North by Northeast

North by Northeast (or NXNE) is an annual music and arts festival held each June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival’s main focus has always been live music, but it also includes a film festival, a comedy festival, art components, and a digital interactive media conference. In 2014, NXNE marked its 20th consecutive year with over 1,000 music performers and an overall attendance of 350,000. The 2015 edition of NXNE ran for five days, June 17–21.

NXNE began in 1995, patterned on the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. It has since grown from a three-day discovery festival of mainly local, unsigned, independent artists into a marquee event on Toronto’s entertainment calendar and a cornerstone of North America’s annual festival circuit.

Music

Each year, NXNE Music presents hundreds of bands from Canada, the United States and all over the world at over 50 Toronto music venues. Most venues host six bands a night (from 9 p.m. onward). The festival takes over Toronto’s downtown core, with many venues grouped along Queen Street West, College Street, and the Bloor Street Annex. NXNE Music is recognized as a key platform for emerging artists, and as an opportunity for fans to see hotly tipped “buzz bands” at small club venues. With the addition of a series of free outdoor concerts at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto, NXNE in recent years has also presented as part of the festival internationally famous headline acts such as The Flaming Lips, Ludacris, Devo, Iggy and the Stooges, Billy Talent, Social Distortion, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah, De La Soul, Bad Religion, The Squids, Stars, The Pharcyde, The Raveonettes, GZA, Descendents, Digable Planets, K-os, and more.

Action Bronson

Arian Asllani (born December 2, 1983), better known by the stage name Action Bronson, is an American rapper and former chef. In August 2012, he signed to Warner Bros. Records, but was later moved to Atlantic Records' imprint, Vice Records.

Bronson has released several mixtapes, such as Rare Chandeliers (2012), with American hip hop producer The Alchemist and Blue Chips 2 (2013), with longtime producer Party Supplies, before releasing his major label debut, an extended play (EP) titled Saaab Stories, with frequent collaborator Harry Fraud, in 2013. He released his major label debut album, Mr. Wonderful, on March 23, 2015.

Biography

1983–2010: Early life and career beginnings

Bronson was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, the son of a Muslim Albanian immigrant father and a Jewish New Yorker mother. Before embarking on a career as a rapper, which was originally just a hobby, Bronson was a respected fire-flame gourmet chef in New York City. He hosted his own online cooking show titled Action in the Kitchen. After breaking his leg in the kitchen, Bronson concentrated solely on his music career.

Port Lands

The Port Lands (also known as Portlands) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada are an industrial and recreational neighbourhood located about 5 kilometres south-east of downtown, located on the former Don River delta and most of Ashbridge's Bay.

Approximate geographical borders are the Gardiner Expressway/Don Valley Parkway ramps to the north and west, Lake Shore Boulevard to the north, Lake Ontario on the three remaining sides: the Inner Harbour to the west, Ashbridges Bay to the east and the open waters of Lake Ontario to the south. Landmarks include the Portlands Energy Centre, Cherry Beach, Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the now out of service Hearn Generating Station.

History

The land was formerly marshland and delta of the Don River in Toronto. The area was connected to the Toronto Islands archipelago until a violent storm in 1858 created a natural channel break turning the archipelago into a series of islands to the west. Much of the port lands were initially part of Ashbridge's Bay, which consisted of a five square kilometre triangular shaped area of marshes and ponds surrounded by sandbars. The water and reeds in marsh provided habitat for birds and other animals. The marshy area was gradually filled in to make more available land for industry and shipping, beginning in the 1880s. Gooderham and Worts used the marsh to dispose of waste from pigs and cattle, as well as wheat swill from their distilling operations. The once natural area was now an open sewage dump and became a health hazard by the 1890s (threat of a cholera outbreak) forced the city to act.