Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – Nasser Vies

Meet Nasser. He’s internationally renowned, but he’s tucked away off Queen St., thriving in the lost art of bespoke (custom made) shoemaking. I’d always wondered what that little place was when I was doing my morning photo walks through Leslieville last year. Entering the shop,  I was transported to ‘old times’ and my memory of Geppetto’s workshop in the old Disney classic, Pinocchio. Instead of wood, there was leather and tools, knives, nails, buttons, hooks, old sewing machines, soles and molds and everything amazing you could imagine in a craftsman’s workshop.READ MORE

Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – Whitney Ross-Barris

Meet Whitney. We’ve lived on the same street for some years now: she at the top me at the bottom, but it wasn’t until last year during my Day in the Life project that I got chatting to her and another neighbour, Kate, on the street one day. Both Moms with 2 little guys under the age of 5, we had little in common to connect us prior to our street meet. It wasn’t until later when I became friends with both of them on Facebook that I got to see a bit of their lives. Two crazy, fun mamas. One night I started reading some of Whitney’s posts and had to grab the kleenex. Yes, from crying. Not sad crying, laughing crying.

June 10: PA day has broken me.

May 20: Prayer for being on public transit: Oh ye gods of inside voices, let not my son’s thoughts on yonder gentleman’s “big tummy” be audible to any but mine own sheepish ears.

March 19: I’m fully hiding in my kitchen, drinking a mimosa at 4:30pm. #motheroftheyear

Aug 21st/2015: Hotter than…? (I’ll take “a Yeti’s crotch” for 800, please, Alex?)

READ MORE

Leslieville Lives; Stories from the ‘Ville – Sweet Daddy Siki

The first time I had heard of Sweet Daddy was in 2011 when I was walking down Queen St. with an old beau – who pointed out the old wrestler pic of Sweet Daddy Siki that was on the side of the Duke, and stopped in his tracks.   Who? What? He was surprised I had no idea who the man was, but I’d lived overseas for nearly 20 years. That’s my excuse, but admit that even if I was here, I don’t think I would’ve known of any wrestlers. It wasn’t until last year when I started attending some fundraisers at the Duke that I saw him. All I knew was that he held court at karoake there every Saturday from 4:00-7:30p.m.  and that he was a well-known wrestler in his past.

READ MORE

Leslieville Lives: Stories from the ‘Ville – Jordan Tam

Meet Jordan. I knew of Jordan Tam from the occasional post I’d seen about knife sharpening on a few Leslieville Facebook pages, but I didn’t have an interest in or need for the service, so would skim past. It wasn’t until I met him at a Leslieville Supper Club one night back in the late summer/fall that I put a face to the name. ‘Ah, yes…you’re the knife guy’. Several dinner clubs later and a few hours in his world I discovered he was much more.

READ MORE