Cake in the city?
No strike in the city!!!! garbage strike, piles of bags steeped on the curb, as Toronto suddenly doesn’t seem so clean now eh?
Well whatever, if you drink enough, you can’t smell a thing I’m sure. And I’ve been drinking plenty….that Steamwhistle is delicious and had me tripping balls last night at the open mic.
It was the best open mic I’d been to since my university days at what used to be the Brickhaus on Oak street
lots of talented cats in and out of that place, lots of talented, and funny performers at last night’s affair.
I took a nap beforehand and felt nice and fresh and started in on the beer. Before I got on, I was already thrown a bit, but I was well received. Everyone was extremely hospitable, and friendly and supportive of each other, it was a lot of fun.
My new friend T_______ (from Alberta, the Texas of Canada) met me up there and she showed me more of the city that i hadn’t seen. We sat and looked at the stars and just talked. It was a very nice, cool night. She let me borrow her bike and I rode around the city, looking at all the lights and buildings and just digging it ya know?
Think I’m going to Yuk Yuk’s tonight, if I get a spot on tonight’s show I’m going, otherwise I’m heading to the Cineforum to see Kid Dracula, the Nosferatu vampire film synched up with OK Computer and Kid A. Tonight and tomorrow are my two last days here.
My friend Terris wants me to stay longer, and as much as I love it here, there’s more to see, more places to go to. My friend and publisher Howling Mime is going to be in upstate New York, and I’d like to meet him, but only after seeing the waterfalls and beauty of Ithaca.
So I have to go…..just a matter of when and making it happen…..but it’ll be tough, everyone has been so great and hospitable and its such a hip place, with hip women……..but how could a guy possibly have a girlfriend living here? TOO MANY CHOICES:
“So is that the girl you were dancing with to Neil Young in the candlelit apartment?”
me shaking my head, smiling guiltily, slightly embarrassed, “Ummm no she isn’t”
“You’re a dog.”
That was a conversation with Robyn Kay, this Jewish beauty, a native Torontonian who just moved back from NYC. She is going to be down there around the same time I will be. More on those adventures later, she’s a funny funny gal, and a great singer. I hope we can kick it while I’m down there.
Speaking of kicking it, my buddy and host Oleg is extremely hospitable. I’d thought I had hit the jackpot before with my last two surfs, but this guy is super cool. He’s not into jazz or hoops, but we got a beer on Sunday and watched Brazil beat Italy in this Italian restaurant(we barely made it out alive).
We have had a lot of good conversations and he’s looked out for me, it’s like I’ve been visiting an old friend or something. Just laid back and easy.
WE did get off to rough start though on Saturday night. We did separate things for the evening and i’d gotten so smashed before and after that when i got home from the bar, I’d realized that I forgot to look behind me and see what the apartment number was.
I’d just walked up to the elevators when it hit me. So I tried my luck. The problem is that all the floors look the same in this high rise apartment.
it was weird almost like The Shining. I almost freaked out, somehow I got it together and decided the best way to attack this was to go back outside and look at the balconies and check the vantage point i had when I was in the apartment.
Turns out I was in the wrong apartment building!!! His was next door.
So then I ran next door went up the elevator and tried the 5th and 2nd floors looking for that familiar corner where the magic door was. He was leaving it unlocked, I just had to walk right in.
Floor five door 512, nope. Locked (and despite what Michael Moore says Canadians don’t leave their doors unlocked–at least not in Toronto–London maybe).
Floor number 206 nope. good gawd. WHat if they were watching this on camera? WHat if i stumbled into the wrong door and got shot (something that would definitely happen in the states)? What if I opened the door to someone’s house and walked in on people having sex like in House Party? Nope run to the exit, hit the stairs and get up the floor before someone gets freaked out from hearing their door handle move, and come out with a knife or a shotgun, or a potted plant.
Ran up to floor three and calmly strolled around the corner. Holy Shit!!! There is that bike that was in the hall earlier, fucking A this could be the place. Door opens and i see my soggy sneakers lying on the floor, lock the door and fall asleep, completely forgetting about it…………until now.
BM
Nuclear Polio Vaccination 
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