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Weekend Planner: November 14–15, 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: Coach House Books and This Is Not A Reading Series present the launch of tantalizing Toronto treats-and-eats book The Edible City. The book (which [email protected] has been featuring excerpts from) contains essays and tidbits on everything food related, so long as it relates to the food of Toronto—and we love food. The book’s launch includes a panel discussion with The Edible City contributors who chew the fat about the food we eat. Further food-themed fodder will be served up in the guise of food-related music and cookie-decorating from Wanda’s Pie-in-the-Sky. Gladstone Hotel, Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West), Sunday 2 p.m., $5 (FREE with book purchase).
SPORTS: Maybe calling Rock Paper Scissors a sport is stretching it a little, but more than five hundred competitors from around the globe are expected to descend on the Roundhouse to vie for the right to call themselves the world champion—and to take home the first prize of seven thousand dollars. Expect a lot of beer drinking, costumed craziness, and hands-down rocking, just like Torontoist found when we visited the World Rock Paper Scissors Society Championship Tournament last year. Steam Whistle Brewery (255 Bremner Boulevard), Saturday 8 p.m., $15 (spectators).
ART: Why not do some food research the day before the Edible City launch by shopping at the St. Lawrence Market? While there, take a few minutes to check out the Market Gallery on the second floor. Launching this weekend is a new fascinating exhibit of paintings, maps and photographs of Toronto’s oldest neighbourhood: St. Lawrence. Many of the pieces being shown come from Toronto’s city archives and offer a unique glimpse into the city of the past. Market Gallery at St. Lawrence Market (95 Front Street East, second floor), Saturday 9 a.m.–4 p.m., FREE.
PERFORMANCE: Boylesque Toronto—an all-male burlesque troupe which occasionally includes Torontoist dramatist Johnnie Walker—presents “Boys Under the Big Top,” a mix of burlesque and circus romp featuring Boylesque with special guests Keith Cole, Mysterion the Mind Reader, Tanya Cheex, and more. This weekend is the second of two Sunday performances the troupe is hosting, so step up while you can. Revival Nightclub (783 College Street), Sunday 8 p.m., $25.
PARADE: Well, if the “hold-hold-hold the payments” slogan hasn’t clued you in to the six-weeks-of-shopping-days-left hysteria, the blocked streets and crying toddlers wandering the downtown core might do it. That’s right—the Santa Claus Parade (whose workshop we visited last week) descends this weekend. The recently unemployed can exchange business cards for candy with the “Celebrity Clowns” at the top of the parade (alright—we don’t actually recommend this). There’s also a free breakfast sponsored by President’s Choice at Yonge-Dundas Square from 9–11 a.m., accompanied by free McDonald’s coffee. Starts at Bloor and Christie streets, runs south on University Avenue, east on Dundas Street to Yonge Street, then south again to Front (see the route map), Sunday 12:30 p.m., FREE.
GAMES: Improv in Toronto is running a live game of Clue, including the usual suspects (which reminds us of the time we learned that the real Miss Scarlett was married to that guy who hosts Inside the Actors Studio…but we digress) and unusual weapons. Players must seek out suspicious characters “dressed in the appropriate colours” as they hide out in their specified locations, and grill them for clues to a puzzle. Organizers warn that the real killer might not tell the truth! Please bring your own devices for writing down the collected clues. Eaton Centre (220 Yonge Street), Saturday 3 p.m., FREE.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Families at the Royal Ontario Museum this weekend can take advantage of portrait fun being hosted by Sony in conjunction with the Institute for Contemporary Culture’s “Vanity Fair Portraits” exhibit. Professional photographers from Sony will be running portrait photography workshops using digital SLRs for Family Portrait Weekend. Family members also have the option of dressing up and printing out their masterpiece when finished. The Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queen’s Park), Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.–4 p.m., FREE with museum admission ($22 adults, $15 children under 14).