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Urban Planner: September 8, 2009
Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. 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].
WORDS: On August 31, owner Marc Glassman closed Pages Books and Magazines‘ doors for good, ending its thirty years in business on Queen Street West. Tonight, “Afterword: A Celebration of 30 Years” will bring together many of the Canadian icons who both graced the shelves and roamed the aisles of Pages. The list of guests include Matthew Blackett, Rob Bowman, Eldon Garnet, and many more. Monkey Toast will create improvised comedy based on some of the stories shared. “Afterword” is a This Is Not A Reading Series (TINARS) event. Gladstone Hotel, Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West), 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.), FREE.
ART: Mark Lewis is an accomplished filmmaker and artist whose work has been shown at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Luxembourg, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to name a few. Tonight the Hamilton native will see the first major exhibition of his work in Toronto at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. “Mark Lewis: In A City” will include Lewis’s trilogy Cold Morning, which was commissioned by the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada. It was this trilogy that Lewis used to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale this year. Cold Morning focuses mostly on Lewis’s engagement with Toronto, featuring intimate scenes from Toronto landmarks like High Park, Nathan Phillips Square, and the railway tracks near the CN Tower. The night will be split up into three different parts—a lecture from Lewis on his work, an opening reception, and a post-opening dance party. Hart House, Debates Room, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, and The Quad (7 Hart House Circle); lecture 6–7 p.m., reception 7–9:30 p.m., post-opening dance party 9 p.m.–12 a.m.; FREE.
FILM: Just before the glitz and glam of one of the biggest film festivals in the world hits Toronto this Thursday, Climate Change is Coming to Town Film Festival starts today and lasts till Sunday. As the title suggests, the films and lectures contained in the festival will all centre around climate change and the environmental impact of global warming. Tonight’s free workshop, “Casualty of Climate Change: Tuvalu, a Disappearing Nation,” kicks off the festival. The workshop focuses on Tuvalu, an island in the Pacific, which may soon be submerged in water. Chris Horner, director of The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble in Paradise (playing Saturday night at the Bloor Cinema), will give a presentation on the island and the impact climate change has had on its inhabitants. Bahen Centre, B1170 (40 St. George Street), 7 p.m., FREE.
MUSIC: Local indie favourites Cuff The Duke are playing at Criminal Records for their latest album’s release party. Perhaps inspired by the pastoral beard-rock that dominated last year (Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes), Way Down Here was mixed by Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor in his Lost Cause Studios in rural Ontario. Exclaim! writer Kerry Doole says that this album is “mellow and contemplative,” and you can hear it for yourself at the show tonight (or listen to the album stream from their website). Keep your eyes on Torontoist for today’s Sound Advice review of the album. Criminal Records (493 Queen Street West), 7 p.m., FREE.