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Urban Planner: December 30, 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].
Dubstep artist Scuba closes out the last night of the Drake’s What’s In the Box.
Today, check out the latest Godard flick at the Lightbox, the Canadian premiere of Jason Robert Brown’s Parade, a launch party for Incongruous Quarterly, and the final night of What’s In the Box.
FILM: At the ripe old age of eighty, French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard is still cranking ’em out. His latest work, Film Socialism, is a “symphony in three movements” that combines Godard’s Nouvelle Vague aesthetic with contemporary issues of mass consumption and sweeping technological change. The first movement takes place on a cruise ship; the second involves a pair of children asking serious questions of their parents; and the third visits six seminal sites: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Naples, Barcelona, and Hellas. The Lightbox has an exclusive Toronto engagement, with screenings starting today. Bell Lightbox (corner of King and John streets); 1:15 p.m., 4 p.m., 6:40 p.m., and 9 p.m.; $12/regular, $9.50/students and seniors, $7/kids.
THEATRE: Known for his off-Broadway hits The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World, Parade was Jason Robert Brown‘s first legitimate Broadway success, winning the Tony awards for best book and best score in 1998. The haunting musical gleans its story from a sensational twentieth-century scandal in which Leo Frank, the young Jewish manager of a factory in Atlanta in 1913, was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a teenaged employee. Previews for the Canadian premiere of Parade begin today, and the show officially opens on January 3, running until January 22. Tonight’s show is sold out, but plenty of other performances still have tickets. Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley Street), 7 p.m., $32–$40.
WORDS: All writers have faced that most heinous of beasts: rejection. Well, those editors don’t know what they’re missing, and that’s the germ behind Incongruous Quarterly, the online literary journal for “unpublishable” writing. No matter the reason for rejection, Incongruous will make sure your unsung masterpiece is read. To celebrate the release of its second issue Incongruous is holding a launch party tonight at Double Double Land, promising readings from contributors, including Alexander Armstrong, Marc Boudignon, Eric Schmaltz, and Steven Kempster Whelpdale Thomas, as well as some Scrabble and perhaps a New Year’s surprise. Double Double Land (209 Augusta Avenue); doors 8 p.m., readings 8:30 p.m.; PWYC.
MUSIC: Tonight is the fifth and final night of What’s In the Box, the Drake’s annual Boxing Week music festival. Tonight’s slate is headlined by Scuba, a leading name in dubstep, a variation on electronic music that takes influences from garage, characterized by samples and dissonant rhythms. Scuba will be joined by techno artists Egyptrixx, Mymanhenri, and Nik of beat-making crew Circle Research, providing a dance-friendly night of Toronto’s best club music. The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West), 8 p.m., $5.