Results tagged “overthetop”

Urban Planner: May 22, 2009

MUSIC: The Over the Top Festival continues tonight with a bunch of options for music, film, and theatre (see our full preview from yesterday). Long-time Vancouver duo Mecca Normal give a combination lecture, art exhibit and performance tonight, starting with their “How Art and Music Can Change the World” presentation. The veteran writing, art and music-making team follow up their lecture with a live concert performance. (6 Nassau Street), 8 p.m., $11.

The Over The Top film festival opens tonight, and for many, the draw is going to be Crispin Glover, who is bringing the two completed films from his It trilogy to the Royal, starting on Friday night with What Is It? at 7:00 p.m. (followed by It is Fine! Everything is Fine on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.). They're $20 each, but it's particularly worth noting that the rest of the festival is far more reasonable, starting with tonight's opening film, I Think We're Alone Now (at $10) and the rest of the films, which start at $6 each or $10 for all screenings at a theatre on the day (so, for example, to see all 7 screenings on Saturday at the NFB it's only $10!). Check out the Over The Top Fest website for more details, and after the jump we have reviews of I Think We're Alone Now, Frownland, Pop Skull (our top pick) and Hokuro Brothers: Full Throttle.

Harold & Kumar are back! Oh glorious day—how on earth could we not lead with the return of this generation's most important stoners? Their original quest for White Castle burgers (which we've never tried, and still wonder about) was maybe a little patchy but (for some reason) completely rewatchable in the way the best quick-fire comedies are, and the results for Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay seem to promise a similar experience, but one with a more satirical bent. So we're excited despite ourselves. Reviews? We're particularly taken with one from The Star's Peter Howell, where he invites us to "Party on, dudes." Bless.

The Over The Top Festival will play Toronto April 30th to May 4th (including special screenings of Crispin Hellion Glover’s What Is It? and It is Fine: Everything Is Fine!, and the musical portion of the event we've previously previewed) but in advance of that, the Over The Top Fest and The Royal Cinema are showing a special retrospective, The Films of John Paizs, this week.

Eric Warner has done it again! The man behind such endearing stories of booking concerts while still under-age, running an incredible independent label that just won’t stop, and being a soldier through those good ol’ days of Viking Club and Dollarama has just announced an ambitious lineup for this year’s Over The Top Festival. Equal parts film and music (with a hint of theatre), the festival spans five days from April 30 to May 4, and offers all events to all ages.

When deciding who to see at this year's Over The Top Festival, we luckily opted to check out Halifax's Rich Aucoin. Between his musical pedigree (he's the brother of the Hylozoist's Paul Aucoin) and the fact that his EP was synched up to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, we knew he would at least be interesting. His set turned out to be far better than just interesting, so it seemed natural to give his Personal Publication EP (Independent) a proper review.

On occasion, Daniel Johnston has shed his cult status and entered the public spotlight: it happened when Kurt Cobain promoted him and again with the release of The Devil and Daniel Johnston. And as a recent compilation confirmed, his influence can be felt throughout modern music, including Tom Waits, Beck, and The Flaming Lips.

While our experience Over The Top experience from Thursday was full of guitar driven pop-rock, Friday night was all about pianos, keyboards and synthesizers. We're still all smiles from it, it was that freakin' good. Here's why.

Even though the Toronto Indie Pop Festival became the Over The Top Festival a long time ago, Thursday night's show at the Whippersnapper Gallery would have fit in easily with the former name. With three bands on the bill, it was a short blast of sweet songs that got the fest off to a good start.

Aaaand, we're back! Live Baby Live had a false start a few weeks ago, but we're officially back in action now and have changed things up a bit. The listings will now appear on the site mid-week and run from Thursday to Wednesday.

The Over The Top Festival starts today—the real one, not the CFL event. The next four evenings will find bands, films and dance performances filling various downtown venues.

Over The Top Festival organizer Eric Warner has issued a letter to the Canadian Football League to cease and desist use of his festival's name. Warner's annual event, featuring diverse programming in music, film, and theatre, is now entering its sixth year in Toronto, while the CFL is promoting its fall Grey Cup events also as "Over The Top Festival".

Once a month Torontoist would like to encourage you to drag yourself off the couch and across the room to that nice, comfy swivel chair in front of your computer, to experience something from the wonderful world of streaming. Anyone who's visited YouTube or eBaum's World knows how gratifying watching two Asian kids lipsynch to Jessica Simpson can be! So in the interest of expanding your horizons (or at least giving you some way to kill time at the office without actually having to do any work), we'll find some interesting, funny, or just plain stupid and entertaining way to amuse yourself with your computer (without the need for pornography).

thebooks.gifThis week's weeklies point us to few concerts of musical and cultural import, namely, the Over The Top Fest. Torontoist would just like to emphasize this: The music kicks off tonight with found-sound bad boys The Books at the Abbas-Mo (464 Spadina), New York Times favourites Mice Parade at the Poor Alex (296 Brunswick), and By Divine Right headlining at Sneaks (431 College). The rest of the weekend includes MC Paul Barman, Amy Millan, Republic of Safety, AIDSWolf, Thunderbirds are Now! and a lot more. More on these concerts, and specifically Paul Barman, later.

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