Happy summertime, everyone. Well, in the Northern Hemisphere anyways….
How has yours been so far? Done any amazing things? School’s out (yay!), lunch breaks at work can be spent outside (yay!) and if you’re lucky enough to be “funemployed”, there are so many adventures to be had (yayay!). Here at the Forest City Lovers camp, we’ve been taking it sort of easy this summer.
Oh, we totally played a high school prom though, and it was super FUN. [click]
and had a lot of fun at NXNE (Thanks Toronto!)
Everyone in the band’s been doing different things, keeping busy and creative over the last little while. Over in my corner, I’ve been spending my summer vacation holed up at my favourite-place-in-the-city-but-not on Toronto Island, making noise, crafts and paintings [click]. It’s a pretty special place. If you’re interested in the goings-on you can check it out over at my other blog [click]
I’m also super excited about a project we’re working on with the talented writer Michael Barclay [click] to celebrate the re-release of his book, “Have Not Been the Same”. I am picking up my copy next week, Kyle got his in mail a couple weeks ago and we all suggest you go pick it up and read it. [AMAZON] It’s a fantastic in depth look at some of the artists that rose up in 80s and 90s and became instrumental to the development of what Canadian music is today.
Next week we’ll be heading to Kearney, Ontario to play the quaint River and Sky festival. Looking forward to camping out for the night! Closer to home is Wolfe Island music fest, on the 6th of August in Kingston. There are few things more fun than playing Canadian festivals in the summer, that’s for sure. Something about spending the day outside in the sun (or rain) and the combination of fresh outdoor air and sweaty arm pits is a very, very special thing. Bring your bug spray!
Also, I rarely do this but this but sometimes I feel like sharing things that I think you should read:
The Book of Negroes by Lawerence Hill - I can’t recommend this book more. A fascinating historical fiction piece about a woman and her journey from Africa to the American slave trade and back. It’s a big book but, honestly, I could barely put it down when I started.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistestop Cafe by Fanny Flagg – I had heard about this book (and more about the movie) from my Granny my whole life and finally took the time to read it after returning from the Deep South. It’s really good, great characters and has sections written from the town gossip’s point of view in her weekly newsletter.
American Chronicle – How to Poison a Milion People by Prentending to Grow Potatoes – this is a very important article to read and if you hav a moment, please educate yourself about this situation. In a nutshell: giant amount of land purchased under the pretense that it would be for potatoes, turns out it’s a private company vying to build a massive quarry.
Sauce Farm - some of our friends live on a farm and do fun things like make syrup out of flowers and sell vintage clothes
Catcalled with Turnips - Liz Schieck writes passionately and anecdotally about food and the creation of such. I help her sometimes and there may or may not be ridiculous photos of me eating things.
xo KB
