Category: Amusing Musings

Most hobos prefer the exhaust grates outside of a museum to the exhibits indoors. But not a Coco Hobo.

Tee hee hee

We live for the dinos, the Emily Carr’s, the minerals from outerspace, the stuffed albatrosses (albatri?). But due to the nature of the ‘bo, we can’t always afford the $20+ entrance fee into these hallowed halls of higher learning. In England museums and national galleries are free. This makes sense. Why prevent the masses from educating themselves or acquiring just a touch of culturalism? We all know the masses would rather spend their $20 at the movies watching some lame CGI film with no character development or actual story. Or maybe spend it at the bar. (Which, in that case, we would understand and agree, hence another reason why museums and galleries should have free admission. Even hobos get thirsty!)

Speaking of delicious beer, me and J have been meeting with our designer lately to finalize The Beave’s logo! These are exciting times, these are. It should be ready for public viewing by the end of the month. Can’t. Wait. Yay, beer! Yay, resourcefulness! Yay, dinos! Oh yah, dinos. Back to my original blog topic: Cultural things to do on a shoestring.

Or, a list of which cultural centres offer free or reduced admission on which days, and other ways to enrich your lives and not reduce your savings:

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

Half-Price Fridays 4:30-8:30pm (adults therefore pay $12 each)
Sneaky Wednesdays – admission is FREE but only between 4:30-5:30pm

Address: Bloor & Avenue – 100 Queen’s Park
TTC: Museum Subway Station
Web: www.rom.on.ca

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

FREE Wednesdays 6:00-8:30pm (permanent collection only – full adult price is $19.50!)
FREE every day for Ontario teachers with proper I.D. (something for them to do with all that time off I suppose…)
FREE after 3pm Tuesdays to Fridays for Ontario highschool students with valid I.D. (although I doubt any of them are reading my blog)

Address: Dundas & Duncan (just west of University) – 317 Dundas West
TTC: St. Patrick Subway Station or 505 Dundas streetcar to Duncan
Web: www.ago.net

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery

FREE Wednesdays 5:00-8:00pm (adult admission is otherwise $6)

NOTE! The Power Plant is closed for renovations until March 2011.

Address: Harbourfront Centre – 231 Queen’s Quay West
TTC: 509 Exhibition or 510 Spadina streetcar to Lower Simcoe
Web: www.thepowerplant.org

Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO)

The TSO often has specials, but no standard reduced rate time/day.

However, if you are aged between 15-35yrs, I recommend joining TSOundcheck. It is free to join, and members get access to AMAZING ticket deals. I once picked up two front row mezzanine tickets to Rachmaninoff, over $100 value, for $12 each. (Yes, I did sleep through the second half, but only because of the Port I had at intermission, and also because classical music makes me so happy that all I can do when surrounded by it is pass out in a state of climatic joy. But I digress.)

Address: Roy Thompson Hall – King & Simcoe (just west of University) – 60 Simcoe Street
TTC: St. Andrew Subway Station or 507 King streetcar to Simcoe
Web: www.tso.on.ca

The Canadian Opera Company (COC)

The COC (no comment) regularly offers FREE concerts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, and some Wednesdays at noon and 5:30pm. Admission is on first-come, first-served basis, and seating is limited. For a PDF of the concert listings, click here.

Again, like with the TSO, your other option is to join their free Opera for a New Age group. Except the COC only grants this favour to those UNDER 30yrs – therefore 29 or less. (The TSO used to cut off at 30, but luckily the year I became too old, they bumped it up to 35! Yay!) Oh, and unlike the TSO, from my experience the cheap COC tickets are usually shoved into the top back corners – sections 3D, 4C, and 5B. Whereas the TSO treats its TSOundcheck patrons like equals, the COC seems to be embarrassed by them, and hides them away. This is not the way to win future patronage, people! But if you don’t mind the heights, you can get opera tickets for $22.

Address: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts – Queen & University – 145 Queen West
TTC: Osgoode Subway Station
Web: www.coc.ca

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Chamber Choir

I love Baroque music! It is always so happy and toe-tapping and makes you want to sip afternoon tea on the grass along the River Thames on the grounds of The Oakley Court in Windsor, UK. Or maybe that’s just me. I miss that place!

Tafelmusik often has FREE concerts at the ROM around 1-3pm. Check their website for updates. What could be better than dinos and Baroque!? I knowst naught!

Now, if you are 30 AND under, you should join Face the Musik where you can get concert tickets for $16, $22, $25 or $26.

Or, there’s Pay-What-You-Can-Fridays at Trinity-St. Paul’s. For a list of less-hyphenated concerts, click here.

(Have you noticed everyone is always discriminating against us thirty-and-over-somethings? I suppose it’s because by now we’re supposed to have real jobs and obviously afford full-priced tickets. Ha. What about the late bloomers? No culture for you!)

NOTE! I just noticed on the PWYC Friday schedule that on March 4th 2011 at 8:00pm, they are holding another performance of The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres! YAY! I missed it last year. Here’s what their website says about it:

“Back by popular demand – Tafelmusik’s “out of this world” (Toronto Star) multi-disciplinary stellar concert experience, conceived and programmed by our own Alison Mackay as an homage to Galileo. Gorgeous, celestially-inspired baroque music, stunning visuals, and seamlessly woven literary and historical excerpts narrated by Shaun Smyth. Don’t miss it!”

Hello! Toronto Annex date night! They should link that to Plenty of Fish.

Address: Trinity-St. Paul’s – Bloor & Major (just west of Spadina) – 427 Bloor West
TTC: Spadina Subway Station
Web: www.tafelmusik.org

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA)

Admission to MOCCA is Pay-What-You-Can every day. How very!

Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00am-6:00pm, and located in a strange parking lot at the corner of Queen and Shaw. I have never been to MOCCA because until last week when my friend M and I were strolling along Queen West delivering Christmas baked goods to the homeless (I mean, my friends) I never knew it existed. We actually paused to look in the window of the crepe shop next door and then were like “OMG, MOCCA, PWYC!” (We speak in acronyms, it is fun and annoying. Actually we don’t. But wasn’t believing that both fun and annoying?)

Oh, and MOCCA also hosts exhibits from The National Gallery of Canada (NGC@MOCCA, acronyms 4EVA!), which is a great way to see some of their works without the trek to Ottawa.

(Which reminds me, I need to book a trip to Ottawa soon. For great savings on VIA Rail tickets, click here! Coco Hobo loves her some last minute specials.)

Address: Queen & Shaw – 952 Queen West
TTC: 501 Queen streetcar to Shaw, or Ossington bus to Shaw/Queen
Web: www.mocca.ca

Now go get your culture on! And spend that $20 on a beer.

Enjoy,
x

On Thursday December 9th in Queen West’s popular art district, De Luca Fine Art | Gallery hosted “A Timeless Evening of Art & Wine” with tastings by Angela Aiello of iYellow Wine Club from Hillebrand’s Artist Series. A Meritage, Unoaked Chardonnay, and Riesling flight was offered – and mon dieu they flew! My favourite was the (gasp) Chardonnay but ONLY BECAUSE it was unoaked. So fruity – the flavours seemed to stack in my mouth with each sip. (Oh, and Angela is delightful. I will definitely be checking out some of her wine events in the future.)

So the event kicked off at 6pm, and entertained a steady stream of buyers, voyeurs, and epicures until the food and wine was packed up at 10pm. By eight o’clock the party was so full, it felt more like a club night than an exhibit opening. I was screaming at my friends J and M over the conversation. So loud. Other gallery events I’ve been to did not have this kind of atmosphere (save I guess for the Power Ball and AGO Massive Party lol). My fellow entrepreneur colleague, who shall remain nameless, actually said she went to an opening at 1313 Gallery before coming to the Ciba party, and it was “nothing like this.” Has De Luca Fine Art become the next hotspot on the block??

What we were celebrating (other than the wine and company) was a reception for Bosnian painter Ciba Karisik. His series of paintings entitled “Labels” tip-toed the line between reality and art. Oversized, vivid, complex, textured, accurate – walking into the gallery and witnessing his works for the first time was actually shocking. I did not expect the paintings to be that… AMAZING.

(It made me wonder if gallery owner Corrado De Luca was not a modern Medici, and Ciba Karisik his Michelangelo.)

Sarajevo-born Ciba holds a Master’s degree from the Sarajevo Academy of Fine Art, and clearly loves to paint aged wine bottles. His ripped labels covered with settled dust convey the distinct patina of Time’s passage, and express Ciba’s keen sense of the brevity of life. For what could be more poignant or fleeting than the opening, and subsequent devouring, of a bottle of wine? Ciba seeks and offers in painting an equivalent to poetry through his unique marriage of art and wine. And afterall, did not Robert Louis Stevenson (who, by the way, I share a birthday with) say, “Wine is bottled poetry”?

Introduced for the first time at De Luca Fine Art | Gallery, Ciba Karisik offers pure painting for the pleasure of his audience and his collectors – who include none other than Brian Mulroney, Alex Trebek, Martin Short, Martha Stewart, and Bono. “Labels” will be exhibited through January 9th, 2011. So I invite you to drop by De Luca and revel in the oenological intimations of this incredible artist and his timeless art.

DE LUCA FINE ART | GALLERY (est. 2004) is located at 1153 Queen Street West, Toronto, in the heart of the Art District. Collaborating with partner Italian Galleries, De Luca Fine Arts is dedicated to representing and introducing Italian and International artists to Canadian collectors. For more information, visit www.delucafineart.com.

iYELLOW WINE CLUB is an established wine club community of over 5,000 members, offering educational, entertaining, and exciting ways to discover wine. Visit www.iyellowwineclub.com to learn more about the club, and its founder Angela Aiello.

HILLEBRAND Artist’s Series – a tasteful way to support the Arts.

Cin cin,
x

YAY! Snow! Finally! :o) They’ve been dumped on in the U.K. and we’ve had naught in Toronto. So I was quite delighted to see a white wonderland outside my window when I got up this morning. Which meant my usual rain-tea walk in the Park became a snow-tea walk (with cookies). Here’s more pics:

So romantical! ‘Tis the feeling of the season. I just wish my wiener dog was here to share the snowy romps with me. (Memories of us making snow angels and chasing each other around the park in Milton last winter, le sigh. Am weenie-sitting over the holidays… maybe he could sleepover with me in Toronto instead!)

Yay!
x

That’s right, I’m just crazy about Tiffany’s!

I don’t remember the first time I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or read the novella by Truman Capote. I know I saw the movie before reading the book, and I would guess these things happened circa 2006. I do, however, recall the first time I heard of it: in highschool English class, during a discussion about book-to-film adaptations. I did my report on ‘Circle of Friends’ (as was the style at the time), but a girl in class did BaT and it always intrigued me. Not to so much to see the film nor to read the book – I cannot explain why I wouldn’t have wanted to – but because the girl who did the report was soooo not like Holly Golightly in the least. She was butchy, and unrefined, and clearly had no interest whatsoever in style.

I don’t remember what my classmate actually said about the adaptation, but I will always think of her and wonder whenever I see the film or read the book. Which I do a few times a year. (I will also always cry when Holly throws Cat out into the rain, and also when I hear ‘Moon River.’)

Recently, on my birthday, I had the film looping (muted) during my cocktail party. Mainly this was to get me in the mood for my present to self: a midnight titanium 1837 T&CO signature ring to replace my two hematite rings that shattered earlier this Autumn in an unfortunate fruitfly whacking incident (wound too fresh to tell more).

ANYHOO, okay so I’ve got the ring. My first ever Tiffany’s purchase! (Again, why I wait for these things is beyond me. Well, other than the poverty of course! Har, har.) But then, for me always, when it rains it pours, since my Momsies has gotten me a Tiffany key for my Christmas prezzie! (Will act surprised.) It’s an old-timey key, in honour of Innings Gate Co. but I just couldn’t decide on its necklace. To me, anyway, Tiffany’s delicate chains do not compliment the heavier keys. Maybe they look appropriate with the sparkly keys, but not with the classic vintage-style key I selected. Nonetheless, I had my eye on a Tiffany blue twist cord earlier this year, and I wondered if it would be right for my key. But oh, golly gee damn! I couldn’t find it listed on their website! Only the black cord was there. I emailed the sales associate who helped me and my Momsies, only to be informed that the blue cord was discontinued and consequently unavailable. Devastation!

BUT ALAS! like Holly Golightly always says, “Isn’t Tiffany’s just wonderful?… The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there.”

And, lo and behold, my lovely sales associate hunted down a blue cord and called last night to say she has placed it on hold for me!

Will post photos after Christmastime.

Yay! Nothing bad can happen to me now.

Toods,
x

I love books. I collect books. I have about 15 full shelves of them. Haven’t counted them in a while. But I’d say I’ve read, maybe, 70% of them. And no, I will never replace them with an e-reader! Sacrelig!

So, in case you were wondering what’s on my book shelf, well, I can’t show them all at once – way too many – so I’ve decided to make a series of posts for your curiosity to revel in. These posts are not in the actual order of my shelves, or in order of preference, they just happen to be what I’ve taken a photo of today :o)

Shelf #1: Motivational/Inspirational/Instructional

Cameron, Julia. Vein of Gold.
Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way.
Cameron, Julia. Finding Water.
Harmony’s Garden Journal (a notebook)
Cameron, Julia. The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size.
Cameron, Julia. The Right to Write.
Goldberg, Natalie. Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer’s Craft.
Goldberg, Natalie. Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life.
Field, Syd. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting.
King, Viki. How to Write a Movie in 21 Days.
Callan, K. The Script is Finished, Now What Do I Do?
Frank, Anne. (not that Anne!) Telling It.
Krevolin, Richard. How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay.
Snyder, Blake. Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. (has a pic of a Milo on the cover dangling from a rope! too cute!)
Simens, Dov S-S. From Reel to Deal.
Jewison, Norman. This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me.
Carter-Scott, Cherie. If Life is a Game, These are the Rules.
Goodman, Michelle. The Anti 9 to 5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women who Think Outside the Cube.
Goodman, Michelle. My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire.
Spragins, Ellyn. What I Know Now About Success: Letters from Extraordinary Women to Their Younger Selves. (thanks to my friend M for this prezzie!)
Williams, Nicole. Girl On Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success.
Blanchard, Kenneth and Peale, Norman Vincent. The Power of Ethical Management. (stole this from my Daddy-o!)
Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. (and this!)
Lichtenberg, Ronna. Pitch Like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed. (Daddy-o gave me this one as a prezzie)
Hesser, Amanda. Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table. (my wiener dog gave me this one on my b-day…thanks B!)
Williams, Nicole. Wildly Sophisticated: A Bold New Attitude for Career Success.
Williams, Nicole. Earn What You’re Worth: A Wildly Sophisticated Approach to Investing in Your Career – and Yourself.
Sones, Melissa. Full Frontal Fashion: Never Worry Again About What To Wear.
McCarthy, Carrie and LaPorte, Danielle. Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design.
Carlson, Richard. Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff… and it’s all small stuff.
Bacon, Lauren and Mears, Emira. (I wish my last name was Bacon!) The Boss of You: Everything a Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business.

And, just for fun, here’s a photo of some of my weenie-themed birthday cards I received on 13 November (Bailey gave me the one on the left!):

You can never go wrong with a wiener dog theme on ANYTHING.

Toods,
x