashed, a documentary about the b-movies filmed in the Philippines in the 70's and 80's. These movies feature lots of blood, beasts and boobs. The only ones I've seen are Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Black Mama, White Mama, but Machete Maidens Unleashed convinced me there are way more I need to see! Especially the ones starring midget spy, Weng Weng. But I need to give this documentary another viewing. After a long day, including shopping, previewing classroom films and doing karaoke, I fell asleep a couple of times. Oops!

 

The reason for previewing classroom films on Saturday (besides it just being fun) was in preparation for this coming Friday's "Classroom Film Night" at Trash Palace. I know I'll be showing "Our Wonderful Eyes and Their Care", a classic, 50's Coronet film, but I'm looking to show one or two more. The picture above is from a few weeks back, when I showed the Larry Buchanan feature, Creature of Destruction. A Trash Palace regular brought Cupcakes of Destruction, which was awesome so I wanted to show them off on my new blog.

 

I also want to show off my weekend tradition of waffle making. Ever since Mouth got his G5, George Foreman Grill with waffle plates, I've been making waffles for us every weekend. Today we had strawberry banana waffles. This was my second time experimenting with banana in waffles and it turned out much better today because the banana was a week old instead of newly bought from the grocery store. Much like making banana bread, it helps having them older for stronger banana flavour. Delicious! I also like to have my waffles with maple mocha coffee imported from Sarnia's Coffee Lodge. It pairs wonderfully with the waffle's syrup and episodes of Davey and Goliath.

The Ventures

Last Friday, Mouth, a couple of friends and myself took the drive to Casino Rama in Orillia to see the Ventures. If you think you don't know who the Ventures are, believe me, you do. Their surf rock music can be found everywhere. "Wipe Out", "Hawaii Five-0", "Walk Don't Run", and their list of hits goes on and on. 

Anyway, I was somewhat surprised when they took the stage. I was kind of expecting them to look like this:

Oh yeah, I forgot, 50 years have passed. These guys are well into their seventies. But I think, like with wine or cheese, their age has only made them better. I was in amazement through the whole show how these men have wildly played guitars all these years and their fingers aren't suffering from arthritis. 

The only younger member was the drummer, Leon Taylor, the son of now deceased original drummer, Mel Taylor. The last song they played had the most fantastic drum solo I've ever seen performed live. 

I think one of the biggest highlights of the show wasn't just the Ventures performance. It was the audience. You know the fans must be big ones if they're willing to drive to Orillia (a very boring 2 hour drive outside Toronto). Most of the audience was made up of people close in age to the band itself. 

Two much older asian ladies sitting in front of me looked like teenage girls seeing the Beatles. The Ventures were HUGE in Japan and I can imagine these women growing up there in Venture mania. Each new song the Ventures played made these ladies jump around in their seats with the biggest smiles. I thought they were going to lose it when Don Wilson announced there was going to be a signing.

And the signing had a line of close to 500 people waiting after the show. 

I'm thrilled I had the opportunity to see these surf legends live. Based on their ages, it's difficult to say if I'll get the opportunity again. On the other hand, based on their performance, they're in great enough shape to last much longer.

Here's some clips of the Ventures playing live:

Wipe Out

Hawaii Five-0

Caravan (1965)

Tequila

Induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame

I'm Roosevelt Franklin, ya ya ya!

 

To celebrate Black History Month, I've been listening to the Roosevelt Franklin record on repeat during my drives to and from work. Roosevelt Franklin was a puppet on Sesame Street during it's very early years. He lasted from 1970 to around 1975. Roosevelt Franklin was pulled off Sesame Street because he was said to represent a negative stereotype of black people. Geesh, first of all, Roosevelt Franklin is PURPLE. Secondly, Roosevelt Franklin is COOL (he talks in scat and rhymes and sings with a whole lotta soul). Thirdly, he's SMART!

In his album, "My Name is Roosevelt Franklin" he teaches kids important things like the alphabet, the days of the week, sharing, and most importantly, to not judge others based on the colour of their skin.

Anyway, I love this album so much, I wanna make Roosevelt Franklin puppets (including Baby Ray, Mary Francis, ABCito, etc) and perform the entire album!

Some other things I've done in this month to celebrate Black History Month:

• Watch the black exorcist (or blaxorcist), Abby. Best blaxploitation horror movie I've ever seen!! Seriously, just watch this youtube clip of Abby and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

• Drank the Obama blend coffee at the Obama Cafe on the Danforth.

Happy last day of Black History Month everyone!!