Parents need to make peace with mediocrity during the pandemic

10:49 am

Parenting columnist Joanne Kates is an expert educator in the areas of conflict mediation, self-esteem and anti-bullying, and she is the director of Camp Arowhon in Algonquin Park.

I am spoiled. I have never operated a vacuum cleaner and seldom touched an iron. Forty-three years ago, when I moved in with my beloved, I left for a month to help my friend Martha care for her newborn in Vermont. My beloved was supposed to get started on a small reno. One night I called and asked for a progress report. He said the contractor hadn’t returned his call.

I said: “Did you bug him?” He said: “No.”

Clearly that wasn’t my style. I said: “How about I co-ordinate the reno, in return for which you do all my ironing and the vacuuming in perpetuity?” He agreed.

Then came the frequent cleaning lady. Julie did everything. My house was always spotless when I came home from work.

Then came COVID.

Now I clean. Every second weekend (because yes, we both still work), Leon and I do a major house clean. He does floors and bathrooms. I do the kitchen. Badly.

My cleaning is substandard. The cooktop never looks as nice as when Julie cleans it. Ovens stay stained. Countertops are streaked. Stainless steel has spots. Apparently I don’t even know how to wipe a table properly.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my cleaning career, so I reflect. Mediocrity remains my middle name. The land of mediocrity is not where I habitually dwell. In my regular work, my career, I rarely settle for less than excellence. Which is why being a crappy cleaner irks me.

But in times like this we need to make peace with mediocrity.

Parents, the news is that your best is plenty good enough. Perfect only exists in the pernicious parent-blaming place where we go to beat ourselves up — often in the dark hours before dawn.

The past year has placed inhuman demands on so many people. Parenting, once shared with teachers, extracurricular programs, community centres, grandparents and sleepovers, has become mostly a solo act, performed in isolation and with scant support.

Trying to fill all those roles for your children is heroic. Failing at it is inevitable. And that has to be OK. What does it mean that you can’t get your Grade 5 child through their math homework without tears, stomping out of the room and unanswered questions? It means that you and your child are both human, and perfection is elusive. It means you’re normal, and so is your child. This is really all too hard.

And yet, there remains a challenge parents need to meet: Relax more. You can’t truly be good to and for your kids if you’re not first being good to yourself. When your stress level redlines because of trying to school them or get them to be COVID-safe or deal with their isolation-induced loneliness (and yours), you cannot parent well. Anxious parenting isn’t helpful for either generation.

The helpful hints that proliferate online are strangely unhelpful. This craft or that woodland outing or this do-it-yourself project: taken together as a boatload of parenting advice, they add up to more pressure to be that creative, inventive, jolly, indefatigable teacher-substitute parent. I find it stressful just reading the instructions.

Stressy parenting is bad for both parent and child.

So please, please do yourself — and your kids — a huge favour: lighten up. The stakes aren’t as high as they seem. After COVID, most kids will need help catching up in school. The bar will have to be lower for a while. Kids are resilient. They’ll catch up.

Now, more than ever, they need your calm, positive support. They need you to help them find joy in the day. Dancing around the kitchen while making dinner is about 10 times more important than getting the homework done well — because it sets a positive tone in the family. Finding calm, joy — and kindness — will give your kids the sense that their world is a pretty good place despite COVID. This is the rock they need to stand on.

In order to be that foundation, all of us parents need to ease up on ourselves, to accept that we cannot achieve excellence at the new tasks COVID has imposed on us. Our well-being, and our childrens’ depends on it. We say yes to mediocrity!

The local artist behind Drake’s new custom OVO table

Erin Neilly

3:54 pm

Ranbir Sidhu is not your average furniture designer. He’s an artist and he’s caught the eye of celebrities such as Jay-Z and Drake. Sidhu’s company, Futurezona, specializes in custom designs for furniture and sculptures, and each piece he works on looks like a futuristic piece of art.

He created an airplane table that he custom-designed for Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s entertainment company, and his most recent creation is a custom OVO table for Drake.

The Roc Nation table © Anthony Galatianos

“We approached Drake with a few Futurezona concepts that personified his brand,” says Sidhu. “He liked what he saw, picked a favourite and gave us the green light to execute on it.”“

Sidhu recently delivered the custom OVO table to Drake’s Bridle Path home.

“The project for Drake and OVO developed primarily out of my admiration for anything done at a level of excellence. Drake is not only at the top of his game and continuing to push forward, but he is on top of ‘the game’ in general, ” says Sidhu. “OVO as a brand, is focused on offering a superb, elevated product. As an entity, OVO would only share space with the best of the best on an international scale. That is inspirational to me as an entrepreneur and a Canadian.”

Sidhu, who graduated from Pickering High School and grew up in Scarborough, has stayed local and operates his Futurezona showroom in Scarborough as well.

“When I’m creating, my inspiration is generated by time, place and space. My personal history plays a great part in my concepts, as does what is happening in my environment and the natural (and sometimes unnatural) reactions to it,” he says. “I’m also preoccupied with advancing imagination. When I think of what is possible, I also consider what might lie beyond the possible, then work towards creating that.”

The Toronto company behind WandaVision’s visual effects

lindsaylow

1:21 pm

Jonathan Bronfman WandaVision — Jonathan Bronfman launched MARZ in 2018

Jonathan Bronfman, co-president of visual effects and tech company Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) — the studio behind the most notable visual effects production for Marvel’s WandaVision, HBO’s Watchmen and Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy — says he remembers running around on films sets as a kid with his dad.

“Maybe, subconsciously, that planted the seed,” he says.

But Bronfman started out on a different path. After graduating from Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, he studied business at McGill University and then worked as a production assistant on TV show sets. Then he gained some experience in the producing world and realized that’s what he wanted to pursue.

Bronfman started his own production company, JoBro Productions, an independent feature film production company behind movies like The Witch and The Kid Detective that he still runs with his brother. It was there that Bronfman met his current business partner behind MARZ, Lon Molnar.

“I bring more of a management, financial, corporate angle to the partnership, and he’s a veteran visual effects supervisor with 20-plus years experience in the industry,” says Bronfman.

The pair launched MARZ in 2018 with the goal of differentiating themselves from other companies on the market.

“Being a Canadian producer or a Canadian visual effects company, we are inherently different from companies around the world,” Bronfman says.

#Watchmen VFX Team @marzvfx Reveals How Looking Glass’ Mask Was Brought to Life https://t.co/0A7Feuzu0m pic.twitter.com/PlAL4kXOQO

— Comic Book Resources (@CBR) December 1, 2020

That was the motivation behind specializing in visual effects for television as well.

“That line between the quality of film and television is dissolving,” he says. “The quality of the work, the actors, the visual effects on television shows these days are as good as feature films. So we felt like we could be doing great work and differentiate ourselves.”

MARZ has acquired some exciting projects since launching, but Bronfman feels most proud of their work on Watchmen, which involved visual effects on character Looking Glass’s mask that has been praised by multiple outlets.

“Looking at where we are now as a company. You could really point to that show as being a meaningful launching pad for our company,” he says. “I think it elevated not just our company’s reputation, but also our ability to create great content internally.”

It all ends tomorrow ? Don’t miss the finale of Marvel Studios’ #WandaVision streaming on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/SBUnbRtBZR

— WandaVision (@wandavision) March 4, 2021

He also references the recent release of WandaVision, pointing to the work MARZ put into actor Paul Bettany’s character, Vision, in particular (the character is an android made up of a synthetic body).

“For me over the next few years, it’s about building the best visual effects company in the world. I know that’s ambitious, but we really want to be the best,” Bronfman says.

Oliver & Bonacini teams up with major grocery delivery service

Jessica Huras

11:43 am

Voila by Sobeys Maison Selby’s French Onion Soup — Maison Selby’s French Onion Soup

Oliver & Bonacini, the restaurant group behind beloved Toronto restaurants like Auberge du Pommier and Canoe, is teaming up with Voilà by Sobeys to bring a gourmet experience to grocery home delivery.

Voilà already features items from Safeway, Farm Boy and Well.ca in addition to Sobeys’ own products. It’s now set to add some of O&B’s most popular dishes to its delivery line-up, with the help of Farm Boy’s test kitchen chefs.

Starting this week, you can add Maison Selby’s French onion soup, Leña’s piri piri chicken, Bannock’s tourtiere or O&B’s staple artisan chicken pot pie to your regular grocery order. The piri piri chicken for two ($26) includes both white meat and dark meat served with kale and roasted potatoes, while the family size tourtiere ($30) is filled with a blend of spiced braised pork shoulder, ground pork and ground beef.

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While the selection is currently limited to these four items, offerings are expected to expand as the Voilà by Sobeys, Farm Boy and O&B teams continue to experiment with maintaining the quality and flavour of classic O&B dishes when delivered in pre-cooked and frozen form.

With various O&B restaurants specializing in cuisines ranging from French and Mediterranean to Italian and South American, we can likely expect a diverse assortment of delicious new options in the months to come.

O&B launched its own grocery delivery service in April 2020. This new partnership with Voilà appears to build on the brand’s successful pandemic pivot. As restaurants continue to suffer and online grocery booms across the GTA, O&B has found a way to marry their upscale restaurant expertise to the realities of dining at home during coronavirus.

Jeff York, partner and special advisor to Sobeys and Farm Boy, sees this partnership as filling one of the many voids created by COVID-19 as well as a welcome opportunity for expansion and creativity.

“Customers and communities have sorely missed the in-dining restaurant experience through this seemingly never-ending cycle of lockdowns in the GTA,” he said in a press release. “The entire food industry must rally behind restaurants to create fertile ground for their continued innovation.”

This design duo is revamping Ontario farmhouses in a new HGTV Canada series

lindsaylow

4:03 pm

farmhouse-facelift — Carolyn Wilbrink and her brother Bill Pearson

Everyone loves a good home renovation show, but this time HGTV Canada is going beyond the regular storyline viewers are accustomed to with its new series Farmhouse Facelift. The show follows artisan contractor Bill Pearson and his sister and interior designer Carolyn Wilbrink as they find historic farmhouses across Ontario and breathe new life into the vintage spaces.

Both Pearson and Wilbrink grew up on their family farm in Waterdown, Ont., where they learned to restore and reclaim the charm of these types of heritage properties. The series kicks off on March 3 at 10 p.m. on HGTV Canada, and the siblings will pair together Wilbrink’s renovation and design plans with Pearson’s custom artisanship to give these local farmhouses a facelift.

We caught up with Wilbrink to chat about the other duo she’s a part of — CW Design and Co. with her husband Craig. When the couple embarked on their own massive farmhouse renovation project, it sparked the idea to start a company that would highlight Craig’s millwork, metal fabrication, installation and business knowledge along with Carolyn’s passion for design and renovation projects. Here, Carolyn dishes on their love story.

How they met

We met when I was 16 years old. Craig worked at a car stereo shop and I tagged along with a friend of mine to visit the shop. When I got my driver’s licence, I went back to purchase a car stereo for my first car and we totally hit it off. The only thing was he had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend. We stayed friends and I would often pop by to see him at work. Then I ran into him at a bar in Burlington one night and we danced for hours. That was definitely the night that Craig became interested. I even kept the dress I wore that night as a memory.

The first date

We started hanging out just after I turned 19, but our first official date was on Nov. 1, 2000. Craig took me to a restaurant in Mississauga called Outrigger. I have no idea why he chose that place but we can honestly remember every detail about what I was wearing and even what he ate. During dinner we talked a lot and Craig made me laugh like always, but then there was a very special connection that happened. We locked eyes and then I told Craig I was starting to fall for him. I had never met anyone who made me feel so comfortable just being me and I just knew in that moment that I had to let him know. Then he told me that he was just about to tell me the same thing.

Memorable moments

Craig bought me a dirt bike for my college graduation gift so that I could come along with him and his buddies when they rode. He would always ride it up this steep hill for me to get into the pits and then one day he told me I had to do it myself. He told me whatever I did, not to lean back. So I was just over half way up the hill when my front tire caught a root and I leaned back! I ended up head over heels with my bike all the way to the bottom. I was clearly shaken and an absolute muddy mess after that with a massive bruise on my right hip but Craig would not let me give up. He told me to walk up the hill (while he rode the bike back up for me) and get back on and ride around until I felt better. That was the first time I realized that he wouldn’t let me fail and that he always pushed me to do better because he truly believed I could. Craig’s most memorable moment would be our first New Year’s Eve together. His friend was house-sitting a huge home with a full dance floor and karaoke bar and a massive hot tub. I grabbed the mic and sang “Johnny Angel” to Craig and everyone started clapping and whistling. He was obviously pretty taken aback but it was when I was the first one to jump out of the hot tub and do snow angels in my bikini that Craig said he knew that was it for him.

The proposal

Craig proposed to me the night before my 20th birthday. He had surprised me with a weekend away to his family’s cottage in Long Point. While Craig was making me dinner, he was super nervous and kept dropping the dishes and fumbling with the cutlery and I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with him. He mentioned during dinner that he wanted to go for a walk on the beach and watch the sunset which I thought was super sweet. We were about 20 minutes into our stroll with our puppy and then Craig turned to me and got down on one knee and popped the question. While he was telling me how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, our puppy Brodie began frantically digging a huge hole kicking up sand all over the both of us. It was actually quite comical. We both started laughing and then I said yes!

The wedding and honeymoon

We were married in Waterdown on June 28, 2003 at the same church as my parents. We had a beautiful day and spent our reception at Rattle Snake Golf & Country Club in Halton Hills. It was probably the most memorable of all of our friends’ weddings. One of our guests had a little too much to drink and grabbed a tiki torch and streaked across the golf course. Thank God it was at the end of the night because I almost died. We couldn’t afford a honeymoon as we had just bought our first home (a townhouse in Stoney Creek) so instead we spent a few days at the cottage. We finally did get our honeymoon seven years later when I gave Craig a trip to Negril, Jamaica for his 30th birthday.

The kids

We have four incredible kids — Jackson, 16, Brooklyn, 14, Case, 8, and Hunter, 7. They definitely keep us young and they still think we’re pretty cool. We love having family move nights, kitchen dance parties, making up fun games and helping them make movies.

Balancing careers and marriage

We do the best we can to carve out our own time, especially with being so busy with four kids. We’re a team here at home and at work so we definitely rely on one another, which sometimes can become difficult especially when we’re exhausted. But we work every day at putting our marriage first. Craig is my rock and I couldn’t imagine doing this parenting gig and our crazy chaotic life with anyone else. With the pandemic though, it has been hard as we really do live for our date nights so we’ve had to get creative.

The home

It’s no surprise that we live in a 165-year-old farmhouse in Lynden. The crazy part is that when we bought it, we had absolutely no idea that it had actually been built by my great, great, great grandfather. We found out about a month after we moved in when we found an old article about the home, so I truly feel like it was meant to be and that makes this farmhouse even more special.

Secret of success

Love, empathy, honesty, kindness and forgiveness. No matter what kind of relationship you’re in, you need those five ingredients. We’ve definitely had our ups and downs and we’re far from perfect, but we’re in it for the long haul. He’s my best friend before anything else. We also love trying new and exciting things and pushing each other to our limits. It’s probably one of the biggest reasons that we are where we are today.

Life after retirement

Living it up in San Diego on the beach, that’s our dream! But if I could find a farmhouse on the beach, it would be a million times better.

A new doughnut shop just opened inside of a popular pizza joint

Jessica Huras

3:55 pm

A new doughnut shop has opened in Toronto’s Dundas West neighbourhood. Operating out of the Fourth Man and the Fire Pizzeria, which is known for its affordable, American-style pizzas, Harry and Heels Donuts sells a wide variety of doughnuts as singles, by the half-dozen or by the dozen.

Described as a “California” doughnuts, Harry and Heels features 18 tasty flavour profiles, including classic favourites like rainbow-sprinkled and chocolate-dipped. Some of the more unique choices include the Chocolate Hawaiian, Chocolate Cream Filled and the Glazed Cinnamon Sugar.

“Right now, our cream-filled glazed doughnuts, buttermilk crullers and apple fritters are our best sellers,” says Shant Mardirosian, owner of Harry and Heels Donuts and the Fourth Man and the Fire Pizzeria.

All of the doughnuts are yeast-based and are extremely soft and flavourful. Depending on the day of the week, specialty doughnuts, like the Cinnamon Toast Crunch or the Glazed Fruit Loops, might be on the menu, too. All of the doughnuts are wonderfully large, making them perfect for sharing (if you want to, that is).

Doughnuts range between $2.99 and $3.29 for a single, or $18 for a half-dozen and $36 for a dozen, with no tax. The Fourth Man and the Fire is a cashless establishment, which means orders must be purchased using credit or debit only. All of the doughnuts are made fresh in-house, and available while quantities last each day.

Customers can order doughnuts from Harry and Heels for pick-up or via the Fourth Man in the Fire’s UberEats, DoorDash and SkiptheDishes pages from Wednesday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. or until they’re sold out.

Toronto actor set to star in new Gossip Girl series is the face of Holt Renfrew’s new campaign

Nikki Gill

12:31 pm

Holt Renfrew’s new spring 2021 campaign will feature actor and singer-songwriter Jordan Alexander. Alexander will be the face of Holt’s new spring line and will appear in a series of photos and videos. The new campaign will also feature Alexander’s rendition of the classic Bruce Cockburn song “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” produced by Canadian artist Haviah Mighty.

Alexander has been in the spotlight ever since the news dropped that she will appear on the reboot of Gossip Girl on HBO Max. The show was expected to launch in 2020 but was delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexander is portraying the role of Julien Calloway in the reboot, who is said to be an empowering and fashionable character in the series.

Alexander says she decided to join the new Holt Renfrew campaign based on advice from her grandmother.

“My grandma always taught me the value of beautifully made garments, and the art of being well dressed,” says Alexander in a recent press release.“I have great memories of wandering the aisles of Holt Renfrew, soaking up all her fabulous fashion tips. She is a complete original and inspired a strong sense of independent self expression in me. We can hardly believe I’m doing a campaign with Holt Renfrew.”

The theme for Holt’s spring campaign is empowering self-expression and it reflects the company’s newly drafted mission: to empower self-expression and ignite positive change. The video featuring Alexander also includes scenes and local landmarks from Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver alongside dancers from various disciplines and backgrounds.

Holt Renfrew customers from across the country can participate in the new spring launch by tuning in to the retailer’s Instagram live feed on March 14 at 7 p.m. The live feed will include a conversation with Alexander and Tyrone Edwards, anchor of CTV’s Etalk. For more details about this event, follow Holt Renfrew’s Instagram page.

Piano Piano’s Victor Barry on the rise of virtual restaurants

lindsaylow

12:07 pm

We sat down with chef Victor Barry of Piano Piano to talk about the launch his two new virtual restaurants and what he thinks the coming months have in store for the Toronto dining industry.

What has the last year been like for you as a restaurant owner?

It’s been tough. We’ve had our moments, up and down. I think we’ve fared pretty well throughout this entire time. I think the mental fortitude side of it is the thing that will get anyone through it.

We’ve launched a couple of virtual brands, which have been great. I’ve been talking about doing a virtual kitchen out of the basement of Piano Piano on Harbord Street since 2016. We never really got to it because we didn’t really have to, but COVID has really put us all under pressure.

We’ve had to come up with great new ideas in order to create revenue. We’ve had to change what we do.

Tell us about the idea behind your new virtual restaurants.

I’ve been wanting to do this pizza concept since we opened [Piano Piano] five years ago. It wasn’t necessarily going to be called Victory Pizza. But it was definitely going to be Sicilian pan-style pizza that we really wanted to do.

We created a new brand called “Victory” around my name. That’s basically what my name means is to be victorious.

We also wanted to just have a great cheeseburger and we wanted it to be simple. We started off with just a double cheeseburger, French fries and drinks and that was it. We listened to what the guests were asking for, so we’ve added on the single burger.

We’re also going to add on a couple of new things coming up — maybe a fried chicken sandwich because everyone is crazy about fried chicken in Toronto.

What was the strategy behind launching separate virtual concepts?

I wanted to drum up more business by having secondary sites and secondary brands. I don’t want people to go on to Piano Piano’s online [ordering] platforms and order a burger instead. They’re already on my Piano Piano platform. They’re on my site and they’re going to order food.

Instead, I wanted to get external people that weren’t already on it. By having a new website and a new online ordering system, that was extra income that we were producing.

Do you think virtual restaurants are here to stay?

Initially, there was a little pushback from a couple of people who didn’t quite understand the idea of a virtual restaurant. There wasn’t a great understanding of what I was looking to do. But I think that people are starting to get it.

Once we did it, people had no problem. They were like, “Oh, it’s out of Piano Piano.” It wasn’t a huge hurdle for them to get over. I think the big reason that people hadn’t gotten over it yet is because they didn’t have to before.

I think moving forward, it will be a widely accepted thing and you’re going see a lot more of them. Toronto and Canada are a little bit behind.

In the States, it’s a perfectly acceptable thing. I think it’s a great addition to the foodservice industry in Toronto.

Virtual restaurants are going to be a big thing and dining at home is going to be a big thing. I think that virtual restaurants are around to stay.

What do your profit margins look like now compared to prior to the pandemic?

It’s about creating revenue rather than actually making money. Right now it’s all about just making it to the other side. That’s really the name of the game. As a restaurant group, we’re profitable right now. We’re chugging along nicely, which is good.

Has the government support available for restaurants made a meaningful impact for you?

Personally, I feel like the government has done a good job. They’ve stepped up and they’ve given tons of support. We’re making money with the help of the Government of Canada and Ontario using the CEWS (Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy) and the CERS (Canadian Emergency Rent Subsidy). If we didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be having this conversation. I don’t know if we would have made it this long without any government support.

But eventually, there’s going to be no more CEWS and CERS. Those things are going to dry up. At which point, I think the government is going to have to allow us to have full capacity of our restaurants.

What kind of thought have you given to what your restaurants will look like when they reopen?

There are so many variables to answer that question that I think it’s really hard to answer it now. It’s going to take time.

We’re not going to be able to just ram all of the seats and all the tables back in the restaurants, right? There’s going to be a transitional period where some people are comfortable going out and eating in a spaced out, 50 per cent capacity area.

Then when all the restrictions get lifted, restaurants are slowly going to have to get back to where they used to be, over a period of time. I think that’ll come along the same time as the general population has received a vaccine. But it’s going to take time for people to start to feel safe.

I don’t think it’s going to be an easy year. I think that we’re going to have to keep grinding. I also believe that restaurants have been around for hundreds of years, thousands of years, so they’re going to come back.

For the full interview with Victor Barry, check out our new restaurant podcast out soon on Apple iTunes and on TRNTO.com.

Midtown is getting a new Thai restaurant

Jessica Huras

4:45 pm

Thai Room Grand Pad Thai — Thai Room Grand's Pad Thai

Midtown will soon have a new destination for flavourful Thai and Malaysian cuisine with the upcoming opening of Thai Room Grand at 288 Eglinton Ave. W. this spring. The new restaurant will be the second outpost of Thai Room Grand, which originally opened in York Mills in 2018, and sister restaurant to Thai Room, which has six locations around the GTA.

As its name implies, Thai Room Grand is designed to offer Thai Room’s crowd-pleasing menu in a more upscale and grand setting. Fresh, high-quality ingredients are key to the success of the Thai Room restaurants, according to owner Kugan Peran.

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The restaurant’s most popular dishes are Thai cuisine staples like pad Thai, Massaman curry and khao soi. Peran says the green mango salad, which features shredded green mango mixed with red peppers, red onions, coriander and crushed peanuts is another fan favourite; as are the cold spring rolls, which see lettuce, egg, cucumbers, coriander, avocado, carrots, mango, mint and tofu nestled in fresh rice paper rolls and served with dipping sauce.

Peran says the seven Thai Room restaurants have fared relatively well amid the dining room closures over the past year.

“Thai food travels well for takeout,” he says, adding that takeout already comprised about 60 per cent of their business prior to the pandemic. “With takeout, we can break even,” he adds. “When dining rooms reopen, it’ll be a bonus.”

Peran says that the new midtown Thai Room Grand will have a capacity of about 60 seats when indoor dining is permitted to reopen. A third Thai Room Grand location is also slated to open in Mississauga this summer.

An official opening date for Thai Room Grand midtown has yet to be announced. Keep an eye on their Instagram for updates.

Five amazing Toronto arts happenings to check out in March

lindsaylow

11:07 am

1. Beautiful art from tragic history

On Sept. 22 in Renfrew County, Ont., a man brutally murdered three women, ex-partners. It was the worst case of domestic violence in the history of Canada, and baritone Joshua Hopkins’s sister Nathalie Warmerdam was one of the women.

Hopkins began a journey to use his exceptional voice to raise awareness of this epidemic of gender-based violence, and he found two willing collaborators in opera and art song composer Jake Heggie and acclaimed Toronto writer Margaret Atwood.

Together, they have created Songs for Murdered Sisters, a set of eight songs conceived as a chamber piece for vocal and piano as well as a fully orchestrated piece.

“I have known two women who were murdered, both by jealous former romantic partners, so the killing of Joshua’s sister resonated with me,” Atwood says. “But I could not promise anything: with songs and poems, they either arrive or they don’t. I then wrote the sequence in one session. I made the ‘sisters’ plural because they are indeed – unhappily – very plural. Sisters, daughters, mothers. So many.”

Although the original live premieres in Houston and Ottawa have been postponed due to COVID-19, the remarkable work is available now via an accompanying film released last month and a digital album scheduled for March 5 to align with International Women’s Day the following Monday.

Hopkins says he hopes that sharing this harrowing story through song will inspire other voices – of all genders – to take up the call in the future.

For more information, go to Songsformurderedsisters.com.

(L-R) composer Jake Heggie with baritone Joshua Hopkins

2. Virtual illusions and mentalism

This month, TO Live, the city’s arts program, presents the last installment of The Journey by renowned illusionist, mentalist and performance artist Scott Silven, a unique, immersive and interactive production in which Silven invites intimate groups of 30 into the world of his childhood home in Scotland, where a power of place and connection takes audiences on their own journey of discovery.

According to show information, Silven, who performed at the city’s Luminato Festival in 2018, uses “audience participation to weave a spellbinding story that leaves you wondering how did he do that?”

Silven has more than 15 years of experience performing at some of the world’s most exclusive events and theatres.

For ticket information, go to Tolive.com.

3. Climate folk

One of Canada’s most gifted songwriters Tamara Lindeman, a.k.a. The Weather Station, has released a stunning new album entitled Ignorance.

The new album was released last month, and she plays a live stream concert on March 11.

Ignorance, Lindeman’s fifth album, was written back in 2019 and slow to release, thanks to a global pandemic. It’s a touching and thought-provoking work that shows the evolution of an artist in, at times, startlingly full control of her creative vision.

The songs drip of private thoughts made public, not always willingly so. Her critiques of capitalism on “The Robber” and her hesitant yet powerful foray into the climate crisis debate are unique and riveting on songs such as “Atlantic,” upon which she sings, “Thinking I should get all this dying off of my mind, I should really know better than to read the headlines. Does it matter if I see?”

Lindeman says she wrote much of the work in the winter of 2019 and the climate crisis was top of mind.

“The deepest emotional experience I had that winter,” Lindeman says, “was reading the IPCC special report on 1.5 degrees.… Nobody believes me when I say that.”

This is easily one of the best albums of the year thus far and shows a dynamic new range for one of the country’s finest artists.

Find out more about the concert and this album at Theweatherstation.net.

The Weather Station’s new album ‘Ignorance’ is out now

4. Toronto audio dramas

This month, the Factory Theatre is premiering You Can’t Get There From Here, a series of audio theatrical dramas set to get underway on March 25 and run until April 22.

All of the dramas, which are available online for free everywhere podcasts are available, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, are set in and around Toronto neighbourhoods and familiar landmarks. Canadian playwrights participating in the new works are Anusree Roy, Matthew MacKenzie, Yvette Nolan, Keith Barker and Luke Reece.

Go to Factorytheatre.ca for show information.

5. iskwē releases new project The Stars

The Stars is a reimagination of her album acākosīk and features new arrangements (by Darren Fung) of six songs with iskwē accompanied by a trio of piano (Michael Shand), cello (Mariel Gonzalez) and violin (Laura C. Bates), recorded live off the floor at Revolution Recording in Toronto, and a dramatic orchestral reimagining of “Night Danger (Lovers Mix)” recorded with the FILMharmonic Orchestra (Prague).

Where acākosīk, originally released in November 2019, demanded our attention, The Stars invites us into an emotional and soulful experience with iskwē.

The Stars will be released digitally on March 5, 2021. To celebrate its release, iskwē will appear at a special evening presentation on March 4 where she will be joined by artist Matisse from Keys N Krates for a performance at Toronto’s Revolution Recording.

For more information, go to Iskwe.com.

How to champion safety in your community

Jarrod Daley

10:38 am

See all posts by Diamond and Diamond Lawyers

The steps taken today can help ensure a safer and healthier community tomorrow. As advocates of community safety, Diamond and Diamond Lawyers recently launched the Community Safety Awards where the company recognizes one individual per month who is nominated across Canada for being a safety champion within their community. The firm’s dynamic leader, Jeremy Diamond shares tips on how everyone can do their part to create a safer community:

Maintaining your home and property is vital to keeping your neighbourhood safe. While the winter months are long and gruelling, it’s important to keep up with your shovelling. Jeremy says “I like to keep an eye on the weather in our city so I know when to be ready to shovel.” Some important aspects of proper winter maintenance include shovelling personal driveways and walkways, laying salt down on any slippery areas, and shovelling any sidewalks around your home to provide a safer community for your fellow neighbours. Another important aspect of proper home maintenance is to ensure that all alarms/detectors are up to date and the batteries are changed regularly. Proper maintenance of fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors will help ensure that there are fewer fires and CO2 related incidents in the community.

Another important aspect of keeping your community safe is being a responsible car owner. First and foremost, wearing your seatbelt is the law and will dramatically help with ensuring your personal safety as well as anyone you travel in a car with. It’s also important to ensure that you drive with caution and adhere to all laws and regulations. Check in on weather conditions before you leave for your intended destination. Jeremy Diamond says “I check the weather before I leave for any destination whether it is ten minutes from home, or 2 hours.” Lastly, always ensure that you have your vehicle maintained by a licensed mechanic to ensure that it’s safe for the road.

Being an active member of your community and helping others out is an important aspect of championing safety. Jeremy says “acts like helping neighbours out with shovelling after a big snowfall or dropping off groceries if they are sick are essential to keeping your community safe and facilitating trust amongst neighbours.”

Do you part to maintain a clean and litter-free neighbourhood that everyone can enjoy. Community-wide cleanup efforts are fun and social when it comes to keeping members of your community safe. Jeremy says “ensuring a clean and safe community is critical. We do not want any members of our community being subject to garbage, hazardous waste, or anything that could cause physical harm.” Whether keeping your own property clean or participating in a community wide cleanup, be sure to wear proper personal protective equipment when picking up garbage.

One final aspect of championing safety in your community is to ensure the education of children, loved ones, friends, and acquaintances on the risks that are prevalent in the area that you call home. Jeremy Diamond outlines that “a safer community starts with proper education on the risks prevalent for everyone who resides within it.” One thing to consider is the presence of environmental hazards in your community. This could be (but is not limited to) hogweed, poison ivy, severe weather, etc. Another important aspect to teach loved ones is the importance of reporting unsafe behaviour in your community. If drunk driving, acts of violence, or suspicious acts are suspected then it is best to contact local authorities.

If there is someone that you’d like to recognize as a champion of safety, wellness, accident and injury prevention, consider nominating them for Diamond and Diamond’s Community Safety Awards program. Learn more here.

About Jeremy Diamond

Jeremy Diamond is a lawyer and member of both Ontario and Florida Bars. Jeremy practices in the area of Plaintiff personal injury litigation. Click here to learn more about Jeremy Diamond.

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Home of the Week: $1.7 million for a renovated Victorian house in downtown Toronto

Marlene Mendonca

10:35 am

A pop of colour can make a statement, and that’s especially true with this home at 120 McGill St. The fully renovated Victorian home has a vibrant red brick exterior that gives the townhouse major curb appeal. The residence spans four levels and provides just over 2,500 square feet of living space.

Along with five bedrooms and six bathrooms, there’s a cosy backyard that’s perfect for outdoor entertaining. The lower level comes with a separate entrance, giving it renter potential for new owners. It’s a short walk away from Yonge-Dundas Square and it is listed for $1.699 million.

The main floor has 10-foot ceilings and pot lighting, which you can see in the family room.

All of the kitchens have been modernized. This one is designed with sleek white cabinetry and stainless-steel appliances. There’s even space for a small breakfast table.