Ivan & Alyosha at The Garrison

I'm so happy that I went to this show on a whim. My friend Stacey had a house warming party at her new place with Dana, so I made sure to swing by before heading to the show downtown. I was recommended to this band by my friend Chloe. Their sound is very mellow and calming. I guess you can say they are an indie band but their music is catchy and easy to sing a long to.

I couldn't resist, I had to buy their CD. The band was nice enough to sign it for me and I appreciated it so much. They've been through a lot, having their band equipment stolen back in Atlanta. I'm glad to see the previous band they've toured with lent them all their gear to complete the remainder of the tour. I can't believe people car-jack an entire van full of band equipment, it's awful!

The spirit of Ivan & Alyosha is comforting to witness. When a band sticks together to play their music, it shows their fans to never give up and to keep on going on. More artists and bands should be like them =).

American Authors and Royal Teeth at The Drake

I last saw Royal Teeth when they opened for The Rocket Summer at the end of March at the MOD Club. When I heard they were coming back to Toronto, I couldn't pass this up.

They brought Brooklyn based band American Authors along to open up for them. Too bad they did not have their EP recorded and ready for this show (they told us they are still producing it). It was a lot of fun with drums and guitar embedded in their music. Their sound is different than Royal Teeth though.

Royal Teeth has a more upbeat melodic tempo to their sound with Nora's voice (one of the lead singers). When I first heard them sing at the MOD Club, I was moved by her and Gary's singing voice. I can't explain it, you need to see them life or her their music when they release their CD. This show was a lot of fun, and both bands put on such a great show!

As you can very well tell form my pictures, I was in the front the whole time.

Bates Motel 1.10 Midnight

Bates Motel 1.10 Midnight

I don’t understand why everyone on the Internet hated last night’s episode. It was magnificent!
In my opinion, this is the one show where there’s consistency in every episode (I had the same feelings about The Following as well).

What I like about Bates Motel is the subtle clues left in the show. I try my best to pay attention to detail from start to finish and you see most of the characters intertwine with each other. It IS a small town after all, so we’re bound to run into the same people at some point.

Everyone who is criticizing the VERY END of the episode; are you not paying attention?! I’m being serious, that ending opens up the opportunity for season 2, shows Norman isn’t getting better and NOW we know who Miss Watson is!

She plays a bigger role than Norman’s teacher (who pushes for the inappropriate teacher-student relationship) — her necklace pendant has the letter “B” on it.

In the last episode 1.09 Underwater, Bradley freaks out to Dylan over letters they found in her dad’s old office with the indication he had an affair. It was signed “B” and the exact way it was written was how it appeared on Miss Watson’s necklace. So many secrets in this town and I hope it gets even better.

Who is this Eric that Miss Watson was arguing with on the cellphone anyway? I want to say the Sheriff Alex Romero (for fun to see where that goes) or the therapist since he’s evaluating Norman. But it’s probably a new character which I wouldn’t mind seeing anyway.

Definitely a finale that did not disappoint!

The Wizard of Oz at The Ed Mirvish Theatre

I am so happy my sister and I were able to get tickets to see The Wizard of Oz! We went earlier this afternoon, and it was fantastic. It's awesome, especially since the last time my sister and I went to a live musical, it was five years ago to Wicked on Broadway at the Gershwin theatre.

The special effects and the use of the stage itself has been transformed to something more. Andrew Lloyd Webber made an outstanding choice with Danielle Wade as Dorothy.

Our seats in the orchestra were second from the front, so we were able to see how well trained the dogs were when they interacted with the rest of the cast. It was the typical happy musical which is great to take the whole family to. There's nothing bad I can say about this musical, there has been so much brought to the table by all the actors. It brings me back to when I was in my high school musical theater class. If you have the opportunity, do go see this with your parents, siblings, cousins, girlfriend, grandparents, anybody!

Muse at the Air Canada Centre

Seeing Muse last night at the Air Canada Centre brought back high school memories of when I would listen to their music. Their new stuff has changed from what I remember, but reliving all their albums in one night was a lot of fun!

Milosz is a big fan and has been to their concerts before, so I was happy he asked me to go with him once his friend was unable to attend.

I made sure to text message my friend Tina before the show, who is also a big fan. She said the same thing as me, their new stuff isn't quite what it used to be, but it is still good.

Their opening band was this heavy rock band called Band of Skulls, who are from Ireland. Milosz and I came in the middle of their set, which isn't the kind of music I'd normally listen to. It was more of the thrash, rock genre; not my kind of music. They did well though for the ticket holders on the main floor. From my seat, I could tell they were having a lot of fun and enjoying the rock experience.

Since I am a sucker for classics, my favourite song was played during the encore part of their set. Before Muse returned to the stage, the audience knew what song they wanted to play. Everybody in the stadium turned their flashlights on their smart phones to make the whole stadium look like stars in the night sky. Yes, my favourite Muse song is, 'Starlight'. Definitely had a lot of fun last night =)

Mika at The Opera House

I actually scored tickets to Mika's sold out show! There were people selling tickets on stubhub.com and my guess was they suddenly couldn't make it to the show. I found $10 tickets! Stacey was happy to join me last night and we had a great time!

Max and Curtis (his band mates) DJayed beats to open up the show. They did that for about 15-20 minutes to get the crowd excited. Mika just put on a great show and he played straight!I absolutely love him, he is my favourite artist of all time him and Josh Groban are tied for number one). I call him my male icon... that's why I call him my guycon =P I feel like he needs to play bigger venues whenhe comes to Canada, but I understand he has a bigger fan base in Europe. It`s too bad he only did one date and is in Montreal today. If he did two Toronto shows back-to-back, I would've searched for another pair of tickets on Stub Hub!

This is the part where I tell you all that this Tuesday, I am going to *drum roll* see Muse! I only found out yesterday. My friend Milosz has tickets and his friend couldn't make it (I know what that's like haha) so he saw me and asked if I'd be interested. That's this Tuesday and I am so pumped for it! I'm doing a concert every week like a crazy person lol I can get used to this and make my life revolve around this.

New sweet spot downtown!

I met Maria last week while attending the Liverpool vs Toronto FC exhibition game (oh what a dream weekend that was!) We decided since we both want to try some new things in Toronto, why not do them together? After all, company is always fun to have!

We met downtown Saturday afternoon and decided to go to this place, NADÈGE Patisserie. I've heard of it through my sister earlier this summer, and once Maria told me she has been for their macarons, I HAD to go try them out! We had a lovely lunch there together where we ordered sandwiches. I forgot the name of what I had only that it was smoked salmon, cucumbers, dill and cheese all jammed into a croissant for a magnificent taste! If you know me, you know I love smoked salmon. Having this explosive flavour (as Remy from Ratatouille would explain it) on a Saturday afternoon was amazing. The ingredients defintiely complimented each other in the croissant and I have nothing else to say except I'm definitely returning soon. I'm so glad Maria brought me here! As for their macarons, what an amazing price for such delightful treats!

I am a big macaron fan and usually go up to Bay Street for them at MoRoCo. Now I have another place to go to! If you haven't been to this place, I highly recommend it. Prices seem reasonable to me and if you are a foodie like Maria and I, you won't have a problem making a trip here (we tried it at 780 Queen St. West, in the Trinity Bellwoods area).

We also went to David's Tea (the location is also on Queen St. West) to replenish our tea cabinets and find her sister a birthday gift. Her sister's birthday is tomorrow, and we ended up getting her a teapot, tea cups and saucer set with intricate coral flower designs on it. I think she'll like it, since we are all tea drinking enthusiasts. I've also purchased three tea flavours (Bamboozled, Organic Kanpe tea and Coffee Pu'erh *for the sister, I am not a coffee drinker*). I had trouble shutting my full tea cabinet, but I am excited to try these new flavours. I'm going to try them this week and will let you know how my energy level is after them!

We ended our lovely day with frozen yogurt at Menchie's =D

Need I say more with the picture?! It took all our upper arm strength in us to get the flavours we wanted (I think all the goodness in the machine was running low?). We had our red velvet, mocha, chocolate hazelnut, chocolate and a chocolate vanilla swirl thrown in both of our tubs =) Frozen yogurt isn't just for kids!