The A.V. Club - Daily

City Life: News Net: People hate the (proposed) casino

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:30:00 -0400

Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked throughout the week. Here are some things to think about as the weekend begins. • This week, while an independent watchdog delivered a scathing criticism of Toronto police tactics during the G20 summit, OpenFile reporter Justin Ling found himself arrested while he was reporting on the student protests in Montreal, but fortunately he managed to tweet that he was “Under arrest” and was released soon after police ...

Sports: Blog: Sexism sells on the CBC

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:10:00 -0400

Earlier this week, the CBC announced a partnership with While The Men Watch, a “women-friendly” online talk show that’s supposed to make sports tolerable for the poor females banished to the other room while their men populate any and all flat screen televisions. “Sports commentary that women actually want to hear!” the CBC promises. “Where girl talk is a sport!” Yes, this is real network-sanctioned program (or web program, anyway) that takes those boring hockey games and makes them “relatable” for girlfriends, wives, and other XXs. After all, women couldn’t actually like sports—wink. Give us our Super ...

Theater: Review: Cavalia’s horsey spectacular Odysseo

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:00:00 -0400

In Odysseo, the new equine spectacular by horse circus Cavalia, 61 horses canter, gallop, and trot over a massive, raked stage under the white circus tent that recently popped up at the Port Lands. If we had you at “61 horses,” this show is probably for you. Dozens of majestic stallions and geldings (no mares, the pre-show trivia projection inexplicably tells us) do everything a horse can do while acrobat-jockeys do everything a horse can’t. If you’re a 12-year-old girl going through a Black Beauty phase, you’ll be in horsey-heaven. But even the most jaded circus-goer (if ...

Theater: Feature: The National Theatre Of The World’s Script Tease Project bares all

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Most improv troupes prove to the audience that they’re working in real-time by asking for suggestions—a location, or a characteristic—and incorporating them into scenes. A cynic might suspect the suggestions are “plugged” into prepared comedy structures, and to a certain degree, that can be the case. But for their Script Tease Project, The Toronto chapter of the National Theatre Of The World goes to extreme lengths to challenge themselves. They don’t just ask for suggestions from random audience members; theirs are written in advance (and unknown to them until showtime) by accomplished writers. This year, celebrity ...

Arts & Culture: Preview: Berenice Abbott exhibit arrives in changing Toronto

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:30:00 -0400

Most people who love New York recall the mega-metropolis with an irrational nostalgia—one informed not by experience, but by the way the city has been represented by schmaltz vendors like Woody Allen and Wes Anderson. American Modernist photographer Berenice Abbott had no such interest. Most famous for her 1930s documentary project Changing New York, Abbott saw the city as the physical manifestation of progress. Her photographs show a New York growing into its capital-of-the-world identity through the embrace of technology, urbanism, and awesome aesthetic. Today, the AGO unveils Berenice Abbott: Photographs, a sprawling collection of more than 120 works ...

Arts & Culture: Local Newswire: TIFF to launch a touring David Cronenberg exhibition

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:55:00 -0400

David Cronenberg may be at Cannes showing off his new Don DeLillo adaptation Cosmopolis, but that doesn’t mean people in Toronto aren’t constantly thinking about him, and how he’s basically Canada’s ambassador to the film-going world. To wit: Today TIFF announced that this fall the Bell Lightbox would be hosting an exhibition dedicate exclusively to Cronenberg’s works. This basically puts Cronenberg on a plateau with Federico Fellini, Grace Kelly, all of cinema itself, and other subjects of Lightbox exhibitions. “David Cronenberg is one of the world’s greatest living filmmakers,” TIFF Director Piers Handling is ...

Music: Newswire: Peter Gabriel to tour, do that thing where an artist plays a whole album live

Tue, 22 May 2012 13:05:00 -0400

According to Stereogum, singer-songwriter-flautist Peter Gabriel is coming to North America this fall, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his 1986 album So. (And yes, we’re aware that 2012 - 1986 = 26, but we’re just passing the wonky arithmetic along down the line.) In a twist on the trend of musicians playing classic albums to fickle audiences who are by-and-large uninterested in the performer’s musical or artistic growth, it’s suggested by Gabriel’s website that the tour will see So performed “back to front.” So, presumably the set list will go from “We Do What We ...

TV: Recap: Top Chef Canada: Episode 11

Tue, 22 May 2012 12:10:00 -0400

This week’s episode of Top Chef Canada was all about going back to basics. But simplicity meant two very different things, depending on cuisine. For an Italian dinner, it was about fresh produce and proteins with little adornment. For the average North American, however, it was powdered cheese, processed noodles, and preservatives. By juxtaposing an Italian feast with the Canadian alternative—Kraft Dinner—the show revealed just how far we’ve fallen when it comes to food. Let’s talk about the Kraft Dinner quick-fire. While it’s always fun to see the chefs forced out of their comfort ...

Music: Newswire: The Xx plots lengthy European festival tour, with brief North American interlude

Tue, 22 May 2012 11:15:00 -0400

English indie-pop act The Xx must love its native Europe or something. Pitchfork reports that the band is setting out for a whole bunch of European festival dates in anticipation of an upcoming second album. But for those in our readership who don’t live in Budapest, Hungary or Joensuu, Finland, The Xx is working in some North American stops as well, including a July 28 layover at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto. The Xx’s Jamie Smith has noted that the band’s new material is influenced by club music, which is good news for all of you ...

Music: Interview: Teen Daze

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:55:00 -0400

British Columbia’s Fraser Valley is known for a number of things: agricultural wealth, scenic views, and the gold rush of the 1860s. Now, thanks to Abbotsford’s Teen Daze, it may soon become a hub for electronic music. Maybe. The 26-year-old musician (a.k.a Jamison) has been building a name for himself since he got serious about making music about two years ago while in school. After a prolific output that includes several EPs, singles, and remixes, Teen Daze released his first proper full-length album, All Of Us, Together, this week. “It’s funny how I’ve been ...

City Life: News Net: Reaping the rewards of low expectations since 2011

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:30:00 -0400

Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked throughout the week. Here are some things to think about as the weekend begins. • Residents of the Beaches practiced their panicky hyperbole in a recent community council meeting, describing a proposed condo development as an “unbridled monstrosity” and an “abortion.” The development is still going forward, though—maybe those opposing the development should have described it as a “genocide” instead. You know, just to push the ...

Music: Playlisted: Ryan Hemsworth

Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:00 -0400

The 21-year-old Haligonian producer Ryan Hemsworth has spent the past year and change preparing a steady barrage of remixes, original material (his album No Plans made Spin’s “20 Best R&B Albums Of 2011” list), and collaborations with up-and-coming rappers including Main Attrakionz and Shady Blaze. His reworking of Grimes’ “Genesis,” which subtly loops a Lil Wayne sample, even got the seal of approval from the buzzed-up Canadian singer herself. Hemsworth’s recent “kitchen sink” mix for the website Live For The Funk is the perfect example of his eclectic taste; 75 minutes of trunk-rattling Southern hip-hop, old-school ...

Film: Canuckbusters: Gunless (2010)

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

The concept of “Canadian Popular Cinema” has been dismissed as a contradiction in terms, but is such derisive sentiment towards Telefilm’s zeitgeist-capturing ambitions justified? To find out, Canuckbusters looks back on the last decade or so of Canadian “commercial” cinema. Canadian Stars: You want a Canadian star? Get this: A few months ago, when he was acting in a Broadway revival of Private Lives with Kim Cattrall, no less than The New York Times ran a profile of Paul Gross. The article describes this Canadian favourite literate he-man as “one of Canada’s best-known actors,” “a tall and hunky ...

Music: Interview: JD Era

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:30:00 -0400

After spending the better part of a decade releasing mix-tapes, opening for touring talent, and having regional hit singles on local urban radio, Mississauga-raised MC JD Era finally got his big break last fall. Along with fellow local scene stalwart Gangis Khan a.k.a. Camoflauge (who really prefers to be referred to as, in full, “Gangis Khan a.k.a. Camoflauge”), Era was one of two rappers signed to the new Canadian arm of Ice H2O Records, the indie label founded by Wu-Tang legend Raekwon. His first release on Ice H2O, the very album-like mix-tape No Handouts, has been ...

Eat/Drink: Roll Call: The A.V. Club’s guide to Toronto’s crappiest patios

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

The warm weather is coming. With great patience and deliberateness, and often retreating behind cloud cover and scattered showers... but it’s coming. And with warm weather comes the inevitable push to go outdoors and the overdue gatherings in parks and on porches to drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and make jokes. Toronto’s patio bylaws may always be in flux, but there are still plenty of ol’ reliable haunts where you can take in some sun, giving your problem-drinking the sheen of summery alfresco sociability. We’re not talking about overcrowded, ostensibly aesthetically pleasing places like Allen’s, Ronnie’s ...

Music: Just Announced: Protest The Hero, Portugal. The Man, A Place To Bury Strangers added to NXNE

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:15:00 -0400

Toronto’s North By Northeast festival, already cocky in its belief that it could rival a Radiohead show, announced several additional artists today in a fit of hubris. The newly added shows include concerts by Canadian prog-metal band Protest The Hero, workhorse psychedelic rockers Portugal. The Man, and feedback-loaded noise band A Place To Bury Strangers. The just-announced acts add to a lineup that already looked formidable, sporting headliners The Flaming Lips, Raekwon and Wu Tang member-turned-New York Times crossword answer Ghostface Killah, Bad Religion, Matthew Good (all of whom are playing for free), and returning act Archers Of ...

Film: Recap: Shadow Of A Doubt master class with Guillermo Del Toro

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:30:00 -0400

The announcement that filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro was hosting a series of Master Classes at TIFF Bell Lightbox, on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock, struck as a bit curious. Apart from Del Toro being in town for what seems like the past decade, slaving away on his robots-versus-aliens blockbuster Pacific Rim, and apart from his existent relationship with the Lightbox (and apart from the idea that every modern filmmaker owes a debt to Hitchcock), the connections between the two aren’t immediately apparent. In his mammoth, 15-hour documentary on the history of the medium, The Story Of Film: An Odyssey ...

City Life: Observations: Busking around town with Lemon Bucket

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

You’ve probably seen them around. One of them is Michael Louis Johnson, the flugelhorn-playing bartender who puts on a free “Gypsy Jazz” show at the Communist’s Daughter every Saturday afternoon. Another is Tangi Ropars, an accordionist who wears heart-shaped sunglasses and can often be seen performing around Kensington Market in the summer. Or you may have seen the band itself, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, playing their Eastern European-style music around Toronto, often on the street, with an open violin case to collect change and sell CDs. “At the root of the band is busking,” says Jaash Singh, who plays ...

Music: Interview: PS I Love You’s Paul Saulnier

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:35:00 -0400

Kingston raised the horns when it was announced in the May/June 2012 issue of SPIN that PS I Love You frontman Paul Saulnier was the 99th greatest guitarist of all time. Live, his crackling, sonic guitar playing (newly showcased on a double axe) lends itself to a blistering mélange of love songs on this year’s Death Dreams. The A.V. Club caught up with Paul about his approach to shredding, copping riffs from Cheap Trick and why he loves to jam to American Pickers. PS I Love You plays The Garrison tonight with Army Girls. A.V ...

City Life: Blog: Toronto Strife and why Tumblr needs to shut up

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:00:00 -0400

Yesterday, a new Tumblr tumbled out across the Tumblr-verse—a space which is it itself coming to supplant the Internet in delineating the borders of our online experience. Called Toronto Strife, it’s one of those Tumblrs that aims to get you to laugh by recognizing some very basic thing that’s likely part of your day-to-day to experience. According to its “about” page, “Toronto Strife was created to tell the story of being a Torontonian. Mostly because it’s an experience that is equal parts amazing and ludicrous.” In the past little while, two comparably designed Tumblrs, #Realtalk From ...