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Urban Planner: January 25, 2010
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].
K-os is on the list of performers giving a DJ set at “Haiti, Je T’Aime,” a benefit show in support of Plan Canada’s Haiti Releif Fund. Photo by Urban Mixer.
HAITI: As the need for aid in Haiti continues, many benefit concerts, telethons, and donation drives have been cropping up to meet the demand for relief. Tonight, there’s another good chance to help with a benefit for Plan Canada, an organization that has been working in Haiti for years. “Haiti, Je T’Aime” is a benefit concert and silent auction, with the proceeds going to Plan Canada’s Haiti Relief Fund. MTV’s Nicole Holness and Aliya-Jasmine Sovani will host, while DJ sets from Eon Sinclair of Bedouin Soundclash, k-os, Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Starting From Scratch, DJ Paul E Lopes, and BLK BTLZ will entertain. Expect appearances from Much Music’s Sarah Taylor and CP24’s Matt Babel, as well as a silent auction featuring Raptors tickets, concert tickets, and other goodies. Even if you can’t make tonight’s show, you can still make a five-dollar contribution to Plan Canada by texting HAITI to 30333 (naturally, standard messaging rates and additional fees may apply). Revival Bar (783 College Street), 8 p.m., $10 minimum donation at the door.
ROBBIE BURNS DAY: Today is Robbie Burns‘ birthday, and in celebration of that fact everyone gets to be a little Scottish. The Auld Spot Pub is hosting a Robbie Burns Day celebration at both of their downtown locations (on College Street and Danforth Avenue). There will be a ceremonial “Ode to the Haggis” (which is traditional at any Robbie Burns Supper), and included on the special Robbie Burns Supper menu is deep fried Mars Bar trifle (yum!). The Auld Spot Pub (633 College Street and 347 Danforth Avenue); 8 p.m. (College Street location), 9 p.m. (Danforth location); prices determined on the day of event.
MUSIC: Krzysztof Penderecki is a Polish classical music composer whose work you’ve heard, though you may not know it. Some of his pieces have been featured extensively in the films The Shining, The Excorcist, and a few David Lynch movies (Wild at Heart and Inland Empire). Today he’s in town to talk to Canadian composer Norbert Palej, not about his success, but about what it was like to compose music in communist Poland. “Art & Totalitarianism: A conversation with Krzysztof Penderecki” is part of Soundstreams‘ Salon 21 series, which is a “gathering of curious individuals, to amuse, to please and educate through conversation, readings, and music.” For this event they are partnering with the Gardiner Museum, and this weekend you can see some of Penderecki’s work performed at the Metropolitan United Church. Gardiner Museum (111 Queen’s Park), 7:30 p.m. (meet-and-greet from 7 p.m.), FREE.
WORDS: This reading series definitely isn’t all-ages friendly. ORAL: Adventures in Erotica is holding their inaugural reading event tonight, which will feature sexy stories from writers Rachel Kramer Bussel (from New York City via Skype), Dorianne Emmerton, Leanne Cusitar, David Findlay, Anya Wassenberg, May Lui, and Jon Pressick. Tonight’s festivities will include an open mic section, and a competition for all attendees to write a paragraph on a “surprise topic.” The series is sponsored by Come As You Are and Sex City on CIUT. Renegade (1266 Queen Street West), 7 p.m.–10 p.m., FREE.