The Vicious Guns are a band, a couple & vegan. We love Canada, cooking, rocking, traveling, freedom, health, The Manic Street Preachers, aliens.
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we’re been MIA for a little while. a short trip up north to visit my little nieces and nephew turned into a 10 day adventure. my grandfather hitched a ride back down to toronto with us for a series of back treatments. picture this, 88 year old croatian man moves in with musician couple for a week in small downtown toronto apartment. yes, hilarity ensued. i wish we did indeed start a twitter account called “thingsmygirlfriendscroatiangrandfathersays” as per richard’s suggestion. he is hilarious! we drank a lot of starbucks, hung out at chapters reading books about croatia and learned to make several kinds of soup. my grandfather also really like da ali g show. borat in particular. i feel really fortunate to have had the opportunity to hang out with dida in MY environment. sure, we visit him when we go up north on holidays and such, but to have him here in our little urban zen den was really cool!!! at times, trying, but cool nonetheless. he was also fascinated by the photobooth feature on our laptops and he recorded himself telling many jokes. translated from croatian, i’m never sure when to laugh…was THAT the punchline?
other things that are on my mind lately are chemicals. nasty horrible chemicals. and additives. blech. so as the cold weather kicks again and skin starts to get dry i am going to stick with using COCONUT OIL as my main moisturizer. the key is to slather it on, but then wipe it off so you don’t stain your clothes or end up looking like a little grease monkey. this stuff smells SO GOOD! and we cook with it too.
next up on the “things i want” list is a reverse osmosis water filter. fluoride is just plain scary and clogs up your pineal gland.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026364_fluoride_pineal_gland_sodium.html
it’s ADDED to our water and we just accept this. no, you do not need it for your teeth. in fact, we are now using natural fluoride free toothpaste exclusively. and when you can’t find any of that, just mix some COCONUT OIL with a little baking soda and you’re good to go w/ a homemade paste that won’t cloud your brain like fluoride. aren’t you glad you read our blog!?
so many things to blabber about i don’t even know where to start.
tonight we have choices to make. toronto is one hell of a city. we love it. on any given night in any month in any season there are shows, eats, treats, music, art…anything you fancy to take in and savor. our friend allie price who starred in the hedwig/debbie double bill with us is performing with her sketch comedy duo HAIRCUT in a just for laughs comedy showcase. this is at the rivoli at 9pm if you feel like laughing your head off because allie is a hoot.
then we will race on down queen west to west queen west (gotta love that) to the DRAKE HOTEL (i love the drake, i hate the drake…10 points for getting the seinfeld reference) to catch our friend THESE UNITED STATES play a set. they are from dc/ky and we will likely feed them some good pizza and beer later when they crash at our pad. what goes around comes around and pizza and beer is no exception.
now, SOME CATCHING UP…
last week i entertained 1000 people by singing the violent femmes classic BLISTER IN THE SUN. the lovely and amazing PETER BJORN & JOHN and my richard were “my backing band”. holy crap! it was amazing. john and i decided on “blister in the sun” because we were certain it would be a crowd pleaser and we were right. the people loved it.
i was, however, reminded of a lesson i learned many moons ago…do NOT consume spicy food within a 2 hour period before a gig. this applies mainly to mexican & indian, but also applies to thai and (in our case) SRI LANKAN cuisine. thanks so much to annie from au revior simone for finding that amazing sri lankan restaurant….RASHNNA…
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/rashnaa-restaurant-toronto-2
sticking with the HOT theme here…richard and i finally decided to get our butts to MOKSHA YOGA to experience HOT YOGA. phew. we made it through our class and even signed up for more. yay us. sticking with it is key…what has me potentially addicted is the light floaty feeling that lasts for several hours after the class and my friend adriana’s constant glow and gorgeous perfect skin. she has been practicing for 2 years. go girl. go us!
tomorrow is our last show. i have an enormous amount of emotion to deal with when it comes to closing night. closing night. i use that term as if i KNOW what it means. as if i;’ve been through it before. i’ve toured and had “last night of tour” feelings. or have come home from tour and slept in my bed for the first time in months and woken up not knowing where i was or wondering why the van isn’t moving anymore..only to realize that i’m home. ”home”. another word that needs quotes. one thing for sure, when hedwig “wraps” i’ll be homesick.
I’ve really developed a fine tuned intuition when it comes to cooking. I can also make something out of nothing. Just call me Jesus (note sarcasm please). Today while strolling through Kensington Market I picked up some scallions and red peppers. I needed the peppers for a Lentil Butternut Squash Curry I was originally planning on making for dinner. Then something drew me to scallions. Then when I got home, I took stock of what we had in our 3 tiered fruit stand and I saw the mango starting at me. It was perfectly ripe. Then I saw the limes….PERFECT!!!!
I used RAINBOW SALAD…yes, it’s pre made and in a bag, but at only 25 calories a serving it rocks. Cabbage, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower make up the the finely shredded contents. Use this as a great base for an ANYTHING salad…and more interestingly a substitute for evil pasta. www.hungry-girl.com has great recipes.
This is where things get more interesting. I chopped some red peppers, scallions and added them to a HUGE salad bowl already containing the rainbow salad. I set that aside.
Then I whisked up a killer dressing. Juiced a LIME. Added 2 teaspoons of flax oil, 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of crushed chili, a pinch of sugar and sea salt and black pepper to taste. YUM!
Dressed up the salad/veggies. Portioned it into two bowls. Topped with chopped mango and left over crushed almonds from last night. VOILA! DONE! Delicious, refreshing and totally healthy.
My man loves me.
In celebration of World Vegan Day I made a super delicious and simply satisfying meal
CHILI ALMOND ASPARAGUS!!!!!!
Truly delicious! A simple white table wine totally complimented the CHILI and Lemon Zest in this delightful dish. I had seconds. And…asparagus? Hello, ASPARAGUS is a well known SUPER FOOD that aids in halting the spread of cancer. Eat it at LEAST twice a week.
Here is the RECIPE:
http://veganyumyum.com/2009/05/chili-almond-asparagus/
Here is the result:
http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=171977#atbs.marketwatch.com/
“Killer local electro-rock duo Vicious Guns make up the core of Hedwig’s live band, the Angry Inch. Grafting a live band onto a show can be hit-and-miss, but Richard Haydon (guitar) and Jenny MacIsaac (bass) totally rock as Hedwig (Seth Drabinsky) spins her glammy yarn about starting a band in America after enduring a botched sex change to escape East Berlin.”
Jordan Bimm, NOW MAGAZINE
