Our interview with local bargain babes, Seven Dollar Pants!

Courtesy of Seven Dollar Pants

When it comes to Toronto fashion blogs, there are many who show us what’s haute and what’s not. But for those of us who can’t afford McQueen just yet, Seven Dollar Pants is here to save you from bargain-hunting your booties off. Founders Julie and Christine scour the city for the best vintage, boutique, and chain-store deals – pairing them together in unique ensembles on their blog. Here’s what the Cowgirls learned today from these savvy-saving sweethearts.

Pony: What are the key components you look out for when determining what’s a good deal?

Julie: Mainly if I can foresee getting a lot of wear out of it. I don’t focus on brand names – never have and probably never will.

Christine: The price! So many pieces will catch my eye regardless, but the deciding factor will be the price tag as to whether or not I will take the next step to the fitting room – be it in Value Village or Holt Renfrew.

Pony: How do you find the deals in Toronto compare to other cities? Are they better here?

Courtesy of Seven Dollar Pants

Julie: I’m used to shopping in Toronto and have figured out where to hit and when. But I must say, small towns have great deals! Every time I go home to Niagara I find the best little gems. I think small towns are good for vintage finds especially because the thrift shops aren’t made to be trendy or cool – they’re simply thrift shops, and therefore don’t mark up their prices as much.

Pony: You say it’s important to know when to shop – buying items early before the season starts. Does this mean you oppose the sales at the end of each season?

Christine: There are key pieces that I will have on my list that I will purchase at the beginning simply because I cannot wait.  I also won’t wait to purchase good basics as they never seem to stay on the racks long enough. But the trendy items I leave towards the end; simply because I don’t mind being a couple of months behind everybody else.

Courtesy of Seven Dollar Pants

Pony: Do you ever disagree with each other on what looks good? How has your style evolved since working together?

Julie: Sometimes we disagree, but it’s rare. We genuinely appreciate each others style. I don’t think mine’s changed that much since we started working together, but we do tend to influence each other here and there when it comes to seasonal trends.

Christine: If anything, I believe we have positively influenced each other. I definitely think that I have been more conscious of what I wear every day since starting the blog. Julie is more of an accessories girl so I’ve learned from her.

Pony: And how would you describe your sense of style?

Julie: My style is a comfortable, unique-chic. I tend to wear stand out pieces; I always accessorize, and I like to look and feel comfortable in all my outfits whether it’s at a party, going to work, traveling, or walking around on the weekends.

Christine: My style changes everyday – I really can’t describe it.  I remember reading in Harper’s Bazaar that your twenties are the time to experiment with personal style and I guess I really took that to heart.

For daily updated tips on deals, Toronto hot-spots, bargain purchases, and living a fabulous life on a budget – head over to Seven Dollar Pants to see what Julie and Christine are wearing today!

Courtesy of Seven Dollar Pants

– Emma Farquharson

Our interview with fellow ponies, Side Pony Nation!

Courtesy of Side Pony Nation

They’re hot, they’re funny as hell, and they’re fellow ponies! When we caught a glance into the lives of Side Pony Nation via Youtube, we laughed so hard our scrunchies came loose. Together, Lynn Moffatt and Tanya Casole-Gouveia have taken rap-pop to a refreshingly comedic level with catchy guitar riffs and spunky lyrics. Sitting down together, ponies alike, we asked these girls how they got started – seeing as they’re just getting started.

Pony: How did your jam sessions together come about?

Lynn: Ironically, we were skeptical of each other at first, but bonded quickly at our first dance party and have been roommates/best pals ever since. Both of us have always had interests in music and love performing so it was only natural that when we were together, the atmosphere was full of positive energy.

Pony: You tackle several genres within your music – how has it evolved since you started?

Lynn: Acoustic guitar has a much different sound and feel than computer generated beats, however, we have always been interested in experimenting with both. Sometimes you hear, say, or think something that you know for sure would sound better to music so you start testing it out with different chords and rhythms; and before you know it, you have a song! We don’t like being tied down to one genre, so we’ll continue experimenting with both our sound and our performance.

Tanya: I like to think of us as Acoustic Hip-Pop, but we’re always evolving and expanding our skills.

Pony: How do you go about booking shows in Toronto?

Tanya: Word of mouth – most of the shows we’ve done have been through friends around the city who have referred us. We’ve played alongside some local comedians since we incorporate comedy and dance into our stage show. There is so much happening in Toronto and so many ways to get involved in the local scene just by meeting people who are organizing an event. We are going to start reaching out to local venues in the near future as we put together our press kit, which we are doing now.

Pony: I have to ask, why side pony tails?

Courtesy of Side Pony Nation

Lynn: The hairstyle is fun, flirty, and cute but also practical, professional, and polished. Just like us.

Tanya: The first time I saw Lynn she was wearing a Side Pony. I was intrigued, and then converted. The lifestyle behind it stems from the carefree student life we lived at university; and as we get older and more mature, it may change, but the root principles of free spirited fun will always be there.

Pony: Your lyrics are pretty tongue-in-cheek, who writes them?

Tanya: We co-write a lot, but often write by ourselves and then come together to collaborate. We like to be funny, and we want people to actually listen to the lyrics. We are acoustic, so much of what we do is about the lyrics, so we try to be entertaining and a little bit naughty!

Pony: What sort of stuff will you be playing at Cameron House?

Tanya: We will be playing a lot of our classic Side Pony jams, songs we put on Youtube like Boy Crazy, and crowd favourites like Suga Wet. But we have quite a few new ones we’ve been working on this last month and we’re excited to give the audience some first-time listens.

For tickets to see these girls in action tomorrow night, head to Modrobes at 620 Queen West between 11:00-7:00 p.m. or msg @SidePonyNation on Twitter.

– Emma Farquharson.

Our interview with a really, really good snowboarder named Michael Lambert.

Courtesy of Ainsley Hayes

He’s proved to the world that he’s the best. After winning gold in January at the World Cup, and rocking the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Michael Lambert has suddenly found himself with some spare time on his hands (if you haven’t noticed Toronto’s heat wave by now, you need therapy). Sipping sake together at Yorkville’s Sushi Inn restaurant, the Cowgirls wanted to know what this Over the Bolts star does once winter is over.

Pony: What are you up to these days?

Michael: I like to pretend that snowboarding doesn’t exist right now. I’ve been sailing and trying to get up north at my cottage as much as humanly possible. I have to train as well right now, which is about five days a week.

Pony: Does summer training get boring without being able to snowboard at all?

Michael: They’re so separate to me. I mainly train so I don’t get injured; it’s so much more physically challenging than the boarding itself. I’ve swapped the G.T.L. lifestyle for G.P.S. (Gym. Party. Sail.)

Pony: But you wake-board as well, is that it for board sports?

Courtesy of Facebook Images

Michael: I haven’t been wake-boarding very much recently – I feel guilty about all the gas being used up by these boats. But I also skateboard a bit; there’s a great area on Laird St. up at Eglinton. I just don’t use it to get around town anymore because cars have hit me twice now. So I switched to my bike and so far I’ve only been hit once.

Pony: Sounds like the GS is a safer bet for you. What’s a sport you totally suck at?

Michael: I’m really bad at basketball. And baseball. In fourth grade I was on a baseball team, and all I remember is my pants were too big and kept falling down. So I quit.

Pony: They don’t wear baggy pants in baseball.

Michael: Exactly.

Pony: So when Winter rolls around, will you get a chance to snowboard just for fun? With friends and mid-day beers at the lodge?

Michael: When I’m not working and I get a chance to hit the slopes for fun – I ski. Their equipment is so much better than ours. I mean, I guess it depends on the snow. If there’s a lot of powder then I’ll use my board, but otherwise I just love doing tuck runs with my friends on skis. They’re a lot more stable at higher speeds so you can just cruise down at 100 km/h.

Pony: I can’t imagine just bombing down a hill that fast on a snowboard. Although I guess that’s exactly what you do… So what happens next? What will you do when you can’t snowboard anymore?

Michael: I’m trying to figure that out right now. I’m terrified to go back to school – to go from this amazing lifestyle where I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing to sitting in a classroom. I’m terrified.

Pony: And how do you balance this amazing lifestyle? Friends, family, etc. with all the constant traveling?

Michael: A lot has to do with my friends. If they’re okay with not seeing me for four months, I mean, they have to be very understanding that way. I’m never in one place for more than two weeks at a time, but I like it like that and I like being able to do whatever I want. I don’t want to start stressing about who I’ve contacted more recently and whether or not they’re upset. I’d rather live in the moment and enjoy the people around me right now – people who can share that same philosophy as I do and are okay with it.

Courtesy of Google Images

For more updates on what Michael’s up to, check out his blog here.

– Emma Farquharson.

Talking comics and vlogging with the man who knows them best.

Courtesy of Sean Ward.net

As we pulled out our Dictaphone ready to interview daily vlogger and comic, Sean Ward, he pulled out his video camera aiming to shoot us instead. It was a classic Western duel held bang-on time for happy hour at a posh patio table along Queen East. But quick thinking isn’t his only forte; Sean has been exploring his creativity since childhood, and continuously living his dream despite all scoffs sent his way. Sitting there, aiming our technological devices at each other, he decided to fire first:

Sean: So, how did you get started in this business?

Pony: Forget it! You sold comics on the street for three years, that’s far more interesting. What was that like?

Sean: It was a lifestyle choice, really. People who have a strong negative perspective could never do what I was doing. Selling or not selling, if you just stand on a corner of Queen St. for an hour and catch how many people smile back at you or say hello back to you, you’ll understand how psychologically draining it really is.

Pony: And you do it all for these creations of yours. How did you come up with characters such as “Benny Bunny?”

Sean: I hit a slower period during the first Winter of starting the comics where I had time to develop a new concept. I just made it up as I went along, got to 48 pages and stopped. In the first story, Benny Bunny’s girlfriend gets abducted by aliens – who then send her back to Earth when they realize she’s a bunny and not a human. In the second story, he’s invited to host an awards show because he’s a rock star now…

Pony: Because of the aliens?

Sean: No. That’s irrelevant. We’ve moved on. So then Benny Bunny gets killed at this awards show and you see the ambulance taking him away. The doctors pronounce him dead, the girlfriend’s crying… The End! In the next story, called “Benny Bunny Meets God”, he meets the All-Mighty and gets sent back to Earth because his work’s not done. So then in the last story, well, that pretty much is just the lyrics to “Hey Jude” but with Benny Bunny acting them out.

Courtesy of Sean Ward

Pony: Haha I had to ask didn’t I? So where can we buy these intensely imaginative comics of yours?

Sean: You can get a few at Silver Snail, or from me directly, but largely they’re out of print. I once had a publisher who got into what I was doing, we sat down for a few meetings and stuff. But then it hit a point where he got cold feet and said: “your stuff is so darn weird, I’m not sure if anyone’s going to get it”. And I’ve never been they type to give the elevator speech to men in suits, you know? I’m just a kid who’s been drawing ever since he could tie a robe into a cape and fly around the house.

Pony: Who was your favourite superhero?

Sean: SPIDER-MAN!! I used to like Superman but he let me down. You have to keep it campy and silly and fun! That’s where DC Comics went wrong – they kept trying to paint him into this complex world with lame supporting characters like Bibbo. No, no. Spider-man is my homie.

Pony: And if you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Sean: Oh I’ve got superpowers galore! Endurance being the most useful one right now. People will mock you, especially as a comic, or they’ll constantly tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing with your time. There’s a constructive and destructive way to look at anything, right? And it’s up to you to find the constructive way in.

Pony: Onto this daily video blogging, don’t people stare at you filming yourself all the time? Have you always been this confident in-front of a camera?

Sean: When I was a kid, I used to walk to school as if I were in a music video the entire way. Posing, dancing, and making up songs as I went. Blame it on watching too many old ’40s films but that’s what I did. I built movie sets out of my Lego pieces, shit like that. It all comes back to playing dress-up and flying around the house with my robe on. We all got teased for doing that as kids, and at some point we gave up and stopped trying to pretend. And I’m just that idiotic kid who never stopped.

Courtesy of Sarah Thomson

To check out Sean’s daily vlogging, head over to his website here, or look out for him hosting this weekend’s Toronto Independent Music Awards. For a snippet of our mutual interview, here is his video blog from that day (our awkward appearance at the end):

– Emma Farquharson