Four Chords And A Gun brings back The Ramones

Fans of The Ramones — and shame on you if you don’t count yourself among them — should get to Toronto’s Fleck Dance Theatre to see Four Chords And A Gun before it ends on April 28.

I was curious when I first read about the play and was pleased to have been invited to Tuesday’s opening night performance. While not without some flaws — just like the four musicians, producer Phil Spector and girlfriend Linda Danielle who are portrayed in Four Chords And A Gun — they’re more than offset by its rough-edged charms.

Most deserving of praise is the script, written by John Ross Bowie, who’s best known for playing Barry Kripke on The Big Bang Theory. The dialogue has a sharp and often humorous edge and is frequently delivered in rapid fashion, just as you’d expect from The Ramones.
 
While Four Chords And A Gun is centred around the tension-filled 1979 Los Angeles recording sessions for the End Of The Century album with Spector, it also gives you insights into the quirky personalities of Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), Johnny Ramone (John Cummings), Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) and Marky Ramone (Marc Bell). 

Their particular traits — Joey’s obsessive compulsive disorder, Johhny’s anger and obsession with control, and the respective heroin and alcohol addictions of Dee Dee and Marky — may be overemphasized somewhat for dramatic effect, but that’s to be expected.

Sometimes the acting doesn’t live up to the material despite the impressive pedigrees of those delivering the lines. Justin Goodhand (Joey), Cyrus Lane (Johnny), Paolo Santalucia (Dee Dee) and James Smith (Marky) are all young theatre veterans with long resumes. But perhaps because they’re portraying characters who I started listening to in my early teens and have since read about and watched in videos, I sometimes had difficulty imagining them as the four New York musicians who helped introduce the world to punk rock in 1976 and had such an influence that they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

The same can be said for Ron Pederson (Spector), since I was so familiar with his 1960s hits, “wall of sound” production techniques and ever-increasing erratic behaviour, which culminated with him being imprisoned for the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

While I knew that Danielle ditched Joey for Johnny, which created a conflict between the two men for the rest of their lives, I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about what she was like. So, for that reason, I might have been most impressed with Vanessa Smythe’s performance despite her having the smallest role in the play.

While director Richard Ouzonian has served as artistic director of five major Canadian theatres and as an associate director of the Stratford Festival for four seasons, I’m most familiar with him for being the longtime theatre critic for the Toronto Star. From reading his reviews and articles over the years, I never would have thought of him as a Ramones fan or an appropriate choice to helm Four Chords And A Gun.

However, I have no issues with Ouzonian’s staging or pacing. And while the set design was relatively simple, it worked -- especially within the intimate confines of the Fleck Dance Theatre, where I was still within a few metres of the action from my fifth row seat.

Four Chords And A Gun concludes with an epilogue involving Marky telling the somewhat tragic tales of what happened to all of the players after End Of The Century.

While some Ramones songs are played in the background during the play, it should be emphasized that Four Chords And A Gun isn't a musical and no-one sings their lines. However, after the actors took their bows, the stage was quickly rearranged and four musicians came out to play a set of Ramones covers.

It seemed disjointed and the renditions of “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “We’re A Happy Family,” “Rockaway Beach,” “Pinhead,” “Danny Says,” “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker,” “Beat On The Brat” and “I Wanna Be Sedated” weren’t particularly inspiring.

This component of the evening could have easily been left off. Or if the desire to keep it is strong enough, it probably would have been more appropriate at the beginning to get people into the spirit of things as they were taking their seats in anticipation of the main event.

And instead of the four musicians who played on Tuesday night, I would have gone with The Gabba Heys. The Toronto Ramones tribute band has been playing the club circuit for years and would have delivered more energy and street credibility.

I also noticed a couple of timeline incongruities in Four Chords And A Gun. Johnny mentions the death of John Wayne during his first meeting with Spector, which would have taken place before recording began on May 1, 1979. “The Duke” didn’t pass away until June 11 of that year. Johnny also talks about the new Blondie album including rap music, but Autoamerican — which featured Debbie Harry rapping on “Rapture” — wasn’t released until November 1980.

Aside from this nitpicking, I enjoyed Four Chords And A Gun and recommend it to anyone with knowledge of, or an interest in, The Ramones.

March roared in like a lion at Toronto Winter Brewfest

The fourth annual Toronto Winter Brewfest moved east from the Enercare Centre to Evergreen Brick Works, which also hosts the Cask Days festival every fall, and I was invited to check out what was on tap on opening night.

With approximately 40 breweries offering almost 100 beverages, there was a lot to choose from. I narrowed my selections to 14 and, while I definitely enjoyed some more than others, I’m pleased to report that I didn’t have a bad beer.

I started with a Pixies-themed Here Comes Your Mango IPA from Brew Revolution. The mango flavour wasn’t as strong as the aroma, but it poured with a nice white head and was both robust and crisp. It registers a 52 on the International Bitterness Units (IBU) scale, and it had a pleasant happiness and clean finish, which isn’t always the case with a seven per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) beer.

I hadn’t heard of Brew Revolution, and that’s because I learned that the Stittsville, Ont. brewery won’t officially open until April or May. The folks behind the bar were friendly and told me about their plans, and I was enticed to try the two other beers they were offering.

The 6.7 per cent ABV, 38 IBU Lemon Daze Lemongrass IPA had a very evident and pleasant lemongrass flavour. I would have liked more body in the five per cent ABV, 39 IBU Smoke On The Porter porter, but it had all of the other elements I look for in a smoky porter.

Muskoka Brewery’s Pair of Wise Guys Weizenbock was my favourite beer at November’s Gourmet Food & Wine Expo, and the brewery came through again with my two favourite beers of this festival.

Black Raspberry Thunder was created in collaboration with Kawartha Dairy, and the six per cent ABV milkshake IPA looks like what you’d expect from the first two words in the name. It has a powerful bouquet and lovely raspberry and vanilla flavours, while the lactose infusion provides a rich mouth feel. I was happy to find out that it will be canned and served in LCBO and select grocery stores.

Like Pair of Wise Guys, Lunar Haze is  part of Muskoka’s Moonlight Kettle Series, which spawns a new recipe every month. The 8.5 per cent ABV, 75 IBU double IPA is made with lupulin powder, a purified concentration of all the resin compounds and essential oils that create hop flavours and aromas in a beer. It has an intense, fruit-forward hop flavour and bouquet, without being too bitter, and that high alcohol content is dangerously unnoticeable.

Ranking just behind those two beers was my last one of the evening: Side Launch Getaway. The 6.3 per cent ABV, 55 IBU IPA is just available in the brewery’s Collingwood, Ont. tap room at the moment, but I’m hoping it comes to stores at some point. It’s medium-bodied and has a solid, though not overpowering, hop bite that complements a citrus aroma. It’s bright, easy-drinking and has a clean finish.

There were also a few booths offering spirits, wines and ciders, and a handful of food vendors provided more solid sustenance. Judging by the way my notes became more scrawled as the night went on, perhaps I should have eaten something.

But I go to beer festivals for beer, and these are the other ones I drank, ranked in rough approximation from most to least favourite:

Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Lupulus Belgian Strong Golden Ale - 10 per cent ABV, 70 IBU
The Exchange Brewery New England IPA - Seven per cent ABV, 71 IBU
Orleans Brewing Co. Sid’s Vicious Imperial IPA - 9.3 per cent ABV, 110 IBU
Prince Eddy’s Dawn Patrol Raspberry Gose - 3.5 per cent ABV, 4 IBU
Prince Eddy’s So Many Friends IPA - Five per cent ABV
Double Trouble Brewing Co. Hops & Robbers Sucker Punch IPA - 6.5 per cent ABV, 38 IBU
A la Fut Matawin Brett Pale Ale - Five per cent ABV
Lowertown Big Wood American IPA - 6.9 per cent ABV, 42 IBU

Wine tasting around Cape Town

The Dutch aren’t acknowledged to be among the great winemakers of the world, but we have them to thank for the emergence of South Africa as a nation that’s earned respect for its viticulture and quality wines over the past few decades.

South Africa’s first grape harvest took place in 1659 on a farm managed by Dutch navigator, surgeon and colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck near what’s now known as Cape Town. While wine has been made in this region of the country ever since, it wasn’t until the end of Apartheid in the 1990s that the world started paying attention.

The Stellenbosch region east of Cape Town is perhaps South Africa’s most internationally recognized winemaking area and produces about 15 per cent of the nation’s wine. Since I was spending a week in Cape Town, it was a no-brainer to spend a day on a Go Touch Down wine tour starting in Stellenbosch.

The first stop was Skilpadvlei, a 78-hectare farm with accommodations, a restaurant, event venues, a gift shop and a children’s play area. After a breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, muesli and honey on the restaurant verandah, the wine tasting began at a picnic table around the corner at 8:45 a.m.

I’m a much bigger white wine drinker than red, which was the opposite of the three other people on the tour. This meant that I got to have the majority of the white for the rest of the day, since they just took a small sip and poured the rest into my glass.

Skilpadvlei has been in the Joubert family since 1917, and it’s been making wine for four generations. We sampled six bottles: three reds, two whites and a rose. My favourite was the 2018 Chenin Blanc, a mildly sweet wine with a hint of green apple in the flavour. I liked it so much I bought a bottle for 60 rand ($6).

We got back in the van and drove 10 minutes down the road to Neethlingshof Wine Estate, where wine has been made since 1692. A kilometre-long avenue of pines leads to the large property, which features an impressive manor house and other old buildings, and is flanked by the Bottelary Hills and Papegaaiberg Mountains.

Neethlingshof features a restaurant, tasting centre, event space and a store. Our server was excellent in explaining the history of the estate, the stories behind the wines and the flavour profiles of each of the three whites, one red and one dessert wine I sampled. My favourite was The Jackal’s Dance 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, a rich and full-bodied young wine with a tropical fruit aftertaste.

Franschhoek is another popular wine region in the area, so our next stop took us there and the 19-hectare Grande Provence Heritage Wine Estate, which dates back to 1694. This is another impressive property, which includes accommodations, a restaurant and bistro, a tasting room, event spaces, an art gallery, a sculpture garden and a very small cheetah reserve.

After sampling two whites, a rose and a Zinfandel, I was most satisfied with the very fruity aroma and flavour of the 2017 rose. I was even more pleased, however, with my lovely open-air, three-course lunch comprised of: a starter of cured beef, mustard, Boland cheddar, shallots and mushrooms; a main of duck leg confit, sweet potato dumplings, sultana and Chinese cabbage, served with an apple chutney; and a desert of chocolate fondant, peanut butter ice cream and apricot.

With a full belly, it was back in the van to drive to the touristy food and wine town of Franschhoek. I had an hour of free time and spent it walking around, looking at the Huguenot Monument and then sitting down to sample five beers at Tuk Tuk Microbrewery. I wasn’t particularly impressed with any of them, with the golden ale and pale ale being the best of the lot.

I enjoyed the countryside scenery on the way back to Cape Town and the final stop of the tour, a lovely multi-space restaurant called Blanko that’s part of the Alphen Estate in Constantia. The former farm has been converted to a high-end property with a boutique hotel and restaurant.

Still full from the large lunch, I ordered a local fish called kingklip that was topped with orange, herbs and pink peppercorns and served with saffron rice. I ate so well during my time in Cape Town and its surroundings that, while there was nothing wrong with the food, it may have been my least favourite meal. At least the glass of Brampton Sauvignon Blanc I had with it was very good.

While I didn’t partake in tastings at them, I had two other dinners at wineries. The first was at Cassia Restaurant, which is part of Nitida Wine Farm in the Durbanville Wine Valley. I enjoyed a mildly spicy soup with beef, sausage and vegetables, followed by a swordfish steak and roast potatoes, and accompanied by Nitida’s excellent 2018 Riesling.

The other dinner was at Durbanville Hills, where the restaurant terrace provided great sunset views of Table Mountain and Table Bay. Duck spring rolls followed by a sirloin steak hit the spot pretty much perfectly. In South Africa you’re allowed to buy a bottle of wine with a meal and take it with you if you don’t finish it, so I purchased a bottle of dry but effervescent Durbanville Hills Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc (which had notes of citrus and tropical fruit) for 85 rand ($8.50) and drank what I didn’t have there when I returned to my condominium.

I bought a few other bottles of cheap and cheerful Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc during my time in South Africa. They were certainly drinkable, if not exceptional, and I have no issue with paying 50 rand ($5) for a bottle of wine to accompany some quiet reading and writing.

Kicking off 2019 at Victoria Falls

The five cascades of Africa’s Victoria Falls extend for 1.7 kilometres, combining to create one of the largest waterfalls in the world.

I’d viewed the falls from Zambia, where 25 per cent of them can be observed, on Dec. 31. To kick off the new year, I crossed the border to Zimbabwe to see the rest.

A free shuttle from my base at Jollyboys Backpackers took me 10 kilometres and dropped me off where I’d began the previous day’s treks. On this day, I went through immigration, walked down a road, crossed the Victoria Falls Bridge, and continued to walk until reaching the Zimbabwean immigration office.

After being processed and a few more minutes of walking, I arrived at the entrance to Victoria Falls National Park and paid the U.S.$30 international visitor entrance fee.

A path takes visitors through a rain forest with clearances leading to 16 observation points to watch the water of the lazily meandering Zambezi River come splashing down. The first falls you’ll see belong to The Devil’s Cataract, the lowest falls at 70 metres in height, and you can climb down stairs into a gorge for a closer view.

Next up is the 93-metre-high Main Falls, the largest of them all with a peak water flow of 700,000 cubic metres per minute. Even with river levels at a relatively low level during my visit, the mist produced by the water and wind felt like a steady rain. With the water at its highest, it’s apparently next to impossible to see the falls due to all of the accompanying spray.

Moving farther along puts you across from Livingstone Island, where guides take visitors for tours when water levels are low enough. Those feeling particularly daring can use this as their jump-off point to take a dip in Devils Pool.

This deep natural pool has been created by thousands of years of erosion. A rock ledge on the lip of the falls, where the water is very shallow, forms a natural barrier and enables people to peer over the precipice without being swept over the edge. 

The 95-metre Horseshoe Falls, the section with the lowest water flow, is next. It’s followed by Rainbow Falls, the highest point, with a 108-metre vertical drop.

The last falls you’ll view is the 101-metre Eastern Cataract, which is located completely in Zambia. While the other viewpoints have flimsy wooden fences acting as barriers, when you reach the end of the line here at what’s known as Danger Point, you can climb on the rocks to the edge of the cliff. This spot also provides good vistas of Boiling Pot and the Victoria Falls Bridge.

I spent three hours in the national park before returning the way I came. On the way back, however, I stopped at the bridge to watch people zipline across the gorge and bungee jump off of the bridge. I’d like to say that the U.S.$160 cost to bungee was the only reason I didn’t do it, but that would be a lie.

I walked back into Zambia and paid 80 kwacha (U.S.$7.70) for a cab back to Jollyboys, where I spent an hour relaxing in the (not so) hot tub with a couple of beers before it was time to head out again.

I’d paid U.S.$65 to see the Zambezi from a different perspective, and a bus took a group of us to another part of Livingstone where we boarded a boat for a sunset cruise that included all the food you could eat and all the alcohol you could drink.

The sunset wasn’t particularly inspiring, the scenery along the riverbank wasn’t that interesting, and I didn’t see as much wildlife as I’d hoped to. There were several different kinds of birds, two crocodiles and multiple hippos, though only fleetingly when they’d raise their heads out of the river.

On the plus side, I was well fed on chicken wings, sausage rolls, mini pizzas, barbecued chicken and sausage, cole slaw and a bun.

I drank 12 ounces of cane spirit (similar to white rum) with cola and, when that ran out, four ounces of gin with tonic. I was the bartender’s favourite customer so, after we docked after two hours on the river, he gave me a beer even though he was supposed to stop serving so I’d have something to drink on the bus ride back to the hostel.

There were people hanging out at the Jollyboys courtyard bar, so conversations and beers flowed until bedtime.

I flew out of Zambia and returned to South Africa the next day. With flights, accommodations, activities, visas, food and drinks included, my 48 hours in Livingstone and visiting Victoria Falls cost me about $700. I’m a thrifty guy and that’s more than I’d normally spend, but it was a once in a lifetime experience and the memories from seeing my third of the seven natural wonders of the world in 14 months will be worth more than the money when I look back on it years from now.

New Year’s Eve at Victoria Falls

Waterfalls have always enthralled me, and the bigger the better.

I’ve lived within a three-hour drive of Niagara Falls, which separates Canada and the United States, all of my life. In the fall of 2017 I had the pleasure of seeing Iguazu Falls from both the Brazilian and Argentinean sides. The last piece in my trifecta of visiting huge waterfalls dividing nations fell into place recently when I viewed Victoria Falls from Zambian and Zimbabwean soil.

It’s a less than two-hour flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Livingstone, the nearest Zambian city to Victoria Falls. I’d purchased a Kaza entry visa, which granted me entry into both Zambia and Zimbabwe, online for U.S.$50.55 before my arrival at Harry Mwanga Nuumbula International Airport. Other travellers didn’t have that foresight, unfortunately, so I still had to wait in line quite a while to be processed while they purchased their visas.

Named after David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer and missionary who was the first white man to explore the area in 1855, the city of approximately 140,000 people doesn’t offer a lot to visitors beyond its role as a gateway. So after getting a ride from the airport into town and checking in to my private room at the charming Jollyboys Backpackers at 2 p.m., I immediately caught a cab for the 10-kilometre ride to Victoria Falls.

The driver agreed to a U.S.$16 round-trip price and would pick me up when Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park closed three hours later. The entry fee to the park was U.S.$20, a small price to pay to view one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Mosi-oa-Tunya translates from the Lozi language into English as “The Smoke Which Thunders.” When high water season hits in March and April after heavy rains, that name would certainly make sense due to the thick mists and crashing sounds that can be heard from several kilometres away. But even during my visit at the end of December, when the Zambezi River was still moving pretty slowly a month after the dry season ended, the views of the 1,700-metre long falls were still spectacular.

I wanted to build up to that, however, by first walking down the steep Palm Grove Trail through a rain forest to Boiling Pot, where a small waterfall flows into the Zambezi. It offers good views of a gorge and Victoria Falls Bridge, and some folks opted to climb on to rocks in the falls to cool off. But, knowing I had a timeline to adhere to and the main event still to come, I climbed back up, making it a 30-minute round trip.

The Knife Edge Island Trail takes you along a ledge, and across a footbridge over a gorge, to face the eastern cataract. This included Armchair Falls, a natural depression on the lip of the falls where those braver than me immersed themselves in the water. The trail ends with a view of Rainbow Falls and the first gorge’s exit to Boiling Pot in the second gorge.

The third, and least busy, walking option was what I found to be the ironically named Photographic Trail. The views of the falls aren’t as good, or available at all, on this path. About one-third of the way along, I found myself alone amidst a couple of dozen baboons — including some large dominant males. Since I’d had unpleasant experiences with primates in India, I became a bit nervous and turned back.

My driver was true to his word and was there to take me back into town, which has one main commercial street that’s also part of the T1 highway that takes you to the capital city of Lusaka.

It was time for dinner and a restaurant called Na Lelo served me a delicious half a piri piri chicken, French fries and two bottles of Zambia’s quite decent national beer, Mosi, for 84 kwacha (U.S.$7). 

Jollyboy's Backpackers' pool.

Jollyboy's is located just off the main street and, after returning and ordering a beer at its outdoor bar, three women invited me to sit at a table with them. It wasn’t long before they invited me to a nearby club called Limpo’s to celebrate New Year’s Eve with them. Four other women, and two men, also joined us.

My new friends knew people at the door and we were let in without paying a cover charge. We started at an inside bar where a band was playing a mix of reggae, top 40 hits and local music, including an instrumental reggae version of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” which almost gave me an unironic appreciation of the song.

When the band took a break we went to a semi-open-air club with a DJ that was part of the same complex. A bottle of Mosi was just 10 kwacha (U.S.80 cents) and they went down easily in the 30-degree night-time heat.

Zambia is a former British colony previously known as Northern Rhodesia before it gained independence in 1964. Most of the white residents left the country at that time and the population was comprised of 98.2 per cent Black Africans in the 2010 census.

So perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that I was the only white man in a club with 1,000 people, and apparently earned novelty status from it. People bought me beers, asked me to pose in photos with them, and a few women offered more intimate proposals.

The stroke of midnight was celebrated with fireworks — not carefully set off by professional technicians providing a show, but by dozens of people who brought their own to the club and set them off freely.

This lasted for quite a while and, with the noise and smoke from the fireworks combined with the loud dance music blasting from the speakers, I'd had enough and felt no guilt in calling it an early night and leaving with a Rasta named Eric to accompany a young Korean woman named Uri back to Jollyboy's because it probably wasn’t safe for her to walk alone.

I was in bed by 1:30 a.m., the earliest that had happened on New Year’s Eve that I can remember since I was a kid — aside from 2012 when I returned home from Mexico and most of my body broke out into hives and I spent the night hooked up to an intravenous tube in a hospital bed. But that’s a story for another time.

Eight hours at the Grand Canyon’s south rim

The Grand Canyon has been named one of the seven natural wonders of the world and, while I enjoyed the views at Bryce Canyon more, walking around and into this massive gorge carved out by the Colorado River was still incredible.

I began my visit at Desert View, which is the highest point on the south rim and provides a good look at the river. There’s a watchtower with Aboriginal decor that was built early in the 20th century that offered some different focal perspectives.

From there it was on to Mather Point, which was quite crowded because of its close proximity to the visitor centre. I walked west along the Rim Trail to Yavapai Point and then got off the trail and climbed out on to a rock overhanging the canyon to try and get a few more dramatic photos. It was probably stupid, since I learned later that a young man plunged to his death near Mather Point doing something similar that same afternoon, and it was the only time I did that while at the canyon. So kids, let this be a lesson to you: Stay on marked trails.

After dropping off my luggage in my room at Yavapai Lodge, three friends joined me on a free shuttle bus to Bright Angel Trailhead, which takes you down more than 1,300 metres to the canyon floor. It’s a two-day journey if you plan to hike the 30.6-kilometre round trip to the Bright Angel Campground and back, and I only had an afternoon and early evening to spare, so we ventured about two kilometres down before returning.

We passed through the upper and lower tunnels and stopped short of the first resthouse. With breaks to take photos of the stunning vistas, it took 40 minutes to hike down and 25 to get back up.

The next goal was to walk to Hopi Point to see the sunset, and the 3.2-kilometre route along the Rim Trail took us past Trailview Overlook, Maricopa Point and Powell Point. The rocks seemed to change colour as the sun dropped before it went down for good at 8:49 p.m.

The immensity of the canyon (446 kilometres long and an average of 16 kilometres wide) is jaw-dropping, considering the part I could see only comprised a small part of it.

The shuttle bus returned us to where we had picked it up earlier in the day, and a restaurant near the lodge served me a salad, garlic bread and a heaping portion of penne with meat sauce along with a pint of very good locally brewed wheat beer for $21.95. It was a clear night, which made for some great star-watching considering the relative remoteness of the area.

Steve McLean's favourite music of 2018

I thought a lot of good albums came out this year but, for my tastes, not many great ones. However, I’ve compiled this list of those albums that made the cut and I considered good.

My favourite 10 albums

1. The Interrupters - Fight The Good Fight
2. Dan P and The Bricks - When We Were Fearless
3. The Longshot - Love Is For Losers
4. Bodega - Endless Scroll
5. The Whips - City Wide Special
6. Reel Big Fish - Life Sucks … Let’s Dance
7. The Nude Party - The Nude Party
8. Hicksville Bombers - Danger Road
9. Shannon and The Clams - Onion
10. Mark Sultan - Let Me Out

 The next 10 albums

11. Ike Reilly - Crooked Love
12. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs
13. Subsonic - Flesh Colored Paint
14. Old 97s - Love The Holidays
15. Jeen - Gift Shop
16. Superchunk - What A Time To Be Alive
17. 6 String Drag - Top Of The World
18. Barrence Whitfield and The Savages - Soul Flowers Of Titan
19. Brian Fallon - Sleepwalkers
20. The Mountain Flowers - Bye And Bye

 The next 10 albums after that

21. Pete Astor - One For The Ghost
22. J.D. McPherson - Socks
23. The Mavericks - Hey! Merry Christmas!
24. Table Scraps - Autonomy
25. Frank Turner - Be More Kind
26. The Reverend Horton Heat - Whole New Life
27. Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo In Blue
28. Bad Sports - Constant Stimulation
29. Born Ruffians - Uncle, Duke And The Chief
30. The Mercenaries - Mark My Territory

 

The next 11 albums after that

31. Unlikely Friends - Crooked Numbers
32. The Essex Green - Hardly Electronic
33. Sloan - 12
34. Ethers - Ethers
35. Black Uhuru - As The World Turns
36. The Discarded - Manifesto
37. Low Cut Connie - Dirty Pictures (Part 2)
38. Sarah Shook and The Disarmers - Years
39. Jim James - Uniform Distortion
40. The James Hunter Six - Whatever It Takes
41. Miesha and The Spanks - Girls Girls Girls

 My favourite EPs

1. The Pandoras - Hey! It’s The Pandoras
2. The Beths - Warm Blood

 My favourite compilations, reissues and live albums

1. Joe Strummer - 001
2. R.E.M. - At The BBC

My favourite concerts (chronological order)

I generally try to stick to live performances I know I’m going to like. While some don’t live up to expectations, I came home satisfied after these shows:

The Holy Gasp - Jan. 14, Horseshoe, Toronto
Frankie Foo and the Yo-Yo Smugglers - Jan. 26, Grossman’s Tavern, Toronto
Frankie Foo and the Yo-Yo Smugglers - Feb. 2, Lee’s Palace, Toronto
Memberz, Mob Barley & The Railers - Feb. 9, Lee’s Palace, Toronto
Ferraro - Feb. 23, The Cameron House, Toronto
Dwayne Gretzky - Feb. 23, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Discarded - Feb. 24, Duggan’s Underground, Toronto
Bloodshot Bill & The Hiccups - Feb. 24, Monarch Tavern, Toronto
The Real McKenzies - March 9, Horseshoe, Toronto

The Real McKenzies

Sam Cash - March 14, The Cameron House, Toronto
The ARC Sound - March 17, Trinity Common, Toronto
George Westerholm, Luau or Die, The King Beez, Senores Calavera, The Cliff Divers - April 5, Cadillac Lounge, Toronto
The Slackers - April 6, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Harmonauts, The Slackers - April 7, Horseshoe, Toronto
KMan and The Radicals, Mustard Plug, The Planet Smashers - April 20, Horseshoe, Toronto
Stuart Joliffe memorial with Stuart Cameron, Tom Wilson, Ron Hawkins, Kim Stockwood, The Trews, Leah Fay and Peter Dreimanis from July Talk, Matt Mays, The ARC Sound  - April 22, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Cactus Blossoms - April 26, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Rizdales and guests - April 28, Cadillac Lounge, Toronto
The ARC Sound - April 28, The Artful Dodger, Toronto
Dream Wife, Sunflower Bean - May 5, Horseshoe, Toronto
Mad Caddies - May 8, Mod Club, Toronto

Mad Caddies

Peeling - May 8, The Baby G, Toronto
Thomas Thomas - May 9, The Cavern Bar, Toronto
Brett Newski - May 10, The Cameron House, Toronto
July Talk, Omni - May 10, Horseshoe, Toronto
Pony, Pkew Pkew Pkew, The Dreamboats - May 11, Horseshoe, Toronto
AntiSocial Surf Club, Miesha & The Spanks, Starcrawler - May 11, Bovine Sex Club, Toronto
Ferraro - May 11, The Cameron House
Starcrawler, Sloan - May 12, Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto
Northern Pikes - May 12, Horseshoe, Toronto
Hinds - May 13, Horseshoe, Toronto
Skating Polly, Charly Bliss - May 19, Horseshoe, Toronto
Atomic Beliveaus, The Calrizians, Luau or Die, The Cliff Divers, Mark Malibu and The Wasagas - June 1, Cadillac Lounge, Toronto
The Royal Crowns - June 2, Dundas West Fest, Toronto
The Hard Toms - June 2, Duggan’s Underground, Toronto
The Mighty Swells, The Surfrajettes, Reverb Syndicate, Tsunamibots - June 2, Cadillac Lounge, Toronto
Street Dogs - June 10, Horseshoe, Toronto
Danielle Duval, Ferraro, Hutch - July 20, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Arsenals - July 21, Woodbine Park, Toronto

The Arsenals

The Discarded - July 28, Lazy Daisy Cafe, Toronto
Ferraro, C+C Surf Factory - Aug. 16, The Cameron House, Toronto
The ARC Sound - Aug. 17, 419 Brunswick, Toronto
Sarah Shook and The Disarmers - Aug. 25, Horseshoe, Toronto
Frankie Foo and the Yo-Yo Smugglers – Aug. 31, Grossman’s Tavern, Toronto
TUNS – Aug. 31, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Nude Party, Craig Brown Band – Sept. 7, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Black Pearls - Sept. 7, Cameron House, Toronto
The Greasemarks, The Surfrajettes, The Dreamboats - Sept. 8, Horseshoe, Toronto
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Sept. 11, Horseshoe, Toronto
Ramblin’ Deano – Sept. 13, 419 Brunswick, Toronto
The Hold Steady - Sept. 15, Horseshoe, Toronto
U.I.C., MC50 - Sept. 19, The Danforth Music Hall, Toronto

Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls

Sam Coffey and The Iron Lungs, Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls - Sept. 20, The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto
Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls - Sept. 21, The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto
The Hard Toms, Mark Malibu and The Wasagas – Oct. 12, The Linsmore Tavern, Toronto
Sarah Borges with Eric Ambel, The Bottle Rockets – Oct. 14, Lee’s Palace, Toronto
Public Image Limited - Oct. 19, Lee’s Palace, Toronto
Jeen - Nov. 1, Horseshoe, Toronto

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants – Nov. 2, The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto
The Black Pearls – Nov. 2, Cameron House, Toronto
The ARC Sound – Nov. 3, The Artful Dodger, Toronto
The Mahones, Stiff Little Fingers - Nov. 7, Horseshoe, Toronto
Stiff Little Fingers – Nov. 9, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Alarm - Nov. 15, Horseshoe, Toronto
The Dreadnoughts - Nov. 22, Horseshoe, Toronto
Luau Or Die - Nov. 22, Bovine Sex Club Toronto
The Green Wasagas – Nov. 24, Cadillac Lounge, Toronto
Pony, Charly Bliss - Nov. 28, Horseshoe, Toronto
Eddie Angel’s Guitar Party, JD McPherson - Dec. 2, Lee’s Palace, Toronto
The ARC Sound – Dec. 15, The Artful Dodger, Toronto
Joel Plaskett Emergency – Dec. 21, The Danforth Music Hall, Toronto

Joel Plaskett Emergency

The Skydiggers – Dec. 22, Horseshoe, Toronto

Tackling five trails at Zion National Park

Zion National Park, the middle step in the 525-million-year-old “Grand Staircase” of sedimentary rocks connecting Bryce Canyon at the top and the Grand Canyon at the bottom, offers hiking trails suitable for a variety of fitness levels and height tolerances.

My time was limited at the 99-year-old southwestern Utah park, so I chose to go with five easy and moderate trails while beginning and ending at Zion Lodge. The first was the 1.9-kilometre Lower Emerald Pools Trail that climbs 20 metres to a small water pool and three tepid waterfalls.

That was followed by the steeper and rockier 1.6-kilometre climb to Upper Emerald Pool, which was larger but hardly emerald. The most notable thing about the pool was the abundance of voracious squirrels, some of which I observed chewing through backpacks left on rocks to try and get at food inside.

After coming back the same way, I veered off on to the Kayenta Trail, which connected with The Grotto after 3.2 kilometres of fine views of mountains above and the Virgin River below.

A free shuttle connects various points of interest within the park, and I took one a short distance to the Weeping Rock Trail. This 0.6-kilometre paved trail is a little bit steep as it ascends 30 metres and ends at a rock alcove where you can walk under the slowly dripping springs that give the trail its name.

After the walk back down and another short shuttle ride back to The Grotto, I got out and walked along a flat path that roughly followed the nearby road and river. After 135 minutes, I was back at Zion Lodge for lunch.

Given more time, I would have liked to have attempted Zion’s best known and most challenging trail, an 8.7-kilometre, 453-metre ascent to Angels Landing that features long drop-offs and a steep and narrow ledge where climbers are advised to hang on to chains fastened to the rocks to avoid falling. Eight people have fallen to their deaths on the trail. Surprisingly, seven have done the same on the much gentler Emerald Pools trails.

My Cosmos tour bus left the park in the early afternoon and headed further south, with the the Vermillion mountain range on my right and the Grand Staircase range on my left, with Monument Valley further off in the distance. We continued on to Lake Powell for a brief stop and, although there was a sandy beach and the water was reasonably warm, I was surprised to see nobody in it.

We drove over the Glen Canyon Dam in the Colorado River and into Page, Ariz., where the Quality Inn would be my resting spot for the night and my embarkation point for the next day’s visit to the last two canyons of my two-week trip.