Artist Unknown

While the unassuming basement environs of the Comedy Bar near Bloor and Ossington may seem worlds away from more traditional entertainment district clubs like Yuk Yuk’s, it’s a place that has been catering to alternative comedy fans since it opened its doors just over a year ago. "It has a nice vibe," says Barry.

Though a seasoned stand-up, Barry’s become something of a household (or at least dorm room) name as a result of his acting. Apart from playing Mickey Rourke’s churlish supermarket manager in Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, or an extortionist hired to expose Ted Danson’s character on the recent season finale of HBO’s Bored to Death, Barry is also slated to appear alongside Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and The Station Agent’s Peter Dinklage in the upcoming indie-comedy Pete Smalls is Dead. It’s a role that had him, of all things, mud-wrestling with Rosie Perez.

"It was fun," he explains. "There’s a guy who came in who’s the expert at fake mud. It’s like this synthetic, theatrical mud. This guy throws it in a hot tub and stirs it up, for all your fake mud needs."

Barry’s comedy is also steadily accumulating critical acclaim lately. Earlier this week, the Onion A.V. Club voted Todd’s 2001 album, Medium Energy, among the best comedy recordings of the decade, with staff writer Scott Gordon lauding Barry’s ability "to construct such mini-snowglobes of sarcasm." Known for delivering tight jokes in his trademark monotone drawl, Barry’s sets consist of observational satire, anecdotes, and sometimes-uncomfortable interactions with the audience.

"You don’t have to be afraid to sit up front at my show," Barry assures me. "But I might start talking to you. But it won’t just be, 'Why you wearing that fucking shirt, asshole?'"

He also brings a new sort of celebrity to the Comedy Bar stage, having recently been voted (alongside the likes of Jamie Oliver and John Mayer) as one of the "Top 10 Hottest Men to Follow on Twitter" by a blogger on Smak News.

"I saw my name on it and I couldn’t believe it," says Barry. "I’m hot; like super-sexy-hot. One of the hottest guys to follow on Twitter. I guess loads of women want to follow me. And they’ll probably un-follow me when they don’t get what my jokes are about."

Whether you find Todd sufficiently hunky, calling him one of the funniest stand-ups touring these days seems a less controversial proposition. Regardless, these three headlining shows at the Comedy Bar are something to tweet about.

Todd Barry performs at the Comedy Bar tonight, November 20, at 10:30 p.m., and tomorrow, November 21, at both 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. He’s also set to guest star with the Sketchersons as part of their Sunday Night Live Show this Sunday at 9 p.m. Limited tickets are still available for $25 at the door; some specially priced $20 student tickets are also available.

The Edgewater Hotel sign is gone. City officials ordered that the Parkdale landmark be removed on November 3, after nearly three years of working to convince the owner of the building to which it was attached to make necessary repairs. According to a Municipal Licensing and Standards manager, the sign had finally become so derelict that city inspectors deemed it unsafe.

The neon sign, located near the intersection of King and Queen streets, at 14 Roncesvalles Avenue, had been a stalwart emblem of fading mid-century seaminess in Parkdale. The earliest locatable photograph of the sign belongs to Toronto Public Library's picture collection, and is dated 1957.

City officials first noticed the Edgewater Hotel sign's deterioration in May of 2006, when the owners of the building at 14 Roncesvalles Avenue applied to the city for a variance, so that they could erect a new sign on the building's rooftop. The building was then a Days Inn (it recently became a Howard Johnson), and the new sign would have been an illuminated Days Inn sign.

During the approval process for the new rooftop sign, city staff determined that the Edgewater Hotel sign had heritage value. The variance was approved, but only on the condition that the owner of 14 Roncesvalles Avenue agree to restore and maintain the Edgewater sign. The new Days Inn sign was to have replaced the still-extant upper, triangular part of the Edgewater sign—the part that said "Hotel." The familiar "Edgewater" portion would have remained intact.

Nearly three years later, in February 2009, no noticeable restoration work had been completed on the neon sign, and the new rooftop Days Inn sign had not been erected. City inspectors returned on February 6 and noted deficiencies in the Edgewater sign's upkeep, including damaged supports and faded lettering. The case went before the Property Standards Committee on April 24. The Committee granted the owners—who are identified only as "1118084 Ontario Limited"—an extension on making the repairs, until September 1.

If any repairs were made, they weren't sufficient. Shortly after the city issued its take-down order on November 3, the sign was removed—presumably by the building's owner. Telephone messages left with the owner's office staff went unreturned.

It's impossible to say definitively that the owner of 14 Roncesvalles Avenue allowed the Edgewater sign to fall into disrepair deliberately in order to skirt the city's demands that the sign be repaired and maintained, but, given so much evidence of the owner's indifference, this is a likely explanation. Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) has been telling his constituents as much (and he said the same thing to NOW Magazine). Also, there are precedents for this tactic of strategically avoiding repair work. Toronto has a somewhat infamous history of allowing heritage buildings to be demolished by neglect.

City Council passed a bylaw, in 2007, to close the loophole that used to enable heritage property owners to refuse to repair their buildings, but the bylaw only applies to designated "heritage properties." The building at 14 Roncesvalles Avenue isn't designated, and so Parkdale has no recourse but to adjust to life minus a prominent marker of its past.

Huge thanks to Jane Clark for the tip, and for assistance with research.

Hat tip to Rami Tabello.

“Guys, we did it. He's actually here!" Toronto comedian Bob Kerr exclaimed in front of a sold-out, standing room–only crowd while he hosted the first of two shows at the Rivoli starring Paul F. Tompkins. Tompkins, if you didn't know already, is an enviably talented Los Angeles–based comic with a resume that includes decades of stand-up, TV (Mr. Show, Best Week Ever), and movies (There Will Be Blood, The Informant!), but before last month, he had never set foot in Hogtown. So, what brought him here? Twitter, Facebook, and Bob Kerr. Together, Kerr and Tompkins took advantage of all that is good in social media and started a trend that shows no signs of abating.

Laugh Sabbath presents Paul F. Tompkins at the Rivoli (October 25, 2009). Photo by Kaori Furue/Torontoist.

Back in August, Tompkins was in Atlanta, anxiously trying to publicize his weekend of gigs at the Laughing Skull Lounge (he was taping footage for his upcoming DVD, You Should Have Told Me). Despite his sizable following, he was having trouble filling the seventy-four-seat venue. He took to Twitter to get the word out, which fell on the ears and iPhone of Bob Kerr. According to Tompkins, Kerr did "his least favourite thing," which was to send a tweet suggesting he come to another city (Toronto) while he was mired in promoting a pending show elsewhere. "So," said Tompkins while being interviewed between shows for the TVA Podcast, "I replied, half-kiddingly, but also half-angrily: get three hundred people to say they'll come see me, and then I'll come to Toronto." Within minutes, Kerr created a Facebook group called "I Wanna See Paul F. Tompkins in Toronto!" and in just one week, it boasted over three hundred earnest members.

True to his word, Tompkins started making plans for a Toronto show. He consulted his friend Martin Gero—Hollywood writer/producer and former Ryerson student—to select the perfect venue. Gero recommended the Rivoli for its historical significance (i.e. the birthplace of The Kids in the Hall). When it came to recruiting a middle act, some of Laugh Sabbath's regular performers (Laugh Sabbath is the Riv's weekly Sunday night comedy show) submitted their demos to Tompkins, and he chose quirky and hilarious Katie Crown. And to host, who better than the man who made it all happen?

iPhone souvenir from show night: Comedians Katie Crown, Paul F. Tompkins, and Bob Kerr at the Rivoli. Photo by Michelle Joseph.

Torontoist was lucky enough to attend the packed early show and chat with Kerr before the man of the hour arrived. After waiting almost three months, he was anxious to get these shows started and to finally meet his favourite comedian. "There's nothing like performing in front of one of your all-time heroes to make you doubt everything you've ever written," he told us while looking over his set list.

Tompkins arrived in a grey three-piece suit complete with matching tie and handkerchief, and thereby became undoubtedly the most dressed-up performer to ever enter the backroom at the Riv. After spending so much time listening to Tompkins on podcasts and reading his copious daily tweets, Kerr said it was like they had met before. "It was weird because I felt like I would never see him," he told us. "Even when I knew he was coming to Toronto. It's almost like he doesn't actually exist. I've only known him from all these other mediums, mainly audio or reading. But when I saw him, it was like, 'Paul, hi!' He looked exactly like I thought he would look...it just felt like I knew him already. I actually relaxed when I saw him. Suddenly, I just wasn't afraid of him...of being in the same room."

Most don't have the courage to engage their idols directly and invite them to their towns. Despite everything he did, Kerr maintains he's no exception. "It's not like me," he insisted, "but, I think the fact that I wanted it to happen so bad overtook my own personal hesitations. I wanted to see him face-to-face...shake his hand and talk to him."

Tompkins's Impersonal CD, autographed to Kerr: "Dear Bob: Thank you so much for making this happen. You should seriously consider starting a cult. Gratefully, Paul."

Needless to say, the shows were fantastic and very well-received because the room was full of true fans—people who cared enough to lobby to get him to Toronto. In between shows, Tompkins said on the TVA Podcast, "As soon as I walked out on that stage, I felt like I had been there before. There was something really magical about it...it was great. I would say this is one of my all-time favourite nights of my career."

But the story didn't end there. Within a few weeks of his return home to LA, dozens of new Facebook groups popped up asking for the very same thing. At last count, there were thirty-two additional groups, the most enthusiastic being Halifax who raised their three hundred in just three days (PFT is currently scouting venues for this show). The most far-flung of the lot is a group from Malmö, Sweden, called "Paul F. Tompkins till Malmö!"

In the midst of all this, Tompkins hasn't missed a beat—he is embracing this new way of booking (he wrote a how-to blog post and created the #tompkins300 hashtag on Twitter to keep up with everyone's efforts). With thirty-two cities on the list and growing, this could turn into an international tour.

And how does Kerr feel about starting this trend with Tompkins? "I feel spectacular," he told us. "It's something that me and Paul did together, which makes me feel amazing because Paul's a hero of mine. And now that it's picking up and it's a possible career vehicle for him to travel around and know that people are actually excited in these different cities. How great is that for Paul, or for any comic?"

If you missed Paul F. Tompkins when he was here, many nearby cities are campaigning for shows (e.g. Detroit, Montreal, Boston, Chicago). Consult the #tompkins300 hashtag on Twitter or search for "Paul F. Tompkins" in Facebook. If you would like to see Bob Kerr, the man who lit this fire, he is middling for another LA comedian, Todd Barry, at the Comedy Bar this Saturday, November 21 at 8 p.m.

All photos by Ayngelina Brogan/Torontoist unless otherwise specified.

For the past eight years, the Ontario College of Art and Design has been asking potential art buyers to put pretense aside and trust their gut in support of the school. “Whodunit?,” OCAD’s signature annual fundraiser, is a mystery art sale in which the name of the artist remains a secret until after you purchase the piece. It’s a refreshing concept in a creative marketplace so often dogged by an atmosphere of manufactured buzz and the dreaded art star.

In fact, it’s not only the authorship that’s removed from the selection equation, as the variables are even further diminished. Each work of art is the same size, 5.5” by 7.5”, and the same price, $75. With this militant simplicity, the criteria for selection is reduced to what the buyer actually likes. Unless, of course, you’re there to roll the dice. “Whodunit?” walks on both sides of the line between anonymity and celebrity. On one hand, the event offers you the chance to choose affordable art with your eyes and heart, and on the other, the possibility of walking away with a work by a big name.

Artworks on display in the public preview.

The scores of artworks for this year’s sale have been collected and displayed at OCAD since Wednesday. They can be previewed online or in person until 8 p.m. this evening, and the public sale begins tomorrow at 10 a.m. Attendees will receive a number as they arrive at the sale, and this is the order in which purchasers are called upon to make their selection. In the past, some people have lined up the night before to secure their place in the queue.

The fundraiser features over one thousand works of art, and to receive this many submissions, OCAD makes participating verge on fun for those, like me, who contribute. They even mail each person that requests one an artist package consisting of two pre-cut pieces of art paper to use for your creations, should you choose. Unfortunately, they inevitably arrived pre-creased by what could be inferred as Canada Post’s blanket “fold and bend” policy, which instantly rendered the unconventional 5.5” by 7.5” size even more of a hurdle. (The logic of a format just slightly larger than standard remains one of "Whodunit?'s" more profound mysteries.) After cutting pieces of wood to size, I produced two paintings, signed the back of the works (rather than the front), and sent them in.

A DJ performs at the gala event.

“Whodunit?” also has a ticketed gala event, which took place on Wednesday. It featured a silent auction of mystery works selected from among the submissions, and a live auction of larger-scale works obtained from emerging artists. We spoke to Wil Kucey, the chair of the “Whodunit?” Curatorial Committee to find out how the silent auction works are chosen. “We aim to choose works that offer a nice balance between recognizable artists’ works and works that are strong in their own right but are created by perhaps some lesser known artists.” Proving that “lesser known artists” are indeed represented in this group, one of my paintings went into the silent auction. It certainly adds a dynamic element to the experience—hovering inconspicuously near an auction sign-up sheet, trying to will people to bid on your piece with your mind.

A gala attendee considers the silent auction works.

The stress of the auction over, it was time for the best part—viewing the hundreds of mystery artworks at the preview, and finding your own amongst them. It’s hard to say just why wandering the shelves and musing about who might have made certain pieces is so enjoyable. It might be the dramatically different outputs that people manage to produce within the same, small rectangles. It could just be the sheer volume of works in one space. The small-scale, high-volume formula seems to strike a chord—AWOL gallery’s annual “Square Foot” show had a lineup down the street for its opening night this year. As a participant, it’s interesting to see how your work either fits in with or stands out from the masses. I’ll have to decide if I can brave the sale tomorrow to find out if and when my work gets chosen.

Visitors take in the larger, live auction artworks.

We asked Wil Kucey few more questions to get an organizer’s perspective on “Whodunit?”

Torontoist: How did the concept of a mystery art sale come about?

Kucey: The event is based loosely on a similar fundraising event in the UK, called “RCA Secret,” originated by the Royal College of Art. The idea of being able to highlight great art in a fun and engaging way speaks to the spirit of the OCAD community.



Who is the most unexpected or unusual contributor you've had to the sale?

One of our annual donors who might be a bit unexpected as a visual artist is author Margaret Atwood. In the past we’ve had works donated by David Blackwood, Bobbie Burgers, Ian Carr-Harris, James Lahey, Christopher Pratt, John Scott, Floria Sigismondi, Tom Cochrane, Bruce Cockburn, Burton Kramer, Jesus Mora, Charles Pachter, Andy Fabo, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Gary Taxali, and Atom Egoyan.

How much do you think the chance of acquiring a piece by a notable name influences people's decision to participate in the sale?

It’s definitely a factor; we have some real keeners who line up very early to get first dibs. We’ve had people line up as early as 4 p.m. the night before and camp out (in November!). We open our doors and give out numbers to people who have lined up as early as 6 a.m. so that allows those who have waited in the cold to take a break and get a hot coffee or some breakfast. But there many more people who enjoy buying art in the event because it puts all the work on a level playing field, and they are forced to choose art simply because it speaks to them, rather than worrying about buying art they think is valuable based on the name of an artist. That’s really where the appeal lies in this event, for most of our supporters. But the fact that you could walk away with a treasure you love that also just happens to be created by an a-list artist is the icing on the cake! 


The “Whodunit?” public preview takes place at the OCAD main building at 100 McCaul Street, and ends today at 8 p.m. The sale opens at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

All photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist (who also has pieces in the show this year).

Alright, now let's figure out who's responsible for the six-hour-long TTC stoppage that hit yesterday after work crews sawed open a tunnel on the Yonge subway line. Should be easy: It was Enbridge Gas, doing some maintenance on a buried pipeline. No, that's wrong, according to Enbridge, who say the city asked them to do the work and approved their plan, which was inspected by a firm that keeps track of where it's safe to dig and was carried out by another contractor. So it was them? No, that contractor says they had nothing to do with the problem and their safety record is excellent. And the city says it doesn't remember asking for the work, and, even if they did issue a permit, the contractor should, theoretically, have been the ones checking the site beforehand. Looks like it was leprechauns. Will Toronto ever put an end to their tunnel-slicing shenanigans?

Also, we could really use some of their gold. Since we're already on the subject of deep cuts to city services, let's take a look at who thinks the best response to City Hall's order to cut spending is to ignore it and ask for more money. You might think that any city department who'd play chicken with the budget committee when Toronto is in critical financial condition is either a bit crazy or a lot desperate. Well, you can go ahead and say that about the Board of Health, the police, the library, and even the zoo. And the zoo's funding is pretty slim as it is, compared to other departments. What are they supposed to do next? Sell off the tigers, file down the giraffes, and feed the otters to the piranhas?

And what are the police going to do with that extra money? Well, it might come in handy for cracking down on drivers who obstruct bike lanes. Former Toronto Police Board Chair Alan Heisey is pushing the board to step up ticketing of cars parked in cycling lanes, and to install cameras to nab drivers abusing bus, taxi, and bike lanes. While you're setting up those nifty gadgets, why not equip them with these experimental Canadian paralysis rays, said to cause "instant flaccidity and empurplement"? Now that would be money well spent. We're too stunned (and purple) to say another word.

Bobbie, Jim Hake, mixed media. Courtesy of the artist and 918 Bathurst.

ART: Since its conception in 2002, the "Love Show" has strived to raise awareness about the privilege that defines so many of our lives, while reminding us of our responsibility to others. Each year's proceeds go to community-based organizations that stand up against violence and encourage self esteem. This year, the sales from all the miniature (8x8) pieces—donated by local artists for the exhibition—go to the Workman Arts Program (at CAMH), whose mission is to support artists with mental illnesses or addiction and promote a greater understanding of these realities through various art forms. The theme of this year's show is "Dreams," exploring all meanings of the word—from night-time visions and nightmares, to daydreams and aspirations for the future. Each piece will sell for only seventy-five dollars. 918 Bathurst Street, 7–9 p.m., FREE.

FUNDRAISER: A collaboration with the inspired folks at Well and Good (a grassroots outfit dedicated to cultural evolution through art, design, and pop culture), 52 McCaul opens its doors for the first time tonight. This two-thousand-square-foot community centre/gallery space aims to establish its reputation as a creative hub, intended to support and nurture the local scene while showcasing our talent globally. All donated work at tonight's "$20" opening fundraiser sells for—you guessed it—twenty dollars, while all proceeds go to the centre. The show will also feature work by Torontoist photographer Nick Kozak. 52 McCaul Street, 7 p.m.–midnight, FREE.

THEATRE: A sold-out hit at the 2006 Fringe Festival and winner of the coveted Audience Choice award, Alison Lawrence's The Catering Queen returns with a star-studded cast, under the of direction of Ed Sahely. Some of Toronto's top actors come together to play a motley mix of characters at an annual Christmas party in Forest Hill. This evening of cocktails, canapés, and comedy should set the tone for any upcoming holiday entertaining, with all the mishaps that come along with it. Tarragon Theatre Extra Space (30 Bridgman Avenue), 8 p.m., $25, tickets available online or by calling 416-531-1827.

MUSIC: Box of Kittens, responsible for breathing new life into Toronto's underground electronic scene with a series of successful loft and warehouse parties, and veteran promoters alienInFlux team up to celebrate their two-year anniversary by bringing Berlin-based Marc Romboy to Toronto. In addition to founding and helming respected label Systematic Recordings, Romboy has spent the past decade pushing dance music forward with his renowned productions and world-class DJ sets. Also in the spotlight at tonight's party is the new alienInFlux sound system—a doubling of the existing system—which promises a fuller sound and a potentially mind-blowing sonic experience. Pia Bouman Ballet School (6 Noble Street), 10 p.m., advance tickets $20 (available at Play de Record, Shanti Baba, and Moog Audio).

The 510

Amidst the brouhaha about fare increases at this month's TTC meeting, one thing that was overlooked was the approval of the design for a Highway 407 station [PDF] on the new Spadina subway extension. Except—they haven't really decided on the finer points of the design. Did we say "finer points"? We meant "all of it."

“Due to ongoing negotiations with stakeholders,” says the design approval document, “surface facilities are not at the same level of development as the below ground structures.” All we know is that there will be a parking lot and an entrance, which is sort of obvious, and a GO Transit and York Regional Transit bus terminal somewhere in that big L-shaped gap.

No reason's been given for the failure of imagination: just a note that “the concept is still under development with input from GO and YRT,” along with a promise that the final site will be presented at a public open house in a few months' time. The designer for the station on the toll highway will be Aedas, who did the pleasingly aerodynamic design for Sheppard West, so we might expect something similar, but who knows.

Still, this could be the perfect opportunity to sling some ideas the TTC's way. Torontoist thinks the aerial projection of the site plan (above) looks a bit like a huge moth; at a push it could be made into some kind of Batman symbol, perhaps to be projected into the sky to call for help should somebody carelessly dig into a tunnel. Not that this would ever happen, of course.

If the private consortium that runs the highway could be persuaded to part with some of the eight-million-dollar profit they made last quarter, cost would be no object. So, what would you put inside the dotted line?

Renderings courtesy of the TTC.

Photo by spotmaticfanatic from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Reader Gavin Crisp asks:

When will the TTC open subway doors earlier than its current wake-up call of approximately 9 a.m. on Sunday mornings?

TTC Director of Communications Brad Ross says:

I wish I could respond with the answer I think you want to read, but I can’t. In short, the Sunday morning subway start time of 9 a.m. won’t be changing anytime soon.

Here’s why.

There are sixty-eight kilometres of subway track in Toronto. Add to that more than six hundred switches and signals. And, of course, the sixty-nine subway stations we maintain.

When the subway closes each night, an army (or maybe it’s a battalion) of maintenance crews descend into the tunnels and begin a wide range of work including: sweeping and cleaning debris from the track to prevent fires; rail and switch inspections; rail and switch replacement where required; repairing decaying tunnel concrete damaged by ground-water leaks; removing asbestos, replacing burned-out lights; re-cabling and replacing the signal system on the Yonge-University-Spadina line with an Automatic Train Control system; and, of course, station cleaning and maintenance that can’t occur when passengers and trains are in the stations.

Much of the work is time-consuming and requires crews to set up in the tunnel for hours at a time. Sunday mornings give our maintenance crews an additional three hours to complete much of the routine and specialized work required to ensure the system remains reliable and safe.

On any given weekday, maintenance crews have just three hours to get to a work location, set up, complete the work, pack up, and return to the yard. Sundays, though, afford us with additional time to complete the routine work but also more complex tasks.

If the TTC were to narrow that Sunday morning maintenance window, some of those complex tasks would not get finished. The result, then, would likely require a disruption to normal service to get the job done; assuming emergency repairs don’t cause us to do that sooner, at a much less convenient time for you, the rider.

Simply put, subway systems require constant and vigilant maintenance. Toronto’s system does not have a network of redundant or express track to fall back on when the mainline needs work. Keeping that Sunday morning window open, therefore, equals a more reliable and safer subway system.

Finally, the TTC does run a network of buses and streetcars on twenty-four routes when the subway is closed—the Blue Night Network. The two routes that replace the subway—320 Yonge and 300 Bloor-Danforth—are the most frequently used routes on the network. The TTC is committed to ensuring people who need to get around, whether at 4 a.m. on Tuesday or 8 a.m. on Sunday, can do so on public transit.

We all remember what it was like to be sixteen. The pressure to be a man led boys to grow those dreaded teen-'stashes and direct uninformed vulgar remarks toward their female classmates. Girls struggled to maintain their self-esteem in the face of mounting pressure to show skin and be like all of their friends. Nobody knew which way was up when it came to sex, and the confusion surrounding gender and identity was enough to make your acne-prone head spin.

In September 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Education will introduce a new course titled Gender Studies, designed to help teenagers get a better grasp of all these perplexing issues. The course will be available as an elective for grade eleven students province-wide, creating a safe place where gender in our society, and in others, can be discussed.

"We’re always looking at our curriculum in different ways, looking at societal changes, and we felt this was the right time," said Steve Robinson, spokesperson for the ministry. The decision to introduce the course was reached in consultation with a number of stakeholders, including curriculum review boards, educators, and the Safe Schools Action Team.

Among the topics to be covered in the class are the norms of masculinity and femininity, how gender is portrayed in the media, power relations between men and women, homosexuality, sexism, transgender issues, equity, and gender-based violence and oppression.

The Miss G Project for Equity in Education, a grassroots young feminist organization campaigning to end oppression in and through education, spearheaded the mission to bring the course into high schools. Sheetal Rawal, co-founder of the project, said the idea developed in 2005 from a conversation between herself and a friend in a dorm room. "[We were] talking about our experiences in high school and those of our younger siblings. We thought it was bizarre that people often don't get a chance to talk about how gender norms and expectations affect their lives until and unless they take particular courses at a post-secondary level."

As Rawal sees it, safety is a big part of what makes the course a necessity. "As recent studies in this province have shown (Falconer, CAMH, Roots of Youth Violence), gender-based violence in schools is ever-present and needs to be addressed through preventative measures. One of those measures is education and creating a safe space for students and teachers to discuss the very real issues present in their personal experiences, their communities, and their lives in general, both within and outside of the classroom."

The course isn’t just for teenagers who are struggling with their gender identity, said Rawal. Gender issues are relevant to everyone, and a broader education in the subject can create a better, more informed, and understanding society.

By the time the classrooms empty out for summer vacation, the goal is that students will be a little less confused about how gender affects their lives and the lives of others. Maybe girls will feel a little more comfortable expressing their individuality, and perhaps boys will give up their macho personas and bust out those razors. Fewer teen-'stashes, at least, would indeed contribute to the betterment of society.

Big thanks to Karen Whaley for drawing our attention to this tidbit.

It seems strange to think that this is good news, but the provincial government wants to poke everyone with sharp objects today. Health Minister Deb Matthews says that the decision to offer the H1N1 vaccine to all Ontarians (including Peel region, a fact with which we teased you yesterday) "will apply to all health units across Ontario, even though a number of health units began to immunize members of the general population earlier because they had the capacity and vaccine supply to do it." But are we just too desensitized to care anymore? "We have just seen a decreased appetite for vaccination," said Dr. Robin Williams (we kid you not). "We're no longer on the front of the news. I think people are losing their energy and interest in it." Losing interest in getting stabbed with needles? Has the world gone insane?

In the "news that isn't really news" category, tongues are wagging as to whether or not the G20 will come to Toronto. Did anyone say it actually was? (Hint: Not really...but everyone seems to postulate otherwise.) Of course, it might just be a slow news week—the Post also covered a free burrito giveaway at the First Canadian Place food court yesterday morning, the highlight being that a "woman in a brown coat angrily storms off when she's told that if she's looking at the back of the security guard's head, she's not getting a free burrito." Then again (place obligatory reader discretion advisory here), if you're looking at the back of someone's head (especially a man in uniform), Mexican food should be the last thing on your mind...at least until afterwards. Amirite, kids? Awww, yeah.

And, finally, in celebrity news, charges against the manager for the Black Eyed Peas have been dropped, stemming from a post-MMVA assault on infamous blogger Perez Hilton outside a Toronto nightclub. Now, our editors have given carte blanche on any snarky quips that may result from this juicy tidbit of news (you may remember our in-depth coverage of the incident in June), but this Newsstand author would rather hear what you have to say. To make things interesting, please craft your catty comments in the form of a haiku.

Still image from The Karamazovs, courtesy of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic.

FILM: The Eh!U Meet the Europeans European Film Festival, one of our favourite free film festivals of the year, begins today with a screening of award-winning Czech film The Karamazovs. Various local European consulates and cultural centres (representing a total of twenty-three European nations this year) have compiled a collection of current films not yet screened in Canada to introduce them to a Toronto audience. This year’s venues are the Bloor, the Royal, and the Varsity, screening a total of twenty-six different films. The festival continues to December 3. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 6 p.m., FREE.

WORDS: Pot, prostitution, raw milk, hate speech— the latest issue of This Magazine tackles the issues of legalization. The “legalize everything” issue launch at the Painted Lady promises legalization-themed door prizes from cutting-edge Toronto businesses like Come As You Are, HotBox Café, Zunior Digital Music, and more. The launch also includes readings from the winners of This Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt 2009. The Painted Lady (218 Ossington Avenue), 7 p.m., $5 (includes a copy of This Magazine).

CITIES: The City of Toronto hosts "Designing Transit Cities," an interesting two-day symposium on the subject of urban design and its relationship to public transportation. The symposium begins this evening with a panel discussion moderated by the CBC’s Matt Galloway. Guests on the panel include University of California’s Professor of Regional Planning Robert Cervero and Reconnecting America’s Vice President Mariia Zimmerman. Local panellists include the TTC’s Adam Giambrone, architect Ralph Giannone, Paul Bedford from Metrolinx, and West Don Lands Committee Chairperson Cynthia Wilkey. Oh, and we'll be there too—look out for our thoughts on the symposium later this week. Toronto City Hall (100 Queen Street West, Council Chambers, third floor), 6:30–9:30 p.m., FREE (please RSVP).

PHOTOGRAPHY: Ryerson University’s “War at a Distance” exhibit doesn’t ask the question of what we think about the war in Afghanistan, but asks how we see the conflict—and whether the representations we experience of a war so far away are enough to base our opinions on. In conjunction with Ryerson's related symposium (held last month), GalleryTPW's "This is Not a Blog" open forum series presents an open public discussion moderated by Sara Matthews, assistant professor of culture and conflict at Wilfred Laurier University. Join Matthews to tackle the subject of the personal YouTube videos made by soldiers in Afghanistan, and the question of whether those direct viewing experiences spoil our otherwise safe distance from the subject. Gallery TPW (56 Ossington Avenue), 7 p.m., FREE.

ART: Butcher Gallery, claiming inspiration from online galleries, has just opened and hosts its first reception tonight. The group show “On You On Me” presents work around the themes of “identity, narcissism, and voyeurism” as they relate to the Internet (on until December 5). The gallery intends to host artist-run exhibits quarterly while opening up the space to additional lectures, performances, and screenings. Butcher Gallery (234 ½ Queen Street East), 6–9 p.m., FREE.

Sundog and 1 King West

The usual way for a driver to avoid eggnog-fuelled destruction during the holidays is for them to travel with a designated driver. This is a tried-and-true method of avoiding being the only perp at the station who smells alluringly of nutmeg. If, for whatever reason, it's not a viable option for you (maybe all your friends like the 'nog as much as you do?) Toronto-area entrepreneur John Long has a solution. It involves tow trucks.

Long's proposition is fairly straightforward. Simply call his business, Downtown Towing, and he will send one of his many tow trucks (or the trucks of a subcontractor) to wherever you are. The tow truck driver will then take you and your car safely home. Your fellow party guests will be forced to acknowledge that you have partied so incredibly hard that reinforcements with heavy machinery needed to be called. You will be, in a word, victorious.

The service will launch to coincide with the first police-run impaired driving checkpoints of the holiday season.

Long began offering the service fifteen years ago, but discontinued it to concentrate on other work. His sense of duty was a factor in his decision to bring it back.

"I was going to many accidents," he said during a phone interview, "and I went to many calls where people were drunk, or people were being charged...and I'm going: Jesus, Jesus, if they only had some kind of recourse, some kind of way to get home."

Motorists who drink this December will have plenty to worry about, since this holiday season will be the first during which Ontario's toughened drunk-driving penalties will be in force. Under the new legislation, effective last May, being pulled over with a blood alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.08 results in a three-day license suspension on a first offense; a seven-day suspension and mandatory driver education on a second offense; and a thirty-day suspension and mandatory treatment program on a third offense.

A tow from Long or any of his subcontractors will cost seventy-five dollars, plus three dollars for every kilometre travelled, meaning that, altruism aside, it's likely to be quite a lucrative holiday sideline—though Long pointed out that parking and cabs are also extremely costly.

Similar services in the GTA—like the charmingly named Safe-T-Ride, or the Durham-based Keys To Us—rent actual, human designated drivers, who chauffeur impaired partygoers home in their own vehicles, for less than the cost of a tow. (Safe-T-Ride quotes thirty-five dollars for the first fifteen kilometres and five dollars for every 4 kilometres thereafter. They say the holiday season is extremely busy.)

Or, you know, you could just take the TTC.

Order a tow from Downtown Towing (and subcontractors) this holiday season by calling 416-GET-HOME (438-4663).

Photos by Christopher Drost/Torontoist

One diplomat and three journalists convened at Innis Town Hall at the University of Toronto last night, for a discussion called "News Blackouts Save Lives." Organized by the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the question up for debate was an ethical one: should news outlets report on international kidnapping cases, knowing that such reports could potentially put the prisoner in more danger? In other words, is a story worth a life?

Robert Fowler, the United Nations special envoy to Niger who was captured by Al-Qaeda on December 14, 2008 and held for 130 days, was the featured speaker. He was joined by Globe and Mail Foreign Editor Stephen Northfield, CTV News President Robert Hurst, and Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank, whose outlets all reported on the incident. "Everything that was said, and indeed not said, had an impact," said Fowler. "I don’t think [the kidnappers] cared very much about who I was other than being a UN guy. But gentlemen," he addressed the panellists, "you told them."

The news of Fowler's kidnapping was picked up in Canada after Agence France-Presse, a French news agency, broke the story the night it happened. It ran in every major Canadian national newspaper and aired on every nightly newscast. The coverage continued until Fowler was released on April 21, 2009. The thirty-odd men who were holding Fowler and his colleague, fellow Canadian diplomat Louis Guay, had radios broadcasting information from the Canadian media. Because of the coverage, Fowler claims the kidnappers learned about his identity, his career—including his having been an advisor to three prime ministers—and about the negotiations.

Northfield said that it’s the Globe’s default policy to publish, but that of course exceptions may be made in special circumstances. They don’t publish if they will "knowingly" cause harm to the prisoner, or provide the kidnappers with any information they don’t already have. In Fowler’s case, Northfield does not believe the Canadian media provided any fresh or tactical information to the kidnappers.

Hurst assured the audience that CTV takes these issues very seriously. They discuss, debate, weigh the pros and cons, and reach out to informed parties such as governments and other news sources. He added that the lens should be taken off the Canadian media regarding this incident. The Canadian minister of foreign affairs, the government of Niger, and the UN were the sources responsible for leaking the story, he claimed.

John Cruickshank, Robert Hurst, and Stephen Northfield address a packed Innis Town Hall.

The coverage surrounding Fowler was contrasted with the way the media handled the kidnapping of Melissa Fung, a CBC journalist who was captured and held in Afghanistan roughly two months before Fowler’s story hit the news. Cruickshank, who was head of CBC News at the time, put an embargo on the story, and all other news outlets followed suit. It wasn’t until Fung was released twenty-eight days later that the public learned about the story.

Fowler’s case was an entirely different set of circumstances, Northfield pointed out: in that case, news editors woke up to the story the morning after it had happened. "It’s very hard for us to maintain a blackout when there’s already light," Cruickshank added. Nevertheless, Hurst admits there is a double standard when it comes to the way the media reports on kidnapping cases involving journalists versus cases not involving journalists. "There’s no simple answer to these questions," said Northfield. "I wish there was a rule book."

Fowler sees this as a huge opportunity to create just that: a policy regarding all kidnapping cases. He believes blackouts should be employed in every instance, regardless of whether or not the prisoner is a journalist. But if that’s not possible and the news leaks, he says it’s imperative that reporters and editors talk to those in the know—other media, government, kidnapping experts—before anything goes to print or on the air.

An inquiry launched by the Canadian Press after the Fung incident concluded that no story is worth a life. "I hope this would be the underlying editorial policy of every board," Fowler remarked.

For a refresher on the coverage of Fowler's kidnapping, see the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the CBC, and the National Post.

All photos by Remi Carreiro/Torontoist.

Terry Fox. The Spanish Influenza. John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Vimy Ridge. The Last Spike. Bob and Doug McKenzie. Wayne Gretzky. Nellie McClung. Winnie the Bear. The Halifax Explosion. The moments and people that define Canada are as diverse and wide-ranging as the country itself. No wonder Beaver editor Mark Reid had such a difficult time selecting photos for 100 Photos That Changed Canada.

At the Indigo at Bay and Bloor on Monday night, Reid sat down with CBC personality Don Newman to talk about the Beaver's first-ever foray into book publishing, a compilation of Canada's most influential photographs. The one hundred photos selected span 1847 to 2008 and cover political and natural disasters, gold medals won and lost, moments of inspiration, moments of desperation, and more.

"100 Photos That Changed Canada is a cocky and brash title," Reid readily admits. "However, we were looking for photos that held such power they made us rethink who were are as people and as a nation."

CBC's Don Newman (left) and Beaver's Mark Reid (right) onstage at Indigo.

Starting with Peter Martin's photo of Terry Fox running before dawn during his Marathon of Hope, Reid took the audience on a journey through Canada’s past and told the story behind a sampling of these now-iconic images.

Doug Ball's 1974 photograph of Robert Stanfield fumbling a football arguably changed the nature of the relationship between Canadian politicians and the media. Shortly after the photo, Stanfield and his Tories would go on to lose the election to Trudeau's Liberals. "A political image had never before had this much power," Reid commented. Whether the image influenced the loss or whether the photo represented Stanfield's political freefall is up for debate. Newman argued for the latter: "The air was going out of the Conservative campaign by the time this photo was taken. It represents far more than Bob Stanfield not catching the ball."

#92: "The Shawinigan Handshake," 1996. By Phil Nolan, Global News.

Veronica "Ronnie" Foster (at the very top of this post) became the pin-up girl for the nation's war effort when her photo was taken by the National Film Board of Canada at the height of World War II. "She's a good-looking lady and this photo was a great vehicle for showing what women did in wartime for employment," J.L. Granatstein, author of the companion essay to the photo, explained. Foster worked at the John Inglish Co Ltd plant in Toronto, which produced machinery and weapons. In 1943, Canadians produced 6 vessels, 80 aircraft, 4 thousand trucks and jeeps, 450 armored fighting vehicles, 940 artillery pieces, 13 thousand weapons, 525 thousand military arsenal shells, 25 million cartridges, 10 tonnes of explosives, and $4 million worth of instruments and communications equipment. The image of Foster, smoking while on a quick break from work, became a powerful marketing tool: the NFB used the image to encourage women “to do their part” as the country became entrenched in the war effort.

A surprising inclusion in the book is a photograph of Ethel Catherwood, a member of the 1928 Olympic team. It was the first year women competed in the Olympics, and every female athlete participated in an obligatory beauty contest. "Ethel took home the gold in both the high jump and the beauty pageant, prompting the San Francisco Chronicle to write—I'm paraphrasing here—'Canadian women are a breath of fresh air. Most female athletes have faces like hatchets,'" Reid recalled. "Ethel Catherwood, Nellie McClung, the residential schools apology...this book shows Canadians how far we've come."

Stan Behal, photographer behind #84 "Tarnished Gold."

From Shaney Komulainen's "Standoff at Oka," to Frank Lennon's photograph of Paul Henderson's 1972 Summit series goal, images of conflict, sport, and politics dominated the presentation.

"We wanted to share photos with emotional resonance that are of historical importance," Reid said. "We didn't actively say 'oh, we need three images of World War II' but these photographs are relatable, universal, and helped shape our nation."

Photographer Stan Behal took the time to come down and celebrate; his photograph of Ben Johnson crossing the 100-metre sprint finish line in the 1988 Olympics was one of those featured in the book.

"Inclusion in such a great work is humbling," Behal said. "I'm honoured and delighted."

All photos by Nick Kozak/Torontoist unless otherwise noted.

There is little to be pleased about following the announcement that TTC fares are going up (for most riders) to meet what seems to be a continuous shortfall for the notoriously underfunded Commission. To add fuel to the fire, token rationing is causing irritation at the ticket booth, with some stations running out of tokens by the evening rush. According to the TTC, for every 10¢ increase in fares, three percent of its ridership is lost, and making public transit less affordable is often punishing those who need it most.

Who doesn't wish they knew Natalie Portman?

Disappointingly, the video for k-os's latest single has no sign of her. The song and its title have to do with hip-hop pioneer KRS-One's theory of magic, and that...oh, who are we kidding. Let's just let k-os explain, because this is sort of whack. As told to Culture Bully back in March (when the single was an exclusive pre-album MySpace track), "KRS-One said that verbal magic has the ability to allow its user to ‘rap’ their way into a new reality. So I’m trying to make things happen. I happen to love what that woman represents, and Star Wars of course." So basically this song is a Natalie Portman Ouija Board. Cool.

Naturally, then, the video should be a buddy-film version of No Country for Old Men that shoots k-os and Saukrates (who has also released this song as a single under the name "On the Run." Thrifty!) into outer space and features former Muchmusic mumbler VJ/current CP24 Breakfast co-host Matte Babel as a gas station attendant that gets offed. It was directed by super high-roller Toronto director X, who consistently delivers—gasp!—concepts, high-quality visuals, and personality, when most people don't even try in this format anymore (though not without some good reason). If that's not already a recipe for a hit, the hook features Nelly Furtado (Fartaco!) singing a sample from "California," the opening track from the sadly underrated Phantom Planet album The Guest and, uh, some TV show or something. And if that face-smackingly obvious sample eluded you at first too, don't worry: Jason Schwartzman and Adam Brody forgave us. They might forgive you.

The image above is a montage of eighty-six separate thirty-second exposures taken on Woodbine Beach in the early hours of Tuesday morning during the Leonid meteor shower. (Each image was loaded into Photoshop and blended with the images below it to build up the star trails and reveal the meteors.) Over the three-quarters of an hour it took to accumulate the photographs, the camera caught five meteors, enough to show how they radiate out from the constellation Leo—from which the shower gets its name. Away from the pollution of city lights, more meteors would have been visible.

Last Friday brought together Toronto filmmaker Paul Saltzman, producer Patricia Aquino, Academy Award–winning actor Morgan Freeman, and members of the city’s most well-to-do families at the Varsity Cinemas for a "VIP Screening" of Prom Night in Mississippi, Saltzman’s feature-length documentary chronicling the efforts of a Charleston high school hosting their first "integrated prom."

Freeman, a Charleston native, had offered to fund an integrated prom when he first found out that white and black seniors were barred from slow-dancing together, back in 1997. The school board initially refused the offer, citing concerns from parents, the possibility of racial violence, and other bureaucratic red tape as the reason for the racially divided rite of passage. But when Freeman made another offer in 2008, on the cusp of Obama’s America, the school board changed their tune. (It probably helped that the second time around, Saltzman and his crew were there recording the whole thing.) Freeman’s endeavour to unite Charleston High School’s senior class is unquestionably forward thinking, and reflects the actor’s consistent advocacy for a post-racial America (he publicly supported Obama, but he’s an outspoken critic of Black History Month, believing that black history is one and the same as American history). What’s more difficult to praise is Saltzman’s film.

As a feature documentary, Prom Night in Mississippi is a disappointment. It unfolds as ninety minutes of preaching to the converted, with the Charleston youth unanimously agreeing that racial segregation is an outmoded institution, a dusty relic of pre-Civil Rights America. Like teenagers blaring punk music in defiance of their parents’ Chicago records, many of these kids see racism as old-fashioned, and decry their prevailing adults' attitudes towards segregation and miscegenation. Then again, as Freeman notes after the screening, "children are encouraged to go against the status quo." Nevertheless, while their outlook is refreshing, it comes at the expense of any real discourse.

Photo by Catherine Farquarson.

For a film set in what is presented as one of America’s last remaining holdouts of racial discrimination, there’s very little resembling actual racism here. When a group of parents, upset by the high school’s mixed prom, decide to host a whites-only prom for their children, they refuse to appear on camera (in a fairly telling scene, a lawyer representing these families expresses their shared concern about appearing racist). The exception is the father of a white teenage girl who is dating a black classmate. Though ostensibly every bit the redneck stereotype (he’s even self-conscious enough to acknowledge himself as such), he defies the stereotype of a Bible-belt bigot, stating that he will always love his daughter, even if she chooses to live in a manner that fundamentally clashes with his own upbringing and belief system. In the post-screening Q&A, Saltzman described this man as "one of his heroes" in the film. He’s also about the only character to escape one-dimensional representation. The rest of the time we have a cast of characters—the white kid on the otherwise all-black basketball team, the stern-yet-compassionate principal, the token mixed-race couple—who belt out Saltzman’s sermon regarding racism’s folly with all the delicacy of an Ayn Rand novel.

But Salztman’s message, heavy-handed though it may have been, struck a chord with the audience. Members of the nearly sold-out crowd variously trumped up the film as "brave" and "important," flattering the efforts of both Saltzman and his Oscar-winning guest of honour. But there was a sinister echo in all the applause and scattered standing ovations that followed the screening. The overwhelmingly warm reception seemed to reflect less a shared appreciation of the film’s merits and more a theatre of wealthy, liberal, and mostly white elites celebrating their own enlightened attitudes towards racism.

Indeed, the whole event seemed wildly self-congratulatory, for both the filmmakers and the spectators who paid one hundred dollars per head to attend the screening. Watching the designer-dressed ticketholders trot down a red carpet ceremoniously laid out in the Varsity lobby, smiling widely for a photographer hired to snap photos, seemed an unknowingly ironic inversion of the more modest gala seen at the climax of Prom Night.

Ultimately, Prom Night in Mississippi is a difficult proposition. It’s tricky to evaluate a film noble in intention that is so clumsily executed. It’s the worst kind of documentary filmmaking in that it’s telling you what to think instead of stimulating independent thought. As such, it’s unlikely to change any prevailing attitudes towards racism amongst adults habituated to their own ways of thinking, but considering Saltzman’s pedagogical aim—the one-hundred-dollar ticket price for the event subsidized educational DVD packages to be screened in schools, both in the U.S. and Canada—it may encourage children and teenagers to break the cycle of discrimination.

At the very least, Freeman’s gesture has changed the lives of children growing up in Charleston. When asked if the high school has continued the tradition of a mixed prom into 2009, Freeman nodded and laughed, "They wanted me to fund it!"

But what can you do? As of December 6, it looks like there'll be one less place to go. Then again, with these fare hikes, it's getting too expensive to venture out, anyway. But even though you might feel like the TTC's doormat, don't ever try to get around on your own two feet. Because you'll die! Or such is the impression given by the list of Toronto's ten most unsafe intersections for pedestrians. We really don't live in the safest city to walk about: Last year, half of all people hurt or killed in car crashes were on foot. That number is spiking this year, and the deadliest corners include, unsurprisingly, some of the city's main crosswalks.

Okay, cars not scaring you? What about the flu? Flu scaring you? Apparently not, since the demand for vaccines is way down from the peak it hit after the first high-profile deaths from H1N1. But if you're already immune to flareups of public opinion and still plan on being immune to influenza of the swine kind, you can now get the shot, whether or not you're in a priority group.

And what's going on over there? There, in that car, the one that just got pulled over. Look, the policeman's tapping on the window now, and the driver's unrolling it. I can't quite make out what he's saying, but do you smell...do you smell...prosciutto? Tenderloin? Venison? And the handcuffs are coming out! Why, those two men in the front seats are nothing but common meat thieves! Meat thieves!

And let's end on that beefy brief, and leave it to fake mayoral candidate (but real dead person) William Lyon MacKenzie to throw the offenders in the stocks. So be good, and always remember: don't call this MP fat. Not on Twitter. You heard it here first. Good morning, and good luck.

Photo of Feathers #2, a mixed-media work available at the Whodunit? Mystery Art Sale. Courtesy of OCAD.

ART: Art lovers will be wondering "who art thou?" at the annual Whodunit? Mystery Art Sale, featuring artwork donated by OCAD students, faculty, alumni, and established artists. Hundreds of pieces will be available for sale, all the same size (5½" x 7½") and the same price (seventy-five dollars). The catch is that the names of artists are withheld from buyers until after the piece is purchased, adding an element of mystery and surprise. The public preview starts today in person and online and runs through Friday evening, leading up to what promises to be a day of frantic buying at Saturday's sale. (Torontoist will also have more from Whodunit? later this week.) Following today's preview opening, OCAD is hosting the Gala Preview tonight. The gala will feature a silent auction of small-scale mystery art and a live auction of full-scale work from a group of local artists, many of them OCAD alumni and medal winners. While previewing works available in the public sale, guests will also enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at tonight's event. Get prepared for some holiday shopping this weekend (even if it's for yourself) while knowing that you are supporting OCAD, with proceeds from this year’s sale going towards the purchase of specialized equipment for emerging artists. Ontario College of Art and Design (100 McCaul Street), public preview 12–6 p.m., FREE; preview gala 6:30–10 p.m., $150 (available online).

DANCE: As part of Harbourfront Centre's NextSteps dance series, the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts (HCA) Dance Theatre Company presents the Toronto premiere of Displacement, a multi-media collaboration by three Canadian artists. The show, which runs through Saturday, brings together choreographer and dancer Robert Glumbek, visual artist Vessna Perunovich, and composer Christos Hatzis. Sharing the common experience of immigration, the artists explore their unique perspectives on this theme through contemporary dance, art, and music. The show will employ seven dancers, three projectors, and four live musicians from the Penderecki String Quartet. Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre (207 Queens Quay West), 8 p.m., $35 ($30 for students and seniors).

MUSIC: Why sit at home strumming your uke all by your lonesome when you can roll out some plinky ditties with a pub full of other ukulele players tonight? The Corktown Ukulele Jam is going down at its usual time and place—Wednesday evenings at the Dominion Pub—with a Beatles theme night. The evening will start with a workshop that is open to uke players of all ability levels, followed by an open mic session of Beatles tunes. With the approaching anniversary of George Harrison's death, we're hoping that someone channels Paul McCartney and plays a version of "Something," as McCartney has been known to do with the cherished ukulele given to him by Harrison himself. The jam organizers suggest this site for learning some Beatles tunes on the ukulele, perhaps the most comprehensive collection of tabs (with audio and visual support) out there. Dominion Pub (500 Queen Street East); workshop 8 p.m., open mic 9:30 p.m.; FREE.

PERFORMANCE: The Koffler Centre of the Arts presents About the Oranges, a dark comedy set in Israel about a man who refuses to give up on his dreams and arrives for a job interview just a little bit late (thirty-five days to be exact) as the result of a suicide bombing. It is a provocative, comic tragedy that looks at conflict in the Middle East and explores trauma and the aftermath of the survivors' experiences. Described as controversial yet honest and hilarious, this one-man show, written and performed by Robbie Gringras, has been performed for audiences around the world with mixed (mostly good) reviews. Gringras, who immigrated from Britain to Israel twelve years ago, teaches theatre at Tel Aviv University. Six Degrees (2335 Yonge Street); doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.; $15 in advance (available online), $20 at the door.

4x5084

As of January 3, 2010, TTC fares will rise across the board. Well, almost. Here's what the Commission approved at their meeting this afternoon, all effective on the first Sunday of the new year:

• Adult cash fares will rise from $2.75 to $3.00; tokens from $2.25 to $2.50; weekly passes from $32.25 to $36.00; Metropasses from $109.00 to $121.00; Metropasses purchased as part of the Volume Incentive Program (or VIP) from $96.00 to $107.00; and Metropasses purchased under the Metropass Discount Plan (or MDP) from $100.00 to $111.00.
• Senior/student cash fares will rise from $1.85 to $2.00; tickets from $1.50 to $1.65; weekly passes from $25.50 to $28.00; Metropasses from $91.25 to $99.00; and MDP Metropasses from $84.00 to $89.00.
• Child cash fares will rise from $0.70 to $0.75; tickets from $0.50 to $0.55.
• Day passes will rise from $9.00 to $10.00.
• The TTC portion of a GTA Pass will rise from $25.30 to $29.25.

The better news amidst all of that is that, as of September 2010, "anyone enrolled in a post-secondary degree or diploma granting program," as the TTC's release defines it, now qualifies for a student Metropass at the TTC's student rate—for a significant part of Toronto's population, in other words, a Metropass next year will be at least $10 cheaper than it was before.

Then again, at least one adult was lucky enough to get a discount well into next year anyway: Spacing's Todd Harrison, who discovered a loophole in the Metropass Discount Plan that let him sign up for the Plan, today, for a year, for $100 a month. (That loophole is now closed: effective Wednesday, the TTC's Director of Communications Brad Ross told us earlier today, "we will only be signing up new MDP subscribers for January 2010.")

As we showed in our look at how adult fares have changed over the past thirty years, this hike—fair or not—was relatively predictable, which is why it makes sense that the reaction to the hike on Twitter so far has been largely intelligent and measured, with many riders understanding that the TTC's move was a necessary, rather than a frivolous, one. Haha, just kidding; it's Twitter. What's that, djkidsupraa?

djkidsupraa is not sayin'; he's just sayin'.

In Toronto, this is what happens when you charge people one-quarter of a dollar more for something.

CORRECTION: NOVEMBER 17, 2009 This article originally said that the fare increase was effective January 3, 2010 "barring City Council voting against the decision"; in fact, as Brad Ross explained in an email tonight, "The Commission makes that call [on fare increases]. Council cannot overturn the decision." Our mistake was the result of citing a CP24 story, which concluded by claiming that "Toronto City Council has to approve the changes before they can take effect." (CP24's article has since been updated to omit the sentence.)

UPDATE: NOVEMBER 18, 2009 The TTC's press release contained incorrect information about the price of an Adult MDP Metropass and VIP Metropass; the new costs were listed as $110 and $106, respectively, when they'll actually cost a dollar more each (sacrilege!) as of January 3, 2010.

...Or the end of an era as Hostage Life return and then quickly and mysteriously disband while on top of their game.

Only five weeks after releasing their second full-length, Centre of the Universe, the follow-up to 2006's surprise commercial hit Walking Papers, Hostage Life posted an "intentionally vague" few sentences on MySpace stating that their upcoming album-release show would now also serve as their send off. Plans had already been made by the band and their new label (local fun factory Juicebox Recording Co., the baby of our very own, very favourite freelance editor and a former staffer/current guest contributor) to accompany the free digital release with a pretty vinyl pressing, but without a band to take on tour, and without a tour to pay for pressing all of those records, the plans were stopped in the nick of time. Now Hostage Life are left with one-hundred blank-sleeve, blank-label, numbered keepsakes that can be ordered online or picked up at the sure-to-be-lovefest of a show.

Sadface. (Fan reaction comment from Hostage Life's MySpace)

So, the record. Centre of the Universe is a musically explosive and intellectually ambitious (the band has written big ol' personal and philosophical essays for each song) behemoth dressed in catchy pop-punk clothing. It's full of nods to the crunchy, catchy past that plastered them all over modern rock radio and heavy Muchmusic rotation a few years ago, but by letting the guitars breathe (peace out, cheap distortion) and even slowing down (well, sort of, sometimes), the band finds a maturity that bridges their distinct classic-'70s snarl ("Bonfires," streaming above) with the airtight modern structures of other Clash-borns Green Day and Rancid ("Ratlines") and even some straight-up sludgy guitar rock that Bob Pollard could dig on a good day ("Nuclear"). It's the record that's been brewing in them for years—forever, really—and hearing the true conviction, joy, and momentum behind this defining performance should evoke, if nothing else, a respectful and universal holy shit. It doesn't matter if you've never considered yourself a fan of Hostage Life, but if you know or care about their contribution to the southern Ontario punk community, this is worth a listen.

What are you talking about, Underground Operations manages Stereos now! (Fan reaction comment from Hostage Life's MySpace)

So, the dirt. In an interview with Chartattack late last week, drummer Paul Miller explained that "[The decision] came about because [vocalist] Colin had to get away from band life for a good long while. All people really need to know is that there are no busted feelings and this was something that we had to do." Torontoist wishes all well.

He's got a point. See also: The Police. (Fan reaction comment from Hostage Life's MySpace)

Hostage Life play their last show this Friday, November 20 at Sneaky Dee's with The Little Millionaires and others. Show is at 8 p.m. and costs priceless dollars...Or, more accurately, $5. Download Centre of the Universe from Juicebox Recording Co. for however much or little you would like.

Pity the person made agitated and restless by drinking an over-stimulating beverage. Because of their tragic decisions, the owl woman fell asleep at her office desk, while the mule man walked up to his boss, a report firmly clenched in his hand, and allowed his overactive nerves to tell the boss what he really thought of the company’s management. By the end of the day, both found themselves facing the harsh realities of the Great Depression. If only they had sent away for a free sample of Postum…

Postum was developed in 1895 by C.W. Post as a caffeine-free alternative. As these ads demonstrate, Postum's mixture of bran, wheat, molasses, and corn byproducts was targeted to drinkers who wanted to stay cool, calm, and collected. The beverage enjoyed great popularity among religious groups like the Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists, who found its non-stimulating properties did not lead the faithful astray. Postum's most infamous advertising icon was the nefarious Mister Coffee Nerves, who was introduced during the 1930s. A ghostly symbol of the evils of mocha-induced jitters, Mister Coffee Nerves found his attempts to wreck careers and romances were inevitably thwarted by Postum. When Kraft discontinued Postum in 2007 due to dwindling sales, devotees scoured the continent for the remaining jars.

General Foods, in an earlier guise as the Postum Company, was one of the earliest tenants of the Sterling Tower. The sixty-five-metre-tall complex at 372 Bay Street briefly held the title of tallest building in Toronto when it opened in 1928, but that glorious honour was wrested away when the Royal York Hotel opened the following year. Other early tenants included the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency and the Sterling Bank. A 1929 ad in the Globe claimed that "the environment enjoyed in Sterling Tower goes a long way towards making the business day successful. Businessmen recognize the value of good surroundings…and profit by them" (perhaps particles of Postum were wafted through the heating system to induce calm feelings). Restorations made to the building a decade ago earned architect Dermot Sweeny a merit award from Heritage Toronto in 2001.

Additional material from the February 8, 1929, edition of the Globe and the November 16, 2001, edition of the Toronto Star.

If snacks and unlimited arcade freeplay are relevant to your interests, you might want to read on.

This Saturday (and on Ossington, no less), there will be a one-day gaming event that has set itself apart as a departure from the business-oriented competitive conferences that have taken place in the past couple of months. For just fifteen dollars, you can spend the day hanging out with like-minded gamers and chatting with some cool Toronto-based game developers—oh, and did we mention the unlimited arcade freeplay? I guess we did, but…unlimited arcade freeplay!

Jaime Woo, Gamercamp co-organizer (and former Torontoist contributor), wants Saturday's micro-conference to bridge the gap between game makers and gamers in the burgeoning Toronto scene. "There has been such an increase in ease of access for both the developer and the gaming public," he explains. "With the greater computing power, more independent game makers can now give it a go and make polished games ready to market. Then, with more platforms than ever to distribute your game, whether it be Facebook, or the iPhone, or Microsoft Live, the barriers to access have dropped significantly."

The schedule for this first iteration of Gamercamp begins at 1 p.m. with the requisite snacks and meet-and-greet, followed by what appears to be a pretty sweet lineup of Toronto-based demos and speakers, including Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns of Metanet Software fame, Michael Todd from Spyeart, and, if that weren't enough, Nathan Vella of Capybara Games will be rounding out the hat trick of gaming goodness with a keynote address. After a few more demos and a tasty dinner, Gerald Darcy from the Replay Arcade Museum will talk about the importance of history in gaming, and then it's time for the 1UP party with…wait for it…unlimited arcade freeplay!

As opposed to other conferences' focus on the business side of gaming, this one-day event will instead provide a casual environment in which gamers can explore the Toronto gaming scene in a way that is almost unheard of—with a focus on the games themselves.

"We're not too into the business side, but we see a momentum to Toronto's gaming industry," says Mark Rabo, Gamercamp co-organizer. "Everyone talks about how Ubisoft and Rockstar are coming to Toronto and, yes, funding and tax credits play a part in it, but it's also the sheer talent that is here. Those companies wouldn't come if they didn't believe a strong talent pool was here to support their businesses."

"Honestly, it still shocks me that an idea that came to us five months ago, fuelled by our passion, is now coming to fruition with such a cool itinerary," Jaime enthuses. "I think it would have been a hundred times harder in another city. Toronto is definitely an exciting place to be for gaming right now. We've brought this to life at exactly the right time."

Gamercamp takes place this Saturday, November 21, at the Lower Ossington Theatre. For tickets and more information, visit Gamercamp.ca.

There’s something about the quiet landscapes that line the walls of the Stephen Bulger Gallery that’s oddly disquieting. It’s easy to tell that they show vistas far from here—the vegetation and the topography carry those subtle but clear cues of an unfamiliar place—but it’s not that. The lighting seems suspended between an artificial dusk and the bleakest of mid-days, but that’s also not what’s out of place. It’s because there’s something intentionally absent from Canadian photographer Bertrand Carrière’s series “Lieux Mêmes.” They are photographs of something that is no longer there. The subject left the scene ninety years ago.

“Lieux Mêmes” was a long time in the making. When Carrière’s good friend Philippe Baylaucq was a teenager, he found an old photo album in an abandoned studio north of Montreal. It was full of photographs from the First World War. Years later, he would lend the album to Carrière, who became fascinated by the mystery of the images and the man behind the album. When fascination overtook him, Carrière embarked on a journey to France to track down, revisit, and re-photograph the locations depicted in the album. “Lieux Mêmes” translates to English as "same places." In a talk at the gallery on October 31, Carrière told the story of what he discovered and what became “Lieux Mêmes.”

To help him on his expedition, Baylaucq put him in contact with Guth Desprez, a retired colonel from the French military who specialized in intelligence and cartography and is now a war historian. They began travelling together across France and Belgium in search of the pictured locations. Carrière recalls, “Some of them were quite easy, but some of them had been largely transformed by time. We’re talking about ninety years of differences.”

German Cemetery, Vermandovillers, Somme, Picardie, France, 2006.

Carrière set about recreating the original photographs, in colour, to avoid the nostalgia that comes with contemporary black and white photography on the subject of war. He was taken aback by what he found. “I was struck by the sadness of the place…of how people would keep things as they were in 1919 right after the war and didn’t want to touch it in many ways. Or the amount of money that was put into some places to rebuild exactly how it was before the war.”

The idea is not new. “Then and Now” photographs contrasting battlefields and war-ravaged cityscapes with the way they appear today have been done before. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the New York Times recently featured an interactive slideshow that allows you to transition images back and forth between 1989 and 2009.

Carrière acknowledges that his endeavour was not completely unique or inventive, and he soon found the scope of his ambition to be rather limiting. “We’ve seen many projects of re-photographing sites and, although it is involving, it became a little too repetitious at some point.” It was therefore at this point that he began to wander thematically, leaving the approach of “album as tour guide” and embarking on his own journey. In trying to find these original sites, he found a different project that would produce the photographs that came to occupy the bulk of the exhibition.

Hill 62, Sanctuary Wood, Zillebeke, Flandres, Belgium, 2007.

“I came to realize it’s not so much about the war. It’s not the war that interested me as much as occupied land. A place that has been scarred by history. That was the real jumping-off point for me.” This altered focus created a shift from "human history as told through landscapes" as the primary subject to "landscapes as they are marked by violence." It’s a subtle shift, but it’s what creates the powerful, disquieting effect of the works. It positions war as an intervention, rather than as author. These are not ponds; they’re the circular remains of explosions. These are not soft ridges; they’re the lingering scars of trench warfare.

Although now of less importance to the project, Carrière’s research into the owner of the original photographs, whose name—Fletcher Wade Moses—was printed in the album, revealed a stubbornly mysterious character. Originally from Surrey, England, where he lived under the name Harding, he came to Canada after the war. At this point, he appears to have shortened his name to Fletcher Wade and settled north of Montreal. He established a photography business and was likely hoping to sell the images as a commercial stock portfolio. Carrière now believes that he must have purchased many of the photos in the collection, as no one person could have covered that much territory and survived at that time. The confusion around him remains unresolved, which does not bother Carrière in the least. “I’m happy I didn’t find him, because he remains a mystery. I hope I never find him, in a way, because he’s more interesting as a mystery than as a revelation.”

The only weakness of the exhibition may be the transition from the artist’s original intent to retrace another man’s steps to this more free-form exploration of “occupied land.” The tangible premise slips through your fingers as you dive into the story behind the works, still packaged under the banner of “Lieux Mêmes.” Perhaps, though, it simply requires a more lateral perspective on the idea of the same place. These are images of places that are the same yet different, bearing the burdens of violent enterprise that time can only hope to ease.

“Lieux Mêmes” is on display until this Saturday, November 21.

All images © Bertrand Carrière and courtesy of the Stephen Bulger Gallery.

This film should have been great, what with honourary Torontonian Sam Jackson and the cool special effects and all. The filmmakers also went all out, filming in Tokyo, Egypt, Rome, and…Peterborough. That's right—no matter how exotic you get, you can't make a film this flawed without giving Toronto and the GTA a little love!

Let's start with Peterborough, which plays Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the flick. True story: Ann Arbor and Peterborough are actually sister cities! Despite a little digital paintwork, locals had zero trouble spotting the landmark water tower.

There's a nicer view down Kenneth Avenue here.

In an early scene, young Jumper Dude (soon to be TO's own Hayden Christensen) falls into a frozen pond (actually in Ann Arbor!) but then he realizes he can instantaneously transport himself just about anywhere, starting with the main branch of the Peterborough Library.

Having a little fun, Christensen robs a bank and bad dude Sam Jackson comes to check it out. But as we see from the exterior on Bay Street…

…and the interior, this is the Canada Permanent Trust building.

Sometimes Reel Toronto likes to play detective, and sometimes we just like a gimme. So this bar (ostensibly in London) is actually, um, the Irish Embassy on Yonge Street.

The more bohemian set might recognize this one as the Green Room, off Brunswick.

We also get to see the patio.

We know they shot something in High Park, so we presume it's this jungle scene.

There's a big finale scene at this here apartment. Humble it may be, but it's actually out on Gamble Avenue.

Jumper's a bit of a weird animal because while they shot some other interesting bits (at U of T's Knox College and a "Seattle" scene in Peterborough, for example), the film got changed around and re-shot in parts before its release. No big loss.

Since its official launch in August 2008, Google Suggest has been fuelling a new auto-complete meme that has taken off on social sites like Digg and Reddit and even encouraged news sites like Slate to take a pseudo-sociolinguistic look at Google's most popular searches. What we search can tell us a lot about who we are, so we thought it would be funny illuminating to use Google Canada's version of Suggest to find and dissect common queries about Toronto.

Toronto is Full of Celebrity Stalkers

In all fairness, Rachel McAdams and Drake are a lot more virulent than any flu.

Toronto's Inferiority Complex

Oh well, at least the internet thinks we're better than Vancouver and Montreal. (The highlighted query is a misquoted line from an episode of 30 Rock.)

Cold Comfort

We can blame this one on that Coors Light ad.

What the Funk?

After this summer's city workers' strike, Tourism Toronto launched a new campaign with the slogan: "Toronto never smelled so good." It looks like it's had an impact.

Then Again

...That was a lot of garbage.

Something in the Water

Perhaps Toronto doesn't have the third-best tap water in North America after all.

Go Leafs Go?

We're surprised there aren't more results for this one.

UofT is the Place To Be!

Not that anyone at Torontoist would know anything about this.

The Idiot Syndrome

Google Suggest can also provide useful information about local and federal politicians.

American Stylez

Of course, Google.com, which is mostly fed by U.S. queries, has its own flavour. We don't remember what state Toronto is in, but we'll write our congressperson and find out. And as for the city's providence, we always suspected that Toronto was blessed by God.

Speaking of health and bureaucracy, Toronto Public Health is passing the A La Cart street food vending project torch to the city's economic development department. "The reason for having a pilot project is because you expect glitches. Otherwise, you'd just go full steam ahead," said health board Chairman John Filion. "The glitches you're going to get are somewhat unpredictable. You only find out what they are by giving it a go." And by then giving your broken toy to someone else to play with, apparently.

Hey, wanna hear something about Adam Giambrone that doesn't have to do with the TTC? According to the Sun, "Residents of a Bloor-Lansdowne neighbourhood who don't want a dead-end street converted into parkland are accusing Councillor Adam Giambrone of steamrolling over their protests and building the green space anyway." A park? Really? Damn you, Giambrone! But wait—apparently, he was as surprised as everyone else about the whole thing! "I'm generally supportive of greening and community-building initiatives like this," he responded via email, "but was surprised to learn that transportation staff had started the work before all the consultation was finished." Hm. Perhaps the question of what magical elves sent this nefarious greening train in motion is not nearly as much an issue as when the hell did people start to think it was grammatically correct to use the word "green" as a verb (let alone a gerund!).

And finally, didja think we could give a little love to the city's sexiest rocket head without getting our hands all over the rocket itself? Aw, muffin. Here ya go: Perhaps in response to yesterday's Newsstand urging riders to embark on a mad token-hoarding rampage for perhaps the most unsanitary-sounding bath evah, everyone's gone all nuts and started to wait in huge queues at stations to pay current market prices for bulk tokens. “A line like this, for five tokens? Come on,” pouted commuter David Cutler with what can only be described as incisive wit. Well, David, we hope you're reading today's Newsstand, because do we ever have a pro tip for you: Subway stations aren't the only places where you can buy tokens. It's true! A quick phone call to the nearest Metro store confirmed that they, too, deal in the precious tokens (you might want to call ahead for availability—word travels fast). And if you happen go to the one at College Park, tell 'em Lori Dance sent ya.

Still from Future of Music. Courtesy of Nokia Mobifest Toronto.

FILM: Nokia Mobifest is the "world's largest independent short film festival using mobile phone technology." That's right, these movies are made especially for your iPod. Earlier this month the best of the festival contenders were announced, and tonight the finalists will be screened at the Revue Cinema. The entries vary widely in style and production values (last year's Best Canadian Film winner, Egg Love by Zach Math, is a sort of tongue-in-cheek art house film about eggs that's reminiscent of a certain sausage-themed Kids in the Hall sketch). Tonight's screening will include selections from the festival's first twenty-four-hour Toronto Made-For-Mobile Challenge, a sneak peak at a Jason Priestly–directed movie about world champion downhill skier Jan Hudec, and films from Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Spain. The winners will be announced tonight, with the challenge winner receiving $2,500 in cash (donated by the City of Toronto), and the Best of Festival winner receiving a free trip to Los Angeles, California, as well as $2,000 cash. Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue), 7 p.m., $5.

MUSIC: The 416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival touts itself as providing "the best music you've never heard." Indeed, this annual festival showcases some of the finest improvisational musicians within the 416 area code (although tonight's lineup is based mostly out of Montreal...), who experiment with sound and create unique, in-the-moment art. Tonight's lineup includes Lori Freedman (bass clarinet), Martin Tétreault (turntable), and a group consisting of Gordon Allen (trumpet), Rob Clutton (bass), Tomasz Krakowiak (percussion), and Ben Grossman (hurdy gurdy!). Tranzac Club (292 Brunswick Avenue), 9 p.m., $6.

MEDIA: When media blackouts occur in places like China or North Korea, Canadian pundits generally call it censorship, something that happens regularly when certain foreign governments want to keep an embarrassing incident quiet. When it happens here in Canada and the States, however, the question of journalism ethics comes under heavy debate. Robert Fowler is a Canadian diplomat and special envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Niger. Last December he was captured by al-Qaeda and held hostage for one-hundred and thirty days before being released. His case was widely reported in the media, while New York Times reporter David Rohde's capture in Afghanistan in November of last year was kept quiet. Today, Fowler will be joined in discussion with Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank and Globe and Mail Foreign Editor Stephen Northfield about the significance of news blackouts in kidnapping cases for a Canadian Journalism Foundation event. The presentation and Q&A will be followed by a cocktail reception where the discussion can be continued. University of Toronto, Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Avenue), 6:30–9 p.m., FREE.

POLITICS: The next municipal election may still be a little under a year away, but people are already starting to campaign—and it's not just mayoral candidates who are pounding the pavement. ArtsVote Toronto is a coalition of Toronto arts workers and artists who are dedicated to electing candidates who support the arts community. Today is the launch for their campaign at the Urbanspace Gallery, where co-chairs Camilla Holland and Jacoba Knaapen (along with other speakers) will be there to discuss the best way to get out the arts vote over the coming year. Urbanspace Gallery (401 Richmond Street West), 5–7 p.m., FREE.

The Wait Ends

It's been a very exciting week for Toronto Fringe enthusiasts. First, there was the announcement of the festival's partnership with both Mirvish and the Randolph Centre for the Arts, which means the Fringe Club beer tent will move from the Tranzac to the parking lot behind Honest Ed's (which happens to be across the street from new Fringe location Randolph). The move makes a lot of sense in terms of giving the festival a central, highly visible hub that's pretty much exactly in the midpoint of the festival's various reaches to Tarragon in the north, UofT in the east, and Factory/Passe Muraille in the south. Those interested in participating in next year's festival had better get a move on it, though: the new, early application deadline this year is this Wednesday.

The other big piece of news is My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, which opened last night at the Panasonic Theatre (thanks again, Mirvish!). After an impossible-to-get-tickets-for smash hit run at Bread & Circus for this year's Fringe (and a brief remount at Berkeley Street as part of the Best of the Fringe), this hugely successful, highly likable show is back in a new, expanded production. Going straight from a small stage to a Mirvish production is, of course, the Fringe dream, albeit a rarely realized one, so we can't help rooting for this little show that could.

After the fold, we have a chat with the director of My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, Andrew Lamb.

The Andrew Lamb Interview

MMLJWW director Andrew Lamb. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Andrew Lamb: When I first read the script I knew that it was something unique and special. I figured that the show would do well, but I never anticipated the buzz or how far it would go—and certainly not this fast!

What kinds of changes can we expect from the new version of the show? The press release mentioned a larger cast, and expanded show—what do you have to do to turn a DIY Fringe show into a Mirvish extravaganza?

The show has been expanded to 90 minutes and explores more of Claire's story. Audiences will learn more about her struggle, see how she fell in love with Jane, gain a sense of what it means to be Wiccan, and they'll see more about Claire's relationship with her ex-husband. The expanded cast and the new space allows for larger show-stopping dance numbers, and the new songs meld beautifully with the rest of the score.

Why do you think the show has been so successful at connecting with audiences? Is there something about a lesbian Jewish Wiccan wedding that everyone can relate to?

I feel this story is incredibly universal. It is a story about the love two people have for each other and the love between a child and their parent. I feel this play also asks the question of the audience: How would you react if your parent came out to you? Or revealed an unexpected secret? Would you be accepting?

With its dual love stories of both a middle-aged woman and her child, and its wedding-based plotline, MMLJWW is sort of like an even gayer version of past Mirvish hit Mamma Mia! Do you think it has the chance of reaching as large an audience? And how does the show's queer content make it different than your typical musical theatre fare? Or, does it?

Judging by the first two preview audiences this story has appeal over many ages and backgrounds. I was honestly amazed at the variety of people attending the first weekend. The queer content opens many comedic doors, like having two lesbian moms sing “You Don't Need A Penis” to their future daughter-in-law. As for comparisons to being gayer than Mamma Mia!, this show actually addresses gay and lesbian issues while remaining completely accessible to a wider audience. My hope is that everyone who attends this show will be thoroughly entertained and enlightened.

Thursday night at the launch of GULCH: An Assemblage of Poetry and Prose, Torontoist found itself in the thick of something that looked an awful lot like this adolescent fantasy. Hatched by Steel Bananas, a collective dedicated to exploring critical theory in real-life art and culture, GULCH is themed around the idea of the rhizome. (For those Torontoist readers who have never suffered or savoured a romp through this field of critical theory, the rhizome is an image that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guatarri borrow from biology to describe a way of thinking that values multiplicity, disjunction, and non-hierarchical development. Don’t be afraid to hit a little Wikipedia on this one.) And if you thought your second-year poststructuralist theory class would never take wing in the real world, GULCH aims to make you think again. Steel Bananas practises what amounts to a sort of guerrilla academia, mingling heady with hip.

To its credit, GULCH takes its rhizomatic stance through to its logical conclusion. This means inconstant page numbering, text atop water-marked text, and a layout that constantly shifts direction. Ok, we get it: multiple points of view, non-hierarchical, disjunctive. The dedication to the project is admirable, but the effect is dizzying, and it makes the content look, dare we say, a little like a zine.

Still, the folks behind Steel Bananas—and many of the contributors that they’ve selected for GULCH—are people to watch out for: these are some whip-smart people, and they can throw down both a rhizome and a rhyme.

To find out more, Torontoist caught up with Karen Correia Da Silva, one of the Co-Editors of GULCH and the mastermind behind Steel Bananas.

Torontoist: Where did the Steel Bananas Project originate?

Karen Correia Da Silva: I started up the zine about a year ago. I only had four writers and was coding it by hand and doing it all myself, and then it just ballooned from there. We’ve had a lot of great artists involved. It’s this collaborative effort: all of these artists in Toronto are throwing events together and supporting one another. That’s what it’s founded on. Being a young artist in Toronto you often don’t know exactly where to go or what kind of places can really cater to the art that you’re doing. You don’t know how to get yourself out there. It felt like it was a good thing to do to foster a sense of community in the Toronto art scene. There are so many pockets of the artistic community in Toronto that don’t really talk to one another.

Steel Bananas brings academic ideas to a non-academic setting. How do you negotiate the tension between those two worlds?

The academic aspect of the zine is that we keep things critical at all times. We’re not just going out and partying; we have things to say, we believe that the art we make is meaningful, that it’s something that should be talked about in an academic way. We want to talk as artists and as people who understand art, and we want to talk about it on a critical plane without having to necessarily align ourselves in any way or affiliate ourselves with certain institutions.

Do you think that it’s accessible to people who aren’t familiar with critical theory?

Not all the content is highly academic. We have a couple of columns that are just for pop culture. Our film columnist, for example: he’s not an art film columnist, he’s a pop culture film columnist, and he does it with a critical eye. It’s definitely accessible. We never want anyone to think that Steel Bananas is something that’s only going to be for academics or people who are already in the art scene and know all the lingo. It’s easy to engage with. I think that’s really, really important to any study of art, to bring it back down to the ground where people are actually doing things. And especially in a place like Toronto, the bulk of the artists are not the people that have a lot of money or have access to venues or even know where to go, so it’s important to keep it real.

How does Toronto as an urban space influence the project?

The project was born here. I’m a Toronto girl; I was born and raised downtown. A lot of people complain about the arts scene in Toronto, about how people don’t work with one another, how they don’t support one another like they do in other cities. I have a completely different vision of Toronto. I really love this city. It’s been great to me, and the people that I’ve met and had the privilege to work with have been really great.
What the project is really centred around is exploring the city through the people. And the urban space itself informs absolutely everything. Most of us working on Steel Bananas live in different neighbourhoods: I live in Cabbagetown, other people live in Parkdale, or Little Portugal. We’re talking about the things that we do from day to day, the way that we are interacting with the urban space. We always want to keep that connection very, very clear. So it’s really a strongly Toronto publication.

The charge will apply to new mothers with infants who were routinely placed in bulkhead seats with a "sky cot" bassinet.

It's all part of Air Canada's efforts to find cost savings and boost profits, and it's part of a growing trend. WestJet already charges up to $15 to reserve seats with extra legroom. It wouldn't be quite so bad if Air Canada didn't pitch the fee as "responding to consumer demands."

Photo: John Li / Getty Images

More on Travel for Canadians
Air Travel Complaints in Canada
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Travel Documents to Enter the U.S.
Air Travel in Canada

Air Canada Charges for Legroom originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 23:35:33.

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The Royal couple has visited an archaeological dig at Cupids, Newfoundland, believed to be the first English settlement in Canada. Who knew the prince studied archaeology at Cambridge? They dropped in to see Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario, which was the home of Camilla's great-great-great grandfather Sir Allan MacNab, a rail magnate and prime minister of the Province of Canada before Confederation from 1854 to 1856. In British Columbia, the pair toured the Olympic athletes village and posed for mug shots with the 2010 Vancouver Olympics mascots.

Royal Visit 2009 Highlights originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 22:25:00.

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Bill To Let Self-Employed Opt Into Employment Insurance originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 14:29:12.

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To find out how the vaccination program is being handled in your province or territory, and to locate an H1N1 flu clinic near you, check H1N1 Flu Shot Clinics in Canada.

If you have questions or concerns about whether the H1N1 flu vaccine is appropriate for you, please ask your own doctor or a public health practitioner.

Photo: Pool / Getty Images

More on H1N1 Flu in Canada
H1N1 Flu Symptoms and Precautions
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H1N1 Flu Shots Begin Across Canada originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 23:54:30.

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A surgeon in the dressing stations in the Ypres salient in 1915, John McCrae had spent weeks tending the injured and dying when a friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, was blown up by a shell burst during the Second Battle of Ypres. With no chaplain available, McCrae performed a makeshift funeral service for Helmer under cover of darkness. Sitting on the back of an ambulance on a break the next day, McCrae looked over the scene in front of him and wrote these 15 lines that still strike a chord.

Alexis Helmer was just one of more than 60,000 Canadians who died during World War I. Another 170,000 were wounded.

Photo: Flanders Poppies
Tom Brakefield / Getty Images

In Flanders Fields originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 14:29:53.

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Only three other Canadians have received the award: neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, and former prime ministers Mackenzie King and Lester Pearson. Other recipients of the award, which was founded by Edward VII in 1902, have included Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and Graham Greene.

Photo: Ian Nicholson / PA Pool / Getty Images

More About Canadian Prime Ministers
Biography of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
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Jean Chrétien Receives Order Of Merit originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 23:13:39.

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Another unique feature of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic medals is that they are undulating, rather than flat. The wavy nature of the medals is intended to represent British Columbia's mountains, ocean and snow. They are also among the heaviest medals in Olympic and Paralympic history, weighing over 500 grams.

Photo: 2010 Vancouver Olympic Medals
© VANOC/COVAN

More About the 2010 Vancouver Olympics
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Unique 2010 Olympic Medals originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 22:22:38.

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Greg Selinger is the Manitoba MLA for the St. Boniface riding in Winnipeg, and has been Finance Minister since 1999. With a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics, Selinger certainly had the credentials for that job. His background as a social worker in Winnipeg's north end has also made him a strong advocate for social justice. All indications are that he plans to follow Gary Doer's middle-of-the road approach.

More About Manitoba
Doer Named Canadian Ambassador to the U.S.
Role of Provincial Premiers in Canada
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New Premier for Manitoba originally appeared on About.com Canada Online on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 19:42:35.

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