Name that tune?
First up, if you were looking forward to talking poetry at TKOs this month, you’re going to have to get your fix somewhere else. The meeting has been cancelled, but will return again next month on August, 11th.
Last but not least, frequent attendees of DECA arts events will likely remember Mark Sepic’s performances. He’s got a Fringe Festival show on now at the Solo Room at 736 Bathurst.
Have you named the tune from the headline? Hint….the band has a Tragic history.
Join Ruth and friends on Saturday July 9th from 11am-4pm for Toronto Cat Rescue’s first adopt-a-thon with “Wag On The Danforth“! Wag is a family-run business at 1918 Danforth, across from East Lynn Park, that carries a wide variety of all natural foods for cats, dogs, small animals and birds.
There will be a couple of adult cats and lots and lots of kittens waiting for their forever families to adopt them. Drop by and adopt your new best friend(s). The cat rescue folks want you to know that when you adopt a kitty from Toronto Cat Rescue you save two lives; the one you adopt and the one you make room for. The adoption fee is $175. This ensures that the cats that come into our care receive the medical attention they need, are spayed or neutered, vaccinated (and receive a rabies vaccination if age appropriate). Our fee also includes 6 weeks of free pet insurance.
Toronto Cat Rescue is a no-kill, not for profit, 100% volunteer, registered charity.
Catherine Penny sent along this interesting little tidbit of local literary libation locale…
I thought you would like to know that Toronto’s longest running poetry workshop group, Toronto Renaissance Conspiracy, meets the second Thursday of every month in the top room of TKO’s (yes poetry above a sports bar/restaurant).
All are welcome to the workshops.
It has published three anthologies of work and a lot of poets/writers have worked through pieces which have subsequently been published or put to video or to choral work. The Larkin Singers just did Jim Lanthier’s body of work, Wife in Winter, that was performed on May 28, 2011 at Christ Church Deer Park. Valentino the Toronto Rapper/ Poet workshopped for a TheFullySick Rapper of Australia – a piece which was used for the advertisement promo for Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald in Day In The Life of You Tube. He wasn’t able to present himself so Valentino did it for him.
You can read and workshop, or just read a piece or just have a listen.
The group has had Goran Simac, Alice Major, David Donnel & Roo Borson read and present new work. Numerous chap books, awards and recognitions have been bestowed on poets that have presented work in a raw form and then with feedback altered, adjusted, fine tuned or did nothing to the pieces.
The criticism is constructive and compassionate as we all have a voice that needs to be heard and now I think our commnity needs to know that it exists.
This Thursday, May 26th is Councillor Mary Margaret McMahon’s Environment Day. She’s promised to make it the best one in the city. That seems a tall order for an event that is punctuated by a huge pile of reformulated poop, but if anyone can make poop fun it’s her. There will be music (Lost Boys), refreshments, environment groups, games and other fun. Bring your old batteries and other such toxins. It’s at Ted Reeve Arena (Gerrard and Main) from 4-8 p.m.
If want to actually compare the environment days, you could check out Councillor Janet Davis’ Environment Day on Saturday, June 4th at Stan Wadlow Clubhouse (373 Cedarvale). Councillor Davis also plans to have local entertainment and will accept your batteries and old electronics as well.
To find out exactly what you can drop off at the environment days or what you can pick up (composters, rain barrels etc), check out this link as well as the dates of other environment days around the city.
Don’t forget DECA’s container gardening workshop next Saturday at Kimbourne United Church. Contact Melissa at decagardens(at)gmail.com to register or learn more.
Container Gardening Workshop. Saturday May 28th., 2-4pm
Spring has finally sprung! Emphasis on finally. What’s that they say? May showers bring June flowers?
Next Saturday, join instructor and DECA executive member, Melissa Peretti at Kimbourne United Church (200 Wolverleigh near Coxwell and Danforth) for our latest DECA Learns workshop.
This container gardening workshop is meant for people in the city who want to grow food plants and have little or no access to soil or ground. The information is basic enough for beginners and hopefully informative enough for a more experienced city farmer.
If you want to till your own soil and taste the fruits, leaves and flowers of your labour, then join us!
The benefits of home container gardening include access to your own local, economical, fresh food, cleaner air through living plants, food for pollinators, educational for children …. the list goes on.
Topics will include:
Sign up soon. Space is limited to 20 participants. A $5 donation to DECA will be appreciated for future community projects.
email decagardens@gmail.com
Apologies dear reader, I’ve been neglecting you. Always something else that needed to be done. No matter, there is lots to tell you about today. I’m going to give you the news in this post and then send out another post in the next few days with a bunch of Danforth Gems to tell you about. Don’t let the length of this post discourage you. If you need to take a break and go make a cup of tea in the middle, do so, but make sure to come back and read all the way to the end. Trust me, you won’t want to miss the last section.
Danforth East Arts Fair – September 17/18
Coming soon to a park near you: the third annual Danforth East Arts Fair. On Sept. 17 and 18, East Lynn Park will transform into an outdoor gallery where artisans from near and far will display and sell their wares. The first application deadline for artists’ applications is April 30, so get cracking. Download your application at www.deca-arts.caThis volunteer-run, juried arts fair sprang out of an idea that a resident put forward at one of our meetings back in 2007. You see what happens? Action, people. It’s amazing what a few committed, created citizens can do.
You may remember the iron ukuleles from last fall’s arts fair. Or the skull rings. Or the gorgeous oil paintings. Or the beautiful harp music wafting through the park as people wandered down the path. Maybe you enjoyed a slice of pizza under the sun as you watched all the activity.
If you’re interested in helping out this year, drop the arts fair folks a line at deca.arts@gmail.com. And put Sept. 17 and 18 on your calendar now. Whether you’re helping out or enjoying the show, you wouldn’t want to miss it.
DECA’s Business Revitalization Team and Cozy Cafe and Bakery
By guest DECA diarist, Catherine Porter
The Cozy Cafe’s anniversary party/ community celebration was a huge success — both for the lovely sisters Vera and SzaSza, and for those of us lucky enough to drop in, eat and dance. At one point, I looked up at my two kids dancing in front of my neighbour, musician extraordinaire, Chris Bennett, and I thought: damn, we are lucky to live here.
The sisters figure about 300 people came to their party, given the jugs of coffee they went through. It was so crammed when I arrived, I could barely make it through the door. There was great food, of course, great music, and as promised, at the end of the party, the sisters and the Ontario Folk Dancing Association led some Serbian and Jewish folk dances around the store.
I have written a couple columns about the Cozy Cafe, and the generosity showered upon it by our east end hood. (Not to plug them, but in case you want to read the background here they are: http://tinyurl.com/3ca2ced, and http://tinyurl.com/4sltfet. Okay, that was plugging them….)
It’s quite a story, really — that a stranger would offer to renovate your store for free, that a strange flooring company across town would offer to give you the flooring for free, that a customer with a furniture company would throw in two $600 tables for free, that a designer would sketch out a brochure and a photographer snap the photos of it, and that locals would drop off cheques, only because we all love this place and want it to thrive and keep serving us food and laughter. This type of stuff doesn’t happen much.
So, for the record, a few people need to be thanked:
*Chris Bennett and Lucas Stagg from Twelfth Fret played at the party, which was wonderful.
* Local east ender Alex Zamayoa and Mi Casa Furniture for the tables
* DECA member Steve Caissie for the photos
* Thomas Giannousopoulos for the brochure design
* the DECA Business Revitalization Team for weeks of work on the store, from the frosted window, to painting, changing the store layout and lining up artists to show their work there.
For those of you who don’t know about us, the Business Revitalization Team has now helped transform six stores along the Danforth, starting a couple years ago with Plank Road Market. Our tagline is: “If one smashed window can bring a whole neighbourhood down, what can one smashing window do?” By improving the look of a few stores along the strip, we hope to draw new stores to the area and fill the Danforth in.
The Cozy Cafe was our latest business. If you have another business in mind, which is a gem in the rough, let us know! Email me at catherine_porter@rogers.com
Our team consists of stagers, designers, business branders, real estate agents and schleppers like me who are sick of waiting for a change to come to the Danforth, and want to do something about it. Our rules are simple: it has to be a store with the right stuff but the wrong look. It has to be a store we want to see prosper in the hood. (So, no questionable massage parlours.) The owners have to be people we want to spend our free time with — nice. We supply the expertise and some of the leg work, the owner supplies the basic supplies.
Empty Storefronts
At our last DECA meeting (minutes to come soon), we talked a lot about empty storefronts. We all hate them. What can be done about them? We’re thinking we’d like to try and find out. Why are they empty is the first question. Taxes, disinterest in maintaining the commercial space when the residential is rented, absentee landlords are a few of our thoughts. Then we’ll try to figure out what might be done about it. This article from Open File is great place to start thinking about it. Be sure to read the comments too. If that inspires you to want to get involved in this little project, send me a note – natasha.granatstein(at)gmail.com
Dealicious – Today’s Menu – $25 for $50 worth of food – until midnight tonight (Thursday)!
First – check out the latest local dealicious.ca deal from a store called Today’s Menu. Located at Woodbine and Gerrard, it offers deliciously prepared meals cooked by chefs on location, with the unbeatable convenience of either delivery OR shopping at. Meals are made fresh daily and quick/flash frozen to lock in flavour: all you have to do is heat and serve.
East Lynn Farmers’ Market
Are you a musician interested in busking at various Farmers’ Markets across the city this summer? We’re looking to fill 4 spots per week (Sunday 10-2pm, Tuesday 9-2pm, and Thursday 9-2pm and 3-7pm) If you’re interested, please contact Diana at diana.mymarket@gmail.com
Community Clean Ups This Saturday
Make sure you get yourself to one of the many community clean ups that are happening in our neighbourhood this Saturday.
All Candidates Meeting – Wed April 20, 2011
The good people at the Beach United Church and Neighbourhood Link are hosting an all candidates meeting for the federal candidates in Beaches East York on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. 140 Wineva (north of Queen) from 7-9 p.m. They’re even offering light refreshments – how fancy.
Were you the victim of a break and enter?
In the last few months there has been a rash of break and enters in Division 55 from the Beaches up to Danforth Ave. Police have arrested a couple and allege that they are a husband and wife who integrated themselves into their neighborhood in a normal, friendly manner then set out to rob their neighbours. Much of what they allegedly store is now available to be claimed. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of a robbery in the last few months call the police at 416-808-5500 to describe your stolen items and then you can set up an appointment to view the goods and hopefully reclaim what was stolen.
