"He never goes anywhere"

I've been trying to write a song over the last few weeks about how I never travel. It's got some good musical elements but lyrically, there's not a lot there to work with yet. The downside of discussing not doing something is that there's no experience to talk about. But this weekend I took a trip to Toronto and brought my notebook should any inspiration come up. 

We arrived in Toronto on Saturday morning and were immediately picked up by my sister Michelle who whisked us off to Burlington to watch my niece, Adelle, do some cheerleading before zipping off to Niagara Falls. Why was Michelle so committed to taking me to the falls? Well, I've never been so that's something but it came out while we were there that Mom instructed her to take me because, "He never goes anywhere." 

Touche. 

But it's true. I rarely go far, most of the time it's just camping. Or if I do go somewhere it's for work. I mean - I flew to Winnipeg to see Tool last year and saw Queens of the Stoneage in Saskatoon. That's something, right? 

The Niagara Falls are very cool but only for about 30 minutes. I'm glad it was tacked on to another trip because I would have felt bad going all that way to be delighted for just a little while. We also had a grand time at a winery where my newfound teetotalling made me a punching bag for the winery staff. But the cheese guy loved me. 

Visit my Instagram post about this day.

Sunday was concert day. We spent much of the day zipping around downtown Toronto, pretending to grab the CN tower, navigating TO's horror of a transit system and visiting with the rays at Ripley's Aquarium. 

The show was amazing featuring three bands I hold on a pedestal; Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips and Weezer.

Dinosaur Jr. was one of the bands I was most excited to see and strangely, the one I've listened to the longest. The song "Out There" was featured on the Wayne's World soundtrack, my first CD, and while many would find it to be discordant and maybe a bit weak vocally, I was in love then and I was in love again on Saturday. My biggest complaint is that they only played 25 minutes. Don't drag a band that far just to make them play a short set. I'm going to try and see them again someday. 

After the pandemic and the difficulties that hit the live music industry, I had convinced myself I'd never see the Flaming Lips live. They are a special band to me, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is one of my favourite albums and "Do You Realize" was the song Rhonda and I chose for our first dance at the wedding. The Flaming Lips were beautiful live, the harmonies were even more layered and gorgeous than the albums. I spent much of the performance weeping and wishing for better seats. 

The set for Weezer wasn't that new. We'd seen them in Saskatoon in 2017 (Saskatoon, South Africa according to the typo on the concert t-shirt I bought). The set this time covered the same ground. The difference was the very theatrical production. It took the whole show to another level. There's nothing more fun than watching awkward nerd musicians trying to act. Plus any chance to hear the Blue Album live is a good one. I hope to repeat this trip in a couple years when Pinkerton hits its 30th anniversary. 

Thanks to a very late departure from Pearson, we also had much of Sunday to run amok in the '6. We spent the day on and around Queen St, checking out the pretentious shops, visiting the endless Graffiti Alley and Rhonda even managed to get a pole dance class in during the afternoon. A wonderful hour I spent watching squirrels in Trinity Belwoods Park. 

Overall - a massive success of a trip. We packed a lot of good times into those three days, I've only really scratched the surface between this post and the Instagram posts about the trip. It's hard to wrap up the chaos, the new sights and everything that happened. I can say for sure that this old hayseed had a great time in the Golden Horseshoe. And this old hayseed is glad to be back somewhere familiar where he can run with some of the inspiration derived from the weekend. 

I do want to highlight how amazing it was to share the weekend with Rhonda. It was a "birthday, Christmas, anniversary and promotion" gift and while I wish we didn't need a reason, I'd take one good trip with her over a dozen presents any time. Our adventures are rare but they're epic and the memories of this trip won't soon fade.