P.F.1 More Reason We Love New York

It's no secret that we love NYC. We've posted a lot about cool ish happening in the big apple in the past. Bike lights and green roofs and extensive public transit and (now) same-sex marriage (yay NY!) are all things found in this great city we get to run around this weekend.  Yes, we're Brooklyn-bound! No one's getting married (that we know of) but we'll definitely have some things to post about upon return. For now, in honour of this weekend's trip and thanks to our art friend Rodrigo Marti digging this up from 2008, here's a little video of an amazing project at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center a few years back.

Check the video and the P.S.1 website for more info. And if you happen to be in NYC this weekend, check our music friend Kids & Explosions at the Glasslands Gallery on Friday night.

Baruchel, Broadbent and Beyond the Walls | Art and Parties, tonight!

Hellllooooo! Bonjour! Hola! Guten Tag! We have returned from exploring smart cities of the Earth and emerged (temporarily) from the grant-writing dungeon we've been locked in just in time for two of our favoritest artists to show off their incredible new work. You will remember both of these (mostly) Torontonians from their outstanding contributions to the About Face Collective Art and Eco Fashion Show at Arta Gallery some time ago. They have both been incredibly supportive of all of our crazy ideas. So we can't confirm that either of them should be trusted, but we can confirm that they are both super talented painters that you should make a point to check out... tonight!

Virgil's Studio: All paintings and furniture by the artist

If you happen to be in Paris this weekend (well, lucky you. Also, please bring me a box of macarons from La Duree. Merci.) be absolutely sure to stop by and see Virgil Baruchel's last show before he leaves town. I had the pleasure of eating several croissants in the company of Virgil's new work recently  and was so stoked to see so much exciting new use of colour, materials, technique and tons of texture. His monsters, thankfully, are still just as scary and his titles (ie; ZEUSwasangryonedayandthelightningwasyellow) still just as amazing. If that's not enough, it also turns out he's ridiculously talented at designing and hand-building amazing furniture out of reclaimed materials. Yes, we like this guy (and yes, he's bringing me macarons). When he eventually makes it back to T.O. we plan to scoop him up to help design reclaimed elements for our rooftop art garden (more on this soon!).

From Joy Broadbent's new collection; The Look (Of Flowers) Being Looked at

If you happen, instead, to find yourself in Toronto ce soir, well, yay, you get to see us! The more exciting thing about this circumstance, certainly, is that being where we are means being at the opening of Joy Broadbent's first solo show in Toronto. Joy hails from London, Ontario, but set up in Toronto years ago. We've watched her style transform since, and are very excited to see the new collection tonight at Studio 835. 


You can can see her work online here, but you really have to see it hanging; it's incredible to see her layers and layers of paint opening up to other secret paintings below.  You also just have to meet Joy; she's probably one of the top ten loveliest humans on the planet. As a side-note, she also first introduced us to the awesome youth arts organization and our now project-partners, Sketch. I guess that was pretty mean of her....


AND if you're looking to hang with some more amazing folks later this eve, our friends over at the Centre For Social Innovation are having a dance party to raise funds for the new CSI Annex (keep an eye on this rooftop!).


Beverages will be available at all three events. Which is nice. There's no wine in the dungeon... 


Facebook events:


Virgil Baruchel; Bouboulina, One Last Show in Paris


Joy Broadbent; The Look (Of Flowers) Being Looked At

Centre For Social Innovation; Beyond the Walls! Party with a Purpose

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. 

Seed Catalogue Crazy! Some tips on where to find local, organic seeds!

So, it starts. The seed catalogue season, where, in the same fashion that some girls might be obsessively checking the Urban Outfitters website for deals on the new spring collection, farmers and gardeners are drooling over what variety of zebra tomatoes and bulls blood beets they want to plant for the coming year.

Seed saving will increasingly become an important activist tool, as things like the EU Trade Agreement threaten to make seed saving illegal in favour of corporations owning the "rights to life" as it were. More than ever, we should be supporting small, local ethical seed companies and learning to save seed ourselves. See this NFU article for more info on this.

If you're wondering where you can order local, organic seeds from trustworthy companies, here's a list of where to shop first:

http://www.seeds.ca/en.php : As an introduction to seeds, seed saving practices, and to gain an appreciation for the abundant diversity of foods available to us, check out the Seeds of Diversity website.



www.urbanharvest.ca: The folks at Urban Harvest started out as one of the first rooftop gardens in Toronto back in 1998 (can you believe that! I was still dressing up like a Spice Girl and probably eating Captain Crunch willy nilly, and that was BEFORE they pumped those cereals full of every vitamin and protein imaginable. Back then it was just pure unadulterated sugar on sugar baby.) Now they run a successful seed company that is about as local as you can get around these parts. I recommend their Chioggia Beets!

http://www.uppercanadaseeds.ca : Based right out of Toronto, this company specializes in Tomatoes, grown here and in P.E.I and is a feel-good mom and pop operation.

www.johnnyseeds.com/ : Jonny's Seeds offers one of the most extensive and helpful websites around (unless you're looking for cat videos...then maybe not so helpful...) Specifically, they have created a helpful online calculator to let you know when you should start your seedlings indoors, and when to transplant them outside. This is an amaaaazing tool, but don't forget to find and enter your spring "frost-free date" first! (50% frost free after April 24th says the Farmers Almanac)

http://www.damseeds.ca/ : Damn Seeds! I mean, uh, Dam Seeds! Yeah! This seed company is based out of Hamilton! They're a one stop shop for anyone looking to do a mix of veggies and flowers and some ornamental grasses too, if that's what you fancy!

www.highmowingseeds.com : High Mowing Seeds is based out of Vermont, and if you've ever been there, well, you're probably still there now or thinking of moving there soon, right? Tom Stearns started this modest seed company out of his backyard in 1996, and did so well with his high-quality seeds that he just kept growing and growing. The website has an "easy to grow" section for those just starting out in the gardening world!

http://cottagegardener.com : The Cottage Gardener is based out of Newtonville Ontario (yep, never heard of it either),  and are a great organic company for flower lovers.

http://www.mycosource.com/ : Finally, if you're looking for Fun with Mushrooms, check out Fun Guy Farm's mushroom cultivation kits! You may have already rubbed elbows with these "Fun Guys" at the Dufferin Grove's Market in the summertime, and I can assure you, they know their stuff. Try an innoculated log in a shady cool spot in your backyard this summer! You can even get kits that can hangout on your coffee table!



Happy Planning Garden Lovers!