After weeks of hype and what may have been the longest Rickroll of all time, Indie 88.1 officially hit Toronto's airwaves yesterday at noon. The dawn of a new era of Toronto radio kicked off with, quite appropriately, an epic Alan Cross promo, followed by Arcade Fire's "Ready to Start." Admittedly, it gave me chills.
The rest of the music played in the first hour was all over the map, and depending on who you talk to, it was either completely awesome or a huge letdown. I'm more inclined to lean towards the former - simply put, you're not going to hear "Paper Girl" by July Talk, "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon, and "Lose It" by Austra on any other radio station in the city. Sure, there were a couple of questionable song choices, such as MGMT's "Electric Feel" and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" (ok, that one is a HUGE misfire), and yes, we're all terribly sick of Mumford & Sons' "I Will Wait." Those tunes aside, it's clear that Indie 88.1 is aiming to regularly offer listeners a fresh alternative to what we're used to. And any station that plays music from Whitehorse is a-ok in my books.
If you expected them to play nothing but unsigned local acts and truly indie Canadian bands, you have to understand that the word "Indie" in the station's name primarily refers to the fact that it's an independently owned and operated station. While they're going to play indie music, they're also going to play tunes that appeal to a broader audience - radio is a business, after all.
My advice is to tune in, give it a listen, and see what Indie 88 is all about. I sense a very bright future for the station.
[MUSIC EDITOR'S NOTE]
Hi Indie 88. I think Bryan hit the Indie™-sound vs independent music nail on the head (have you seen that Miley Cyrus movie LOL? I mean it's called LOL. Cyrus's crush is in a Snow Patrol-esque band which is described as "indie." No girls in LOL touch musical instruments.) I'm just going to add a couple of things: I expected Indie 88 to be exactly what it was in its first hour: guitar-centric, almost entirely male fronted bands, with brooding, sensitive macho-ness in place of traditional rock's rugged brand of macho. I totally get the need to build a following playing music many people like. I just want to let you know that once you get on your feet, I'm interested in hosting a late night drone & psychfolk show, so hit me up.
Move over poutine, there's a new game in town. Operating out of an alleyway in Kensington Market, this Latin American popup is grilling up some seriously tasty Cuban inspired sandwiches along with a fries, egg and steak combo dish of their own invention.
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Nearly four years ago, 
Fast forward to last week, when a hotel finally opened in the Hotel on Queen space. Now called the 
On the eating side there's a restaurant on the first floor helmed by chef Eric Wood, featuring a menu full of straightforward dishes like pasta, burgers, fries with aioli, steak and potato and roast chicken. The nicest item on the menu is the 4Play platter - a quartet of samplings chosen by the chef daily, which starred a lovely portion of sous vide-cooked steak on the day I visited.
The room is divided into three areas, with tall tables up front by the street, a bar in the middle and a high-ceilinged dining room at the back. There's a rooftop bar with a limited menu and Prohibition-inspired cocktails, and plans for a speakeasy room in the basement that will hold twenty at the best, and which seems perfect for private parties.
The "Stay" part of the building features three sizes of rooms just past the tiny reception area on the second floor. Most of the rooms are the standard size - 160 square feet for $160 a night, laid out along the centre of the building with daylight coming in from air shafts by the rooftop bar. There's a deluxe suite - 320 square feet for $200 a night with a commanding view up Beverley to the university - but the real gem is the studio at the front of the hotel, a tiny 130 square foot space at $140 a night, which has the same view up Beverley as the suite, but at the end of a tight little space where the bed sits sideways to the wall and the bathroom is tucked in next to the door.
The managers tell me that they're aiming to attract a business traveler, either in fashion or finance or hopefully in entertainment, noting their proximity to the Much Music studios down the street. Whoever the Beverley's guests are, they'll have to be relaxed with whoever they're sharing their room with, since the cleverest design feature of the rooms is the extensive use of glass walls and doors around the bathrooms; even the suite has a big window between the bedroom and the bathroom, to give you a nice view of the city while you shower, and your roommate a nice view of you.
There's Wi-Fi all over and TVs that descend from the ceilings, but the staff make a point of telling me that the Beverley isn't for the family market, at least in the floors of rooms between the restaurant and the rooftop bar. Though it's not hard to imagine the hotel appealing to a couple looking for a night or a weekend's escape close to the shops and shows - as long as they're not a bit shy.
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What's special about Sixpenny is that they're bringing back local, small-scale, approachable business. They say their work is cathartic in a way, especially when they strip down old pieces to refurbish them and make them new again. "It's like you're connecting with somebody who's been dead for 80 years," Brunette says. "Woodworking is a timeless thing. We have machines they didn't have, but the principles are the same." 
All of Brunette and McGill's creations are totally custom designed and crafted, and they work on pieces for both business and residential purposes. They make everything from fashionable shelving units made of gas pipe and reclaimed wood to refurbished doors and staircases made out of logs and aluminum-edged boards, with a preference for salvaged and reclaimed pieces. They made a huge display unit for Slavin Raphael out of salvaged aluminum from an old barn, wood they treated to have an antique effect, and gas piping. It's fitting that their workshop is in the Junction, because they're actually surrounded by the kinds of materials they use—ancient bits of metal and rickety old pallets are just lying around, waiting for a new home.
While their first major gas piping project was inspired by a photo found by Pamela Hopson, the owner of North Standard, McGill has actually always used it in his home to make racks for toilet paper and towels. "Toronto itself is just so industrial, so different from Vancouver," he says. They can build just about anything if it's made out of wood, and they say one of their favourite parts about the operation they've got going is collaboration with other creatives. Anyone they work with is welcome to come into the shop and get involved with the process. 
It turns out everything they do is authentic, right down to their name. As an afterthought, I ask them about it on my way out. "It took months and months of debate," McGill says. As it turns out, it used to cost six pence for a pound of nails, and six penny nails were most commonly used for doors and windows. These guys are not screwing around. If you need something—anything— made out of wood, you might want to think about taking a trek to the Junction.
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