Nothing to do this Sunday? Folk Fest Time!

Hey, we at the About Face understand as well as anyone that often great events happen in Toronto that you totally miss out on, as you are too busy focussing on all the other great things happening at the very same time slot. BUT if you HAPPEN to have some free time of your own that you are looking to fill today, check out this Folk Fest that we had no idea about until the last minute. Nothing like Folk music to make you desperately wish for summer and start buying tank-tops waaaay in advance.

Last Minute Valentines! Love Is In The Air... And the Books, And the Cards

Last minute lovers! I know there are plenty of you out there. You diiiiid remember that Vday is on MONDAY, right?? Eeek? Cough? Gag? Right. This day has become constitutionally linked to all things red and shiny and bubbly... heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, champagne, strawberries, diamonds, couples cell phone plans? Borrrring. Remember non-web-based Valentines? (Like, cards?) Remember mixtapes? Cute!

Our Liner Notes Book Cover

Come out to Tabula Rasa tonight for the launch of Our Liner Notes a coffee table book exploring the constitutional (or at least undeniable) link between music and lovin' through writing and interviews by master music blog man Justin Lee, featuring photos by Christine Lim, illustrations by Lauren Pirie and designed by Tammy Yiu of Squab Studio. A lot of local talent in an adorable little package of romance. Who needs shiny rocks and roses anyway? Ooookay, I will accept the chocolate. And happily consume the champagne and strawberries. But in my little opinion, not much beats a really great book. Remember BOOKS?

Greeting cards featuring three illustrations from the book (see above and below) will also be available for $5 each or in assorted sets of three for $10; The perfect compliment to your mixtape Valentines gift. Or to drop off to your friends or to drop in the mail. (Remember mail? Cute!) And since they're blank inside (though I'm happy to inscribe them with freestyle romance poems upon request) they can actually be used for any occasion; anniversaries, birthdays, Hannukah... maybe not Mother's day.


If you can't make it to the launch tonight, the book is available for order through Etsy and cards can be ordered for shipping here. You really should come tonight though. I like you. And also;

- The first 25 people who purchase the book will get a special Our Liner Notes mix-cd (featuring great music by Foxes in Fiction, Ohbijou, Serge Gainsbourg, Sufjan Stevens and more)

- Music from DJ Daniel Brooks at 8, Foxes in Fiction and Spirit Oak at 9:15.

- Vintage clothing!

- Wine! Food!


Facebook event here.

A portion of the proceeds from the book will go to The Regent Park School of Music, a not-for-profit music school which provides affordable high quality music education for youth.

"The children are falling in love because of David Bowie" - Amina Moon

All cards are printed on 100% PCW FSC certified recycled paper (just like it says on the back)

Save The Date! "Food Justice:Our Food, Our Bodies" Conference U of W March 18th-20th

A 3 day event hosted by the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (WPIRG) to look critically at our food system – present and future – with a focus on equity, justice, community and sustainability.

Amid a growing awareness of the importance of healthy food and sustainable food systems, join community leaders, students, activists and others for lively discussion and powerful visioning where we will explore the barriers and opportunities to making good food equal and accessible to all.

We will:

- explore the relationship between food, culture and identify

- identify structural inequalities in our food system that create barriers to growing, producing, accessing and eating healthy, safe and culturally appropriate food

- connect food justice and reproductive justice

- examine racism in the food system and build awareness and tools for creating change

- and more!

Animal, Vegetable, Radical: The Radicalism of Growing your own food

“…the greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.” – Bill Mollison


(Sidenote: I've just come back from a very empowering all-female poetry slam, so I apologize in advance if this post does not have heavier doses of cheeky, witty dialogue peppered within it!)


This past weekend, I attended the Guelph Organic conference, where I heard from speakers about co-operative business structures, forest gardening, permaculture, and, not surprisingly, I was re-inspired about the radical potential of small scale gardening. 


Like many, I struggle with Western guilt, with the understanding that what I have, what WE have, is too much, it comes from places and is made in ways that I couldn't bear to stand in front of and condone. 


Like many, I struggle with the question "what do I have to offer", in the face of seemingly insurmountable political, social and environmental issues that make me feel at best a sheep and at worst a fly on the windshield.


And then, I buy some seeds. I borrow a shovel. I get a friend to drive me to the city's compost depository and grab some beautiful black earth. I put them all together in my backyard, and I am now an important link in the chain of life. I bypass the corporate food agenda that poisons my friends and loved ones, I bypass the need for food stamps at the grocery store where mothers buy their kids Dunkaroo's because they're on sale and it's all they can afford. I put a seed in the earth and the Earth provides for me and there is nothing else but the Earth and I, as it should be. 


This is idealist. I know. I cannot plant a seed and produce a laptop, cell phone, university degree, car, plane, or a functioning public transit system. But I would not die without those things.  Were all those things to pass away, my knowledge of how to grow food, how to nourish my body with it, would be my most cherished and necessary skill. 


So I encourage you friends; Fight your good fights. But at the end of the day, I hope that you come home to sit amongst your lavender and your basil, your tomato and your raspberries, and know that these too are your well equipped allies.