This is Reel de la Pointe au Pic performed by Gaston Nolet. The previous examples were played on a one-row accordion. M. Nolet is playing a 3-row box. I don’t recognize the maker of his accordion. It’s a beauty.
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Éric Gagné on button accordion
I don’t know anything about Éric Gagné beyond the small number of videos available on YouTube. I love his playing though. This is a young master at work, carrying on the French Canadian button accordion tradition.
Check it out…
Here is another video. I’ve previously shared this one, but it is so good it deserves a lot of play. I love the way his whole body is engaged in the tune.
More trees coming down on Twenty Seventh Street
This morning more trees are being removed from the west side of Twenty Seventh Street. I was out at the gym and when I returned, the middle of the three trees across the street at #4 was down and a climber was up in the one on the left, taking it down piece by piece. This property has been severed (granted on appeal by the Ontario Municipal Board), and two houses will be built in that space.
The tree destruction began at #2, where the owner took down 6 mature spruce.
The property at #6 had numerous trees and shrubs around the small bungalow which was in then place. With the exception of one poplar tree in the back, everything has been removed to make room for a very large bungalow, which is now partially constructed.
When we moved here, around 8 years ago, the prevalence of mature trees was a defining feature of lower Twenty Seventh Street. I never imagined that anyone would think it would be a reasonable idea to take down so many trees, nor did I imagine the City would ever allow it. How disappointing.
Long Branch Parking Sweepstakes
I won big in the Long Branch parking sweepstakes today after several losing efforts. First of all, those of you not from these parts should know that half of our community has free street parking along the Lakeshore strip and the other half has pay parking. Curiously enough, our local Business Improvement District inexplicably only covers half of our community, and strangely, it’s the half that has pay parking. The way the pay parking works is with those machines that require you to put in some money or your credit card and in exchange, it spits out a ticket. You might think, oh I’m just popping into the store to pick up something (translate: support a local business), I don’t need to pay for parking. That would be bad thinking, because the City of Toronto has hired a force of lightning fast enforcement vultures who can swoop in and write you up a ticket before you’ve cashed out your purchase.
For quite some time, the machine on the south side of Lakeshore, just east of Twenty Seventh on the south side has been like a slot machine. Sometimes you put in a quarter and it gives you a ticket and everybody is happy. Other times it eats your money and simply shuts itself off with a self-satisfied click. No ticket for you buddy. Today I hit the jackpot. It ate my quarter. I turned the red “cancel” control, even though I firmly believed this to be a placebo. Normally nothing happens when I try this, and I imagine the machine is silently laughing at me. This morning, $2.00 in coins came out, and my ticket. Winner! Well, I’ve at least broken even. Maybe I’m a little ahead of the game.
When I got home, I called 311, presuming it will continue to dispense free money all day. The good fellow I spoke to promised to refer the matter to the Toronto Parking Authority. I’m sure we can expect a crew of parking machine technicians to be onsite any time.
This all reminds me of an incident which occurred way back in 1990. Friends of mine who lived in an apartment on Queen West, hosted regular Twin Peaks parties. We would get together, enjoy coffee and apple pie, and watch Twin Peaks as a group. One day the show was just getting started when we heard a loud banging coming from the apartment upstairs. I don’t mean the sound of someone hammering nails or something like that. This was a seriously loud banging. Finally we ventured upstairs to find out what was going on. The rocker dudes who lived upstairs had themselves a parking meter. (where did you get a parking meter?…..we pulled it out of the ground….oh…). They also had themselves a large sledge hammer and they were walloping the meter with the sledge in an unsuccessful effort to extract the coinage from the machine. Judging from the size of the meter, and considering that in those days parking meters took dimes, I made a quick mental calculation and decided their goal was maybe $5 in coins vs their effort, which was gargantuan. It brought to mind something my father once said to me. Son, he said, stealing things is really stupid, but if nothing will do you have to steal something, at least think big.
UPDATE
I had a 1:30 appointment at the Nite Owl down the street to get my hair cut. It was raining so I drove over, parked right in front, and put a loony in the machine. It gave me a ticket + $1.50 change. Winner! I’m tempted to go for a walk down Lakeshore with a handful of quarters just to see how much I can win.
The Lazy Allen Stories – a new one
The Latest installment of the Lazy Allen Stories is up. It’s called Lazy Allen’s Top 10. I hope you like it.
If you love these stories, please consider following the link and supporting this project on my Patreon page. Thank you Hobie Post for your support!
I’m a painter by the way (as regular visitors know). What the heck do I know about writing stories? I’ve never let not knowing what I’m doing get in the way before, so I’ve been making these up anyway. I plan to have a new story posted next month.
Tu Peux Cogner Mais Tu Peux Pas Rentrer
Here’s The King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier…
Front Porch Banjo
Today is cool but the sun is warm, and strangely, there is a break in the incessant construction activity next door and across the street. No forklifts, no generators, no saws, dump trucks, cement mixers, nada. I’m at home this week, enjoying my remaining vacation days, then returning for a final week at work before retirement from the work-a-day world kicks in.
I went for a good long swim this morning, and upon my return realized it just might be warm enough out to play some banjo on the front porch. I enjoy hanging out on the steps, watching the world go by, picking a few tunes. Today it turned out to be warm enough to play outside for about half an hour, after which I started feeling pretty cold and came back into the house.
Hopefully we’ll leave the cooler weather behind as March moves into April. Very soon it will be time to clean up the garden and start in on a few outdoor projects.
Check out Gaelynn Lea on NPR
Geez this is really beautiful.
Aftermath
Thursday’s ice storm was not a big deal here at 27th Street. However, north of Toronto was a different story. Both my brother (Mulmur) and my sister and her husband (Hockley) found themselves without power. My brother sent along these photos showing some of the tree damage near his place.
Keeping a tradition alive
Every year at this time we make up a batch of coffee can paska. We don’t do all the fancy braids on the top of the crust and we bake our Easter bread in old coffee cans which we use over and over again, a technique we learned from Tuffy P’s mom. It is seriously tasty. We always make lots so we can share. Warm bread makes friends.
27th Street 