When telling the story of the Holocaust, one effective way to overcome our sheer inability to comprehend the scope and scale of such atrocities is to zoom in on one or two stories: share one particular experience, in all its brutal specificity, and we have at least a small way into the event—the small details illuminate the larger whole.

One theatre company from the Netherlands, Hotel Modern, takes a related approach in KAMP (CAMP). The production depicts a typical day at the Auschwitz concentration camp, but instead of zooming in into a closeup, it shrinks everything down, literally, into miniature. It’s the accumulation of thousands of small details that has the impact in this case.

Eleanor McMahon thinks it’s time to change the conversation around cycling in Ontario.

McMahon is the founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, who will be hosting the fifth annual Ontario Bike Summit this week in Toronto. She says that we need to stop talking about things like bike lanes and other bicycle infrastructure as a zero sum game between cars and bikes.

“We do polling, and our polling tells us that 89 per cent of Ontarians are both drivers and cyclists,” she says. “The notion that it’s cars versus bikes is overblown, and it’s really not working anymore. Deciding to change the conversation means going out of our way to poke holes in that idea and say from the get go ‘We don’t buy into that philosophy, and just because you say it, doesn’t make it true.’ ”

Even with the success of acts like Lonely Island and Flight of the Conchords, people still tend to view musical comedy with some suspicion, and not without reason. Those high-profile success stories aside, at the club level, musical comedy is too often the province of people who aren’t quite good enough to make it as musicians, but not quite funny enough to make it as comedians.

Two local comics, Robert Keller and Rush Zilla, are out to change that perception with their show, Off Key Comedy, which features a wide variety of acts whose only commonality is that they combine music and comedy in one form or another. The third edition of the monthly show will take place on May 23, at Comedy Bar.

Despite the fact that the last show in Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s 2012/2013 season is titled Of a Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical, Lady Gaga herself takes a secondary role. There are no homages to raw-meat dresses and gold-plated wheelchairs here. Instead, writer and director Alistair Newton uses the House of Gaga as a pathway into the history of the notable performance-art stars that came before her in the pantheon of queer iconography, and how she is and isn’t a construct of all of them put together.

When this column started, there were virtually no quality movies actually set in Toronto. We’d come across the odd Silent Partner amidst all the faux Bostons and New Yorks we see so often, but that was about it. Well, that’s changed in recent years, with the likes of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Chloe, and, most recently, Take This Waltz.

Sarah Polley’s sophomore flick debuted at TIFF last year and finally hit theatres earlier this summer to much acclaim. (It’s worth noting that while Chloe got more of a mixed reaction, its wintry Toronto makes a fine double bill alongside Polley’s sweltering, colour-saturated city. Both involve marital infidelity so they’re sort of like weird mirror images of each other.)

Sometimes we feel a bit guilty doing Toronto films since it’s more of a tour than a detective enterprise. But Take This Waltz is still a tour worth taking. After a prologue set in Nova Scotia, Michelle Williams and Luke Kirby naturally arrive at Pearson airport…

…and take a cab into the city.

While she gives the cabbie a fictional address (“McLaughlin Crescent, near Queen and Dufferin”), her house is actually at 62 Mackenzie Crescent.

Luke Kirby lives (in a nice house, actually, for an artiste/rickshaw driver) just across the street, here.

Since we already mentioned Polley’s use of colour, we’ll demonstrate here just how deftly it’s used. Note that at the beginning of the movie the house seems to be in the midst of being painted. Williams is wearing a red shirt and the house’s left-hand pillar is painted yellow…

…at the end, when she comes to attend to a family crisis, the colours are reversed. What does it all mean? Something artsy, is what! Do we have to explain everything?

Anyway, the film is very west-end centric, but sometimes the geography doesn’t entirely make sense. We’re not nitpicking; pointing out this stuff is why we get the big bucks! So, like, she runs into Kirby one morning and they go for an early coffee. Apparently there were no shops open between their neighbourhood and Kensington Market, because they hike all the way over to Essence of Life Organics.

When they later decide to go for martinis, they end up at The Lakeview, which is hardly the most obvious place to go. But, it’s cool (and friendly to film crews), local enough, and has those milkshake machines that go with the film’s colour palette.

You can see the bar a bit better here.

Probably the biggest leap is accepting that every morning, before starting his rickshawing, Kirby goes down to the lake. It’s not too far of a hike down to the Ontario Place area, but apparently he goes all the way to Kew Beach.

Later in the movie, they enjoy the sunrise on a bench together.

And what a lovely sunrise it is.

In one sultry little scene he follows her along College Street, past the Orbit Room…

…and then she gets on a streetcar, to somehow arrive at this pool…

…which, also seen here, is at the Trinity CRC.

The adjacent park gets a shout out in this picnic scene. In fact, geography-wise, it’s a little weird their day would start down in the Beach, come way up to Trinity Bellwoods for lunch…

…and then go back down to the lake for a trip across to Centre Island and a ride on the Scrambler at Centreville. Even if it’s not entirely sensible, you have to concede it’s a fun way for a semi-employed hipster and a semi-employed freelance journalist to spend the day.

Poor Seth Rogen! Dude kicks ass in the movie but he seems to spend all of his scenes in the house. Luckily, he does get one nice date night with his wife. They get a rickshaw ride that takes them out to College Street…

…and then down to Queen Street West, for some reason, past Book City (note that this location has since closed)…

…and then back up to College Street for a night at the Royal Cinema. And it’s playing Mon oncle Antoine, which is cool and only slightly less overtly Canuck than if it were a double bill of The Sweater and Goin’ Down the Road.

Then they enjoy a nice dinner at La Perla.

All in all, Take This Waltz provides a deliciously lovely tour of a hipsterrific Toronto. It’s well worth seeing before summer is over.

CORRECTION: August 26, 2012, 11:50 PM This article originally stated that the scene where Williams’ and Rogen’s characters eat dinner takes place at Perla, on College Street. The restaurant is actually La Perla, on Queen Street West, as now stated above.

Donkeys at Far Enough Farm. Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/squiddity-of-toronto/2348788006/"}squiddity of toronto{/a}, from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

Far Enough Farm, a Centre Island fixture for over five decades, may be saved from imminent closure by a donation from the operator of Centreville, the adjacent amusement park.

At today’s city council meeting, Ward 28 Councillor Pam McConnell’s office announced that Beasley Amusements, the company that operates Centreville (and whose current president is the son of the man who founded Centreville in 1966), has committed $30,000 in order to keep the farm running through 2012, and has also pledged to match up to $30,000 in donations from the public.

Far Enough Farm, like other City-run neighbourhood animal attractions, had its operating funding eliminated during the 2012 budget process. It is scheduled to close on June 30th. McConnell’s office has been working to find a private operator for the farm, in order to take it off the City’s books altogether. Her staffers have been trying to accomplish that feat by bundling the farm with the Centreville concession, which is up for renewal. Beasley operates the amusement park under lease to the City, and will have to apply for a new contract as part of that renewal process.

By merging the farm and the amusement park, the City would be making the farm an ongoing financial responsibility for Beasley, or for any other private operator that wanted to run Centreville. This donation, if accepted by the City, will bridge the time gap between the discontinuation of City operating funds for the farm and the start of the new Centreville contract.

At today’s meeting, city council will vote on whether or not to consider a member motion by McConnell that would authorize the City to continue running Far Enough Farm for the rest of the year, using the donation money.

City documents say the farm costs about $221,000 a year to operate.

The Mighty is a bit of a departure for Reel Toronto for a couple of reasons. First, it’s in a genre we don’t see too often—namely, the weepy family movie. Also, it’s set in Cincinnati, which is, perhaps a bit surprisingly, not a city Toronto represents too often, in our recollection.

That said, The Mighty‘s not too bad for a weepy family movie. It’s got a rather eclectic cast, including Sharon Stone, Harry Dean Stanton, and Gena Rowlands. Also, for our money, it’s the second best Toronto film with Kieran Culkin.

So, they do a pretty darned good job hiding Toronto here. It helps when you blend in some nice shots of the Cincy skyline that make you wanna sing, “Baby, if you ever wondered…”.

The primary location is the street where the main characters live, played by Empire Avenue. See, the protagonist is this big kid everyone picks on for being an oaf, and Kieran Culkin has Morquio Syndrome so, dontcha know it, they find each other, forge a friendship, do some stuff involving knights, yada yada yada.

Our Spidey sense makes us think they used number 31 for the main house.

You can’t see it so well here, but they shot most of the school scenes at Danforth Tech. Some other bits were apparently shot out at U of T’s Mississauga campus.

Hey, now here’s a more recognizable location: it’s the ol’ Canary Grill!

Speaking of diners, the interior used for this flashback looks like it’s one of those Wimpy’s Diners. We can’t be certain, but we think it’s the one at Logan and Danforth. And, hey, wait… Is that James Gandolfini?

Yeah, it is!

Speaking of hefty movie stars, hey, is that Meat Loaf? Yeah, it is!

Where we we? Oh, right, down near the Port Lands, right? Here’s the Cherry Street drawbridge which is one of those locations that pops up in movies as diverse as The Incredible Hulk, The Wrong Guy, and A Christmas Story.

You can see it again here…

…and see the Bay and CIBC towers at Bloor in this reverse shot.

Our heroes get chased around a bit, and though it’s framed tightly and cuts quickly, ain’t that a subway entrance?

And a bit more of Yonge Street here, with an appearance by the Silver Rail (not to be confused with either the Brass Rail or the Silver Snail). It’s gone now, of course, and the location is home to Buffalo.

They also get chased around here, at this fall fair. Since you probably haven’t seen it since you were a kid, and since you’ve probably only ever seen it in the summer, during the day, it might take you a sec to realize it’s Centreville, on Centre Island. You can see the ol’ carousel…

…the lagoon where they keep the bumper boats…

…and those cool jalopies you could kinda, sorta drive a bit. Remember those? Hellz, yeah!

They even got the little green train going on!

There are a few scenes that feature this highway-heavy location that looks like it’s on Villiers Street, across from where the Gardiner joins the DVP.

Yup, here’s Gillian Anderson at the same location, and you can see this building behind her.

This back alley is actually St. Enoch Square, which is, as far as we know, the most overly pretentious name within the entire city limits. It’s basically a back alley kinda near Massey Hall.

Uh, is that actually graffiti for ’90s indie band the Age of Electric? Wow, random…

At the other end of the architectural spectrum is this visit to Knox College.

And if you have a movie with a sick kid, you’re eventually going to have some hospital scenes, right? These were shot at Toronto Western.

It’s a safe bet that if you’re reading this column you’re probably a few years beyond the demographic at which The Mighty is aimed. That’s okay, we liked it well enough for our purposes, and you might too.

Day One

Our Picks

First, there’s Princess Superstar (4:50 p.m., B-Live Stage). She’s not just for The Office’s Stephen Merchant, but jaded indie rockers, too! Why the brilliant mind behind “Bad Babysitter” is relegated the B Stage is beyond us, but rest assured that her self-described flip-flip style will be a whole lot dirtier than anything Bjork does on stage.
Then there’s Noah’s Arkweld(1:40 p.m., Budweiser Stage). Remember hHead? You probably do! Noah Mintz once dazzled campus radio with his songwriting partner Brendan Canning, and now he dazzles your ears by mastering most of the records you own! His solo project offers the same appeal of his past work, albeit stripped down, and is well-worth checking out.
The other shining light of Day One is Clothes Make The Man (@ 4:10 p.m., Budweiser Stage). Not only does one dude in this band have a sick beard, but their songs, an aggressive mix of mid-90s Toronto-sounding indie rock and some countrified twang, are almost as sick. As the beard.
Plus
On the Virgin Mobile Stage: Björk (@ 9 p.m.), Interpol (@ 7:30 p.m.), Arctic Monkeys (@ 6:10 p.m.), M.I.A. (@ 3:55 p.m.), K-OS (@ 3:05 p.m.), Paolo Nutini (@ 2:15 p.m.), The Vincent Black Shadow (@ 1:25 p.m.).
On the Future Shop Stage: Mute Math (@ 8:00 p.m.), Voxtrot (@ 6:50 p.m.), Matt Costa (@ 5:30 p.m.), Enter Shikari (@ 4:40 p.m.), The Most Serene Republic (@ 3:50 p.m.), The Wildbirds (@ 3:10 p.m.), Dragonette (@ 2:10 p.m.), Jon Levine Band (@ 1:20 p.m.), and more!
See the full schedule of Day One!

Day Two

Our Picks

Boasting a way better selection of local indie fare than Day One, the Budweiser Stage seems to be the place to be on Sunday.
The day kicks off with The Postage Stamps (1:40 p.m., Budweiser Stage). A indie institution in Toronto, Keith Hamilton and co. have been kicking out dreamy indie rock with a prog edge to it for years, and their dedication shows in their always-solid live show.
They’ll be followed by noisy post-punks DD/MM/YYYY (@ 2:30 p.m., Budwieser Stage). Still rocking the visceral insanity of their recent full-length, Are They Masks?, it will be interesting to see how the band’s freak-outs translate onto a sunny day on the island.
Then there’s The Museum Pieces (@ 4:10 p.m., Budweiser Stage). One of the raddest little bands currently making the rounds in their hometown of Halifax, their energetic rock ‘n’ roll should qualify as a must-see for anyone who likes… music.
Departing briefly from the Budweiser Stage, there’s Biffy Clyro (@ 3:00 p.m., Future Shop Stage). While this Scottish band will probably never be as famous as they should be, do yourself a favour and check out their passionate mid-day performance.
Then, of course, drag yourself back towards you-know-where for the Carps (@ 5:00 p.m., Budweiser Stage). Playing the kind of music that really annoying hipsters with three different colours of scarves listen to, the Carps somehow manage to be totally awesome. Maybe it’s because they listen to actual R&B, not just its watered-down, ironic-hipster incarnation.
Plus
On the Virgin Mobile Stage: Smashing Pumpkins (@ 9:10 p.m.), The Killers (@ 7:15 p.m.), Metric (@ 6 3p.m.), Stars (@ 5 p.m.), Tokyo Police Club (@ 4:05 p.m.), Jamie T (@ 3:15 p.m.), Louis XIV (@ 2:20 p.m.), Earl Greyhound (@ 1:30 p.m.).
On the Future Shop Stage: Editors (@ 8 p.m.), Explosions in the Sky (@ 6:45 p.m.), Constantines (@ 5:30 p.m.), Blonde Redhead (@ 4:40 p.m.), The Clientele (@ 5:30 p.m.), Honeycut (@ 2:20 p.m.), Justin Nozuka (@ 1:10 p.m.), and more!
See the full schedule of day two!
And for anyone unable to fork out the forty seven blagillion dollars to get to the island this Saturday and Sunday, MuchAXS will be streaming the whole thing live.