Torontoist » “The Princess Bride”

KAMP: Horrors at the Hands of Humans

Carly Maga — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:30:28 +0000

Three puppet masters portray a day in the life of Auschwitz through a detailed miniature construction of the grounds and thousands of tiny handmade puppets.

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.

Ontario Bike Summit Aims to Change the Conversation on Cycling

Chris Dart — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Bike Summit organizers say that drivers and cyclists are often the same people.

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.’ ”

Off Key Comedy Aims to Fuse Stand-Up and Song

Chris Dart — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:15:44 +0000

A musical-comedy showcase tries to shake the genre's lame reputation.

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.

Urban Planner: August 5, 2008

Robin Hatch — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:00:00 +0000

FILM: As the summer continues, so do Toronto’s weekly outdoor movies. Tonight, the Harbourfront Centre is screening 1998 Tom Tykwer thriller Run Lola Run in German with English subtitles. Just three subway stops away, 1987 Rob Reiner fantasy The Princess Bride is showing at Yonge-Dundas Square. Both films begin at 9 p.m., and both are FREE.
SPARTS: What do you get when you cross baseball and the needle arts? A crocheted baseball, for one. You also get the second annual “Stitch n’ Pitch,” where knitters and needlepointists will unite to cheer on the Toronto Blue Jays as they take on the Oakland Athletics. If you’d like to attend “Stitch n’ Pitch,” visit the Stitch n’ Pitch section of the Jays website in order to receive discounted tickets and a free Blue Jays tote bag. Rogers Centre (1 Blue Jays Way), 7:07 p.m., $9–$57.
THEATRE: The Resurgence Theatre Company’s production of Twelfth Night is opening tonight, as part of their York Shakespeare Festival. The production stars Christine Horne and Kevin Walker, and is being performed outside in Fairy Lake Park. Although Fairy Lake Park is in Newmarket, lots of people seem to like Shakespeare, so maybe you’re one of those people willing to make the trek. Fairy Lake Park (in Newmarket), 8 p.m., $27.
MUSIC: In case you couldn’t get tickets to tonight’s sold-out Nine Inch Nails show at Air Canada Centre, never fear. Instead, join U.K. dance-pop group The Go! Team tonight at The Phoenix, accompanied by Brooklyn indie duo Matt and Kim, and Brazilian electronic band CSS, whose single “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” you may recognize from that really obnoxious iPod Touch ad. The Phoenix Concert Theatre (410 Sherbourne Street), 7 p.m., $25.50.
Still from Run Lola Run from the film’s official website.

Film Friday: Ratnervision

Mathew Kumar — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:00:00 +0000

Last week, because we were completely distracted by Dock in a Box, we didn’t mention our sadness at the loss of both Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. We also couldn’t think of a Director bad enough to lament the continued existence of in the same breath.
Thanks to a viewing of Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 3, we have that man! We really think that Lars von Trier missed a trick in his recent satire The Boss Of It All by creating an automatic director that created random shots—he should have created one which made the most mundane shots possible and called it “Ratnervision.”
To be honest, though, we didn’t hate the last couple of Rush Hour films, but we doubt we’ve ever seen a film as brain-dead as Rush Hour 3. The only highlight is Roman Polanski appearing as a French policeman that literally molests the heroes. Does the man have absolutely no sense of irony?
Like Rush Hour 3, 2 Days in Paris is similarly set in the French capital, and too attempts to juxtapose American and European attitudes for comic effect. Directed by Julie Delpy, we imagine it doesn’t fall into the many pitfalls Rush Hour 3 does, but it’s received mixed reviews. The best we’ve heard is Norman Wilner’s Metro review, where he says it’s “a charming little trifle about two different people walking and talking their way around gorgeous European locations.”
Stardust is a film we don’t fancy at all (despite being written by Neil Gaiman) as Ricky Gervais is in it. A mere glimpse of the man makes us want to rip our eyes out and plug our ears with them. The Star’s Geoff Pevere isn’t much impressed with the final product, either. “Stardust is pitched somewhere between the screwball whimsy of Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride and the heavy-metal camp of a Terry Gilliam movie … Though nobly intentioned, it misses the mark of both, landing with something of a glittering thud somewhere in between.”
Also on release this week: Klimt, starring John Malkovich, whose jaws must be getting tired from all that scenery he chews (and when it comes to Klimt himself, we’ve always preferred Schiele’s body of work) Moliere, A Stone’s Throw and Skinwalkers (which looks astonishingly terrible).
Tonight, MediaReform.ca will be presenting present a dual screening of Outfoxed and Torontopia at 9:00 p.m. at the Brunswick Theatre (296 Brunswick Avenue) the Hot and Spicy Food Festival is showing Favela Rising tomorrow at the Harbourfront Centre at 5:30 p.m. and on Thursday, at 7 p.m. Trinity Square Video and the Toronto Animated Image Society will be presenting the 2007 Spotlight on a Member, featuring Khanhthuan Tran’s short films at the TSV Gallery (401 Richmond Street West).

Grammys Are Never Fun, Facebook Group Flames Principal, LGBTQ Roundup, T on Jays Hats

Karen Whaley — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:32:12 +0000

Last night’s Grammy awards were just as horrible as you assumed it would be.
In the first five minutes: the reunited Police gave a lacklustre performance; Jaime Foxx’s attempts to warm the crowd with stale racial jokes flopped; the first award went to a duet by Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder. Click. Broadcasting The Princess Bride twice during the lengthy award show was the smartest thing YTV has ever done.
At least 11 students of a Catholic high school in Caledon East have been suspended after posting offensive comments about their principal, Edward McMahon, on a Facebook group titled, “McMahon…Grinch of School Spirit”.
Canadian cinema is doing well at the Berlin Film Festival so far…apparently our movies fit in with all that freaky-deaky German experimental stuff.
Today in LGBTQ: Toronto Police scout on Church street in the name of diversity; York philosophy professor Michael Gilbert shows up to class as his cross-dressing alter-ego; Ontario’s deputy premier and health minister, George Smitherman, is set to wed his partner Christopher Peloso this summer.
Toronto pride! The Blue Jays have unveiled the alternate logo for their 2007 hats, which feature a “T” symbol for “Toronto”. Because Toronto is almost as cool as some sissy bird, but not quite.