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Urban Planner: October 29, 2008
FILM: Give yourself something more exciting to contribute in the Starbucks lineup tomorrow than your ruminations on the latest episode of Gossip Girl, and check out Trouble the Water at the opening of the 2008-2009 Doc Soup season. Chronicling the story of a black couple (and yes, we did need to mention their race) finding themselves in the middle of the chaos that is post-Katrina New Orleans, the film is being hailed as one of the most important documentaries to have come out of America in a long, long time. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 6:30 p.m., 9:15 p.m., $12.
BARGAINS: It’s the 85th and final year of Toronto’s Hadassah-WIZO Bazaar. Grab your fanny pack and join thousands of bargain hunters from across the city in a quest for steals, deals, ethnic food, and old ladies more than willing to overcharge you for a $10 handbag if you don’t know how to barter loudly enough. One word of shopping advice—Hadassah-WIZO is a Zionist fundraising organization, so you may have a hard time finding any of those cool kaffiyehs from Urban Outfitters that all the hipster kids are wearing. Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place (100 Princes Boulevard), 9 a.m.–7 p.m., $5.
MUSIC: Swallow a tab of acid, tell your parents you’re going to a friend’s house, and listen to a musician who knew how to weird people out way before Marlyn Manson was chewing off chicken heads while wearing a jock strap on his face. David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) will be performing songs from his epic 1981 collaboration with Brian Eno, and he is so avant-garde that he wears over-sized red dress shirts from the eighties and somehow still looks cooler than us. Massey Hall (178 Victoria Street), 8 p.m., $39.50–$69.50.
DISCUSSION: Before you send the $100 money transfer to that ousted African king who just emailed you, we’d recommend giving author Larry Krotz a few minutes of your time. He’s recently released The Uncertain Business of Doing Good, a book that discusses the power dynamics that underlie western fiscal interventions in Africa (upon further investigation, it seems he focuses more on humanitarian projects than Nigerian bank scams, alas). Duke of York Pub (39 Prince Arthur Avenue), 7:30 p.m., FREE.
Photo by Tidewater Muse.