I Love the Nightlife

Rolly's Garage Fo' Life, Papa!

By Caitlyn Holroyd

Don’t let the name fool you. Rolly’s Garage, once a successful auto shop, is no longer housing cars and grease monkeys. Instead, Rolly's own daughter, Robin Lacambra, has transformed it into a one-stop venue for everything artistic. Since dad handed her the keys in late 2008, Lacambra has been garnering lots of buzz through the garage’s parties, art exhibitions and film screenings, so we decided to get the lowdown on her innovative project.

How did you come up with the idea for the Garage?

I’ve been throwing art and culture events since high school and 2 years ago, I was growing really tired of unaffordable venues for starving artists. One day when I was at my dad’s garage, I looked around and saw the ‘coolness' that could emerge out of the space and how awesome any event would look and feel in the garage. I asked my dad how he felt about me using the space after his operational hours, and he was down. He gave me a key and then I slept on the idea and did nothing because of how hectic school got for me.

THEN, in the fateful summer of 2008, my dad tells me that he was going to sell the garage. I was devastated and did everything in my power to not have that happen. At first, my dad said that if I wanted it, I’d have to buy it at the same rate that it was being sold for. So me, having no money myself, lined up a few potential investors and grudgingly went to my dad with a business plan in hand, money that wasn’t mine, and an idea for a venue that would potentially be taken out of my control because of the people with money involved. Luckily, at that moment, my dad realised how serious and dedicated I was. I didn't want to see that property owned or managed by anyone outside of our family, especially since there are next to no Filipino owned business properties in the downtown core. Anyways, my dad said that as long as I could afford the overpriced rent, all the bills, and let him use the space every now and then, that I could run the garage. So I agreed to his conditions and said, “I’ll even keep the name. Rolly’s Garage fo life papa!” read more...

FRIDAY

Blast Off

This is a party for summer jams, and those who want to sing to them. A party for toasting the fact that it's finally hot out, and we're packing as much fun into the next four weeks as humanly possible. This, I believe, is what they call the jump off. $10 pitchers.

751, 751 Queen St. W. 10 pm. No cover.

Room Party

A good idea: playing Madlibs with the descriptions of what Room Party's entertainers (DJ Hi Mom, Scott Seewhale, Tom Croozbeh, Shadow Self) have to offer: Weird disco, weirder house, postpunk, trash. Think of the possibilities.

The Boat, 158 Augusta Ave. $5. 10 pm. read more...

By Caitlyn Holroyd

I’m still waiting for summer to get here. Maybe it was the piles of garbage stinking up the city for the past few weeks, the endless rain, or lack of extreme heat warnings, but the summer months have flown by and I know it’s just a matter of time before the back-to-school ads begin bombarding television. In the mean time, at least we have some cool new parties to look forward to.

August 11: Time Bomb at Tattoo Rock Parlour (567 Queen St. W.)

The Jons (responsible for Dance Like You Fuck at Strangelove) are launching a new Tuesday weekly modeled after Steve Aoki’s DimMak Tuesdays in L.A.: with Does It Offend You, Yeah? From the UK, Nasty Nav, Medley and Tay’more—and plenty of great bookings to follow including Teenage Bad Girl, Junior Boys and Mstrkrft. $3 drinks ‘til midnight and cheap cover (none/$5/$10) depending on the act. read more...