Events: May 2009 Archives

ART: New York–based photographer Andrew Moore examines modern Russia in all its beauty and contradictions in Russia: Beyond Utopia. The exhibition captures images of the country as it grapples with the vestiges of its Imperial past, and as it moulds remnants of the Socialist dream into an emerging, complex capitalist democracy. The Koffler Chamber Orchestra complements the exhibition tonight with From Russia with Love. The performance highlights works from some of the country’s most famous composers, including Arensky, Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky. Exhibition: Loggia Gallery, Koffler Centre of the Arts (4588 Bathurst Street), 9 a.m.–6 p.m., FREE. Concert: Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge Street), 7 p.m., $20 or $10 for students.

Urban Planner is Torontoist's daily guide to what's on in Toronto, published every morning. If you have an event you'd like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you've got any—to events@torontoist.com.

An eco-friendly, humanitarian band of Coupe Bizarre employees has broken off and started a new hair salon: Parlour. Owner duo Tyler Moore (seven year manager of Coupe Bizarre) and Franz David (colourist and ten-plus year employee of Coupe Bizarre) took along a handful of their cohorts to open their own shop just a few blocks away. Although they officially opened on March 21st, they upped the celebration on Wednesday night at a launch party, where they showed off their new space, their hair styles, and some of their earthy initiatives.

ART: Ryan Dineen opens “In the Peripheral,” his second solo show at Show & Tell Gallery. As the title suggests, the work embraces those everyday objects in the urban environment that are often overlooked, and in a way that breathes expressive life into them. Meet the artist tonight at the opening reception. Show & Tell Gallery (1161 Dundas Street West), 7–11 p.m., FREE.

MUSIC: The nexus for experimental music is celebrating an important milestone tonight: The Music Gallery's thirty-three and a third birthday (thirty-three and a third being a meaningful figure as this is the RPM of a long-running record). The Music Gallery’s fundraiser brings together young, enterprising Toronto musicians like Apostle of Hustle, as well as performances from past and present members of the creative hub. Several hundred experimental vinyl records are also on sale. The Music Gallery (197 John Street), 8 p.m. $33.33, $20 for students, seniors, members, and art workers.

       

How do you run a massively successful improv festival that brings together a bunch of non-local talent with a tiny budget? That's easy: improvise! "Mark Little from Picnicface is sleeping on my couch right now," laughs Julie Dumais, artistic director of the COMBUSTIONfestival, over the phone this morning. "We were able to pay everyone a small honorarium, but everyone's just kind of crashing at each other's houses."

FILM: The Toronto International Film Festival presents the sixth annual national Student Film Showcase, screening the work of students from the sixteen universities and colleges across Canada—from Emily Carr to NSCAD—that make up the Film School Consortium. Thirteen films (chosen by jury from five hundred submissions) will be screened, two of which will be awarded the Best Live-Action Film or the Best Animated Film. In a shocking demonstration of inequality, the live-action winner receives a 35 mm digital intermediate output of their film, while the animation winner gets a Wacom Tablet. AMC Yonge & Dundas (10 Dundas Street East), 7:30 p.m., $8.

The Worldwide Short Film Festival has two things perpetually working against it. One, any feature-length program of short films, in any context, is almost necessarily going to be a mixed bag; there will be one or two works of sustained brilliance, two or three self-satisfied efforts that try your patience despite their limited lengths, and then a handful of other interesting but mostly unremarkable entries. Two, the WSFF—this year running June 16–21—always comes at the end of Toronto's busy spring festival season, following Images (early April), Sprockets (mid-April), Toronto Jewish (late April), Hot Docs (early May), and Inside Out (mid-May); it's sometimes received as an afterthought in the scheme of things.

MUSIC: After the devastating cancellation of their show in 2003 (remember that SARS thing?), Billy Joel and Elton John will finally bring their Face 2 Face Tour to the Air Canada Centre tonight. The piano men, who last graced our city with their communal presence in 1995, will blow minds this evening with inevitable renditions of "Piano Man," "Philadelphia Freedom," and "Crocodile Rock." Mr. Joel and Mr. John will be playing a second date this Saturday, in case you can't make it out tonight. Air Canada Centre (200 Bay Street), 7:30 p.m., $70–$275.50.

                         

Toronto has been contemplating its architecture for far longer than a decade, but this year's tenth anniversary installment of Doors Open was a breezy, blue-skied, picture-perfect way of reinforcing the point: we are officially fascinated by our buildings. Many of our photographers, and many of our Flickr Pool contributors, spent their weekends exploring the nooks and sometimes hidden crannies of some Toronto's most notable buildings, and we've gathered the best of their finds here for your viewing pleasure. Picture-perfect, indeed.

ART: Esmond Lee considers himself to be “part space-shelter-imaginer, part humankind-lover, and part camera-owner.” His photography focuses on human subjects and the way different cultural and environmental conditions impact them. A Moment’s Look, his latest exhibition (part of CONTACT), examines the act of dwelling in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, New Orleans, and New York City. The Great Hall Gallery (1087 Queen Street West), 11 a.m.–6 p.m., FREE.

It's the last day of Inside Out, but there are still a few screenings you can catch before Toronto's queer film fest closes up shop for another year. Last year's closing-night gala was XXY, an Argentinian movie from director Lucia Puenzo that told the touching story of an intersex teen named Alex who was faced with a difficult decision: to live life as a man, or a woman. This year's closing gala film is another from Puenzo, once again starring Ines Efron (XXY's Alex) as a troubled queer teen.

At 9 a.m. on Saturday—one full hour before the notorious Don Jail opened its heavy, ominous doors to the public for the first time in thirty years—hundreds of curious visitors were already camped out at the back entrance, chomping at the bit to get inside. Thanks to the gracious folks from Bridgepoint Health, the jail’s new owners and landlords, Torontoist was able to sneak in early to see what has got to be this year’s most riveting Doors Open venue.

ART: Today is the last day to catch Of All the People in the World, the eye-opening and visually compelling installation that we reviewed on Friday. Created by the U.K.-based theatre company Stan’s Cafe, the show brings fifteen tons of rice to the Harbourfront Centre, with each grain of rice representing one person. Throughout the exhibit, performers count and weigh different quantities of rice to convey a range of statistics, including the populations of various cities, the number of Canadians who eat fast food every day, and the number of military currently serving in Afghanistan. York Quay Centre (235 Queens Quay West), 11 a.m.–6 p.m., FREE.

It's the penultimate day at Inside Out, so this is one of your last chances to catch this year's crop of queer cinema. One of the highlights of the day is the Queer Youth Digital Video Project, a program Inside Out has been running for the past eleven years, which showcases the work of seven different queer youths, each of whom has been given the opportunity to produce a short film on a shoestring budget.

FUN: As part of this weekend's Doors Open Festival (which we previewed on Thursday), CBC has decided to go the extra mile. They'll be giving public tours of the building today, with behind-the-scenes access to their television and radio studios, and a chance for the public to meet some of their favourite celebrities. Plus, CBC personalities like George Stromboulopoulos, Being Erica's Erin Karpluk, Little Mosque on the Prairie's Carlo Rota, and the investors from Dragon's Den (to name a few) will be appearing from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the CBC Building's pictured Barbara Frum Atrium. For a more comprehensive schedule of tour listings and where you can head to meet your favourite news anchor, check out the community section of the CBC website. Canadian Broadcasting Centre (250 Front Street West), 10 a.m.–4 p.m., FREE.

       

There was a movie that played at Hot Docs called Reporter. It was about Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times columnist who globetrots to the sites of the world's worst humanitarian disasters in an effort to provide original reporting that will draw attention to crises of which very few people are aware. Most interestingly, Kristof stays up to date on all the latest psychology literature on the subject of compassion; he is obsessed with crafting stories that will move his readers to action. Anyone can write something that will prompt people to respond "oh, that's a shame" before moving on; it takes a special talent to rouse a readership to demand change or intervention or support. What has been concluded from various experiments is that humans' innate capacity for sympathy is extremely limited: we are more likely to be affected by the suffering of an individual than that of a group. Kristof therefore tends to focus on very particular tales of one person's exceptional affliction.

For a lot of queer cinephiles, Milk (not that cowboy thing) was the real breakout gay movie of the new millennium. Here, finally, was a story about an out gay man whose homosexuality wasn't depicted as some tragic problem, but rather as a completely normal part of his life. More than that, it helped re-affirm the legacy of one of the great heroes of the gay-rights movement, one of the first openly gay elected official in the United States, and a man who helped pioneer the idea that the most important political action any gay person can take is to come out of the closet. Sean Penn's brilliant performance matched with James Franco's smoldering mustache certainly didn't hurt matters either. And so, Inside Out's decision to screen Academy Award–winning 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk is a very smart piece of programming.

MUSIC: The Over the Top Festival continues tonight with a bunch of options for music, film, and theatre (see our full preview from yesterday). Long-time Vancouver duo Mecca Normal give a combination lecture, art exhibit and performance tonight, starting with their “How Art and Music Can Change the World” presentation. The veteran writing, art and music-making team follow up their lecture with a live concert performance. (6 Nassau Street), 8 p.m., $11.

Ever since the Art Gallery of Ontario reopened its doors in November, its free Wednesday nights have been a big hit. The cultural access initiative has been a popular smash (gallery users line up in droves for the evening and crowd the museum’s spaces with a palpable enthusiasm) and a media slam-dunk (Toronto’s other big renovated museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, did away with their free Fridays upon reopening and came off more elitist as a result).

Many of the world's greatest discoveries were made serendipitously. From Post-its and silly putty, to microwaves and penicillin, lots of good things happen by mistake. When Brian Joseph Davis, while browsing the web at the Blocks office, misread the name "Alvin Lucier" as "Alvin Lucifer," he asked his colleague Steve Kado how he might put to use his misinterpretation. And in the world of grant money and experimental everything, a tiny misread can mean a whole new method. So begat "Alvin Lucifer."

Today's mini-celebration at the corner of Queen Street East and Lee Avenue was a historical event three years in the making. In early 2006, the Beaches BIA proposed the idea of branded street signs. Plans for new street signs citywide were put on hold while the city tried to secure a contract for street furniture, and they remained on hold until late 2008. Meanwhile, area residents were asked to vote on what name would appear on the signs: the Beaches or the Beach. Out of 2,113 eligible votes, 58% preferred "the Beach"—a somewhat surprising choice, since the neighbourhood seems to be most popularly known as "the Beaches." Glenn Cochrane, journalist and author of The Beach, spoke to this in his brief speech to the crowd today. "A few years ago, there would have been an uprising over the choosing of this new name over the other name, which I'm not going to mention because I don't want to start anything."

Music and movies and theatre—oh, my! Thanks to local indie music impresario Eric Warner, you'll be getting all three of these forms of entertainment in one tidy festival package. With events kicking off today and continuing through to Sunday, Warner has jam-packed Over the Top's schedule with all sorts of tricks and treats for the whole family to enjoy.

Torontoist took a day off from Inside Out, but we now resume our daily coverage of the queer film fest.

For a decade, Doors Open has provided Torontonians with the opportunity to discover and explore some of the unique architectural gems that this city has to offer, at no charge. Since its inception in 2000, it has grown every year, both in attendance and in the number of buildings to visit, and this year's edition—taking place on Saturday (May 23) and Sunday (May 24)—will feature free access to nearly 175 buildings of architectural or historic significance, many of which are usually closed to the public. This year's theme is "Lit City: Toronto Stories, Toronto Settings," the grand finale of a three-month festival that honours literary writers who find inspiration in Toronto and use the city as a setting in their work. Libraries and buildings of literary significance have always been a staple within the official Doors Open program, but this year nearly a quarter of the venues have a prominent literary connection.

FASHION: What is probably the most exciting exhibit to hit the Bata Shoe Museum in quite some time is opening today: Worn Fashion Journal’s Art & Sole exhibition. The mag invited twenty-four creatives—from fashion designers to art collectives—to re-interpret that hipster staple, the Ked. Shoes range from the quirky (like the Mexican-born, Montreal-based fashion designer Renata Morales's) to the cute (check out the pair by Sam Purdy, who is one-half of the craft team Pin Pals). Don’t miss the closing gala on June 6—more details about that to come! Bata Shoe Museum (327 Bloor Street West), $12.

Crows Theatre has Toronto under siege. First, there was the company's much-ballyhooed remount of I, Claudia, which has just been extended due to popular demand. Then, last weekend, the company hosted The Directors' Showcase & Exchange, which involved a fascinating panel discussion by some of the country's most prolific and accomplished theatre directors. It also featured the performance of several plays, including a reading of Caryl Churchill's controversial new work Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza. Written in January as a response to the recent attack on Gaza, the ten-minute piece has been highly acclaimed by some, and dismissed as anti-Semitic propaganda by others, including B'nai Brith, which tried to protest the work's being performed in Toronto. We found the piece powerful, tragic, and ultimately very human, less interested in pointing fingers than drawing attention to the complexity and the sadness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

WORDS: Authors at Harbourfront presents a night of architects as part of the current (and disappointingly haphazard) Festival of Architecture and Design 2009. Canadian architect Witold Rybczynski reads from My Two Polish Grandfathers, a collection of autobiographical stories of his family’s flight from war-time Europe. Glenn McArthur presents a new photographic book of the man responsible for some of Toronto's landmark buildings, A Progressive Traditionalist: John M. Lyle, Architect. Jack Diamond will be presenting a new book about his firm's own work, Insight and On Site: The Architecture of Diamond and Schmitt. York Quay Centre (235 Queens Quay West), 7:30 p.m., $8 (Free for members/students with ID).

It may only be Tuesday, but for Inside Out, it's Hump Day; we are right in the middle of the 19th annual queer film fest.

THEATRE: For the next few weeks, internationally renowned Irish dance extravaganza Riverdance will be playing at the Canon Theatre, as part of their North American touring company's current farewell tour (insert appropriate Cher or Celine Dion farewell tour joke). Leads include Marty Dowds, Liam Ayres, and Christina Havlin. Riverdance is part of the Mirvish 2008–2009 subscription season, and runs until June 21. Canon Theatre (244 Victoria Street), $20–$99.

We're now well into patio season, which you're probably well aware of if you've picked up the latest copy of NOW or Eye, or, you know, been outside. And if you like Torontoist, patios, lazy Wednesday afternoons, and internet friends, boy, do we have the event for you!

Sometimes, thematic trends at Inside Out are unexpected. Last year, gay surfers were all the rage. This year, gay parenting seems to be all the rage. But AIDS stories always have been a mainstay at the fest, and probably always will be.

FAMILY: The Harbourfront Centre offers a packed itinerary for the long weekend, including HarbourKIDS: IMPACT! The event celebrates the ways in which kids can make an impact on the world around them, and the unmissable highlight is the Toronto International Circus Festival. Co-produced by Zero Gravity Circus, the festival showcases exciting feats for adults and kids alike, involving world-class acrobatics, blazing fire-eaters, daredevil stunts, stilt-walkers, jugglers, and more. The main show, SIRIUS FUN: The Impact! Big Top!, takes place this afternoon at the SIRIUS Satellite Radio Stage. Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West), events from 11 a.m.–5 p.m., FREE.

It's Day 4 of Inside Out and of Torontoist's coverage of the the annual queer film festival. There's a bunch of films on today, including Make the Yuletide Gay, starring Degrassi alum and fab cover boy Adamo Ruggiero. Torontoist caught Israeli sizzler Antarctica, which is sort of a queered-up feature-length version of Metropia, in Hebrew. There's sexy boys (and even the odd lesbian) to look at, but the plot is both meandering and banal, and the fleshy eyefuls aren't enough to keep the yawns at bay. Much more worthy of your attention is Drool, a 2008 American film starring Mulholland Drive's absolutely gorgeous Laura Harring.

THEATRE: Director Chris Abraham and playwright Anton Piatgorsky reunite after more than five years for the world premiere of Eternal Hydra. A play about identity politics and the myth of artistic genius, it examines the controversy surrounding the authorship of a long-lost manuscript, believed to be the work of an iconoclastic writer. The Crow's Theatre production features some of Toronto’s most celebrated actors, including David Ferry and Liisa Repo-Martell. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street), preview at 8 p.m., $15.

It's Day 3 of the Inside Out festival, and there's a whole bucket load of queer films to catch.

CRAFTS: More than twenty local Etsy artisans will combine their talents in an effort to sell wares today at the Gladstone Hotel. The Spring Handmade Market will feature many impulse purchase opportunities, such as Allthingssmall's adorable sewn mice (and the above-pictured penguins), Eyesore Design's cool record album notebooks, and Stitchface's painfully cute eco-friendly stuffed woodland creatures. For more information on vendors, and interviews with the artisans, check out the market's official blog. Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West), 11 a.m.–4 p.m., FREE.

Although it technically opened last night, today is the day that the Inside Out festival really gets under way.

Toronto comedian and activist Derek Forgie got inspired to start Heterosexuals for Same-Sex Equality (HSSE)—a gay-rights group founded by people who identify as straight—from the unlikliest source: 100 Huntley Street. On a particular episode in 2003, the hosts and guests were denouncing gay marriage seemingly on the behalf of all straight married couples in Canada. "I didn’t feel this was a fair representation of my country," Forgie says, "and I vowed to prove it in numbers."

PARTY: This summer, cyclists will tackle a six-day ride to Montreal called The Friends For Life Bike Rally in the name of raising money for Toronto People with AIDS Foundation. Torontoist is one of the media sponsors for the social-media hub of the rally, SpinTO.ca, launching tonight with a fundraising party at the Mod Club. Fun(d) times include DJs, raffles, silent auctions, entertainment, and Burlesque acts—one of which includes Torontoist Drama Club guru Johnnie Walker. The Mod Club (722 College Street), 8 p.m., $15.

Are you a gay, or a gay-at-heart, despairing over the heteronormativity of the multiplex? You've watched your Milk DVD so many times you've developed lactose intolerance, but you can't quite bring yourself to go see that movie with Robert Pattison in a false mustache? Lucky for you, the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival is here to bring you the gayest movies this side of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now 19 years old, the queer film fest opens tonight with the gala screening of 2008 Swedish film Patrik, Age 1.5. In it, a bourgie gay couple moves to the burbs of Stockholm with a yen to acquire the trappings of middle-class success: a picket fence, a flower garden, and a baby. But when the adoption agency makes the pretty egregious error of inserting a decimal where it doesn't belong, Göran and Sven wind up with a 15-year-old badass instead of a 1.5-year-old baby. Patrik is a homophobe, and potentially a criminal, and clashes heavily with hot-tempered Sven. But, thanks to the Power of Love, everyone learns to get over their prejudices and yadda, yadda, yadda, you can see where this is going. Essentially Breakfast with Scot, sans dimples, Patrik, Age 1.5 isn't exactly a life-changing film, but it's totally cute, likable, and full of endearing performances, and some genuinely funny moments.

FILM: Starting tonight and ending Saturday is the Ryerson University Film Festival (RUFF), an annual end-of-year screening of graduating film students' final projects. The opening night screens nine short films from the class, which is certain to offer up some gems from the city’s young film talent. Case in point: many of the films screened over the next few nights are picked up by international film festivals and shown around the world. Royal Cinema (608 College Street) 7 p.m. $10.

The sun is shining, the blossoms are out, and snow is all but a distant memory. It's officially day-trip season! And while slot-junkies and wax museum enthusiasts may find themselves drawn to the siren song of Niagara Falls, we suggest you might also consider its more demure cousin, Niagara-on-the-Lake, home of the well-loved Shaw Festival. While slightly beyond the reaches of the TTC, many Torontonians rent a car or hop a bus to this quaint little burg to catch a play, have some tea, and maybe visit that jam store.

KIDS: Eight thousand kids swamp Harbourfront today for the Third Annual Forest of Reading Festival of Trees Awards. The young ones are up first to pick the Blue Spruce Award recipient, followed by the junior-high-aged for the Red Maples awards in late morning (now SOLD OUT), and the high-school-aged for the White Pine Award in the afternoon. Authors of the nominated books will be present to take part in some of the incredible workshop activities throughout the day. These include a ninety-foot bug exhibit (don’t worry—we mean ninety feet of bugs, not a ninety-foot monster), and writing tips for future Pulitzer Prize winners. Harbourfront York Quay Centre (235 Queens Quay West), 10 a.m. (Blue Spruce Awards) and 1 p.m. (White Pine Awards), $13.

Book readings are, in a certain way, transgressive. In bridging the usual remove between author and audience, and in reinstantiating the written word as performance, they breach the boundaries which usually govern our experience as readers. Book readings rely on that transgressive quality for their success: a good book reading is one in which listeners feel genuinely connected to the author they are hearing, and in which the performance conveys something more than whatever is contained in the written work alone.

             

At the Royal Ontario Museum, the portraits of homeless or formerly-homeless people holding signs with self-scrawled messages on them start outside the main entrance on Bloor Street, one large-scale man and large-scale woman standing back-to-back, dwarfed by the Crystal. They continue life-sized just inside, one young woman hiding above the main entrance, an older man further inside off to the right. In total, there are eighteen portraits wheatpasted at spots on the Crystal's bare walls, part of a series called "The Unaddressed" created by Dan Bergeron—fauxreel. Like his spectacular Regent Park portraits from last year, Bergeron's focus in "The Unaddressed" is on uprooted subjects, which is why it makes sense that the portraits themselves refuse to rest in only one location: all eighteen portraits, in addition to being safely contained on the ROM's property and walls, are also mirrored on walls across Toronto.

WORDS: Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk will be appearing at the Isabel Bader Theatre this evening to promote his latest release, Pygmy. Palahniuk will read from the novel, followed by an audience Q&A, and a book signing for the first 150 people to pick up a wristband. Wristbands can be picked up on a first-come-first-serve basis from 5 p.m. onward at the theatre, and anyone who gets one is required to buy a copy of the book. Those who don't get wristbands in time will still be able to buy pre-signed copies of the book (Mr. Palahniuk is very generous). Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West), 7 p.m., $10.

The Tragically Hip really have nothing left to prove. They've peaked commercially; arguably, they've peaked artistically (it's hard to see Day for Night ever being surpassed). But they're not standing still: their latest album, We Are The Same, is a gem, and they’ve recently embarked on a five-month-long North American trek that's already got fans salivating.

This weekend, the Toronto Reference Library’s bespectacled old ladies of Saturday morning cartoon fame were replaced with another near-sighted crowd. Trading cat’s eye glasses for black horn rims, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival crowd, several thousand strong, dominated at least the first two floors of the behemoth library.

OCAD keeps pumping out interesting art contests. Back in March, the school ran its nifty bike stand design competition, and just last week, it announced the winners of its collaborative industrial design competition with 3M Canada. For the latter, third-year Industrial Design students were asked to create new Scotch tape and Post-it Note Pop-up dispensers.

ART: As more and more movies are shown in 3-D, the Bloor Cinema opens a new exhibition of 3-D art, accompanied by a 3-D screening of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Entitled The Deep Inside, the exhibition is curated by Keep Six Contemporary’s Rafi Ghanaghounian and Studio XIX’s Michael Viglione. It continues to the end of this month. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), opening reception at 7 p.m., film screening at 9 p.m., $10 includes both reception and screening.

Today's Picks:

THEATRE: Today is the last day of Crosscurrents, the ninth annual playwrights festival, at the Factory Theatre. Dedicated to playwrights of colour, the event celebrates the diversity of Canada’s national theatre scene. Today’s feature is poet and filmmaker Ahdri Zhina Mandiela’s who knew grannie, a dub aria about the expiation of generational family ties. Mandiela is the founder and artistic director of b current, a company exploring black identity through experimental theatre, dance, and dub poetry. Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street), 2:30 p.m., P.W.Y.C. or $10 in advance.

ART: Tonight is the official opening reception for photographer Marrianne Newman's latest exhibit, Pregnant Portraiture, running until May 31 at Tequila Bookworm Café and Books. A tribute to Mother's Day of sorts, Pregnant Portraiture is the result of Newman's foray into pregnancy photography and features a diverse and fascinating series of portraits taken over the last fifteen years. Portraiture is part of this month's CONTACT. Tequila Bookworm (512 Queen Street West), 7–9 p.m., FREE.

Today's Picks:

ART: Magic Pony presents an exhibit of limited-edition prints and a new series of toys from artist Tara McPherson. McPherson will be at the Narwhal Art Projects gallery tonight for the opening reception until 8 p.m. She is in town as a guest of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to debut her new book, Lost Constellations: The Art of Tara McPherson Volume 2. Narwhal Art Projects (680 Queen Street West), 6–9 p.m., FREE.

The question too often asked of fashion is this: "But is it art?" If fashion can't be art because it's too obviously commercial—made to sell and mass consumable—then, fine, but most of art isn't art either.

Today's Picks:

We've been at City Hall a fair number of times, but it wasn't until this week that we had the rather delightful experience of being met by a beatboxing duo at the front door or rocking out to OutKast in the Council Chamber. The occasion for this upending of formality? A town hall meeting, hosted by a network of organizations known collectively as the Beautiful City Alliance. The coalition is working to convince city council to direct revenue from the billboard tax it plans to introduce this summer towards art in the public sphere and is stepping up its campaign efforts as the vote on that tax approaches. The town hall, attended by some two or three hundred artists and activists, as well as several city councillors, was part informational meeting and part pep rally, with a bit of spontaneous art production thrown in for good measure.

ART: Barbershop Gallery is holding an exhibition/auction in support of non-profit community group Sketch, which helps homeless and disadvantaged people engage with the arts. Photobloggers Sam Javanrouh, Rannie Turingan, and Istoica curated this photography exhibition that captures big-name Toronto artists in their environment: Thrush Holmes, Brendan Flanagan, and artist collective Team Macho are all on the bill. Coming to the opening tonight means fringe benefits like a DJ set and free cupcakes. Barbershop Gallery (1718 Queen Street West), 7 p.m., FREE.

In tough economic times, people look to business leaders who have experienced—and, even better, thrived through—nasty bear markets and recessions. Veteran investor Warren Buffett has become even more influential and a guiding voice in newspapers, in magazines, and on television. And, on Monday, Buffett's name was brought up in the Michael Lee-Chin crystal by the namesake of the space.

Claudia may be Canada's favourite official pre-teen. The star of Kristen Thomson's one-woman masterpiece, I, Claudia, has been delighting audiences for the better part of a decade. Since the play's 2001 premiere at Tarragon Theatre, it's toured the country, won multiple awards, been adapted into a wonderful film for CBC's (now defunct) Opening Night series, and, most recently, been performed by actors other than Thomson. Now, it's back to Toronto with a remount that opened last week at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

The Watchmen movie has been released to moderate success and every other person on the street has a copy of the graphic novel in their low-slung messenger bag. Michael Cera, the quirky playboy of lady hipster hearts, is in town filming the Scott Pilgrim movie. Now is a better time than ever to come out and let your comic flag fly. Side-by-side with a documentary festival, book festival, and photography festival, the fourth Toronto Comic Arts Festival (or TCAF) animates the city this week.

Today's Picks:

DANCE: The CanAsian International Dance Festival starts tonight with performances from Tokyo’s Ko Murobushi, Victoria’s Jung-Ah Chung, and, from Toronto, Yvonne Ng’s Tiger Princess Dance Projects. Tonight’s program ranges from the dance of a spectacular silver-painted man to an intricate choreography of Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor. The festival is known for showcasing top Asian talent from across Canada and around the world. Harbourfront Centre's Fleck Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay West), 8 p.m., $30 ($25 students, seniors).

There can be few pleasures as simple as splitting a bottle of wine with friends. It’s difficult to pinpoint the source of the romanticism, but it could be the systematic pouring from the bottle, the rhythmic swirling of the wine, or the life implicit in something that has to breathe. At the same time, wine can be damn intimidating. There are people who babble on about the 2003 this and how the shiraz from this region just simply can’t compare to the one from that region.

Bill Gilliam is pretty courageous. While most children prefer not to think about their parents’ love life, Gilliam has embraced it. In his latest and perhaps strangest concert, Poems from a Love Triangle—which we had the pleasure of seeing on Saturday night at the Music Gallery—Gilliam uses the illicit love triangle between his mother, Marianne Gilliam; his father, Laurence Gilliam; and stepfather, the famous Irish poet William Robert (Bertie) Rodgers, as a source of inspiration.

Today's Picks:

The Academy Awards of the pet world was held yesterday, honouring animals who acted to save a human's life. Four new pets were inducted into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame, joining over 140 other life-saving pets (all cats and dogs, save one horse awarded in the '70s) at the Harbourfront Centre's PawsWay Pet Discovery Centre.

POLITICS: Toronto City Hall is hosting a town hall meeting tonight about the Beautifulcity.ca initiative, which would implement stricter billboard bylaws, and fees. The proposal, which will be voted on in a few weeks' time, will not only give a 53% increase to the current annual municipal funding for artists and art institutions, but will also provide, annually, three hundred thousand dollars for each of the thirteen identified "priority neighbourhoods" and one hundred thousand dollars for each of the city's forty-four wards, as well as the ability to hire "seventeen dedicated staff to enforce the new billboard bylaw, create a public inventory, direct removals, and collect fines," according to organizer Devon Ostrom. For more information on how to get involved, check out the Facebook event, and keep your eyes on Torontoist this week for further coverage. Toronto City Hall (100 Queen Street West, Council Chambers), 6:30–9 p.m., FREE.

As we reported on Friday, this weekend was the annual extravaganza of pedestrian urban love known as Jane's Walk. With dozens of walks exploring every corner of Toronto (and many more in cities across the continent), there was a glorious medley of tours to choose from. We were there (well, not everywhere), and though we couldn't begin to do a comprehensive survey of the walks on offer we did manage to log dozens of kilometres, and pick up a good number of fun tidbits along the way. Behold some of our favourite finds...

                        

As we previously reported, the cherry blossoms in High Park are in full bloom. A visit to the grove of trees adjacent to Grenadier Pond—even among the crowds poking cameras and children at the trees—is a delightful way to get into the right mood for spring, and the blooms should be around until the end of the week. During this time, the slightest gust of wind will lift petals off the trees in a blizzard of cherry snow (that makes twirling around like you're a three-year-old a must!)

Today's Picks:

PETA's picked up another Canadian to speak out for furry friends. And thankfully, this Canuck hasn't risen to fame by way of an overinflated pair of tits.

WORDS: Last year, debut novelist Reif Larsen sent the publishing world into a bidding war over his manuscript The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, with Penguin finally acquiring the copyright for nigh a million dollars. Needless to say success stories like this don’t happen every day, and it’s rumoured the book—a story about a twelve-year-old boy who maps everyday experiences—is worth the hype. At the book launch tonight, Larsen, along with literary personality Claudia Dey, Torontoist’s own Jerad Gallinger and Stephen Michalowicz, and others, will hold forth on cartographic topics related to the book. The Steam Whistle Roundhouse (255 Bremner Boulevard), 8 p.m., $5 or FREE with book purchase.

Today's Picks:

THEATRE: Last chance to catch Marjorie Chan’s The Madness of the Square at the Factory Theatre this afternoon. The historical drama follows four friends who become unlikely revolutionaries in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, and the Western journalism intern caught in the tragedy. The Cahoots Theatre Projects production is complicated and ambitious, complete with a Greek-style chorus and video projections of images from the actual event. Factory Theatre Mainspace (125 Bathurst Street), 2 p.m., P.W.Y.C.

Today's Listings:

BENEFIT: Tonight at Rolly's Garage, join the Keep-A-Breast foundation for the Live Love Jamboree, a celebration of music and art to promote positive, creative ways to take action against breast cancer. Along with the door prizes and musical entertainment that will go on all night, five talented artists have created customized casts of female breasts that will be on display. Participating artists include Caitlin Cronenberg (yeah, of those Cronenbergs) and Bedouin Soundclash rocker Jay Malinowski (whose work is pictured above). After tonight's event, each of the "casts" (or "boob statues") will be up for auction online. Rolly's Garage (120 Ossington Avenue), 8 p.m., $15.

"Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks—the pedestrian parts of the streets—serve many purposes besides carrying pedestrians... Streets and their sidewalks, the main public places of a city, are its most vital organs. Think of a city and what comes to mind? Its streets."

              

It’s that time again: The annual Pug Awards are back for the fifth consecutive year! Over the month of May thirty-two projects (fourteen of which are featured above) will face off in a battle for bragging rights as the 2009 people’s choice for best and worst new buildings in Toronto. The projects are divided into two categories. Twenty-four buildings fall in the residential category and there are eight in the commercial and institutional categories. It is up to the general public to choose the winner by voting online.