Local earns honours for ‘repairing the world’

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1:16 pm

A Thornhill man is being honoured for founding a youth organization that works to combat violence in post-election Kenya, by opening the dialogue of reconciliation between African tribes.

Youth Ambassadors for Peace is the brainchild of Adam Hummel, 27, who is receiving the Youth Tikun Olam (Repairing the World) Award this month from Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee, Ve’ahavta. He started inter-tribe soccer tournaments, peace seminars, peace clubs and a chicken farm. There, youth — an age range from 16 to 40 in African culture — discuss shared values, war, personal experiences and integration.

“The best way to do reconciliation is to make sure everyone is supporting everyone,” said Hummel. “That includes the people who are the weakest and most neglected in society.”

Through the first workshop held in 2008, Hummel met Kepha Nyambegera, a youth who is now his trusted friend and the project’s regional director. With his help, Youth Ambassadors continues to look ahead to the March 2013 elections in Kenya where they hope to reduce the potential for further violence.

Comedian showing signs of comeback

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1:16 pm

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I spent Thanksgiving weekend at my nephew’s farm outside of Ottawa, watching him tie the knot. He loves Ottawa and has spent the last 30 years there, managing a comedy club in that city. His farm was populated that day by a variety of horses, chickens, ducks and, of course, local comics from the city.

I started to reminisce about the city and its strong contribution to Canadian comedy. Is there something in the water? There’s probably no city in the country that has contributed so many comics for a city of its size.

Ottawa has always been the butt of the joke about which Canadian city is the most boring, most sober, most dour. Bureaucrats can be grim, I’ll admit, but not everyone works for the government, and their kids sure don’t. Many of them become comics.

Long ago, Ottawa native Rich Little was the most famous impressionist in the world. Later, local boy Dan Aykroyd became the most valuable player on Saturday Night Live. Moving into the ’80s, Norm Macdonald became the comic every comic aspired to be. You could find Jeremy Hotz working up the act that would make him a mainstay of festivals and theatres. The outrageous Tom Green (and this is Ottawa, remember) started his wild TV career here. And Jessica Holmes and Craig Lauzon, of Air Farce fame, spent most of their formative years in the city.

None of them were at my nephew’s wedding, but the best stand-up to come out of that city was — Mike MacDonald.

It was great to see Mike there. I was thrilled to hear the news that he’s back doing sets around Ottawa. He has been a great powerhouse of comedy in this country, but lately he has been very sick. He needs a new liver, thanks to his bout with hepatitis C, and he needs it fast.

MacDonald, who told me he was sure people thought of him as a has-been, was surprised to find the support offered by comics and former fans alike. Benefits were held, websites set up and money was raised to help with his expenses because he’s too weak to travel or work. His voice is tentative and tremulous. But the eyes still twinkle mischievously; there’s no doubt there’s a comedian in there.

I remember when he was so funny he scared people. He could do four hours of brilliant stand-up in one session and then do a different four the very next night. He was famous for his weekly LSD trips for comics where he acted as ringmaster and guide in the small hours of the night. He would personally and painstakingly create mixed tapes that provided the soundtrack of the interior journey he masterminded. Arrogant? Yes. But also inspiring.

After quitting the drugs that were destroying him (and his liver), he became born-again and moved to Los Angeles. He still did all right. He had a number of TV specials and the lead in a CBC sitcom called Mosquito Lake. Unfortunately, it was not a hit.

Unperturbed, MacDonald continued to perform his stand-up act all over the continent, setting a record for the most Just For Laughs appearances. You couldn’t imagine him not working.

According to reports, he’s testing the waters with his new persona. By all accounts, he’s nailing his fresh, mature material. I couldn’t be happier for him.

Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder of Yuk Yuk’s comedy clubs and the author of several books, including Control Freaked.

Balancing act

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1:16 pm

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During her first two years at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, Zoë Belkin split her time between classes and being on set for the television series The Latest Buzz. In a delicate balancing act, she’d often be away from school for five weeks at a time but worked with a tutor between takes and sent her work back to Forest Hill for grading.

“I always liked going back to school, but I missed filming, too — I like having the best of both worlds,” says the rising star, who has also had stints on Degrassi: The Next Generation and Rookie Blue and, most recently, wrapped filming on the star-studded Carrie remake out next March.

She credits her high school drama teacher for helping her juggle both worlds: “She was always there if I had trouble with something.”

Even though acting has always been her passion, school was equally important to her, and Belkin even made time to participate in school plays, taking on lead roles.

Right after graduation she flew to Winnipeg to shoot the movie Perfect Sister also starring Abigail Breslin and Mira Sorvino. There she experienced her first taste of living away from home: “I was living in this hotel room in Winnipeg and I was 18 years old. It was so much fun.”

Now living in Kingston where she attends Queen’s University, she continues to audition and take on as many roles as she can, frequently travelling back to Toronto for auditions.

She spent this past summer with Julianne Moore and Chloe Moretz on the set of Carrie in Toronto. She was shooting from June right through until after the school year started again and says she is thankful for her friends who share their notes from class.

“It can be difficult sometimes, but if I read a script or a breakdown that I really am interested in, it doesn’t really matter.” When she gets jobs like this one, it’s worth every second spent making up missed classes.

Her hard work is obviously paying off, but it’s her determination that will send this starlet to the top of the A-list.

“The thing that keeps me positive is that there is always something else. Like, sometimes I’ll want a role really badly, and I’ll try really hard in the audition, but I won’t get it. But the next week there’s another job that I want really badly.”

It takes a family to tackle tech addiction

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1:16 pm

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It seems a century ago that kids were playing outside in the hot sun, screens forsaken for more salutary pursuits. These days, as the chill winds blow, it’s doubly difficult to separate kids from their screens. Some days, it seems they’ve been surgically attached to their electronic devices.

Short of screaming fights or perma-nagging, what are parents to do about kids’ addictions to their screens? Shall we throw in the towel and just let them do it?

Hardly. Our obligation as parents is to direct their positive growth and development. We didn’t breed to be their BFF, but rather to parent them toward well-adjusted and constructive adulthood — which does not include an addiction to screens.

Let’s start with what doesn’t work. Nagging our kids to get off-line is as useful as all the other nagging we do. Homework, house chores, getting up on time, remembering to schlep their lunch, sports equipment, etc.: Nagging is a sound they become expert at tuning out.

I do a behaviour management session every summer before camp with our youngest staff, using an air horn and candy. Every 30 seconds or so I blow the air horn — in their faces — and every minute or so I throw candy at them. The air horn is incredibly loud (almost painful), and yet, after about five or six times, they begin to ignore it. As for the candy, they become increasingly excited, and by about the fifth “candy throw,” they’re lunging for the Aero bars. Why? Because humans quickly learn to tune out repeated negative reinforcement, and they become increasingly responsive to positive reinforcement.

This truth of human nature helps us know what not to do about screen addiction. It underlines that fighting and nagging about it won’t work.

So what does?

Step one is to look at what you’re modelling, because monkey see, monkey do. What goes around comes around. Yell at your kids and they’ll be yellers. Be sarcastic and judgmental with them (or your spouse) and they’ll be that way too. It’s the same with screens.

What’s your “screen hygiene”?

Do you text at the dinner table? Check out your emails during family time? Talk on the phone while you’re driving with the kids? So will they.

So screens aren’t a kid problem. They’re a family problem. Your job is to decide if you want them in your life like that. Thinking about it is a good idea because you don’t want to look back on your way home from driving your kid to university and say to yourself that you squandered your time together on-line.

This calls for a family meeting. Like any other big decision that you want everyone in the family to honour, people take better care of a policy they create. Even a four-year-old can speak to this point. Small children have surprisingly clear opinions on their parents’ behaviour; we ignore them at our peril. A formal family meeting with a chair and an agenda will help everyone voice and clarify their thinking and wishes about “family screen policy.”

Let a kid chair the meeting and let another kid take minutes. Putting the parents in the back seat for once empowers children, which increases their investment in the process. A sample agenda might read:

What are our family screen habits? List them on paper for each person.

What does each family member think about these habits?

What does each person want, screen-wise, for themselves? For other family members?

A written negotiated plan for everyone’s screen use — when we do it and when we don’t. The “Family Screen Policy” will include everyone’s agreed-upon screen usage — and the negotiated consequences for breaking the policy. These (consequences) need to apply to parents as well as kids, or they have no effect.

After the family meeting, the Policy should be typed and posted on the fridge. Follow-up family meetings once a month will help keep people on track and allow for renegotiation of troublesome points. This is all about giving children voice, awareness of how their choices affect others … and responsibility — the big three of life skills.

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.

Liquid gold

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1:15 pm

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Bubble talk’s gone mainstream. No wonder. Real estate resales in the GTA tumbled 21 per cent in September while new home sales were slaughtered — down a withering 64 per cent. Downtown condos are finding 37 per cent fewer buyers, and the media’s awoken to the fact housing won’t go up forever, amen.

What happened? After all, the economy’s still inching ahead. Interest rates are still near rock- bottom. Why the GTA-wide plop in real estate deals?

First, any downturn is Ottawa’s handiwork. Of course, the run up in real estate values has been historic and unsupported by a commensurate increase in household income, employment or economic expansion. But the feds changed everything when they killed off 30-year home loans, trashed cash-back mortgages and raised the income qualifications of borrowers. In virtually every market in Canada, sales have tumbled since the new regs started to be implemented.

Second, as this column correctly pointed out months ago, it’s not universal. The GTA is not a monolithic market, but rather a collection of dozens of micro-markets, where the forces of supply and demand reign supreme. The rarefied earth covered by Post City Magazines, for example, is just that — turf where supply has remained tight and demand has held firm.

So far this fall, according to veteran North Toronto realtor George Klump, the numbers bear this out.

But there is another change. Activity at both ends of the market — condos and properties listed for more than $2 million — has peeled off. Legions of young buyers with cash flow but not much in the way of savings have decided to stay renters until the negative headlines blow over. Meanwhile, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)’s sudden refusal to extend mortgage insurance to any property selling for more than a million may be having an impact on higher-end sales where leveraging up on cheap money is seen as a financial virtue.

So, what comes next?

People like Klump think more of the same. After all, if this micro-market can withstand a 20 per cent region-wide drop in sales, with the days-on-market numbers actually falling to single digits in many ’hoods, then how can the spring not be bountiful?

That’s logical. But real estate seldom is. This is the most emotional of investment assets, with buyers heavily influenced by public sentiment. With the feds determined to let a whoosh of air out of the urban real estate bubble, there’s probably a spate of more negative headlines to come.

Can area prices continue to climb, even when the average detached house already sells for double the GTA average? Unless there’s a flood of listings in March, get used to the status quo: more buyers. More sales. It’s why these homeowners possess the one thing so many others crave — liquidity.

Post City Magazines’ real estate columnist, Garth Turner, is a financial author, investment advisor and former MP. His daily blog is greaterfool.ca.

Barbra Streisand pleases, but doesn’t awe at the ACC

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12:53 pm

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The concept of a “diva” is a multi-layered one. On one hand, a diva stands out for her presence, talent and aura. On the other hand, a diva can also be known for arrogance and self-absorption. There was a diva onstage at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night, and she encompassed all the qualities — for better or worse — that the term entails.

In front of a packed house of about 14,000 fans — some of whom had shelled out as much as $1,000 for a ticket —- Barbra Streisand offered up two-and-a-half hours of a raw and powerful presence, but also plenty of self-indulgence.

The class and elegance befitting the true diva’s concert was clear from the outset. A beautiful stage setup greeted fans as they entered the arena, making the ACC feel like the city’s biggest lounge. A nicely edited video package streaming the life of Streisand led into her arrival, and her mere presence conveyed a commanding aura. Upon being welcomed to a standing ovation, she taught current pop star divas like Taylor Swift a lesson in genuine charm by seeming appreciative, but maintaining a sassiness about her at the same time.

Streisand’s set could be best described as pleasant, albeit unspectacular. She sang several nice-sounding, slow songs that hardly showcased her once-famous range, instead coming off surprisingly understated. In between songs, she ventured into some mildly amusing — though clearly scripted — banter with other musicians who shared her stage. Her longtime, keen-eared fans may remember the same pandering of local references to a “Bathurst Street deli” in her previous Toronto appearance.

When she wasn’t singing or engaging in some witty back-and-forth chatter, she was taking a back seat to her strong ensemble cast. Italian operatic teenage trio Il Volo did much of the heavy lifting in the first half, accompanying Streisand for a rendition of “Smile” (after which she jokingly called one of them a “show-off”) and then taking full control of the stage for one of their own songs. Following the intermission, it was close friend and talented trumpeter Chris Botti, and even her son, Jason Gould, who stepped in sporadically to offer the 70-year-old a quick rest.

Not that the evening was lacking in emotional, personable moments. Streisand and Gould (a dead-ringer for Josh Groban), served up a touching mother-son duet, and the legendary songstress paid tribute to late former collaborator Marvin Hamlisch with a passionate rendition of “The Way We Were.”

In the end, fans got plenty of bang for their considerable buck. Streisand’s supporting crew consisted of some of the world’s most talented musicians, including Il Volo, Botti, her stepsister Roslyn Kind and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Plus, they got to see a legend belt out a wide array of crowd-friendly tunes that also included “Some People,” “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and the show-closing solo effort, “Some Other Time.”

Whether the steak measured up to the sizzle — that’s an entirely different question.

Drink This: SpiritHouse’s Corpse Reviver No. 2

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12:34 pm

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With a somewhat clandestine location at Adelaide and Portland, SpiritHouse is the latest addition to the west end’s sundown scene. The subterranean space is the work of Len Fragomeni, known around town as the owner of the Toronto Institute of Bartending. Head bartender Brad Gubbins serves up a roster of cocktails, including a barrel-aged Sazerac that comes in a bottle ($46), but the Corpse Reviver No. 2 ($15) is our drink of choice.

The drink blends Tanqueray gin with Lillet Blanc aperitif wine and Cointreau triple sec. Some fresh-squeezed lime juice and a rinse of Taboo absinthe finish it off.

With over 400 bottles to choose from, the bar has certainly arrived with a bang and can undoubtedly proclaim that there is, in fact, something for everyone.

SpiritHouse, 487 Adelaide St. W., 647-277-1187

What I Wore: a long, layered look with a pair of awesome shoes from Aldo

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11:45 am

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When a piece of fashion goes viral (especially when it involves a collaboration) everyone is like, “I need it now,” and I am no exception. Exhibit A: a pair of oxblood shooties (that’s a shoe with a side of bootie to you) designed by Flare Magazine’s Fashion Director, Elizabeth Cabral, for Aldo. I mean, what is there to say about these things? They are a-ma-zing.

As soon as they started popping up on Instagram and Twitter with news that they had hit stores, I could instantly feel beads of sweat start to form on my forehead and my heart begin to race. Were they all going to sell out in 30 seconds? What size would I be in this style? What was the nearest location that would have them? I felt like I needed eight arms to call every location while simultaneously reaching for every Aldo shoe I owned.

In reality, it came down to calling Aldo, tweeting Aldo, tweeting Flare (and Liz herself), then calling Aldo again until somebody could finally identify the shoe I was frantically looking for and put it on hold until I could get there. Just as I thought the madness had calmed down, my best friend from New York City called to say: “How do I get a pair of those Liz Cabral shooties too?”

While these shoes look good with just about anything, I particularly like them with these snakeskin pants — a recent score from the opening party of Nowhereland’s new pop-up shop location in the Burroughes Building. This is my favourite way to dress in the winter months: long, layered, warm and comfy.

The only tricky part was injecting some style into a look that is essentially made up of a human body with a pile of clothes thrown on top. It’s not always easy, but I put emphasis on each piece having a special quality about it. A snakeskin pant here, sheer chiffon dashiki there, a cool necklace from local designers, shoes by a fashion director, and voila! Chic winter style at its easiest.

What I Wore: black sweater with black chiffon layer (attached) from Ann Taylor, purple chiffon blouse from Nowhereland, snakeskin pants from Nowhereland, oxblood shooties by Flare’s Elizabeth Cabral for Aldo, necklace by Blackbird.

Morning Throwback: before video games made attention spans nonexistent, beekeepers were enthralling

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10:56 am

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Before zom-bees, bees were just bees and they were still super cool.

Table Talk: Joanne Kates reviews Momofuku Noodle Bar

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10:35 am

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Dammit, the Emperor is back and he’s in his boxers again. I have been wanting (dare I say pining) to go to David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York for years. So of course, I, like every other foodie in Toronto, was ecstatic when Chang opened Momofuku Toronto on University Avenue. Who doesn’t want to go to a noodle shop revisioned as a three-storey glass cube with a monumental gold-toned sculpture out front?

The question: is David Chang’s world-famous Noodle Bar better than a schleppy Asian hole-in-the-wall noodle shop? Or just way more glamorous? I, of course, assumed it was better, because, can the people be wrong? Maybe that’s the question.

So you pull open the heavy oak door with its noodle-shaped outline, and there’s maître d’ Joël Centeno, a French smoothie who keeps chaos at bay in the no-reservations situation. In a nano-second, they’ve got your cell number and have promised to text when a table comes up. Up the splendid open staircase to the second storey bar, and one feels … trendy.

Anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes later cometh a text summoning you to table. The grand room seats 70 at long tables with backless benches. What a great formula! And what a great way to turn tables, ’cause it’s not very comfy. Some nights they sell 250 dinners! And why not, it’s so cool, the double-height blonde wood room with glass and steel accents, ultra-smooth service and a classic rock soundtrack.

The menu is like your neighbourhood ramen shop. Two of David Chang’s famous pork buns for $10. House ramen for $15. Is it better than your neighbourhood ramen shop? Pork belly with cured pickled cucumber and hoisin between steamed buns are absolutely better: snazzy tender pork and buns like little clouds. Equally exciting is the kimchi stew, not-too-spicy orange broth with great taste and sweetness from pork shoulder and soft oval rice cakes.

The ramen has the usual ingredients but they’re … better. Mostly.

The pork comes two ways, pulled pork shoulder and pork belly in a sweet chunk. The garnishes have been carefully composed and they’re splendid: atop al dente noodles a big pile of scallions, two crisp nori rectangles, cured cabbage, sweet fish cake and, on top of it all, a perfectly poached egg rather than the usual hard-boiled egg. Is the broth special? Nope. It’s ramen as usual broth.

Same deal with the smoked chicken wings: lukewarm mediocrities that appear to have been pre-cooked and are rather ordinary Orientalia save for their smoky scent.

So what’s all the fuss about? Is it the soaring glass and the smooth staff? The Big Apple buzz? I am thinking both, ’cause it’s sure not the food. If I’m right about that, why is New York in love with Momofuku? Simple — they don’t know as much about Asian food as we do. They are not lucky enough to have as many Asian immigrants per capita and hence as many cheap wonderful Asian restaurants everywhere. So they don’t know any better. But we do!

Momofuku Noodle Bar, 190 University Ave., $50 Dinner for two

Joanne Kates trained at the Ecole Cordon Bleu de Cuisine in Paris. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Maclean’s and Chatelaine, and she was the Globe and Mail’s restaurant critic for 38 years.

The Fashion Week Diaries: Holt Renfrew, Pink Tartan

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3:41 pm

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With last week’s so-called rogue fashion collections packed up and away, this week marks the city’s official Fashion Week. As per usual, the kick-off show arrived from Holt Renfrew, which always manages to draw a lively crowd with plenty of bold-faced names spilling out from its midst.

As folks sought out their seats — actual chairs, for once — at a snail’s pace, the front row filled up with the likes of Stacey McKenzie in bold yellow, a brocade-clad Ainsley Kerr, and Barbara Atkin in all-black with a leopard print clutch. Suzanne Rogers was the belle off the ball, with an emerald green frock acting as the backdrop for a spectacle of a necklace that would cause most to sharply inhale. Meanwhile, Sylvia Mantella opted for a short lace number, and elsewhere we spotted Dan Levy and Kirk Pickersgill settling in.

Still feisty at 175 years young, Holts mixed and matched more than usual with their designers, opting to style things a bit rather than only send out head-to-toe looks plucked from the runway. Choosing garments from this season, the show opened with a cap-sleeved fur coat from the house line that read more like a haute dress. A series of high-end looks marched down the runway: Jil Sander, Peter Pilotto, Lanvin and Alexander McQueen were but some of the designers featured. We loved a Maryam Keyhari necklace paired with a Judith and Charles dress; a look built on a pair of rag & bone jeans was ideal for the downtown girl; and a colour-blocked Céline coat was simply stunning. Next season we hope to see the styling pushed even further.

Pink Tartan is another of the week’s most highly anticipated shows. After swilling on some bubbly, the crowd returned to the runway room to take in Kimberley Newport-Mimran’s looks for next spring. Pink-locked model Charlotte Free started things off on a high note: a full skirt in cotton candy pink was matched with a butterfly-dotted bustier which conjured up visions of Damien Hirst’s paintings. A sliver of midriff and a gondolier’s hat set oh-so-slightly askew set the look alight.

The next looks that trounced out were just as strong, with barely a sidestep to be found (only Julian Schnabel should be caught in pajamas, even if they are covered in butterflies). Palette-wise, the pale pinks turned into minty greens, which progressed into silvery jacquards and finally, a bolder pairing of gold and black. Another full skirt — this time in gold — was a luxurious statement, while a sumptuous fur top had us rethinking eveningwear (much like that Holts coat). The entire collection was what we would imagine a modern-day Marie Antoinette would swirl around in and, without a doubt, the bar was set high on day one.

Tomorrow: Adrian Wu and Bustle

Five of Toronto’s most wickedly haunted hotspots

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3:35 pm

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We hate to break it to you, but your favourite Toronto haunts are probably haunted — that is, if you believe in ghosts and that type of fourth-dimension stuff. If you do, Halloween is the perfect time to embrace your inner Robert Stack (or Peter Venkman) and investigate spooky things. So here are our top five haunted places in Toronto. Grab your proton pack and trench coat and get going.

The Gladstone Hotel

Toronto’s funkiest hotel is also the city’s oldest continually-operating hotel, so that’s a pretty good sign that it’s haunted. And it just so happens that the Gladstone is rumored to be haunted by a piano-playing ghost. As long as he doesn’t play “Chopsticks,” we’d welcome the musical distraction.

Casa Loma

If a place has secret tunnels, then chances are there’s going to be a few ghosts roaming around, including a stern-looking old man gazing out from a window (who’s probably Sir Henry Pellatt, the castle’s original owner), a British redcoat in the stable, a lady in white walking the halls and someone knocking in the tunnel. Sounds like a party.

The Keg Mansion

You want some spook on the side of your strip loin? Then head over to The Keg Mansion. During the time the Massey family owned the mansion, Lillian Massey died in the second-floor bedroom of the house. Her ghost is said to be roaming the woman’s washroom on the same floor. Trumping Lillian’s apparition is the ghost of the hanging maid, whose body has supposedly been spotted dangling in the foyer of the mansion. Apparently the maid hung herself because of grief over Lillian’s death, or, she may have been knocked up by one of the Massey sons and couldn’t bear the shame. We’re going with the latter.

Lower Bay Station

So it turns out the vacant Lower Bay Station isn’t so vacant after all. The TTC station, which opened for six months in 1966, is rumored to be home to a lady in red who is said to have no legs and just kinda floats above the ground, which is pretty helpful if someone wanted to dance with her cheek to cheek.

The Winter Garden Theatre

If you’ve ever gone to the Winter Garden Theatre and thought, “One of these seats is not like the other,” then you’re on to something. While the theatre was undergoing renos, chairs were shipped in from Chicago’s legendary Biograph Theater, including the last seat on which John “Public Enemy #1” Dillinger sat. Fittingly, Dillinger’s last chair is specially upholstered to point out its significance, but its weird energy probably gives itself away anyway (apparently the chair has “a mind of its own”). Special note: the notorious bank robber was gunned down outside the Biograph after attending a show with Anna Sage, who was nicknamed Woman in Red. We’re not saying Sage got sucked into some weird, ghoulish fourth dimension that has her stuck in the Lower Bay Station, but that would be pretty cool if it happened.