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Urban Planner: September 24, 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].
See what’s behind those boards—Sherbourne Common opens to the public today. Photo by Joel Charlebois/Torontoist.
In today’s Urban Planner, part of Toronto’s newest park opens, short opera works premiere, short arm wrestling bouts raise money for a good cause, and short cabaret acts raise money to produce an album.
OPENING: Waterfront Toronto will officially open the southern half of Sherbourne Common this morning, a park our readers helped name. Federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty and Ontario Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli will be on hand, and as we said earlier this week, these openings can be a great way to spend your morning if it’s free. Sherbourne Common South (East of Lower Sherbourne Street, South of Queens Quay East), 10 a.m., FREE.
OPERA: Tapestry New Opera opened their season last night with Opera Briefs, which is just about the best gateway to opera the uninitiated could ask for; the scenes produced by Tapestry’s LibLab are short, funny, and entertaining vignettes that turn many conventions of opera on their ear. Tonight’s second of three performances features some of Canada’s best young operatic singers and composers, and the operas are written by a diverse selection of Canadian writers, some of whom (like David Brock) have worked with Tapestry before, and some of whom (like Maja Ardal) are making their opera debut. Ernest Balmer Studio (55 Mill Street, Building 58, Distillery District), 8 p.m., $25.
WRESTLING: Arm wrestling, that is. Riding the popular wave of empowering competitive events like the Pillow Fight League, arm wrestling is back in a big way, and it’s both easier to stage (you can eschew a ring or stage for one well-positioned and sturdy table) and compete in, plus the proceeds are all going to a good cause. Bonus points to the fierce competitors who show up with outlandish costumes and names like Jacqueline Hyde and Scarlett O’Terror, but success, as they say, will be all in the wrists. 751 (751 Queen Street West), 10 p.m., $2 to wrestle (women only), $3 to watch (all are welcome).
CABARET: Elana McMurtry and her band The Palomino, popular players at the Dakota Tavern, are hosting a “Concise Cabaret” at wizard instrument maker Iner Souster‘s gallery The Sixth tonight, to raise funds to record a new album. Hosted by comedian and actor Anand Rajaram, with guests like dancer Marq Frerichs and opera singer Sarah Hicks, the night promises to be considerably more interesting than your typical club concert. The Sixth (1642 Queen Street West), 9 p.m., $10 or PWYC.