Listen to Live Piano Music: 10 Places in Toronto

Looking for some live entertainment now that the pandemic is over??? Love piano music???

Here's 10 places to visit...

1. Koerner Hall: Located at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Koerner Hall is renowned for its excellent acoustics and hosts a variety of piano concerts throughout the year. It showcases both established pianists and emerging talents, offering an exceptional live music experience.

2. The Rex Hotel Jazz & Blues Bar: For a lively atmosphere and jazz-infused piano performances, The Rex Hotel Jazz & Blues Bar is a must-visit. This iconic venue features regular live jazz music, including talented pianists who create an electrifying ambiance with their skills.

3. Glenn Gould Studio: Named after the legendary Canadian pianist, the Glenn Gould Studio is an intimate space that frequently hosts piano recitals and performances. It offers a diverse range of classical music concerts, featuring esteemed pianists from around the world.

4. Jazz Bistro: Known for its vibrant jazz scene, Jazz Bistro is an upscale venue that features live piano performances alongside other jazz acts. Enjoy the smooth sounds of talented pianists while savoring delicious food and drinks in an elegant setting.

5. The Old Mill Toronto: This historic hotel and event venue often hosts live piano music in its elegant dining areas. Experience the charm of an old-world setting while enjoying the melodic tunes of skilled pianists during brunch, dinner, or special events.

6. Hugh's Room Live: Hugh's Room Live is a beloved venue that showcases a range of musical genres, including intimate piano performances. With its warm and cozy atmosphere, it offers an opportunity to appreciate piano music in an intimate setting.

7. Heliconian Hall: Heliconian Hall is a hidden gem located in Yorkville, known for its classical music concerts and piano recitals. This intimate and beautiful space provides an intimate setting for piano enthusiasts to enjoy performances by local and international artists.

8. The Jazz Cellar: A popular spot for jazz lovers, The Jazz Cellar is a cozy venue that hosts live piano performances in an intimate setting. Sit back, relax, and let the soulful melodies of talented pianists transport you to a world of jazz music.

9. Toronto Centre for the Arts: This multi-purpose performing arts venue hosts a variety of concerts and events, including piano performances by renowned musicians. Experience the grandeur of a concert hall setting while immersing yourself in captivating piano music.

10. Reservoir Lounge: For a unique blend of jazz, blues, and swing music, the Reservoir Lounge is a lively venue that features live piano performances. Enjoy a vibrant atmosphere, grab a drink, and immerse yourself in the energetic sounds of talented pianists.

Whether you're a fan of classical, jazz, or other genres, these venues in Toronto offer wonderful opportunities to experience the magic of live piano music. From elegant concert halls to cozy jazz bars, there's something for everyone to enjoy the enchanting melodies brought to life by skilled pianists.

Do you want to get Radiation Poisoning from your food?

Doug Ford.

The name brings fear to the minds of many people in Ontario.

Doug Ford is the Premier of Ontario, and he is a jerk. A real nasty jerk. He wants to dump nuclear waste in Bruce County, close to the town of Teeswater. The Teeswater River (and the underground aquifer beneath the region) supplies the drinking water to:

• Tens of thousands of people.
• Dairy cows.
• Water for agricultural farming (corn, potatoes, soy beans and more).
• Water for Aquafina bottled water.
• Cattle, pigs, turkeys and chickens. Bruce County is the Beef Capital of North America, but it also produces a lot of other meat products.

If you live Ontario you've eaten food many times from Bruce County. Guaranteed. You've drank the milk. You've eaten the cheese. You've eaten beef, pork, turkey and chicken. You've eaten the corn, the potatoes, the soy products. You've drank Aquafina water.

Even if you are a vegan and don't eat milk and dairy, you should still care where your soy products and other vegetables are grown and where your bottled water comes from.

And that is why you should care.

If you care about what you eat, then you should protect what you eat. Learn more at:

https://www.protectsouthbruce-nodgr.org/

If you care write to Doug Ford. Tweet him. Phone him and leave an angry voicemail.

Share this post. Copy/paste it to other websites. Share it on Facebook. Share it on Twitter. Share the memes below.

Show that you care about your food and where it comes from.

Protect your food and your health from Doug Ford.

How Coddled are Kids in Toronto?

A couple days ago I witnessed a father telling his kids (who looked to be between the ages of 8 and 12) that they cannot cross the street except at the corner) and saying that it was "Too dangerous for you kids to cross right now."

This was unusual because it was an empty street in Toronto's East York suburbia. There wasn't even a single moving car in sight.

Every car on the quiet street was parked and the nearest intersection was a good 45 second drive away at normal suburbia driving speed. This meant the kids had to walk several minutes down to the intersection, cross the street, and then walk back for several minutes.

Plus the father was present. He was right there watching them. He could have easily "supervised" them crossing the street, but instead forced them to walk down to the intersection and cross there instead.

Meanwhile I just crossed the street right in front of them, content in the knowledge that my parents were not morons and they had taught me how to cross a street and look both ways when I was about 4 years old.

Toronto kids apparently are so coddled and afraid of "parked cars" that they have to walk down the intersection. (Also, statistically speaking, aren't people more likely to get struck by a car at an intersection where there is bound to be twice as many cars???)

Ahem.

Then today it happened again. More coddling.

I was at a library and overheard a librarian who was managing a gaggle of 8 kids, all around 12 years old or so. They were making paper snowflakes with scissors and stringing popcorn with needles. (This alone bothered me, because today is November 16th and Christmas Day isn't for another 39 days!!!)

The librarian explained that they needed the older kids to do this, because the younger kids (11 or younger supposedly) might hurt themselves if they were allowed to use scissors or needles.

At which point I got tempted to turn around and ask the librarian "Seriously, how coddled are these kids that you cannot trust them with a needle?"

But I did not. Mostly because I did not want to cause a scene. They would probably think I was crazy. I can imagine what they would think or say: "How dare that strange man think children might be responsible enough to handle scissors or needles?! He must be mentally deranged or something."

This reminded me of something I saw on Facebook.

A mother had posted photos of her son doing chores around the home. Chores! How dare she?! People were accusing her of child abuse, child neglect, and saying she was an unfit mother because she had taught her son how to:

• Sweep and/or vacuum the floor.
• Pack and unpack the dishwasher.
• Mend clothing.
• Do his own laundry.
• Clean his room.
• Handwash dishes.
• Making simple meals.

Oh my! That is some serious child abuse, teaching her son how to be responsible and actually do stuff around the home.

Meanwhile my parents had trusted me when I was younger with such responsibilities as:

• Walking the dog.
• Feeding the dog and/or cats.
• Using the BBQ to make food.
• Lighting the furnace (and not burning the house down).
• Keeping the fireplace going with more firewood.
• Chopping firewood with an axe.
• Stacking firewood in rows.
• Mowing the lawn with the riding lawnmower.
• Cleaning the pool (without falling in and drowning).
• Babysitting other children.
• Fetching vegetables from the garden.
• Weeding the garden.
• Raking leaves.
• Handwash the sharp knives in the sink and put them away.

Which is to say nothing of any hobbies I had that involved woodworking, welding, or using power tools. Completely unsupervised.

So to answer my question about how coddled kids are in Toronto these days?

Extremely coddled.

To the point that if a nuclear apocalypse happened these kids (and probably their parents) would be doomed because they probably have zilch for survival skills.

In other news Donald Trump is now president elect of the USA. Hell hath clearly frozen over, so I would not be surprised if we were due for World War Three. Call me paranoid, but I have begun brushing up on my survival skills.

Toronto Indoor Archery Range

Toronto is getting an indoor archery range! Huzzah!

The range will be operating on a members only basis with a waiting list.

Annual membership is $800 + HST. (Think of it like a gym membership.)

To get your name on the waiting list contact cardiotrek@gmail.com for details.

Which means you won't be freezing outside to do archery like in the photo below, and can enjoy warmth indoors instead.

The Toronto Poetry Club - Should I join?

I recently learned that someone has restarted the Toronto Poetry Club on Meetup.com.

I am not much of a poet, but I am very tempted to join just so I can hone my poetry skills.

Two years ago the Toronto Poetry Club was an ever growing presence in Toronto's poetry community and then the president of the club (who had some serious issues that made him difficult to deal with) forced out the vice president. After that incident the club faltered without the leadership skills of the vice president and the president, unable to cope with stress fell off the wagon and let the poetry club slide into oblivion, which led to the Meetup group being deleted in December 2013.

But there is good news. Several poets from the group has convinced the old vice president to come back and restart the group from scratch, becoming the new president of the Toronto Poetry Club.

With these changes the group is now back on track with strong leadership, but is low on members since the old group (which had 300+ poets in it) was deleted and all their contact info was lost.

The new president also is bringing back the old Poetry Circle Meetings, which was far less intimidating for people who were too shy to stand up on a podium. Reading poetry aloud in a poetry circle is much less stressful for people who have difficulty with public speaking because the circle is more of a social atmosphere and welcoming.

One of the failures of the old president was that he was so focused on trying to make money off of the poetry club. He was trying to turn the poetry club into events where he could charge people fees for attending. The new president is having none of that. Every meeting is free to attend and there is a donation jar that goes towards supporting the website.

And all these factors tell me that this is a club that I would like to join. It makes me happy because a group like that needs strong leadership that is willing to put in the extra hours to make the group a success and isn't going to become a greedy jerk who wants to squeeze every member for their money.

As if poets weren't already poor enough.

But things are looking up. New leadership, new poetry meetings, a more comfortable / less formal meeting environment. These are positive changes.

So my feeling is that the Toronto Poetry Club has my vote of confidence. I will be signing up for the next meeting for sure.

My Rant on Playing Dumb

On Sunday I had an argument with my girlfriend on the way to an Oscar party.

At stake was the Toronto Escalator Rules, which I shall repost now for everyone's benefit so you don't have to click and visit the other page.

What happened was a crowd of us was going down the stairs, my girlfriend walking beside me and we were holding hands. On the left was an escalator going up, which means people at the bottom of the stairs who wanted to go up had two choices:

#1. Take the escalator up, and not block anyone coming down the stairs.

#2. Make the illogical choice of coming up the stairs and blocking the crowd of people coming down.

And lo and behold two morons with their baseball caps turned backwards decided to be jerks and go up the stairs, blocking people on the way and slowing everyone down - meanwhile there was a perfectly EMPTY escalator going in the direction they wanted to go.

They could have - very easily - got on the empty escalator, gone up it at whatever speed they felt like going, and got to the top very quickly and easily.

But no, they decided to block the people coming down.

So I decided to complain very loudly about it.

"Wow, some people are just too stupid to know when to use the escalator."

And then when I got to the bottom of the stairs my girlfriend decided to play dumb and pretended not to know what I was talking about. She even tried to claim that it was not a crowd of people going down the stairs. (There was a pack of 15 people at least on the stairs when I said it.)

And then we got into an argument about what constitutes a crowd.

And she tried to claim that there was only 1 person ahead of us on the stairs when there was at least 6 people ahead of us, not counting the two jerks blocking the stairs.

When I realized she was doing this all deliberately, playing dumb and making me very frustrated I told her off for doing that to me. It was really frustrating. There was no reason for her to be arguing with me and she was trying to make me feel stupid by pretending to be stupid herself.

ARG!!!!!

I get frustrated and angry just thinking about the incident.

Basically my end point here is DO NOT PRETEND TO BE DUMB. You are only annoying people unnecessarily.

It is one thing if your name is Rob Ford and you are just naturally stupid (and annoy people with your sheer dumbness), but it is another thing entirely when you pretend to be stupid as a gag just so you can frustrate your fellow human beings by pretending you don't know what they are talking about.

I swear if she ever does that again I am going to switch the sugar with the salt so she ends up with a spoonful of salt in her coffee. Then we shall see who has the last laugh.

---

And then of course there are people who are just plain dumb. I blame our education system that places too much emphasis on looks (drama class, seriously?) and not enough emphasis on simple things like English writing, math, geography...

Plagiarism in Essay Writing

Years ago when I was working on my Doctorate of Musical Arts at U of T when I was accused of plagiarism in some older essay work I had done.

Basically what it was I had written an essay years earlier, before studying my doctorate, and one of my professors thought it looked fishy when another copy of the same essay showed up and tried to prove it was plagiarized.

Fortunately I cleared my name by promptly showing all professors and university staff involved my rough drafts for the essay (I had gone through 4 rough drafts) which had been saved years ago and I had just never deleted anything from that part of my life.

Basically the fact that I am a pack rat saved my bacon. I don't throw things out, especially electronic documents.

So word to the wise people, save your drafts and keep them for posterity's sake. You will not regret it.

What had happened however is that I had posted my finished essay (the one I was accused of plagiarizing) online and I had posted it without using my name - in other words, I had posted it anonymously.

Someone else (I don't know who) then copy pasted my essay off of the website and then submitted my essay as their own professor.

What the student didn't know was that they were handing in the same essay to the same professor (for the same class no less) as I had years earlier.

The professor reading my old essay felt it looked familiar, as if they had read it before. So they checked their records / refreshed their memory and remembered me.

Yada yada yada, the next thing I know they are accusing me of plagiarism, of selling my old essay for profit and were threatening to take my degree away from me. (Which they can legally do if they can prove plagiarism.)

Fortunately I did prove that the essay was mine by showing them my old rough drafts.

And I was able to show them the old forum website which I had posted the essay on. Still there, complete with the date it was originally posted. (And I could prove it was me who posted it because I still had the login and password to access the forum.)

My name was cleared, but having such a bureaucratic spotlight thrust upon me (especially when I had done nothing wrong) had made me not very comfortable about the whole plagiarism topic.

It took me years before I finally decided to write this post and talk openly about the incident. Now that I have my Doctorate I feel much firmer and safer about talking about the incident.

Universities have become increasingly aware that there is a lot academic dishonesty going on - especially amongst women, who make up 80% of customers for essay writing companies in Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener/Waterloo. It is such a problem amongst female students that it has raised the grade point average of all the women in universities that have essay writing companies near the university campuses.

I think the issue for men is that men are too lazy and too cheap to hire someone else to write an essay for them, they would rather just write a poorly written essay, hand it in and get a lower mark rather than hire someone to write the essay for them.

The companies themselves have also legitimized themselves by also offering resume writing, CV and cover letter writing services. And even online classes on how to write assignments for classes.

Once they have a student hooked on their services it is really just a matter of time before students start paying for essays using their credit card.

The problem is even more prevalent at big universities that have a lot of prestige. The more important the school is the more competition there is from such companies that are offering essay and assignment writing services.

But I do have an important question.

What happens when these people get out into the real world and need to write reports for the company they work for? Are they going to hire someone else to write the report for them?

I have even heard tales of people hiring other people to write / create presentations for PowerPoint.

Back when I was in university we were still using overhead projectors and slideshows during presentations, but now with PowerPoint the information for the presentation can be written down and designed electronically, saved as PowerPoint document (PPT), sent to the person who purchased it... and then that person presents the finished product and utilizes their acting skills at lying.

How is an university professor going to accuse them of plagiarism when they are presenting it in person as a PowerPoint presentation.

I wish they would bring back overhead projectors and slideshows. Just my 2 cents.

Cute and Cuddly Kittens!

Please Rob Ford, don't eat me!

Rob Ford Eats Baby Kitten

So I was looking for kitten photos and found this.

So yeah, one more post about Rob Ford. I promise no more!!!

Rob Ford compilation video

Oh what the heck. Here is a Rob Ford compilation video. A collection of the funniest. Maybe now I won't have to post any more about Rob Ford. If you really want to view funny stuff about Rob Ford, I recommend the blog F*** Rob Ford.

Five of the Best Rob Ford Videos

I haven't talked about Rob Ford much on my blog and I frankly prefer not to. But sometimes even I can not help myself. If you want to view more things about Rob Ford I recommend the blog F*** Rob Ford.

Below are my favourite five Rob Ford videos so far.

The Toronto Escalator Rules

If you live in Toronto and are annoyed by all the people who don't know how to use the stairs and escalators properly, here is a great set of rules to live by.

:)

Toronto Pianos - Play Me, I'm Yours

Last year (2012) a number of pianos were spread around Toronto by unknown music enthusiasts (with some digging I could probably found out who), but basically they were brightly painted and set in public places so people could randomly sit down and play.

Below are a variety of photos of some of the pianos that were spread around downtown Toronto.

Edward de Gale's List of Things To Do in Toronto

Bored this Summer?

Looking for something to do in the great city of Toronto?

Here is a list of things to do!

Edward de Gale's List of Things To Do in Toronto

#1. Visit the AGO on a Wednesday night. Its free!

#2. Go to any one of the ballet performances that Toronto hosts at numerous theatres in the downtown core / near the waterfront.

#3. Go to an orchestra or musical event. Toronto also hosts numerous musical festivals, including the Toronto Jazz Festival.

#4. Go to any one of Toronto's five stars world class beaches. (We have a lot of world class 5 star beaches in the Toronto area. You weren't expecting that, were you?)

#5. Go to a spa! Toronto has hundreds of alternative spas where you can luxuriate and relax.

#6. Go to Riverdale Park Petting Zoo. Always good if you have little kids.

#7. Take up a new sport. eg. You can do archery at the Toronto Public Archery Range and get archery lessons in Toronto.

#8. Go outside and exercise. There are numerous cycling and jogging paths throughout Toronto.

#9. Go for an architecture walk in downtown Toronto - Visit the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum, Queen's Park and numerous other sites displaying examples of Toronto architecture.

#10. Go to a cultural / food event. For example the Taste of Italy in Little Italy or the "Festival of South Asian" (aka the Little India Street Festival).

#11. Go to a fashion show. Toronto has fashion shows on a regular basis.

eg. Toronto Fashion Week.

#12. Go to the movie theatre.

eg. Tomorrow I am going to the movie theatre to watch "Man of Steel", the new Superman movie.

#13. The Toronto Film Festival

#14. Luminato Festival

#15. Concerts (Beyonce is currently in Toronto).

#16. Theatre productions (Aladdin, etc.) ... or you could even JOIN a small budget theatre like "Theatre the Good" to help put on productions.

#17. Go Rock Climbing or Paintballing or Horseback Riding.

#18. Golf, Tennis, Squash courts galore. Miniature golf too. And lest we forget bowling or lawn bowling.

#19. Go Kart Racing.

#20. Bungee Jumping, Skydiving, Snorkeling, Scuba Diving... You can get snorkeling lessons!

Seriously. Lots of things to do this Summer! :)

Violinist Paintings

I really like this painting by Toronto painter Charles Moffat. It is called "Violinist #2".

Here is several other violin paintings I also like.

Rob Ford, Toronto's Crack Mayor

The above photo is of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford with a group of three crack dealers, standing outside a known crack house in the north end of Toronto.

Rob Ford has not denied that it is him. He doesn't deny knowing crack dealers. He doesn't even deny smoking "something" in a crack pipe in a video that he sometimes claims doesn't exist, but sometimes also claims "You can't tell what I am smoking in that video."

It is a bit like a little kid stealing cookies from a cookie jar and he has crumbs on his shirt and saying:

"I didn't steal cookies from the cookie jar!"

while also saying

"You can't tell whether those are cookie crumbs on my shirt!"

So yeah.

Not that any of us are really surprised. We've known for years that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack and weed - even before he became the mayor of "Hogtown".

What you might not also know is all the time Rob Ford's wife has called the police due to domestic abuse. Pray tell, why would Renata Ford call the police about domestic abuse again and again and again?

It is because Rob Ford is a wife beater.

Beats up his wife on a regular basis. Sometimes she calls the cops on him.

The one time she called the police he was apparently kidnapping their children and planning to take them to Florida with him (it is illegal to take children across the border without the permission of both parents, thus constituting a kidnapping). That particular incident happened while he was already the mayor.

By the time the police showed up however Rob Ford had calmed down. Rob and Renata denied anything was wrong other than a squabble and the police left empty handed.

The one time, years ago, Rob Ford's sister Kathy's ex-boyfriend showed up at Rob Ford's house one morning and tried to break in, claiming Rob owed him money. The man, Kathy's ex, was also a heroin and cocaine dealer.

Pray tell, why would Rob Ford owe money to a drug dealer.

And then it was later revealed that Doug Ford, Rob's older brother, was a heroin dealer during the mid to late 1980s. Lots of witnesses confirmed it to the Globe and Mail.

Oh and that time Randy Ford, Rob Ford's other older brother, kidnapped a drug dealer who owed Doug Ford money and held him hostage until the drug dealer's parents agreed to pay a ransom - but the parents called the cops instead and Randy Ford was arrested and charged... but was he ever convicted or spent time in prison? I don't know. Their father was very rich and had a lot of powerful connections.

Sheesh. It is like a drug-induced soap opera version of the TV show the Sopranos.

Except it is real.

I have no doubt the cellphone video of Rob Ford smoking crack is real too. It was seen and witnessed by three different people from two different news agencies. They all reported the same details of what they saw in the video.

Now you might argue, oh people can fake that. They might have used a look-a-like.

Do you know how hard it is to find a look-a-like? Extremely rare. Even siblings and children don't look enough like the original. Take Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas for example. They look very similar, but they are not look-a-likes.

Even comedy TV shows cannot find a Rob Ford look-a-like - and trust me, they have tried really hard to find a look-a-like.

And besides who would bother going through the trouble of finding a look-a-like when the real Rob Ford - all on his own - manages to goof up on a regular basis and look like a buffoon?

Remember that time Rob Ford was high (possibly on crack) and was grabbing the ass of former mayor candidate Sarah Thomson? He was slurring his words, but not drunk. All indications are that he was high on something.

The evidence - especially the Ford family's history of drugs - is against Rob Ford.

The funny thing is, the mayor cannot be thrown out of power. He is mayor until he either doesn't run in the next election - or fails to be re-elected.

Or dies from an heart attack - currently the most likely way he will be removed from power - which would be sad, because where would Torontonians get their entertainment from if Rob Ford wasn't around to make fun of.

Googling My Name - Edward de Gale in Toronto

For fun today I googled my name.

What I discovered is that there is more than one Edward de Gale in Toronto.

Alas, I thought I was the only one.

There is apparently at least two others.

One is a charity worker / social entrepreneur, Edward de Gale, the owner of edwarddegale.ca, and the founder of a group called "Share the Warmth", a charity dedicated to helping low income people be able to pay for their electricity and heating costs and also helps homeless people.

The other is apparently someone of low repute - although to be fair the websites talking about him are also of low repute, so how much can you trust a website which is itself disreputable?

There is also another Edward Degale who lives in Markham (according to Facebook).

There is also an Edward de Gale in Quebec.

And an Edward Daigle, also in Quebec.

And an Edwin Degale in Brooklyn, NY.

No doubt there is other Edward de Gale's out there in the world - especially in France, but since my French isn't very good I am not sure how well to search for them.

I wonder if I am the only Edward de Gale with a beard?

Mr T at Honest Ed's in Toronto

I was shopping at Honest Ed's near Bathurst and Bloor today. When I was leaving I noticed this photo of Ed with Mr T. It was so awesome I had to snap a photo.

Mooredale Concerts TV

Want to listen to orchestra music in Toronto?

Try Mooredale Concerts. Or watch on YouTube.


Buy tickets from www.mooredaleconcerts.com

Hello! Welcome to the blog of Toronto pianist Edward de Gale!

Hello!

Welcome to the blog of Toronto pianist Edward de Gale!

This is my first blog so please bear with me as I struggle through the pros and cons of designing my own website, blogging, commenting on a variety of things - even things that have nothing to do with music!

Quite a few of the posts I will do will be about music, but I will also comment on other things like politics, poetry, songwriting, books, local attractions here in Toronto - whatever sparks my fancy.

Sincerely,
Edward de Gale
Toronto Pianist and Songwriter