Content

Text: Sofie (YZAETHE)

Project: Arnfinn Eide (Ariel Frame)

publication

Just

plain

good

for

you

After painstaking hard work, I’ve infiltrated the Canadian music industry : I started an independent music publication based out of Montreal, Quebec. I’ve been working on getting this far for a year and a half now, and I’ve finally made it to the Juno Awards (Canadian version of the US Grammy Awards) and Canada Music Week held this year in Toronto, Ontario.

All in all, CMW was OK but, the highlight of my week in Toronto was a visit to this new «bar» in town : the O2 Spa Bar. They don’t serve alcohol and smoking is not allowed : they serve oxygen, as odd as that may seem.

Basically, CMW is an annual event in the industry where everyone gets together for a week (a pass cost between 350$ and 450$ Canadian, no room and board included). There are over 200 shows organised in about 60 different venues, 50 conferences on various subjects pertaining to the music industry, major record label presentations of things to come in the following year, and obviously MANY gatherings and parties (after all, it IS the music industry, right?!). And then it all comes to an end with the Junos after which everyone goes home, "til next year.

I was told we were «going to a bar» before going to supper. When they said bar, I though of «bar» as in smoke filled, loud, god awful tap beer, bar flies, stale beer nuts, etc. Wow, was I ever wrong. After a 10 minute walk in minus 30 degrees Celsius, we walk into a very small, but quite classy, well lit place, with 2 very small bars on each side, and no more than 12 bar stools split between the two. It was something out of a sci-fi furniture catalogue : the type of stuff you dream of owning someday in a big loft but never even dare look at the price.

We sat down at the bar where a beautiful woman came to serve us. «How long do you want?». None of us knew what she was talking about so we asked for «the usual», which we soon found out was 20 minutes. We were handed transparent plastic tubes, and told to fit them comfortably over our ears with the two little extruding tubes in our nostrils. Then she turned on the oxygen, warning us to take the tubes off if we felt intense dizziness or discomfort. Wow... What a strange feeling. It’s like you’re trying to breathe normally but you have a constant stream of almost pure oxygen being forced into your nose, like a constant push of air. And it smells funny. Meanwhile, she offered us some natural fruit juices (made on the spot of course). After about 3 minutes, you get used to the oxygen burning slightly in your nostrils, and forget about it entirely.

And then it starts kicking in. Honestly, it’s like you’re climbing a mountain; it’s the same type of «head rush» and «dizziness» you get from any prolonged outdoor activity... The only difference is that you’re in a huge polluted city, sitting in a bar with oxygen tubes in your nose, sipping delicious home made fruit juice. I agree; it’s all very healthy, but a bit too «hip» for me.

And this place is more than you see at first glance. In the back, they have a few secluded rooms in which you can sit alone peacefully in very luxurious leather chairs, in front of a fish tank, and listen to the sounds of rain forests or the ocean, so on and so on, while having your serving of oxygen. They also offer therapeutic massages in another room. All in all, the best way I’ve found to describe this place is «just plain good for you, body and soul».

In my search for New Stimuli as a TUG agent, the O2 Spa Bar in Toronto is without a doubt, the one that’s surprised me the most... So far.

YZAETHE, signing off.

http://ddi.digital.net/~snm/

Text / image: Arnfinn Eide (agent Ariel Frame)

Content