Culture: July 2009 Archives

WHERE: 100 Jameson Avenue and 29 Spencer Avenue.

One of the best things about this year's Fringe is that it’s the first to be fully Twitter-enabled. Using the #FringeTO tag, anyone can easily get announcements from the official Fringe office (@Toronto_Fringe) as well as real-time reviews from audience members and press alike. What’s also super fun is peeking into the tweets of performers as they prepared for and live through Fringe week. They're tweeting about everything from pre-performance jitters to post-show euphoria. Here are a few of our favourites.

Candida is, without question, one of the hits at this year's Fringe. The show had picked up some buzz before it even opened, and the raves have been rolling in ever since. And, more or less, we agree.

On a Queen West location shoot for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World yesterday, this is Dave vs. Bill Taylor. Dave (no last name) doesn't think "blocker" is his official title but it's his job description. He's there, with a large black umbrella, to stop anyone taking photographs of the movie shoot that has traffic crawling along Queen Street between Spadina Avenue and Portland Street and is blocking a lane of Richmond Street with its trucks.

The end of an era. It's a cliché, an easy writer's trick whose use far exceeds its real application. We stand by it in this case, however. After thirty years curating the indie set's reading list and nurturing Toronto's newest and freshest literary voices, Pages Books and Magazines will be shutting its doors for good in August. As reported in this week's issue of NOW, and confirmed privately to Torontoist, in the end there simply wasn't a choice. Rent is growing faster than sales, and for all that Pages is deeply loved (the Save Pages Books! Facebook group has upwards of 2,300 members), the cash crunch got to be too much.

It's official: Fringe has taken over the city. And while we aren't sure about numbers yet, attendance this year has seemed especially high. In past years, getting tickets during the opening weekend of the fest has been a cinch; this year, we noticed a ton of shows that were opening-night sellouts, and many have continued to pack houses, even in tough time slots such as weekday afternoons and Sunday nights. Once again, Drama Club forsakes its usual format to bring you a special Fringe edition to tell you what's been going on in the Fringe venues (and at the beer tent).

If nothing else, Susan G. Cole, NOW's Senior Entertainment Editor, does live up to one part of her job title: she sure is entertaining.

WHERE: Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue.

When we wrote on Monday about a cute sign made on behalf of the city's rat population, thanking Mayor Miller and the striking unions for the proliferation of garbage around the city, we wrote that the artist whose signature was at the foot of the image, "madame HAIR," seemed to be, "sadly, human." She is! After seeing her work on Torontoist, she emailed us to tell us the big news: more of her rats are coming.

Although it isn't technically a brand-new release, we would be negligent parents to ignore today's long-overdue official release of Hometowns, the debut album from relative scene babies The Rural Alberta Advantage. It's noteworthy not only for the fact that the re-release happens to be courtesy of Omaha, NE's indie-mecca Saddle Creek Records (where the RAA find themselves among other friendly CanCon faces such as Sebastien Grainger, Land of Talk, and Tokyo Police Club), but because of the gradual grassroots buzz that Hometowns managed to accumulate based solely on the strength of the minimal and urgent indie ballads in disguise.

During a long night of testing out the latest dance moves with local swingers, isn't it refreshing to know that hot canapes will be waiting for you when you need to step off the disco floor?

WHERE: Islington Station (Islington Avenue and Bloor Street West).

To paraphrase a legendarily misquoted Oscar speech, the Fringe likes T. Berto, they really like him. A Singularity of Being marks the second time the playwright has won the festival’s Best New Play award (the first was bestowed upon Bash in 2000). The play follows the life of a scientist with a passing resemblance to Stephen Hawking and his relations with others over the course of his degenerative disease. While the script ventures into discussions on how far one should quest for the secrets of the universe without arousing the wrath of a higher being, it is the human relationships that stand out. The all-too-mortal connections between the characters create an emotional richness that draws the audience into the action onstage, from the scientist’s small physical triumphs to his wife’s ultimate heartbreak.

Hey, it's a parable about the need for socialized medicine starring Denzel Washington. What's not to like? Obviously something, since John Q didn't exactly tear up the box office. Roger Ebert pulls no punches, saying he's down with its message while describing it as "so earnest, so overwrought and so wildly implausible that it begs to be parodied." The New York Times' Elvis Mitchell similarly said "it is a remarkable document, so ham-fisted that it sabotages its own worthwhile arguments."

WHERE: Bay Street and Richmond Street West.

Whatever else you may have thought of former mayor Barbara Hall, she will forever be a champion for besting Boston, whose Brahmins looked down their noses at what would eventually become the award-winning Toronto Music Garden. After much bureaucratic red tape, landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy and collaborator cellist Yo-Yo Ma gave up on trying to build a music garden in New England’s famed city by the sea. Instead, they headed north to Toronto where they were warmly welcomed by Mayor Barbara Hall, Director of Parks Susan Richardson, and financial backer Jim Fleck. Starting with a windy plot at the western reaches of Harbourfront near the foot of Spadina Avenue, Messervy and Ma began to transform the lakeside property into the Toronto Music Garden.

As the city workers' strike lurches into its third week, there's been a lot of talk about who is and isn't benefiting from it. Suffering? The reputations of David Miller, the striking unions, and their members; some, but not all, residents; some, but not all, neighbourhoods; our collective fear that tourists will think us unclean; and the expanses of concrete currently doing time as temporary dumping grounds. Doing just swell? Private garbage pick-up companies; the City's wallet (well, maybe?); people who like photos of garbage; people who like over-reacting to said garbage, and, oh, rats.

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.

Due to the climate-controlled museum that shares a wall with St. Vladimir's Theatre, the event space was as chilly as sea air or the review Bert and I received from Eye Weekly on Friday. This must account for the low attendance on Saturday night because the performance surely does not. John E. Nelles, accomplished performer and Hollywood drama coach to the stars (Sam Neill, William Hurt, Jude Law, etc.), can act circles around anyone at Fringe, and he poured his heart and soul into the script, which he adapted from 50s-era humouristic stories centred around the Maine lobster fishery.

WHERE: Eglinton Avenue East and Kennedy Road.

Shadows in Bloom is one of the best, and certainly one of the bravest, shows you will have the chance to see at this year's Fringe. A woman alone on stage, in street clothes, without scenery or significant staging, with just a single prop—this is the kind of performance where there is literally no place to hide. Fortunately, Gemma Wilcox doesn't need it.

As boys traded in their winter breeches for shorts at the end of the school term, the city became an enormous, open-air playground. Freed from the observant eye of parents and teachers, boyhood summers in the early twentieth century offered opportunities for exploring neighbourhoods until the streetlights came on. Streets, alleyways, and parks hosted games of marbles, hide-and-seek, and baseball. Summer days were anything but idle, and perusing a couple autobiographies offers insight into the many ways boys filled their times.

At the end of Tim Buck 2, the audience is invited to participate in a brief debate over a motion that asks for the right to suspend the civil rights of a few to protect the security of everyone else. The opening night crowd appeared nervous to take a direct part in the proceedings, as many Toronto Fringe audiences often are when given the opportunity, but their applause for those arguing the “no” side showed where its sympathies lay. Given the piece’s base focus on a rehearsal of a play in support of jailed 1930s Communists, it was doubtful there were going to be too many viewers on the right side of the political fence.

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

When Brian Burke arrived in Toronto last November, he promised a Maple Leaf team full of "pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence.” He wasn’t kidding: barely seven months into his tenure as the Leafs’ thirteenth general manager, Burke has begun creating exactly that.

Though Michael Mann has many fans, it would be inaccurate to call us one. Sure, we consider his version of Manhunter to be pretty much the best (Brian Cox’s chillingly reserved Hannibal "Lecktor" far better than Anthony Hopkins' later scenery chewing). Mann’s recent thrillers have all been turgid, reaching an absolute nadir with Miami Vice—the kind of film you’d imagine would send the series creator into conniptions if that wasn’t, absurdly, Mann himself.

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) launched their summer exhibition last Friday with a big party featuring “the smooth summer sounds of Toronto synth-rock-pop combo The D’Urbervilles” as live entertainment. Hopefully ironic press-release writing aside, "Pulp Fiction" brings together fourteen Canadian artists you might not usually see in a mainstream gallery.

WHERE: Queen Street West and Bathurst Street.

As it happens, the fifth post in our Future of Toronto Fashion series will be the final one—mostly because the writer (hi, and bye) is departing, but also because we found a designer who sums up everything about young Toronto that we love and believe in.

"Shaun would like you to sign the guest book, and please don't sit in the first two rows...especially if you're family," a sweet-faced young lady told us as we filed in for the Fringe debut of Baggage - A Non-Musical Romp Through One Catholic Gay Man’s Dating History (With Breasts for the Straight Men). This being Fringe, we thought the instruction meant there were projectiles involved, necessitating that everyone (family, in particular) take two giant steps back. The real reason turned out to be much more dear.

Kanye West recently took a short break from infuriating everyone in the world and making sweet kicks for the kids to direct a video for Degrassi: The Next Generation alumni Drake (née Aubrey Graham). And Drake recently took a short break from regular summer vacation stuff such as being—along with Michael Jackson's death—among the most-trended Twitter topics this week, dating Rihanna (allegedly), signing to Lil' Wayne's record label, and having two songs in the Billboard Hot 100 to give the words "make your bra strap pop" from his single "Best I Ever Had" a whole new meaning. A whole new set of meanings, if you will. Big, bouncing, I-can-use-bad-stereotypes-if-I-pretend-they're-ironic-but-really-I-just-like-them Kanye West meanings.

It’s hard to blame the band for trying. The Shuffle Demons wanted to wrangle one thousand saxophone players to perform, live, at Nathan Phillips Square on Canada Day—and they were this close to fulfilling their musical prophesy. Too bad they were short a couple (hundred) players.

              

For the second time in a few days, Dundas Square was again home for fans and mourners of Michael Jackson. Unlike the impromptu dance party that landed at the intersection of Dundas and Yonge on Friday, last night's event—a tribute to Jackson and his music that was also billed as a Canada Day celebration, hastily organized by The Manifesto Festival—was prepared a bit more in advance and lasted three hours, concluding just before 11 p.m. with a moment of silence for Jackson.

To celebrate its fifteenth anniversary, and Toronto’s 175th birthday, Heritage Toronto is offering ten new tours as part of its free historic walking tours program. Although the walks have been ongoing since April, there are still several new tours to look forward to during the summer schedule, including Union Station and the Railway Lands, Fringe Festival Sites, and Mackenzie’s 1834 Toronto (a tour of the city as it was 175 years ago, during William Lyon Mackenzie's term as mayor). "We’re trying to increase the number of walks we do across the city," Peggy Mooney, Heritage Toronto’s executive director, told Torontoist. "We want to make people realize—from one part of the city to the other—that there’s a lot of interesting history there. Since amalgamation, we are responsible for promoting heritage across the entire city. It isn’t just about early nineteenth century buildings…we’re trying to make people think about the city they live in, not just about Victorian Toronto, but about more modern buildings, more modern heritage."

WHERE: Dundas Street West and Rusholme Road.

Torontoist readers, we have just the thing to ease your beer and barbecue hangovers. Consider it a belated Canada Day present wrapped up in a shiny bow. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the trailer for Gooby! It's kind of like the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, only completely fucking terrible.

“Farce” is one of those love/hate words in the theatre. Done well, a farce can provide an evening of light-hearted entertainment and belly laughs, with the occasional touch of commentary on morality and human behaviour. Done poorly, the audience is subjected to tired jokes and situations that strain the limits of credulity. Because I Can falls in the middle, its energetic performances countered by a script that might have been stronger as a five-minute sketch than as an hour-long production.

There's a speed bump on Crawford Street, not long before the one-way road cuts through the northernmost edge of Trinity Bellwoods Park. After drivers lurch over the bump, explains Martin Reis, they often pick up speed fast, accelerating towards Dundas, through and past a small crossing that joins the isolated north-west tip of Trinity Bellwoods with the park as a whole, a crossing frequented by slow-moving seniors headed for nearby residences.

Don't try to fool us, Canada Day! While this Hump-Day Holiday means a day off work for some, it means the exact opposite for tons of theatre folks, since it also happens to be the opening of the twentieth annual Toronto Fringe Festival. Gadzoooks! Drama Club is abandoning its usual format today to bring you a special Fringe edition, with all the hot tips and cool buzz we can muster. Check back during the festival for Torontoist's coverage of the festival, running until July 12, where our team will be bringing you fresh reviews daily.