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Portrait of a Record Store: Soundscapes
Soundscapes (572 College Street) is for all intents an art gallery that treats cover-art like Pollocks and Mirós. Step through the ever open front door (10AM-11PM daily) and notice how books, records and CDs are stacked vertically so your neck doesn’t tire from looking down. Observe the two kinds of light, the fluorescent rectangles across…
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Culture Hawker Chronicles: Charles Barangan and B.M.V. Annex
In this series, Trevor Abes gets to know the people behind the counter at Toronto’s music stores, book shops, and art galleries. A Torontonian since 2009, Winnipeg-born Charlie Barangan wrote for the second season of the web series Clutch and co-founded Irradiated Panda Films, the group behind the IPF-funded Asset premiering this week. He works at…
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IFOA, Rachel Kushner, Douglas Coupland, and The Visual Language of Art: T.O Events for Oct 24-Nov 7, 2013
Painter and educator Judy Singer teaches The Visual Language of Art, or How to Look at Paintings. Learn the syntax of color, space and line through an interactive romp from the Renaissance period to the rise of Abstraction. 7PM-8:15PM. October 24. Richview Library. Free. Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser unravels and reads from his forthcoming book,…
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Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Palahniuk, and 1890s Print Culture in the Digital Age: T.O. Events for October 10-24, 2013
The William Morris Society of Canada presents a lecture called The Yellow Book, 1890s Print Culture and the Digital Vision. Lorraine Janzen Kooistra is a Professor of English and Co-Director of the Centre for Digital Humanities at Ryerson University. She introduces The Yellow Book (1894-96), a seminal fin-de-siècle magazine that is now available online. 7PM.…
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Book Thugs, X-Men, and Three Kinds of Curators: T.O. Events for Sept. 26 to Oct. 10, 2013
Have a cup of tea and a cookie or three at Get Crafty!, a drop-in craft workshop. Make notebooks from recycled paper and pen that masterpiece without denting the environment. 11AM-1PM. September 26. Hart House Reading Room. Free. All materials provided. Let There Be Art 4 is your favorite arts and music festival’s favorite arts…
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Never Mind the Musicians: Toronto’s R. Shelley
In this series, Trevor Abes sits down with local lights in the Toronto music scene. Michelle Ronchin is R. Shelley, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter whose Sink or Swim EP dropped last April. She has over five years of live performing under her belt, including a set at Hamilton’s Spring Music Festival 2012. When she isn’t writing or booking gigs, Shelley…
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Margaret Atwood, The Word on the Street, and The Eden Mills Writers’ Festival: T.O. Events for September 12-26, 2013
Author Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes) meets fans and discusses his upcoming Massey Lectures (Blood: The Stuff of Life) at CBC Live at The Toronto International Film Festival. 12:30PM. September 12. 250 Front Street. Free. Need a painting? Itching for a new wardrobe? Does papa (or mama) need a brand new bag? The Liberty…
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Nerd Nite, School Night Poetry, and Kathleen Verret’s Arable Lands: T.O. Events for August 29-September 12, 2013
Nerd Nite Toronto stages research presentations by local experts. This event includes The Game of Operation: True Stories of Medical Marvels by Heili Orav, about organ transplantation, and He’s a Pinball Wizard by Joe Ciaravino, about the history of pinball. 7PM. September 12. Tranzac. $5. School Night! is a monthly spoken-word poetry class led by…
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Canada’s Small Presses Hold Court at the Fisher Library
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is to Torontonian readers what Arcadia is to gardeners. From a dimly lit exhibition space, I felt in the company of every book that was or could ever be written. Strong in ten core subjects including philosophy and incunabula, Fisher’s seven-hundred thousand volumes make for a sublime sight. The current exhibition is called…
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Zombies, Podcasts, and The Paper Bag Princess: T.O. Events for August 15-29, 2013
Soundstreams is inviting actors, playwrights, composers, and directors to Behind the Curtain: Developing New Musicals and Operas, a salon to discuss and learn about these underrepresented genres. Meet Acting Up Stage’s Mitchell Marcus and SummerWorks Musical Works’ Tracy Michailidis. 7PM. August 16. Pre-registration required. Gardiner Museum. Free. StoryMobs stages a reading of Robert Munsch’s The…
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Manhunt Toronto, Fright Film Academy, and A Topology of Disaster: T.O. Events for August 1-August 15, 2013
Manhunt Toronto turns specific sections of Toronto into pulse-rattling games of hide and seek. The last fugitive standing is the winner. 9:00PM-11:55PM. August 7. Casa Loma. Free. PPS: Do You Copy? is a reading of conceptual poetry based on the exhibit Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art. Moderated by Margaret Christakos, the lineup reads thus: Gary Barwin (The…
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Culture Hawker Chronicles: John Bowker and She Said Boom!
In this series, Trevor Abes gets to know the people behind the counter at Toronto’s music stores, book shops, and art galleries. John Bowker is the owner and operator of She Said Boom! Roncesvalles. For five years he served as board director for the Review Cinema and he is the current chair of the Beautification…