Len's News, Notes, and Stuff

Toronto Buskerfest 2010

Toronto Buskerfest 2010 was another fun-filled, memorable event. Buskerfest has been around for 11 years now, and this is my fourth year attending (as a spectator only!) – I look forward to the event every year, and I hope to continue coming to it every year!

Buskerfest is a 3-day event from Friday through to Sunday spotlighting street performers from around the world – and yes, also a good number from Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. There are some musical performances, but the majority are comedy acts, acrobatic acts, or comedic-acrobatic acts, and other interesting forms of physical or visual artistry. Buskerfest takes place on Front Street between Yonge and Jarvis, from mid-day until mid-evening. You get high-wire acts when the sun is out, and you get fire acts once the sun has gone down. Performances go on rain or shine, and the crowds stay out rain or shine too!

Every year is different because the mix of performers is different. There are some regulars, typically smaller solo acts, who are from the Toronto area and who make repeat appearances. As the mix is different each year, the experience for spectators is different.

I went on Saturday, August 28 and began with a quiet magician’s performance. I have to say that it wasn’t a great performance, but I realize that not every performer is going to be great. What this performer lacked was a connection with the audience. That, I find, is the key to a great performance – in addition, of course, to the skill demonstrated in whatever discipline(s) the performer incorporates into the act. Simply performing tricks or other feats without establishing a rapport with the audience gets dull very quickly – and unfortunately, this first performer needed a lot of improvement in that department. Still, I gave some money at the end of the performance because the man was still working to entertain us.

The next performer I managed to see was That Man (aka Grant Goldie from Belfast, Northern Ireland). It’s hard to describe what his show is about, because he does a wide variety of things. He dances, he juggles, he yo-yo’s, he creates a character in front of the audience without uttering a single word yet he is not a mime. He creates an experience for the audience that is energetic, endearing, funny, entertaining, and in the end, impressive and even astonishing.  His performance was one of my two favorite performances from the entire day, and I’m glad I got to see it. A one-man show is a fantastic thing when the one man on stage is as talented, as creative, and as polished as this man.

The third performance I caught, however, was quite disappointing. It was another solo act, but the man’s schtick as a grouch simply did not work. The act was low-key to the point of being lethargic and the performer was borderline rude to the children he called up to assist in his act. Neither endearing nor entertaining, my friends and I left this act well before the end.

Almost yo-yo’ing ourselves, the fourth performance we saw was another fantastic one. Again, this was at the main performance area right at the intersection of Church & Front, leading me to believe that the festival organizers know who their best acts are and schedule them on that largest of performance areas. Stunt Double Circus is an acrobatic troupe of 4 guys with a hilarious and charming 1970s macho man theme. With a combination of cheesy humour, ridiculous moustaches, impressive strength and daring agility & skill, the four performers had the entire crowd eating out of their hands.

I think that audience members who walk away from these high-caliber performances without giving some money to the performers are quite disrespectful and heartless. These performers work hard, train hard, and put on a damn fine show for the audience. Yet, I note that performers who manage to create a real rapport and bond with the audience fare pretty well and get most of the crowd to contribute anything from a few dollars up to $20 bills. Top-class acts deserve to be rewarded for their efforts and for the joy they’ve given through their performances.

Later in the evening, we took in Magic Brian‘s masterful magic act (duh), caught Liqueur Flambe‘s flaming violins act, saw the three Saurus dinosaurs rampaging down the streets, and took in Flame Oz‘s fire act. Where we saw Stunt Double Circus clearly earning their keep through strength and daring, Magic Brian well-earned his keep not only from his skill as a magician and ability to work with kids well and charm the audience with his humor, but also with his ability to persevere through his act when his adult assistant pulled from the audience seemed bent on giving Brian a full head of grey hairs. The volunteer from the audience said he has some experience with magic, but said he’d cooperate. Unfortunately, throughout the entire latter half of the performance, the volunteer would keep moving, kept fidgeting, kept touching or grabbing things – including touching and grabbing Brian. Everyone could see Brian getting genuinely frustrated, to the point of having to step aside and take a 5-second breather to keep himself together – but to his credit, he not only kept himself together but kept the show going and kept the audience hooked all the way to the end.

Old favorites – and Toronto regulars – like Silver Elvis and Kate Mior (aka The Living Statue) were in attendance – drawing interested crowds of young and old alike.

With a lively, charming, and memorable combination of stellar acts all day long, all along the street, and with a wonderfully fun and joyful mood amongst the crowd, what’s not to like about Buskerfest 2010? I didn’t manage to catch a few other stellar performances, such as the one by the Calypso Tumblers – I only caught a portion of their act as I peered between the heads and shoulders of an enthralled throng of spectators on my way out to the subway station.

Ah, there’s always more to see at Buskerfest than any one individual can truly take in!

How to Get Maximum Fun from Buskerfest

Buskerfest Toronto is an event that I look forward to every year, but my experience you need to be approach it in the right way to get the most out of it. Here are some “rules” to help you get maximum enjoyment out of this wonderful annual event:

1. Go with the intent to have fun and enjoy yourself, not to critique performances
2. Catch performances from start to finish rather than just catching 5 minutes here and there
3. Decide if you are there primarily to take photos or if you are there to watch and just happen to take some photos
4. Get to a performance stage early and sit your ass down
5. Start the day early and stay late

“Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places for money.  People engaging in this practice are called street performers, buskers, street musicians, minstrels, or troubadours.”

To begin with, what is busking? What is buskerfest all about? Many people in Toronto are familiar with the musicians who play in the subway stations, and yes, these folks are buskers. However, buskerfest is not about street musicians. The festival is about acrobatics, comedy, music that you’ve probably never heard before, and a handful off odd, strange, or weird things you never thought someone would do in the name of (family-friendly) entertainment.

The first key is to head down to the venue with the intent to have fun. This sounds blazingly obvious, but if you try heading down there as a sourpuss or with the intent of trying to find problems, you will find problems and shortcomings (in most cases, but not all!) and you just aren’t going to enjoy yourself much. Go in with the right mindset and everything else will fall in place.

The second key is to watch performances from start to finish. At the very least, try to long segments of acts rather than just flitting from “stage” to “stage” catching only a few moments of each. Many of the acts are true performances in the sense of street theatre with character development and jokes that build on previous jokes. If you jump from act to act, you will be depriving yourself of much of the charm and creativity that the performers have crafted into their acts. Sometimes you can’t help but arrive late, and that’s alright. Sometimes the acts just aren’t very interesting (hey, it happens!), and that’s also alright. Just do your best to catch acts from start to finish and you’ll get the most enjoyment out of your time at Buskerfest.

There are almost as many cameras visible at Buskerfest as there are at a photography equipment show. People take tons of photos and that’s part of the fun. However, always consider whether you are there primarily to take photos, or if you are there to watch and enjoy the acts and just take a few photos here and there. Since I work as a photographer in a paid capacity, I can tell you that the experience is entirely different depending on which approach you take. If you are there primarily to get kickass photos, then trust me, you will not be enjoying the performances as much as you would if you were just there to sit and relax. However, you can definitely come away from Buskerfest with some amazing images. On the other hand, if you go to Buskerfest to relax and capture a few images as mementos, then you will come away with great memories of the acts and maybe just so-so images for the day. Both approaches are perfrectly enjoyable, but do be clear to yourself which is your primary objective: kick-ass photos or relaxation and laughs.

If at all possible, get to each performance stage early and sit your ass down. There are published schedules on a few bulletin boards here and there, and although they change a bit (hey, Buskerfest is by nature a little spontaneous!) try to get to the stage where you think a cool act is going to be, then get to the front row and sit down. First, by getting there early and getting at or near the front row, you maximize your own personal enjoyment of the act because you get to see everything. Second, by sitting down, you (a) take the load off your feet and legs and (b) let other people behind you see the act and enjoy it as well. Sitting down isn’t just for kids, ok? If you so wish, carry along with you a plastic bag or some newspapers to sit on – or better yet, just grab some of the free newspapers available around the area and use them (just remember to toss them into the recycling bin afterwards!).

Finally, start your day early and plan on staying all day. There’s a lot to take in, and every year there are acts that I really wish I’d managed to catch but wasn’t able to. Plan on being at Buskerfest for the whole day and get the most out of this wonderful event. The performers are different each year – though there are some who return again – so if you miss a really cool act, you might not be able to see it for several years or ever at all. Don’t plan on just coming by for an hour or two – you might not get a whole lot out of the festival. Plan on getting there when things start rolling and staying until the end of the evening. Trust me, you’ll have fun for the whole day.

Niagara Gold Cheese by the Upper Canada Cheese Company

Niagara Gold from the Upper Canada Cheese Company is the cheese that Oka aspires to be. Its flavor is stronger, yet more nuanced and longer-lasting. It is a more interesting and more satisfying treat than either regular Oka or Oka Classic.

“Niagara Gold is an Oka-style semi-soft, washed rind cheese fashioned after recipes developed by the Trappist Monks of the Loire Valley. This is a cheese with nutty, earthy overtones and mellow, buttery flavours. This luscious cheese is delicately mild and sweet when young and gains pungency and piquant qualities with age.”

I don’t wholly agree with that description, but it is nonetheless absolutely delectable and if you are an Oka fan, well worth tracking down and trying. This cheese was never mild to begin with – but it was always nutty and earthy, and over time the flavors have become more concentrated. It is, months later, a decidedly strong but well-behaved cheese but I would consider it neither pungent nor piquant. There is no bite to the cheese, as a strong cheddar would have, and it is not pungent as a blue cheese of any age would be. It is “simply” a semi-soft Oka-like cheese that has aged graciously, being a little drier in texture and a little fragile and crumbly at the edge, but maintaining the same charm and character it had in its youth.

That it exceeds Oka cheese in its complexity, refinement, and pure enjoyment makes it strange to call it Oka-like, yet that is the comparison that will be most meaningful to anyone who has yet to try it.

The Upper Canada Cheese Company, located in Jordan Station just west of St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake is a wonderful little artisanal cheese producer in the heart of Niagara wine country. I came upon them almost by accident as I flipped through the brochure for one of the region’s wine festivals in March this year. I have always enjoyed good cheese and made a very short detour after visiting Creekside Estate Winery, whose wines I happen to really enjoy. When I stepped in to the little store, they had two cheeses to sample at the counter: Comfort Cream and Niagara Gold. As it turned out, at that moment in time they only produced those two cheeses plus a Guernsey Gold Ricotta.

They don’t produce much variety – what they produce changes every so often, and is always limited at any given time – yet what they do produce is of exceptional quality! When I tried the Comfort Cream in the store, I immediately tasted a complexity and longevity that supermarket brie cheeses simply cannot match. However, when I tasted the Niagara Gold, its nuttiness and mellow, yet assertive taste and subtly gritty texture were irresistible.  I seriously thought about spending $80 on a full wheel of the cheese, but ended up buying a quarter-wheel for $20. I thought I had better not buy too much or else it would get mouldy and get tossed into the green bin before I could finish it all.

It turns out I needn’t have worried so much and could probably have bought at least a half-wheel without any concerns. It is now the end of August as I finish the last bit of this cheese. I therefore have had it in my fridge, slicing away at it bit by bit, for 5 months now. It’s still perfectly good and enjoyable.

“Once you’ve purchased your Niagara Gold, you can store it well-wrapped in your refrigerated for months. It will continue to develop in flavour, texture and aroma if you resist the temptation to just eat it now. It’s kind of like putting a good bottle down. It’s also why it’s a good idea to buy several pieces so you have some to age.”

How very true. Half a year later, and the cheese tastes wonderful, and I do wish I had bought more.

Good cheese – which in many cases now means going with artisanal cheese – reflects the terrior of the land in which the cheese was made and the art and craft of the cheesemaker. Upper Canada Cheese Company’s cheeses are made from the milk of a herd of Guernsey cows raised and pastured right nearby.

“Each day, fresh, pure Guernsey cow milk is transformed into cheeses of uncommon taste and texture, revealing a subtle range of flavours influenced by the seasons, forage and feed. Then, our cheeses are ideally aged in our own cellars until they’re ready for you. This is the whole food, farm to table idea;  a minimum of food processing intervention to produce the purest cheeses possible.”

The Niagara Gold cheese that I am eating as I type this is actually about a year old.  It had been aged in the company’s cheese cellars for 5 months before I bought it, and now I have had it for 5 months. Made from the milk of cows roaming natural pasture in warm weather and fed hay and grains grown on the same farm in winter, then aged on-site in the land and in the same air in which the milk was produced, makes this cheese an absolute product of its origin. It is the embodiment of terrior and is, if you’ve come across the term, a pure savor: “something in which you can taste the land it was raised on”.

Real prosciutto and real parmigiano reggiano are produced in Parma, Italy and express the character of the land and air there. Much the same way, Niagara Gold expresses something unique about the land, the air, and the character of the cheesemaker out in lush, fertile Southern Ontario.

If You’re Gonna Read, Read Something Productive

One of the best advice I ever got was something my aunt told me back when I was still a university student. I have always been an avid reader, but at that point I had gotten to reading a lot of fiction and not much else. I was on a trip to visit a number of aunts and cousins down in California that summer, and I brought a small stack of books with me. My aunt, who has always been forthright with me, sat down at one point and said to me, “If you’re going to spend time reading, read books that will actually help you. I suggest reading biographies so that you can learn from the experiences of others.”

She said more than that, but those were her two key points.

Surprisingly, that has made a tremendous difference in my life. I took her advice to heart. Now, for the most part, I read business books, biographies, selected history books and books pertinent to my work or business activities and aspirations. My one big diversion are cookbooks and books about food. But, part of that diversion still includes books about the politics, ethics, and health of what we eat. I try to read things that will teach me new concepts, reinforce concepts I already believe to be important, introduce me to new areas of knowledge, or teach me new skills. I don’t touch works of fiction any more, except in very exceptional cases – and each time I’ve made such an exception, I find that the works have been totally unable to hold my attention because my mind tells me what I’m reading is ultimately pointless.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with reading fiction or reading magazines for entertainment. However, the time that we each spend reading – whether that’s just 15 minutes a day or even hours on end – is time that could be used to increase our knowledge, skills, or understanding.

Just recently in my work with the government, I have benefited greatly from the skills I learned from 3 or 4 books on visual communication and interface design. Those were books that I read on my own time during my daily commutes and over my lunch breaks. The end result was having developed new skills and understanding to be able to develop dashboard systems and structured sitreps that have garnered our Branch much positive feedback from throughout the Ministry. It has, of course, also given me a fair bit of positive exposure as an individual.

I acknowledge that there are some things that cannot be learned from a book. I know that full well from my continued business efforts that have garnered me less-than-spectacular returns. However, I truly feel that I have benefited both on a personal basis in terms of broadening my horizons and understanding, and on a professional basis with improved skills that I bring to my work.  I enjoy the time that I spend reading and learning, and my aunt’s advice to me to use that time productively has had great impact on the paths that I have taken since that discussion years ago.

So, I pass along to you this advice: If you’re going to spend time reading, read productive material that will broaden your horizons, deepen your understanding, or develop your skills.

The 8 Keys to Success – and Staying Successful

What are the keys to success? To many people, that’s like asking what the winning numbers are to the big lottery jackpot. There is the belief that there just might be a simple key to success, like turning the key to starting a car. Well, the recipe for success is indeed conceptually simple, but it’s not at all easy. I’ll let you see for yourself from these quick, but insightful and motivational, little videos what the 8 keys to success really are and let you think about how you can apply them to your own life and circumstances.