Superfluist

A lot happens in and around Toronto, but we can only write about so much in a week. Here's the best of the rest, in a new weekly feature we're calling Superfluist. Superfluist will appear every Friday night.

• Cathy Gordon decided to get very, very publicly divorced on Monday, with an art piece she called "On My Knees." For it, she crawled around Toronto for a while (on her knees!), signed divorce papers, and then got nude and waded into the lake. 50% of all marriages may end in divorce, but 50% of divorces probably don't end in public nudity for an art piece. (A fully-clothed Gordon is pictured above. Photo by Torontoist's Miles Storey.)
• Posterchild (we've written about him plenty, including a Tall Poppy) has started making and installing guerrilla birdhouses around Toronto, and they are predictably quite neat.
• Wow. Here, for no reason, is a collection of clips of Alex Trebeck swearing. Best one? "There's a daily cash prize of $1000 and fuck."
• They tried to make her go to rehab, and she said "Toronto." (Sorry.) Amy Winehouse's first post-rehab gigs will be right here. Check out our review of her May show.
• Oh no! Someone is anonymously impersonating someone who is also anonymous!
• Best non-Toronto-related Canadian news story this week (via Boing Boing): SASQUATCH HAS BEEN DISCOVERED! Turns out it was just a kid in a mask.
• Concerts? Hot Hot Heat play the Kool Haus on October 7, Iron & Wine play the Danforth Music Hall on September 25. And the one, thus far, that we're refusing to believe and that seems totally incorrect and impossible––M.I.A. is playing at the Drake on August 25. If that falls through, though, a much-less-known but most excellent band called Vampire Weekend are playing Sneaky Dee's that same night. (Some concert info via Chromewaves and for the records.)
• Richard Bradshaw passed away this week. The CBCremembers him as "the man who brought an opera house to Toronto," but one of our readers (who tipped us off to the story this morning) put it best, calling Bradshaw "one of the most influential proponents of the arts world in Toronto."
• Soundscapes' website now features interviews, like St. Vincent. Neato! The woman can do a mean cover of Nico's "These Days." (via Chromewaves.)
• Steve Munro notes 24 Hours' big-ass ads for Siemens' new streetcars. Be sure to check out Siemens' website, or go check it out in person at the CNE grounds on Princes' Boulevard, and see if it beats the Bombardier demo.
• Music companies seeking to revitalize sales of albums: Vancouver band Thurston Revival sees your Stars and raises you "a £100, limited-to-100-copies 12-inch record, complete with your choice of artwork by 10 different artists."
• Leslie Feist shows up at #47 on some list of music's hottest women, along with a new Canadian stereotype: "If you grow up in Canada, you either play hockey or join Broken Social Scene. There are no other options." Sounds about right. Other Canucks on the list (which, again, we're not really sure why we're mentioning): Chantal Kreviazuk comes in at #43, but Avril does her fourteen better and drops in at #29 (someone's gonna be pissed!). Shania Twain is at #20, with Nelly Furtado the top-rated Canadian at #13. (via Idolator.)
• If you had fun at Daft Punk's recent Toronto show, just check out the view from where they were performing––a "technicolor dream pyramid."
• You heard it from squiddity: that Hulk sequel they're filming downtown will have "tanks and soldiers in it." (!!!)
• In Shanghai Jiatong University (SJTU)'s fifth annual Academic Ranking of World Universities, U of T once again placed as the top Canadian university, at twenty-third overall. Twenty-third overall doesn't sound that great until you realize that the SJTU slotted York University in a tie (with 96 other schools) for last place out of the 500.