Day Three Hundred and Thirty-Three - Juzz

I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a big jazz fan. I was worried that this would be a source of complication in my relationship with Joseph's family as his father is a big jazz fan. As a result I have attempted to gain a bit of an appreciation for jazz/blues/etc. type of music over the past ten years. I feel that I could really connect with this genre as I believe that it shares many of the same themes as other types of music that I genuinely like such as classic country and western music and woeful alterna-pop music. And opera. Yknow - the general theme of everything sucking and then more awful things happening, but the beauty of the music makes it beautiful and life is okay to go on. I like that. So, while love of jazz is still the best way to tell me and Lisa Simpson apart [other than that and the one finger less thing, we are way too similar]...I feel like I've grown in music appreciation over the last decade [eeeep - decade! i'm old!].

Anyway, after a semi-successful shopping trip this afternoon [Joseph being partly successful in buying electronic bits to make something neat-o and me being partly successful @ buying pants - they are pretty okay pants and I'm saying this as someone who hates pants...although they do have to be altered - argggh - either i'm shrinking or the Gap is upping their vanity sizing again] we were going to reward ourselves with some exciting dinner option - perhaps sushi was the plan. But as we were walking to the subway we noticed some loud-ish, but appealing music coming from The Rex, one of Toronto's most renowned [i think?] jazz clubs. We went over to check out the menu since it's not available online [one of my biggest Patrick Bateman pet peeves]...and then we made a bold decision - we decided to go in and I had dinner at The Rex, a jazz club. The verdict? It was pretty darn worth the risk of trying something new, both in terms of sustinence and entertainment. The food is standard pub fare, though they do offer multiple vegetarian options...and the chips were a-mazing [and I am a chip conoisseur]. When we first arrived there was a large-ish big band/swing type of thing happening with an extensive horn section and a female singer. I liked this quite a bit - loud and brassy...and reminds me of an older time that I might have preferred to live in. After a brief pause a smaller blues band came on and they were also quite agreeable. Though The Rex doesn't generally charge a cover, we put my partially shredded $10 plus some heavier coin into a "music appreciation jar." I think we will definitely be back - it seems like a great place to tip a few back after whatever tiresome activity we have engaged in on Queen West [which is truly one of the most tiresome places in the whole of Toronto].