Utilitaire-12 task #2: Bike to a concert = Combo Royale at the Imperial.
I first heard Combo Royale because my friend M is friends with the guitarist. I thought at the time that their bluegrass/swing/ska selves would be really good to swing dance to. The singers are terrific. The horns are jazzy. In lieu of a drummer, they have a tap-dancing lady. What more could you want? Apparently my thoughts have power, because they've started showing up more and more at swing dances and cabarets and so forth.
Case in point: the adorable couple C & S were celebrating their combined 70th birthday at the monthly Imperial Swing & Blues night, and Combo Royale were playing! I was already planning on making the Imperial the second day of my birthday nonad, but this made it even better.
And then I nearly didn't go. I was futzing about, doing some marking and planning for the week, when I realized it was nearly 10 pm and I was still at home. On an ordinary evening, I would have said "Oh well; what's on Mystery?" but I was determined to not let the nonad down.
Due to the warmish winter we've been having, it was a nice night for biking. Sunday nights the traffic is not as horrible; even the traffic horror that is Dundas near Spadina seemed like a piece of cake. I was making great time, even cycling easily in 7th gear. That should have been a clue that I was being helped along, but all I thought on my way over was that I was really in the cycling zone. Of course, when I was ready to come home, the wind was no longer at my back and it was third gear kind of ride all the way home. I was a wee bit tired when I finally got home.
But that's for later. I arrived during the first band break, but they played two more sets and were excellent as always. Someone brought a pinata for C & S. There aren't enough pinatas in my social life.
Unfortunately all the pictures I took of the evening are lost due to a faulty SD card, so my photographic evidence is not a picture of the band but a picture of the pinata, with me taking pictures in the background, as shown by the arrow.
Updated: Dean found a picture of me and the band! Sweet!
Mileage: from my apartment to Dundas & Yonge and back: 9.3 km/5.8 miles.
This ride is counting as one of my night entries. My lighting system should consist of a Planet Bike Beamer headlight, but many months ago I put it In A Safe Place and naturally I can't find it. I'm using a MEC Turbo Turtle white LED for the front light. It's bright enough to be noticed by oncoming traffic, but I really need to find the other light, which has more oomph. My rear light is a Planet Bike Superflash which I have mounted on the Opus's rear rack. It has plenty of oomph. I cannot be a ninja cyclist with that thing. I like that I can remove the lights in dicier neighbourhoods. Not that Yonge & Dundas is that dicey, but let's say the people in the area are possibly more inebriated and therefore more prone to "liberating" things off bikes.
So here is how my control card looks now.
I first heard Combo Royale because my friend M is friends with the guitarist. I thought at the time that their bluegrass/swing/ska selves would be really good to swing dance to. The singers are terrific. The horns are jazzy. In lieu of a drummer, they have a tap-dancing lady. What more could you want? Apparently my thoughts have power, because they've started showing up more and more at swing dances and cabarets and so forth.
Case in point: the adorable couple C & S were celebrating their combined 70th birthday at the monthly Imperial Swing & Blues night, and Combo Royale were playing! I was already planning on making the Imperial the second day of my birthday nonad, but this made it even better.
And then I nearly didn't go. I was futzing about, doing some marking and planning for the week, when I realized it was nearly 10 pm and I was still at home. On an ordinary evening, I would have said "Oh well; what's on Mystery?" but I was determined to not let the nonad down.
Due to the warmish winter we've been having, it was a nice night for biking. Sunday nights the traffic is not as horrible; even the traffic horror that is Dundas near Spadina seemed like a piece of cake. I was making great time, even cycling easily in 7th gear. That should have been a clue that I was being helped along, but all I thought on my way over was that I was really in the cycling zone. Of course, when I was ready to come home, the wind was no longer at my back and it was third gear kind of ride all the way home. I was a wee bit tired when I finally got home.
But that's for later. I arrived during the first band break, but they played two more sets and were excellent as always. Someone brought a pinata for C & S. There aren't enough pinatas in my social life.
Unfortunately all the pictures I took of the evening are lost due to a faulty SD card, so my photographic evidence is not a picture of the band but a picture of the pinata, with me taking pictures in the background, as shown by the arrow.
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| Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte. The arrow is mine. |
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| Photo credit: Dean Villafuerte. |
This ride is counting as one of my night entries. My lighting system should consist of a Planet Bike Beamer headlight, but many months ago I put it In A Safe Place and naturally I can't find it. I'm using a MEC Turbo Turtle white LED for the front light. It's bright enough to be noticed by oncoming traffic, but I really need to find the other light, which has more oomph. My rear light is a Planet Bike Superflash which I have mounted on the Opus's rear rack. It has plenty of oomph. I cannot be a ninja cyclist with that thing. I like that I can remove the lights in dicier neighbourhoods. Not that Yonge & Dundas is that dicey, but let's say the people in the area are possibly more inebriated and therefore more prone to "liberating" things off bikes.
So here is how my control card looks now.
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