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Urban Planner: July 2, 2009
Urban Planner is Torontoist’s daily guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every morning. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to [email protected].
MUSIC: The Toronto Music Garden presents free concerts every Thursday evening in celebration of its ten years of sweet musical environment. Tours of the garden, led by Toronto Botanical Garden volunteers, are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. before each Thursday music performance, starting tonight (until September 10—see the web site for the full summer programme). Korean drumming and dance ensemble Samulnori! are scheduled to play, but call 416-973-4000 to confirm in case of poor weather. Toronto Music Garden (475 Queens Quay West), 5:30 p.m. (tour), 7 p.m. (concert), FREE.
WORDS: Declaring that “The Book is Dead,” the Scream Literary Festival launches its seventeenth year of celebrating words. The first of the twelve-day literary wake starts with a musical revue starring a bunch of writers (they tell us they’re not really sure what to expect, either). Tony Burgess and Derek McCormack will lead Scream alumni such as Dani Couture, Sean Dixon, and Carl Wilson through a song and dance routine. Some of them might even read their work. Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West), 7 p.m., pay-what-you-can ($7 suggested).
MUSIC: CIUT’s Ken Stowar has been feeding listeners global beats on Sunday afternoons for twenty years. His show “Global Rhythms” celebrates its birthday tonight with special guests Nigerian-born Femi Abosede (an Afrobeat disciple of Fela Kuti’s), funky Afro-Cuban Babalao Stereo Club, Cuban outfit Los Caballeros del Son, plus DJs spinning some of the best Afrobeat music around. Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West), 9 p.m., $5.
ART: Group Show “Together you and I are like a thousand languages…” opens at the Toronto Free Gallery. Curated by Anthea Foyer and Siobhan O’Flynn, the exhibit features the work of artists who inhabit that funny space between art and technology. The show is ripe with audience-interactive pieces including SX Lab’s electonically enhanced “SMOK” suits, David McCallum’s noise-making “Wonder Bikes,” and the Notary Public’s psychogeographic Toronto map of “Natural and Unnatural Disasters.” DJs Tom Kuo and Lee Lee Mishi provide music for the opening reception. Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor Street West), 8 p.m., FREE.