The New Pornographers

Seeing The New Pornographers at CNE on Saturday brought back serious memories, a whole lot of 'Oh yeahhhh, I forgot about that!' including  this funny video where we were all puppeteers for the band, excuse my ill-advised beard flirtation.....I also ate some deep fried coca cola. Afterwards John Collins and I discussed the amazing qualities of the underdocumented 90s Vancouver music scene (ie. an insanely  pivotal 3 Day Stubble/Evaporators gig from 1992, I made the flier and probably have it wayyy deep in a dresser drawer somewhere) that stretched into the 2000s, damn, gets me thinking, hmmmm.
 
 
 

WET DIRT bandcamp, art and lyric booklet

I finally put the entire WET DIRT album up on Bandcamp, so now it's even easier to listen to it/download....this was my first Toronto band...

Coming across like an early seventies, slightly-fried, band of freaks, the rather excellent Wet Dirt sound suitably messed up on their album “Self Sabotage, The Early Years” with the stoned groove of “Bad Choices” setting out their stall with the chorus “Bad choices, made some bad choices, gonna make some more”. Add to this fine guitar playing, a solid rhythm section,and an ear for melody, and you have a perfect opening song and statement. Moving on, “The Chill Out Man” is weird and creepy, nonsensical word play, and a crawling guitar line creating a strange atmosphere, the song sounding like something Zappa could have created. As the album progresses the band get weirder, louder, more interesting by turns with “Hot Pink” managing all three at once. Elsewhere, “Invalids” is post-punk noise, angular guitar and an individual vocal delivery adding to the tension of the lyrics reminding me of Pere Ubu, whilst “Of Felt” is a song about the tactile pleasures of felt, as it should be. If you are searching for something different, energetic, angry and weird then this should hit the spot, a minor classic. (www.inyrdisk.com)
-Terrascope

Here's the link:
 http://wetdirt.bandcamp.com/





Here's the link to the art and lyric booklet that I made, too:
http://robertdayton.tumblr.com/post/57023214644/wetdirttheband-wet-dirt-cd-art-and-lyric

ZINE DREAM 6/ KARAOKE / et al

Hey folks, I will be selling the newly released Points Gray LP (which has been getting some great airplay on the legendary WFMU: the track "Growing Beards" sparks up the comment board with people weighing-in on male grooming more than anything really), The Canadian Romantic winking pic, doll (now for sale at Likely General, 389 Roncesvalles as well), book, maybe some weird old zines and issues of Drippy, some personal items  that I'll be purging from my home as I prepare to my move to Kitchener-Waterloo. Everything I can fit in a half table.
It's happening between 12 - 5 pm on Sunday Aug. 4th. at The Tranzac in Toronto !
292 Brunswick Ave. Pop by and try or buy or say hi.....
ZINE DREAM has stuff happening all weekend, check out their site:
http://zinedream.com/
Speaking of 'weird old zines' Broken Pencil has been running some of their early old zine reviews. They just ran an old review of my old zine Bunyon from the 90's.  Check it:
http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/todays-zine-review-bunyon-zine

Nice mentions of my Mom, it's been eight months since she died, she was a really good writer.

After ZINE DREAM 6 in the evening at 11 pm I will be hosting karaoke again at The Beaver (1192 Queen Street West), unusre what my outfit will be but karaoke always gets more than a tad wild there....
As part of International Zine Month, we’ll be posting a zine review a day on our blog in July. Today’s review is from Issue 3.
20 pages, Act #7  main creator: Robert Dayton  $2 plus $1 postage  317A Cambie St., Vancouver, BC  V6B 2N4
This is an excellent chronicle of the BC  hipster scene, as well as the travelogue of Rob’s journey through the ugly  landscape of his soul. This zine speaks  to the despair of being a thinking  creating person with such fervour that  it is almost like the kind of prayer  people make in their heads as they are  walking home from work after a  desperate, shitty day. That said, there are  a lot of comics in this zine including the  unforgettable Ackerman Dick story and  Shawn Bristow’s Just When I Thought  I Had A Grip On Life Love Rams It’s  Fist Up My Ass. Oh Yeah! Anyway,  Rob’s family obviously has a knack for  self confession, because the prose  that pushes this zine into the limelight  where you can see the zits and  loneliness are by Rob and his Mom.
Mom – who is, in fact, identified only  as Rob’s Mom – gets to start the zine  off with a letter about adjusting to her  recent move to small-town  Saskatchewan. This is a great piece of  inflected prose, every sentence is an  ([un?]intended) punchline. She should  write a book of this stuff, it would  definitely win the Leacock award for  humour. Particularly notable was the  portrayal of the “elderly gentleman”  who keeps driving by her new home in’  order to present up to date reports at  the town coffee shop on what the new  folk are doing. Hilarious. Now don’t  skip the rest of the zine, but Rob’s own  gut wrenching admissions from a diary  (fact or fiction, it don’t matter) come at  the very end. Eight pages of diary  entries see Rob move from love-sick  puppy to irrational dick-head while his  health steadily deteriorates under the  office flourescents and his band-mates  rebel against his authority. As if that  wasn’t enough, constant cameo  appearances by indie bands and zine  kids alike give this diary a lifestyles of  the poor and fucked up feel that both  undermines and speaks to the repetition  of being alive. A bunion is the inflamed  swelling of the first joint of the big toe,  but Bunyon is the shrinking swell that  never stops chafing.
- See more at: http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/todays-zine-review-bunyon-zine#sthash.6wuPAbCK.dpu
20 pages, Act #7  main creator: Robert Dayton  $2 plus $1 postage  317A Cambie St., Vancouver, BC  V6B 2N4
This is an excellent chronicle of the BC  hipster scene, as well as the travelogue of Rob’s journey through the ugly  landscape of his soul. This zine speaks  to the despair of being a thinking  creating person with such fervour that  it is almost like the kind of prayer  people make in their heads as they are  walking home from work after a  desperate, shitty day. That said, there are  a lot of comics in this zine including the  unforgettable Ackerman Dick story and  Shawn Bristow’s Just When I Thought  I Had A Grip On Life Love Rams It’s  Fist Up My Ass. Oh Yeah! Anyway,  Rob’s family obviously has a knack for  self confession, because the prose  that pushes this zine into the limelight  where you can see the zits and  loneliness are by Rob and his Mom.
Mom – who is, in fact, identified only  as Rob’s Mom – gets to start the zine  off with a letter about adjusting to her  recent move to small-town  Saskatchewan. This is a great piece of  inflected prose, every sentence is an  ([un?]intended) punchline. She should  write a book of this stuff, it would  definitely win the Leacock award for  humour. Particularly notable was the  portrayal of the “elderly gentleman”  who keeps driving by her new home in’  order to present up to date reports at  the town coffee shop on what the new  folk are doing. Hilarious. Now don’t  skip the rest of the zine, but Rob’s own  gut wrenching admissions from a diary  (fact or fiction, it don’t matter) come at  the very end. Eight pages of diary  entries see Rob move from love-sick  puppy to irrational dick-head while his  health steadily deteriorates under the  office flourescents and his band-mates  rebel against his authority. As if that  wasn’t enough, constant cameo  appearances by indie bands and zine  kids alike give this diary a lifestyles of  the poor and fucked up feel that both  undermines and speaks to the repetition  of being alive. A bunion is the inflamed  swelling of the first joint of the big toe,  but Bunyon is the shrinking swell that  never stops chafing.
- See more at: http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/todays-zine-review-bunyon-zine#sthash.6wuPAbCK
As part of International Zine Month, we’ll be posting a zine review a day on our blog in July. Today’s review is from Issue 3.
20 pages, Act #7  main creator: Robert Dayton  $2 plus $1 postage  317A Cambie St., Vancouver, BC  V6B 2N4
This is an excellent chronicle of the BC  hipster scene, as well as the travelogue of Rob’s journey through the ugly  landscape of his soul. This zine speaks  to the despair of being a thinking  creating person with such fervour that  it is almost like the kind of prayer  people make in their heads as they are  walking home from work after a  desperate, shitty day. That said, there are  a lot of comics in this zine including the  unforgettable Ackerman Dick story and  Shawn Bristow’s Just When I Thought  I Had A Grip On Life Love Rams It’s  Fist Up My Ass. Oh Yeah! Anyway,  Rob’s family obviously has a knack for  self confession, because the prose  that pushes this zine into the limelight  where you can see the zits and  loneliness are by Rob and his Mom.
Mom – who is, in fact, identified only  as Rob’s Mom – gets to start the zine  off with a letter about adjusting to her  recent move to small-town  Saskatchewan. This is a great piece of  inflected prose, every sentence is an  ([un?]intended) punchline. She should  write a book of this stuff, it would  definitely win the Leacock award for  humour. Particularly notable was the  portrayal of the “elderly gentleman”  who keeps driving by her new home in’  order to present up to date reports at  the town coffee shop on what the new  folk are doing. Hilarious. Now don’t  skip the rest of the zine, but Rob’s own  gut wrenching admissions from a diary  (fact or fiction, it don’t matter) come at  the very end. Eight pages of diary  entries see Rob move from love-sick  puppy to irrational dick-head while his  health steadily deteriorates under the  office flourescents and his band-mates  rebel against his authority. As if that  wasn’t enough, constant cameo  appearances by indie bands and zine  kids alike give this diary a lifestyles of  the poor and fucked up feel that both  undermines and speaks to the repetition  of being alive. A bunion is the inflamed  swelling of the first joint of the big toe,  but Bunyon is the shrinking swell that  never stops chafing.
- See more at: http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/todays-zine-review-bunyon-zine#sthash.6wuPAbCK.dpuf
As part of International Zine Month, we’ll be posting a zine review a day on our blog in July. Today’s review is from Issue 3.
20 pages, Act #7  main creator: Robert Dayton  $2 plus $1 postage  317A Cambie St., Vancouver, BC  V6B 2N4
This is an excellent chronicle of the BC  hipster scene, as well as the travelogue of Rob’s journey through the ugly  landscape of his soul. This zine speaks  to the despair of being a thinking  creating person with such fervour that  it is almost like the kind of prayer  people make in their heads as they are  walking home from work after a  desperate, shitty day. That said, there are  a lot of comics in this zine including the  unforgettable Ackerman Dick story and  Shawn Bristow’s Just When I Thought  I Had A Grip On Life Love Rams It’s  Fist Up My Ass. Oh Yeah! Anyway,  Rob’s family obviously has a knack for  self confession, because the prose  that pushes this zine into the limelight  where you can see the zits and  loneliness are by Rob and his Mom.
Mom – who is, in fact, identified only  as Rob’s Mom – gets to start the zine  off with a letter about adjusting to her  recent move to small-town  Saskatchewan. This is a great piece of  inflected prose, every sentence is an  ([un?]intended) punchline. She should  write a book of this stuff, it would  definitely win the Leacock award for  humour. Particularly notable was the  portrayal of the “elderly gentleman”  who keeps driving by her new home in’  order to present up to date reports at  the town coffee shop on what the new  folk are doing. Hilarious. Now don’t  skip the rest of the zine, but Rob’s own  gut wrenching admissions from a diary  (fact or fiction, it don’t matter) come at  the very end. Eight pages of diary  entries see Rob move from love-sick  puppy to irrational dick-head while his  health steadily deteriorates under the  office flourescents and his band-mates  rebel against his authority. As if that  wasn’t enough, constant cameo  appearances by indie bands and zine  kids alike give this diary a lifestyles of  the poor and fucked up feel that both  undermines and speaks to the repetition  of being alive. A bunion is the inflamed  swelling of the first joint of the big toe,  but Bunyon is the shrinking swell that  never stops chafing.
- See more at: http://www.brokenpencil.com/news/todays-zine-review-bunyon-zine#sthash.6wuPAbCK.dpuf

updated stuff

I totally forgot to mention that Pagelicker won a National magazine Award for our interview with Irvine Welsh! Yayyyy!
See that pic? That's me and Sipreano delivering the freshly pressed Points Gray LP to Zulu Records in Vancouver. He wrote the liner notes and there's also a download code and an art & lyric booklet by me and Julian Lawrence printed with blue ink on grey paper at Colour Code. 500 copies!!!
In Vancouver it is also available at Neptoon, Red Cat, AudioPile, Dandilion, and more!
In Toronto it is at June, Soundscapes, LP's LPs, Kops, and more!
You can order it and Balls Boogie through Tedium House/Revolver distribution who are the best:
http://www.tediumhouse.com/artists/points-gray
http://www.tediumhouse.com/artists/july-fourth-toilet

Recommended for people who enjoy music.
The Canadian Romantic winking photos are still available on Etsy, at Magic Pony (target market: young women) and Eyesore!
Ohhh and WFMU played Points Gray the other night! Love that station, so good!
Let me even things up with some bad news: I'm a narcissist in the wilderness.

worn out

I am worn out from last night's performance. That is good. Here's some video from our first show:

New Horizzzons - Zine Dream 6 Fundraiser

The members of New Horizzzons ready themselves in earnest for their next show,
The Zine Dream 6 Fundraiser at Izakaya (294 College Street, Toronto) on Thursday July 18!
Music is rawww demmmo of "Put It Out There" by New Horizzzons.




Playing with: FASSBENDER, BOING VOYAGE (formerly New Fries, Roseanne), and CREEP HIGHWAY!
$5-10 donation

cancel

NEW HORIZZZONS had to cancel our set tonight due to medical reasons. New Positions is playing instead.
I host karaoke at the Beaver Sunday night (1192 Queen west)

Canned Hamm scat



Thanks Paul Anthony!
(from the Canned Hamm show June 1st 2013 in Vancouver...a most wonderful audience and evening)

Points Gray Toronto Launch Tuesday June 11th

Come celebrate the release of this down beat record (with MP3 download code and art booklet)! Album to be listened to at 11 pm and sold for a special one night only price! Appropriately moody DJ set by DJ Body Beautiful (aka Robert Dayton) PLUS: a midnight candlelight recitation by The Canadian Romantic !

In Vancouver, BC during the late 90s Robert Dayton, Dan Bejar and Julian Lawrence recorded an album called "Offshore" under the name Points Gray. This is an album that the three of them are proud of even these years later. It has never been released on vinyl. In fact it has never been released in its' entirety!
But now it has!

The late 90s in Vancouver were an interesting and artistically exciting time.
Julian and Robert were going full steam with their act July Fourth Toilet, Canada's wildest and most unpredictable band ever with a mandate of no two shows the same and were in the midsts of recording their first album, an album where they wanted people to feel loved. And Robert had not yet started work in the comedic song and dance duo Canned Hamm.
Dan had released the second album "City Of Daughters" by his act Destroyer and he had just begun playing in the band The New Pornographers.
Robert approached Dan saying that acid folk music is long forgotten -oh, if only they knew what was to come a few years later, if only, though they were too unique to ever fit in anyways- and it would be good to give it a melodramatic downer damage vibe to suit all the intense lyrics that he had. Work was begun in earnest and it all seemed to flow easily and freely from the two of them. Julian joined them to provide important atmosphere with electric guitar, banjo, keys and samples and such.
It certainly has a distinctive quality and is rather unlike most albums.
They played only one show under the unfortunate monicker of AIDS- hey, it was the end of the 90s! No one had thought to put that unpleasant word in a bandname back then! They changed the name to Points Gray as they wanted something honest and direct that would not overshadow the music.
The album was recorded by Mark Gabriel at Method Studios engineered by July Fourth Toilet member Mark Gabriel.
It really informed their later work, certainly for Robert with the acts Canned Hamm, Hallmark, and Wet Dirt and for Dan with his This Night album.
With this LP Robert, who is also a visual artist, has designed a brand new cover using pen and ink and washes, it comes with a lyric and art booklet, quality mastering done by Josh Stevenson who always does an incredible job, he had previously mastered such things as a Destroyer reissue and the second July Fourth Toilet album as well as recording such acts as Sex Church.
With liner notes by Kevin "Sipreano" Howes who is neck-deep in a wide range of multimedia projects designed to preserve criminally undocumented Canadian music history. His reissue work w/ Seattle-based Light In The Attic on the Jamaica To Toronto series, Doug Randle, Sixto Rodriguez, Monks, and Motown's Mowest label has been featured in MOJO, Rolling Stone, Pitchforkmedia, The New York Times, The Globe & Mail, CBC, BBC, and NPR.

Points Gray Vancouver Release May 31st


Points Gray "Offshore" album release listening party at THEY LIVE VIDEO (4340 MAIN STREET) on FRIDAY, May 31th, 9 pm, album to be listened to at 10 pm and sold as well as art displayed, dj set by Sipreano (who wrote the liners) and a midnight candlelight recitation by The Canadian Romantic !
Come celebrate this down beat record (with MP3 download code)!

In Vancouver, BC during the late 90s Robert Dayton, Dan Bejar and Julian Lawrence recorded an album called "Offshore" under the name Points Gray. This is an album that the three of them are proud of even these years later. It has never been released on vinyl. In fact it has never been released in its' entirety!
But now it has!

The late 90s in Vancouver were an interesting and artistically exciting time.
Julian and Robert were going full steam with their act July Fourth Toilet, Canada's wildest and most unpredictable band ever with a mandate of no two shows the same and were in the midsts of recording their first album, an album where they wanted people to feel loved. And Robert had not yet started work in the comedic song and dance duo Canned Hamm.
Dan had released the second album "City Of Daughters" by his act Destroyer and he had just begun playing in the band The New Pornographers.
Robert approached Dan saying that acid folk music is long forgotten -oh, if only they knew what was to come a few years later, if only, though they were too unique to ever fit in anyways- and it would be good to give it a melodramatic downer damage vibe to suit all the intense lyrics that he had. Work was begun in earnest and it all seemed to flow easily and freely from the two of them. Julian joined them to provide important atmosphere with electric guitar, banjo, keys and samples and such.
It certainly has a distinctive quality and is rather unlike most albums.
They played only one show under the unfortunate monicker of AIDS- hey, it was the end of the 90s! No one had thought to put that unpleasant word in a bandname back then! They changed the name to Points Gray as they wanted something honest and direct that would not overshadow the music.
The album was recorded by Mark Gabriel at Method Studios engineered by July Fourth Toilet member Mark Gabriel.
It really informed their later work, certainly for Robert with the acts Canned Hamm, Hallmark, and Wet Dirt and for Dan with his This Night album.
With this LP Robert, who is also a visual artist, has designed a brand new cover using pen and ink and washes, it comes with a lyric and art booklet, quality mastering done by Josh Stevenson who always does an incredible job, he had previously mastered such things as a Destroyer reissue and the second July Fourth Toilet album as well as recording such acts as Sex Church.
With liner notes by Kevin "Sipreano" Howes who is neck-deep in a wide range of multimedia projects designed to preserve criminally undocumented Canadian music history. His reissue work w/ Seattle-based Light In The Attic on the Jamaica To Toronto series, Doug Randle, Sixto Rodriguez, Monks, and Motown's Mowest label has been featured in MOJO, Rolling Stone, Pitchforkmedia, The New York Times, The Globe & Mail, CBC, BBC, and NPR.

KARAZMA! on bandcamp!

 Check it out! Just put the first Canned Hamm album up on Bandcamp! Listening to it made me feel so much, including pride, it's been years and I enjoyed it! We will be posting more soon....:

http://cannedhamm.bandcamp.com/album/karazma

Gearing up for the Vancouver excitement....Points Gray LP launch at they Live Sat May 25th and the Canned Hamm show June 1st!

Yelp Stinks

After having a horrid experience at a bike repair place called Mike The Bike I decided to write as unbiased a  review as I could and put it on Yelp. I then couldn't find the review! Yelp has a filter feature where they decide to filter certain reviews that don't make it into the overall ratings. If anyone wants to read them they have to press a tiny button at the very bottom of the page then use a screen captcha. For Mike The Bike he had high ratings based on six reviews. After pressing the filter (or, more appropriately, unfilter, button) 12 very negative reviews show up (and one okay one)! Those reviews don't make it into the ratings system. This is rather unfortunate as I have now heard of two very negative dealings with Mike the Bike since my situation. If the reviews were posted honestly perhaps these situations could be avoided. I was only aware of this filter once I couldn't find my review. Two business owners have told me that Yelp approached them to buy ads and that would increase their ratings.
Feeling weird about posting a  negative review I thought I'd even things out by then writing  a positive review for Hot-n-Dog as I love the place, I know the owner, but just love what he's doing anyways, and no one has written about the changes that have happened to the place on Yelp. It's had very few reviews and, wouldn't you know it? It got filtered.
Further nastiness: I just got an automated e mail from Yelp highlighting such great  bike places as that 'cool guy' Mike The Bike.
My reviews are below.

Mike The Bike, Kensington Market, Toronto
This shop is known for inexpensively using recycled materials and it can be slipshod. Granted my old bike was a beater. I once brought it in there for gear repair, but the gears still never worked quite right. A year or so later, when my old bike went kablooey while shifting gears, I brought it back in again. The friendly employees (not Mike) looked at the bike and texted me a couple of days later  saying that it'd be better to just get 15 dollars trade-in as it was toast. I came in and accepted that agreement, but they couldn't find my bike as I needed the clip for my bike lock that was screwed on it, so they said they'd get it and get back to me. They never did. So I called and they said they'd find it and call me back. They never did.

I then came in with my new bike (Craigslist purchase, at the time Mike The Bike only had stuff like fixies for trade but they told me these fixies don't have brakes, knowing how nasty Toronto cabs are on the streets,  I prefer safety). The back tire had blown out and I wanted to ask about that lock clip. It was just Mike The Bike in the shop. I reasonably mentioned (ie. I wasn't a prick about it)  how I had been in and then called about the lock clip and he lost it on me. He threw a cardboard box full of lock clips down and told me to find it and get out. My jaw dropped in shock, so he told me to not be a baby and pout. I tried explaining to him what happened but he didn't want to hear it and told me to be quiet each time. When he started yammering I told him that maybe he should be quiet (but not in an angry way, I didn't lash out at him once). "This is my shop!" he said.  He told me that I was all hung up on an 80 cent part. I told him that I don't know which part it was in the box. "It's your bike!" I basically said that, yes, but this is one of many things in a box, I am not a bike expert, I am naive, I just wanted the part. When other customers came in he talked about me to them and tried to make me look like some sort of goof/idiot and laid on a smarmy niceness extra thick to them. He was really mind-fucking me, I'd been going there for two years and it was always a reasonable interaction before that. I wound up just grabbing some random lockclip from the box because I didn't know what was what. He told me that they aren't responsible for parts left behind on trades, yet it was only near the end of this-uh-altercation that I was finally allowed to finish my sentences and explain that it wasn't yet a trade when I originally asked for my lockclip.

However I still had 15 dollars trade. He agreed to fix my bike. I was shaking by this point. He also said, "I'm doing you a favour" in regards to the 15 dollar trade-in. I haven't heard someone pull that phrase on me since I washed dishes for the guy who's now head chef at The Atlantic. I asked him how much extra would it cost and how long it would take. He shook my hand and told me not to worry, "You've had a bad day." I don't know if he was being sarcastic or what. He sent me on my way without even so much as an invoice so I was freaked that I might not see my bike again. I told some people about what happened and it turns out that I am definitely  not the only one to have had troubled interactions with Mike The Bike.

I came back a few days later with a friend (as my casual muscle) and the nice employee told me that it wasn't ready yet. The next day it was. They said that they did a tune up and replaced the back wheel. Mike The Bike proudly extorted how I came in for a lock piece and got all that for no charge!!!- not mentioning my 15 dollars in store credit, of course. Riding my bike an hour later I found that the replaced back tire was too big for my fender and was scraping it, the pedals made a funny noise and the chain kept repeatedly falling off. I did have a two week warranty but I finally knew now to take it to someone else. Why didn't I do that before? Why did I keep going back to Mike The Bike? Naivete? Stupidity? Masochism? The fact that my bike kept breaking down near Mike The Bike's shop? I don't know. But I have a nice bike now and I want it treated well.

The new bike repair man that I  took my bike to was shocked at Mike The Bike's fix-it job , walked me through how Mike screwed up and how it could deteriorate my bike. He got it riding smoothly (with a new, proper replacement  back tire) and safely for a price.
I hope that this learning experience has given me the maturity of knowing when to walk away from a situation.
Avoid Mike The Bike. That is, unless you enjoy mind-games and shoddy workmanship from a  real piece of work.


Hot N Dog, 216 Close Ave., Toronto
There's been big changes at Hot N Dog these past few months since cartoonist Keith Jones took over. Most immediately apparent is how unique this teeny spot looks! It's like entering a full colour comic book! Wildly bright signs and slogans and benches and crazy characters with word balloons, a big wooden airplane hanging from the ceiling. It ain't just a shop, it's a part of a magic land plunked down into Parkdale. Or maybe, unlike those pizza places that are so insecure they want to be Brooklyn (I want to give them a hug and tell them to be themselves), it is a natural part of Parkdale as it integrates itself into the hood feeding all those high school students down the block (weekday lunch time is the high traffic time). This is a mystical centre that needs to be cherished, Tee Oh can be disparate with its' wonderful places, we got to really nurture them. The dogs are dirt cheap, not teeny tiny, with full veg option, including the chili dog, a personal favourite. He has been experimenting with a mac n cheese dog as well. Not grilled or boiled but steamed. Tonnes of toppings, the rainbow sprinkles topping has been discontinued but he still has hickory sticks and much much more...he just got a juicer as a refreshing healthy option (try the beet/apple/carrot), perhaps it will counter-act the unhealthy options! Oh, there's nachos, as well! Keith sells his own comics here and plans to do a special Hot n Dog newspaper and has other wild plans as well. I really hope that this review doesn't get filtered like my Mike The Bike review did so that all can be in the know.