Results tagged “carlwilson”

PARADE: With rain in the forecast for most of the afternoon, this year’s Pride theme “Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop” will be heavily tested. We rally the pride community and pride supporters not to let the rain dampen their spirits, but rather to embrace opportunities for jokes about things like coming home wet. The Twenty-ninth Annual Pride Parade starts at Bloor and Church, travelling west to Yonge Street, and then south on Yonge to Gerrard Street for the finish. Judges will be watching for best costumes, art direction, special effects, sound design, and more. Church and Bloor streets to Yonge and Gerrard streets, 2 p.m., FREE.

Globe and Mail music critic turned 33⅓ media darling Carl Wilson has posted a full roundup of his experience as a guest on The Colbert Report. Hard-hitting highlights include: A fruit plate in the green room! Colbert's voice = a half-octave deeper than his television affectation! But really, a pretty interesting read if you've ever wondered how the show works or what the reach of the post-airdate "Colbert Bump" really is. Kudos to Wilson for holding his own during the interview despite appearing suitably nervous and seemingly falling for Colbert's made-up hipster pop band Ogre Milk. And handclaps to whoever whipped up the Ogre Milk MySpace moments after the show aired, giving Wilson tons of early adopter cred.

ART: Some of Toronto’s favourite graphic artists make asses of themselves in an exhibit called “I Know That Butt” opening at the Cameron House tonight (on until March 28). Curator Nancy Draws invited thirty artists (including former Torontoist contributor Kevin McBride, featured above) to have their way with a series of moulded mannequin butts and the results are ass-tounding. Hang around to hear the Warped 45s whose Wednesday residency has been extended through March. Bottoms up! Cameron Public House (408 Queen Street West), 7–9 p.m., FREE.

In news that prompted every Toronto-area music journalist we know to pump fists on becoming one or two degrees removed from Stephen Colbert, Globe and Mail music critic and Trampoline Hall co-founder Carl Wilson is scheduled to be a guest on The Colbert Report. Why? Because of James Franco's sweet l'il (read: completely random bananas) red carpet shout out to Wilson's 33⅓ book. Now everybody wants a piece.

FILM: Parkdale MPP Cheri DiNovo is presenting a free screening of award-winning documentary Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion tonight at The Revue Cinema. After the screening, stick around for the feel-good Q & A of the year, featuring panelists from the Tibetan Joint Action Committee. It’s party time. The Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue), 7 p.m., FREE.

Photo of Tony Dekker by Trinh Nguyen

You really have to wonder how performance artist and sexual activist Louise Bak always manages to schedule the very best mix of the Toronto literary scene for her Box Salon series. The successful poet and CIUT "Sex City" host founded the event back in 1998, and a decade later it is still the most entertaining literary night out in Toronto. While many other reading series can be hit or miss, the Box is consistently fresh, fun and, well, not all that “literary”—Bak curates an evening that keeps testing the boundaries of what literature is, regularly including filmmakers, playwrights, fashion designers, and musicians amongst the regular stock of poets and prose writers.

Photo by Stig Nygaard.

Sure, they penned the obviously raddest one-hit-wonder of 1996, but since that fateful year, full of cheerleaders and homoerotic football players, Nada Surf have continued to rage against the dying of that hit-single light. They may have fallen off MTV's radar, but so have most things north of Christina Aguilera's baby-bump. Since leaving Elektra in 1998, the band have built a quiet following of appreciative indie rockers around the world, unconcerned with attaining the high-rotation status that launched their career in the first place. Their last record, 2005's The Weight is a Gift, was called "a top-notch collection of sad-eyed guitar ballads" by Rolling Stone, and was their second album to be released by some label that also includes a band that's all about killing people in taxis, or something. Its follow-up, Lucky, is scheduled for release on February 5, and for no particular reason at all, the band are celebrating early with a Toronto in-store this Wednesday, January 9.

As the subject for a serious music book, Céline Dion––amazing or not––seems like an odd choice. In the latest book in the 33⅓ series, however––a series which typically looks at albums like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds or Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures or the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St.––Carl Wilson, probably Toronto's pre-eminent music critic, takes it upon himself to "[strive] to understand Céline's global popularity," in the process "fac[ing] the question of what drives personal taste––and whether it's possible to change it." Wilson, needless to add, is a brave, brave man.

Photo of Owen Pallett by chichibebelolo on Flickr. Photo of Steve Kado by Shakeer on Flickr.

The urban sprawl in Toronto is a continual point of debate on Torontoist (see, for instance, our interview with Brad Lamb), but tomorrow you will get a chance to share your opinions on the matter outside of our sullied comment threads. On Monday, 7pm to 9pm at the Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library, fourth year students from Ryerson University will present their study of gentrification in Parkdale, followed by a moderated panel discussion and then an audience Q&A.

The slow move from Torontoist to FinalFantasyist is nearly complete. Owen Pallett is pretty great and all, but to date we've talked about his song "This Lamb Sells Condos"; the video for that song; the inspiration for that song; the prize that Pallett won for the album that the song appears on; the love that Canadian bloggers have for him; the love that we, specifically, have for him; previewed and reviewed his library show (and a regular show); and shown his cover of Joanna Newsom's "Peach Plum Pear" some love. Even though we're running out of ideas for Final Fantasy article titles, there's yet another interesting Pallett project that we thought that we'd share -- one that, as the press release handily tells us, "IS NOT A CONCERT!"

When Coach House Books launched uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto last year we were absolutely, positively thrilled. The book brought together a group of people in love with the city and its potential.

Who Is DJ Cyber-Rap?

Abuse, dancing, destruction, disappointment, death and Laffy Taffy, in that order:

Owen Pallett's most raucous cheerleader has to be blogger, Globe and Mail writer and man about town Carl Wilson. He's been singing Pallett's praises for months and all of this worthy praise has culminated in a profile in the New York Times arts section!

Frank Yang. Is there anything you can say about the guy that hasn't already been said? Well, how about this: He does a damn fine weekly gig guide. Let's see if we can pick up where he usually picks up...

It’s great living in a city that attracts such a diverse cross-section of musical acts every weekend. From indie rock to loser rock, from hip hop to hop-scotch, from classical to jazz, you’re bound to find something.

For a mid-afternoon, end-of-the-week kick in the pants, tune into CIUT's new music show Eclectic Sound Basement. The show runs courtesy of Torontoist comrade Guy Stevos, of Sans Blog fame, and has been known to rawk. Content includes "an unpredictable mix of eclectic music not heard anywhere else" and an interview with loveable Overtones columnist Carl Wilson. The show airs every Friday at 12 P.M. Act like you know.

It's a very Sakamoto of us to put a cover song in this week's mixtape, but it's a nice cover and the two bands seem to be the subject of a lot of talk lately. Don't worry though; we'll stay away from any of those Strokes/Chingy mash-ups that Sakamoto likes so much.