For her weekend getaway drives to the country, the Bay's president Bonnie Brooks says classic rock and sultry bossa nova tunes are in fashion.
Who: Bonnie Brooks, 50s, president and CEO of the Bay, Canada's oldest general merchandise store.
Her Wheels: She currently drives a black 2009 Audi A4. Her previous cars include a 1995 Saab, and a red 1985 Jaguar XJ6.
Her most memorable drives: "I love summer driving. My favourite kind of is driving is alone. I drive with the windows open, and I like to take the back roads so that I'm not driving with a lot of other drivers and I can go at my own speed and play music really loud. I go to the Niagara region. I like stopping at small vineyards and buying wine. I love going to Shaw and I go twice a year to watch the plays. And very often I drive on the weekends to Lake Simcoe. I have a cottage up there, so I have my family up there a lot, but I take the drive with my poodle, Champion. I brought him back from Hong Kong when I worked there. To Lake Simcoe, I take the [highway]404 as far as it goes, and then I take all the back roads, like Ravenshoe Road, and it's just about one hour and 15 minutes. My goal at the end of the trip from Toronto is to get there in time for the sunset. My view goes straight out with the sunset over the water. I try to get three sunsets in a weekend."
Jim Cuddy talks about the road trip that first inspired his love of country
"When I go east I like to do all the special fruit farms and specialty cheeses in the Prince Edward region. I'm a foodie. I love all that. One time I went the Charlevoix region in Quebec and we stayed over night. I was with someone who was going to meet an author to buy a script for a screenplay, but we ended in that beautiful cheese region with all the gorgeous dairy farms with white fences. I loved it."
"And another memorable drive was with my sister. We did a road trip out east in the '70s in my sister's Mustang convertible. We went to Nova Scotia, so we went through Montreal, all the way out to Cape Breton to visit cousins in Nova Scotia, and all the way back in a week - that was a fast trip. And I even managed to get my hair permed in Quebec City on the way back, but it was a complete disaster. Back then we were listening to The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction. I love Mick Jagger. I love their irreverence at the time. They were rebels and we were rebels, inside, feeling sort of like Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild. We were all rebelling, it was a movement in time and we were eschewing all things parental. We were trying to be our own generation, and I think we thought were the first generation to think that."
Her playlist:
Corcorvado
"I do like Latin music. Gilberto and Getz's version is one of my all-time favourites. I love the dream of a foreign place, of dreaming of a hot Brazilian night. Getz's saxophone is sensual and Gilberto's voice floats."
Time After Time, and Sinnerman
"These two songs are tied. Miles Davis did a gorgeous cover of this Cyndi Lauper ballad, it's very hard to get. I love this version of Sinnerman by Felix da Housecat featuring Nina Simone; it's got all the music I love: soul, jazz, folk. Nina Simone's raspy heavy voice layers on a kind of earthy cool and pours out of the car speakers."
I Gotta Feeling
"Another one for this summer is the Black Eyed Peas song because of the Olympics this year. That song played at the game of all games for all Canadians in a lifetime -the hockey game - and it played over and over at the intermission. It kept the crowd going and it was so exhilarating to be there and that moment of exhilaration is what I feel any time when I put that on, especially when I'm driving."
Brandenburg concertos
"I have all [six]of these by Bach and they make me feel closer to nature, the sky, the trees, the fields and the clouds, and it all looks more beautiful with the sounds of this beautiful classical music."
Change the World
"I love Eric Clapton and still like this song because it's empowering. I have that song on one of my drive iPods. I have special iPods that are just for driving with a pretty eclectic mix from rock to classical, and if I'm not in a good mood I definitely change the songs, but I listen to this all the time."