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Grade Five
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 06:59.
In their perpetual quest to avoid ageing, Baby Boomers have rebranded themselves as zoomers: boomers with zip. It’s baffling. Why would anyone resist the title of senior citizenry and the perks it entails? Meals on wheels, amazing. But before we get too smug, Gen X and Gen Y should admit our own regression issues. Recent Toronto events geared at our demo include a spelling bee, a “Grownups Read What They Wrote as Kids” night and a ten event battle between Queen Westers and elementary students at Parkdale Public School. Was grade five really so thrilling that it warrants reenactment?
Drag Queen City
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Thu, 06/19/2008 - 09:03.
Pride is upon us and it seems like every stage in town is awash with drag queens cackling demands for vodka and strutting their toned gams. Straying from their natural Church Street habitat, chiseled jaw versions of Diana Ross, Cher and Madonna will turn up in such unlikely places as Second City – nestled as it is in the city’s sports bar zone – and St. Andrew’s United Church (not even kidding). Are we ready for this explosion of four inch stilettos, vulgar tongues and gloriously big hair?
Luminato
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 09:24.
Luminato, two year old arts fest of the Golden Horseshoe, has so much money it doesn’t know what to do! The hodgepodge of events this year ranges from Bollywood dance lessons in Dundas Square, to a portrait exhibit of female Torontonian movers and shakers, from a Newmindspace bubble bath battle at Harbourfront, to a symposium on the politics of graphic novels at the JCC. Huh? It's in the West End and the East End. It's lowbrow and highbrow. It's for hipsters and toddlers. What exactly is the rhyme or reason behind this festival?
Lower Bay Station
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Thu, 05/22/2008 - 14:18.
Lower Bay Station has made the unlikely metamorphosis from gross boondoggle (back in the days of unlimited budgets it functioned for six months before being dismissed as a bad idea) to artists’ muse. For Nuit Blanche, the station housed an installation on the infrasounds of cities and paranormal spirits. At last year’s Doors Open, Flickr buffs battled each other for the artsiest shots of aging tiles. As you map out your Doors Open 2008 plan of attack, I’ll let you in on a secret: Lower Bay looks like every other station. Really, does it warrant the forty minute lineup that will inevitably ensue?
City of Infinite Interpretations
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 14:40.
Hogtown, Big Smoke, the 416 and, my personal fave, T-Dot-O-Dot (bless you Kardinal Offishal). We’ve always been a city of many nicknames and now we’re becoming the city of infinite interpretations. A petri dish of a metropolis drooled over by urban theorists. David MacFarlane’s essay compilation, Toronto: A City Becoming, features literati musing upon the city’s changes. Toronto Noir, an anthology of mystery stories, launches this week. Word is there’s even a website where girls talk about “doing” the city (ooh, naughty). Is it a healthy dose of civic pride, or does our pretentious self-obsession justify the T-Dot hater mobs?
Anne of Green Gables
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 10:31.
Did you know there are L.M. Montgomery scholars? All those years spent watching Anne of Green Gables as a breakup blues’ curative could have been applied to a dissertation: “Islands as Orphans: Decoding Anne as a Symbol for P.E.I’s Confederation Fears.” Damn, I’d get honours. This year’s the centenary of Anne of Green Gables and she’s all the rage. Ryerson held an Anne symposium this week, and an exhibit opens at Spadina House on April 19th. Carrots was even featured as a phone sex operator earlier this year in Sasha Van Bon Bon’s cabaret, Who’s Your Dada (disturbing). Are you happy to reminisce, or would you like to break a slate on Anne’s head?
Feminist Porn Awards
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 15:45.
![feminist_porn[1].jpg](http://www.shedoesthecity.com/files/trendalert/feminist_porn[1].jpg "feminist_porn[1].jpg")
by Lizzie
No longer must we cruise XXX shops on Yonge for our adult video pleasure. This week, porn goes high brow. The Lollipop Generation, a Super 8 feature about underground porn launches The Images Festival on April 3rd. And if scenes of sucking face in grimy washrooms aren’t your thing, The 3rd Annual Feminist Porn Awards have a gala at The Gladstone on Friday and a screening of clips at the Revue Cinema on Saturday. Expect A-cups, a distinct lack of landing strips and a panel moderated by burlesque dancer Coco La Creme. Is porn the new avant garde?
Improvised Music
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Tue, 03/25/2008 - 16:58.
Has the spontaneous songwriting of Oscar winning Once charmed Torontonians into thinking that they too can ad-lib musical gems? New Parkdale venue, Somewhere There, hosts the Element Choir on Mondays: a whispering / nasal humming / screaming chorus conducted in-the-moment by Christine Duncan. On March 28th, Misha Glouberman will direct Latvian House crowds into a cacophonic frenzy at Terrible Noises for Beautiful People, a resurrection of his popular Nuit Blanche experiment. What do you think? Is spontaneity the spice of life or is this a scene that should crawl back under the radar?
ANTM
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Wed, 03/12/2008 - 10:43.
Did reality tv execs have a conference call on repairing their image and decide that, hey, altruism couldn’t hurt? On ANTM the models pose as homeless girls to promote a non-profit. Their knit berets, fingerless gloves and smokey eyes suggest that street kids are styled by H&M. Celebs fired on The Apprentice are blue because their breast cancer foundations lose out. Now Oprah’s jumped in with her Big Give: a show that pits do-gooders against each other in a frenzied competition of who can give the most away. What’s happened to the genre that launched Paris Hilton?
Orange
Submitted by Lizzie McNeely on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 13:08.
Think of the colour orange. What do you see? Road maintenance workers. A mischievous ginger haired child. Florida. At the Liberty Grand this weekend there’ll be plenty of orange, like Natalia Laluque's “Children are Waiting” as pictured. The Orange Competition of the Artist Project will present twelve shortlisted pieces of art inspired by the colour, with the winner gaining $500. But why did they pick this underdog of shades? Is it fresh and contemporary? Or just a marketing ploy to reinforce the Artist Project’s orange shaded branding?
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