Dumb Shit We Do As Teenagers (or How I Saved Stuffed Animals on Black Monday)
Published August 25, 2010 @ 20:34 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

If you've been reading this blog the past week, you know I've been sharing old tales from my three years working a game booth at the CNE. This story is about the dumb shit you do as a teenager when you think you're fearless and feel invincible.

We called it Black Monday. Labour Day Monday was always the last and busiest day of the CNE. It was also well known as a day when crowds of youth would come to the midway and cause mischief.

In order to attract people to our game booth, the largest stuffed animals were hung around the booth as bait. They were hung from the rafters with S-hooks and string. That's it. On Black Monday, the game booth manager could expect the attempted thievery of a prize or two or three. In 1991, I was the game booth manager for Pop-a-Ball.

I can't remember what the wholesale cost of the jumbo prizes was but I think they were about $25 each. For whatever reason, we managers believed we had to protect these things with our lives. On Black Monday, the volume of business was staggering but I was obsessed with keeping my eyes on the prizes. No punk kid was going to snatch one of my giant pandas or pink elephants... not on my watch.

I remember one especially manic sequence in particular. One group of teens ripped down a prize on one end of the booth while another group grabbed a stuffed animal on the other end. Both parties began walking away in an attempt to blend into the thick crowd. I had to be a cowboy. I didn't even hesitate to think about whether these petty thugs were carrying knives or worse, I just knew they had property that I was to protect. I jumped into the crowd and snatched back the first prize, threw it in the booth and made a bee-line to the second. Again, I think I startled the guy making off with the loot because I came upon him out of no where and ripped the animal out of his hands. With both prizes back in the booth and with my blood curdling with adrenaline, I jumped back in and prepared for retribution. None came and I had saved Ardo some cash. More importantly, I protected my territory and won another battle for the good guys.

Today, I wouldn't risk a beating or my life for the sake of a couple of prizes, but teenagers seldom use such logic to their advantage. I was young, dumb and in charge that Black Monday. I haven't felt as powerful since.

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CNE Concerts: From Motorhead to Alice Cooper
Published August 23, 2010 @ 11:44 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

You know what I miss about working the CNE? The concerts at the old CNE Grandstand or Exhibition Stadium.

Working at the CNE you could always expect a concert crowd before and after that night's show at Exhibition Stadium. The concert ticket got you into the Ex for free so concert goers would often arrive early to play games on the midway and would do the same on their way out.

These concerts produced much of the clientele for the evening. The sort of crowd we got depended upon the style of music being performed that night. When Motorhead and other metal acts played, it was a typical head banger crowd with lots of leather and those classic rock tee shirts with the white sleeves and black chest. When the Cure played it was a sea of black. A band like YES (or Emerson, Lake and Palmer as the case may be) brought out the middle aged crowd. For the record, the big spenders were the Rolling Stones fans there to catch the Steel Wheels tour. There were many, they were a variety of ages and they seemed to always have a lot of cash.

There was a spot I would visit when acts I liked were performing where I could comfortably chill and hear the concert. I couldn't see the stage, but I was close enough that it sounded great. I have fond memories of taking a couple of hours off on a busy night to hear the entire Alice Cooper set. I wasn't quite eighteen but I liked it.

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Fear the Ardo
Published August 21, 2010 @ 08:40 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

Are you going to the Canadian National Exhibition today? I'm not, but I do have a CNE story to share.

We called him Ardo and we feared him. Ardo was my boss when I worked a game booth at the Ex from '89-'91 and his persona was thug-like, a tough dude you didn't want to mess with. He did his best never to let you catch him smiling. With every snarl and command his legend grew.

The typical game booth attendant working one of his several games was either a teenager or in his or her very early 20s. To keep us working hard and in line, Ardo decided very early on that presenting himself in such an intimidating fashion was his best bet. He was right. Your biggest fear was getting an earful from Ardo or having someone escalate an issue or incident to him. People told tales of what Ardo once did to this guy or that guy. Fear was his motivational tool of choice.

This worked the first year I worked for Ardo, but at some point during my second year Ardo let his guard down. I was permitted to see him in a more relaxed state and he even began laughing in my presence. For Ardo, it was all about trust. Until he trusted you, he played the tough guy as well as any cast member on The Sopranos. Once you earned his trust, you could clearly see he was indeed a softy underneath it all. Ardo's bark, in all it's tenacity, was far worse than his bite. I'm pretty darn certain he's there right now glaring at his new game booth attendants while his legend permeates the midway.

In a previous CNE story, a girl who worked for me at Pop-a-Ball chimed in with a comment. Betty wrote the following:

I love reading your CNE stories every year. I worked with you at Pop-A-Ball and went to highschool with Ms. BlondAmbition (she got me the job). I also worked at the gambling booth right next door. HATED working the microphone!! I used to see Ardo for many years after that setting up every year. I remember him always threatening us about handling his cash, but his nephews (or maybe they were cousins) would steal from him right under his nose at the gambling booths.

The legend of Ardo grows...

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Louis Armstrong, Me and Summer Nights in Toronto
Published August 19, 2010 @ 21:59 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

The Ex opens tomorrow. That's a swell excuse to delve into the vault and share my memories of the CNE from when I worked there as a game booth attendant in my teens.

I typically closed up the booth at the end of the night. The park would close, I'd wait for the midway to empty and then begin bringing down the flash. The money would go to the office, the giant stuffed toys would come down from all around the booth and I'd lock up the game.

The game I worked and eventually managed was very close to the Polar Express. Every single night without failure the Polar Express' killer sound system would play Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" at the very end of the night. Every single night while I locked up the booth I'd find myself alone in the summer night with Louis Armstrong wafting though my ears. It was the ideal song to penetrate the silence in the wee hours of the night after another long day of hustling and bustling. It brought a wonderful blend of calmness and hope to an otherwise chaotic arena.

To this day I can't hear a note of that song without instantly returning to the summers of '89, '90 and '91. It remains a personal favourite.

[ripped straight outta this blog, originally shared on August 26, 2004]

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680CFTR, SkyDome Bug Delay and CNE Conklin Carnies
Published August 18, 2010 @ 21:14 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

The Canadian National Exhibition opens Friday. I used to work The Ex, and I've got many stories about my three years manning a game booth. This is just one of them...

During the height of Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour in 1990, I was working a game with a Madonna-wannabee. She copied that complete look, including that fake-blonde pony tail. At this time, Ms. Blonde Ambition was also my manager and in charge of managing our shifts.

This particular game had a microphone and one of us was to be on the mic at all times creating excitement and attracting the next sucker. I was on when I saw a couple of people decked out in 680 CFTR gear handing out swag. In a shameless effort to score some free goods, I hollered "CFTR Rules!" into the mic and got their attention. It worked because they came right over and handed me two tickets to see the Jays at SkyDome that night and attend a Pizza Pizza party beforehand.

Ms. Blonde Ambition had to rearrange the schedule so I could get my free pizza and check out the Jays but she had a condition. She wanted the second ticket. I agreed and that night I gorged on pizza and witnessed the first bug delay in Blue Jays history. The game is rather infamous for the 35-minute bug delay and I'm proud to have been a part of it.

Here's where this tale from the Ex kicks into high gear. The next night I was closing up the game booth after midnight when I saw Ms. Blonde Ambition's boyfriend walking towards me. He was clearly drunk and was slurring something to the effect that I should stay away from his girl and he heard I asked her out. There was no point reasoning with this guy. He was there to kick my ass.

I was sixteen and not the biggest dude around. This guy was older, bigger and full of booze. It was after midnight at the CNE and I needed back-up. Where was I to turn?

A Conklin carny was closing up his booth and I quickly approached him and in as few words as possible told him Ms. Blonde Ambition's boyfriend's was there to pummel me and I needed a little help. Even though I wasn't working for Conklin, there was a code amongst us carnies. We looked out for each other. I'll never forget what this 100 pound, 40-something year old, mullet-headed carny said and did next. He picked up a pipe, pounded it into his hand and called back behind the trailer to a collection of carnies enjoying an end-of-day brew, "You guys ready for a fight?".

This collection of Conklin carnies came through for me that night when I needed them most. I worked for a rival company, but we were all in the same gang. They saw I was in trouble and they took up the cause. To this day I'm unsure how that night ended for Ms. Blonde Ambition's boyfriend, but he didn't bother me again for the remainder of the CNE. I'm guessing he learned his lesson...carny style.

[this story originally published August 25, 2004 @ 08:10]

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Least Inspiring Toronto Mayoral Race Ever
Published August 6, 2010 @ 13:18 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

I don't know if it's because we're in the middle of a very busy, hot summer, but from where I'm sitting this is the least inspiring Toronto mayoral race I can remember.

The simple fact this is the first I've written about this election to choose Toronto's new mayor since Rob Ford announced his candidacy tells you a great deal. That was March 16th. Since then, I haven't been motivated to write a single word about an election taking place October 25, 2010, except to chew Rocco Rossi out for his Sympatico spam.

Last I checked there were 34 candidates. They are:

• Achampong, Rocco
• Andrews, Don
• Babula, George
• Ball, Christopher
• Barton, Andrew
• Campbell, Douglas
• Castillo, Jaime
• Clarke, Kevin
• Cole, Keith
• Cottle, Charlene
• Firth, Selwyn
• Flie, Michael
• Ford, Rob
• Ghazi, Abdullah-Baquie
• Gomberg, Howard
• Hossain, Monowar
• Lee, Dewitt
• Letonja, John
• Macklin, Carmen
• Magee, Colin
• McMillan, Jim
• Pampena, Joseph
• Pantalone, Joe
• Rossi, Rocco
• Smitherman, George
• State, Mark
• Steinberger, Tibor
• Syed, Himy
• Taylor, Phil
• Thomson, Sarah
• Vallance, David
• Wadhwa, Ratan
• Walker, Daniel
• Yeung, Sonny

In reality, our next mayor will be one of the following: Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi, George Smitherman or Sarah Thomson. You already know what I think about Rob Ford, but none of the other four leading candidates inspire me, either. If George Smitherman wins, it's not because he ran a stellar campaign. It's because he was the best of a bad lot.

Who would you vote for in this 2010 Toronto mayoral race?

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Power's Out in Toronto
Published July 5, 2010 @ 16:59 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

The power seems to be out in most of Toronto.

I'm told an explosion at a transformer station has caused a widespread power outage affecting large parts of the downtown and west end.

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Lessard Park Gets New Playground
Published July 3, 2010 @ 09:36 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

The kids have always enjoyed Lessard Park. It's a little park in west Toronto on top of the ravine that leads down to Etienne Brule Park by the Humber River near Old Mill. Now that I think of it, I used to enjoy Lessard Park as a kid as well.

It's got a big field and baseball diamond, and they've just torn down what I thought was a pretty good playground and replaced it with a brand new one.

We dropped by at the end of our walk last night to see how the construction was going. There was enough in place that the kids could start breaking in the new funnery.

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Underground Bars in Toronto
Published July 2, 2010 @ 10:12 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

Do you know what I don't write about nearly often enough? Underground bars in Toronto. I'm not really a bar or pub guy, and these things are underground. How am I supposed to know they exist?

This entry was written by Samantha. I just felt you all needed to learn about underground bars in Toronto. Everything after this line was authored by her in this guest post.

As I am sure you guys already know, Toronto boasts a solid nightlife full of vibrant and colourful people. The majority of the clubs found in Toronto play the same old songs with the same old people. However, what you might not know is Toronto has one of the fastest growing underground nightlife scenes Canada has to offer. If you are looking for a pub or bar that is a little less-known and less mainstream, follow my list found below.

The Hidden Lounge

The Hidden Lounge is an underground supper club that is located in a downtown loft. They host monthly dinner parties, "which consist of a group of strangers gathering together to share their passion of gourmet food, good company and interesting conversation". This makes for a really cute date provided both of you feel comfortable making fools of yourselves.

They are open Sunday through Tuesday and can also accommodate private functions.

All their food is prepared in house and nothing is bought pre-made or in bulk. This allows for an ever changing menu. It's rare that I see the same thing on the menu the next time I decide to throw my diet out the window. Another awesome idea I thought The Hidden Lounge brought to the Toronto nightlife is the BOYB concept. For a night spot, I think this could be very risky, but interesting none the less.

The Anti-Restaurant

If you are an avid foodie than the Anti-Restaurant is the place to be. Believe it or not, the Anti-restaurant is an invite only restaurant. Before planning a supper there, you must fill out a questionnaire that asks for your profession, three favourite restaurants in TO, and what your last meal on earth would be. If they like your answers, you get on the e-visit list, if not, see you next time.

C Lounge

The C Lounge is a spa-inspired bar, the first of its kind in Toronto. There is an outside water area, which is surrounded by cozy VIP cabins and couches. It reminds me, in some ways, to the cafe in the Wynn Encore Las Vegas.

If the partying is getting too intense, or the music too loud, take a break to get your hair or makeup touched up by one of their beauty specialists. If you're a guy and do not need a beauty touch up, their massage parlour is sure to loosen you up. C Lounge offers a wide variety of unique services that cannot be found anywhere else in the city.

Devil's Martini

One of the top rated martini bars in Toronto is Devil's Martini. You can dance, drink and party with some of Toronto's coolest locals. The drinks are truly phenomenal. They have some martinis on that list that I never knew even existed. I drank a few martinis in my time but never with the creativity and presentation of those found at Devil's Martini. It is a great place for a pre-meal drink or a quick night cap after a date.

Seven Lounge

One of the newest nightclub/bars in Toronto is Seven Lounge. Featuring sleek, modern interior and a floating staircase, many customers report that one of the main reasons they visit is to see the unique styling and décor. The decor is not the only thing that they have to boast about. They have the best view of the Toronto skyline as well as a barbecue pit. How many clubs do you know have BBQ pits? They will also play around with the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins. I am excited to see what they have in store for Wrath!

Only time will tell if they will be able to sustain the recent success. However, they definitely have the potential to keep growing and earn their spot in Toronto's powerful nightlife.

This is just a brief look at what Toronto's nightlife has to offer. I definitely urge you to check out these bars in the near future. Please let me know what you think. I'd love to know if you guys share the same feelings as I do.

Writer's Bio:
Samantha Wheeler
Freelance Writer
Samantha.wheeler3@gmail.com

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Did G20 Toronto Black Block Get Green Light to Rampage?
Published June 30, 2010 @ 19:27 in Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus

This video features Joe Wenkoff, a photo journalist who describes his experience following the black block as they rampaged through the streets of Toronto during the G20 Summit.

Watch it now, then meet me after the jump.

20,000 police and security officials and a $1 billion security budget were not enough to stop 75-100 black block anarchists from smashing windows and torching police cars during a 1.5 hour rampage. The Black Block were able to rampage through the street for 24 blocks until they reached the 'official protest zone' where they quickly changed clothes dispersed through the crowd of peaceful protesters and then left the site.

The police were fully aware of the rampage and watched the black block from a distance at a number of locations. It wasn't until they had dispersed into a crowd of peaceful protesters who thought that they were in a sanctioned area that the police took action beating innocent people with batons and spraying them with pepper spray.

Why was this allowed to happen? Police abandoned police cars at Bay and King when they didn't need to, why? Was this allowed to happen so the Harper government could justify an outrageous security bill when there was no credible terrorist threat (according to CSIS)? Who led this group of vandals? Were they infiltrated by government paid provocateurs as was the case in Montebello where police with masks and rocks attacked their own riot squad?

Compare and contrast how the police dealt with the black block with what went down at Queen and Spadina. It doesn't make sense to this Torontonian. Something's rotten...

If you read this blog, you know I rarely get political. Most of my entries are about our local sports teams, radio, television, movies or interesting and funny slices of the interwebs and every day life. I just can't shake this feeling in the pit of my stomach that the security cost was justified by letting the black block burn a few cars and break a few windows. Then, in a horrible juxtaposition, we watched peaceful protesters and innocent participants forcefully shut down and detained.

I can't be the only one who thinks something stinks here...

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