Band of the Week: The Balconies

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Brother and sister Jacquie and Stephen Neville teamed up with Liam Jaeger back while they were studying classical music at the University of Ottawa. The ensuing basement jam sessions transformed into dark, danceable and loud rock with the chemistry of a trio that has been playing together for decades.

Notorious for speaker-exploding and drumstick-breaking, The Balconies’ live shows are energetic and rugged — and now that they call Toronto home, the Ottawa ex-pats have blasted many of our sweaty crowds’ eardrums. We caught up with Stephen to talk power trios, the capital and sibling rivalry.

How does Toronto compare to Ottawa for a new(ish) band?
Toronto is my home now and it’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of excitement, more touring bands to go see and more venues to play at.

How did you guys first get together?
Well Jacquie and I are siblings so we’ve been playing together our whole lives. Liam and Jacquie met at the University of Ottawa, they were both studying classical music.

What’s it like being in a band with your sister?
Yeah, not like they’re very big fights, but we’re more so quick to react. With a sibling you don’t have a filter when you get into an argument. With a band mate, you’re more hesitant. We still have a professional relationship and that keeps us in check. And we’re really good friends. She’d be like, ‘We don’t fight!’ And then I’d argue [laughs].

Is it challenging for just three of you to have such a loud and massive stage presence?
I think it’s a challenge, yeah, but it’s also a lot of fun. Bands that we really model ourselves on are bands who do the same thing. Power trios like The Police, Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Green Day and Nirvana — that kind of stuff. All those groups, just being three of them, they all have to do as much as possible with their limited abilities. They each only have their voice and their hands. Well, the drummer would have their feet too.

How did winning runner-up in the Big Money Shot competition change things for the band?
That was huge for us because that funding allowed us to record our new project because we also put out our first EP. And we also recorded our new album, which isn’t out yet, but it’ll be out in October. We got some new cool band gear too. It’s definitely a changing moment for us because now we’re more full-time with it. We’re more prepared to hit the road.

Mexican food at Kensington Market to be replaced with more Mexican food at Kensington Market

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Although Kensington Market has just suffered the loss of the beloved Agave y Aguacate, Mexican food aficionados can stop their fretting. Come September, Seven Lives is poised to open at the El Gordo food court at 214 Augusta, and it will be keeping its focus trained on seafood tacos and street-style eats.

Owner Sean Riehl, who originally hails from San Diego, has been well-schooled in Mexican grub. “I lived 10 minutes away from Mexico,” he says. This made it particularly easy for him and his friends to mow down on street eats south of the border. Meanwhile, his Mexican co-workers taught him a thing or two while working shifts in Cali’s kitchens.

Promising So-Cal and Tijuana-style food, menu picks will include smoked-marlin-and-cheese tacos, along with a deep-fried shrimp and potato version, plus sashimi-grade tuna ceviche on a tostada. Riehl will be crafting everything — except the tortillas — from scratch, and plans on sourcing the fish from the market itself.

Eats will be cheap, falling somewhere between $4 and $9, and, with a liquor license in the works for the food court, patrons can expect to pair their tacos with icy cold cervezas — preferably on the back patio.

Riehl hopes to have his business up and running by Sept. 1.

Seven Lives Tacos y Mariscos, 214 Augusta Ave., @SevenLivesTO

Grab of the Week: a tank top that’s practically a basic

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“Buying a basic” in fashion speak means going far beyond the average crew neck T-shirt or neutral-coloured underwear from Haines. Most often, the phrase “it’s practically a basic” is used to justify the purchase of any new wardrobe piece that could be worn more than once.

This top, available at the Toronto-based online shop Koopdekour, just so happens to fall into the category of being an actual “basic” in fashion folk terms. It’s neutral, and there’s no print to be found, but this silk-like tank has a scalloped edge detail, making it just special enough to amp up a “simple” outfit.

What else can we say? It really is practically a basic.

Krystin Scallop Tank, $28. Available at KoopDeKour

Gracie Carroll is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in ELLE UK, ELLEcanada.com, Plaid magazine and FILLER magazine. Keep up with her daily blog at www.graciecarroll.com.

Morning Throwback: clowns have always been meh

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Going to this year’s Buskerfest? Well, as this ’50s clown reminds us, beneath the make-up and behind the smile is just a person who wishes for the world. And remember: you’re laughing with them, not at them.

The Property Brothers offer late-summer reno & design tips

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Have you been seeing a lot of open-concept layouts that use unconventional means to divide up spaces?
We actually did reveal a reno that we did today — we opened up some pillars and we turned a half wall into a breakfast bar, and we used that for opening up a space between the living room and kitchen. It has a beautiful, open sightline, but it still gives that separation. Depending on the size of the room, if you do remove the wall, you have an open concept and then it’s with the furniture design that you can give separation to the space.… In smaller places, more storage space is needed. We’re always looking for storage spaces — whether it’s bench storage that opens up in the kitchen, or in islands there can be extra storage underneath where the seats are. Functionality is always key and that’s a big thing.

Are there any new trends that people are looking to incorporate into their own homes?
We try to stick to earth tones, to keep things nice and fresh and crisp. Brighten things up by adding pops of colour throughout your home. Throws and pillows are a great way to add pops of colour that are seasonal.

What are your favourite materials to use in homes with pets?
With dogs, the major concern is scratching the floors. With hardwood, you have to be careful. There’s actually a density chart that I have on my Facebook page that shows which species are better. But nothing beats laminate. If you are going for the look of hardwood, some of the new single-board laminate products work well. You can’t tell the difference between it and engineered hardwood, and they will stand up 10 times better than anything else in the hardwood species. I also really love the porcelain tiles that are long planks and they have a wood grain finish on them so they actually look like hardwood, but it’s porcelain tile. There is no dog that is going to damage that.

What common mistakes do people make when it comes to renovating?
A lot of floor plans of older homes are very cramped and there’s a lot of separation and they are not very functional for today’s day and age. Mostly everyone wants open concept. So we find people will renovate a space — the kitchen in an older home, for example. They’ll renovate a cramped and tiny kitchen, put in all new cabinets, granite countertops, but they don’t change the layout. They keep the old dated layout. You’re not fooling anyone because now it looks like you have a new kitchen in a cramped, tiny space. So it’s better that you’re looking at a layout that is more functional, then just using what is already there.

Where should someone start in terms of deciding on the best investment down the road?
If someone is trying to take on most of the work themselves, look at houses that preferably you don’t have to do a lot of structural changes to because as soon as you start doing additions or adding another floor that’s when you can jump into some unexpected costs that can add up. But things that are really easy, like opening up a wall to give you an open concept on the main floor, or in the kitchen, by changing the cabinets, flooring, these are all things that are a lot easier to budget and a lot easier to complete.

Roots & wings: kids need both to grow

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My daughter, age 26, went away to grad school in New York in September and a friend sent me a New Yorker cartoon: there’s a dad and a college kid at a train station. Dad says to kid: “It’s great you’re going away to college. Now we can Skype every day.”

My friend sent me the cartoon why?

Could she have noticed that we talk to our (grown) kids almost daily?

Am I a helicopter mom?

You bet.

Am I proud of it? Is it good parenting?

Nope.

So why? What keeps us doing it? Fear, plain and simple. We hover out of anxiety. Worrying about our children’s well-being drives our incessant need for reassurance that they’re okay, and our efforts to control their world so that they are okay.

“Am I a helicopter mom? You bet. Am I proud of it? Nope.”

It’s helpful to understand why we hover. September 11th and its associated aftershocks and events, everything from the Madrid bombing to airport security, changed parenting profoundly. World events deprived us of our innocence, took away our general feeling of safety and added a layer of fear for our children. Twenty-four-seven communication, in the form of cellphones and the pervasive Internet, made it easy to stay in touch with our kids whenever and wherever. These two factors predispose us to see that as positive — or maybe not even to question it.

On good days I do something different, because hovering is bad for the kids and bad for our relationship (both present and future — hovering is a gift that keeps on giving). Either helicoptered kids don’t grow up to be resourceful, or they resent our interference and push us away. I get that, but still do it.
Here’s a new motivation to try on for size: let’s, as parents, imagine that we’re taking responsibility for building a better world. At camp we talk about making a better world one child at a time, and this helps guide many decisions. As a lens through which to view child-rearing choices, it is a great clarifier.

When leaping to control our children’s world, or jumping on a white charger to rescue them from (actual or imagined) misfortune, we always have, broadly speaking, two choices of what to do. First is: react or respond. React is knee-jerk. React is emotional. React is mother bear. Reacting leads to helicopter parenting.

Responding, on the other hand, is what you do after you think. Stop-and-think leads to that helpful question: In this situation, when we want to hover, is that the best choice if we are building a better world one child at a time?

Two upsides will result from asking that question. The first, no matter what you decide to do, is that stopping and thinking before reacting almost always results in better decisions. The second upside flows from the answers you give to the question. It’s almost magic: Asking yourself how you could make a better world via this decision has an almost miraculous way of causing better decisions. You don’t hover so much. You give them space to figure stuff out, opportunity to practice the great life skills you’ve taught them, and guess what? They spread their wings and fly, become the strong people we always wanted to raise. Roots and wings: you can’t have one without the other.

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

Weekend Warrior: Bruce Springsteen, Buskerfest, Aloha Toronto, Fake Prom and Telus TaiwanFest

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3:46 pm

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The Boss is Back

In an era of sets that last two hours (if that), Bruce Springsteen continues to stand out as a bridge to the past. You know you’re getting value with The Boss and his E Street Band — a three-hour, high-energy performance that will have the huge crowd at the Rogers Centre out of their seats so they can do a little dancing in the dark.

Magicians and Fire Breathers and Elvises — Oh My!

If you haven’t already experienced a sensory overload after your trip to The Ex, the St. Lawrence Market makes its final summer foray this weekend with Buskerfest. In support of epilepsy, the Market will be abuzz all weekend as visitors trek through fire breathers, magicians, contortionists, human Elvis statues and plenty of other buskers for a wide offering of street talents.

Get Lei’d

As we get closer and closer to bidding summer farewell, it’s high time to soak up the final rays of sun and make one last trek out to the beach. Enter Aloha Toronto: a beach party of surf, sand, sun and much more. Headlined by a beach luau party, the weekend-long fest will include DJs, surfing demos and plenty of activities to help make the final days of August count.

A Prom Do-Over

Want to relive your high school days? No? How about a re-do, then, getting another shot at prom without the ridiculous hairstyle and overt melodrama? The 10th — and apparently final — Fake Prom will transport you back in time with old school tunes, wacky prom dresses and even an “Enchantment Under the Sea” theme.

Telus More About It

The Telus TaiwanFest is a three-day extravaganza at Harbourfront Centre showcasing Taiwan’s best. With lots of food, music and genuine good times to be had, it’s a celebration of Canada’s multifaceted lifestyle.

C House Lounge Café, a swanky franchise from Italy, is opening two locations in Toronto

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3:29 pm

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A luxury coffee shop concept from Italy known as C House Lounge Café is opening at least two locations in Toronto this year, one in Yorkville, which set to open this summer, and another on Queen West, which is looking to open by fall. The Yorkville location will mark the franchise’s first foray into Canada.

According to its website, C House is an “Italian high style coffee house” that specializes in espresso-based drinks, but also offers pastas, salads, sweets, handmade sandwiches and other foods.

Judging from the Facebook photos, the place looks like a mash-up between a coffee shop and a nightclub (high style, apparently, means too many chandeliers).

C House Lounge Café, 70 Yorkville Ave.; 315 Queen St. W.

Cigarettes, aliens and Mulder: Q&A with William B. Davis, who’s coming to Fan Expo this weekend

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11:54 am

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Though an active and respected player in the Canadian acting scene for over 50 years, William B. Davis is best known for his role as the “Cigarette Smoking Man” on The X-Files, the mysterious, chain-smoking arch-nemesis of Fox Mulder (played by David Duchovny). Die-hard local X-Philes will get a chance to get up-close-and-personal with Davis at this weekend’s Fan Expo.

We chatted with Davis about cigarettes, aliens and whether or not the truth is out there. Cue the spooky music.

How did you get involved with The X-Files?
I was working in Vancouver, I was running my own acting school at the time, and I got to audition for the pilot. I auditioned for the Senior FBI Agent who had three lines, but I didn’t get the part; instead, I got the part of Cigarette Smoking Man that had no lines. And that was the beginning.

So which is it: Smoking Man? Cigarette Smoking Man? Cancer Man?
Cigarette Smoking Man — that’s the official name in the script. Cancer Man was the nickname that Mulder gave him and the fans picked up on that and used it. Smoking Man has become sort of short-hand.

Upon reading the pilot, did you have any idea that the series would become such a cult classic?
It’s a good idea that I don’t invest money in these things. I thought: a show about aliens? About the paranormal? I didn’t think it would have been picked up for a season, let alone become the hit show it was.

In the first season of The X-Files, Cigarette Smoking Man barely has any lines. Did you think your character would play such a significant role in the series?
No, I had no idea it would. Gradually the role began to carry some weight. We soon began to see this is a mysterious role; this is a mysterious person with something to hide. There was always something there, that he could be a big clue.

(Spoiler alert:) Did you ever suspect that you would be Mulder’s father?
Not initially. The first kind of hint of it was that we started doing scenes with [Mulder’s] mother. There seemed to be an unspoken relationship or history between these two characters. The first real hint of it was the scene when I was at her house by the lake and I talk about water skiing with her late husband, and I said that he wasn’t as good at as I was and then I say, “But that could be said about many things, couldn’t it?” Then we share this look.

Were you smoking real cigarettes?
No. At the beginning, because I had been a smoker and I was fairly confident I wasn’t going to be addicted, I said, “Sure, I’ll smoke,” for the pilot, and then I did for the next episode. After that, I thought, “This is getting a little dangerous,” and I was going into more and more episodes, so I switched to herbal cigarettes. They don’t taste very good, but they were effective.

Did you see your character as being “evil” or just someone who wanted to protect the truth?
I never thought he was evil; I never approached him as evil. I always believed that I was doing what needed to be done, whether it was good or bad. That was always the driving force.

But you yourself are more of a Scully than a Mulder. Can you tell us a little bit about that.
It’s been a curious experience. I’ve never believed in paranormal experience, ghosts or aliens, but people would often come up to me and assume that I had chosen to be [on The X-Files] because I believed in aliens and was very interested in the subject. They would be surprised when I said I didn’t believe in them. I said the onus is on you to prove they exist, and people would say we have proved these things, and at that point, I didn’t know what those proofs were. I got involved with the CSI (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) and with them, and through them, I got to study scientific tests, which clarify what the believer says and what the evidence seems to show. I got quite involved with skeptic groups. In fact, I will be doing a skeptic talk at Fan Expo.

You’ve been to a few Fan Expos. What’s your general impression of X-Philes?
I’ve met X-File fans from different countries and they’re all very nice, and they’re different. Some are shy, some are outspoken. But they’ve all been extremely pleasant and I am always happy to meet them.

Why do you think The X-Files has held such an enduring appeal to TV audiences?
It’s done a couple of things: it was unique to its time. In the ’90s, there was a sense of what’s real and not real. We were moving out of books and into computers — it was a whole new way of receiving information. It was unique to have the series that imagines what’s true and not true. It had an effect on the TV series that followed. Fringe is the most obvious copy of it. It’s a subject matter that’s common, but TV hasn’t explored that curious boundary between real and unreal quite like The X-Files did.

Do you ever get tired of being known as the Smoking Man? Do you wish people knew your other work?
It’s interesting. That’s why I wrote my memoir [Where there’s Smoke …. The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man]. I’m quite well known as an acting teacher and director in Canada, so in some ways, it has dwarfed what I did before, and it’s also brought visibility to what I did before. I like to remind people what I did before [Cigarette Smoking Man] and what I still do.

Fan Expo Canada, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, August 23-26

Yorkville’s Maléna has been sold; it will reopen as a new restaurant by fall

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We’ve just received word from Maléna’s press camp that the popular Yorkville restaurant has been sold. The restaurant’s final day of service will be on Aug. 25, after which time owners Sam Kalogiros and David Minicucci will focus all of their efforts on their other restaurant, L’Unità (they plan to be open seven days a week by fall). Maléna’s new owners haven’t been revealed yet, but they will be reopening the space as a new restaurant in October of this year.

What I Wore: a crew sweatshirt from a local company (because yes, sweater season is almost upon us)

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Dare I ask, but could it actually be sweater weather already? To be honest, I’ve welcomed the recent cool-down with open arms for two reasons. The main one is that this summer’s extremely high temperatures kept me clung to an air conditioner and frightened of the outdoors for three months straight. The second is that, well, I just really love sweaters, layering and wearing clothes in general.

This North Star sweatshirt is just the thing I need for a cooler transition, and to pretend I’m heading back to school this September. Of course, those days are long gone, but that doesn’t mean I get any less of an urge to splash out on some new pieces for a fresh fall wardrobe at the first hint of turning leaves.

Certainly, this is not the outfit I’d choose to run track in, but, as always, I love to give a laid-back tomboyish element to an otherwise dressed up look. Here, I’ve paired the sweatshirt with my “Tarzan” skirt from one of my favourite Toronto labels, Diepo.

Did you notice the hip-high slits? It’s a skirt to be worn with caution — that’s what I always tell people. Gold sunglasses, leopard wedges and a pair of Ranjana Khan earrings gifted to me by a dear friend in NYC complete the look, taking it from cheerleader to badass under the bleachers.

What I Wore: sweatshirt by North Star, skirt by Diepo, leopard wedges by Joie, sunglasses from Nowhereland, earrings by Ranjana Khan.

Gracie Carroll is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in ELLE UK, ELLEcanada.com, Plaid magazine and FILLER magazine. Keep up with her daily blog at www.graciecarroll.com.

Drink This: the blueberry soda at L’Unità

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10:01 am

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L’Unità has been a mainstay of the city’s glitziest ’hood for some five years now. With exposed brick walls, dark woods and Fellini flicks playing behind the bar, this inviting Yorkville space affords an intimate setting for after-work cocktails and chitchat.

We opted for the blueberry soda ($13), one of the most popular drinks on the seasonal cocktail menu. Pairing well with any of the assaggini, the concoction is the work of bartender Courtney Shanahan.

“Gin is just so summery,” she says, citing a particularly scrumptious cover of the LCBO’s Food and Drink mag as inspiration.

The cocktail stars muddled Ontario blueberries, along with Bombay Sapphire gin, freshly-squeezed lemon, a dash of tonic water and a flag of fresh basil ($13). With fall rapidly approaching, Shanahan says she plans to debut a pumpkin-based beverage soon. We’ll be waiting.

L’Unità, 134 Avenue Rd., 416-964-8686