Saturday morning we got up and went to Saint Lawrence Market, after getting coffee at Black Bear, our local. We bought peaches and plums and tomatoes and bananas. We bought another sweet cheese bagel and a mini cinnamon roll and an almond croissant and that was breakfast. Maybe because I didn’t get coffee right away, I was exceptionally fumble fingered, dropping stuff, when I tried to put stuff into my canvas shopping bag the handles flopped over each other and closed the opening. It made Mark very crabby.
Our first movie was The Friend, based on this long form article by Matthew Teague, who was played by Casey Affleck, with Jason Segal as best friend Dane and Dakota Johnson as the dying wife. Mark liked it and it was very well-made, but a bit too lifestyle channel for me. Like friends would sit down and have meaningful conversations, and the words would actually have an immediate effect on the other person. I kind of agree with the Guardian (I usually do).
We got a coffee and a cookie (date bar and big chewy jam cookie) at a coffee place down on Queen that Mark located called Hot Black, quite good, then headed to Scotia Bank for Beneath the blue suburban skies, that despite the color in the name, was in black & white. Directed by Edward Burns, and starring him and Jennifer Ehle, this one I liked better than Mark did. And the “barber shaves another customer” has been lilting through my head every time I look at the title, and especially because Monday night we were in line ahead of another (fairly joyless seeming about all the movies they were seeing) couple, and the woman was saying, “Oh I just got that’s from Penny Lane”.
On the way home, we bought ice cream at Loblaws and ate it with the last of our market strawberries, making Saturday a day of subsisting on caffeine and sweets. OK, because we walked over 20,000 steps, and anyways, it’s just one day.
Sunday we had yogurt and fruit for breakfast so more protein by 10:00 AM than we’d had Saturday, and went to see Dolemite Is My Name, Eddie Murphy (echoes of Gumby Dammit) in a Blaxploitation pic that was pretty hilarious, with lots of other good actors including a cameo by Snoop Dogg, Wesley Snipes, not a tough guy for a change, as the director of the movie within a movie, and Mike Epps. Based on the true story of Rudy Ray Moore, the godfather of rap.
We went to the TIFF gift shop for presents for our house sitters, then back to Hot Black for a coffee a Chai, which was brewed with a teabag and hot milk added, instead of the usual syrup. I added honey and it delicious.
We had time to walk through Toronto Dragon Fest, and also to admire government-themed art.
Our last movie of the day was called A bump along the way, about a single mom in her 40s, and her teenage daughter, and what happens in their relationship when the mom gets pregnant after a one-night stand. It was most enjoyable, and also reminder that in many ways – like National Health – Ireland is a much more civilized country than the U.S.
We still had time to get a real dinner at Terroni, where it took them a little time to get them to notice us but once they brought us food, we liked it. I started with a Campari spritz, and we split a salad with roasted peppers and really creamy Gorgonzola. Mark had a pasta with mushrooms and sausage and mine had guanciale and dandelion greens. And really good bread & olive oil.
