We Butter The Bread With Butter Live @ Hard Luck Bar (Feb 15th, 2014)

Saturday night in the cold of Toronto I am finishing a round of drinks with family members who have come to visit for the evening.  After some good times and laughs, I hopped on the street car down to Dundas West and Bathurst to a venue I have never been to and a band I have never seen before.

Being that this tour was delayed from 2013 to 2014 only gave me more time to sit down and check out their latest album Goldkinder.  As the four piece group follows in the footsteps of my all-time favourite band (Rammstein) I was grasping the concept of the album, sound and style...even with an odd and long name to explain to newcomers.

A long list of bands had doors opening early and giving the hardcore fans a place to sit down, drop off their coats and find somewhere to put their drink as they flailed their arms about during the sets of the opening acts.  Then again, I am only assuming this was the case; call it a sense of experience from shows of my own and many in the big city.

A set well done but leaving me hungry for more good music like that.  All honesty and no offense to the opening act, but Lions Lions didn't satisfy me.  While the band had a unique sound and approach to their tunes, their music didn't resonate on a level that kept me intrigued.  A valiant effort nonetheless to the fans that came out to support them.

Then we moved on to the main event.  We Butter The Bread With Butter gave the [only slightly vacant] room a show that was worthy of their flight from Germany.  Small nuances such as strobes and head light gear made their set even more of a theatrical show than previous artists warming up the crowd.  I am firm believe in giving a visual display to fan while belting out your hits to sing along to.  So check out the photos below.  I have a large amount I am still working on so more will be posted as they are finished.  Cheers and be sure to check them out next time they come through town!

More photos on the way!

RISK: Lord of the Rings

I WILL CONQUER YOU ALL!

Sherwood Park (January 26th, 2014)

So as I mentioned yesterday when giving a preview photo on Facebook, I went for a walk through a park not too far down from my apartment.  Its got a nice path that connects about 3 separate parks into one long one that stretches for a good 2-3km.  The last time I went for a walk down her was during the ice storm Toronto suffered back in December, 2013.  The City of Toronto has been backlogged with tons of service requests for the city, I can see why a smaller stretch of park is going to take longer than others.

Nonetheless, I saw the snow starting to fall outside, I grabbed a cup of tea, and went for a walk through the park.  Here's the funny part though.  Since I had a tea in my hand it wasn't really convenient for me to carry my large camera and camera bag around with me on this walk.  So I decided to test the strength of my phone camera instead.  Knowing that it has some rather good auto-focus and a decent camera (13MP), I thought to see how it would do against the snow and cold weather.  The black and white session came out great and couldn't be happier!

Frrrrrrozen Toronto

While many folks around Toronto were clinging to whatever source of battery or heat they could get their hands on, I tried my hand at the lighter side of this ice storm we had here in Toronto.  Alli and I were fortunate enough not to have our power cut out when so many others in Toronto had nothing.  Now in all fairness, I have had my fair share of no power and/or heat in the aging building we live in (built back in the 1930s) so it wasn't as if I was basking in the glory of it or anything.  I just wanted to remind folks around Toronto that despite the bad weather, there were some beautiful sights and sounds happening around them.  If it's cold in your apartment or house, get outside!

It's going to be the same temperature outside so you might as well enjoy it for the time being.  You know... the glass is half full?  So that being said, Alli and I went for a nice long Sunday walk and snapped a few photos of what was going on in the city that day.  I'm hoping this paints a different picture than what the news was reporting.

(Overcast day and frozen tree limbs made for great black and white photos.)

(Damn focus didn't want to work until he/she flew away!)

(A wooden archway you could walk through had been dripping all night and then froze in the morning.)

(And inside the wooden archway was some chicken wire that worked out to be a great shot!)

I will try and have more photos uploaded as soon as I get a chance to edit them.

Winter In St. James Cemetary

If the vision of a cemetery in winter didn't bring out the joy in you, then I'm not sure what will (haha).  So after a good weekend of snowfall in Toronto, I found it to be the perfect opportunity to go for a walk outside and see what the fresh snowfall can offer.  St. James Cemetery, located at Bloor and Parliament, was eerily quiet, had a great snowfall, and some great lighting behind the clouds.

Photoshop Edits:

Birthday In The Beaches

I don't know why I forgot to post these.  I suspect though that I had assumed they were already uploaded.  However it went down, I am staring at them this morning and they are waiting to be posted.  These photos are from my birthday outing.  I took the day off during the week and spent it with my lovely lady Allison.  We were not sure at first where to visit or even what to do for the day.  Since our first apartment together was in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood, I ultimately decided to go there for the day.

The sun was shining, the birds were out, and the people were not.  It made for a great morning and afternoon as the two of us grabbed a coffee and walked along the boardwalk.  Down on the water was where I was snapping the majority of my photos, as the ducks and water were looking great under the shining sun.

(A large freight boat off in the distance)

(Alli trying to call one of the squirrels out from behind the tree)

(And the squirrel...)