Torontoist » “juno awards”

The Royal Ontario Museum Takes a Modern Approach to the Cradle of Civilization

Jamie Bradburn — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:00:32 +0000

The ROM's new exhibit offers a glimpse into ancient Mesopotamia, the birthplace of urban civilization.

The name “Mesopotamia” derives from a Greek term meaning “land between the rivers.” The Royal Ontario Museum’s latest major exhibit, which opens on June 22, takes this literally, as visitors flow between painted representations of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the floor.

Presented by the British Museum and rounded out with pieces from institutions in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia, Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World covers 3,000 years of human development in the cradle of urban civilization. Most of the 170 artifacts on display have never been shown in Canada.

Passion Play‘s Journey Through Time

Steve Fisher — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:30:39 +0000

At four hours long, this sprawling, religious epic makes demands of its audiences—but it's worth the trouble.

There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen for the Canadian premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, a triptych set in three time periods that tells the stories of amateur actors (played by real actors) involved in staging performances of the story of Christ. Three different Toronto independent theatre companies, all with reputations for innovative staging and creation in their past work, each tackle one of the three acts. Ordinarily, such a complicated arrangement would be to a show’s detriment, but not in this case. While you need to be prepared for a marathon of theatre (the show runs four hours, incluing two intermissions), you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth.

Luminato 2013: A Literary Picnic

Peter Goffin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:00:02 +0000

Sixty acclaimed authors will gather in Trinity Bellwoods Park to read from their work and talk with fans.

“A cross between Woodstock and the Algonquin Round Table,” is what Michael Redhill called it. Dorothy Parker grinding out an electric cover of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Well, not quite. Rather, Redhill, the literary curator for Luminato 2013, was describing A Literary Picnic, the annual festival’s celebration of storytelling, creativity, and the written word.

A Guide to the 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival

Tracey Nolan — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:45:41 +0000

The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival features international legends and local favourites. Plus, the first night is free.

The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival descends on the city this Friday with a huge “free for all” event. That means all of Friday’s programming at every Jazz Festival venue is, yes, completely free of charge. There will be concerts from local favourites Molly Johnson and Mary Margaret O’Hara, plus a show by Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves, who will be launching the fest from its epicentre, Nathan Phillips Square.

Here’s a rundown of some of the shows worth checking out on Friday—and during the rest of the festival, when you’ll actually have to pay.

Scadding Court’s Swimming Pool is Now a Fishing Hole

Chris Dart — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:45:41 +0000

Each year, Scadding Court Community Centre fills its swimming pool with fish, so urban families can have a taste of the wild.

Folks who are planning on having a swim in the pool at Scadding Court Community Centre over the next few days may find themselves a little disappointed. Those who want to go fishing, however, will probably be ecstatic.

For the rest of the week, the Community Centre will be holding its annual Gone Fishin’ event, meaning its indoor pool will be an indoor fish pond. The pool has been drained, dechlorinated, and refilled with 2,000 rainbow trout, to be caught by local children and families.

Rush, Metric, and The Weeknd are Among Local Juno Winners

Chris Dart — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:30:23 +0000

As a Juno host, Bublé was better than Shatner, but then that's not saying much.

For a second there, it looked like the folks at the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences had learned from last year’s Shatner-hosted Juno disaster. And in some ways, maybe they did. They just didn’t learn enough.

If last year’s Juno telecast was terrible, this year’s, which aired on Sunday, was just sort of a letdown. Michael Bublé started off kind of charming—his opening sketch was about hosting anxiety and featured him singing Celine Dion with Kelly Ripa—but unfortunately things got progressively worse from there.

Bublé’s hosting material hit its nadir with a satellite interaction with One Direction, during which he pretended to be a fanboy. He followed that up with an awkward joke about wanting to have sex with Carly Rae Jepsen. Then, he staggered through an awkward sketch with The Sheepdogs before deciding to ditch humour altogether. (Why One Direction made a cameo is anyone’s guess.)

The performances were also okay at best. Carly Rae Jepsen segued a weird, off-kilter version of “Call Me Maybe” into the far less charming “Tonight I’m Getting Over You.” (Jepsen was also the night’s big winner, taking Record of the Year, Single of the Year, and Pop Album of the Year.) The Tenors inexplicably performed a mildly cringe-worthy version of “Forever Young.” The show’s producers opted to really hammer home the Sheepdogs’ retro-styling by shooting their set in sepia, while Marianas Trench proved that it has entered its “serious” phase by bringing out a gospel choir for accompaniment. (As an aside, Marianas Trench is Generation Y’s answer to A Flock of Seagulls. Entertaining haircuts are the only thing its members have going for them.)

The absolute highlight of the evening was k.d. lang being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame by Anne Murray. Lang told Murray she had a longstanding crush on her, and said that Canada was the only place where people like herself, Rita MacNeil, and Stompin’ Tom Connors could become famous. She encouraged the crowd to “let their freak flags fly.”

Torontonian artists didn’t do terribly at this year’s Junos, but they were shut out of most of the high-profile categories. Metric took Alternative Album of the Year for Synthetica, while Rush won Rock Album of the Year for Clockwork Angels. The Weeknd won in the R&B/Soul category for its gold-certified album Trilogy, shocking no one. Elliot Brood won for Group Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. In the little-talked-about Contemporary Christian category, Toronto’s The City Harmonic took the prize for I Have a Dream. Exco Levi won in the reggae category for the second straight year. Toronto’s suburbs also didn’t fare too badly, with Brampton’s Johnny Reid winning Country Album of the Year, and Oakville’s Anjulie winning for Dance Recording of the Year.

Local Artists Are Well Represented Amongst 2013 Juno Nominees

Chris Dart — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:00:33 +0000

Rush, Metric, Billy Talent and The Weeknd all receive multiple nods.

The 2013 Juno nominations announcement, which took place earlier today at the Design Exchange, went largely according to plan.

Carly Rae Jepson, it was revealed, is nominated for five awards—Artist of the Year, Fan Choice, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, and Pop Album of the Year—while Justin Bieber was nominated for four, for all of the same categories save Single of the Year. CTV’s Tanya Kim tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to rouse enthusiasm from a crowd of media and industry people still wiping sleep from their eyes, and CTV President of Programming and Sports Phil King accidentally referred to this year’s awards as the 2011 Juno Awards. (He made up for it by announcing that this year’s host, Michael Bublé, will debut new material at the awards ceremony, and that Jepsen would also be gracing the stage.)

Torontonian artists did fairly well, dominating some categories. The city was decently represented in the big four: single, album, artist, and group of the year. Billy Talent was nominated for both Single of the Year (for “Viking Death March”) and Group of the Year. Also nominated in the group category were Rush and Metric. Serena Ryder also received a Single of the Year nod for “Stompa.” Deadmau5 was nominated for Artist of the Year, along with the arguably-Torontonian Johnny Reid. (He’s from Brampton.)

Local artists owned the reggae, R&B/soul and adult alternative categories, taking four of the five nominations in each bracket. In R&B/soul, former winner Jully Black and obvious favourite The Weeknd were joined by Melanie Fiona and Shawn Desman. Ammoye, Elaine “Lil’Bit” Shepherd, Exco Levi, and Melanie Durrant all received nominations for reggae, while Bahamas, Serena Ryder, Royal Wood, and Ottawa transplant Kathleen Edwards were all nominated for Adult Alternative Album of the Year.

Toronto did surprisingly well in the remarkably broad Rock Album of the Year category, with Billy Talent and the partially-Torontonian Big Wreck getting nominations. (Toronto native Ian Thornley founded Big Wreck while living in Boston.) Also nominated in the rock-album category was Rush, who released their 19th studio album in 2012. The city got a similar two-and-a-half nods for Rap Recording of the Year, with JD Era, Maestro Fresh Wes, and The Closers (consisting of Toronto’s Rich Kidd and Vancouver’s SonReal) all getting nominations.

Broken Social Scene associates Metric and Stars were both nominated for Alternative Album of the Year. The city’s thriving metal scene also received two nominations, courtesy of Woods of Ypres and Cancer Bats. TRST and Crystal Castles were both nominated for Electronic Album of the Year, while Dragonette and Tricky Moreira were both nominated for Dance Recording of the Year.

The one surprise of the morning was the absence of A Tribe Called Red. The Ottawa-based trio have received international critical acclaim for their self-described “powwow-step” sound, a fusion of dubstep, hip-hop and traditional First Nations music. The band’s debut album, released in March of last year, was missing from both the Electronic Album of the Year and Aboriginal Album of the Year categories.

Overall, though, the press conference went as expected, with the country’s largest music scene receiving a proportional number of nominations. This year’s Juno Award ceremony will take place on April 21 in Regina. For the complete list of nominees, check out the Juno website.

Jumping for Junos

Carly Maga — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Arcade Fire chats with CTV’s Tanya Kim at the 2011 Juno Awards.

Canadian music is world-class stuff, that’s no secret. Unfortunately, not everything or everyone that has represented the True North Strong and Free on the global sales charts have been in tune with the tastes of listeners back home. And, even worse, the same can be said for our national music awards and accompanying ceremony.
Until this year, it seems.
Throughout their history the Juno Awards have been caught somewhere between a typical Canadian self-deprecating joke and their status as the country’s most important musical celebration. As the biggest, most star-studded event, the Junos are an important testament of attitudes towards contemporary Canadian music. On the other hand, they’ve usually been substantially more in touch with sales than merit, to the point where no one really seemed to bother paying attention anymore. Unconvinced that Nickelback’s power ballads were really that “soaring”, most of us greeted the Junos with a groan of fading patience.
But this year, the show’s fortieth, something was different. From the performers and winners to the speeches and the pre-awards events, everything had a relevant, contemporary appeal. Even, dare we say it, a sense of pride.

2011 Juno Awards host Drake on the red carpet.

In terms of winners, there were few surprises: Arcade Fire were, in fact, on fire, taking away four awards including Album of the Year, Group of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year. Other awards celebrated artists from coast to coast, with B.C.’s Said the Whale taking New Group of the Year, and K’Naan’s “Waving Flag” snagging Single of the Year. One of the few unexpected wins went to Halifax’s gobsmacked Meaghan Smith, for New Artist of the Year—beating out Hannah Georgas and Basia Bulat.
There were some other upsets (when Shad took Rap Album of the Year over Drake, for example), but they mostly took place during an un-televised gala on Saturday night—a situation that could have propelled the Junos towards the Titanic that was this year’s Oscars. But luckily a quick and smooth show, peppered with performances by Broken Social Scene, Chromeo (complete with an orchestra of fancy females), and Arcade Fire, and new categories like Electronic Album of the Year (which went to Polaris Prize–winning Caribou), made sure that we were entertained by the Canadian artists we know, love, and listen to every day. Even face time with Justin Bieber was kept to a tolerable minimum, not only because he couldn’t attend and accepted his awards through video, but because he won the awards he was supposed to—Juno Fan Choice Award and Pop Album of the Year—and no more.
And though he remains a music award bridesmaid but never a bride, our lovely host Drake was an impressive surprise, showing that the Junos can not only be fun but funny, appealing to the “Old Money” demographic. While he walked away trophy-less, there was no hint of a pout—unlike one grumpy Oscar host we won’t mention.
Comparisons to the Oscars are unavoidable, given both ceremonies’ attempts to reach a younger audience. And why not? The Junos this year were slick and professional, and whatever they lacked in moving set pieces they made up for in style. Because despite a focus on newer, younger artists and bands, Canada’s musical icons had their place as well—only instead of trotting out octogenarians close to teetering off the stage like Kirk Douglas, they were instead paid compelling homage. A rousing medley of Gordon Lightfoot, The Band, and Joni Mitchell was performed by a mix of today’s biggest names—Sarah Harmer, Jim Cuddy, Dallas Green, and Serena Ryder—and hit all the right notes. Shania Twain got her spot in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and some might say that Neil Young was the real Juno King in his first appearance at the show in twenty-nine years, receiving Humanitarian of the Year and Artist of the Year. Backstage, he told press, “It’s very unusual for me to be this exposed,” which we guess is true, but wonder why it’s taken this long: through more than fifty years in the industry, he’s never really lost a connection to today’s music.
One of the biggest achievements of this year’s Junos was paying tribute to Canadian music across genres and generations in a positive, collaborative, “of-the-moment” way, which is totally what it has always meant to do. It was by no means perfect⎯next year we hope to see the Saturday awards televised, and hip-hop integrated into the show beyond the choice of host. But using previous ceremonies as a benchmark, we’re headed in the right direction. Contrary to our natural tendencies to self-deprecation and humility, at the end of the show, it seemed that everyone—us, the artists, the audience—was full of pride.
We’ll echo Mr. Young himself, with the words he used to close his acceptance speech for Artist of the Year: “O Canada!”
Photos courtesy of CTV.

Urban Planner: March 21, 2011

Steve Fisher — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.
Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day in a clip from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
In today’s Urban Planner, a charity game of hoops featuring Olympians, DJs, and poets; a chance to sing along with Buffy, Captain Hammer, and other Whedonverse characters; and a new collection of short plays from David Yee and Cahoots Theatre Company goes from the page to the stage.

SPORTS: It being the fortieth anniversary of the Juno Awards this year, there are all sorts of related concerts and events happening this week leading up to Sunday’s ceremonies. Juno Hoops is one of the first, and certainly unique: a celebrity basketball game featuring one of Canada’s fastest men (Donovan Bailey); the first Juno-nominated DJ (Skratch Bastid); an award-winning poet (Dwayne Morgan); and many more Canadian public personalities as the guards, forwards, and centres. All money raised (a donation of $5 or more is requested) is going to MusiCounts, a music-in-schools advocacy program. Kerr Hall Gymnasium (31 Gerrard Street East), 7 p.m., PWYC.
SING-ALONG: Joss Whedon, creative producer and writer of seminal TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cult sci-fi film Serenity, and the (not-soon-enough) upcoming Avengers film, has created several musical-based bits of entertainment. Two of them, the online phenomenon Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and that “Once More With Feeling” episode of Buffy, will be publicly screened tonight, with sing-alongs encouraged. We do this from time to time in our own living room, but think how much better it’s going to be with a room full of other people who know all the words (and no irritated neighbours)! The Ossington (61 Ossington Avenue), Doors at 7:30 p.m., FREE.
THEATRE: Cahoots Theatre Company is presenting the premiere of paper SERIES, a new collection of short plays by David Yee. All six of the playlets are based around something written on paper (a fortune cookie slip, a “Dear John” letter, a counterfeit bill, etc.) and examines the importance that notes, documents, and other such slips hold in our day-to-day lives. The Young Centre’s Tank House Theatre (55 Mill Street, Building 49), 8 p.m., $10–$30.

One Doodle That Can’t Be Un-Did

David Topping — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:22:09 +0000

God, we feel gross even mentioning them—but, holy crap, the Junos. As NOW summarized yesterday, this year’s nominees “make Canada look bad,” which is not any sort of exaggeration: we double-dog dare you to make it through even the first two categories listed on the nominees website without breaking down and crying.

Televisualist: Idol’s Night and “Inner Light”

Christopher Bird — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:30:54 +0000

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.

Monday

The NCAA Tournament concludes tonight, with the final game being a titanic matchup between [team unknown at time of writing] and [other team also unknown at time of writing]. Will [first team] go all the way, or is this the year of [second team]? The only way to find out is to watch. (CBS, 8 p.m.)
Star! is thoughtfully running Oprah’s Big Give one day after the original episodes, because there’s nothing quite like Star! for really bad and pointless television. Oprah’s Big Give, in theory, should work – the idea of a reality competition show where contestants have to give money away in the most helpful and effective way possible is a good one. It should be like Brewster’s Millions: The Game Show. Unfortunately, the production on the show is terrible, the contestants are boring, and Oprah is Oprah, except with the shtick dialed up to 11. It’s a painful experience. (9 p.m.)

Tuesday

Flightplan is interesting because it’s one of those movies that showed up, made a reasonable profit then went to video without impacting the public consciousness particularly. Which means a lot of people ended up not seeing it, and that’s actually a shame, because it’s a smart, engaging thriller with good performances (including an excellent one from Jodie Foster) and a clever if slightly unbelievable (to say the least) premise. Well worth your time. (A-Channel, 8 p.m.)
Space airs arguably the single best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation tonight. “The Inner Light” is definitely Patrick Stewart’s finest moment as Jean-Luc Picard, to be sure, and this story about Picard living out an entire lifetime with an alien civilization is TV science fiction at its best. If you’re one of those people who never really got the point of Trek, we can’t do much more then point you at this episode. Come on, it won a Hugo Award! (9 p.m.)

Wednesday

Tonight’s American Idol is the new tradition (started last year) of “Idol Gives Back,” wherein the producers and sponsors of American Idol give a tiny, tiny portion of the revenues they generate from this massively successful TV show and various Hollywood figures (this year led by… oh, god, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal? What did we do to deserve that?) tell us how good it is when you help people. BONO ALERT: There will be Bono. (CTV, 8 p.m.)
The Simpsons rerun of the week: “Deep Space Homer.” All praise the inanimate carbon rod! It’s the rod! It’s the rod! (CFMT, 10 p.m.)

Thursday

The 2008 Juno Awards (listed as “the 2008 Junos Awards,” because when you refer to an awards show in that sense, of course you pluralize it – hence all the references to “The Oscars Awards”) air on MuchMoreMusic, taking a break from airing the same terrible reality shows they air practically 24/7 nowadays to actually show us something related to music. Even if it is an awards show that aired four days previous. (8 p.m.)
New The Office! New 30 Rock! New Scrubs! It’s like Christmas came early this year! Er, and only brought new episodes of TV shows. Actually it’s nothing like Christmas, really. But it’s still good. Besides, the title of the 30 Rock episode is “MILF Island.” You know that’ll be hilarious. (8:30 p.m. and onward, NBC)
Futurama starts afresh on both YTV and Teletoon with “Space Pilot 3000.” I’m not sure if having both networks air the show at the same schedule is good or not, but either way, Futurama is still awesome, so I’m not complaining. (Teletoon 8:30 p.m., YTV 9 p.m.)

Friday

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story! If you do not love this movie you have no soul. No soul, I tell you. (A-Channel, 9 p.m.)
People actually emailed me to complain about not mentioning the premiere of Battlestar Galactica last week, reinforcing the perception that Battlestar Galactica fans are the new Trekkies if nothing else. Look, here’s the thing: I still haven’t finished watching season three, okay? Sometimes I get behind! This is a hard life I lead here! Did you really need me to tell you the show was on? You knew months in advance, people! (Space, 10 p.m.)