Last night, the seats of Harbourfront Centre's studio theatre were packed with a mix of middle-aged art aficionados and well-coiffed hip, young homos all dying to see Francesco Vezzoli give a lecture and screen his notorious Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula. Vezzoli is an Italian artist known for his work in video and embroidery (yes, embroidery) who set the art world ablaze a couple of years ago with his re-imagining of the......

Where can you find popcorn lovers and peaceniks together? At a politically conscious film fest—in a park, no less! Tomorrow is the final night of Peace Reel: an anti-war focused outdoor film festival co-presented by the Toronto-based collective, Artists Against War (AAW) and by CitizenShift, an initiative of the National Film Board. Over the past month, Peace Reel has organized a free Sunday-night series of short films and documentaries at Christie Pits Park. This week,......

The Spadina Expressway was probably the most high-profile megaproject in Toronto that was never built, but it's also just one of many. For his OCAD thesis project, David Kopulos has detailed a host of construction projects that were planned for Toronto, but that never materialized—both the reviled (such as the Expressway) and the intriguing—on his website, Toronto Pending. Each entry explains what the proposed structure would have been and why it wasn't built, alongside......

David Altmejd’s art looks good on paper. First off, it’s about werewolves, and who can resist the cuddly therianthropes? From folklore to B-movies, the werewolf maintains a lasting hold on the popular imagination. However, Altmejd’s work is neither folksy nor campy. In the Montreal-born, New York-based sculptor’s elaborate installations, he starts off with the (usually fragmented, decaying) figure of the werewolf, and embellishes it with everything from crystals and jewellery, to S&M paraphernalia, to......

Today, the AGO was pleased to announce the donation of a Bernini sculpture by real estate developer Murray Frum. The sculpture, entitled Corpus, has an estimated value of $50-million. Arguably the most prolific sculptor of the 17th century, Bernini is most famous for his architectural and decorative work on the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City. His Apollo and Daphne, the Rape of Persephone, and David in the Galleria Borghese are some of......

Photograph of Rick Santorum conceding defeat with his family by Gene J. Puskar/AP The -ists this week had politics on the brain. And what goes better with politics? Partying-- that's two great tastes in one. Oh, and Kevin Federline...can't forget about Kevin Federline. That's three great tastes in one. -Bostonist discussed two big state issues-- what sort of math constitutes a marriage and what kind of alcohol can be sold in most grocery stores.......

And so yet another day passes without incident, because we didn’t go to any parties or anything! We think, um, there was a Latin America party (or something) but we didn’t go. There was also, apparently, the OMDC Sales Cocktail Party, presented by the Ontario Media Development Corporation. We had to miss that, though, as we’d booked some time in the video library. Ah well! Not much in the way of star spotting today then,......

Torontoist has a shameful confession to make. We have been known to, on rare occasion, read a book primarily because the movie based upon that book features someone kind of adorable. Shallow as this impetus is, it has led to some wonderful reading (how else would we have discovered the wonders of Edith Wharton, if not for our high school crush on Daniel Day-Lewis?), including John Berendt's excellent Midnight in the Garden of Good......

Dynamic dancer and choregrapher Marie Chouinard is presenting her company's latest work for one night only (November 3rd) at the Hummingbird Center. bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS was created this past summer at the Venice Biennale's International Festival of Contemporary Dance. We have a pair of tickets that we will give to the first person who e-mails us with the answer to this skill-testing question: Where is the Compagnie Marie Chouinard based? We're sorry, but the contest is......

Descanter Mark sends us this post about the literary mag's swish fundraiser tonight: Descant Magazine has been bringing out the literary noise for the past 36 years with a commitment to publishing new and emerging writers, and visual artists, alongside such established names as Barbara Gowdy, Alberto Manguel and Edward Burtynsky. And now Descant is throwing a party to celebrate its writers and readers. The Descant Book Ball 2 takes place TONIGHT at Sorauren Studios......

Individual tickets for shows at the festival go on sale today, and Torontoist will admit that we’re a little behind on our TIFF programme previews (who puts a festival straight after Labour Day, eh?) So we’re going to speed it up a bit, with coverage of the ‘big’ films – the Galas and Masters today and we’ll clear up the rest over the next couple of days. If you seriously fancy any of the......