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Urban Planner: November 29, 2008
MUSIC: Toronto music promoters The Garys closed out their 1978 stint at the Horseshoe Tavern with one final punk-rock blow-out called “The Last Pogo.” Undercover police at the concert shut down the show when headlining act Teenage Head took the stage, allowing the band to play only one song. Their decision incited a furious audience to then rip the venue apart. The entire event was documented in the punk film classic The Last Pogo, a look at the Toronto punk scene from 1976 to 1978. The Last Pogo 30th Anniversary tonight features many of the original bands, including The Mods, The Scenics, The Ugly, Steven Leckie of The Viletones, and audience member Mickey DeSadest of The Forgotten Rebels. The show is being filmed for the upcoming release of The Last Pogo Jumps Again. A DVD of the original 1978 film is now available, and will be screening at the bar during the show. Horseshoe Tavern (370 Queen Street West), 9 p.m., $10.
HOLIDAYS: Toronto’s Christmas tree and accompanying fireworks light up the sky at Nathan Phillips Square, ringing in the season with a Cavalcade of Lights. A live music show of crowd-pleasing Canadian talent [PDF] is followed by fun-with-blades as DJ Tony Sutherland pimps your skates to his beats on the Nathan Phillips Square ice rink. Nathan Phillips Square (100 Queen Street West), 7–10 p.m., FREE.
BEEFCAKE: Hot firefighters and EMS workers who are interested in adorning the covers of future Harlequin romance novels—and thereby becoming the abstract objects of lust for countless fawning women everywhere—will be excited to learn that the publishers are seeking the real deal for their next cover models. Powerhouse Casting is holding an open casting call on behalf of Harlequin today. Only real heroes need apply. Powerhouse Casting (93 Berkeley Street), 9 a.m.–6 p.m., FREE.
MUSIC: What happens when you throw twenty-five musicians into a blender and concoct five new musical cocktails? Find out at The 2nd Annual Toronto Rock Lottery, when the super-groups—pieced together randomly from members of Woodhands, The Old Soul, The D’Urbervilles, Forest City Lovers, and more—return from seven hours of fresh songwriting and each present a brand new twenty-minute set. All proceeds from the aural experiment go to the Regent Park School of Music. Sneaky Dee’s (431 College Street), 10 p.m., $7
CRAFTS: When the going gets tough, the tough get crafty. Crafternoon Tea is a thirty-vendor craft and fashion market, workshop, and tea party. The vendors have priced everything below $50 this year, and all money raised at the door will go to Woodgreen Community Centre and the Red Door Shelter. Free do-it-yourself workshops run all day. Queen Street East Presbyterian Church (947 Queen Street East), 11 a.m.–5 p.m., $1.
Photo by Edie Steiner courtesy of The Last Pogo producer Colin Brunton.