Another Evening in Town

Got to spend another afternoon in Toronto on Saturday; I had tickets to see a concert in town: the Afro-Cuban All Stars. They are a group of Cuban musicians which was founded by one of the people who was instrumental in getting Buena Vista Social Club off the ground.

I took an afternoon bus in, and walked east from Union Station/Royal York Hotel (photo above is at the station), wandered through St. Lawrence Market (big warehouse-sized farmer's market), and ended up in the part of town called Corktown (named after Irish immigrants--i.e., county Cork). Weather was pretty nice for meandering around town--fall chilliness, but didn't need to get completely bundled up. Hooked back to the Distillery District (I blogged about my visit there with the Lantzes and JMD here), and had a cappuccino at Balzac's Coffee--quite a nice place.


Had a couple of interesting local beers and dinner at C'est What (a recommendation from inkandpen--thanks!)

Oh yeah... the concert... what I actually came into town to see: the Afro-Cuban All Stars:

It was a fun, energetic show. And it was vastly amusing to watch white folks try to clap along to complex rhythms, at the prompting of the band.

Also, watching the band makes me realize I should find more opportunites to wear a suit--they were all looking pretty classy (see this flickr page)--from zoot suits to Carribean-looking cream colored suits to a double-breasted pinstriped Louis Armstrong type job. This show, and Buena Vista Social Club almost makes me want to visit Cuba on the sly someday. However, the legal ramifications sound too scary to deal with.

The evening wrapped up with an annoying bus ride back to KW--lots of time and waiting; got home around 1:30 AM. I find it depressing that I have to do this amount of travel (bus ride or driving over an hour) to get to a city I really enjoy hanging out in. Well, that won't be an issue in a few months, I hope.