NXNE Light

NXNE takes over the city for a week each June and is jam packed with sights and sounds for every taste. This is the one festival where you get a chance to check out both the yet undiscovered home-grown talent (and be among he first to see some of the future stars before they make it big!) and some of the biggest international superstars. Venues are spread out all over the city and the extensive local media coverage makes it easy to find a show you'll like even for those who consider themselves music scene neophytes. NOW Magazine and BlogTO are two of the outlets that always publish guides to the festival, along with their recommendations, and SOCAN provided a nifty pocket-sized (well, kinda) guide this year that made it easy to see what was happening when and where. For the die-hard music lovers, there is always the option of taking a few days off work (and many do!) and taking advantage of the very reasonably priced festival wristbands that get you into all the shows (and/or movie screenings). The only challenge is trying to be at a multitude of locations at the same time! Because the line-up is pretty stellar and it is always tempting to try and see it all.

For those not sure about their commitment to live music, there are quite a few free shows that are either part of the official festival or one of several spin-off events throughout the city. For example, free shows at Yonge-Dundas Square this year included such headliners as The National, Ludacris, and Billy Talent. You can rest assured the crowds were out in full force for these. I didn't have time this year to check out much of the festival but I did carve out some time in my calendar to check out The National (and catch the tail end of Hayden) at the square.

Once again, I was quite impressed with the quality of sound at such a busy intersection in the heart of the city. I stayed on the edge of the crowd this time, across the main stage (and TV screens) by the mall entrance. This actually worked out really well (and offered a better view than from among the throng of the massive crowd, as well as an improvised seat!) until everyone around me started smoking. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Still, the show was great and not as claustrophobia-inducing from the outskirts, so this is definitely one option for those concerned about the crush of people. The city didn't close down the street for the show but the crowd eventually took care of that itself, so the police had no choice but to patrol the edges and redirect cars because there was no stopping people from spilling into the street (though it was fascinating trying to watch a big rig trying to navigate the shrinking road space right before this happened). The National didn't play my favourite song but Hayden did, so that was a nice treat before heading home.

This guy was playing along with Hayden

WHAT: NXNE 2013

WHERE: Venues throughout Toronto

WHEN: June 10-16, 2013

COST: Ranges from free shows to $60 for full-access wristbands to $399 for an interactive pass

INSIDER TIPS: Many shows go late (with some of the best acts going on after 1am), so make sure you check out the calendar before you commit to a full-access wristband. There are also one-day passes and film-festival-only passes available, so there are plenty of options. If you are making a go at it, consider taking some time off work to take full advantage of the festival, as you will be bleary eyed and quite worn out if you don't.

A sample program description to help festival goers decide what to see

Creative seating arrangements at Yonge-Dundas Square

There's Yonge St. in there somewhere. Underneath all those people.

A Fairly Standard Saturday - In My Life, Anyway!

A street festival, patio drinks, cult film festival, and burger week - oh my! That's what I call a good Saturday. Summer is a busy time (even though we haven't hit June 21 yet, I say it's summer!) and my calendar is usually full with events and happenings that are literally written in one on top of the other. Every so often though, stars align and I'm able to make it out to most of these. This was just such a Saturday.

The first stop of the day was Eats & Beats in Riverside, a street festival on a small stretch of Queen St. East. A couple of friends and a friend's dog in tow, we spent about an hour exploring a neighbourhood we don't get out to much, sampling some treats along the way. The festival was small and not a particular draw for people looking for a jam-packed afternoon, but great if you live in the area. The weather was perfect and we had a lovely time. The highlights for me were an outdoor spinning class in a closed-off street and a dog-friendly wine store that opened my eyes to the fact that you can make sangria with cider instead of sparking water (!!). Overall, cute. Not necessarily worth a separate trip if that's the only thing on your menu but if it's on the way, it was worth stopping by. And for those that live in the area, a number of local businesses were offering a 10% discount for the entire month to those who completed six stops on a passport that you could pick up at any participating location.

After our walk-around, we were looking for a patio to enjoy but the one thing about that stretch of Queen St. is that it doesn't really have any. Lots of places had their front windows wide open, creating more of an inside patio, but this didn't really work for us since there wasn't anywhere to park the dog. Being so close to the Distillery, however, this problem was easily rectified and once again I found myself at the Mill Street Brew Pub. This time, however, we got to check out the massive new addition around the back. The Beer Hall just opened this week and is amazing! One giant stretch of it is fully covered by plexiglass and the overhang was enough to even protect the dog from the rain that made a brief appearance. The weather looked rather threatening for a while but after a brief rain period, it went back to being quite lovely and we had a great time tasting some craft beers (the flights are great fun and very affordable). The staff were very friendly and even doted on the dog and gave her treats. In between being showered with attention, the said dog managed to cause quite a stir when she vaulted over the railing in a rather spectacular nosedive practically right onto the table. Hilarious.

The next stop on my calendar was a cult film festival but we were having such a great time that I ended up lingering with my friends longer than expected. I snuck into the theatre late but it was still long enough to discover that The Lost Episodes Film Festival is pretty hilarious and I'm looking forward to day 2 screenings today. Even if you don't think you're a big enough nerd to get all the puns, it's still a great time and is very accessible to a wide range of viewers. The balcony is closed for these screenings, so if that's your favourite spot to hang out at the Bloor Cinema, save yourself a trip up the stairs and head straight to the main floor seats.

For dinner, my patio buddies from earlier in the day were headed to Rock Lobster for their Burger Week offering. When I checked in after the screening ended for the day, I discovered that I still had time to make it. With a few other additions, there were six of us in total and we were all excited to try the drool-inducing "ground chuck, Old Bay seasoning, Nova Scotia lobster, lettuce, and garlic-and-lemon mayo on an egg-washed bun". My Twitter feed has been full of stellar reviews of the food at Rock Lobster, so I was looking forward to getting a taste. I am sorry to report that this was a major disappointment for all six of us. The burger was dry and uninspiring, with the patty half the size of the bun and a tiny bit of lobster meat thrown on top. It looked like absolutely no effort went into it and we were all shocked that a restaurant would choose to participate in Burger Week with such a terrible attitude. After this experience, none of us plan to go back. Disappointing to say the least.

WHAT: This and that

WHERE: From the east end to the west

WHEN: June 1, 2013

COST: Mostly free, with a cost for food and drink

INSIDER DETAILS: Keep on top of what your friends are doing because you never know when your own plans might change. If your friends are active on social media, it's a great way to keep tabs on their whereabouts and join them for things that are more fun to do together. None of us planned to spend the day together but it kind of happened and a great time was had by all (well, minus that burger thing).

Down and Dirty with Corona - The Paint Party Edition

Who doesn't like getting 100% head-to-toe dirty, on purpose? There's nothing quite like walking through a crowded mall (did that) or getting on the subway (did that, too) completely covered in paint. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Corona Paint Party was just that: an opportunity to run around in public with thousands of like-minded people, flinging paint at each other. And who am I to resist such temptation! This was a sealed deal the minute I heard about the party. Even if it did take me 20 mins of scrubbing and 2 hair shampoos to get myself back to a single skin colour and clean hair.

The event page invited participants to come as a blank canvass and leave as a work of art. Registration was set to start at 4pm, with the paint party starting at 5pm and the beer garden opening at 6pm. I was there at 3:30pm and the line-up already had a few hundred people in it. By 4pm, there was no sign of movement and the line grew to the point where it looped around several times. Thousands of people turned out in their best ugly white clothes (you know, the stuff you never actually wear but seem to have in your closet) to get their painting on. Finally, they started letting people in verrrrryyyyy slowly and, not too long after, we all watched as people on the inside started grabbing the full jugs of paint and flinging it at each other in giant globs, wasting it by the gallons. The organizers eventually caught on and went around the perimeter collecting these and rationing paint distribution from then on, as well as starting to water it down. Yes, they had officially started to run out of paint not 20 mins after they opened the gate.

The other thing that happened was that the people on the inside started running up to the barricade and sharing some of their messiness with those still in line. While the sentiment was sweet, never discount the power of human stupidity: those in line still had their purses, phones, etc. out in the open (which quickly got hit by the splatter) and it didn't help that the spray from the bottles of paint seemed to be aimed straight at our faces. Considering the amount of time we all spent waiting around in line and how few people they were letting in (it seemed like there was hardly anyone inside the paint zone most of the time), the organizers had more than enough time to set some ground rules for those nearing the gate. Instead, all that happened was that the people who got up to the entrance signed their name on a piece of paper that didn't even have any information on what the waiver included and we had our IDs checked. That is all. And don't even get me started on the line jumpers! This was happening a lot. Oh well.

After 2.5 hours of waiting in line, I was finally able to get inside. By this point, they were pretty much out of paint and small portions of watered down concoctions caused a frenzy by the main paint stand. People were determined to have fun after spending so long in line waiting to get in. It was a sight to behold. For those not wishing to get their clothes dirty, coveralls were provided, but they did little to protect you from the mess. Because the paint was mostly water a this point, it went straight through the flimsy material, which several people discovered very quickly. And instead of being bright and colourful, it all blended in into the same dirty-pastel coloured mess. The "art" concept behind this event quickly went out the window. If you were coming to paint, you really had to be ready to get dirty.

The painting itself was a lot of fun and I got good and covered in all kinds of messy goo. But with all the (dis)organizational mishaps, I doubt I would do this again. As much fun as it was, it just wasn't worth 4 hrs of my life, the bulk of which was spent waiting in line while a small handful of people took all the time int he world using up all the paint as thousands of wistful people watched on. Most people - who all spent hours in line - never got anywhere near the entrance. The paint zone was shut down shortly after it started to rain and the official story was that it was for safety reasons on account of the weather. However, as they didn't have any paint left by then, I'm not sure what the actual reason was. My friend and I were waiting in "line" (more like a giant huddle of people, with everyone doing whatever they wanted) to get into the beer garden where they had some food and Corona towels to give away (which would have been awesome), but once again, the line wasn't moving and we never got a chance to get inside (which was not so awesome). The girls from Hard Rock Cafe across the street did keep coming out with trays of free sliders but the crowd would engulf them momentarily and these were snatched up in seconds. After about half an hour in the intermittent rain, we gave up and went home (via a Burger Week stop, which was much more satisfying than this whole experience).

Overall, a ridiculously fun concept but very poorly organized, which I found surprising considering how many huge public events Corona is involved with. They were not prepared to handle the capacity and both the paint zone and the beer tent were tiny considering the size of the crowd. This needed to either be a ticketed event so that people didn't have to spend hours waiting in line for nothing, or the time allotted inside each zone needed to be restricted and time limits enforced. Epic fail on both counts.

WHAT: Corona Paint Party

WHERE: Yonge Dundas Square

WHEN: May 31 - 4pm

COST: Free

INSIDER TIPS: You either need to be there ridiculously early (try a couple of hours before the official registration start), or head straight for the beer garden before the first batch of painted people starts leaving the paint zone. Either way, be prepared to spend hours in line. Even considering the uniqueness of the event, it's not really worth it.

This was as close as we ever got to the beer garden - a picture from a distance before it all even started.

That beer garden sure did look nice though! What a tease.

This was the reality - waiting in the rain to never actually get inside.

Don't ask me where someone found actual paint to dump all over my hair. Sure beats me!

Just about the best part of the night - their Burger Week offering was goooooood!

B-I-N-G-O!

Every so often (fine, more like all the time) my calendar looks like a jigsaw puzzle with overlapping and back-to-back bookings. Any normal person would exercise control but I hate missing out on things, so as long as I can still put one foot in front of the other without falling over, I'm pretty determined to keep adding check marks to my to-do list. Thus it came to be that after a full day of exploring the city with Doors Open Toronto, I headed over to 2nd Floor for Boozy Bingo. This event has been on my radar a couple of times now and I wasn't about to miss it now that I had company in the form of my old bowling league buddies.

Well, in true Olena fashion, I showed up just as a new game was starting and the first number called meant free shots for anyone who had N34 on their fresh BINGO cards. Guess who had three of those. This girl. Shots at the bar it was. And the winning didn't stop there. I ended that game with a BINGO at the exact same time someone else got it, which resulted in a foot race, an attempt to force a dance-off to break the tie (after a full day of traipsing all over the city, I wasn't having any of that), and finally a rock-paper-scissors competition, which I won. A bit dramatic, if you ask me. The funny part was when somebody walked up to me during the intermission and said I had that win at the foot race. People were really invested in the whole thing!

The next couple of hours resulted in two more wins for me (plus one texting challenge win for a free number), which made me the most hated person in that room and had people begging my table not to give me any more BINGO cards. That was particularly funny, since the first thing they then did was give me a bunch of their cards to push the lucky streak a bit further. Collectively, we made out with a gift certificate to Firkin Pubs, a gift certificate to The Fifth, a collection of DVDs, an Amy Winehouse sweater, and two bottles of wine. Cheers to that! And it was a super fun evening as well with an entertaining host (minus the repeated attempts to stage a dance-off every time I kept winning lol) and great tunes. I think this happens every month, so I'm definitely keeping an eye on this in the future though this winning streak will likely be difficult to repeat.

This pile only got bigger. And we weren't the only ones!

WHAT: Boozy Bingo

WHERE: 2nd Floor, 461 King St. West

WHEN: Sunday, May 26 - 3-7 pm

COST: $5 for the first 5 cards + $2 for the BINGO marker (optional)

INSIDER TIPS: Keep an eye on your gambling addictions. There were a lot of prizes available and a manageable crowd. It was very tempting to keep buying extra cards to keep playing, especially when people started leaving towards the end, increasing our chances of winning. Also, check out some of their other events - the place is great and service was excellent.

This just got confusing...long story!