some tour photos from my phone

all of those were yummy.


mimmi milkshake cookies.


new ride.


www.thesearebands.com


down with the clown.


super-chexx.


"it's a big hat. it's funny."


finally got there, hard repped by beeps.


tempeh cone-jo's from watercourse in denver.


cream it, you mean?




bunch-a brew's.


pacific north west: coffee snob heaven.


vegan donuts!


there's my pep pep!


"it's sad to fall asleep. it separates people. even when you're sleeping together, you're all alone."


everyday is like a vegan sundae.


houston.


toby the game-show host.

"let's go make fun of the vegans and their crazy lifestyle"

i just came across these photos from our stop in ottawa this fall. i was lucky enough to reconnect with my acting-childhood-punk-rock-big-sister mandi lunan. mandi has been living in ottawa for a few years, and has recently launched her very own vegan bakery under the moniker auntie loo's treats. my friend and fellow vegan / adored photographer / show promoter / jaded record store owner / avid tweeter / zine interview rejecter (i'm holding you to that) shawn scallen picked me up and took me by mandi's bakery, where we mealed hard on some chinese take out and these delicious chocolate brownies with peanut butter icing. fresh and hot out of the oven!



and while i'm reppin' my vegan pals new endeavors, i may as well take this opportunity to direct you to my pal ross' new blog WWW.VEGANEATSBLOG.COM! we made a bitchin' brunch on new years day.

and if you don't know the quote referenced in the title, please watch this:

breakfast with beeps round 2

i have been fortunate enough to spend quite a bit of time this summer in winnipeg with a few of my best vegan and nonvegan foodie bro's beeps, nasty nate and fat mat.

i'm way behind on this shit, check out what the internet's favourite site said about this hang

here are some photos.

xVEGAN BROSx

epic southwest scramble on roasted potatoes.

homemade strawberry *lime vanilla jam!

vegan tofulati rootbeer floats!

fried banana tempura!

it's been a summer

i still have photos from warped tour and alaska to go through, but i finally went through the last of my summer photos otherwise, and found a handful of them i really enjoyed.

i liked this one of brooks a whole lot.


CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST

they say "i'll see you at the top, boy"

Earlier this summer I took a spontaneous last minute bus trip to New York City. I decided at about 7pm one Friday evening, on my way to see the Blue Jays lose, that I'd take the red eye bus over night to the big apple. My only real plans or intentions were to see Paint It Black play a couple shows, but I hadn't really given myself time to plan anything. I took a ton of photos, and have been neglecting to post them on account of the fact I started writing an up to the minute diary of how the weekend went. This was first spoiled when I got to the first show and forgot to write about things as they happened, so I did my best to recount them the next day on the train. The whole thing got blown when I got to providence and hung out with my friend Karl and some of the dudes from Soul Control. Jim talked me into getting this great program called "Quick Pull", and when I tried it out, I forgot to save the notes I had typed on the bus that day, sooooo I lost everything since I had saved last. Anyways, here's the most of it. oh, and don't forget to look at the photos >>>HERE<<<


11:48pm
- Driving out of toronto past the skydome. The jays blew it tonight the second that I left the game to get home and pack.
- just ate an urb herb sweet potato muffin
- working away at my 2L tropicana orange juice (lots of pulp). Already starting to get warm and sick of OJ
- listening to silversun pickups new record "swoon"
- texting and bbming away
- stoked on the power outlet, my phone was dying when I got on the bus

12:35am
- in oakville I think
- using my flannel and jacket as a pillow against the window
- listening to camera obscura - my maudlin career

2:35am
- slept a bit so far, already feeling cramped
- arriving at the border
- threw out the OJ

3:00 am
- leaving border
- listening to attack in black - years
- when I got back on the bus, a woman was in my seat. (I assumed that everyone would sit back in their same seats) and now my new seat seems to wobble a bit and sitting behind a dude with an overwhelming aftershave smell- hate that

3:13 am
- buffalo terminal
- switched over to my US sim card
- smelly dude moved forward one seat, and so did I. no more wobbles, and this seat has an outlet

8:27 am
- just woke up, the bus is stopped at some sort of highway side services for a courtesy stop
- I see a sign for burger king and contemplate 'waking up with the king' but refrain

11:06 am
- still driving, somewhere in the new jersey outskirts of NYC
- listening to Frank Turner
- really could use a bathroom right about now

3:51 pm
- sitting in the subway station at houston and 2nd ave with claire
- went to curly's for brunch on the recomendation of andy pib
- had tofu scram, pancakes, curly fries and fried marinated tofu
- walked through street market towards houston
- stopped at joe strummer mural
- went to supreme and bought pat a hat
- watched a basketball game in the park

4:40 pm
- just leaving penn station on the LIRR to lindenhurst
- claire parted ways and headed home to the bronx
- eating red bamboo crispy soul chicken nuggets
- listening to polar bear club

6:56 pm
- standing in line out front of the moose lodge hall in lindenhurst (long island) new york
- got off the train and found a super market to use the atm and bathroom
- bought a bottle of water, naked smoothie, and 2 bags of peanut chews
- took a cab to the venue and chatted with the eclectic female driver who really liked talking about her 71 bonneville

Notable events from the show and the rest of saturday night
- the show was being run by over precautious suburban long island mom & pop security, who gave me a hard time about my bag and couldn't understand my canadian license or passport
- spent most of the show hanging with andy and some of his friends at the merch table
- sold merch for paint it black for a while after andy almost punched a security dad who told him he couldn't eat pizza in the venue, which he ordered on account of the fact the food provided by the venue was all meat oriented.
Quote:
"You gotta get that out of here, no outside food or drink!" - SD
"Our whole band is vegetarian and we can't eat any of the food here so ordering pizza was our only option" - andy
"I don't care what you are, get that outta here!" - SD
*me holding andy back from hitting the dude*
Many speeches, insults, jokes and song dedications followed both on and off stage
- talked to dan while he wrote setlists and tried not to fan out on him too hard
- met fellow canadians ally and claire (from st catherines) who know my pal andrea, who told me they'd be at the show as well. I tried to talk them into coming to providence and driving me home and they seemed to be somewhat down
- saw this girl named heather, friend of my dear friend stacy smallwood, who's couch I slept on when I flew to nyc for the first hwm reunion show weekend, but didn't know if it was her with drastically blonde hair. Luckily it was her, I said hi, she's a babe.
- ceremony played and kids lost their shit, which led to security turning the lights on and emerging into the pit. The singer encouraged kids to get up front and sing along and the show went on
- paint it black ripped, great crowd reaction
- I caught a falling PA speaker at one point
- crime in stereo were awesome too, glad I got to see them on long island. Kids went nuts and security got pissed a few times
- chatted with a photographer after the show, hoping she's got some good photos from this show that I can post here after
- saw LIHC vet, PMA enthusiast anthony race and chatted a bit
- randomly saw my old friend cameron, who has been living in england since quitting the sleeping, just happened to be home visiting family in long island
- chatted with the crime in stereo bassist after the show about numerous failed attempts to tour together and hopeful future opportunities
- got a ride to brooklyn with canadian girls for secret late night paint it black show in a punk loft
- arrived in brooklyn before the bands did, so decided to head over to foodswing for bbq drumsticks and "punk fries" (fries with vegan cheese and bacon bits, ranch dressing to dip)
- randomly ran into canetti at foodswings, who was working some brand new radio session recording around the corner

1am
- got back to the punk loft just as PIB started. Most punk show I've probably ever experienced. Took pics and video.
- andy introduced me to this dude ian, who seems to be the nyc "punk boss" who runs all the diy shows and this loft living community
2:30 am
- took a shuttle bus to the L train subway back to manhatan to meet up with katiebrown and sleep on her couch

Sunday morning notable events
- woke up around 1030
- decided to book a train from boston to nyc monday morning, and a porter airlines flight from newark to toronto island tuesday morning, which meant an extra day in nyc, seeing aileen, and 4 hours on a plush train and an hour and a half flight instead of 16 hours on a bus, at only about $50 more cost.
- walked over to kate's cafe for brunch with katie/perry
- had french toast with caramelized apples, coffee and oj
- walked over to the subway and headed uptown to port authority to take a bus to providence
- decided to pay $10 more for the direct bus trip that left later and arrived earlier
- walked over to times square to take photos
- got a jamba juice back at port authority before getting on my bus

3:54 pm
- on the bus to providence
- listening to jets to brazil - perfecting loneliness
- just read "pretty mouth and green my eyes" from salinger's 'nine stories'
- loving peanut chews

5:02 pm
- just got a call from stacy
- listening to wilco (the album)
- reading "little things" by jeffrey brown

From this point, I met up with Karl at the bar that sells strawberry beer, and then met up with Andy a couple other dudes for dinner. The show in Providence ruled, and I ran into Joe Sauce. After the show we went to Nice Slice and ate the shit out of a vegan pizza, then I headed to boston with Karl to stay for the night. The next morning I took a train from Boston back to New York, had a sweet nap, got not-dating dumped, hung out with Katie/Perry some more, and went to see Aileen and the T's at Irving Plaza. I flew home to Toronto Island the next morning on my new favourite airline, Porter.

breakfast with beeps

the van tour brought us into winnipeg late the night before the festival, which meant plenty of time the morning of to make some breakfast with vegan edge champion beeps!. he made vegan french toast, crusted with corn flakes, and topped with caramelized peaches and fresh raspberry cream cheese.
nom nom nom!


the edge is strong in the peg!


later on we rolled down to the royal albert for lunch with nasty nate and fat mat.


view the other side of that camera over at the internet's favourite site!

we ended up having more van troubles, stranding us in winnipeg for a few more days. i wasn't quite on top of taking photos of each meal, but you can trust me that many meals were had.

keep 'em coming.

i'm finally getting a chance to go through all of my photos from the past few months, so hopefully updates will be plentiful.

a while back, winnipeg vegan foodist beeps graced toronto with his presence for an earth crisis show, or something. i figured we'd better just eat at fressen, twice!





for brunch we had:
- seared sweet corn fritters filled with corn, zucchini, and sweet potato mixed with spinach and fresh herbs.
- scrambled seasoned marinated tofu served with a crispy black bean tortilla.
- crispy french toast on stewed mixed seasonal fruit.

for dinner we had:
- seared cornmeal polenta suits on herbed tomato sauce and sautéed lemony garlic spinach.
- sliced shiitake and crimini mushrooms mixed with shredded spinach in cashew cream wrapped in a filo pastry puff.
- deep fried tempeh fish with a tangy tahini cucumber tartar sauce on dandelion greens
- flax and cornmeal crusted eggplant pizza tart with pesto, sundried tomato paste, olives and pineapple, grilled and served on mixed greens. (pictured above)
- steamed bundled asparagus on a warm bed of tahini creamed quinoa with miso hemp butter.
- taro dumplings (i think)

I LIKE FOOD.

i'm also really digging this record, definitely worth the two year wait in anticipation.

terrible news

item one.
we're in winnipeg, and our trailer is broken. we're going to have to wait til tomorrow morning to find an open shop that may or may not be able to repair it before we can leave.

item two.
we had to cancel a show in omaha because of item one.

item three.
i sold out to twitter. follow me if you'd like.

(not so terrible) item four.
due to item one, i've had an extra day of delicious food hangs with the internets-favourite-chef, beeps (not-excluding fatmat, nate, jay, and some girl named sarde.)

you'd better run, you'd better take cova

i finally got around to going through my photos from our trip to australia earlier this year. we went down to play the soundwave festival with an overwhelming amount of rad bands and friends, and unfortunately i didn't use my camera nearly as much as i had hoped to. i did however catch some shots in brisbane of cashy & lulu and i going to alibi room for unreal breakfast, a few shots from the hotel in melbourne with a ton of bands trying to check in at once, and our lunch that day with richard at bowl of soul. after the tour was over, i flew back to melbourne to stay with richard, and hang out for a few days. i spent my first afternoon there wandering around downtown and eating lord of the fries with ETim and his buddy, and later met back up with rich, borgs, bronwyn, mel, jess, weber and his girlfriend at east brunswick club for vegan chicken parma's, delicious!

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS!

new horizons.

hello friends.
sorry for the lack of updates lately.
i'm going to try and do a general + / - entry about what's been going on, and then talk about some things to come.

+ american vegan food (watercourse, herbivore, paradox cafe, voodoo donuts, juliano's pizza, spiral cafe, vegan hotdog guy and his new restaurant in orlando, soul veg, panda veg, gianna's grille, julians, nice slice, red bamboo, avalon bakery, the place in cinci that joe took me to, chicago diner, the place in pittsburgh that stacy took me to and the little juicebar cafe in baltimore.)
+ root beer.
+ seeing the cancer bats in utah.
+ george being a sweet bro.
+ joel & aja in vegas.
+ nfg/bayside/syg tour in sf and detroit.
+ gregers in seattle.
+ seeing nada, weber, kt, aileen, cameron, katy, beemer, eric tobin, will and many more friends at bamboozle left.
+ the get up kids.
+ same name friendship day in austin with will.
+ seeing morrissey's bus in houston.
+ coffee.
+ adam camera guy.
+ courtney and tracy in charlotte.
+ pulin in richmond.
+ hot tubs, steam rooms/showers.
+ static lullaby bailing out the tour and being super bros.
+ mike ski, josie and mikey loved one in philly.
+ museum shit talks with anto.
+ race, ry ry, and long island.
+ pmr, tremblay, bowling on palmer's birthday.
+ best day off in detroit.
+ joe foster in cinci.
+ stephanie marlow, chris behm and co. in chicago.
+ book shopping in columbus.
+ stacy in pittsburgh.
+ the bless the fall kids and getting to know super bro's beau and brandon.
+ katie brown coooooooooming ouuuuuuuut in philly, LI and bamboozle nj. (how did i forget this?)
+ watching christian (bamboozle promoter) mosh/text during VOD.
+ seeing team rise against and billy talent briefly.
+ the ronettes: be my baby.

- norma jean checking out.
- losing money at the casino in reno.
- the american economy sucking.
- constant rain for nyc off day, and for most of the east coast.
- the webster theater and other shitty venues.
- more rain and massive headaches at bamboozle.
- not really having enough time to see anyone at bamboozle.
- crashing my car on the way to the airport.



so yeah, i had two days off at home after that tour, and i decided that since i didn't touch my camera once on the whole tour, it was time for a change. the first thing i did when i got home was head down to henry's and trade in my shit. based on the positive reviews and results i've seen from jess, rennick and my own research, requirements (and other r related words), i decided to go with the lumix dmc-lx3.


so far, i love it. i don't there there could possibly be a camera more suited for my needs and personal preference and enjoyment. it's got a great lens that has both a wide angle and aperture, which i love. it seems to do everything that i ever did with my giant, heavy, unpractical SLR, and more!

anyways, i feel i made the most of my limited time off, and took a bunch of photos hanging with my friends courtney, dylan, beth and diaz who were all in town on tour, amongst many great pals from toronto and it's surrounding area.

CHECK OUT THOSE PHOTOS HERE!

oh, and i'm in europe now for 3 weeks and plan to take a lot of photos, although, so far i haven't taken too many.

TOP 5 VEGAN BREAKFAST!

hi there. today i'm in providence, rhode island. i've only been here once or twice before, and the last time i was here i ended up eating at some shitty greasy spoon style diner on the brown campus. they had mediocre shitty vegan food. today, like most other days, i pulled up happy cow to try and find something different, and i hit the jackpot, more on this in a second i suppose.

i just did that top 5 thing with dani brown, and if you read it, you saw that vegan breakfast is my all time #1 favourite food/meal. i pride myself in finding unreal vegan breakfasts around the world, and today i found what i believe to be my #1. so i figured now would be a perfect time to review my top 5 vegan breakfast spots.

5. FRESSEN (Toronto, On, Canada).
fressen (and their little lunch spot urban herbivore) is probably my favourite place to eat in toronto. they serve a tapas style menu full of really unique, and tasty gourmet vegan (and mostly organic) dishes. on weekends, they open early for brunch, and serve a few rad breakfast dishes. personally, i love their tofu scramble (pictured above) which is yellow, crispy and is pretty flavourful compared to most bland scrambles you can find in toronto. it comes with a crispy, bean slathered tortilla, fresh pico, fried corn, avocado, salad greens and their home made olive bread. it's yummy, filling, and like $9. one of the best part about fressen is that the food presentation and restaurant decor are both gorgeous, and usually have a friendly, pretty waitress to match.

4. PULP KITCHEN (Toronto, On, Canada)
I recently discovered pulp kitchen on my side of town, and i've been there a whole bunch ever since. they're a little cafe and juice bar that is only open til 4 every day. they've got a great tofu sandwich, and vegan blueberry pancakes with this neat maple cream icing. they serve an extended brunch menu on weekends, which i find is where all the magic is at. the offer an eggless omelette (pictured above) which seems to be made of tofu and egg replacer, and filled with sauteed protabello mushrooms, onions and peppers, with home fries and salad on the side. they also have an unreal french toast with this thick sugary crust, mmmm. the juice is good, the presentation is nice, and the prices are reasonable. the staff is hit or miss, one girl who works there was super friendly and helpful the first time i went in, but the other two ladies that i mostly encounter are pretty cold.

3. TRIPLE ROCK SOCIAL CLUB (Minneapolis, Mn, USA)
the triple rock is a punk rock staple for many reasons. it's owned by members of the MPLS punk band dillinger 4, and glorified and referenced by bands like motion city soundtrack, the hold steady and NOFX. the triple rock is a bar, that has shows, and makes food. it's basically a one stop shop when coming to minneapolis. when i went about a year ago for the last two modern life is war shows, i found you don't really need to leave the triple rock to have a good time in MPLS. we showed up early for the show, had their famous mock duck poboy for dinner, saw the show, and most of my friends stuck around for post show drinking and antics. the next morning, we returned for breakfast, and found the triple rocks silver lining. they offer a wide variety of vegan breakfast options, including french toast, pigs in a blanket, and home fries with home made nacho cheese dipping sauce (all pictured above). their coffee is alright, the jukebox is great, and the staff is super nice compared to the majority of folks i've met with face tattoos.

2. ALIBI ROOM (Brisbane, Australia)
the alibi room is a rad little bar in brisbane. i was first introduced to the alibi by my friend and tour relative bronwyn, who brought us here for breakie before our show in brizzie. the owner, james, is an amazing dude, who was helping out with our show somehow. james is a fan and collector of vintage toys, movie and television memorabilia. the first time we went, i saw an amazing, talking ALF toy, and fell in love. james offered to sell me ALF, but later decided to give it to me with an agreement that i would mail him, bring him back something fun when i returned. i managed to lose my tour phone, which had his address in it, and put off picking him up something, until we were on our way back and i realized that i had to get him something if i wanted to show my face again for delicious vegan breakie. luckily i found these rad cheech and chong dolls in hawaii, and snagged them up and brought them into james. he was stoked i remembered and followed through on my end of the bargain, and treated me to my favourite morning meal of all time (at the time) on the house. so now to the good stuff! the alibi offers this mentally large portion of vegan goodness called the Kombie Drivers Breakfast (pictured above is the single serving, they also offer one twice the size for couples!) which consists of scrambled tofu, mushrooms, beans, spinach, tomato, hash browns, vegan bacon & snags (sausage), sweet potato fries, a side of chocolate chip banana bread, soy coffee & fresh orange juice. delcious!

1. JULIAN'S (Providence, Ri, USA)
so like i said before, today seemed to be my lucky day, because with a little research, i stumbled upon this gold mine of a breakfast spot. julian's has a pretty typical vibe for a hip bar/coffee shop/restaurant, and i was in the dark a little because i had read some mixed reviews online. i walked in, and sat alone at the bar, and asked the dude working (who seemed to be wearing some sort of obscure, atheist metal band tshirt) if he knew anything about the vegan "Saint Jamez Benedict". He told me he was vegan, and the benedict was the reason he worked there. i told him i was vegan, and from out of town, and wanted to try whatever their best breakfast was, and he assured me that the saint jamez with tempeh sausage (pictured above) would blow my mind. the menu described it as fried tofu 'egg', garlicky spinach, vegan hollandaise, which is vaguely exactly what an eggs benedict should be, but it's hard to tell if that sort of thing could ever be properly mimicked without the use of animal products. my plate arrived, with two thick pieces of toast, topped with the garlic spinach and what seemed to be an ice cream scoop full of some sort of tofu mix which was then fried like your every day benedict, and topped off with a gooey, egg yolk like yellow hollandaise sauce, and sided with saucy seasoned home fries. i took the tempeh sausage and crumbled it on top, and smothered it with a mixture of julian's own recipe ketchup, hot sauce, and your every day heins 57 ketchup. man was this ever declious, it hit the spot, and instantly made me feel like vegan breakfast had never been made this good! the bar seemed extremely busy and popular for a rainy tuesday afternoon, and i was extremely stoked that they served breakfast daily until 5pm. this place seems like a real winner, and while i read that the staff was pretentious and rude, i got nothing from good vibes all around. the decor and music was great, and it was funny to hear a bunch of folks, male and female, all over the age of 25, having an argument about whether or not to listen to blink 182.

all these places are great, and if you find yourself in any of these great cities across the globe, be sure to hit them up for a good meal! i could have easily made this a top 10, so i'll leave you with 5 other recommended/approved spots who serve animal free most important meals of the day:
6. REAL FOOD DAILY (Hollywood, CA, USA)
7. PICK ME UP CAFE (Chicago, Il, USA)
8. WATERCOURSE (Denver, Co, USA)
9. AUX VIVRES (Montreal, Qc, Canada)
10. SADIES DINER (Toronto, On, Canada)