White Boys and Suburbs

Last night was a bombastic explosion of fun jams, rehearsals and all around good times. I never knew just how fun it is to have a tambourine in your hand while shaking to good music. So fun in fact, that I missed out on a hot show by The Yuka down at the Holy Oak cafe. If you ever happen to hear some wicked funk/jazz jams spilling out of a venue in this city that make you want to groove and shake your thing, chances are that you are listening to The Yuka. Walk inside, let yourself become a marionette, and you'll start smiling. That's not even a money-back guarantee because they are so cool they probably won't even take your money in the first place. Buy them a drink if you can though; they'll appreciate it.

(photo courtesy of The Yuka)

Concerning my beloved hometown's poor reputation for friendliness towards strangers, a friend of mine and I were discussing the possible reasons for this. He made a good point that a huge proportion of people who purport to be 'Torontonian' are actually Etobicokian, East Yorkian, Scarberian, Auroran, or even Peterbouroughian. The 1997 corruption of our city (Bill 103) is how we find ourselves with another pigheaded mayor who claims to represent Toronto. Prior to that, there existed something called Metropolitan Toronto, which was more of a conceptual union between the city proper and its surrounding neighbourhoods/communities. It meant a loose organization of municipality, with more regional administration. Given the ass-backwardsness of some of our political structure here, despite being voted down by a 3:1 ratio in a municipal referendum, the provincial government at the time (led by a fuck named Mike Harris) chose to ignore the populace (it had/has no obligation to respect municipal-level decisions) and form what was branded as the 'megacity'. Hence the suburban vote which has little interest in the culture of the city (people who moved away from it, to sterile and distant lands -- in favor of money over culture), now holds political sway over the struggling, but still beating heart of the city. And that is also how people who are not culturally Torontonian think of themselves as 'from Toronto' and who falsely appear to represent us.

This is what a twat looks like.

(photo by Carlo Allegri) 

http://www.myspace.com/theyuka
The Yuka

Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWurnyKZUM
The Whitest Boy Alive - Burning (dance video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwYJyrKK5A
Two Door Cinema Club - What You Know (music video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wrsZog8qXg&feature=related
The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (music video)