Kensington Market

Today I found one of the coolest bohemian areas of Toronto yet: Kensington Market.

It's a series of small streets full of second-hand vintage clothes boutiques, hippy eateries, cool music stores and galleries galore.. while rastas walk around the neighbourhood and the smell of incense (and weed) fills the air and indie/reggae music spills onto the street from all directions.

I picked up a really cool vintage beige cord jacket there for 15 Canadian dollars!! The original price was set at 40, but for some reason the guy in the store kept on lowering the price... haggling without me saying anything... then I noticed a tiny rip on the sleeve (which I since got fixed for free) and he dropped another 10 dollars off... sweet.

Actually that whole Queen West / Spadina / Kensington is really my favourite area of Toronto. Best clothes shops and the coolest people in the city.

Other stuff that's interesting.. I've been gigging like mad lately.. went to see ANOTHER gig with Niki there last night.. Cut-Chemist, the DJ from Jurrasic Five was playing a solo set and he was joined on stage by the Miles Davis' jazz drummer: Bernard Purdie (who's apparently played on 3,000 albums throughout his life!!)

I've two more gigs lined up next week: Kaiser Cheifs (with Walkmen supporting), and Dublin-band The Frames.

It's really a great town for music! And most venues are quite intimate with nice decor and lighting so you can get up close to the acts without having to worry about nasty bouncers etc.

Other interesting stuff...

On the way home from the Cut Chemist gig, we passed the huge Freemasons Temple in a pretty affuent part of town. The funny thing was, that directly above the entraceway is a HUGE 15metre high MTV logo ?!?

Either MTV is controlled by Freemasons, or THAT'S how the Freemasons get their money