Events: November 2009 Archives

       

If you've ever pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment, you can stop patting yourself on the back, slacker, because a group of fourth-year Ryerson students put all your cut-and-paste efforts to shame with the final project in their Radio and Television Arts degree. Third Floor Sessions is a series of ambitious music and multimedia events that is part live show for an in-house audience, part live internet broadcast, part HD multi-camera videos, and part fully produced MP3s of the live set that will, at its conclusion, span five months, hundreds of hours, four (maybe five) bands, and piles of sanity.

ART: As we previewed last week, "King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" opens today for the general public at the Art Gallery of Ontario. There will be over fifty objects from the boy king's tomb (though no Tut himself) and a further fifty from other important pharaohs. Along with the numerous special hotel packages being offered to coincide with the exhibit, the CN Tower, Hockey Hall of Fame, and Casa Loma will all be lit up in gold tomorrow night for the opening. Attendance for this exhibit is expected to be huge (the last time a Tut exhibit hit the AGO it attracted record crowds of 750,000 people), so plan on standing in line for a bit. Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West), 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m. , $14.50–$32.50 (includes admission to the permanent collection).

Imagine a place packed with your favourite books and toys—a place with no schedules, few rules, and filled with your best friends. Then, imagine if that place were destroyed overnight. The Children’s Storefront, a community based child-care centre located near Bathurst and Dupont for over thirty years, went up in flames on October 31. Now, the people who love it are trying to rebuild, beginning with a set of fundraising events.

Long before Colin Medley was the budding-star director of the Torontoist (and some website called "Pitchfork")-approved Diamond Rings video "All Yr Songs," he was planting his scene documentarist roots in his Oshawa stomping grounds. "I was hanging out [at local venue The Dungeon] a lot, so I sort of naturally fell into making show posters and artwork for some local bands. Near the end of high school I started running a [local music] website called Durhamrock.com, and I think I was still seventeen when I first went to the (now-closed) Velvet Elvis, which was this old house that had been converted into a venue. It was really amazing to discover a place like that in Oshawa. I really felt a stronger connection to the music that I was hearing there."

MUSIC: For the first time in twenty-five years, Devo ('80s pop bastion of neat-looking-yet-ultimately-functionless hats) will take to the stage for the first of two shows at the Phoenix Concert Theatre tonight. They'll be working their way through one album each night, and tonight is the Brian Eno–produced classic Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (which unfortunately does not include their 1980 breakthrough hit, "Whip It"—that's saved for tomorrow night when they play their second album, Freedom of Choice). Phoenix Concert Theatre (410 Sherbourne Street), 8 p.m., $48.25 (or $99.75 for VIP meet and greet tickets).

CRAFT: The Fox Theatre and girlcancreate.com are teaming up to present Movies and Makers: An Art and Craft Show, along with a screening of Faythe Levine’s Handmade Nation, a documentary about North America's DIY craft movement. The craft show will showcase the work of over thirty local artisans and vendors, including east-end craft proprietess Nathalie-Roze, textile printmakers Beside Herself, and Kensington printers Kid Icarus. With tons of clothing, pottery, zines, and jewellery, it’s the perfect place to get some holiday shopping done. Stick around after the show for the documentary screening, which will either leave you satisfied with your handmade purchases or feeling inspired to go home and make something yourself. Fox Theatre (2236 Queen Street East); Saturday 10 a.m.–4 p.m., screening at 4:30 p.m.; FREE (screening is $8 or $6 for members).

The Silicone Diaries, the new one-woman show written and performed by self-proclaimed "most celebrated transsexual in Canada" Nina Arsenault currently being performed at Buddies' cabaret space, is already a hit. The theatre announced an added performance before the show had even opened, tickets have been selling like hotcakes, and there's already rumours of the Diaries coming back next season, this time in the more spacious "Chamber" section of the venue. That last tidbit is very welcome news for audience members; when we attended the jam-packed opening, "seating" choices were limited to standing room at the back, or cramming ourselves onto the room's grand staircase. We opted for the latter, an experience so uncomfortable we couldn't help but imagine, while Arsenault waxed poetic about the various illegal silicone injections into her ass and hips she had scored in Mexico, the more practical appeal of having a little extra cushion back there.

ART: Since its conception in 2002, the "Love Show" has strived to raise awareness about the privilege that defines so many of our lives, while reminding us of our responsibility to others. Each year's proceeds go to community-based organizations that stand up against violence and encourage self esteem. This year, the sales from all the miniature (8x8) pieces—donated by local artists for the exhibition—go to the Workman Arts Program (at CAMH), whose mission is to support artists with mental illnesses or addiction and promote a greater understanding of these realities through various art forms. The theme of this year's show is "Dreams," exploring all meanings of the word—from night-time visions and nightmares, to daydreams and aspirations for the future. Each piece will sell for only seventy-five dollars. 918 Bathurst Street, 7–9 p.m., FREE.

FILM: The Eh!U Meet the Europeans European Film Festival, one of our favourite free film festivals of the year, begins today with a screening of award-winning Czech film The Karamazovs. Various local European consulates and cultural centres (representing a total of twenty-three European nations this year) have compiled a collection of current films not yet screened in Canada to introduce them to a Toronto audience. This year’s venues are the Bloor, the Royal, and the Varsity, screening a total of twenty-six different films. The festival continues to December 3. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 6 p.m., FREE.

Terry Fox. The Spanish Influenza. John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Vimy Ridge. The Last Spike. Bob and Doug McKenzie. Wayne Gretzky. Nellie McClung. Winnie the Bear. The Halifax Explosion. The moments and people that define Canada are as diverse and wide-ranging as the country itself. No wonder Beaver editor Mark Reid had such a difficult time selecting photos for 100 Photos That Changed Canada.

ART: Art lovers will be wondering "who art thou?" at the annual Whodunit? Mystery Art Sale, featuring artwork donated by OCAD students, faculty, alumni, and established artists. Hundreds of pieces will be available for sale, all the same size (5½" x 7½") and the same price (seventy-five dollars). The catch is that the names of artists are withheld from buyers until after the piece is purchased, adding an element of mystery and surprise. The public preview starts today in person and online and runs through Friday evening, leading up to what promises to be a day of frantic buying at Saturday's sale. (Torontoist will also have more from Whodunit? later this week.) Following today's preview opening, OCAD is hosting the Gala Preview tonight. The gala will feature a silent auction of small-scale mystery art and a live auction of full-scale work from a group of local artists, many of them OCAD alumni and medal winners. While previewing works available in the public sale, guests will also enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at tonight's event. Get prepared for some holiday shopping this weekend (even if it's for yourself) while knowing that you are supporting OCAD, with proceeds from this year’s sale going towards the purchase of specialized equipment for emerging artists. Ontario College of Art and Design (100 McCaul Street), public preview 12–6 p.m., FREE; preview gala 6:30–10 p.m., $150 (available online).

If snacks and unlimited arcade freeplay are relevant to your interests, you might want to read on.

FILM: Nokia Mobifest is the "world's largest independent short film festival using mobile phone technology." That's right, these movies are made especially for your iPod. Earlier this month the best of the festival contenders were announced, and tonight the finalists will be screened at the Revue Cinema. The entries vary widely in style and production values (last year's Best Canadian Film winner, Egg Love by Zach Math, is a sort of tongue-in-cheek art house film about eggs that's reminiscent of a certain sausage-themed Kids in the Hall sketch). Tonight's screening will include selections from the festival's first twenty-four-hour Toronto Made-For-Mobile Challenge, a sneak peak at a Jason Priestly–directed movie about world champion downhill skier Jan Hudec, and films from Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Spain. The winners will be announced tonight, with the challenge winner receiving $2,500 in cash (donated by the City of Toronto), and the Best of Festival winner receiving a free trip to Los Angeles, California, as well as $2,000 cash. Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue), 7 p.m., $5.

It's been a very exciting week for Toronto Fringe enthusiasts. First, there was the announcement of the festival's partnership with both Mirvish and the Randolph Centre for the Arts, which means the Fringe Club beer tent will move from the Tranzac to the parking lot behind Honest Ed's (which happens to be across the street from new Fringe location Randolph). The move makes a lot of sense in terms of giving the festival a central, highly visible hub that's pretty much exactly in the midpoint of the festival's various reaches to Tarragon in the north, UofT in the east, and Factory/Passe Muraille in the south. Those interested in participating in next year's festival had better get a move on it, though: the new, early application deadline this year is this Wednesday.

Egypt’s famed boy-king is gearing up to set off another bout of "Tut-mania" in Toronto.

DANCE: Kicking off the Christmas season with some stylish stockings, the three-day run of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes starts today. This seasonal family favourite promises all of the high-kicking can-can spectacle of the original Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, complete with a dancing Santa and his reindeer, a scene from the Nutcracker, and a "living nativity" scene. Air Canada Centre (40 Bay Street), 7:30 p.m., $35–$84.

WORDS: Coach House Books and This Is Not A Reading Series present the launch of tantalizing Toronto treats-and-eats book The Edible City. The book (which Books@Torontoist has been featuring excerpts from) contains essays and tidbits on everything food related, so long as it relates to the food of Toronto—and we love food. The book’s launch includes a panel discussion with The Edible City contributors who chew the fat about the food we eat. Further food-themed fodder will be served up in the guise of food-related music and cookie-decorating from Wanda’s Pie-in-the-Sky. Gladstone Hotel, Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West), Sunday 2 p.m., $5 (FREE with book purchase).

FILM: It seems rather shocking that up until 2008, the senior prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi was racially segregated, despite classes and other school activities being integrated. It wasn't until Morgan Freeman offered to foot the bill for the prom (for the second time, as he was denied the first time in 1997) that anyone in the town considered a racially integrated prom. Prom Night In Mississippi is a documentary by Toronto-based filmmaker Paul Saltzman that follows high school students, parents, and teachers as they navigate their way through senior prom preparations, highlighting the racism that is still evident in the community. All proceeds from tonight's opening night benefit screening will benefit Moving Beyond Prejudice, an organization that will distribute Prom Night in Mississippi's educational DVD package to Canadian schools that cannot afford them. Morgan Freeman will be in attendance for tonight's event, which will commence with a red carpet entrance, followed by an introduction by the filmmaker. Stick around after the screening for a Q&A session. Varsity Cinemas (55 Bloor Street West), 6:30–9:30 p.m., $100 (available online).

We're sure they thought it was a good idea at the time.

MUSIC: Awesome music promoter NuFunk holds its second annual NuJazz Music Festival this weekend, launching tonight with New York City headliner Nickodemus. The promoter's love of all things urban jazz, electronica, and big funky brass outfits rings true with the weekend line-up. Joining Nickodemus on stage for the opening party are CIUT DJs Medicineman and Goldfinger, (celebrating their radio shows' tenth anniversary), and Escalate! Revival Bar (783 College Street), 9 p.m., $15 ($25 festival pass available online).

MUSIC: If not for the stillbirth of his brother, Jesse, Elvis Presley would have been an identical twin, which may or may not have had a significant impact on his success, superstardom, and final demise. Curated by music critic and Globe and Mail editor Carl Wilson and co-presented with The Power Plant (in conjunction with the "Candice Breitz: Same Same" exhibition, which explores twins, fans, and identity), "Songs for Jesse Presley" pays musical tribute to The King's twin. Tonight, a few of Toronto's most inspired musicians reveal their artistic zygotes by playing covers of the artists who influenced them, as well as the clonings, mutations, and deviations that are their own songs. Featured on the bill are novelist and musician Joe Pernice, The Reveries (returning to the stage after an eighteen-month hiatus), and Toronto rapper (and winner of the 2009 Echo Songwriting Prize) D-Sisive (Derek Christoff). The Music Gallery (197 John Street), doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m., regular $10, students and members $9.

The clock is ticking, usually reticent authors are primping, and in a few short hours Canada's literary establishment will be donning tuxedos and evening gowns in preparation for tonight's Giller Prize black-tie gala dinner and awards ceremony. Writers typically tend to elbow patches and cozy knits—the "sequins and spit-shine shoe" look comes but once a year. The Giller is the most prestigious of Canada's literary awards, guaranteeing the winner a firm spot on the bestseller list through the peak holiday shopping season and providing a level of exposure few fiction writers are lucky to find in this country. (To a lesser extent, all the shortlisted writers see these benefits.)

It's only on for the rest of the week, so you'll have to hurry, but as far as seeing theatre in this town goes, getting tickets to August: Osage County is about the best favour you could do yourself this year. The Pulitzer Prize–winning Steppenwolf production—coming to us by way of sold-out runs in Chicago, Broadway, and the West End—brings Oscar-winner (and Roseanne's mom) Estelle Parsons to the Toronto stage, along with a highly talented ensemble cast and a phenomenal script by Tracy Letts. Rumoured to be in talks for big screen development, this is the perfect chance to catch this bold and original work in its purest form.

              

On Friday night the glass and steel canyons of downtown Toronto echoed to the running footfalls and excited yells of almost two thousand participants in the annual Newmindspace game of Capture the Flag. Dodging traffic, sidestepping security guards, and disappearing into the PATH system, teams ebbed and flowed across the King Street "neutral zone" throughout the night. In the end, if the score mattered, the blue team emerged victorious by four captures to two.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Vincenzo Pietropaolo is a Canadian photographer who works primarily in black-and-white prints. He's well-known for creating social documentary photo essays that are steeped in the greatest empathy. Since 1984, Pietropaolo has been documenting the lives of migrant farm workers in Ontario, and tonight, the culmination of that work will come out with the launch of his new book, Harvest Pilgrims: Mexican and Caribbean Migrant Farm Workers in Canada. Pietropaolo will participate in a talk about his work at the launch. Stephen Bulger Gallery (1026 Queen Street West), 7–9 p.m., FREE.

FILM: It's good to know that being in several infamous B movies and a couple Lord of the Rings films wouldn't stop someone like Sir Christopher Lee from being knighted. Tonight, B-movie enthusiast, film critic (Fangoria, AM 640 Toronto), and Uwe Boll's bitch, Chris Alexander, will kick off his new film screening and lecture series, Film School Confidential, with one of Lee's greatest B movies, Horror Express. In it, Lee shares the screen with Peter Cushing in a 1973 Spanish/British mash-up that follows two scientists (Lee and Cushing) and their dealings with zombies and a murderous fossil on the Trans Siberian Express. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 9:30 p.m., $10 ($8 for members).

CELEBRATION: St. Lawrence Market has been a culinary hub of our city since even before we were a city (talk about putting the cart before the horse). This year, while the City of Toronto is celebrating its 175th anniversary, St. Lawrence Market is celebrating 205 years of food and freshness. It won’t be your usual Saturday at the market with live music, buskers, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, and guided tours of the building. In honour of the city’s birthday, many farmers, merchants, and artisans will be featuring products for the special prices of $1.75 and $11.75. St. Lawrence Market (93 Front Street East), Saturday 9 a.m.–4 p.m., FREE.

"I probably don't even need this microphone, to be honest!" Frontman Odario Williams and the rest of his genre-bending hip-hop group Grand Analog launched the Toronto Public Library's current Make Some Noise series straight from the kids' section of the College/Shaw branch last night, and the alternative venue proved a somehow very fitting setting for an affair that's typically relegated to dark clubs at late hours that no adorable two-year-old would ever be able to attend.

FILM: Filmmaker and scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin, companion of Nouvelle–Vague visionary Jean-Luc Godard throughout his Dziga Vertov period, is in Toronto for his self-curated series "The Way of the Termite: The Essay Film." Gorin will introduce Chris Marker's Sans Soleil tonight to launch the series, which runs until December 3 and will also feature a couple of Gorin's collaborations with Godard (Ici et ailleurs and Letter to Jane), as well as the Canadian premiere of La Rabbia di Pasolini. The films screened over the next month explore the balance between history and anecdote, fact and fiction. Each work speaks as clearly about the filmmaker as their world views, resulting in the perfect meeting of art and politics. The series invites audiences to reflect on how we think about history and how we process current events through images, which is particularly poignant in an age of media saturation. TIFF Cinematheque (2 Carlton Street), 7 p.m., check online for ticket prices.

MUSIC: Who said libraries and noise don’t mix? The Toronto Public Library thinks a bit of volume is a great way to support their extensive Canadian independent music collection (which includes CDs and music-related books). The Make Some Noise series brings well-known local bands to various branches for live shows or to lead music-making workshops, with all supporting bands' material available at the library. This season kickstarts with a concert by Grand Analog who’ll play music from their new CD Metropolis is Burning. Look to Torontoist for a review following the show. Toronto Public Library, College/Shaw Branch (766 College Street), 8 p.m., FREE.

ART: In a candid talk about the oldest profession around, the Textile Museum of Canada curators Natalia Nekrassova and Roxane Shaughnessy will discuss the art of hooking. Originating as domestic products of thrifty pioneer families, hooked rugs have come to be recognized as a fine art form and admired for their colour, texture, and design. During tonight's seminar, participants will have the opportunity to look at artifacts from the museum's collection, which reflects diverse communities and geographic regions, including many pieces of Canadian origin. Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre Avenue), 6:30 p.m., $15 ($12 for museum members and PWYC for full-time students).

MUSIC: Basement Jaxx, the over-the-top house music imports from the UK, are in Toronto tonight for a DJ set at the Century Room. The duo, consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, first gained notoriety in Canada in 2001 with the single "Where's Your Head At?" (complete with a crazy video featuring monkey-human brain transplants) from their second album, Rooty. They're out promoting their latest album, Scars, which is characteristic of most of their work, using plenty of vocals and live instruments to complement the sample and synth. Century Room (580 King Street West), doors open at 10 p.m., $20 at the door.

Yesterday afternoon, hundreds of people who were way cooler than Torontoist came out to the Gladstone Hotel to see the 175 independent publishers, artists, and writers at Canzine, Canada’s largest zine fair and festival of alternative culture. The day-long event was organized by Broken Pencil, the quarterly magazine dedicated to all things underground culture and the independent arts.