dan ho

White chocolate mocha at Coffee Culture

Live music, coffee, old friends, new friends, that’s the good life. Kristen Au’s jazz performances at Coffee Culture, at Creditview and Eglington in Mississauga, allow for this community building to happen.

When you look for a place to hang out in Mississauga, a few bars and lounges come to mind but for the most part, people think “there is nothing to do in Mississauga.”

They are wrong.

Kristen Au sings a song dedicated to David Dick (foreground)

Live venues such as these provide the cornerstone of community building that Mayor Hazel McCallion tries to promote.

In a time when people talk of how hard it is to “meet new people” and look to novel events, clubbing, take courses, etc just to meet new people, it is interersting to note that I have met at least one new person every week along with the opportunity to catch up with old friends when I attend Kristen’s performances.

In the summer, there are the My Mississauga free outdoor community concerts that entice traffic to City Hall. In winter the concert is put on hold and people are forced to turn to indoor venues.

In a community as big as Mississauga, where people can identify themselves from Streetsville, Port Credit, Clarkson, etc in addition to being from Mississauga, community building has to take place in a more local level. The corner coffee shop or local pub can help promote the cause with events such as these. One other example of live entertainment that I enjoyed attending was the Lionheart Pub’s Karaoke Idol in Meadowvale.

One of the best features of Halifax that I found when I made my way out east this past fall, is the live music in just about every pub. It just makes the place much more hype!

I hope there will be other venues in Mississauga for a variety of homegrown talent to play that accomodate various genres of music.

Keep a look out for Kristen Au’s gigs every other Wednesday night at Coffee Culture.