life with more cowbell

Some very big fun times at Pride this year, chickens. And as I enjoy a day off to recover – so to speak, since I’m hanging with a friend this aft. – thought I’d take a moment to reflect and share some fun moments from the past weekend.

Friday night was Chic Productions Carnival women’s Pride dance at the Palais Royale. Always love going to that space and the Pride dance always sells out there – so the place is full of women (with us single gals tagged with glow-in-the-dark bracelets before they let us loose in the wild – optional). I met up with my friend Ty, her gf Liz and their friend Cathy, and bumped into a bunch of folks throughout the evening – some of whom I hadn’t seen in ages and some I usually bump into at the Pride dance.

With entertainment by Zero Gravity Circus, a lovely woman on stilts greeted folks at the entrance and performers dazzled at various points in the evening: ribbon gymnastic dancers, silk acrobats and fire jugglers – all while the music was playing and women were dancing their butts off. The patio is especially lovely, with a gorgeous cool breeze wafting and the lake so close by and beautifully calm.

Saturday, I met up with my good pal Lizzie Violet to go see the Dyke March. It was frickin’ hot out there, but we managed to catch some shade on the west side of Yonge, a bit south of Wellesley and had a comfortable viewing spot for the festivities. We met up with Kat Leonard and Leah Walker at Lizzie’s place early evening for a fabulous picnic dinner – Lizzie’s birthday present to me – with tons of tasty vegan salads (yes, I said tasty – good food is good food!), wine and her amazing birthday cupcakes. And we watched about half a dozen episodes of Sex and the City, three of which featured Samantha’s brief relationship with a woman (played by the stunningly beautiful Sonia Braga). Another great evening with friends – and an amazing finish to my month of birthday.

Sunday – and I’ll be brief ‘cuz I have a bunch of photos I want to share – I met up with Lizzie, Kat and Leah again, along with pals Janis, Brandon, Laurie and Adrienne, to see Lizzie perform in the Beautiful and the Damned (B&D) readings at the Paul Kane Parkette (the Clean, Sober and Proud Stage). Poets/spoken word artists included: Duncan Armstrong, David Bateman, Philip Cairns, DM Moore and Lizzie Violet. Since Zelda’s is now closed after sustaining a fire, the next B&D event will be at Glad Day bookstore on July 19. After taking a break indoors at Spirits pub for an early dinner and a pint, we returned to that stage for an evening of music with Iman Wain, Rex Baunsit, Arlene Paculan and Meghan Morrison. Amazingly talented folks sharing their art. So. Much. Fun.

Best. Pride. Ever. Here are some pix.