A note to Torontoist readers from an artists' group with some impressive collective activist-power: NO CUTS TO OUR ESSENTIAL SERVICES because it's tough as hell to swim in empty pools On WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 4-6 p.m. we are calling on ALL MEMBERS OF THE ARTS COMMUNITY AND ANYBODY ELSE to convene at NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE to make it clear that we will not tolerate cuts to our essential services and that we support the......

The city is full of high society soirées such as the Brazilian Ball, the Power Ball, and Fashion Cares. Which is fine for the jet set, but the rest-of-us set also likes to get dolled up once in a while. Which is why Gallery TPW is inviting everybody to the D-List Ball this Saturday at 56 Ossington Avenue. The fund raiser will be hosted by Keith Cole and features musical entertainments by Karl Lagerfeld's......

"I’m going to Pakistan in November to share Q&A with young theatre artists during a festival celebrating Punjabi culture. I arrive on November 17. Look for more posts then." —Darren O’Donnell Thus begins Darren's account of his time spent presenting his interactive theatre work in rural Pakistan and in Mumbai, India. Video Show for the People of Pakistan and India is a collection of footage from his journey, and will be shown at The Centre......

Sheila Heti (pictured here hiding behind this chair) is one of the many artists invited by the Music Gallery for its fundraiser "Compose Yourself." Heti, along with filmmaker Atom Egoyan, philosopher Mark Kingwell, minor media mogul Moses Znaimer, and haircut facilitator Darren O'Donnell will come with compositions or ideas for compositions that will be played by an improvisational supergroup. The concert starts at 8pm and is $25.......

Torontoist searched the blogosphere and figured out that people were in love with Nuit Blanche. "This is kind of like Halloween for Adults," Under Sky Blue Sea overheard. We think it might be because he, like so many others, was walking around in the fog installation over by Philosopher's Walk. Sarah B. Hood's verdict is that Fujiko Nakaya's Fog was one of the two best installations that night. Photographer Ashley Hutcheson also took some......

Before embarking on your Nuit Blanche evening, take a few minutes to load up your iPod. Artist Lewis Kaye has put together a series of MP3s intended to act as your audio companion for the night. Each track is tailored to a specific Nuit Blanche event. Download the audio files here. In the second of this series, we've picked another five "must see" events -- this time from Nuit Blanche's Zone B. All these activities......

Ok, so the city is in the grip of full-blown festival mania. Red carpets, Gala screenings, and celebrity sightings are all great, but so are poetry readings, right? Right? Anyone??? Tonight at 8pm, head north to Zemra Lounge – 778 St. Clair W. – for this month’s installment of the Diamond Cherry reading series. Stephen Humphries and former director of the Art Bar, Allan Briesmster (The Other Seasons), will be reading. It’s free, and you......

Artist, Santa Cruz organizer, co-founder of Three Gut Records, Eye Weekly art director and woman-about-town Tyler Clark Burke launches her newest – and most ambitious – project today: The Few Bricks Short A House Project. Tyler wants to buy a house, and has enlisted some of her friends to help her do it. Starting today, you can bid on a variety of items or services donated by Toronto artists, photographers, musicians, and writers - as......

Now that you can't hide your hair underneath a thick wooly touque a new haircut is of the utmost importance. This makes the timing of playwright and actor Darren O'Donnell's latest project very appropriate. Haircuts By Children gives a couple of Parkdale elementary school children some shears and an opportunity to go at the hair of strangers at various salons around Toronto during the month of May. O'Donnell sees HBC as a critique on......

Coach House books had a huge fall season with books like uTOpia and the City Man. The spring season is a more poetic affair including a Thorstein Veblen inspired book by John Paul Fiorentino. There are also novels and new work by writers such as Darren O'Donnell and a translated work from two-time GG winner Nicole Brossard. Coach House Books launches their spring titles tonight, 8pm at Revival (783 College).......

York U prof Amy Harris is the guest editor over at Reading Toronto this week and appropriately enough she's been posting on novels set in Toronto. There are a few stalwarts on the list like Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, Atwood's Cat's Eye and Michael's Fugitive Pieces. She also gives a plug to Dionne Brand's What We All Long For, which TOist reviewed here and is now in paperback. One of the books......

While Torontoist was busy at the back of the uTOpia launch making marshmallow towers and Libeskind-inspired "crystals," great panellists were chatting about the city. The newly launched Rabble Book Lounge recorded one of the panels (Discussing Public Space with Darren O'Donnell, Dave Meslin, Heather MacLean and Adam Vaughan). You can get it here.......

Time to get out that cloning machine you've been keeping around. If the Halloween and IFOA festivities weren't enough to keep you swamped there's the Small Press Book Fair and if that's not enough for you there's Canzine at the Gladstone 1:00 pm, on Sunday. It's also the unofficial launch of the newly re-designed Broken Pencil. This year's theme, Burlesque. Indie Kids Gone Wild anyone? There'll be over 150 zines, readings, Darren O'Donnell and fifth......

Are you tired of hearing about the adventures of Frodo and Gyllenhaal? A change of pace is yours today, by way of the Coach House Books 40th anniversary reading and 'virtual tour' at Harbourfront. Authors include Karen Hines, Andrew Kaufman, Anne Michaels, Darren O’Donnell, Michael Ondaatje and others. Don't tell the movie stars.......

Canadian cities, this one included, seem defined by winter or at least the colder times of year. So when the sun and heat does arrive we are caught physically and psychologically off-guard. The Toronto of Darren O’Donnell’s 2004 novel, Your Secrets Sleep With Me tries desperately to cope with summer. Throw in a refugee crisis from a paranoid USA, a freak tornado which castrates that phallic tower near the lake, an increasingly disturbed government and......

Last night, before catching the opening night of Darren O'Donnell's A Suicide-Site Guide to the City at Buddies in Bad Times, Torontoist stopped in Kathmandu (417 Yonge St., 416 924 5787) for a little Indian/Nepalese pre-theatre dining. While we were chowing down on some Lamb Saag and reading a day-old Metro -- oh, Enza the Supermodel, will your antics never stop? -- who should walk in to the eatery but Da Vinci himself: actor Nicholas......

Local playwright Darren O’Donnell got himself in a bit of trouble the other day, when he told Eye’s Paul Isaac that the Toronto theatre scene was, by and large, “worthless.” That’s just not something that you say. Especially when your contribution to the year in theatre was a garbled piece of new-agey nonsense called pppeeeaaaccceee. After realising that he had not only bit the hand that feeds him but his own hand too, O’Donnell –......