Torontoist » “House of Blues”

CBC Music’s First-Ever Festival Will Be a CanCon Love-In

Chris Dart — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:30:30 +0000

The CBCMusic.ca Festival will feature Sloan, Kathleen Edwards, Of Monsters and Men, and roving appearances by Jian Gomeshi and Matt Galloway.

According to CBC’s Chris Boyce, the goal of this weekend’s CBCMusic.ca Festival is twofold. First and foremost, the CBC wants to celebrate Canadian music. Second, it wants to celebrate CBC Music, the broadcaster’s online music service, which launched a little over a year ago.

The Barber of Seville is Not the Sharpest Shave

Carly Maga — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:30:32 +0000

A reworked version of Beaumarchais' play makes for an uneven production, on now at Soulpepper Theatre.

In 1996, Theatre Columbus premiered playwright Michael O’Brien’s “freely adapted” take on the famous Beaumarchais play The Barber of Seville, which was written in 1775. O’Brien’s version mixed in music from the 1816 opera of the same name by Gioachino Rossini, as well as original tunes by composer John Millard. The adaptation also propelled the story forward a couple centuries, with pop culture references galore. With Theatre Columbus co-founder Leah Cherniak at the helm, the musical ended the season with six Dora Award nominations (it won three) and plenty of critical acclaim.

Seventeen years later, Soulpepper Theatre is remounting this zany reimagination of The Barber of Seville, updated once again by O’Brien, Millard, and Cherniak. But, for some reason—the change in decade, or company, or sense of humour—whatever had made the original so magical, has faded, save for a few key performances.

Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse

David Topping — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 13:00:00 +0000

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did.
Austinist wasn’t as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on “Heroes”
Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that down, they ate some yummy cheese, drank some yummy beer and pondered what gifts to give for the holidays.
DCist was in a cranky mood over a new parking plan and a possible opening of a House of Blues. They did feel better because a new license plate was found to describe new political realities and a new blogger stepped up to fight slums.
Gothamist was not pondering the holidays, however as they were too busy covering that sad, sad story about the man shot by the cops before his wedding. In other crime related news, a tagger got caught for tagging and a Rabbi got caught for pimping up his car. Thankfully, Yoko Ono brought it all back.
LAist found everything stoney as they smoked the world’s biggest joint, went to a USC game, found a cool Michael “Kramer” Richards t-shirt, and found a cool condom PSA for World Aids Day.

Londonist chronicled a week of anarchy in the UK. Detainee disturbances, Goldman Sachs besieged by angry cleaning staff and the notorious radioacive spy incident. Even the pigeons are rebelling.
Parisist channeled Freud to describe a new building, went “fooding“, and detailed “magic” at the Louvre.
Phillyist let the holidays give them a case of the warm fuzzies as they had love on the mind– lost love, soccer love (check the comments), and dog love. The Mayor’s brother, however? Not so much with the love
Seattlest, however, was not in a loving mood. It snowed, Nick Lachey bought a minor league in Tacoma, and they had the Worst. Marathon. Ever
Shanghaiist was all about sex and violence as they discussed women’s hair at a local restaurant, cybersex, the Chinese Lara Croft and the new Bruce Lee Theme Park (!)
SFist had traveling on their mind. They wondered what it was like to be a fish out of San Francisco waters, what their Mayor was possibly doing while traveling, one super annoying traveler, and the continuing saga of their sports teams possibly traveling.
Torontoist got in the holiday mood by writing about the dangers pets face during the holiday season. They also debated raw milk and suggested what the greatest cover versions of all time (highly recommended, BTW) were.