On Friday morning, I flew up to Toronto. I flew on Sunwing this trip, instead of the usual Air Canada. I was curious to compare the two airlines. Ignoring all the unimportant things, like the plane and the ticketing process and customer service, I focused on the really important differences: the drinks on SunWing were only $5, instead of $6 on AC. I was quite happy with this, especially after having several mini-bottles of rye. It’s not that I care about the cost of the drinks – I just feel bad for all those AC flight attendants who have to make change all the time for a $6 drink. There aren’t a lot of places to go to find some extra change when you’re at 37,000 feet.
We got to Toronto and spent a couple hours in the airport, working on the laptops and having more beverages. After that, my host (Drew Dudley) took us to Hemingway’s. We met a few MTA alumni there, and the night was mildly entertaining. Actually, that’s the understatement of the year.
On Saturday, we went back to Hemingway’s for the afternoon, to continue the festivities. I didn’t want to get too exuberant, since I had to “work” that evening. After supper, we went to Filthy McNastie’s for some beverages and to watch the hockey game, then finally we headed off to Circa for the rest of the evening. Dave Dresden was playing at Circa that night, and the whole point of the weekend was to get some more video footage of him for a short promotional project that I’m putting together for him. Click here if you'd like to check out one of Dave's promo DJ mixes.
Circa is a pretty decent club, although I wasn’t that impressed with the clientele. It was too much of a “club crowd” for my taste, and not enough of the “party” crowd of people who pay more attention to the music than to their own appearances. Regardless, the staff at Circa were pretty cool, and the club itself was set up nicely. The layout was certainly confusing, but the number of unique rooms and themes was good. The only thing that I really disliked was the DJ booth itself. The booth was very, very dark – it was really difficult to get good footage. They did bring a portable light into the booth eventually, which helped, so the night wasn’t a complete loss. However, as usual, all sorts of things were happening around us. One of the girls that we went to the club with managed to slip in some vomit and break her arm. She wasn’t too impressed with this development, needless to say, but I think she’ll look back on the incident quite favourably. It will be a great cocktail story for her a year or so from now.
On Sunday, we drove off somewhere to the middle of nowhere in Ontario for Thanksgiving Dinner. On the way, Drew stopped by a random church for photos. Now this might sound ridiculous, but I was a bit curious about this particular church. I used to be a church organist. Don’t judge me – I don’t consider myself to be particularly religious, but it was an interesting job. And someday, I’d like to buy an old unused church and convert it into a massive recording studio. Anyway, this church was a six-seater. Yes, you read that correctly. Maybe twelve if you squeezed two thin people into each pew.
On Sunday night, we had to head back to the airport, but I was really tempted to go back to Circa before we left. The lineup was good, and since I didn’t have to think about filming, I thought it would be pretty fun. Victor Calderone, Roger Sanchez, and John Acquivava all played. Thank goodness that I decided to stop into the club before heading to the airport. I have literally wanted to see John Acquivava play for about fifteen years, but have never been in the right city at the right time. As far as electronica goes, Acquivava is probably Canada’s top historical DJ, thanks to both his solo work and his work with Richie Hawtin. Well, let me say that it was well worth the time. Unquestionably, Acquaviva played one of the most enjoyable sets that I’ve heard in a long time. Here's a photo of him, looking very relaxed behind the decks:
The trip home was fairly uneventful. I was looking out the window as we were about to land and was a bit surprised to see trees about twenty feet below us as we were still descending through the fog, but the pilots quickly jerked the plane up in an emergency manoeuvre and announced on the loudspeakers a few minutes later that they had a missed approach, and would try again. Lucikly, I don’t think that many people were looking out the window at the time, because I think that some of them might have had heart attacks. Anyway, the second attempt was perfect, so I made it home in one piece, and just in time for a second Thanksgiving Dinner with my own family in Nova Scotia.
