Events: November 2009 Archives

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.

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.