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Urban Planner: March 7, 2009
ROBOTS: The annual OCAD SUMO Robot Challenge returns today for its seventeenth year. The highly anticipated event features homemade robots going head to head in a fight to the death (death being falling off the platform where the robots fight). There are six levels of difficulty within the challenge in order to give both novice and elite robot builders a fair chance. Funds raised go towards scholarships for OCAD students. Preliminary rounds kick off at 10:30 a.m., but you don’t need to show up until 1 p.m. for the main event. More rules and info are available on the challenge’s official site. OCAD Auditorium (100 McCaul Street), 9:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m., FREE.
MUSIC: Quite the lineup tonight at Rancho Relaxo. Former Haligonians Brent Randall and his Pinecones will perform, along with the highly entertaining B.A. Johnston, Dany Laj, and the Stables. The showcase is part of promoter Dan Wolovick’s Two Way Monologues music series. Rancho Relaxo (300 College Street), 9 p.m., $7.
ART: Visual artists Katya Jacobs and Cynthia Chapman are opening a joint exhibition today at Moore Gallery. Cynthia Chapman’s series, “paintbook,” explores the growing influence of technology on visual art. Katya Jacobs paints with wax on wood panels and it looks really cool (…her press release was just a quote by Octavio Paz). Until March 28. Moore Gallery (80 Spadina Avenue, on the fourth floor), 2–4 p.m., FREE.
BENEFIT: Ward 21 Councillor Joe Mihevc is holding a community trivia night this evening at the Artscape Wychwood Barns. The real-life social networking event will raise funds for Wychwood Open Door, a drop-in centre helping homeless and socially isolated people find support and a hot meal. CBC Radio One personality Kevin Sylvester will serve as trivia master. Artscape Wychwood Barns (601 Christie Street, in the covered street), 6:30 p.m., $20.