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Urban Planner: January 6, 2011
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].
Snailhouse, or Mike Feuerstack, headlines a show tonight at El Mocambo. Photo by Robin Hart-Hitlz.
Tonight in Toronto, a NOW Talk on great Canadian ’80s music, a comedy show of stand-up by celebrity impersonators, a concert from acoustic songwriter Snailhouse, and a screening of Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis at the Underground.
TALK: Canada has never been short on prodigious talent, but the national music scene turned a corner in the ’80s, when music videos became an artist’s greatest marketing tool. For all its current woes, MuchMusic launched an explosion of new Canadian music in popular ’80s genres like metal, New Wave, and hip hop. Tonight, in the latest installment of NOW Talks, NOW publisher Michael Hollett will lead a discussion of great Canadian music from the ’80s, joined by Maestro and Mark Holmes of Platinum Blonde. NOW Lounge (189 Church Street), 7 p.m., $5.
COMEDY: Two of comedy’s most consistently popular schticks? Stand-up routines and celebrity impersonations. Tonight, Comedy Bar doubles the funny by combining the two at the Celebrity Stand-Up Show. Hosted by Veronika Swartz as a (funny) Lady Gaga, here’s a chance to see celebrity spoofs crossed with rip-roaring stand-up from local talent like Jon Blair, Sarah Hillier, Georgea Brooks-Hancock, Bob Kerr, and Deb Robinson. Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), 8 p.m., FREE.
MUSIC: Mike Feuerstack is best known for his work as guitarist for The Wooden Stars, but his solo venture as Snailhouse gives the songwriter an outlet for his quieter, more delicate impulses. Feuerstack has also performed with Kepler, Angela Desveaux, Bell Orchestre, and Islands, and as Snailhouse, he has crafted seven albums of minimalist, romantic, acoustic folk-pop songs. Snailhouse will release a new album, Sentimental Gentleman, this year, and tonight he performs at the ElMo alongside Julie Fader and Wayne Petti. El Mocambo (464 Spadina Avenue), 9 p.m., $8.
FILM: From The Terminator to Battlestar Galactica, the future uprising of robots against their human overlords have been well documented. Metropolis, Rintaro‘s 2001 anime film—adapted from Osamu Tezuka‘s manga, which itself is loosely based on Fritz Lang‘s 1927 German expressionist classic of the same name—adds a new dimension to this mythology. In it, robots and humans co-exist in a future city where tensions between the two populations explode into a violent class struggle. As part of its animation series, the Underground will present a 35 mm print of the anime classic, which will screen today, with a repeat screening on January 9. Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Avenue), 9:30 p.m., $8.