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Urban Planner: June 14, 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].
Mani Mazinani’s Light Air. Photo by Nancy Paiva/Torontoist. Look for a full gallery of her photos later in the week, as part of our ongoing Luminato coverage.
LUMINATO: Our Luminato guide and ongoing Luminato coverage have profiled many performing arts events, but the festival also features visual art exhibits across Toronto, most free to the public. It’s a less condensed, daytime version of Nuit Blanche; you can wander Toronto and take in exhibits at often underused spaces. Of particular note is the Atom Egoyan–curated Solar Breath / Light Air, which combines a film by Michael Snow with an installation by Mani Mazinani, who was inspired by Snow’s work. Egoyan was inspired to pair the two artists as a tribute to recently passed Luminato founder David Pecaut. Brookfield Place (181 Bay Street), 11 a.m.–7 p.m., FREE.
LECTURE: The White House is a newly opened artist-run space in Kensington Market that aims to provide working space to artists in the downtown core. They currently have twenty-four resident artists, and are trying to encourage more with a series of free workshops called “GUESS WHAT?” Tonight’s class is by Ganglion Comics founder Georgia Webber, who will be taking attendees through the first of a five-part Skillbuilding for Comics series. The White House (277.5 Augusta Avenue), 7 p.m., PWYC.
FILM: Toronto Underground Cinema wraps up its series of Dennis Hopper memorial screenings tonight with the final showing of Speed, the careening city bus action flick that solidified Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as Hollywood stars. Fun film fact: Speed‘s script was written by Graham Yost, son of long-time TVO “Saturday Night at the Movies” host Elwy Yost—but Yost Jr. claims “85% of the dialogue was written by Joss Whedon.” Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Avenue (basement), 7 p.m., $8.
COMEDY: We know we’ve been writing about a lot of shows at Comedy Bar lately, but this one’s too good to pass up. It’s a rare edition of Stand-Up Showdown, the three-round elimination series hosted by Craig Brown and judged by Mark Forward, who never minces his words. Contestants have to write new material on three randomly chosen topics with less than a week’s notice; for this special edition (the first since last November, and the last for a while due to Forward’s hectic schedule), the contestants include a healthy mix of veteran comics (Bob Kerr, Graham Chittenden) and up-and-comers (Rhiannon Archer, Georgea Brooks-Hancock). Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), 9 p.m., $5.
MUSIC: Jill Barber plays a benefit tonight for War Child Canada at The Dakota Tavern. Barber is having an eventful year: she recently married CBC Radio 3’s Grant Lawrence, will record a new album this summer (due in 2011), and will tour this fall with jazz pianist Michael Kaeshammer. All of tonight’s ticket proceeds go to War Child, save for a small administrative fee for ticket purchases via Barber’s label, Maple Music. The Dakota Tavern (294 Ossington Avenue), doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m., $38.85