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Celebrated tenor left acting career for opera fame

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OPERA SINGER ROGER HONEYWELL is booked solid for the next three and a half years.

This month, the tenor kicks off performances in the world premiere of The Letter, at the Santa Fe Opera, before taking part in Madam Butterfly at the Opera Company of Philadelphia this fall. Then he heads to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing in The Merry Widow, and that just takes him into the new year.

Given that much of opera is theatre, it’s perhaps not hard to believe that he began his career as an award-winning actor. At Earl Haig Secondary School, Honeywell was a theatre major, spending three hours a day working on his thespian chops.

“My life was about performance,” he recollects. He remembers starring in the school’s production of Reflections on Crooked Walking fondly.

“It was the first time that I experienced the thrill of having a lead in a show and being a part of a show that was much larger than yourself,” he says.
 

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STUDENT Roger Honeywell
GRADUATED Earl Haig Secondary School, 1985
BEST SUBJECT Theatre
WORST SUBJECT Math
CURRENT JOB Opera Singer

After graduation, he went on to study at Ryerson University’s theatre school. Then came his first professional job, a contract with the Stratford Festival in 1988 where he remained until starting at the Shaw Festival in 1992. After five seasons he started doing voice-overs for television and film, between taking part in Theatre Passe Muraille’s The Indian Medicine Show and a rendition of Hamlet that featured Keanu Reeves.

Without any formal singing lessons, in 1998, Honeywell started performing in musicals, including CanStage’s The House Of Martin Guerre, for which he won a Dora Mavor Moore Award (Canada’s equivalent to the Tony Awards). It was during the production that he realized the extent of his vocal abilities, which led him to seek formal training in an artist development program.

“I just auditioned for the Canadian Opera Company,” he says. “They hired me as a young artist in an ensemble program.”

He had his first operatic performance with the company in 2000 and after two years went on to a similar program with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which helped launch his career internationally. Since then Honeywell’s career as a tenor has led him to perform all over North America, which also has its downside.

“It’s my life, it’s thrilling,” he says from his home in Stratford where he doesn’t spend all that much time. “It’s [also] the most difficult part of the business. I’m on the road between 260 and 300 days of the year.”

But he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m not good at anything else,” he says modestly.
 

Rise and shine

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AT 3:30 A.M., Ann Rohmer wakes up. By 5:30 a.m., she’s live to air, as news anchor for CP24 Breakfast, alongside Melissa Grelo and former MuchMusic VJ Matte Babel. Later, Rohmer will anchor CP24 Live at Noon and, depending on the day, any of three other CityPulse shows: Animal House Calls, Hot Property, and On the Quarter.

Rohmer brings 30 years of experience to CP24 Breakfast, including a 12-year stint as the original host of Breakfast Television, which only recently was updated and given its current name.

Before getting her start in the television industry, Rohmer attended Branksome Hall where she learned to love the English language, with the influence of her favourite teacher, Miss Zimmerman.

“She was young, cool and hip, [which was] unusual at a private girls’ school,” says Rohmer. “She really sparked something in me that made me want to embrace the written word.”

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STUDENT Ann Rohmer
GRADUATED Northern Secondary, 1974
BEST SUBJECT English
WORST SUBJECT Math
CURRENT JOB Lead Anchor, CP24

In her final year of high school, Rohmer made the switch to coed education, transferring to Northern Secondary School.

“I had very smart and passionate teachers when it came to English, and they perhaps saw in me my love of the English language and of books. They were really helpful and influential, particularly at Northern,” she says.

“All the planets aligned, and I had great teachers who took the extra time to help me, work with me, answer my questions, encourage me, and I learned because they led by example."

In university, Rohmer was in a long-distance relationship and as a means of paying for flights and phone bills, she began acting in television commercials. While she enjoyed being onscreen, she found herself wanting to edit and improve the scripts.

“So I thought: ‘Where could I go with this thirst for knowledge and desire to write, but also to present?’” she says.

In 1979, she landed her first gig as the host of Show Biz. She then went on to work for Global Television before making her way to CBC as the network’s first female sports anchor. In 1989, she started at Breakfast Television where she remained until moving to CP24 in 2001.

“I’m just so lucky to have these opportunities, and CP24 is just phenomenal. We are in everyone’s homes, bedrooms, doctors’ offices, bars, gyms — it’s just amazing.”

Court reporter

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THAT KOBE BRYANT and Co. won the NBA Championship in June came as no great surprise to NBA XL co-host Mark Strong. Nor to most NBA fans, for that matter, given the L.A. Lakers’ stellar season and talented lineup. But Strong has a slight advantage when it comes to making such predictions. His show, an NBA lifestyle and culture program, offers an up-close look at players’ lives both on and off the court, which means Strong gets to tag along to players’ homes, on shopping outings and road trips and more. Oh, and he gets paid to attend NBA basketball games.

In June, when Strong and crew taped an episode at the Western Conference finals between the Lakers and Denver Nuggets, he could tell that the Lakers were the team to beat.

“Once we saw them handle Denver, I knew for sure they were on their way,” says Strong. With scores of high-profile interviews now under his belt, Strong, who’s in his mid-30s, says he doesn’t really get nervous around stars any more, but the early going was a bit different.

“The first time I got to talk to Kobe. He was one of the first,” says Strong. “Since Michael [Jordan] left, he’s the best player, so I was impressed by his stature. I got a bit of butterflies, but I got over it.”

In his spare time, the baritone Strong is the voice-over man for the Junos, Canada’s Walk of Fame TV special and more. It’s a natural progression, since it was through radio that Strong got his start, working as a host on radio station FLOW 93.5. From there, it was onto NBA XL.
 

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STUDENT Mark Strong
GRADUATED Oakwood Collegiate, 1990
BEST SUBJECT Theatre
WORST SUBJECT Math
CURRENT JOB Co-host of NBA XL

But only a handful of years ago, he was just an impressionable teen in Ms. Lemberg-Pelly’s English class at Oakwood Collegiate. Today, Strong is thankful for her positive influence.

“She was so determined to make sure that everyone cared about learning. That might sound corny, but in high school, especially today, kids aren’t even coming to class, much less doing the work,” he says. “With her, she would always find some way to find something in our culture or background and relate it to, say, Shakespeare and bring us into the fold of what she was talking about.”

Now, with Toronto Raptors star forward Chris Bosh eligible for free agency at the end of next season, can Strong predict whether Bosh will stay in Toronto?

“If my name was money, I could talk to Chris all day. If my name was championship, sure,” he says. “Those are the two things he wants.”
 

Art for life’s sake

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hero Rasminsky jul09

In the comfort of her basement, Lola Rasminsky created a fine arts kindergarten program with six children in 1979. Fourteen years later, when the venture had grown too big to be contained in her humble abode, she founded the Avenue Road Arts School in an old Victorian house.

And just two years later, Rasminsky took her business savvy and passion for bringing arts education to youth to a new level.

In 1995, Rasminsky founded the Arts for Children of Toronto group, a charitable organization where she now acts as executive director.

The organization provides high-quality arts programming in visual arts, drama, music, dance, film and photography for kids in underserved neighbourhoods.

Last month, Rasminsky was awarded the Canadian Urban Institute’s 2009 Local Hero Award, for her active involvement with the organization.

“I believe the arts are important because you develop artistic, personal and creative skills that are transferable to any part of your life,” Rasminsky says.

The charity also organizes large-scale projects, such as an initiative with the Toronto Transit Commission, where children’s artwork was on display on the outside of selected local buses. To date, around 40,000 children from low-income neighbourhoods have been participants.

“Lola Rasminsky has taught us that children from poorer communities can discover and enjoy art and they can use those talents to give something back, making our neighbourhoods and the city of Toronto a better place for all of us to live,” says Glen Murray, the institute’s president and CEO.

Some of Rasminsky’s numerous other accolades include being named a member of the Order of Canada, in 2008, and receiving the RBC Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007.

“ The arts are important because you develop artistic, personal and creative skills.”

Today, Rasminsky’s Avenue Road Arts School provides lessons for more than 800 youths and adults, including visitors from as far away as Dubai, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Rasminsky hires a select roster of teachers to ignite creative sparks in their students. That list includes Jenn Gould, who took home this year’s Juno Award for Best Children’s Album of the Year, and David Lapp, who penned the graphic novel Drop-In.

Over the last year, Rasminksy says she’s actually seen an increase in enrolment of children and adults, despite the state of the economy.

“The interesting thing about the school is that during this recessional time our enrolment has gone up, not down,” she says.

In August, Rasminsky will be stepping down from her duties at Arts for Children of Toronto, to spend more time at the Avenue Road Arts School and on her third business, Beyond the Box.

With her husband Bob Presner, Raminsky’s Beyond the Box will teach corporate groups how to think artistically through creative workshops and teambuilding exercises.

The Post salutes Lola Rasminsky and the Arts for Children of Toronto group for helping disadvantaged students develop their creative skills.

Dining with eyes wide shut

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AFTER THREE SUCCESSFUL years in Montreal, last month O.Noir opened a Toronto branch of its unique “dine in the dark” restaurant and invites patrons to come and experience a dining experience like no other. “It’s special because people have to dine in the dark, and they are going to use their other senses to experience the food,” says O.Noir owner and founder Moe Alameddine. “They’re not going to eat with their eyes, and this will lead to a heightened smell and taste.”

The concept for the restaurant traces back to Jorge Spielmann, a blind pastor in Zurich, who opened Blindekuh in 1999, to teach sighted people about visual impairment and also to provide jobs for the blind as servers. The Toronto restaurant will employ between 10 and 12 visually impaired servers, who will guide guests to their seats, bring food to and from the tables and take drink orders.

“There is a unique transfer of trust because patrons must give their trust to blind people to do the job,” says Alameddine. “There is a high unemployment rate among the blind, and this is a way for us to give them some confidence and some hope as they work as valuable members of our team.”

He says the menu consists of French- Mediterranean dishes, and he recommends choosing the “surprise dish” option on the menu for either your main course or dessert, to fully embrace the O.Noir experience. O.Noir is located at 620 Church St., 416-922-6647.

Have croissant will travel

Growing up and working in restaurants and pastry shops in his native France, Charles Imteriale knows his way around croissants and baguettes. And local residents are flocking to his new shop to sample his floury wares.

The shop has a 24-person seating area as well as a bar where patrons can enjoy a coffee and croissant. Current offerings include pastries and desserts along with signature croissants and baguettes. Quiche and sandwiches are available for lunch. Plans are in the works for a patio come 2010. Patisserie Sebastien is located at 3306 Yonge St., 416-544-0333.

Long time coming worth the wait?

The McEwan era finally began on June 19 in sleepy Don Mills with the opening of his flagship, one-of-a-kind, super-duper gourmet food emporium. “I want the store to represent something new and different in the food retailing business — something of the same quality and originality that I like to think I brought to the restaurant scene with North 44, Bymark and One,” says Mark McEwan, owner.

The 20,000-square-foot store is located in the new Shops at Don Mills commercial area and will include everything from a butcher’s counter with USDA prime beef and fish counter with restaurant-calibre product from Montreal fish importer Le Mer to an array of fresh produce and breads from artisanal Quebec bakery Boulart as well as a line of prepared foods. The addition of an EDO sushi outlet was an inspired decision. “Everything you need to make a great meal will be right here,” says McEwan. McEwan is located at 38 Karl Fraser Rd. (Don Mills and Lawrence), 416-444-6262.

Cracking the vault

Jesse Letofsky, chef and coowner of The Vault restaurant on Avenue Road, had a couple pretty good teachers. After working in the dishpit of Marc Thuet’s restaurant, Letofsky stuck by the acclaimed French chef for 10 years learning the tricks of the culinary trade from him, but also from another of the city’s leading chefs, David Lee, who ran the kitchen at Centro when Thuet was the owner.

Located in a converted bank, The Vault is a French bistro-style restaurant with 60 seats, a patio and a wine cellar located in the bank vault.

Letofsky says entrées are in the $25 range, and his halibut and whole fish are current favourites of the North Toronto faithful who have discovered the restaurant since the soft opening last month. The Vault is located at 2015 Avenue Rd., 416-487-0060.

Viva Italia

Opened on May 27, Thornhill’s Di Manno Ristorante is serving up Italian nouvelle cuisine in a casual fine dining atmosphere, with hearty portions of dishes like linguine pescatore and rigatoni alla vodka proving customer favourites.

Miguel Melo says the restaurant, headed by brother and sister team Joe and Nancy Di Manno, also offers an extensive wine and champagne selection as well as a separate lunch menu, afternoon menu and dinner menu.

Di Manno Ristorante is located at 11 Disera Dr., 905-707-5888.

Scuttlebutt

Marc Thuet made more news last month with the closing of his Atelier Thuet outlet as well as the opening of Conviction, in the location of his flagship restaurant Bite Me. Conviction caused a great deal of buzz when it was announced as a result of former convicts being hired on in the kitchen and as servers to be part of a reality-TV program. Cluck, Grunt and Low on Bloor Street has closed.

Late last month, Trillium Bistro opened up at 1552 Avenue Road in the former location of Locavore, which lasted, say, a couple weeks. Hopefully Trillium Bistro will fair better with its more mainstream Mediterranean and French menu.

In other Avenue Road news, a new funnel cake restaurant is opening up in the old Timothy’s Coffee space, dubbed Fun L Fun. At 579 Mt. Pleasant Road, Florentia, billed as an “authentic Italian restaurant” has opened up (416-545-1220).

The Rubino brothers Guy and Michael have closed down their restaurant Rain for conversion to a new Japanese concept dubbed Ame (Japanese for “rain”) schedule to open mid-July. Jamieson Kerr, owner of Crush Wine Bar in downtown Toronto has opened a new pub called Queen & Beaver Public House. It is housed in an old Victorian building located at 35 Elm St.

Bigger isn’t better

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docmickey childobesity cmyk

HERE WE GO again, another “evangelist” preaching on the sinful epidemic of childhood obesity. When is enough enough?

Never! In the mid–20th century, scientists were asked to describe what man would look like in the 22nd century. We were described as having a large head on a small body. How wrong they were.

Did you know that the total number of fat cells in the body is determined within the first two years of life? After that there is no increase in the number of fat cells, only an increase in how much they are filled. Therefore the foundation for a tendency toward obesity is laid down very early in life. If we could prevent overweight infants and toddlers, we could probably prevent a great deal of obesity later in life.

But what if your child is only “a little” overweight?

Let us say, for example, your child’s ideal weight is 100 pounds. However, your child weighs 115 pounds. How significant is this? Well, carrying an extra 15 pounds around every day is equivalent to carrying and extra 105 pounds every week. This means every week your child is carrying himself or herself for 24 hours. To put it another way, each week, for a whole day, your child has 25- pound weights strapped around arms and legs. Furthermore, for every excess pound carried, the heart, with each beat, has to pump through an extra mile of blood vessels and lymphatics. Now that is a lot of work!

Of course, many infants and toddlers are overweight to varying degrees. Not all are going to end up being obese. Which children should we worry about?

The answer is in the family history. Look for a history of obesity or close family members with diabetes or hypertension, with early heart disease or cerebral vascular accidents and, lastly, if there’s a family history of a lipid problem.

Children with a family history of lipid problems, in particular, will require lifelong monitoring. I realize how difficult it is to lose weight, even if we are really motivated to do so. How many times have you tried to lose weight? How many diets and exercise classes have you tried and quit? How many nutritionists or other specialists have you visited? Unfortunately, children don’t have even that much motivation, and without motivation, weight loss is next to impossible. There are, however, many things you can do to discourage excessive weight gain in your children.

Children should not be put on a diet restriction until after puberty. What you need to teach is “smart eating.” It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how to reduce caloric intake. Consult a doctor or nutritionist if you are stuck. And know that childhood obesity is a family affair. You cannot expect your child to adhere to one set of rules and the rest of the family to another. As the parent, you have to set the example.

Physical activity is also important. (I do not like to use the word “exercise,” it sounds too much like work.) Physical activity should be fun. No child is going to go to the gym for a fat-burning workout. You have to find activities that your child enjoys.

Finally, the more you participate, the better the enjoyment and compliance from the child. (By the way, playing soccer by standing in the middle of the field watching the ball go by is not a caloric burner.)

The quality of your children’s lives is in your hands and is determined by what you allow in their mouths.

Post City Magazines’ kids’ health columnist, Dr. Mickey Lester, has been a pediatrician for more than 30 years and is the former chief of pediatrics at Trillium Health Centre.

Terrible twos? Try terrible teens. How to tame the angst

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PtoP

“I HATE YOU and I’m leaving home.” Is there a parent of teenagers who hasn’t heard those words? We only have two choices when we get that message (or one like it) from our teens. The easy choice is to make it about me. But it isn’t about you. It is as impersonal as when your newborn cried for food. We make those events personal because we’re so invested in our parenting — but take a step back, here’s some perspective:

Teens are hard-wired to oscillate wildly between two selves, the adult self (who they are becoming) and the baby self (who they have been). This oscillation is as inevitable a part of their development as puberty; it isn’t pretty.

The adult self is the one they trot out away from home. The adult self goes to a friend’s house for dinner, says please and thank you and offers to wash the dishes. When you hear about that you wonder: Is that my kid?

The baby self is the one you know better, the self more likely to appear when your teen is with you. In fact there’s an inevitable bounce back: After working hard at being the adult self away from home, when a teen comes home, the baby self often reappears with a vengeance. Where the adult self is calm, co-operative, helpful, thoughtful and rational, the baby self is selfish, lazy and cannot be reasoned with.

The toughest aspect of this violent shifting between baby and adult self is predictable: Set a limit or say no to a teen, and the baby self is in the driver’s seat. It doesn’t matter what the limit is (curfews, computers or chores) or what you say no to (parties, cars or money), the baby self has the same reaction: The teen version of a two-year-old having a tantrum. Say no to a teen and they sulk, they yell, they whine. They repeat, ad nauseam, all the irrational reasons why you’re wrong.

You explain. The baby self pushes back. You explain again. The baby self repeats the push back. You explain again. Your teen pushes back again. The fourth time, your patience frays and you get mad. Which is fuel to the baby self’s fire. Now you’re in a fight that you’ll regret later.

This was a 100 per cent preventable fight. Here’s how:

Every time you set a limit for a teen or say no, the baby self will rear its ugly head, will fight you on it ad nauseam, and can’t let go. After the second time of explaining yourself and defending your decision, if you stay in that conversation, you will get mad, which will not do your relationship any good.

Instead: After you’ve been around the block twice on the subject, leave the room. It sounds awful, but is about 10 times better than yelling at your beloved child, which is the only place it’s going if you stay in the room. On the way out the door, you might say: “We’re done here.” You then need to ignore the teen’s anguished wailing and keep walking. Remind yourself that you have just committed a great act of parental love, that this isn’t about you, and without you there to fight with, the baby self will run out of gas. And likely comply.

The hardest thing here is to accept that, when you try to convince your child why you’re laying down the law, no matter how many times or how logically you say it, your teen still won’t get it. The baby self can’t get it because the baby self isn’t listening. They can’t. Not until they’re about 21.

The nugget of gold here is your relationship with your teen — which you want to preserve and nurture. Yelling at your teen isn’t going to get you there. Where screaming erodes love, laying down the law has no deleterious effects on your relationship. It takes a grown-up to stay calm under these circumstances.

Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart.

Get an iron will and some self control.

Parenting columnist Joanne Kates is the director of Camp Arowhon in Algonquin Park where she teaches 150 staff to parent effectively and acts as “Mom” to 300 kids at a time, every summer.

It’s still rock ’n’ roll to me

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I SAW DALLAS Green last month at Massey Hall. He was brilliant. He was funny and bright, and he intelligently hushed any annoying “who-hooers” in the crowd. His lyrics are like poetry. And he still listens to his mother. During the concert, he recounted her advice on his shirt selection: “You’re not going to wear that shirt are you?” Typical mother’s speak. He changed.

It was the best concert I’d seen since the first concert I ever went to back when I was 14 years old. I could listen to Dallas Green all day. Well that’s what I thought, anyway.

Dallas Green, when not in mellow mode, plays in my 13-year-old son’s favourite band, Alexisonfire, or as I like to call them, “the yellers.”

My home office and my son’s bedroom share a mutual wall, so when I’m at my computer tapping away, my son’s loud iTunes selections are chipping drywall flakes onto my keyboard. Besides the yellers, he enjoys rap, which includes a lot of heavy bass. Bass, I’ve discovered, makes me feel old. I find myself clutching my chest with every vibration and pleading with my son to “turn it down,” just like my mother used to say to me back in the day.

When I was growing up, our hi-fi was located in our living room so everyone had access to it. With eight siblings, album selection was eclectic to say the least. Everything from my parents’ Benny Goodman to my siblings’ Blood, Sweat & Tears; John Denver; Earth, Wind & Fire; Led Zepplin; and George Carlin comedy albums could be heard spinning in our house.

Our driveway was the site of another musical innovation from the ’70s: the eight-track tape player. My sister had a rust-coloured Vega that barely turned over. It spent most of its life parked under our chestnut tree, gathering sap, but the one reason my dad never had it towed was its state-of-the-art eighttrack. We took turns sitting in the driveway playing the two huge eight-track tapes she got with the car: America’s History and The Best of the Guess Who. I have many memories of being a kid in my pyjamas, sitting in the back of that Vega, singing along to “Horse with No Name” over and over again. The car was parked. Bizarre childhood, I know.

My son’s favourite band is Alexisonfire, or as I like to call them, “the yellers.”

In the ’80s, my teen years, I moved away from the eight-track. My life was filled with the latest thing: cassette tapes. I had cassettes of the Clash, Bruce Springsteen and the Who. (My brother had a great influence on my musical tastes at the time.)

As I said, I went to my first concert when I was 14 years old. I had to beg my mother to let me go. The concert was in Buffalo, and I wanted to tag along with my brother, his girlfriend and his best friend to see the Who’s farewell tour. It later turned out to be one of many such farewells. After months of negotiations and a sworn affidavit that my brother would never leave my side, my mum gave in and we headed south of the border. It was a life-changing experience, and I remember all the details.

As soon as we passed through the gates of the stadium, my brother ditched me for his girlfriend, and I was stuck with his buddy. Lost in a sea of bodies near the stage, I ended up perched on my brother’s buddy’s shoulders all night, watching a shirtless Roger Daltry swinging his microphone. Having shared such an intimate experience, the buddy felt the need to try and kiss me during the final encore. I’d never felt someone else’s tongue in my throat before (and not in a good way). It was an evening of firsts.

The ultimate ’80s gift between suitors was the mixed tape. It took countless hours of splicing and precise song placement in order to express yourself through music. My son’s equivalent is the iPod playlist. Unlike the mixed tape, it is an instantaneous expression of love.

Kids barely listen to the radio any more because they can plug their own iPods into docks in the car or around the house or into any computer. My son has no idea what a CHUM Chart is, and when I asked him who Casey Kasem was, he replied, “Is it a boy or girl?”

Kids are now in the musical driver’s seat and are rarely subjected to their parents’ horrible tastes. What I would have given for an iPod in 1979 to escape my Dad’s Nana Mouskouri tapes! YouTube has also transformed musical exposure by making concert video clips immediately accessible. The result is that the live concert experience seems to have lost much of its mystery and intrigue for the new concert-goers.

Even so, my son just heard that Alexisonfire is going on tour this summer. It scares me that he is old enough to see a live show. We were talking about it in the car the other day when the Who came on the radio. We both started singing along. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so old. I remembered how great it was to experience my favourite band live at his age. The flood of memories hit me from that night at Rich Stadium, 1982. I realized that experiencing a “live” concert on YouTube isn’t so bad after all. Heck, he can even turn up the bass full blast.

I won’t say a word.

Post City Magazines’ resident low-tech mom, Jack Hourigan, is the host of Slice Network’s Three Takes and a freelance writer living in Toronto.

Jamming freshly picked berries into your life

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secretrecipeberry

There’s never a more delicious food to serve in July than an array of fresh berries. Blueberries, strawberries or raspberries can be added to your salads, main courses, grain dishes, desserts or simply enjoyed on their own. The best news is that they come fresh to our door from the Ontario Greenbelt. Berries are termed a “superfood,” which is full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre. Berries are low in fat, carbohydrates and calories. They help protect our immune system and may even help prevent heart disease, dementia and certain cancers as well as slowing the aging process.

Strawberry & Spinach Salad

Blueberry & Mango Strudel

Lemon & Raspberry Couscous

Rose’s tip: Pick your own!

The summer is the best time to forego the grocery store. Go pick your own fruits and berries at the farms around the GTA. They are fresher than the store-bought berries, since you are picking them yourself. They are often cheaper as well. A farm that I like is Whittamore’s Farm, just beside the Rouge River Valley in Markham, on Steeles. The 220-acre fruit and vegetable farm lets you pick your own fruits and veggies or, you can buy them at their little market, freshly picked that day. Get out of the city and let your whole family enjoy this little trip and find out how fruits and berries really grow. Kids can enjoy Fun Farm Yard or visit farm animals while you pick your harvest. They even do birthday parties, but bring your own cake.

Post City Magazines’ culinary columnist, Rose Reisman, is author of 17 cookbooks, a TV and radio personality and a health and wellness expert. Visit Rose at www.rosereisman.com.

Local band gives new meaning to divine inspiration

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ALAN WITZ, DRUMMER and one of the founding members of Junonominated funk fusion collective God Made Me Funky, says he remembers his years as a student at York Mills Collegiate Institute as a time when he was given the opportunity and encouragement to hone his craft through hours of practise and performance.

And now, with his band on the cusp of releasing their highly anticipated fourth album, Welcome To Nu Funktonia, it’s clear those years of hard work are finally paying off.

“Hopefully this will be the biggest album yet,” says Witz, “The first single is a remake of the Triumph classic ‘Lay It on the Line’ with Jully Black singing. It’s definitely big for us.”

The band is a fan favourite on the local music scene, something Witz attributes to the band’s unique sound and high-energy shows.

“Our live act is all about being loud and fun, more in the spirit of Earth, Wind & Fire or Kool & the Gang than that of a modern R and B act where everyone is very cool and dapper and not really moving very much,” he says.

REPORT CARD

STUDENT Alan Witz
GRADUATED York Mills Collegiate, 1989
BEST SUBJECT Physics
WORST SUBJECT English
CURRENT JOB Drummer, God Made Me Funky

From the group’s humble beginnings as a five-piece instrumental funk and jazz cover band, they have seen their star rise over the past 11 years as they began adding vocalists and rappers and performing their own songs.

Now as a nine-piece ensemble, they’ve played with a who’s who on the Canadian music scene, including Divine Brown, Melissa O’Neil and Bedouin Soundclash.

Witz’s passion for music runs deep, and he credits his mother’s early influence with setting him on his current path. She enrolled him in his first drum lessons at seven years old, and he has continued to play ever since.

“My mother played guitar in an all-female rock band in South Africa in the ’60s called the Amazons,” he says with a chuckle. “She thought that music was really important.”

By high school, Witz found himself performing as part of the school band and orchestra in productions of Grease and Little Shop of Horrors and also taking on gigs playing at local university parties with his band After Hours.

He says he recalls one teacher at that time in particular, Mr. Slobodian, who pushed him to take his musical performance to the next level.

“He was just a very likeable guy,” Witz recalls. “He was very big into jazz and had a way of inspiring students without yelling at them. He was a big influence on my playing.”

Now, with more than a decade of success under Witz’s belt, those early lessons are paying off.

Wine labels 101

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wine 1

YOU’RE STANDING IN the liquor store surveying a bewildering regiment of wines. What motivates you to reach for one particular bottle: price, cute little critter on the label, colour? Or do you actually pick up the bottle and read the label front and back? You should; otherwise, you might not be buying what you think you are.

For instance, if you wanted to support the local industry by buying an Ontario wine, look for the VQA symbol. If it’s not there, turn to the back label and you’ll see in miniscule letters the words “Cellared in Canada.” This tells you that the wine you are purchasing is made of up to 70 per cent offshore material blended with Ontario wine. So that Cabernet Sauvignon with the familiar looking Ontario label will be coming mainly from Chile or South Africa or California’s Central Valley.

Every wine label must contain the producer’s name and address, the name of the wine, grape variety, its colour, the vintage, the percentage of alcohol by volume and the contents of the bottle (usually 750 ml or 350 ml for half bottles, 1,000 ml for Tetra Paks). Even the size of the typeface for each entry is regulated.

The alcohol level will give you a clue as to the weight of the wine and usually the concentration of flavour and hefty mouth-feel. A wine of 13 per cent alcohol or greater will be full-bodied, such as a California Chardonnay, while a German Riesling at eight per cent alcohol will be light-bodied. But the alcohol reading is never exact since the level can change with time in the bottle, so producers are allowed a one degree tolerance in their declaration on the label.

The vintage date on the label tells you the harvest year. This, however, is not always the case when it comes to Icewine. If growers had to leave the grapes on the vine until January or February in order for the berries to freeze solid, they will date the wine from the previous year.

If you find no vintage date anywhere on the bottle this means that the wine is a blend of two or more different years. And a single grape variety noted on the label does not necessarily mean that the wine is made 100 per cent from that variety.

LCBO WINE BUYING TIPS

1. IN A VERTICAL ROW OF BOTTLES, TAKE THE LOWEST. IT’S COOLEST NEAREST THE FLOOR.

2. CHECK THE FILL. CHOOSE THE WINE WITH THE HIGHEST FILL LEVEL.

3. IF THE LABEL IS STAINED OR DISCOLOURED CHOOSE ANOTHER.

4. FOR SCREW CAPS, ENSURE THE SEAL IS INTACT. AVOID DENTED CAPS.

5. CHECK THE CORK’S CAPSULE FOR LEAKS.

Producers can blend in up to 15 per cent — 25 per cent of another variety depending on the local wine laws. If the percentage exceeds 15 per cent, then both grapes will appear on the label with the major partner written first (as in Henry of Pelham Cabernet Merlot).

The term “Meritage” on a label refers to a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. A white Meritage will be Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

Back labels can give you other useful information. Producers use them to offer technical information about the harvest and winemaking procedures, how long the wine was aged in oak and what the flavour profile is. They may also recommend the optimal serving temperature and food matching suggestions.

So next time you go wine shopping, study the label on the bottle. You can impress your dinner guests with your expertise.

Post City Magazines’ wine columnist, Tony Aspler, has written 14 books on wine and food. Tony also created the Ontario Wine Awards. He can be heard on 680News.

Make it a blockbuster night

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Screenshot2009 08 04at10.08.00AM
Screenshot2009 08 04at10.08.00AM

IN THE SUMMER of 2008, I hosted an outdoor movie night in the bowl at Cedarvale Ravine. The event was such a success, I have decided to turn it into a summer film series.

Watching a movie outside in the summer time is a truly magical experience.

If you are in the city for the summer months, what better way is there to spend an evening with your family than under the stars and the big screen. Pack a blanket, a few lawn chairs and bring your friends and neighbours.

We will kick off the 2009 Outdoor Movie Night season with a special Stone Soup and Duck Soup, on Saturday, May 30, at 6 p.m. at the Artscape Wychwood Barns.

A showing of the 1933 Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup, featuring the famous “mirror scene” with Groucho and Harpo Marx at 7:30 p.m. will be preceded by the second Stone Soup Supper, co-hosted with the Wychwood Barns Community Association and St. Paul’s MP Dr. Carolyn Bennett.

For $5 per person or $10 per family, you will be treated to a hearty meal of soup prepared by a dedicated team of neighbourhood volunteers. Please also bring bread, cheese or dessert to share, as well as cutlery and a bowl. During dinner and before the movie, talented local musicians will perform in the Wychwood Barns Park.

The    first    Stone    Soup community meal, held on Feb. 7, 2009, at the Wychwood Barns, drew a crowd of 400 for a home- cooked meal, live puppetry and the musical stylings of Moo’d Swing.

Throughout the summer, I will be showing movies in parks around Ward 21. Before each movie, there will be live music starting at 7 p.m. All of the outdoor movies will be free.

For more information, please contact my office at 416-392-0208.

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