NOW_2013-12-5

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DECEMBER 5-11, 2013 • ISSUE 1663 VOL. 33 NO. 14 MORE ONLINE DAILY @ nowtoronto.com 32 INDEPENDENT YEARS

EXCLUSIVE!

KIDS IN THE HALL A PORTRAIT OF THE DYSFUNCTIONAL FIRST FAMILY OF CANADIAN COMEDY 62

GIFT GUIDE

IRRESISTIBLE PRESENTS AT ALL PRICE POINTS 31

NEWS

HEY, CHIEF, WHY’S FORD A FREE MAN? 12

NEWS

WHAT’S NORM KELLY’S STAKE IN PORTER’S GAME 16

MUSIC

PSYCH FOLKIES MGMT GO THEIR OWN WAY 56

STAGE

T.O.’S TOP COMICS TAKE ON ROB FORD 71

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December 5-11 2013 NOW

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14 Lisa St., Unit C1 499 Main St. S., Unit 58 1088 McLaughlin Rd. 9980 Airport Rd., Unit 11 25 Peel Centre Dr., Unit 505A 25 Peel Centre Dr., Unit 742K 10025 Hurontario St., Unit 118 BROOKLIN 5969 Baldwin St. S, Unit 7 COBOURG 975 Elgin St. W, Unit B ETOBICOKE 22 Dixon Rd. 6620 Finch Ave. W, Unit 4 25 The West Mall, Unit 1963 3015 Bloor St. W 1735 Kipling Ave. 250 The East Mall, Kiosk #316 500 Rexdale Blvd., Unit H3B 1530 Albion Rd. GEORGETOWN Georgetown Market Place MAPLE 2943 Major Mackenzie Dr., Unit 4 MARKHAM 3636 Steeles Ave. E, Unit 101 9570 McCowan Rd., Unit 4 505 Hood Rd., Unit 12 7780 Woodbine Ave., Unit 3 4300 Steeles Ave. E, Unit E32 4300 Steeles Ave. E, Unit E67 8901 Woodbine Ave., Suite 218 3255 Hwy. 7 E, Unit E98 9275 Hwy. 48, Unit 11 5000 Hwy. 7 E, Unit 412 7690 Markham Rd., Unit 1C MISSISSAUGA Meadowvale Town Centre Square One Dixie Outlet Mall 153 Lakeshore Rd. E 6325 Dixie Rd., Unit 1 3105 Dundas St. W, Unit 102 7955 Financial Dr., Unit B 808 Britannia Rd. W, Unit 2 25 Watline Ave., Unit 10 7205 Goreway Dr. 1100 Burnhamthorpe Rd. 3021 Argentia Rd. 789 Taunton Rd. E 1053 Simcoe St. N, Unit 4B 2150 Burnhamthorpe Rd. W 60 Bristol Rd. E 920 Southdown Rd., BLD H, Unit 7 5100 Erin Mills Parkway, Unit V205 4141 Dixie Rd. 1250 Eglinton Ave. W, Unit A16 NEWMARKET 16715 Yonge St. 1065 Davis Dr. 18075 Yonge St. 17600 Yonge St., Unit EE22 NORTH YORK Sheridan Mall 1700 Wilson Ave., Unit 72 1905 Avenue Rd. 4367 Steeles Ave. W 149C Ravel Rd. Fairview Mall 4905 Yonge St. 5815 Yonge St. 3111 Dufferin St. 3040 Don Mills Rd., Unit 17B Leslie Center OAKVILLE 1027 Speers Rd., Unit 22 478 Dundas St. W, Unit 7 1500 Upper Middle Rd., Unit 2 240 Leighland Ave. OSHAWA Taunton Harmony Plaza 1053 Simcoe St. N, Unit 4B 285 Taunton Rd., Unit 20 419 King St. W, Unit 2272 PICKERING Pickering Power Centre Pickering Town Centre 611 Kingston Rd. RICHMOND HILL 9196 Yonge St. 1480 Major Mackenzie Dr. E 10 West Pearce St., Bldg. B Hillcrest Mall 9350 Yonge St. 10720 Yonge St. Times Square Mall 1070 Major Mackenzie Rd. E SCARBOROUGH Woodside Square 1571 Sandhurst Circle, Unit 502K 5095 Sheppard Ave. E 1800 Sheppard Ave. E Cedarbrae Mall 1900 Eglinton Ave. E 3300 McNicoll Ave. 1291 Kennedy Rd. 2555 Victoria Park Ave. 411 Kennedy Rd. 3495 Lawrence Ave. 1448 Lawrence Ave. E 5661 Steeles Ave. E, Unit 5 19 Milliken Blvd., Unit U 2490 Gerrard St. E 38 Ellesmere Rd. 300 Borough Dr., Unit 49 THORNHILL 31 Disera Dr., Unit 140 Promenade Mall Shops on Steeles 6236 Yonge St. 9200 Bathurst St., Unit 26 TORONTO 421 Dundas St. W, Unit G8 282 Queen’s Quay W 1015 Lakeshore Blvd. E 1821 Queen St. E 275 College St. 604 Bloor St. W 1348 St. Clair Ave. W 1461 Dundas St. W 2 St. Clair Ave. E 272 Danforth Ave. 471 Eglinton Ave. W 662 King St. W, Unit 2 939 Eglinton Ave. E, Unit 106 154 University Ave., Unit 101 2200 Yonge St., Unit 104 2397 Yonge St. 9A Yorkville Ave. East York Town Centre 2400 Bloor St. W 919 Bay St. 525 University Ave. 45 Overlea Blvd.

Oriental Centre Mall 1448 Lawrence Ave. E 10 Clock Tower Rd., Unit B1A 1118 Finch Ave. W, Unit 1 6236 Yonge St. 3850 Sheppard Ave. 280 Spadina Ave. 4438 Sheppard Ave. W, Unit 151 900 Dufferin St., Kiosk 4010 1000 Gerrard St. E, Unit K2 618 Sheppard Ave. W 6758 Kingston Rd., Unit 12 730 Danforth Ave. 333 Bloor St. E 2120 Queen St. E 8 Wellesley St. E 1965-1971 Yonge St., Unit A 120 Front St. E 660 Eglinton Ave., Unit 104 3151 Yonge St. 808 York Mills Rd., Unit 15-17 2400 Eglinton Ave. W 2900 Warden Ave. 130 King St. W., Unit CW15 3401 Dufferin St., Unit 108 1 Yorkdale Rd., Unit 180 1 Dundas St. W, Unit Z010 220 Yonge St., Unit H014 112-10 Dundas St. E 2901 Bayview Ave., Unit 128A 329 Parliament St. 200 Bay St., Unit UC – 132B 2248 Bloor St. W 330 Bay St. 4980 Yonge St. 1080 Yonge St. 1 Blue Jays Way, Suite 1200 UXBRIDGE 11 Brock St. W WHITBY 25 Thickson Rd. N 5969 Baldwin St. S 1549 Dundas St. E 3490 North Brock St. WOODBRIDGE 200 Whitmore Rd.

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NOW December 5-11 2013

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CONTENTS

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH

DALA

WYNTON MARSALIS

WITH SPECIAL GUEST KEVIN FOX

BIG BAND HOLIDAYS MON, DEC 9 8PM • MH

THUR DEC 5 8PM • WGT TONIGHT! Sponsored by

A BARRA MACNEILS CHRISTMAS WITH SPECIAL GUESTS JOEL PLASKETT, JENN GRANT, AND BETTE MACDONALD & MAYNARD MORRISON

THURS, DEC 12 8PM • MH

Kids in the Hall Photo by David Hawe Hair and makeup by Taylor Savage/judyinc.com, using TRESemmé Professional Styling Putty

HOSTED BY JEREMY HOTZ

STARRING

JESSICA KIRSON & MIKE MACDONALD

TUE DEC 31 7:30PM • MH

Sponsored by

ALSO FEATURING: JOHN HASTINGS, GRAHAM KAY, DAVE MERHEJE DARCY MICHAEL, ALEX PAVONE, CHRISTINA WALKINSHAW AND THE MUSICAL STYLINGS OF JAYMZ BEE & BONZAI SUZUKI

THE BAD PLUS SAT, DEC 14 9PM • WGT

62 COVER STORY

62 Just Kidding On the eve of their latest tour, we present an oral history of the Kids in the Hall 66 Hall monitor A timeline covering three decades of KITH hilarity

10 NEWS 11 12 14 16

Frontlines Me and the feminist dudes Blair’s move Will he stick it to Ford?

Ford exposé How the media did it Island airport Blame Norm Kelly

16 18 22 24

Jet decision A guide to the key players Trick survey Few homeless score beds TTC myths Five ways pols don’t get it Arts gap Two-year delay for new cash?

22 DAILY EVENTS 28 FOOD&DRINK PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND

CREOLE CHRISTMAS

“HOT PLAYERS WITH HARD ROCK HEARTS.” – ROLLING STONE

THU DEC 19 8PM RTH

28 Reviews Das Gasthaus, Schnitzel Queen 29 Recently reviewed; Fresh dish 30 Drink up!

31 GIFT GUIDE

31 Presents at all price points We’ve got great ideas for the toughest targets, plus what to get the fashionistas and wannabe rock stars on your list G

JUST ANNOUNCED

CRAIG FERGUSON HOT & GRUMPY

47 LIFE&STYLE

THU JAN 23 7PM MH

47 Ecoholic The perils of Big 5 cosmetics, forest fibres and more 48 Astrology

Contact NOW

189 Church Street, Toronto, ON M5B 1Y7, tel 416-364-1300.

EDITOR/PUBLISHER

ON SALE TO FRIENDSFIRST NOW PUBLIC FRI. DEC. 6 AT 10AM

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DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

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EDITOR/CEO

GENERAL MANAGER

Michael Hollett

Alice Klein

Pam Stephen

Editorial

Entertainment Administrator Desiree D’Lima

Marketing/Advertising Sales

Art

Phone 416-364-1300 X381 or email advertising@nowtoronto.com Director, Display Advertising Sales Gary Olesinski Research Analyst/Sales Operations Manager Rhonda Loubert Senior Marketing Executives Bill Malcolm, Janice Copeland, Barbara Hefler, Jennifer Hudson Marketing Representatives Meaghan Brophy, Bonte Minnema, Briony Douglas, David Kennedy Marketing Coordinators Joanne Begg, Stacy Reardon, Jane Stockwell

Senior News Editor Ellie Kirzner Senior Entertainment Editor Susan G. Cole Associate Entertainment Editor/Stage & Film Glenn Sumi Associate News Editor Enzo DiMatteo Food Editor Steven Davey Music Editor Julia LeConte Fashion and Design Writer Sabrina Maddeaux Senior Writers Jon Kaplan (Theatre), Norman Wilner (Film) On-line News Writer Ben Spurr Staff News Writer Jonathan Goldsbie Entertainment/Music Contributer Carla Gillis Contributors Elizabeth Bromstein, Andrew Dowler, Sarah Parniak, David Jager, Robert Priest, Wayne Roberts, Adria Vasil Copy Editing/Proofreading Francie Wyland, Fran Schechter, Julia Hoecke, Katarina Ristic, Lesley McAllister

VP, Creative Director Troy Beyer Art Director Stephen Chester Graphic/Web Designer Michelle Wong Photo Coordinator Jeanette Forsythe

Production Director Of Production/IT Greg Lockhart Production Supervisor Sharon Arnott Assistant Production Supervisor Jay Dart Designers Ted Smith, Donna Parrish (Editorial), Clayton Hanmer, Monica Miller Publishing Systems Manager Rudi Garcia Publishing Technology Jason Bartlett

nowtoronto.com Online Editor John Semley Interactive Producer Leah Herrera Web/Mobile Developer Adner Francisco

Classifieds Sales Phone 416-364-3444 or email classifieds@nowtoronto.com

Adult Classifieds Sales Phone 416-364-1500

DECEMBER 5–11

ONLINE

49 MUSIC

G

This week’s top five most-read posts on nowtoronto.com

49 The Scene Wu-Tang Clan, Ian Tyson & Corb Lund, Hayden, German Sparkle PartyD 50 Club & concert listings 51 Interview No Joy 52 Interview Neon Windbreaker 54 T.O. Notes 56 Interview MGMT 58 Interview Raging Asian Women Taiko Drummers 60 Album reviews

61 ART

72 BOOKS

Holiday sales Where to get the gift of art Must-see galleries and museums

Review Going Home Again Readings

68 STAGE G

68 Theatre interview Weather The Weather’s Haley McGee; D Theatre listings 69 Theatre reviews The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui; Once; God Of Carnage; The Little Mermaid 71 Comedy Q&A The Ford Follies’ Kenny Robinson; Comedy listings 72 Dance listings

Coming this week

Canada’s Top Ten We break down TIFF’s annual roundup of CanCon hits.

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

73 MOVIES

73 Actor interview Night Train To Lisbon’s Jeremy Irons 74 Director Q&A Jingle Bell Rocks!’s Mitchell Kezin; Reviews InRealLife; Spinning Plates; Out Of The Furnace; The Last Days On Mars; The Italian Character; Let The Fire Burn 78 Playing this week 88 Film times 90 Indie & rep listings Plus Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival 91 Blu-ray/DVD La Notte; The Jack Ryan Collection; No One Lives; Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, The Rich Mahogany Edition G

That’s right, folks! The mayor sat in the wrong seat at a football game!

“Rob Ford stole @MattMays’ seat at a football game today. His war on the arts continues.” @ANNETDONAHUE

“Rob Ford will of course deny stealing @MattMays seat. Then he will admit it, blame the Star, and refuse to leave. #EnoughToEatAtHome #TOpoli” @SIMONKINGLAW

FOLLOW NOW ON TWITTER @NOWTORONTO

92 CLASSIFIED 92 92 94

Crossword Employment Rentals/real estate

96 111

NOW ON THE MOVE

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Senior Marketing Executive Beverlee East Marketing Representatives Christian Ismodes, Scott Strachan, Gary McGregor, Nathan Stokes

1. Ford gets booed The mayor got booed at the Cavalcade Of Lights.

And, yes, we checked. Nobody was saying, “Boo-urns.”

2. Funny Rob Ford jokes! Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill and others parody Rob Ford (and Ken Burns) on Letterman. And it was funny! Sort of!

3. Have we smartened up? Are we all starting to realize, at last, that Rob Ford isn’t in the habit of truth-telling?

4. ’Splainin’ to do It’s starting to look like the police probe into the mayor was meant to embarrass him.

5. Tempest in an e-pot The mayor sat in the wrong seat at a Bills game and the internet exploded.

WIN Lunch For 8

WEBSTER’S RE-IGNITES TY UNCERTAIN CROAK WILL FORDICAL ON POLIT ?

TOADYISM

E’S WAR HORSGAN PATRICK GILLI IS HOT TO TROT WOODY N HARRELSO IT UP RAMPS ART’S AS RAMP COP BAD

+

D DRUMMON HIGH REPORT AIMS BUT HITS LOW

ONTO’SS IN TORID K NEXT BIG

THE HA

E! EXCLUSIV

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ILY FIRST FAM CTIONAL DYSFUNCOMEDY IT OF THE ADIAN OF CAN A PORTRA

BAHAMAS

MUSIC THING

, HEY CHIEF ROB ARREST ALREADY

NORM KELLY ON GOES ALL GAME PORTER’S

IES PYSCH FOLK THEIR MGMT GO OWN WAY

GIFT GUIDE

TABLE IRRESIS TS PRESEN AT ALL PRICE POINTS

WIN TICKETS TO THE! COMICS TOP SHOW T.O.’S TAKE ON ROB FORD

C 35 M0 Y 100 K0

Alice Klein Chair/CEO Michael Hollett President/COO David Logan Vice-President C 70 M 15 Y0 K0

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NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

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December 5 - 19 Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

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signs copies of Blue Is The Warmest Color. 7 pm. Free. The Central. ­facebook.com/events/​ 1385900688317854.

SHEREE RASMUSSeN Fabric ­artist’s vibrant works close ­today at Spazio dell’Arte. spaziodellarte.com.

European tour, the Montreal shoegazers play the Garrison.

Doors 9 pm. $10.50. RT, SS, TW.

12

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Julie Maroh Graphic novelist

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+Raging Asian Women Taiko Drummers The local arts

Death metallers Gorguts rattle 794 Bathurst, Dec 17

Castle In The Sky screens, Dec 12

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c­ ollective presents From Rage Comes at the Betty Oliphant Theatre. 2 pm. $15-$25. And Dec 7.

RIVERDALE SHARE Much-loved community funder features Lorraine Segato, Suzie Wilde and many others. 3 pm. $20 plus food item. Danforth Music Hall. ticketmaster.ca. suddenly mommy! Anne Marie Scheffler’s solo comedy about motherhood closes to­ day. At Theatre Passe ­Muraille.

2 pm. $15-$20. 416-504-7529.

Sam Larkin Tribute Ron ­ exsmith, Anne Bourne and S others pay tribute to the late T.O. folksinger. Hugh’s Room.

8:30 pm. $15-$17.50. HR. Write for Rights Amnesty International hosts Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, ex-political prisoner in Iran. 6:30 pm. Free.

St. John’s Norway Church. ­beachamnesty@gmail.com.

SHAMELESS GALA NOW’s Alice Klein and Susan G. Cole speak at funder for the teen girls and trans youth mag. 6 pm. $20.

Centre for Social Innovation. facebook.com/shamelessmag.

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adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice returns to Campbell House after its soldout Fringe Toronto run. 2 pm.

To Dec 29. $20. totix.ca. venus in fur Canadian Stage’s hit production of the sexy two-hander about a play­ wright looking for his leading lady returns in the much more intimate Berkeley Street The­ atre. To Dec 29. 1 and 7 pm. $29-$59. 416-368-3110.

tour stops at the Air Canada Centre. 8 pm. $63.25-$286.25.

LN. parfumerie Soulpepper’s ­beloved adaptation of the Miklós László play about two bickering shop clerks who are ­unknowingly corresponding with each other continues at the Young Centre until Dec 28.

1:30 and 7:30 pm. $51-$68.

416-866-8666.

band shocked us by returning after a 12-year silence with the powerful, dynamic Colored Sands. 794 Bathurst. $20. RT, TF.

film about a lonely man (Joa­ quin Phoenix) who falls in love with his computer’s operating system (voiced by Scarlett ­Johansson) opens today. the musical of musicals The musical told in the individual styles of five well-known com­ posers begins performances tonight at the Panasonic. 8 pm.

To Jan 5. $19-$79. 416-8721212.

the surprise performers con­ tinues at Adelaide Hall. Doors 8:30 pm. $25. RT, SS. the nutcracker The National Ballet of Canada’s beloved ­production of the Tchaikovsky seasonal ballet continues at the Four Seasons Centre until Jan 4. 7 pm. $25-$244. 416345-9595.

elizabeth-darcy Two-person

BeyoncÉ Mrs. Carter’s world

Monster Magnet Long-run­

ning New Jersey stoner rock band chugs into Lee’s ­Palace.

Doors 8 pm. $25.50. RT, SS, TF. +once Performances continue for this Tony Award-winning musical about a Dublin busker and a Czech emigrée. 8 pm. To Jan 5 at the Royal Alexandra. $35-$130. 416-872-1212.

+WEATHER THE WEATHER Haley McGee’s new all-ages play about getting home for the holidays opens tonight at Ever­ green Brick Works. $12.50-$32.

8 pm. 416-504-7529.

A$AP Ferg/A$AP Mob The ­Harlem hip-hop crew hits up the Opera House, with ­member A$AP Ferg headlining. Doors 8 pm, all ages. $25. PDR, RT, TF.

Gorguts The death metal

+the little mermaid: ­ontario’s o-fish-al family musical Ross Petty’s holiday panto continues at the Elgin until Jan 4. 7 pm. $27-$85.

1-855-599-9090.

her Spike Jonze’s bittersweet

+KIDS IN THE HALL: RUSTY AND READY The sketch troupe re­

groups to try out a new show. 8 pm. To Dec 7. $39. toronto­ sketchfest.com WOMEN WON’t Forget Vigil of remembrance on the 24th ­anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. 6 pm. Free. Bring a rose and a candle. Philo­sopher’s Walk. womenwontforget.org.

Charles Bradley The lively funk/soul singer just can’t get enough of Toronto. Kool Haus.

Doors 8 pm, all ages. $25.50.

RT, SS, TF.

Viletones Reunited Toronto punk legends play their last show ever. Phoenix. Doors 8 pm. $26.25. TM. saving mr. banks The factbased film about how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) acquired the rights of the book Mary Poppins from author P.L. ­Travers (Emma Thompson) opens today.

guillermo del toro on castle in the sky The director

introduces the Hayao Miyazaki film and gives a post-screening talk as part of TIFF Bell Light­ box’s Studio Ghibli series. 7 pm. $20-$22.75. 416-599-TIFF.

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Mark peckmezian Photo­

grapher’s pensive portraits hang at O’Born to Dec 20. Free.

416-413-9555. +MGMT The young envelopepushing rockers take over Sound Academy for an all-ages show. Doors 8 pm. $35-$45. RT, SS, TF. WINNERS AND LOSERS Final weekend to see Marcus Youssef and James Long’s play about the effects of capitalism on humanity. Berkeley Street ­Theatre. 2 and 8 pm. $22-$49.

416-368-3110.

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Dog Day Married Halifax fogpop duo celebrate the release of their best album yet. Cine­ cycle. 9 pm. $10. RSVP face­ book.com/ events/596357253751642.

AGAINST THE GRAIN’S MESSIAH he eclectic opera company T

presents a non-traditional take on the Handel oratorio. At the Opera House to Dec 15. 8 pm.

From $40. against­ thegraintheatre.com.

More tips

Jason Collett’s Basement Revue The music series with

Ticket Index • CB – Circus Books And Music • HMR – Hits & Misses Records • HS – Horseshoe • LN – Live Nation • MA – Moog Audio • PDR – Play De Record • R9 – Red9ine Tattoos • RCM – Royal Conservatory Of Music • RT – Rotate This

• RTH – Roy Thomson Hall/Glenn Gould/Massey Hall • SC – Sony Centre For The Performing Arts • SS – Soundscapes • TCA – Toronto Centre For The Arts • TM – Ticketmaster • TMA – Ticketmaster Artsline • TW – TicketWeb

• UE – Union Events • UR – Rogers UR Music • WT – Want Tickets

“

+No Joy Just returned from an

Hot Tickets Live Music Movies theatre Comedy Dance Galleries Readings Daily Events + = feature inside

Cheol Joon Baek

Beyoncé hits the ACC, Dec 16

Saturday

50 50 78 68 71 72 61 72 26

Women won’t forget, Dec 6

THE MUST-SEE MUSICAL OF THE SEASON!” –City TV

ED M IRV I SH TH E ATR E, 244 V ic tor ia Street, Toronto 6

December 5-11 2013 NOW

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home to over 300 aircraft and half a dozen flight schools and has close to 150 more daily flight slots.

To scare people is wrong.

John Parker Toronto

email letters@nowtoronto.com Library budget doesn’t tell the whole story

I read Sheila Gostick’s article about the Toronto Public Library (NOW, No­ vember 28-​December 4).

The fact is, our request for an increase of 1.2 per cent is being recommended by city of Toronto staff.

Children’s services remain a high priority for the library. In fact, they’ve been enhanced over the years by the introduction of Ready For Reading (services designed to build early literacy skills in children) and the introduction of KidStop early literacy centres at several branches.

Since 2007 the library has increased open hours by 396.5 hours per week, adding additional days of service as well as more morning and evening hours at many branches.

In the past 10 years, the library’s materials acquisition budget has increased by more than $2 million, a 14.4 per cent jump. We’re looking forward to the opening of two new branches in Fort York and Scarborough Civic Centre.

We’re heartened by the support we see Torontonians display for their library and are proud of the excellent service that the library continues to deliver.

Councillor Paul Ainslie Chair, Toronto Public Library Board

Shelter numbers leave wrong impression

Your piece on the city’s proposed 2014 budget (NOW, November 28-December 4) gives the impression that service has been reduced to those who rely on housing and homelessness programs funded by the Shelter, Sup­ port and Housing Administration.

In fact, service levels have increased as we forecast increased use of emergency shelter beds, even while year-​ over-​year budget dollar amounts are lower.

Other reductions in the department’s 2014 gross expenditures are the result of such things as the final wind-​down of a multi-​year stimulus program to repair social housing stock, and expenditures to cover a To­ronto Community Housing garbage levy that has been reduced due to lower disposal cost.

You can see that it is inaccurate to imply reduction in service from dollar reductions in year-over-year budget comparisons.

Patricia Anderson Manager, Shelter, Support & Housing Administration Division

We’re the ones smoking crack, not Ford

Quite frankly, we Americans are getting bored with the Rob Ford story already (NOW, November 28-​December 4).

Canada should have dealt with Ford swiftly and concisely. Instead (no wonder we never pay any attention to Canada), y’all just let him keep his job and allow him to continue to have

“ Anger may offer temporary relief from the Ford scandal, but it’s time to look within and take responsibility for much-needed healing.”

Island airport risks not like Santa Monica

Re: Porter’s corporate interests can’t be allowed to trump public health (NOW, November 21-​27).

Since the writers prominently proclaim credentials as family physi­ cians, I am disturbed by their lack of forward thinking when it comes to the issue of jets at Toronto’s downtown airport.

Santa Monica airport and Toronto’s downtown airport aren’t com­ par­able. Santa Monica operates older, private jets that are not nearly as envi­ronmentally friendly as the CS100 that Porter is proposing.

The airport’s sound threshold is 10 decibels higher than Toronto’s, arrivals are permitted 24 hours a day, it’s

most of his staff and salary. Are you guys smoking crack up there?

Bradford Hamilton From nowtoronto.com

Words, between the lines of age

I picked up a copy of your paper last week out of curiosity. Overall it was informative, but I won’t be reading it again.

I’m a senior citizen and was brought up when there were moral values and probably the word “damn” wasn’t even printed. There was never any swearing of any kind in our home, and your allowance of vulgar words in your pages is offensive, com­pletely unnecessary and adds no­thing to the stories.

Keith Carbert Markham

Too early to declare end to war on bikes?

Now that the mayor has been caged (somewhat), perhaps the war on bicy­ cles can come to an end. At the very

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December 5-11 2013 NOW

Presentation Centre NOW OPEN

least, a truce should be declared.

Though it’s great that the Sher­ bourne lane is (almost) completed and there is fresh talk about a Bloor east-​west route, it would be nice if the Jarvis lane could be re-​installed.

One of the advantages of this lane was its slowing effect on the rush hour NASCAR traffic every weekday afternoon.

As these vehicles sweep through Jarvis hurtling through oranges and reds, they buffet some of us so hard that we’re almost bowled over as we wait to cross.

So how about it, councillors?

Geoff Rytell Toronto

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Ford’s corrosive effect on democracy

I don’t like Rob Ford, nor do I sup­ port his politics but I do agree with one thing: he’s a sick man.

Impaired and enabled to drive a questionable agenda, he’s crashed his gravy train and we’re all splat­ tered.

Turns out the load he was carry­ ing was a collection of offensive philosophies: racism, homophobia, classism, sexism, absurdism, chau­ vinism, denialism and medieval­ ism, to name a few.

Alas! The curtain that served to perpetuate the delusion of a democ­ racy rooted on principles of equality and diversity has been drawn. Be­ hind it lies a system that both nur­ tures and awards these corrosive phil­o­sophies. Denial exposed, it’s time to take a good look at the fabric of our sociological reality.

Anger may offer temporary relief, but it’s time to look within and take responsibility for much-needed healing. Our world depends on it!

Luisa de Amaral Toronto

Keanu Reeves IQ jest

I have loved and read NOW for long­ er than I can remember. I value the critics’ input and evaluations, espe­ cially when they are constructive and hu­morous.

However, I must speak out about your review of Keanu Reeves’s direc­ torial debut (NOW, October 31-​Nov­ ember 6) out of respect for the Cana­ dians (and beyond) with both in­vis­ible and visible diverse abilities – my phrase to replace the dis­ criminatory word “disabled.”

John Semley repeatedly implies that Reeves is stupid. He even de­ scribes Keanu as, in his opinion, un­ able to answer a long and detailed oral question to his satisfaction be­ cause Reeves gave a brief answer.

Everywhere in our society, people’s intelligence is constantly being judged based upon their abil­ ity to instantly spout off perfect ver­ bal answers to oral-only questions, on the spur of the moment no less.

Ariel Len Toronto NOW welcomes reader mail. Address letters to: NOW, Letters to the Editor, 189 Church, Toronto, ON M5B 1Y7. Send e-mail to letters@nowtoronto.com and faxes to 416-364-1166. All correspondence must include your name, address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length.

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9

newsfront

MICHAEL HOLLETT EDITOR/PUBLISHER ALICE KLEIN EDITOR/CEO PAM STEPHEN GENERAL MANAGER ELLIE KIRZNER SENIOR NEWS EDITOR PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY NOW COMMUNICATIONS INC 189 CHURCH STREET, TORONTO, ON., M5B 1Y7 TELEPHONE 416-364-1300 FAX 416-364-1166 E-MAIL news@nowtoronto.com ONLINE www.nowtoronto.com

Barometer PUBLIC EXECS

The Libs and PCs gang up to defeat NDP leader Andrea Horwath’s bill to cap the salaries of public sector CEOs at twice the pay of the premier. The NDP leader’s “straightforward way to show respect for public money” went down in an 18to-39 vote.

BIXI

The popular but financially troubled bike-share program is saved. Public Works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong was scheduled to announce details at a press conference at NOW’s press time Wednesday afternoon.

HUMAN RIGHTS

And the winners of the city’s 2014 Access, Equity & Human Rights Awards are: Steven Vanloffeld (Aboriginal Affairs Award), Lucia Costa (Access Award), Lynda Kosowan (Constance E. Hamilton Award on the Status of Women), Sherbourne Health Centre (Pride Award) and Samuel Getachew (William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations).

Please take a bow.

CHEOL JOON BAEK

2:55 pm, Saturday, November 30, Multicultural AIDS Awareness Walk through Kensington Market and Chinatown.

RI P

CORONER’S INQUEST

JOHN ZIVCIC

LOUISETTE LANTEIGNE

Saturation coverage of the Ford scandal is sucking a lot of oxygen out of the coroner’s court inquest into the police shooting deaths of Michael Eligon and two other mentally ill people in recent years.

Last week, video taken by the dashboard camera of a police cruiser called to the scene of Eligon’s shooting was entered into evidence.

It’s mind-blowing in what it reveals about police inability to deal with situations involving the mentally ill. At the crucial moment, the officer who shot Eligon, Constable Scott Walker, seemed to put himself in a compromising position – stopped by a van parked on the street.

There were eight officers on the scene. And once again police say there was no option but to shoot.

LINE 9 PROTEST

Rising Tide Toronto members lock themselves to earthmovers at the Enbridge Line 9 river crossing near Leslie and Finch on Tuesday, December 3.

10

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

Who Constable John Zivcic Why The 41st Toronto police officer to die in the line of duty, the first since Sergeant Ryan Russell was killed by a snowplow in 2011.

How Details are sketchy. Police have only said he was involved in collision on Bloor West near the West Mall Saturday afternoon, November 30. The civilian police watchdog Special Investigations Unit has no mandate to investigate.

Funeral services are scheduled for Monday (December 9) at the Toronto Congress Centre. As of late Tuesday, December 3, it was unclear if Mayor Rob Ford, who is currently caught up in a police investigation involving his alleged drug dealer, would attend. NOW’s Ben Spurr asked the mayor’s chief of staff, who said he didn’t know.

GOOD WEEK FOR BAD WEEK FOR

1 5

RHUBARB FESTIVAL

Canadian Heritage cuts funding for the Buddies in Bad Times theatre project on the eve of the group’s 35th anniversary. Heritage’s letter says by way of explanation that it’s an effort by the feds to “fund projects designed... to meet the needs of Canadians.” Huh?

EVANGELICAL SATANISTS

Cloven Path Ministries, a jokey satanic outreach program run by local comedians, has its Rob Ford bus tours run aground following a run-in with the mayor and his brother. Full story at nowtoronto.com.

WOODBINE STATION #224

Unbeknownst to Councillor Janet Davis, the pumper at the East York fire station is being reassigned to Station D at Eglinton and Midland.

This was discovered in what the councillor describes as a “tiny note” on a chart in the 2014 budget documents.

Work is already under way to block the move.

3

Number of suicides in the last week among Canadian vets of the war in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Rob Nicholson called the deaths “troubling.” Twenty-two full-time members of the Canadian Forces, not including reservists and part-time soldiers, committed suicide in 2011. NDP Defence critic Jack Harris notes that 50 inquiries into military suicides since 2008 remain incomplete.

ASK THE EXPERT AT HENRY’S

[Frontlines] Saira Peesker on hanging with touchyfeely dudes I confess, I was afraid the White Ribbon Campaign’s two-day What Makes A Man conference held the weekend of November 22 might be cheesy.

Could I really spend hours surrounded by men talking about their feelings on masculinity? Ah, but then I realized it was exactly that kind of bias these guys were there to address.

So I spent a day listening and discovered the main take-away: it’s not easy to be a feminist male in a gang of bros.

The crowd at the Daniels Spectrum on Dundas East was largely composed of educators and activists – about equal numbers women and men – and it was easy to feel like the presenters were preaching to the choir. But the event, which drew 270 people, also morphed into a support group for men trying to keep things real in very tricky interpersonal situations.

That certainly was the theme of Friday’s speech by U.S. doc filmmaker Byron Hurt, who said it can be emotionally exhausting calling out other men on their misogyny.

“To be real honest, a lot of the time I don’t feel like confronting a dude about his sexism. Sometimes I just want to chill and watch the football game,” said the one-time college quarterback now a gender campaigner. “ I don’t get invited to the party, the club, the fraternity reunion, because people know I’m not going to stand for the sexism.’’

Hurt’s 2006 Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes doc posits that hyper-masculinity is a mask for insecurity. He said Friday that the pressure to ignore feelings and “act hard” causes men psychic damage that is passed on to others in their lives.

The film features a cavalcade of rappers unwilling to explain their anti-woman or homophobic lyrics, and a mind-numbing scene at a music festival where men physically prey on women, many of whom willingly accept the behaviour.

“Generally speaking, men look at girls and women as less than and not worthy of full respect, and have deeply problematic views,” he told the audience, which included members of Manifesto, a community arts and hip-hop project pushing diversity.

“Hip-hop says it keeps things real but a lot of it is acting.’’

“My focus is to reach as many boys as possible. We have to [stop] with words like “weak,” “pussy,” that keep so many men inside their box.”

Manifesto organizer Shaka Licorish said he could relate. “Coming up as a young person, the images [of black men] I had to latch onto were hip-hop artists and actors. As much as hip-hop says it’s about being real, a lot of it is acting,” he said, noting that young people take the lyrics to heart and fail to see them as part of a roleplaying performance.

Friday’s session ended with local hip-hop artist Mindbender drumming up participants in his six-week love class. “Learn to walk with awareness in each step and speak with compassion and/or truth in each breath,” says his promo. “Join us on this new Journey of Love!”

What Makes A Man was touchyfeely all right, but, hey, that was the point.

3 news@nowtoronto.com

from the archives January 20, 2000 ON THE COVER

When NOW travelled to Escondido, California, to talk to the Kids in the Hall, the edgy sketch troupe was getting back together after going their separate ways five years earlier (page 77 of the issue). The quintet agreed that they were reuniting because they wanted to have fun again. This week they’re again embarking on their first full tour as a sketch troupe in five years. (See cover story, page 62.) We sense a pattern here. Maybe this time they’re together for good.

Use the searchable viewer online at nowtoronto.com/archives

Q:

PHOTO: REN BOSTELAAR

HOW CAN I PHOTOGRAPH FOG AND MIST WITH MY CAMERA? HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE THAT SMOKY, MYSTERIOUS LOOK WITHOUT JUST GETTING A BLURRY LOOKING FRAME?

tone. Additionally, the overall quality of light is cut down dramatically, so foggy scenes are very dimly lit. These two factors will require you to take control over two key camera functions: Exposure Compensation and ISO. Your camera’s light meter, usually so dependable in everyday lighting conditions, will LOOK TO YOUR EXPOSURE struggle to calculate the right exposure on a COMPENSATION AND ISO foggy day. Your light meter will be tricked by FOR HELP. the water droplets in the air into thinking that While most people might frown at the sight of it needs to decrease the exposure, but you can a foggy, damp morning, some photographers quickly overcome that tendency by dialing in +1 jump for joy. A grey mist can lend a dramatic exposure compensation. If, on the other hand, sense of mood and atmosphere to a photo, you want to decrease the exposure deliberately transforming a simple landscape or streetscape to produce an even darker, moodier image turn into something otherworldly. the dial the other way and set it to -1 exposure compensation.

You’re most likely to find fog around this time of year, as temperatures drop and the water Because fog reduces the amount of light vapor in moist air collides with cooler weather reaching your camera, you’ll need to make the systems. Fog generally forms at night, and tends most of the light that’s available. A “fast” lens to stick around until the midmorning sun burns with a large maximum aperture will help, but it off. For the first few hours of the day, as the you can get great results with nearly any camera sun’s rays struggle to cut through the misty air, by selecting a higher “ISO” sensitivity. This has photographers are treated to a unique interplay the effect of making your camera more sensitive of light and shape. It can be a challenge to to light, and it will make it possible to shoot capture it effectively, but it might not be as hard hand-held pictures in the fog without the risk of as you think. blur from subject or camera motion.

Fog is like a giant, natural version of the “soft On a foggy day, distant subjects can become box”, a lighting accessory that photographers use faint silhouettes. Emphasize that depth and difto soften and diffuse a harsh flash. Fog scatters ference in contrast by composing an image that the sun so that the light appears to come from all includes both nearby and far-away elements. directions. On a sunny day, your scene is usually Additionally, any streetlights or headlights may full of bright highlights and dark shadows, but create sharp rays that cut through the soupy on a foggy day everything is essentially a middle atmosphere. Experiment with different distances

We asked stellar Henry’s photographer REN BOSTELAAR to share some of the secrets of his trade.

Here’s what he told us.

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and perspectives until you get the shot you want.

Fog can be unpredictable and conditions can change quickly, so shoot lots and stay dry! ❋ To learn more about your camera and how to take control over your light meter, take a Camera 101 and Camera 201 class with the Henry’s School of Imaging.

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11

Ford scandal

Bill Blair, it’s your move

The chief of police has his invitation from the province to stick it to the mayor once and for all. What’s he waiting for?

Tara Walton/getstock

By ENZO DiMATTEO

W

hat if we’ve been had?

What if cops had their chance to bust Rob Ford and blew it?

We’ll know more by Friday (Decem­ber 6), 4:30 pm, when the transcripts of wiretapped cellphone conversations between the mayor and his alleg­ed drug dealer, Alexander Lisi – those related to Lisi’s arrest on drug trafficking and extortion charges – are scheduled to be un-​redacted. The Crown may still appeal their release, which would mean we’d have to wait a little longer.

Chances are, when the transcripts do see the light of day, they’ll confirm what we suspect: that Ford was involved in efforts by Lisi and Ford’s former director of logistics, Da­vid Price, to retrieve the video showing the mayor smoking crack. That video is in police custody, not yet made public – or perhaps ever to be.

To recap, because it’s important to remember the totality of it all: the hunt for the video included a visit in May 2013 by someone wielding a metal pipe to the house of Fabio Basso, the mayor’s high school chum.

The murkier aspects: the attempt to find the video may be related to a shooting, also in May, at the Dixon towers and to a lost cellphone of the mayor’s that was never reported to police and may have been in the possession of

12

december 5-11 2013 NOW

Anthony Smith when he was shot and killed outside a King West nightclub in March. That seems so long ago.

The Star’s editor-in-chief, Michael Cooke, who has seen what’s in the transcripts owing to his proximity to lawyers fighting for the release of the documents in court, is promising more “stunning” revelations.

But why haven’t criminal charges been laid against the mayor? The police have had the un-redacted transcripts all along, and can’t be waiting for them to be made public in order to charge him. And they watched Lisi and Ford exchange packages without ever seizing one to find out what was in it.

Young black men are hauled in on a lot less evidence. * * * What’s known about those phone calls between Lisi and the mayor, from court doc­uments already made public, is that few were more than a minute long.

Whatever sensitive conversations took place between the two about the crack video or anything else happened face to face, most notably in a meeting at the mayor’s daughter’s soccer game on June 26 that reportedly lasted about an hour. Police noted that Lisi handed the mayor a cellphone, the mayor looked at it for a time and then became animated in the conversation that followed.

Like most Torontonians, I don’t want to think that there was enough evidence to tie Ford to efforts to re-

“The chief gives the impression that more is coming, but the evidence suggests that all charges that will be laid, have been.”

trieve the crack video but the cops decided not to charge him because, well, he’s the mayor. But there’s also Chief Bill Blair’s own political agenda to think about, which hasn’t completely revealed itself. Or does the palpable hos­tility between the two have nothing to do with anything?

The chief has given the impression that more is coming, while his actual words, depending on how you read them, suggest that all the charges that will be laid have been laid. Blair has refused to answer directly whe­ther the mayor is under investigation.

“There has been an investigation on­going, and we continue to gather the evidence,” he said on October 31 at the press conference announcing that police had re­ trieved the crack video and charged Lisi with extortion.

Blair says police have pursued every investigative avenue “without fear and with­out favour. That’s what we’ve done. And where we’ve had evidence of criminal behaviour that sup­ports a charge, we’ve laid those charges.”

The police several times asked Ford, through his former chief of staff, to be interviewed, without success.

Why he hasn’t been compelled to submit to questioning just doesn’t add up.

Lawyer Clayton Ruby, who knows a few things about the way police investigations are conducted, calls it “inexplicable.” continued on page 21 œ

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NOW December 5-11 2013

13

On November 28, we had a moment to breathe.

MEDIA

Rob ford’s political brilliance

His active discrediting of the press as a collection of self-interested elites turned even the truth into a matter of us vs. them By JONATHAN GOLDSBIE

The month-​long frenzy around Mayor Rob Ford’s Tasmanian Devil whirlwind had begun to subside, and there was an opportunity to reflect.

Web start-up Newsana hosted a panel discussion called Toronto’s Watergate? The Inside Scoop On How The Media Exposed Rob Ford, and on it sat Star editorin-chief Michael Cooke, Star reporter Robyn Doolittle (who co-​authored the paper’s key stories on the mayor), Globe reporter Greg McArthur (who co-​authored their exposé on the adolescent Fords) and Postmedia columnist Andrew Coyne.

Coyne was the odd one out: as a marquee national pundit for a proudly conservative newspaper chain, his critical examination of Ford was limited to the fairly recent past.

But when a member of the audience asked if maybe people doubted the crack video because the Star had previously been on the mayor for so many little things, Coyne knew what to say.

“In the run-​up to the [2010] election,” Coyne explained, “the Star ran a series of very critical stories dealing with aspects of the mayor’s misbehaviour on various fronts. And I remember reading them and not being as shocked as the Star was.”

He’d rationalized it all: the story about Ford being aggressive with one of his football players described conduct that was inappropriate – but the important takeaway was that he coached kids’ football; the story about offering to buy OxyContin for a man who phoned him was an example of Ford’s compassion and generosity.

“So if you look at that in isolation,” Coyne said, “you would say, ‘Yeah, the Star cried wolf’” and he was therefore able to later get away with worse. “But if you look at it really, though, in hindsight you say, ‘The Star was right and I was wrong.’ The Star was on to him early. The Star knew the context. The Star knew the bread crumbs.

The Star knew that these were not just stor­ies in isolation, that the guy was a walking train wreck.

“And we all should not have said, ‘Aw, he’s just a good ol’ boy with a few rough edges.’ We should have said right

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then and there, ‘This needs to be investigated further.’” * * * For me, it started with a tweet saying Rob Ford was seen “wasted and sweating” at a bar the previous night.

My job at the time, a regular gig for another publication, was to reverse-​engineer Ford’s weekly itinerary: since he refused to release any schedule of appearances, my responsibility was to figure out where he had already been – to pinpoint his physi­cal presence as frequently as possi­ble. Twitter consistently provided my most fruitful supply of leads, and I would spend every Monday searching particular combinations of words in the hope of discovering new sightings.

The “wasted and sweating” tweet, posted just after St. Patrick’s Day 2012, was a good one but not by itself earth-​shaking. After nearly a year of doing these searches, I had already inferred Ford’s enthusiasm for alcohol.

But as I went back and forth with this person about what her friend had seen, the allegations became more serious: that he was kicked out of the Bier Markt’s Esplanade location for being drunk, and that he may have been doing (powdered) cocaine in a private room. No hard evidence, but it was simple enough to find other tweets and photos that placed him in the area at the time.

That evening, I visited the Bier Markt for dinner, figuring that asking questions of my server would be the gentlest way to raise the issue. And indeed, she’d dealt with Mayor Ford a couple of nights earlier and was happy to talk to a self-​identified reporter.

As I later wrote to my editor, however, “she was quick to dispel the rumours of his being kicked out and/or doing drugs, and I have no reason to believe she wasn’t being honest. She was pretty helpful in offering other details until, it seems, a co-worker advised her that maybe she shouldn’t be dishing on customers to journalists.”

I wrote a tame summary of Ford’s St. Patrick’s Day, based on the little I’d been able to confirm by deadline, and that was that.

Until minutes after it was posted, when a comment appeared under my story that repeated the rumours I’d heard and more. It was promptly deleted for legal

reasons, and I found myself unable to track down the person who had left it.

For me, that’s how it started. * * * In the next few weeks, it became apparent that every newsroom in the city had heard some version of the mayor’s St. Patrick’s Day outing and had devoted various levels of resources to pursuing it. No one, though, got quite far enough. To report serious accusations against a public figure, the bar for evidence is pretty high.

So many people in media and political circles were aware of the whisperings that there was a sharper distinction than ever between what different classes of people knew, or thought they knew, about Rob Ford.

There was a cleavage of consciousness dividing the public at large, the city’s media and both groups within themselves. And Ford proved a master at exploiting it.

If you had some inkling of the Bier Markt stuff, for example, you viewed the Daniel Dale incident very differently. The Star reporter visited the public park adjacent to Ford’s house because the mayor was making an un­usual request to buy part of the land, and Dale felt he needed to see it for himself to understand the geography and other details about the parcel. Ford and his staff, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to discredit the paper in the midst of its reporting. Below the duelling public accounts of the Star and the Fords were additional layers concerning who thought whom was really up to what. I debated a public relations professional on the radio the next day, and he refused to believe that Dale was actually there to look at the land. (He was.) * * * Of course, the privileged-​knowledge gap didn’t begin with the Bier Markt, nor were its delineations all that clear. Elements of the Ford family history are firmly established in Etobicoke lore, and a great many people hold pieces of the puzzle. You didn’t have to know the Globe was working on – and at one point had suddenly stopped working on – an account of the young Doug Ford to be aware of what the story might report.

$

“We all should have not said, ‘Aw, he’s just a good ol’ boy with a few rough edges.’ We should have said right then and there, ‘This needs to be investigated further.”

Postmedia colulmnist Andrew Coyne

In March 2013, the Star finally shared parts of the Bier Markt episode in the context of an article about the mayor’s behaviour at the Garrison Ball and his staff’s discomfort with what they considered to be his unaddressed alcohol problem. (The story made no mention of drugs but referred to substance abuse.) On CP24, Star editor Cooke defended the report against a skeptical Stephen LeDrew. “The story of the mayor’s drinking has been around this town for a year, year and a half, two years,” he said. “Every journalist in town has heard this story. Maybe they’re getting it off Twitter. All the Toronto elite have been talking about little else for a year and a half.”

And now, at long last, he said, the Star did a proper piece and put it out there. “I think that citizens of Toronto want to know.” * * * At least as far back as the 2010 election, a crucial component of Ford’s political brilliance was his active discrediting of the press by dismissing it as a collection of self-​interested parties invested in a status quo that he threatened to disrupt. Don’t believe what you read, he intoned.

On one level, there was some truth to this: all media warrant critical scrutiny, and the mainstream media do generally function as instruments of the elite. But reducing the whole enterprise to only that rather misses the point.

Ford fed off this gulf between the keepers of secrets and the public at large. The more journalists knew, the more driven they became while at the same time drifting farther from the public’s understanding of his persona. The quest for the truth had the effect of alienating those who undertook it and reinforcing the mayor’s narrative of the little guy against the elites.

Efforts to collapse that discrepancy (as Cooke framed it) were met with ever-​fiercer resistance from Ford and those who stood by him. In a tremendous bit of projection, Ford responded to the initial allegations of his alcoholism by calling the Star “pathological liars.” continued on page 21 œ

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NOW decemer 5-118:20 2013 13-12-02 PM

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End the year on a high note!

“This is a Messiah the whole city can embrace with pride.”

Chris Young/ CP Photo

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What’s Norm Kelly’s flight plan?

How the de facto mayor became the champion ofBRIAN Island ariport e ­ xpansion By BRIAN ILER By ILER Last week, city staff delivered a thoughtful recommendation on Por­ ter’s proposal to introduce jets to Billy Bishop Airport. The potential im­pact on our waterfront is so pro­ found, staff’s report says, that much more study is needed.

Everyone from Waterfront Toron­ to to Toronto Public Health has since expressed their opposition (see side­ bar) to the expansion, pointing out the havoc it would wreak on the waterfront.

But Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly has other ideas. The guy who’s in charge now that Rob Ford has been sidelined by scandal has made Island airport expansion a priority – his priority.

Kelly is planning to use what poli­ ti­cal capital he has to muster support for the expansion, starting at today’s (Thursday, December 5) Executive Com­mittee meeting, the first he will preside over as deputy.

To understand the Scarborough coun­cillor’s unusual interest in the air­ port, you have to travel back to his days as an MP to then PM Pierre Trudeau.

Elected as a Liberal MP for Scarbor­ ough Centre in 1980, he spent eight years in Ottawa, during which time the government passed Bill C-124, which reorganized Crown corpora­ tions and paved the way for the es­ tablishment of port authorities. Kelly steered the bill through the House of

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Opposition to Porter’s plan to extend the main runway and fly Officer of Health and Waterfront Toronto have added their today (Thursday, December 5) to discuss the proposal. Here’s

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Deputy City Manager John Livey The city’s point man on the expansion proposal says there are too many unknowns to make an informed decision. His report to council recommends delaying a decision until 2015, after the next municipal election. That would be prudent. But lack of info hasn’t stopped council from making decisions before. See casino chaos. And the garbage contract. But that was when Porter’s biggest supporter, Rob Ford, was sitting in the catbird seat. Now that he’s been stripped of his powers, councillors from the burbs won’t be so inclined to buck the city’s recommendation.

Medical Officer of Health David ­McKeown He’s recommending to the Board of Health that city council “plan for the most health-supporting use of the airport lands upon expiry of the current tripartite agreement, consistent with the vision for the Central Waterfront in the city’s Official Plan.”

Sounds like he’s talking green space. Radical thought, but not too outthere when you consider that the 87 hectares the Island airport occupies are still zoned parkland in the Official Plan. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The tri­partite agreement doesn’t expire until 2033.

Waterfront Toronto The board of directors of the waterfront agency, which has been at war with the Ford administration, finally broke its silence this week, issuing a statement after a special public meeting Monday afternoon, December 2.

The statement reads in part that Porter’s plan would “profoundly affect sfuture revitalization prospects for the entire waterfront.” Numbers to note: the city’s technical studies show that the proposed expansion could more than double traffic around the airport at peak hours from the current 750 to 1,715 vehicles per hour.

To understand the deputy’s ­u nusual interest in the Island airport, you have to travel back in time.

Commons and its committees.

After he returned to municipal pol­i­tics in 1994, he was one of the three city-appointed sitting members of the Toronto Harbour Commis­ sion (THC).

In 1997 when the Liberal government was close to passing the Canada Marine Act legislation establishing port authorities, the then head of the THC, Harold Peerenboom, lobbied Lib­eral MP Dennis Mills to include To­ronto’s port in spite of a recommen­dation against it from BMO Nesbitt Burns, the consultants looking at the financial self-sufficiency of Canada’s ports.

City council voted 36 to 1 to ask the federal government not to include To­ronto in the national list of port au­t horities. Kelly cast the lone dissenting vote. The transition to a port authority removed control of our waterfront from the city‑controlled THC and handed it over to the federal government.

Kelly was a Toronto Harbour Commissioner on Peerenboom’s watch when a spending scandal broke over Kelly’s running a $26,000 tab while travelling with his wife to London, Belfast, Boston, Baltimore and Chi­cago. The auditor recommended the city recover the $7,901 Kelly billed for his wife’s travel expenses.

It appears that even after the To­ ron­to Port Authority took over opera­tion of the Island airport and Kelly was neither a commissioner nor port authority board member, his contacts at Billy Bishop kept in touch, his election campaign contribution filings show.

Kelly taught history before enter­ ing politics. As a student of history, he may wish to ask himself why he would want to base today’s priorities on the past.

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jets out of the Island airport swelled this week. The Medical voices against it, as the city’s Executive Committee meets where the various players stand:

Toronto Port Authority Porter’s biggest booster is playing both ends of the runway, urging the city not to delay its vote on expansion and to approve the concept in principle. Nice try. That would have the legal effect of locking the city into ­expansion, and open to huge lawsuits if it decided to change its mind.

Porter Airlines The company has been bombarding customers past and present with emails urging them to email and call their local councillors and, if they have already, to do it again. Porter has a PR problem. While it continues to fixate on noise as the main objection being raised, health issues, particularly for children living and going to school within 300 metres of the airport, is what dominates the concerns of locals.

NoJetsTO Founded in response to Porter’s plans, the group found itself a target of the airline’s ad in the Saturday Star, lumped in with “a minority that wants to close the airport.” NoJetsTO is officially opposed to expansion, not to the airport.

The ad also claims that the majority of Torontonians want Porter’s plan to proceed despite public opinion surveys to the contrary. NoJetsTO has filed a formal complaint with Advertising Standards Canada calling the ad “patently false.”

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As anti-​poverty activists staged a sit-​ in at Metro Hall on a chilly afternoon in March, Rob Ford held a press conference in his office.

The mayor came out swinging against the activists, who had occupied the foyer of the government building to demand more shelter beds for the homeless.

Ford dismissed the action as a “cheap pub­licity stunt” and claimed it was “ab­solutely not true” that the homeless were being turned away from over­crowded shelters.

At the time, the mayor’s comments were the most powerful articulation yet of what had then been the city’s official party line, echoed by bureaucrats and staff reports that asserted “there are beds available every night.”

Reports of a bed shortage continued, however, and concerned councillors weren’t convinced shelters were “working great” as the mayor claimed. Council voted in April to ask staff to make more space in the system.

Since then the official narrative has soft­ened and last week, for the first time, the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration provided independent evidence that corroborated with what activists had been claiming all along – homeless people are indeed being turned away.

An update on the shelter system that went before the Community De-

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velopment and Recreation Committee on Wednesday, December 4, included a quality assurance review con­ducted by polling company Ipsos Reid.

To test access to shelters, the firm made 290 “mystery shopper” calls to 55 shelters and three referral services and asked to be matched with a bed.

The results were not good.

Only 12 per cent resulted in the immediate offer of a bed.

A full quarter of the calls were not answered after three attempts, and 13 per cent resulted in the caller’s being denied a bed without explanation.

Only 3 per cent of female clients who called were offered a bed on the spot compared to 15 per cent for men.

The most common outcome was for callers to be referred to another agency or shelter, with no guarantee of getting a space.

The survey was conducted over three weeks in July and August, when shelter demand is relatively low. It would likely have yielded even more trou­bling findings if done during the win­ter months, when demand for shel­ter beds is at its peak.

John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty sees the study as vindication, albeit nothing to celebrate.

“It indicates that there’s a really severe problem in terms of people being turned away,” he says. “There’s been an ongoing attempt by the ad­ continued on page 24 œ

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Bill Blair, it’s your move œcontinued from page 12

The cops obviously had enough info to persuade a hand-picked judge to allow the wiretaps between Lisi and Ford.

Maybe the police held off busting Ford because they figure Lisi will help them build a case against him to save his own neck. He may, but it seems unlikely; some of the mayor’s former staffers have described Lisi’s relationship with the mayor as bordering on bro love.

Out Etobicoke way, former high school friends from the Ford neighbourhood tell a different story. They say Ford was just an­other of Lisi’s targets, someone he probably plied with

free coke to get him hooked. To hear them tell it, Lisi has a buck­et list of people he wants to screw.

How that may have turned into a conspiracy to commit an indictable offense – to wit, the hot pursuit of the crack video – is anybody’s guess.

The tricky part for po­lice is making the case when those involved may not talk.

How likely is it, for example, that Basso, an alleged target of the Lisi extortion attempt, is cooperating with police? There’s the linchpin. Without Basso or his sister Elaine, also reportedly injured in that home invasion, offering details, the police probe, at least that part of it, is as good as dead.

There are references in the Lisi ITO (“information to obtain”) to a domestic assault call at the mayor’s house.

And Blair has also let slip, intentionally or not, that police have a second video that, if the rumours are true, will prove just as damaging to Ford’s already tattered reputation.

Perhaps it’s enough that Ford has been stripped of his powers and politically ostracized, reduced to a sideshow attraction like the bearded lady.

If Blair wanted to show Ford favour, sending out a Cessna last summer to tail his activities from on high seems a strange way to do it.

The province has got Blair’s back now (did you see the smiley shots at the chief’s ball with Premier Kathleen Wynne?) and has made it known that it’s willing to give council the powers it needs to remove Ford from office if council wants them.

It’s a clear invitation, if Blair is looking for one, to stick it to Ford once and for all. It’s difficult to see council not taking the province up on its offer.

As Ruby reminds us, if the mayor were a 20-year-old black man, he’d be in jail now. enzom@nowtoronto.com | @enzodimatteo

Rob ford’s political brilliance

œcontinued from page 15

In the conventional view of things, the media are the professional truth-​ tellers who hold sometimes dishonest politicians to account. But Ford successfully shifted the debate to one of relative trust: in whom do you put more faith?

In that same interview, LeDrew was on Cooke’s case about using ano­ nymous sources. And Cooke took for granted the trust traditionally placed in his institution: “Don’t have to name names. This is true. We know who they are. And we trust them.”

An Ipsos Reid poll conducted in late May, roughly two weeks after the crack scandal broke, concluded that 45 per cent of Torontonians believed “the video is a hoax and part of a con-

spiracy to discredit the mayor.” * * * On Halloween, the truth about Rob Ford ceased to be a chimeric abstract requiring a degree of faith.

“I have been advised,” Police Chief Bill Blair announced, “that we are now in possession of a recovered digital video file… and that file contains video images which appear to be, uh, those images which were previously reported in the press.…”

It was as though Blair had declared that the Ark of the Covenant was real, that his “top men” had completed their ana­lysis of it and that the deity contained therein matched portrayals found in the Scriptures.

With the concurrent release of police documents summarizing an investigation of the mayor, the gap at last narrowed between the knowledge of the few and the knowledge of the many.

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Five biggest transit

Another year, another TTC budget that embraces the public transit status quo. ­proposals, yet politicians keep operating under a host of misconceptions. By ADAM

Myth #1: The only way to improve ­service is big, flashy expan­ sion projects.

While expansion is important, the city has demonstrated in the past that with concerted effort and modest funding increases in the range of the low millions per year, the existing system can be made to carry many more people through better route management, and more buses, streetcars and trains at peak and offpeak times.

Creative measures like parking and turn restrictions, better crowd management and information at peak times and express buses also have a proven track record.

The proof is in the ridership numbers: through service improvements and other factors, TTC ridership has increased by more than 160 million riders in the last 10 years – more riders than the proposed new LRTs and subways will bring when completed in 15 years.

Myth #2: We can continue to neglect the system for the sake of keeping taxes low.

The real underlying risk to the TTC is long-term substantial government underfunding of basic maintenance. The growing repair backlog is risking the system’s continued operation.

This is not a new problem, but it has been growing as basic maintenance budgets have been cut back; with each successive budget, the prob­lem grows.

The 1996 Russell Hill accident woke us up to the need for increased investment in the system’s basic state of good repair. As memories of that event fade, however, it’s harder for the TTC to communicate the urgency of the need for large-scale maintenance programs and the simple act of replacing worn-out equipment and materials.

While the system remains safe,

$2.7 billion worth of basic maintenance is unfunded over the next 10 years – on top of the $9 billion now bud­geted.

To put this in perspective, the TTC will spend $1.1 billion on large-scale maintenance this year, while it should be spending 20 to 25 per cent more, or $1.35 billion. That extra $270 million is equal to a 10 per cent property tax hike.

The needs are big. Over the next 10 years, the TTC must also order 1,500 new buses at a cost of about $1.2 billion just to meet modest new service needs and to replace buses that will need to be retired at 15 years due to complex new electronic compo­nents. Then there are the garages to park them in – another $200 million.

Myth #3: The TTC is hopeless at controlling costs.

The fact is, while Toronto is one of the highest per capita transit-riding cities in North America, our system is

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We should be fielding bold GIAMBRONE literally the least funded in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co­op­er­a­ tion and Development), which in­ cludes 34 countries.

The idea that the TTC is incompe­ tent is extremely problematic, since it masks the core issue, which is that the transit subsidy has shrunk by 15 per cent since 2010 and yet ridership is up by 60 million trips. If you in­ clude inflation, the subsidy is 22 per cent lower than in 2010.

Whether you support contracting out or not, with the TTC now official­ ly an essential service, there are lim­ its to how much it may legally be able to do.

It has already outsourced just un­ der 200 positions and saved $2.7 mil­ lion, and there are plans for another $2 to $3 million, which may not be realistically allowable under the col­ lective agreement.

Similarly the TTC has cut $18 mil­ lion in administration costs. It cur­ rently operates with fewer manage­ ment staff in total than at any other time in the last 30 years while carry­ ing 40 per cent more passengers than a decade ago.

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Myth #4: We must resign ourselves to overcrowded, second-rate public transit­.

Under former mayor Mel Lastman, councillors and the TTC developed a Ridership Growth Plan that looked to incrementally improve service.

This plan was aggressively imple­ mented under David Miller, but now the discussion of improvements to the existing system has been taken off the table. We seem to have bought the line that there is no mo­ ney, and thus no improvements are possible.

Myth #5: The big story of this year’s TTC budget is the fare increase.

At 5 cents, it doesn’t even cover cost increases and is below the 2 per cent current rate of inflation.

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shelter score œcontinued from page 18

min­istration and by many politi­cians to downplay and understate the problem.

And here’s another glimpse of the underlying reality.”

Councillor Joe Mihevc agrees that the results confirm reports about a systemic lack of access to beds.

“They give statistical validation to the anecdotes, the stories we’ve been hearing,” he says. “It’s not impossible, but you do have to work at getting a bed each night.”

The shelter administration, too, is now explicitly acknowledging that more beds are needed – a far cry from the department’s messaging 10 months ago.

“No one is pleased that callers are being denied a bed without explanation,” wrote administration spokesperson Patricia Anderson in an email response to questions from NOW. “The survey results indicate that we need to take action, and the introduction of more shelter beds and some administrative measures are a start.”

The administration has already been working to decrease occupancy rates to below 90 per cent capacity, as directed by council in April.

To do so they deployed 172 “flex” beds that were previously used only in emergencies, added 30 regular beds to existing facilities and asked shelter operators to find more space in their buildings.

Last week a temporary 30-​bed wo­men’s shelter in Parkdale was opened. But it’s only a temporary fix. The build­ing is scheduled to be demolished in April to make room for a park. A request has been issued to find an operator for a permanent

50-​bed women’s hostel.

Despite these efforts, however, oc­cu­ pancy rates in the 3,800-​bed system are still above the 90 per cent benchmark.

System-​wide occupancy is averag­ing 91 to 92 per cent, and women’s and coed sectors are even higher, well over 95 per cent.

Shelter staff say they are committed to improving the situation. They’ll be reviewing service and access standards in order to set new guide­lines for responding to bed requests, which could address some of the issues raised by the Ipsos poll.

Councillor Mihevc hopes any administrative overhaul includes not only additional beds but the consolidation of homelessness services so people looking for help can get it by calling just one number.

The city website currently lists three different numbers for people seeking shelter (311, Central Intake and the Out of the Cold program), and the dozens of individual shelter providers can also be contacted directly.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-​Tam, a former shelter worker herself, wants the administration to put greater emphasis on helping homeless women by creating the city’s first 24-​hour drop-​in centre for them.

Wong-​Tam says that for months she’s heard from front-line staff that shelters were full but that the extent of the problem hasn’t been reflected in official reports. She’s pleased that city officials have acknowledged that there are major problems with the sys­tem, but she’s perplexed as to why it took so long.

“It seems to me there is a culture of reform happening. I’m not sure why it’s coming now, but I’m really glad it’s here.” 3

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culture

Arts off target

City risks losing its creative talent if it ­reneges on funding goal By BEN SPURR A landmark plan to boost Toronto’s funding for arts and culture groups could be delayed as part of the 2014 budget process.

Earlier this year, local artists celebrated what they thought was a hard-won victory when council agreed to allocate proceeds from a new tax on billboards to fund the arts. The goal was to increase Toronto’s arts funding to $25 per capita by 2016.

But in budget documents re-

leased last week, staff recommend pushing the target back two years to 2018. If council reneges on its 2016 target, it will be the third time the city has missed its own deadline.

“I’m surprised that it’s being suggested to push it back,” says Claire Hopkinson, director and CEO of the Toronto Arts Council, the arm’s-length organization that administers city-funded culture grants. “Arts organiza-

tions have been waiting a very, very long time for this.”

Says Devon Ostrom, who in 2001 founded the Beau­tiful City group that pushed to make the billboard tax a reality: “It’s kind of pathetic. We should really expect more from our government,” he says.

Ostrom warns that the city risks losing its creative talent if we continue to lag behind.

“The next arts hot spot that people are moving to is not the Junction or Parkdale. People are moving to Hamilton because it’s the only place they can afford,” he says.

In order to reach $25 per capita, the city will have to allocate an additional $17.5 million a year to the arts.

The billboard tax is expected to bring in $10.7 million next year, but contrary to what Ostrom and others wanted, that money won’t be specifi­cally earmarked for the arts; instead, it will go into general revenues.

Hopkinson argues that “there was this unwritten deal that was recognized, that this billboard funding was to be a resource to help the city fund the arts.”

Scarborough councillor Gary Craw­ford, the mayor’s arts point man, believes the four-year timetable is still doable. “I’ve made that commitment and I want to live up to it.”

3 bens@nowtoronto.com | @benspurr

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5

How to place a listing

All listings are free. Send to: listings@nowtoronto.com, fax to 416-​364-​1166 or mail to Daily Events, NOW Magazine, 189 Church, Toronto M5B 1Y7. Include a brief description of the event, including participants, time, price, venue, address and contact phone number (or e-mail or website if no phone available). Listings may be edited for length. Deadline is the Thursday before publication at 5 pm.

Thursday, December 5

Benefits

FArtist Proof Sale (Open Studio) Print sale, printmaking demos and more with artists John Armstrong and Andy Fabo. 6-9 pm. Free.

Open Studio, 401 Richmond W, suite 104. openstudio.on.ca.

5Putin On The Ritz (What Dyke Looks Like) Cabaret fundraiser to send an LGBTQ photography project to Russia with music, comedy, door prizes and more. 7:30 pm. $20 adv/pwyc at the door. The Flying Beaver Pubaret, 488 Parliament. pubaret.com.

Events

Advanced Metals Detox Lecture. 7 pm. Free.

Big Carrot, 348 Danforth. 416-466-2129.

FrAllan Gardens Christmas Flower Show Open to the public daily 10 am-5 pm to

Jan 12. Free. Allan Gardens Conservatory, Sherbourne and Gerrard. 416-392-7288.

FGirl Rising Screening of the R Robbins film and fair trade holiday shopping. 8 pm. Free (reservation required). RDA Photo, 19 Atlantic. social­-gem.com.

Icy Visitors Astronomy talk and telescope observing. 8:10 pm. Free. McLennan Physical Labs, 60 St George. uoft.me/astrotours.

Ivory, Horn And Blood: Behind The Elephant And Rhinocerous Crisis Lecture by

Ronald Orenstein. 7 pm. $10. Palmerston Library, 560 Palmerston. zoocheck.com.

Lexicon Performance Salon Community cabaret with performances by poet Andrea Thomson, musician David Celia and others. 6 pm. Free. Assembly Hall, 1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park. d ­ iasporadialogues.com.

The Night They Raided Rochdale College

Performance by Reg Hartt. 7 pm. $10. Cineforum, 463 Bathurst. ­reghartt.ca.

December 5-11 2013 NOW

50 68 71

Dance Art galleries Readings

Nitrogen In The Environment: Climate, Cars And Cattle Royal Canadian Instit lec-

ture. 7:30 pm. Free. Medical Sciences Bldg, Macleod Auditorium, 1 King’s College Circle. royalcanadianinstitute.org.

FOne Of A Kind Christmas Show & Sale

Handmade gifts made by more than 800 Canadian artisans. To Dec 8 weekdays and Sat 10 am-9 pm, Thu 10 am-11 pm, Sun 10 am-6 pm. $12, stu/srs $7, kids free. Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place. ­oneofakindshow.com.

Sectarianism In Contemporary Iraq Lecture by professor Thabit Abdullah. 6 pm. Free.

Noor Cultural Centre, 123 Wynford. ­noorculturalcentre.ca.

Tangled Bodies & This Artist’s Body International Day for People with Disabilities screenings and panel discussion on the lives and practices of artists with disabilities. 5 pm.

Free. TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King W. tiff.net.

FrToronto Christmas Market Europeaninspired marketplace with musical performances, family activities, handcrafted products, food and more. To Dec 15. Free. Distillery District, 55 Mill. ­torontochristmasmarket.com.

Toronto WordSmiths Writing group for youth 16 to 29. 5:30-7:30 pm. Free. Parkdale Library, 1303 Queen W. facebook.com/­ towordsmiths.

Women’s Canadian Club Gala luncheon with a talk by journalist Christine Bentley.

12:30 pm. $65. National Club, 303 Bay. 416463-3405.

Friday, December 6

Benefits

FArts And Crafts Fair (United Way) One-

of-a-kind items from local artisans. 11 am-6 pm. Free. North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge. torontopubliclibrary.ca.

Founder’s Dinner (Enoch Turner Schoolhouse Foundation) Performance by comedian Jason Wilson, carol singing with Susan Ryman, dinner and more. 6:15 pm. $110. Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, 106 Trinity. amcarty@­ enochturnerschoolhouse.ca.

FrSounds Of The Season (local food banks) CBC Radio’s annual open house with musical performances by Serena Ryder, Walk Off the Earth, Chris Hadfield and Wexford Gleeks, live tapings of shows, auctions and more. 5:30 am-6:30 pm. Free w/ food donation. CBC Broadcasting Centre, 250 Front West. cbc.ca/toronto/community.

Events

Aikido For Kids Learn the martial art of harmony to build confidence and discipline. 6 pm. $5. Tao Sangha Toronto Healing Centre, 375 Jane. 416-925-7575.

Rain? Snow? Dress up? Dress down?

Blundstone boots take it all in stride. Try all-season, all-terrain, all-world Blundstone boots.

Laces? Who needs | ’em?

Australian Boot Company 2644 Yonge St., Toronto 416-488-9488 698 Queen St. West, Toronto 416-504-2411 For mail order or a free catalogue call: 1-877-842-1126

26

Live music Theatre Comedy

72 61 72

Movie reviews Movie times Rep cinemas

78 88 90

festivals • expos • sports etc.

Walk Off the Earth play Sounds Of The Season December 6.

FBit Bazaar Winter Market Video games-

and comic-themed holiday market. Opening party Fri 7- 11 pm, market Sat 11 am-7 pm.

Free. Bento Miso Collaborative Workspace, 862 Richmond W. ­bentomiso.com.

FBlack & White Holiday Dance Toronto Swing Dance Society dance. 8 pm. $15.

Lithuanian House, 1573 Bloor W. ­torontoswingdancesociety.ca.

FCarols In The Tavern Sing 19th-century carols and sip a historic drink. Today and tomorrow 7:30 pm. $20. Montgomery’s Inn, 4709 Dundas W. 416-394-8113.

FrChristmas At Kortright Horse-drawn wagon rides, Santa’s workshop, treats and more. Today and tomorrow. Free w/ admission. Kortright Centre, Pine Valley and Major Mackenzie (Kleinburg). 905-832-2289.

Community Bicycle Network 20th-anniversary party with special guests, cake, a silent auction and entertainment. 8 pm. Free. 761 Queen W. communitybicyclenetwork.org.

Friday Night Live @ ROM Season finale of the weekly event featuring live music, DJs, pop-up food and more. 7-11 pm. $12, stu $10. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park. rom.on.ca/fnl.

FHoliday Gift Fair Gifts, a book sale, café, door prizes and more. 10 am. Free. Central Eglinton Community Centre, 160 Eglinton E. 416-392-0511 ext 225, ­centraleglinton.com.

Indigenous Ways To Build Relationships

Workshop for urban aboriginal women and youth. 12:30-4:30 pm. $125. Native Women’s

big3

It’s the time of year to look out for holiday benefits designed to assist those in need. One of Toronto’s favourite traditions is the Riverdale Share concert. This year, neighbourhood artists – including Jim Cuddy, Tim Bovaconti and Lorraine Segato – lend their talents to a stage show Sunday (December 8), 3 pm, at the Danforth Music Hall (147 Danforth) whose proceeds go to several charities. Always a big hit. $20. 1-855985-5000, riverdaleshare.com.

GROUND THOSE JETS

australianboot.com

Resource Centre, 191 Gerrard E. Pre-register ­guestli.st/207273.

FA Night To Remember Community holiday event with drinks and treats, Mr & Mrs Claus and more. Free w/ new toy donation. Edithvale Community Centre, 131 Finch W. ­sparrott.wix.com/laurynschristmas.

FrTis The Season Carollers and late-night shopping, plus a reading of A Christmas Carol (7 pm, Kingston Road United Church, 975 Kingston). 6:30-9 pm. Free. Kingston btwn Victoria Park and Hannaford. 416-699-6091.

Toronto Cares! Vigil For The Figueroa Family Vigil to protest the deportation of El

Salvador activist José Figueroa. 4 pm. Free.

CBSA Offices, 1 Front. w ­ earejose.org.

Ultimate Werewolf Play an intense, immersive mystery game where you’re part of the action. 7 pm. $10-$15. The Box, 89 Niagara. ultimatewerewolf.ca.

Women Won’t Forget Day of remembrance for women murdered by men and the 24th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre with native healing ceremony, speakers, musical and spoken word performances and a candlelight vigil. Bring a rose and candle. 6 pm. Philosopher’s Walk, S side of Bloor, W of Avenue. ­womenwontforget.org.

Saturday, December 7

Benefits

FrHabitat Gingerbread Build (Habitat

for Humanity) Build and decorate a gingerbread house. Today and tomorrow 10:30 am,

NOW editors pick a trio of this week’s can’t-miss events

SHARE THE WEALTH

#585 Rustic Brown $179.95

listings index

Breathe a momentary sigh of relief: a report by city staff says there are too many unknowns to let Porter fly jets out of the Toronto Island airport at the moment. But the final decision

goes to council December 16, and No Jets T.O. aims to make sure our reps know the lakeshore is no place for polluting jets. Our City Our Waterfront hears contributions from former mayors David Miller and David Crombie, ex-chief planner Paul Bedford, architect Jack Diamond and others. Monday (December 9), 6:30 pm. Free. Metro Hall, 55 John, room 308. ­nojetsto.ca.

noon, 1:30 & 3 pm. Donation. Habitat Toronto Gingerbread Factory, 19 Waterman, Unit 4. ­torontohabitat.ca.

FHoliday Bazaar (Pegasus Community Project) Fundraiser for adults with special needs, featuring gifts, crafts, baked goods and more. 10 am-4:30 pm. Free. Beaches Rec Centre, 6 Williamson. p ­ egasustoronto.ca.

FrHoliday Food & Craft (Parkdale Community Health Centre) Crafts, locally grown foods, live music and more. 11 am-4 pm. Free.

West End Food Co-op, 1229 Queen W. ­westendfood.coop.

Kolka Cool (Aid to Latvia) Screening of the Latvian film. 7:30 pm. $10. CineCycle, 129 Spadina. 416-300-7782.

Off The Wall (Propeller Centre for the visual Arts) Art sale, live entertainment and refreshments. 7 pm. $150. Propeller, 984 Queen W. ­eventbrite.ca.

Pig Save Fundraiser (Toronto Pig Save) Music, speakers, vegan food and more. 6 pm. $35, adv $25. 34 Little Norway Cres, Lakeview Room. ­torontopigsave.org/donate.

Songs From Winnipeg (Musicounts) Performances by Cuff the Duke, Harlan Pepper, Jeremy Fisher, Lindy, Miranda Mulholland and others. $20. Horseshoe, 370 Queen W. ­ticketfly.com.

Events

FArtisans’ Gift Fair One-of-a-kind hand-

made gifts. Today and tomorrow noon-6 pm.

Free. Tranzac, 292 Brunswick. ­artisansgiftfair. com.

Le Chien Noir: Salon Des Arts View and create collage, and enjoy music and coffee.

Noon. Free (donations accepted). City Art Collage Gallery, 230 Queen E. cityartproject.ca.

FChristmas Baking Workshop on baking Victorian holiday teats. 9-11:30 am. $20.

Mackenzie House, 82 Bond. Pre-register 416392-6915.

Economics Of The Global Commons Earthsharing Canada annual general meeting with workshops and discussion on sharing the Common wealth, tax shifting and more. 1-5 pm. Free. Metro Hall, 55 John. Pre-register ­fdejong@earthsharing.ca.

An Eiffel Tower At Don Pinnacle (Broadview And Danforth 1889) – CPR Don Railway Boom Urban ecology walk. 2 pm. Free.

Broadview subway. 416-593-2656.

Fall In Love With The Arts 2 Local arts groups present an afternoon of speed dating.

2-5 pm. Free. Daniels Spectrum, 585 Dundas E. ­fallinlovewiththearts2.eventbrite.com/.

FrFamily Christmas Sculpture And Ornament Workshop Build a sculpture and ornament out of clay. 2-4 pm. $25. Gardiner

Jim Cuddy performs December 8 at the Riverdale Share benefit.

VIGIL AGAINST VIOLENCE

You can’t make change without collective memory, which is why every anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, 24 years ago, Women Won’t Forget hosts its annual Day Of Remembrance for women murdered by men. Get yourself a rose and a candle and join the vigil, which includes a native healing ceremony, spoken word perform-

ances, speeches and music. Friday (December 6), from 6 pm. Free. Philosopher’s Walk, enter from the south side of Bloor, west of University. womenwontforget.org.

Museum, 111 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8080.

FFestival Of Smalls Sale of original artworks in gift sizes. To Dec 24. Free (art $55$250). Art Interiors, 446 Spadina Rd. ­artinteriors.ca.

FFirsthand Fair Handcrafted items. Today and tomorrow 11 am-5 pm. Free. Sneaky Dee’s, 431 College. ­firsthandfair.com.

FFrost Fair 19th-century Christmas marketplace. Today and tomorrow 10 am-5 pm. Free w/ admission. Historic Fort York, 100 Garrison. 416-392-6907.

FGingerbread House Decorating Workshop. 10 am-noon. $60. Le Dolci, 1006 Dundas W. Pre-register ­ledolci.com.

FGladstone Flea Curated, hand-picked holiday marketplace featuring vintage, craft, design, jewellery, clothing and more. 10 am-4 pm. Free. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen W. ­gladstonehotel.com.

Finch W. ­israelaidmission.org.

FrHolly’s Toy Drive (Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club) Aerobathon for kids four to 17 to remember Holly Jones. 10 am-noon. Free w/ unwrapped gift or toy. Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, 220 Cowan. facebook.com/ events/219259131577316.

FRiverdale Share (local charities) Performances by Jim Cuddy, Tim Bovaconti, Lorraine Segato, Suzie Wilde and others. 3 pm. $20 plus non-perishable food item. Danforth Music Hall, 147 Danforth. 1-855-985-5000, ­riverdaleshare.com.

FrFamily Jingle & Mingle Party with cupcake decorating, entertainment, rides, crafts and more. 11 am-5 pm. $13, adv $11; child $9, adv $7; under 2 free. International Centre, 690 Airport. ­jingleandmingle.ca.

FFestival Of Lights Interspiritual celebration with sacred words, poetry, chants, songs and music. 1:30-3:30 pm. $10 or pwyc. Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham. ­beitzatoun.org.

Good Food Is Fair Farmers’ market. 10 am-​ 2 pm. Free. 1482 Bathurst, 2nd floor. ­jerryleemiller@hotmail.com.

FAlternative Gift Fair Bring three lightly

Family-friendy readings and activities with authors and illustrators. 2 pm. Free. Celine Garden, 972 Queen E. 416-463-2303.

Events

used or new gifts and trade them for three

rKids Can Press Celebrates 40 Years

Toronto Monologue Slam Season finale show. Doors 5:30 pm. $10-$15. Unit 102, 376 Dufferin. toslam.com.

FVictorian Christmas Market Tours of the 1848 schoolhouse, holiday shopping and treats. 10 am-5 pm. Free. Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, 106 Trinity. 416-327-6997.

Monday, December 9

No Jets T.O. – Our City, Our Waterfront

Benefits

Shameless Magazine Fundraising Gala

(Shameless Magazine) Silent auction, music, prizes and more with NOW Magazine’s Alice Klein and Susan G Cole speaking. 6-9 pm. $20.

Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst. ­facebook.com/shamelessmag.

Idiophonic Sound Symbols In Mahler’s Symphonies Talk by author Neil Moran. 2 pm.

$5. North York Civic Centre, rm 4, 5100 Yonge. ­torontomahlersociety.org.

FJane Austen Christmas Ball Dance workshops, dancing to live music, historical board games and more. 1:30 pm. $45, yth/stu $35.

St Barnabas Anglican Church, 361 Danforth. ­janeaustendancing.ca.

Linking Diversity Intercultural festival with music, dance, food and an artisan marketplace. Noon-7 pm. Free. Noor Cultural Centre, 123 Wynford. 416-444-7148.

FMaker’s Cartel Winter Market Locally hand-crafted goods. Today 11 am-8 pm; tomorrow 11 am-6 pm. Free. The Foundery, 376 Bathurst. m ­ akerscartel.com.

Benefits

FArt Aesthetics (Barbra Schlifer Commem-

FMeet Mel B At The Twelve Trees Of

Must be legal drinking age. Watch your tail. Drink responsibly.

Extraordinary or extra ordinary.

The choice is yours. [ taste life ]

You could win your experience of a lifetime. $10,000 to do that thing you always wanted to try.

Enter today at / yellowtail

Events

Benefits

Panel discussion with former mayor David Crombie, architect Jack Diamond and others.

6:30 pm. Free. Metro Hall, 55 John, room 308. ­nojetsto.ca.

Tales Of... Victory Storytelling with DavidBenjamin Tomlinson, Stephanie Fowler and others. 8 pm. Pwyc. Rustic Owl, 993 Bloor W. 416-652-2485.

Trampoline Hall Mini-lectures curated by Naomi Skwarna and hosted by Misha Glouberman. 8 pm. $5-$6. Garrison, 1197 Dundas W. trampolinehall.net.

Write For Rights Talk by former political prisoner Hamid Ghassemi-Shall and letter writing. 6:30 pm. Free. St John’s Norway Church, 470 Woodbine. beachamnesty@ gmail.com.

Tuesday, December 10

Christmas Live interview with the Spice Girl/ actress and a screening of the movie The Twelve Trees Of Christmas. 1:30 pm. Free (adv tickets required). North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge. ­torontopubliclibrary.ca.

FMovies & Makers Holiday Show Fashion, jewellery, pottery, photography, fine art, toys, paper crafts and more by local creators.

10 am-5 pm. Free. Fox Theatre, 2236 Queen E. movies-and-makers.blogspot.ca. rMunsched! George Brown Theatre School presents a family-friendly show based on Robert Munsch stories. 1 pm. $7-$18. Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane. 416-866-8666. rOrienteering Family nature walk using a map and compass. 1 pm. $2-$5. High Park Nature Centre, 440 Parkside. ­highparknaturecentre.com.

Phoenix Poetry Workshop Read your poem for feedback and provide feedback to others.

2:30-4:30 pm. Free. College/Shaw Library, 766 College. ­phoenixpoetryworkshop.ca.

The Really Really Free Market Community space for sharing clothes, toys, music, furniture, artisan goods, services and more. 10 am-4 pm. Free. Campbell Park, S of Dupont, W of Lansdowne. rrfmarket.blogspot.ca.

FrSanta In The Junction Santa’s workshops, story readings, a reindeer scavenger hunt, strolling carollers and more. 11 am.

Free. Junction neighbourhood (see website for details). ­thejunctionbia.ca/santa-in-the­junction-2013. rSolar Observing Learn about our nearest star and try to spot exotic surface features. 10 am (weather permitting). Free. Ontario Science Centre, 770 Don Mills. 416-696-1000.

Stop The Plunder Mi’kmaq and Sepwepemc warriors speak at a Mapuche solidarity event.

6:30 pm. Free. OISE, rm 2211, 252 Bloor W. ­wccctoronto.wordpress.com.

Toronto Chinatown Walking Tour See heritage buildings, graffiti on the Great Wall, a historic garment factory, dim sum demo and more. 1-4:30 pm. Free. Pre-register 416496-9633, swmaccr@gmail.com.

Toronto Salsa Practice No lesson, beginners to pros, no partner required. 3:30 & 5:30 pm. $5. Trinity-St Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor W. ­torontosalsapractice.com.

FTrunk Treasures Show & Sale 10 am-3 pm. St Columba & All Hallows Church, 2723 St more, or make your own gift using 3D printers Lizzie Violet’s Cabaret Noir This night of Clair E. 416-755-0301.

Docket: 31014291-P Date: October 2013 Adcabaret #: yel_4291_13_con2_006 Colour: 4 colour and a woodshop.

10 am-3 pm. Free Studio (pay for indie artistry and features burlesque, Baby It’s Cold Outside Burlesque revue with FWreath-Making Workshop for adults and supplies). Toronto Tool Library, 1803 Danpoetry, spoken word and more. 7 pm. Pwyc.

Agency Docket: 31014291 Internal Revisions: Description: Print Ad Publication: Now Magazine Mz Kitty Demure, Esther De Ville, Knox Harter youth 10 to 15. 2 pm. $55 one adult and one forth. ­torontotoollibrary.com.

The Central, 603Job Markham. facebook.com/ and others. 9:30 pm. $10. Winchester, 51A youth, additional youth $22.50. Colborne events/538411499570793.

Conversations With Lee Lorch Screening Client: Yellowtail Client Revisions: Mechanical Size: 5.83”x7.44” Winchester. ­winchesterkitchen.com.

Mechanical Approval Lodge, High Park. Pre-register 416-392-6916. and discussion of a documentary based on rSamba Drumming For Kids Drop-in workChanting For peace, happiness and spiritual Ylvis Signing copies of their picture book interviews with the civil rights activist. 11 shop for kids of all ages. 11 am-noon. $10. growth. 7 pm. Free. Tao Sangha Toronto HealWhat Does the Fox Say? Noon. Free. Chapters, am. Free. 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture.

Drum Artz, 27 Primrose. ­drumartz.com. ing Centre, 375 Jane. 416-925-7575.

John and Richmond. chapters.indigo.ca. ujpo.org.

FSwell Sundays! Christmas In The Golden The Enigmatic Genius Of Robert Altman Dumps In Garrison Creek (Early Copy Pollution Art Director Signature/Date Writer Signature/Date Service Signature/Date: Age Of Radio Watch the behind-the-scenes Account Film clips and talk by critic Kevin Courrier. 7 In 1880s Toronto) Lost rivers walk. 2 pm. fun of a live radio drama. Noon-5 pm. $12, srs/ pm. $11, stu $6.

Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina.

Free. King and Strachan. 416-593-2656. yth $10, child $8. Spadina Museum, 285 416-924-6211 ext 606.

Spadina Rd. 416-392-6910. rEugenie Fernandes The author/illustrator Fundraising Concert For The Philippines FYOU3 Evening of food and stories celebrating reads from her Kitten series of seasonal The Toronto Card Show Sports cards and (Israel Aid Mission) Afternoon of music and F-You: The Forgiveness Project. 7 pm. Free. 37 books. 2 pm. Free. Gardiner Museum, 111 memorabilia. 10 am-4 pm. Free. Leaside Garentertainment. 3 pm. $20 sugg donation.

Bulwer. fyouprojectinfo@gmail.com.

Queen’s Park. kidscan.com. dens, 1073 Millwood. ­torontocardshow.com.

Northview Heights Secondary School, 550

Sunday, December 8

Happiness Now: The Art Of Living Buddhist seminar. 7 pm. Free. Runnymede Library, 2178 Bloor W. 416-654-9211.

Les Tablettistes Bilingual conference on how early childhood education will have to change to adapt to a new generation raised by tablet technology. 8 am-4:30 m. $129, adv $99 stu $49. York U Glendon College, 2275 Bayview.

Pre-register ­tablettistes.com.

orative Clinic) Art sale. Today and tomorrow.

Free. Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen W. 416-5366778.

FA Christmas Carol (St Stephen in the Field breakfast program) Reading of the Dickens classic by Tom Allen, Maggie Helwig and others. 7 pm. Donation. Trinity-St Paul’s United Church, 427 Bloor W. 416-922-8435.

Inside Llewyn Davis (MusiCounts) Screening of the Joel and Ethan Coen film plus live music

by Justin Rutledge, Maylee Todd, the Beauties and others and an afterparty. 7:30 pm. $60.

TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King W. ­insidellewyndavis.ca.

Events

Discover India Travel talk. 6:30 pm. Free. Adventure Travel Co, 48 King W. a ­ tcadventure. com. rLearn To Skate Outdoor skating classes for all ages run through Mar 2014. Various times and prices. Harbourfront Centre Rink, 235 Queens Quay W. Pre-register 416-973-4093, harbourfrontcentre.com/learntoskate.

Occupy Economics Discussion on the social embedment of exchange. 6:30 pm. Free. Steel­ workers Hall, 25 Cecil. occupyeconomics.ca.

The Unknown Vivaldi Lecture by Rick Phillips of Sound Advice. 7 pm. Free. Palmerston Library, 560 Palmerston. 416-393-7674.

Wednesday, December 11

Benefits

FAndy Kim Christmas Show (CAMH Fdn Gift of Light) Musical performances by Gord Downie, Amy Millan, Ron Sexsmith, Kardinal Offishall and others. 7 pm. $30. Virgin Mobile Mod Club, 722 College. ticketmaster.com.

Dirty Bingo (Rarely Pure Theatre/The Box) Bingo and burlesque performances by Miss Fluffy Soufflé and others. 8 pm. $5. Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen W. 416-531-4635.

Lips And Lashes: A Chorus Queen (Canadian Cancer Soc) Cabaret-style drag show and entertainment. 7:30 pm. $65 & $99. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park. cancer.ca/ lipsandlashes.

Events

Biological Urbanism Exhibition tour with curator Lisa Deanne Smith. 6:30 pm. Free.

Onsite [at] OCAD U, 230 Richmond W. ­terreform.org.

Ghost Dance: Activism. Resistance. Art

Curator and artist walk-through of the exhibition. 6 pm. Free. Ryerson Image Centre, 33 Gould. ryerson.ca/ric.

upcoming

Thursday, December 12

Benefits

FCBC Charity Craft Sale (Ontario Assoc of

Food Banks) Handmade gifts, jewellery, clothing, soap, toys, baked goods and more. 8:30 am-5:30 pm. Free. CBC Broadcasting Centre, 250 Front W. cbccharitycraftsale.ca.

Events

Connecting The Dots Creative networking event for artists and community members.

7-9 pm. Free. Red Rocket Coffee, 1364 Danforth. eastendarts.ca.

Frequency Matters With Marcel Wolfe

Lecture. 7 pm. Free. Big Carrot, 348 Danforth.

416-466-2129.

3

NOW December 5-11 2013

27

David Laurence

food&drink

Gasthaus gusto

Get stuffed at Das Gasthaus – part beer hall, part fine dining spot By Steven Davey deliers and velvet-tufted banquettes – falls right down the middle. The kitchen’s plates are a mixed bag as well. Owner Ruthie Cummings starts off winningly with a charcuterie board proverbially groaning with rustic chicken-liver pâté, Hausmade pickles and her mom’s superb rosemary-scented grape jam, as well as slices

DAS GASTHAUS (107 Danforth, at Broadview, 647-352-5044, dasgasthaus.ca, @­DasGasthausTO) Complete dinners for $45 per person, including tax, tip and a micro-brew. Average main $18. Open Monday to Thursday 4 pm to midnight, Friday and Saturday 4 pm to to 1 am.

Weekend brunch starting at 11 am. Reservations accepted. Licensed. Access: barrier-free. Rating­: NNN

Launched late last June, Das Gasthaus seems to be a restaurant of two minds.

One half aspires to fine Mitteleuropean dining with an upscale carte that includes the likes of panseared trout with wilted greens and whatever the “potato salad of the moment” might happen to be.

The other borders on German student beer hall, from the $5 happyhour pints of Beau’s Lug Tread to the CD player that lurches from punk to ska and a rap-metal version of Hava Nagila. Oy vey!

The decor – all mismatched chan-

28

December 5-11 2013 NOW

of outsourced salami, Emmenthal and smoked Gouda ($10). An accompanying basket of stale pretzel buns gets replaced by another still warm from the oven.

Her flammkuchen starter – think Bavarian pizza – sadly misfires, its buttery crust more suited for pastry, its toppings of doublesmoked Mennonite

bacon and sour cream barely there ($14). We manage four of 16 slices. But she’s back on track with a terrific roasted beet salad in creamy yogurt dressing ($6 small/$10 large), even if the advertised pickled beans have gone missing.

Das mains are just as massive. The inevitable schnitzel ($17) comes cleverly breaded with pretzel crumbs, plus a pool of walnut brown butter, a handful of perfectly executed string beans and a whole lotta dill underneath. There are bright-red cabbage rolls ($15) bursting with smoked ham hock and nutty wild rice in tomato sauce.

Given the 35-seat room’s dim light-

ing, it’s hard to tell white gnocchilike Schupfnudel dumplings ($11/$18) in a mild cream sauce laced with Cambozola blue from the equally monochromatic potato salad ($5) when served side-by-side in identical white bowls. Hint: one’s hot, the other’s not. A cast-iron skillet of redcabbage sauerkraut spiked with sweet apple cider vinegar ($4.50) adds some needed visual impact.

As stuffed as sausage, we pass on former Spice Room sommelier Cummings’s old-school cherry strudel ($7). A veritable suitcase of leftovers guarantees we will eat at Das Gasthaus again. And again. And again. 3 stevend@nowtoronto.com | @stevndaveynow

Owner Ruthie Cummings (clockwise from top left) chats at the bar with a customer; Jonathon David Allen arranges the charcuterie board; charcuterie board and schnitzel and sauerkraut are Das Gasthaus favourites.

Ñ

Critics’ Pick NNNNN Rare perfection NNNN Outstanding, almost flawless NNN Recommended, worthy of repeat visits NN Adequate N You’d do better with a TV dinner

✺

Indicates patio

food&drink

recently reviewed

Tons of restaurants, crossing cultures, every week Compiled by Steven Davey

ing a page from Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s modern Middle Eastern playbook, Laura Sestito and Fiona Byrne’s laid-back Cabbagetown café turns traditional sides into mains with spectacular results. An ever-changing carte designed to eat in or take away guarantees no two visits are ever the same. Best: terrific salad combos like creamy green lentils with lean Danish bacon, sour cherries and Gorgonzola in citrus vinaigrette; prosciutto, fresh fig and mozzarella panini on Ace baguette with mixed greens in pesto; daily specials like roasted boneless chicken breasts with peanuts, saffron and rosewater; old-school cinnamon buns and scones; at weekend

brunch, caramelized pecan waffles with spiced apple sausage and jalapeño-infused maple syrup. Complete meals for $20 per person, including, tax, tip and an iced tea.

Average main $9. Open Wednesday to Friday 7 am to 7 pm, Saturday and Sunday 8 am to 5 pm, Monday 7 am to 7 pm. Closed Tuesday, some holidays. Reservations accepted. Unlicensed. Access: one step at door, washrooms on same floor. Rating­: NNNN

Steady

1051 Bloor W, at Havelock, 416-536-4162, ­thesteadycafe.com All-day café, late-night alterna-queer dance club and early-evening supper spot, this Bloordale storefront is one of T.O.’s few beaneries with a card that caters to both herbivore and carnivore. ExHogtown Vegan chef Vanessa Robak’s colourfully plated mains more than make up for the lack of decor. Best: crab cakes with mustardy dill dressing; grain-fed

freshdish

Openings, closings, events and other news from T.O.’s food and drink scene Back in black

Schnitzel Queen isn’t the only resto causing a commotion at the unlikely corner of Queen and Sherbourne.

Watch for the imminent arrival of Black Irish Whiskey Bar & Oyster ­Saloon (­blackirish.ca) in the old Popeye’s Chicken. Owner Joey McGuirk (once of Prohibition and Oh Boy ­Burger) promises a “down-home Maritime pub” pitched somewhere ­between Rodney’s, McVeigh’s and Allen’s on the Danforth. Who says ­location counts?

It’s a cin’ Just because Bolt Fresh Bar (boltfreshbar.com) has taken over the storefront at 1170 Queen West doesn’t mean the Cinnamon Girls (@­CinnamonGirlsTO) have gone out

of business. Though she’s given up on retail, head Girl ­Joanne Landry is still in business working out of the kitchen in back of Bolt, where she now f­ ocuses exclusively on her lucrative catering career.

House rules A self-described gastro-pub has quietly opened in the upper reaches of the Beach. The newly minted Beech Tree (924 Kingston Rd, at Lawlor, 416-699-4444, thebeechtreepub. ca, @­TheBeechTreePub) – home to the critically acclaimed Rosetta many eons ago – features ex-Opus sous Jamie­Newman in the kitchen and a carte of comfort food classics in the making. Dinner service runs Tuesday through Sunday from a SD sensible 5 pm.

cheeseburgers laced with oatmeal and spinach, sided with jalapeño potato salad; vegan pizza (no, really!), a barely there kidney bean crust dressed with peppers, tomato, onion and faux cheese; slow-cooked side ribs in bourbon barbecue sauce with cashew-carrot slaw; at brunch, cornbread waffles stuffed with collard greens in chipotle maple syrup. Complete dinners for $35 per person, including tax, tip and an UnSteady cocktail. Average main $12. Open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday 5 to 11 pm.

Weekend brunch 10 am to 3 pm. Café open daily from 9:30 am, bar till close. Closed Monday, Tuesday, holidays. Reservations ­accepted. Licensed. Access: bump at door, washrooms in basement. Rating­: NNN

Crepes Millie Creperie 161 Baldwin, at Spadina, 416-977ñ 1922, milliecreperie.com, @­milliecreperie

Part crispy ice cream cone and part French flapjack, Harajuku-style crepes look set to become as ubiquitous as ramen and tacos.

And where better to find this multi-culti street food then amidst the colourful chaos of Kensington Market? That is, if you manage to find Carson Leung and Christinn Hua’s way-cute take-away. Hint: it’s around the corner from Seven Lives and under the parking garage across from the George Brown condo. Best: savoury crepes like smoked salmon with cream cheese and pickled red onion in Sriracha-spiked mayo; the Rabbit Food combo with spinach, tomato and shredded cheddar ‘n’ mozarella; mushroom and tofu with optional scrambled egg; on the sweet side, the Japanese Special Crepe with house-made green tea gelato, strawberries and whipped cream; banana split parfaits layered with chocolate gelato, berries, whipped cream and cornflakes with Pocky antennae. Open Sunday to Thursday 12:30 to 8:30 pm, Friday and Saturday 12:30 to 10 pm. Closed some holidays. No reservations. Unlicensed. Access: barrier-free, no washrooms. Rating­: NNNN 3

steven davey

Café Scullery 200 Carlton, at Ontario, 647-748ñ 5000, t­ hescullery.ca, @The_Scullery Tak-

Aptly named Schnitzel Queen’s sandwiches are mammoth, delicious and well priced.

Size Queen

Though it only seats three people – four if you count the stool – Schnitzel Queen (237 Queen East, at Sher­bourne, 416-363-9176, rating­: NNNNN) is responsible for some of the largest sandwiches around. One can easily feed two people.

The pork schnitzel comes pounded, battered, then crisply fried and dressed simply with mayo, sliced tomato and leafy lettuce on a nine-grain ciabatta bun ($6.99). Optional toppings range from lemony potato salad and caramelized onion (the Bernard) to diced bacon, sauerkraut and processed cheddar (the King). You can also get these colossal cutlets as dinner plates with the ’kraut, salad and creamy mushroom sauce on the side (all $9.99). The schnitzel by it-

self goes for five bucks, perfect for building a busy-day dinner around.

There are also very good housemade soups like a hearty leek with smoked ham ($3.99) and a brought-in Viennese-style cheesecake ($4 a slice, all prices tax-inclusive). Needless to say, lineups at lunch are insane. You have to fight your way in, wait for what seems like forever, then fight your way back out. Not fun. Thankfully, the Queen has just started delivering in the downtown core.

“But only if I like you,” jokes current owner Karl Hubsch. “I’m a bit of a control freak.”

Such is the overwhelming demand, he’s also about to introduce two new vegetarian schnitzels.

“Deep-fried cheese and deep-fried eggplant. They’re very popular back in SD the Czech Republic.”

New Year’s Eve Planner Get your party or New Year’s Eve event listed in NOW’s New Year’s Eve Planner coming in our December 12 issue.

Submit listings by Thursday Dec 5 at 5pm.

Email: music@nowtoronto.com Fax: NYE listings, 416-364-1166 Mail/drop off: 189 Church St, Toronto M5B 1Y7

Everything Toronto.

NOW December 5-11 2013

29

drinkup

By SARAH PARNIAK drinks@nowtoronto.com | @s_parns

where to drink right now

WHAT we’re DRINKING TONIGHT

Bartender

DIY

OH, CANADA!

Creek Heart Of Gold Reserve Whisky ñForty

Rating: NNNN Why: This is a limited release from Forty Creek whisky master John K. Hall – there are only 9,000 bottles – so you should secure one stat. Maple sugar, dried fruit rind and rye-forward florals make it fun to ponder and even more fun to drink.

Price: 750 ml/$69.95 Availability: LCBO 348482

Spice up the seasonal festi­vities by adding some crafty oil to the ­entertainment engine. Let these pro cocktail bartenders be your guides to spirited DIY.

world whisky Sometimes trendy bourbon and sophisticated Scotch hog the limelight, but these lesser-known global whiskies also deserve some attention.

THREE SHIPS 5 YEAR OLD WHISKY

pimento dram

Robin Goodfellow, GM and bartender at Ursa (924 Queen West, 416536-8963, ursa-­ restaurant.com), is a DIY champion who makes his own vermouth, liqueurs, syrups and infusions, adding a signature stamp to Ursa’s cocktail list. Goodfellow makes a pimen­to dram to add depth and spice to his Lion’s Tail cocktail.

How to make it: To one bottle of Rhum Barbancourt 4 Year Old (750ml/$29.10, LCBO 256321), add: 1 tsp allspice ½ tsp dried lemon peel pinch cloves, pinch coriander seeds Let the ingredients sit for one week, agitating daily. Strain through cheesecloth, add 1 cup of rich simple syrup (2:1 sugar and water), let sit overnight and enjoy!

How to use it: Drop by Ursa for a Lion’s Tail or roll up your sleeves and mix one at home: 2 oz bourbon ¾ oz pimento dram ½ oz fresh lime juice ¼ oz rich simple syrup 2 dashes Angostura Bitters Shake, fine-strain and serve up.

Apple oolong tea syrup

Josh Lindley (joshlindley.com), bartender at Bar Isabel (797 College, 416-532-2222, ­barisabel.com) whips up a seasonal syrup from pressed Ontario apples and oolong tea for the Centre Of The Universe, his locally inspired Forty Creek cocktail.

How to make it: 1 cup apple juice 1 cup sugar (white refined is fine.)

2 oolong tea bags (available wherever herbal teas are sold) 3 oz vodka (for preservation’s sake) Bring the apple juice to a boil, kill the heat, add sugar and dissolve. Then add tea bags and vodka and let steep for an hour or until cool.

How to use it: Though you can sometimes catch The Centre Of The Universe on special at Bar Isabel, here’s how to mix one at home: 1½ oz Forty Creek Copper Pot (750ml/$26.95, LCBO 285254) ½ oz Becherovka (750ml/$27.95, LCBO 603456) 1 oz apple oolong syrup 3 dashes Berg & Hauck’s Jerry ­Thomas Bitters ($24.95 at BYOB, 927 Queen West, 416-858-2932, ­byobto.com)

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december 5-11 2013 NOW

Rating: NNN Why A blend of Scottish and South Afri­can whiskies, Three Ships is made on the Western Cape by James Sedgwick and Co., which has been producing spirits since the late 1800s.

Aromatic with a full, sweet body and a long smoky finish, it’s a lot of taste for your dime.

Price 750 ml/$34.95 Availability LCBO 329060

Spicy Whisky

Aja Sax, manager and mixer at the Huntsman Tavern (890 College, 416-901-9919), spices up smooth, round Canadian whisky with chili de arbol.

How to make it: Toast 4 to 5 dried chilies in a cast iron pan to revive them, then soak in water for a few minutes, remove and let dry before adding them to a bottle of Wiser’s Special Blend (750m/ $24.45, LCBO 1222). Let sit four to six hours, agitating occasionally before straining.

How to use it: Stop into the Huntsman for a New Flame ($13) or try Aja’s chili whisky at home. Spicy rye and ginger, anyone?

1½ oz chili-de-arbol-infused Wiser’s ¾ oz Cointreau ¾ oz Christmas spice elixir (1 tsp each ground nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and star anise) steeped in 1 cup hot water) 1 whole egg 4 drops Coster’s Prescription Coffee & A Smoke Bitters ($13, available at thecrafty­bartender.com) Shake twice, first without ice then with. Strain into a cocktail glass and top with fresh ground nutmeg.

Ñ

NIKKA

ñTAKETSURU PURE MALT 12 YEAR

OLD WHISKY (LIMITED) Rating: NNNN Why In the early 1900s, Nikka founder Masataka Taketsuru spent time in the land of kilts ’n’ haggis learning the ins and outs of Scotch craft. He returned home to launch whisky in Japan, now the world’s second-largest producer of single-malts. Full of sweet caramel trailing wisps of peat, this charismatic whisky channels the Scottish style but remains distinctly Japanese in its smooth precision.

Quantities are limited, so grab it while you can.

Price 660 ml/$69.60 Availability LCBO 195123

AMRUT FUSION SINGLE MALT WHISKY Rating: NNN Why Distilled from both Scottish and Indian barley malt, this rich and fruity, delicately peated whisky comes by its fusion moniker honestly.

Founded just after Indian independence in 1948, the Bangalorebased Amrut has won a bundle of awards for its whiskies. Investigative sipping reveals why.

Price 700 ml/$68.95 Availability LCBO 220756

tasting notes

Events, bar openings & closings, new releases and more

Seasonal suds

Looking for seasonal beer options?

Explore season-​worthy brew packs like the Best Of Beau’s Mix Pack (4x600ml/ $24, LCBO 368571) and the Brewmaster’s Choice Discovery Pack (6x348ml/$13.50, LCBO 361162) featuring beers from Lake of Bays, Cameron’s, Nickel Brook and more.

Get jolly at Toronto Christmas Market

Wondering where to warm up during the Distillery District’s annual Christmas Market (November 29 to December 15)? Stop at the Mill St. Beer Garden on the Brew Pub and Beer Hall back patios for 15 brews, mulled Wit beer and Vanilla Porter hot chocolate.

= Critics’ Pick NNNNN = Ambrosial NNNN = Dangerously drinkable NNN = Palate pleaser NN = Sensory snooze N = Tongue trauma

NOW’s Holiday

It’s December, and that means the race is on to find perfect presents

for everyone on your list. Luckily, the second in our series of gargantuan gift guides makes things easy for even the most reluctant holiday shopper. From the guy who never grew out of his garage band to the fashion blogger who’s too cool to care, we have you covered with gadgets, games and garb for budgets big and small.

By SABRINA MADDEAUX and ALEXANDER JOO Photos DAVID HAWE Makeup & hair: TAYLOR SAVAGE/judyinc.com Models: FRANCINA F and MYLES S / B&M Models

using TRESemmé Keratin Smooth Heat Protection Spray before heat styling

R… O F Y U B WHAT TO David Bowie Is… the talk of Toronto.

Here’s a coffee table book your guests won’t be able to put down ($22.50, AGO, 317 Dundas West, 416-9796648, ago.net).

THE

ROCK STAR WANNABE

Death By Audio are famous for their extreme fuzz distortion effects pedals.

The Apocalypse, with its five-mode control set and cool early-70s synth look, might just be their best yet ($284.99, Moog Audio, 442 Queen West, 416-599-6664, moogaudio.com).

Reception L.A. Gothika graphic Tshirt ($89), Patrick Assaraf merino wool scarf ($195), Nudie Nightcrawler jeans ($249), Zanerobe leather jacket ($400, all GotStyle, 21 Trinity, 416-260-9696, and other, gotstyle. ca), Beats by Dr. Dre Executive headphones ($329.95, Bay Bloor Radio, 55 Bloor West, 416-967-1122, baybloorradio.com).

Big in sound, small in size, the Rock Out 2 portable speaker is powered by the sun and will keep your music going all day long ($59.99, Goal Zero, goalzero.com).

The ESP LTD LFTG Lugosi guitar stands out with its classic graphics from Bela Lugosi’s Tales From The Grave horror comics ($999, Steve’s Music, 415 Queen West, 416-593-8888, stevesmusic.com).

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

31

Holiday GIFT GUIDE The Hasbro Sesame Street Smartphone lets you smartphone-train your toddler even before potty training. Sesame Street characters call and leave messages, prompting you to yell, “Who calls any more? Just text!” ($18.98, Best Buy, 65 Dundas West, 416- 642- 8321, and others, bestbuy.ca).

The Cesar Millan Transform-A-Bone morphs from a bone to a ball and back. It’s all the fun of Transformers without Shia LaBeouf ($9.99, Canadian Tire, 65 Dundas West, 416-979-9056, and others, canadiantire.ca).

Socks get a bad rep as shitty presents, but Happy Socks’ cool and colourful patterns are on a mission to change that ($13, Socking Behaviour,, sockingbehaviour.com).

The Playskool Rocktivity Shake ’N Groove Microphone lets your little one rock out. ($16.99, Toys “R” Us, Dufferin Mall, 416-532- 8697, and others, toysrus.ca).

In Batman: Arkham Origins, you play the superhero when he was young, raw and unrefined, and meet his famous villains as gritty, realistic characters. ($39.99-$59.99 for Nintendo Wii U and 3DS, PS Vita, PS3, PC and Xbox 360, Gamestop, 2002 Queen East, 416686-7667, ebgames.ca).

Nothing says Christmas morning like household pets frightfully dodging a barrage of foam discs from this Iron Man 3 Motorized Arc FX Gauntlet. ($24.99, Sears, Eaton Centre, 416-349-7111, and others, sears.ca).

Santa’s one thing, but at what age do you break it to your kids that God isn’t real? Atheist stocking ($17.95, Teatro Verde, 98 Yorkville, 416-966-2227, and other, teatroverde.com).

The famous little blue box has driven women wild for ages, and now it can drive your dog crazy, too. Sniffany & Co. toy ($18, Timmie Doggie Outfitters, 867 Queen West, 416-203-6789, and other, timmie.ca).

Eat your gingerbread and smell like it, too, wearing Demeter cologne spray in Gingerbread ($20, Demeterfragrance.com).

Spell out something naughty or nice using these chocolate tablets ($9, Nadège, 780 Queen West, 416-368-2009, nadege-patisserie.com).

Lying around and licking oneself does not a career make. Get Fido ready for that big interview with a bow tie dog collar ($40, Brika, 176 Yonge, first floor, 416-861-9111, brika.com).

Disco Stu doesn’t advertise, but if he did, he’d hawk these Moxi Lolly teal roller skates ($299, RollerBug Skate Co, 940 Bloor West, 416-546-2594, rollerbug.com).

32

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

Sipping brews from the DavidsTea holiday collection is the only calorically sound decision you’ll make all season ($19.50, 336 Queen West, 416-506-0653, and others, davidstea.com).

it’s perfect.

EssENTIAl NEw MusIc YOu NEEd TO OwN!

10,000 EXTRA PURE POINTS When you buy any of these titles*

*Offer valid December 5-11, 2013 against the purchase of any one advertised participating title. To receive the bonus points, a valid pure membership card must be presented at the time of purchase. See in-store or visit purehmv.ca for complete details.

exclusive to

pure members

Arcade Fire / Reflektor Montreal’s Juno, Grammy & BRIT Award winning band Arcade Fire have released their highly anticipated new album Reflektor. The album was produced by Arcade Fire, Marcus Dravs, and James Murphy, and is comprised of 13 tracks over 2 discs.

The album has been described as “a mash up of Studio 54 and Haitian Voodoo”.

Includes the singles “Reflektor,”“Afterlife,” and “Here Comes The Night Time.”

MORE NEw ANd bREAkINg ARTIsTs THAT sHOuld bE ON YOuR RAdAR

The 1975 The 1975 The debut album features the singles “Chocolate” and “The City”

Avicii True Includes the hit “Wake Me Up” and the new single “Hey Brother”

Bastille Bad Blood The #1 UK debut album from Bastille features the single “Pompeii”

Imagine Dragons Night Visions Includes the singles “Radioactive”, “It’s Time” and “Demons”

Lorde Pure Heroine Includes the massive hit singles “Royals” and “Team”

Jake Bugg Shangri La Includes the single “What Doesn’t Kill You”

THE HOME OF ENTERTAINMENT NOW December 5-11 2013

33

Holiday GIFT GUIDE On the board, R-U-M is worth five points. In your cup during the holiday fam jam, it’s worth so much more. Scrabble coasters ($25, Labour of Love, 242 Carlton, 416923-8988, thelabouroflove.ca).

All she asked for was a little respect. What she got was this: AWreath-A tote ($22, Sissydude, society6. com/sissydude).

This is what happens when you eat too many cookies: you get stuffed. Santa pillow ($225, Kendall & Co, 277 Carlton, 416-363-9914, kendallandco.ca).

Pet, tickle and shake the nextgeneration Furby, which comes with new patterns and five new personalities. ($74.95, Indigo Books, Manulife Centre, 416-925-3536, and others, chapters.indigo.ca).

Beauty: Pure + Simple by Kristen Ma is your holistic guide to poison-free pretty ($19.95, Pure and Simple, pureandsimple.ca).

On Now! Late Night Shopping Dec 5th ONLY Open Until 11pm

Shop For Fashion Flavours Home Décor Kids’ Toys & Clothing Jewellery Furniture Art

Free Fashion Shows Free Childcare Free Re-Admission Weekdays & Saturdays 10am–9pm Sundays 10am–6pm

34X13_NOW_Half.indd DECEMBER 5-11 12013

NOW

Use this Opinel pocket knife to cut through infuriating child-resistant packaging with ease and style ($25, Good Egg, 267 Augusta, 416-593-4663, goodegg.ca).

Late Night Special Perks Including Free Parking After 5pm

Toy train by Benoit Emond & Chantal Thibodeau Made in St-Roch Des Aulnaies, QC

12/2/13 4:48 PM

The super-compact Goal Zero Switch 8 can charge your cellphone three times over or boost your tablet’s life by 25 per cent. ($50 Home Depot, (1000 Gerrard East, 416-4626270, and others, homedepot.ca)

You need these Francis Klein Alban glasses to read the fine print on how long you have to return that hideous sweater ($525, Josephson Opticians, 60 Bloor West, 416-964-7070, and others, josephson.ca)

The much-anticipated Battlefield 4: China Rising pits Americans against the Chinese. ($59.99 for Xbox 360 and One, PC, PS3 and PS4, Gamestop, 2002 Queen East, 416- 686-7667, ebgames.ca).

The Disney Creativity Studio Smart Stylus teaches you to draw famous characters with a tutorial app. ($40, Indigo Books, Manulife Centre, 416-925-3536, and others, chapters.indigo.ca).

A major leap for a sport already tailor-made for couch potatoes: Compact Curling ($19.95, Mastermind, 2134 Queen East, 416-699-3797, and others, mastermindtoys.com).

This leather clutch is made from only the finest paint-splattered cows ($325, Mary Rich, maryrich.com).

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Holiday GIFT GUIDE

HIGH TEA VERLEY AT T H E B E a tasty “cold tea,”

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Pamper away the stress of shopping and awkward family gatherings with the 24 Days Of Joy Advent Calendar ($75, Body Shop, 220 Yonge, 416-977-7364, and others, thebodyshop.ca).

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With the Diana Instant Camera, you don’t have to wait for your photos to develop, but as with all Lomos, it produces dreamier images than Instagram. ($139, Lomography Store, lomography.com).

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Holiday Warehouse

SALE

The Singing Machine Karaoke Machine with iPad dock may sound redundant, but karaoke is awesome, isn’t it? ($150, Best Buy, 65 Dundas West, 416- 642- 8321, and others ,bestbuy.ca).

50-80% 3d Fri ays on D l S u n ec 6 t y 11a Dec o m8 5pm

blue moon NOW readers get a free GIFT with every purchase

380 Carlaw Ave (corner of Dundas E.) gifts w jewellery w home decor 36

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

The Kobo Arc 7 mixes the easy-toread 7-inch screen of an e-book reader with the power of an Android tablet. ($149.99, Indigo Books, Manulife Centre, 416-925-3536, and others, chapters.indigo.ca).

FREE parking in the back!

David Bowie Is... made an AGO membership one of the hottest tickets in town ($100, 317 Dundas West, 416-979-6648, ago.net).

The Cookoo Bluetooth Watch, with its analog movement and smart interface, may be the slickest watch that’s connected to your iPhone. ($129.99, Indigo Books, ManuLife Centre, 416-925-3536, and others, chapters.indigo.ca).

Offers valid until Dec 12th, 2013 Quantities limited. Errors & Omissions Excepted. Details in store.

A portable full-framee DSL DDSLR SLRR ffe featuring eaturing 20 20.2 .2 M Meg Megapixels, egaapi pixxel elss, DDiG!C iG!!C 5+ iG 5+ Image Image Ima ge Processor, Process essoor, 4.5 fps, and Built-in W Wi-Fi i-i-FFi aand nd GPS GPS

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This fashionable Accordion briefcase makes going back to work after the holidays just a little more tolerable ($595, Philip Sparks, 162 Ossington, 647-348-1827, philipsparks.com).

Turn your iPad Mini into a laptop with the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. ($79.99, Best Buy, 65 Dundas West, 416- 6428321, and others, bestbuy.ca).

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Google gets better at everything every year, so the Nexus 5 smartphone aims to be a legitimate challenger to the iPhone. It’s fast, 5 inches big and comes with a killer camera. ($349, Google Play Store, play.google.com).

These tough urBeats In-Ear Headphones have a solid metal housing and rugged parts to last longer in your gym bag. ($99.95, Indigo Books, Manulife Centre, 416-925-3536, and others, chapters.indigo.ca).

For that person on your list who only wears black, even during the holidays: a pleather-shoulder sweater ($149, Body Blue, 199 Danforth, 416-778-7601, and other, bodyblue.ca).

Michael Hollett ........................................................................@m_hollett SAVE $200 Alice Klein ....................................................................................@aliceklein EOS 5D MK III 24-105F4L IS Susan G. Cole ..........................................................................@susangcole $ .00 ............................................................. @enzodimatteo Enzo DiMatteo Norm Wilner .....................................................................@wilnervision SAVE $200 Glenn Sumi ............................................................................... @glennsumi Julia LeConte .......................................................................@julialeconte Steven Davey ......................................................@stevendaveynow Life & Style..............................................................................@nowlifestyle John Semley ........................................................@johnsemley3000 Ben Spurr .........................................................................................@benspurr Jonathan Goldsbie .................................................................@goldsbie Adria Vasil .................................................................... @ecoholicnation

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Julia LeConte ................................................@julialeconte Steven Davey ...............................@stevendaveynow Life & Style.......................................................@nowlifestyle John Semley .................................@johnsemley3000 Ben Spurr ..................................................................@benspurr Jonathan Goldsbie ..........................................@goldsbie

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

37

Holiday GIFT GUIDE

R… O F Y U B O WHAT T THE ANT SELF-IMPORT

FASHIONR BLOGGE

Shhh, your Twitter followers aren’t real, and neither is the 3D illusion that makes this JumpFromPaper Bonjour bag so damn cool ($104, Studio Brillantine, 1518 Queen West, 416-536-6521, studiobrillantine.com)

WORN Fashion Journal shows fashion writing can be so much more than listicles . and regurgitated press releases (subscription $48, wornjournal.com).

MaskerAide facial masks ensure big pores don’t get in the way of an otherwise perfect duck-faced selfie ($5.99, Pure Salon & Spa, 1761 Avenue Road, 416-850-8431, maskeraide.com).

Visit the

FOR AMAZING HOLIDAY

sales & promotions this season!

This Alan Anderson necklace made from rubies and vintage Austrian crystals was made for peacocking ($2,400, jewelsbyalananderson.com).

Additional savings during the annual Santa in theJunction event on December 7!

MORE INFORMATION AT WWW.THEJUNCTIONBIA.CA 38

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

Nice try, but your quaint DIY projects have nothing on this hand-knit Headmistress demi ($39, eLuxe.ca)

Ela Editors Pouch ($238), Reese + Riley Heartbreaker jacket ($398), Benjamin Jay top ($95), Michi Feline bra ($129), Paige Emily ultra-skinny jeans ($259), Ash Alex wedge sneaker ($235), Cuchara Crystalline necklace ($178, all from GotStyle, 21 Trinity, 416260-9696, and other, gotstyle.ca).

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Remember that time you misspelled “kiss me” and AutoCorrect thought you meant “fist me?” That’s why you need these precision Tartan Driver touchscreen gloves ($115, Quill & Tine, quillandtine.com).

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39

Holiday Gift guide Turning on your big oven to heat a pizza is overkill. Use the LG Counterop Microwave With Oven LMP1171SS and you can microwave and bake in the same appliance. ($298, Home Depot, 1000 Gerrard East, 416-​462-​6270, and others, homedepot.ca).

Aluminum BeoPlay H3 in-​ear headphones are moulded to fit the human ear canal and leak as little sound as possible, with 23 well-​placed holes to support the acoustics. ($274.95, Apple, Eaton Centre, 647-​258-​0801, and others, apple.ca).

The Nokia Lumia 1020 puts the company back on the map with its massive 41-megapixel camera – blazing-fast from running dual-core processors on the LTE network. ($199 on select two-​year plans, Rogers Wireless, Eaton Centre, 416-​ 351-​1522, and others, rogers­.com).

The NAD D3020 Hybrid Digital Amp with Bluetooth costs less and delivers more sound. Stream music from a phone or tablet, then blast it through your speakers. ($550, Bay Bloor Radio, 55 Bloor West, 416-​967-​1122, baybloorradio.com).

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The colourful Apple iPhone 5C isn’t the budget device everyone thought it would be, but a powerful smartphone with ultrafast LTE and crystalclear ­Retina display. (From $599, Apple, Eaton Centre, 647-​258-​0801, and others, apple.ca).

DVD and Blu-rays Bruce Lee: The Legacy Collection (Shout Factory)

This 11-disc set includes four movies starring the man still regarded as the movies’ greatest martial artist: The Big Boss, Fist Of Fury, The Way Of The Dragon, Game Of Death, three featurelength docs and hours of ­extras, all in a 68-page book-style package with rare photos, memorabilia, essay and more ($89.99, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-596-0333, and others).

The Wizard Of Oz, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and digital copy (WB) The beautiful and beloved fantasy classic has Judy Garland’s heartbreaking original rendition of Over The Rainbow, plus over two hours of extras, including a new featurelength making-of doc, a singalong feature, commentary, the story told by Angela Lans-

by andrew dowler

bury with illustrations from the novel, a radio adaptation and more ($44.99, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-596-0333, and others).

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Extended Edition

(WB) Thirteen minutes are added to Bilbo Baggins’s epic adventures on the quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the dragon Smaug. Nine hours of extras include a commentary with director Peter Jackson and cowriter Philippa Boyens and a thorough, multipart set of making-of docs covering every aspect of production.

Available in three-disc or five-disc 3D editions ($29.99, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-596-0333, and others).

The Wolverine (Fox) High-energy, imaginative action scenes and a story in which Hugh Jackman’s combative mutant faces the loss of his immorality and other powers and make this one of strongest X-Men movies. A solid extras package includes a commentary and four featurettes. Blu-ray set includes 3D, theatrical and extended versions (Blu-ray $45.99, DVD, $40, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-596-0333, and others).

The Vincent Price Collection (Shout Factory) This six-pack of 60s horror classics with the genre’s biggest star collects The Haunted Palace, The Masque Of The Red Death, The Pit And The Pendulum, Witchfinder General, The Abominable Dr. Phibes and the Blu-ray debut of The Fall Of The House Of Usher. Generous extras package has interviews with producer/director Roger Corman, audio commentaries, original theatrical trailers, still galleries, archival materials

Hearts warmed daily

and a 24-page collector’s book ($59.99, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-596-0333, and others).

Vikings: Season One (Phase 4

Films) Eight episodes of lively fiction rich in raids, pillaging, sex and scheming are based on real Viking warrior and explorer Ragnar Lothbrok.

Extras package includes character profiles, promo reels and photo galleries (DVD, $34.99, Blu-ray, $39.99, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-5960333, and others).

The Walking Dead: The Complete Third Season (Limited Edition)

(Anchor Bay) All 16 episodes come in a tank with zombie heads (water not included).

Rick Grimes’s weary band of survivors try to set up a permanent camp in an abandoned prison but face trouble from the sadistic self-appointed overlord of a nearby town and his minions. Extras include commentaries, on-set footage, making-of docs and more (DVD $49.99, Blu-ray $59.99, HMV, 333 Yonge, 416-596-0333, and others).

The gift of TIFF Membership gives 365 days a year, starting at just $99.

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NOW december 5-11 2013

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Holiday GIFT GUIDE Sitting down is the enemy! The TrekDesk Treadmill Desk helps you keep healthy by walking as you work. ($479 Amazon, amazon.ca).

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The new Nike+ FuelBand SE features coloured accents, Bluetooth 4 and still tracks your movement and activity with precision. ($149.95, Nike, Eaton Centre, 416-591- 9199, nike.com).

JosepHson optiCians

Josephson Opticians is a renowned eyewear retailer with a reputation built on extraordinary client experiences and an unbeatable curation of the globe’s most sought after optical brands. Josephson Opticians prides itself in having the highest quality, most innovative and exciting selection of eyewear.

New Arrivals from the Paris Trade show are now available in all our locations. Fashion enthusiast this is an opportunity not to be missed.

Come early for the best selection.

Sony’s combined a full-frame and compact camera in the Sony Alpha A7. Give them your money. ($1,699, Henry’s, 119 Church, 416- 868- 0872, henrys.ca).

60 Bloor St W (Plus 5 other locations), josephson.ca

The long-awaited Sony PlayStation 4 takes gaming and home entertainment to a whole new level. You won’t be leaving your couch until Groundhog Day. ($399.99, Best Buy, 65 Dundas West, 416- 6428321, and others bestbuy.ca).

Keep this 7-inch tray of assorted shortbreads far away from Rob Ford ($40, Drake General Store, 1144 Queen West, 416-531-5042 ext 101, and others, drakegeneralstore.ca).

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tRyst lingeRie With a friendly atmosphere and great customer service, Tryst is a professional bra-fitting favourite with sizes ranging from 28-52, AA-K. As well as bra & panty sets, Tryst has chemises, slippers, pj’s, swimwear and more, perfect gifts for every special person on your list.

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fabulous finds

For your little mad, but environmentally conscious, scientist.

Enviro Battery Science Kit ($18.19, Grassroots, 408 Bloor West, 416-9441993, and other, grassrootsstore.com).

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

43

Holiday Gift guide The fastest laptops are gaming laptops, and the Alienware M17 takes the crown. ($1,999, Best Buy, 65 Dundas West, 416-​642-​8321, and others, bestbuy.ca).

Toshiba’s 23-​inch Touchscreen All-​in-​One PC has a superfast processor, elegant design and Harman/Kardon speakers. ($1,107.98, Best Buy, 65 Dundas West, 416-​642-​8321, and others, bestbuy.ca).

Modelled on the most-produced vehicle in the world – at 65 million owners – the Symba combines killer nostalgic looks with modern-day technology and power ($2,599, ­Motoretta,554 College, 416-​925-​1818, ­motoretta.ca).

The Olympus PEN E-​P5 is a micro four ​thirds camera as proud of its slick retro styling as its quality shooting. ($999.99, Henry’s, 119 Church, 416-​868-​0872, henrys.ca).

A collection of naturalist paintings for the fungi fetishist. Mushroom Botanical Art ($56, Magic Pony, 680 Queen West, 416-861-1684, magic-pony.com).

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If you are looking for the perfect gift for someone special, give them the gift of sweat. You can purchase Moksha Yoga Danforth gift certificates online or in studio. www.mokshayogadanforth.com

Spirit of Giving DIRECTORY Nellie’s Shelter

Give the gift of HOME to a homeless woman or child today Donate now at www.nellies.org or call 416-461-0769 Charitable Registration: 11930-2727-RR0001

Volunteer Opportunities of the Week

What Whatdo doyou youREALLY REALLY want? want?

What do you REALLY want?

• Canadian Cancer Society Happiness?Love?

Love?

Happiness?

• LGBT Youth Line Increased awareness?

Happiness?

Love?

Increased awareness?

• Mid Toronto Community Services To live in the NOW? Increased awareness?

To live in the NOW? • Yonge Street Mission To live in the NOW? Discover Advaita: Philosophy of Unity Discover Advaita: Philosophy of Unity For details on these opportunities, see this week’s Classified section or visit volunteertoronto.ca

Thousands of women and children who are survivors of abuse look to

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Donate NOW!

Please help us make our 100th year successful.

Provide Hope! Give Generously!

Evangel Hall Mission has been building community

www.nyws.ca

with poor, homeless and socially isolated people in downtown Toronto through support, housing, services and advocacy.

We are a community of compassion and a place of hope.

Unit #2 –1140 Sheppard Avenue West Toronto, ON M3K 2A2 www.nyws.ca

Shelter Admin: 416-635-9427 Fax: 416-635-9571 Head Office: 416-638-7335 Fax: 416-638-9557

EvEry day at ehm wE: • Serve over 200 people in our drop – in centre.

• Provide over 200 hot meals for the hungry.

• House over 130 people in fully furnished affordable housing units.

• Provide spiritual and emotional comfort to those who otherwise feel helpless and alone.

• Provide free basic health and dental services to hundreds in people in need.

• Provide community, support, life skills, and advocacy for at risk, inner city youth. your charitable contribution this holiday season will make a significant impact in our community and help those who would otherwise feel helpless and alone.

Please help us continue to bring hope into people’s lives.

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thank you for your support.

For more information about how you can help, please visit our website: www.evangelhall.ca or call 416-504-3563 x 221. 552 adelaide Street west, toronto, ON M5B 3w8.

Spirit of Giving Directory is coming to the Dec 12 & 19 issues of NOW Magazine It’s the perfect opportunity for your non-profit to appeal to our readers who are in the holiday spirit and eager to help out their community.

To advertise, please call 416-364-1300 ext 381 NOW December 5-11 2013

45

Holiday GIFT GUIDE Whether you’re trekking in Nepal or from Spadina to Yonge, the SolarFocus SolarMio Solar Charger keeps your gadgets so juiced by solar power that they said it three times in the product name. ($120, Mountain Equipment Co-op, 400 King West, 416-340-2667, mec.ca).

The Pioneer DDJ-WeGO02, an ultra-compact DJ controller, makes DJing fun and easy by utilizing visual prompts and audio cues. ($349, Moog Audio, 442 Queen West, 416-5996664, moogaudio.com).

Saturday & Sunday, Dec. 7 & 8, 14 & 15, 21 & 22 Noon to 6pm at the TRANZAC 292 Brunswick Ave.

Frost Fair

The Canon Vixia Mini Camcorder is made for video selfies.

Record using the 2.6-inch touch screen, then upload your impression of Wrecking Ball directly to YouTube and Facebook. ($299.99, Henry’s, 119 Church, 416- 868- 0872, henrys.ca).

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This “authentic” band tee reissue will have you dusting off your teenage apathy. Hit local brand Good Kids to cop some Toronto-centric designs in comfy tank tops, tshirts or sweaters.

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ecoholic

When you’re addicted to the planet By ADRIA VASIL

NOT SO PRETTY: Ranking the Big Five Cosmetic Brands Before you gift-bag that lotion or lipstick, a new report from Environmental Defence takes stock of who’s been naughty or nice in the beauty world.

TE ST L

AB

Get your copy of Adria Vasil’s latest book, Ecoholic Body: Your Ultimate EarthFriendly Guide To Living Healthy And Looking Good – in bookstores everywhere!

nature notes

ENVIRO COMMISH LACES INTO LIBS

L’OREAL The owner of Maybelline, Biotherm, Garnier, Kiehl’s and Body Shop has been a leader in developing product testing that doesn’t involve animals, but even the Body Shop line has been slow to phase out parabens and other shady ingredients. ED fails ’L’Oreal for providing zero info on when or whether it will eliminate endocrine-disrupting and ­carcinogenic chems.

Score: N

DIY gift OF THE WEEK

UPCYCLED SWEATER BEANIE

Got a sad old pullover gathering dust in your closet? Time to take it to new heights, liter­ally, by turning it into a head warmer. Check ­diyfactory.org’s Quick DIY Beanie video to get the idea.

Cut across the sweater from armpit to armpit, then cut along the seam down one side. The garment’s bottom band serves perfectly as a toque base. Measure it around your head and cut to size. Then fold in half or in three sections; the more folds, the slouchier the hat.

Cut a dome shape across the top of your folded material (the top of the hat). When you open it up, you’ll have two or more domes. Use ­fabric glue or needle and thread to bond these together, and the seam side. Once the glue dries, flip your hat right side out and, presto!, you’re a master upcycler!

ESTÉE LAUDER This “prestige” makeup manufacturer (owner of M.A.C, Clinique, Aveda and Smashbox) has proved it can toss toxins to the curb at its Aveda brand, and rumour has it it’s finally phasing out parabens in other lines, but that’s about it. No public policies for tackling triclosan, phthalates or any of the other chems of ­concern that Enviro ­Defence calls the Toxic Ten. Score: N

UNILEVER Planning on stuffing stockings with Axe, Dove, Pond’s or other Unilever products this season? The UK company is credited with phasing out phtha­lates, reducing dodgy artificial musks and carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane as well as ousting those micro-plastic exfoliating beads that, oops, ended up in the bellies of fish downstream. However, the company has no public plan to get rid of formaldehydereleasers­, eco-toxic siloxanes or triclosan entirely.

Score: NN

JOHNSON & JOHNSON After years of public outcry, J&J’s baby lines should now be free of formaldehyde, parabens, triclosan, phthalates and cancer-linked 1,4-dioxane.

Now, that’s what we call “No more tears.” The body care giant got further fanfare this year for announcing it had purged triclosan and phtha­ lates from its adult lines, including Aveeno and Neutragena. It’s just a shame the big-girl brands aren’t all giving parabens, phthalates and formaldehyde-releasing preser­ vatives the boot, too.

Score: NNN

GET FOREST FABRICS OFF YOUR BACK Fashion biz turns ­spotlight on rainforest-clearing rayon

Where’d you get that buttery-soft top? If it’s smoother than cotton but not quite as silky as, well, silk, odds are it came from a tree. Natural? Sort of. But sustainable?

Afraid not.

A new campaign by the forest defend­ ers over at BC-based not-for-profit Canopy follows the thread from fashion’s runways to the world’s last remaining intact for­ ests, and it ain’t pretty.

The eco org with a track record on de­ veloping progressive paper policies with hundreds of corporations, publishers and printers is thus turning its attention to the apparel industry. Canopy has traced fibres from ancient and endangered forests – from the jungles of Indonesia to Canada’s boreal – in Ts, tanks, dresses, you name it.

An estimated 70 to 100 million trees were axed last year in the name of fashion, a number expected to double by 2050.

(Tree-based textiles make up only 5 per cent of all the world’s fibres), So what exactly are these shrinking forests being woven into? If you’ve got rayon, viscose, modal or lyocell on your body right now, you’re sporting axed trees, ­sugar. You’ve probably heard me

kvetch about the polluting chemical soup that turns tree pulp into oh-so-soft rayon/ viscose. (Yes, even the bamboo kind.) Lyo­ cell is the greener next-generation rayon, made from tree pulp processed with safer chemicals that are recycled and reused rather than dumped downstream. But to be honest, stats on the logging side of the biz have been sorely lacking – until now.

According to Canopy, at least one-third of the world’s rayon/viscose and woody fabrics come from ancient or endangered sources. Hence it’s now bringing fashion designers into its campaign.

PROCTER & GAMBLE The “largest consumer packaged goods company in the world” (and maker of Old Spice, Olay, Gillette, Cover­Girl and more) stepped up its green game this year when it bowed to public pressure and announced it would be banning toxic triclosan and phthalates across the board by 2014, drop its petrochem ­content by 25 per cent and provide more paraben-free products. Push them to go even further next year.

Score: NNN

ecoholic pick

So far, Patagonia, prAna, Lululemon, Quicksilver and Eileen Fisher as well as 14 other indie designers have signed on.

They’re developing purchasing policies to help eliminate the use of endangered for­ est fibres. They’re also supporting R&D into alternatives including recycled vis­ cose. Turns out even a greener tree-based fibre like Tencel (a brand name of lyocell using Forest Stewardship Council-certified pulp) still involves a grossly wasteful pro­ cess – only 30 to 40 per cent of the tree ­actually ends up in the end pulp product.

Not that all the apparel firms linking up with Canopy are straight-up green. Yes, indie Miik and Nicole Bridger are exclu­ sively eco, and Patagonia offers lots of re­ cycled/orga­nic content. But Lululemon has seriously downsized its organic offerings.

Nonetheless, as early signatories, ­Canopy exec director Nicole Rycroft says, “their actions are setting a new bar for sustainability within the sector.”

Check your closet tonight. If you’ve got trees on your back, let those brands know you don’t want to be rockin’ rainforests on your sleeve, and sign the Canopy pledge at ­canopystyle.org.

green

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Mere weeks after Ontario’s environment commissioner gave Kathleen Wynne’s government a tongue-lashing for “gutting” species at risk protection while allowing industry to loot our n ­ atural resources unchecked, Gord Miller is back with another dose of whup-ass for the Libs.

In a special report to the legisla­ ture entitled Laying Siege To The Last Line Of Defence, Miller warns that new regulation changes to the Endan­gered Species Act, (ESA) that were quietly ushered in this summer will exempt logging, aggregate pits and quarries, hydro dams and infra­ structure construction from needing permits for activities harmful to en­ dangered species or their habitat – “activities that historically contribut­ ed to species becoming threatened in the first place.”

“By eliminating the permit process, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has shed its ability to say no to a proposed activity,’’ says Commis­ sioner Miller. “And since companies don’t have to file monitoring ­reports, the MNR will be blind to the effec­ tive­ness of its new rules.”

The commish says the MNR has been slacking since the ESA came into force in 2008. “MNR has been stalling recovery strategies, delaying habitat pro­tec­tion, mismanaging the permitting process and deliberately ignoring public participation.”

Since proposals that’ll harm en­ dangered species won’t have to show up on the Environment Registry under the changed regulations, the public will be left out of the loop.

For the dirty details, check out ­Miller’s full report at eco.on.ca and tell Wynne and your MPP that this ain’t gonna fly with voters.

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astrology freewill

12 | 05

2013

by Rob Brezsny

Aries Mar 21 | Apr 19 Sometimes I think

too fast and too much. My logic gets sterile. My ideas become jagged and tangled.

When this happens, I head off to Turtle Back Hill for a hike through the saltwater marsh. The trail loops around on itself, and I arrive back where I started in about 15 minutes. Sometimes I keep walking, circumambulating four or five times. Going in circles like this seems to help me knit together my fragmented thoughts.

Often by the time I’m finished, my mind feels unified. I recommend you find your own version of this ritual, Aries. From what I can tell, you need to get rounder and softer.

Taurus Apr 20 | May 20 In the mid-19th century, French art was dominated by the government-sponsored Salon, whose conservative policies thwarted upcoming new trends like Impressionism. One antiauthoritarian painter who rebelled was Camille Pissarro. “What is the best way to further the evolution of French art?” he was asked. “Burn down the Louvre,” he replied. The Louvre, as you may know, was and still is a major art museum in Paris. Judging from your current astrological omens, I surmise that you might want to make a symbolic statement equivalent to Pissarro’s. It’s time for you to graduate from traditions that no longer feed you so you can freely seek out new teachers and influences.

Gemini May 21 | Jun 20 “Lead us not into

style sheet

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temptation, and deliver us from evil,” is a request that Christians make of God when they say the Lord’s Prayer. If we ­define “temptation” as an attraction to things that feel good even though they’re bad for you, this part of the prayer is perfectly reasonable. But what if “temptation” is given a different interpretation?

What if it means an attraction to something that feels pleasurable and will ultimately be healthy for you even though it initially causes disruptions? I suggest you consider experimenting with this alternative definition, Gemini. For now, whatever leads you into temptation could possibly deliver you from evil.

Cancer Jun 21 | Jul 22 “You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks,” said the philosopher Ludwig

Wittgenstein. But you don’t have to worry about that outcome, Cancerian. The storm might howl and surge, but it will ultimately pass. And although your tree may bend pretty far, it will not break. Two weeks from now, you won’t be mourning your losses, but rather celebrating your flexibility and resilience. Congratulations in advance!

Leo Jul 23 | Aug 22 It’s a perfect time to

start reclaiming some of the superpowers you had when you were a child. What’s that you say? You didn’t have any superpowers? That’s not true. Before you entered adolescence, you could see things and know things and feel things that were off-limits, even unknown, to most adults.

You possessed a capacity to love the world with wild purity. Your innocence allowed you to be in close touch with the intelligence of animals and the spirits of the ancestors. Nature was so vividly alive to you that you could hear its songs. Smells were more intense. The dreams you had at night were exciting and consoling. Your ability to read people’s real energy – and not be fooled by their social masks – was strong. Remember?

Virgo Aug 23 | Sep 22 Not all darkness is

bad. You know that. Sometimes you need to escape from the bright lights. It can be restorative to sit quietly in the pitch blackness and drink in the mystery of the Great Unknown. The same is true for silence and stillness and aloneness. Now and then you’ve got to retreat into their protective sanctuary. Dreaming big empty thoughts in the tranquil depths can heal you and recharge you. The magic moment has arrived for this kind of rejuvenation, Virgo.

Libra Sep 23 | Oct 22 In the movie Clueless, the character played by Alicia Silverstone describes someone as a “full-on Monet.” What she means is that the person in question is like a painting by the French Impressionist artist Claude Monet.

“From far away it’s okay,” says Silverstone.

“But up close it’s a big old mess.” You may still be at the far-away point in your evaluation of a certain situation in your own life, Libra. It appears interesting, even attractive, from a distance. When you draw nearer, though, you may find problems. That doesn’t necessarily mean

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December 5-11 2013 NOW

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you should abandon it altogether. Maybe you can fix the mess so it’s as engaging up-close as it is from far away.

Scorpio Oct 23 | Nov 21 Your power ani-

mal for the coming months is the Bateleur eagle of Africa. In the course of searching for its meals, it covers about 250 square miles every day. It thinks big. It has a spacious scope. I hope you get inspired by its example, Scorpio. In 2014, I’d love to see you enlarge the territory where you go hunting for what you want. Fate will respond favourably if you expand your ideas about how to gather the best allies and resources. As for this week, I suggest you get very specific as you identify the goals you will pursue in the coming months by exploring farther and wider.

Sagittarius Nov 22 | Dec 21 The stan-

dard dictionary says that “righteous” is a word that means virtuous and highly moral. The slang dictionary says that “righteous” describes someone or something that’s absolutely genuine and wonderful. Urbandictionary.com suggests that “righteous” refers to the ultimate version of any type of experience, especially “sins of pleasure” like lust and greed.

According to my analysis, the coming week will be jam-packed with righteousness for you. Which of the three definitions will predominate? It’s possible you will embody and attract all three types.

Capricorn Dec 22 | Jan 19 In the dreams you’re having at night, Capricorn, I bet you’re travelling through remote landscapes in all kinds of weather. Maybe you’re recreating the voyage of the Polynesian sailors who crossed hundreds of miles of Pacific Ocean to find Hawaii 1,500 years ago. Or maybe you’re hiking through the Darkhad Valley, where the Mongolian steppe meets Siberia’s vast forests. It’s possible you’re visiting places where your ancestors lived or migrating to the first human settlement on Mars in the 22nd century. What do dreams like this mean? I think you’re trying to blow your own mind. Your deep self and your higher wisdom are conspiring to flood you with new ways of seeing reality.

Aquarius Jan 20 | Feb 18 It wouldn’t be

too extreme for you to kiss the ground that has been walked on by people you care about deeply. And it wouldn’t be too crazy to give your special allies the best gifts ever or compose love letters to them or demonstrate in dramatic fashion how amazed you are by the beautiful truths about who they really are. This is a unique moment in your cycle, Aquarius – a time when it is crucial for you to express gratitude, devotion and even reverence for those who have helped you see what it means to be fully alive.

Pisces Feb 19| Mar 20 In a letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway described his vision of paradise. It would have a trout stream that no one but him was permitted to fish. He’d own two houses, one for his wife and children and one for his nine beautiful mistresses. There’d be a church where he could regularly confess his sins, and he’d have great seats at an arena where bullfights took place. From my perspective, this is a pretty vulgar version of paradise, but who am I to judge? I suggest you draw inspiration from Hemingway as you come up with your own earthy, gritty, funky fantasy. It’s an excellent time for you to get down to earth about your high ideals and dreamy hopes.

Homework: Everyone fudges the truth and hides the whole story now and then. What are your top three deceptions? Confess at Freewillastrology.com.

TANJA-TIZIANA BURDI

music

more online

nowtoronto.com/music A new 50:50 cover video of Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Jan Lisiecki + Audio clips from our interview with Neon Windbreaker + Searchable upcoming listings

the scene

Shows that rocked Toronto last week WU-TANG CLAN at Kool Haus, Thursday, November 28.

Rating: NN At 11:45 pm, as Wu-Tang Clan members emerged to Bring Da Ruckus, the first song on their 1993 debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), we learned we’d get two-thirds of the legendary NYC nine-man rap collective. ODB died nine years ago; RZA and Masta Killa were no-shows.

In their absence, Method Man handled the lion’s share of the theatrics.

He has non-stop energy and, without RZA, is the natural frontman – even crowd-surfing by night’s end. And his flow hasn’t lost a beat in two decades.

The set included a smattering of the group’s greatest hits but focused heavily on their individual stuff.

Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t great. Ideally you’d hear the piano loop for C.R.E.A.M. first, then the crowd would go wild before the beat and rhymes dropped. Instead, it took a while to realize they were performing one of their biggest hits.

The crowd was also a mess. The room was so oppressively packed that most of us endured constant shock waves from those who belligerently JULIA LECONTE laced in and out.

IAN TYSON & CORB

LUND at the Winter Garñ den Theatre, Friday, November

29. Rating: NNNNN If I had been stopped at the exit of legendary country storyteller Ian Tyson and contemporary protege Corb Lund’s show and asked to submit a pound of flesh for what I’d watched, I’d have cut off my whole hand.

Flanked by long-time Lund bandmate Kurt Ciesla on the bull fiddle, the headliners plucked their way through nearly two hours of folksy goodness.

Tyson sang about long-dead cattle drivers in West Texas and modern-day female bronco riders in Chilliwack. The lyrical attention to detail was hilariously juxtaposed against the forgetful grandpa act he was putting on between songs.

Lund’s tunes starred Alberta almost

= Critics’ Pick NNNNN = Perfect NNNN = Great NNN = Good NN = Bad N = Horrible

Ñ

GERMAN SPARKLE PARTY with DJ ESTROE at the

ñTower Automotive Warehouse, Saturday, November 30.

Rating: NNNN A German Sparkle Party is simultaneously self-explanatory in terms of what, and completely bewildering in regards to why. It’s a party, German in origin, where people dress up in sparkly outfits inspired by the German techno-pop music video for a novelty song of the same name. It’s silly, random and more fun than it should be.

The Toronto edition is an annual affair thrown by the Promise crew, and this year they took over a majestic abandoned warehouse for an extra oldschool vibe. The whole feel is a bit like a throwback rave, the goofy costumes and makeup encouraging partiers to let their guard down and actually have fun without worrying about being cool. The music feels kind of secondary to the overall event, but Dutch headliner DJ Estroe turned in a strong set of driving tech house, wearing a bemused smile on her face the BENJAMIN BOLES whole time in reaction to the absurd spectacle. exclusively. He sang about his home in moods that were celebratory (Little Foothills Heaven), elegiac (The Truth Comes Out) and frustrated (Cows Around). He also worked as a moderator, setting up Tyson between songs to go into cowboy apocrypha that only an old-timer could get away with.

The finale was a crowd singalong of Tyson’s hit Four Strong Winds, and its bleak assertion that lovers can’t stay together and things won’t last seemed

like a metaphor for the gradual erosion of the wild cowboy lifestyle.

STEPHEN DU MANOIR

HAYDEN at the Danforth

Music Hall, Saturday, ñ November 30.

Rating: NNNN After opener Doug Paisley’s delicate and nuanced songwriting drew the crowd in with its subtleties, fellow GTA native Hayden emerged for his homecoming show. The mood was celebra-

tory, the stage adorned with the brightest lights the often standoffish 41-year-old has ever played under.

Songs from his 2013 Arts & Crafts debut, Us Alone, featured prominently; a haunting rendition of Instructions and the stark retrospection of Almost Everything were highlights.

With age, Hayden is beginning to reveal a once-private personality. He gave humanistic touches to his 2004 classic, Woody, and a cheeky grin wouldn’t leave his face as he wove classics among his newer tunes.

The singer/songwriter is at his best when he allows his songs to breathe, as on the rolling Did I Wake Up Beside You? His five-piece band huddled around the drum set through the extended outro in a scene reminiscent of Rust Never Sleeps.

“It’s no surprise I’m a Neil Young fan,” he quipped before gracefully and accurately covering Powderfinger in his encore. But with the year Hayden’s had, his ascension to the ranks of elder Canrock statesman is no joke.

JOSHUA KLOKE NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

49

clubs&concerts hot NO JOY, HSY, BELIEFS The Garrison (1197 Dundas West), tonight (Thursday, December 5) See preview, page 51.

NEON WINDBREAKER, NICE HEAD, WTCHS, PINK WINE Sneaky Dee’s (431 College), Friday (December 6) See preview, page 52.

MGMT, KUROMA Sound Academy (11 Polson), Saturday (December 7) See preview, page 56.

RAGING ASIAN WOMEN TAIKO DRUMMERS Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis), Saturday and Sunday (December 7 and 8) See preview, page 58.

HOWE GELB Drake Underground (1150 Queen West), Saturday (December 7) Prolific Giant Sand singer/songwriter.

BREAK & ENTER AND BOX OF KITTENS SIXTH ANNIVERSARY w/ Ben Klock, Martin Fazekas, Mike Gibbs, Jamie Kidd, Fabio Palermo Polish Combatants Hall (206 Beverley), Saturday (December 7)

Underground electronic music party.

TRIBUTE TO SAM LARKIN w/ Ron Sexsmith, Kurt Swinghammer, Anne Bourne, Robert Priest and others Hugh’s Room (2261 Dundas West), Monday (December 9) Tribute to the departed local musician.

KING KRULE, TOPS Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), Monday (December 9) Dark, soulful British crooner.

MONSTER MAGNET, ROYAL THUNDER, ANTI-MORTEM, PUBLIC ANIMAL Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), Tuesday (December 10) Thick slabs of heavy rock.

THE KILLS, US GIRLS Danforth Music Hall (Danforth), Wednesday (December 11) Garagey indie rock duo.

A$AP FERG, A$AP MOB, ASHTON MATTHEWS, OVERDOZ, 100S Opera House (735 Queen East), Wednesday (December 11) Harlem hip-hop collective.

this week

tickets

How to find a listing

Music listings appear by day, then by genre, then alphabetically by venue. Event names are in italics.

See Venue Index, online at nowtoronto.com, for venue address and phone number.

AFTER-PARTY POP

SEAN NICHOLAS SAVAGE

Sean Nicholas Savage has been pairing lo-fi Casio sonics with ultra-serious lyrics since the early days of Arbutus Records, releasing nine albums so far on the four-year-old Montreal label (best known for repping Grimes). His latest introspective gem, Other Life, was released in June, but his big break may have come just a few weeks ago.

In late November, Solange professed her love of Savage’s work to Billboard, saying she’s been a fan for the last year and that his drum sound shaped the recent Saint Heron compilation album, which features artists on Knowles’s new label, Saint Records. As well, the superstar R&B singer had the kooky artist open for her in his hometown of Montreal in July.

Not that we need Solange’s thumbs-up to get onboard. Savage has been in our good books for years. (Others’, too – a Savage tribute album came out earlier this year.) On his current tour, he’s playing “everything differently and yet as always the same.” He’s also taking requests, so hit him up.

Monday (December 9), 9 pm, at Double Double Land (209 Augusta). $10. doubledoubleland.com.

= Critics’ pick (highly recommended) ñ 5= Queer night

F = Festive event

How to place a listing

All listings are free. Send to: music@nowtoronto.com. Include artist(s), genre of music, event name (if any), venue name and address, time, ticket price and phone number or website. Deadline is the Thursday before publication at 5 pm. Weekly events must confirm their listing once a month.

Thursday, December 5 POP/ROCK/HIP-HOP/SOUL

ALLEYCATZ Lady Kane.

THE ANTLER ROOM Parkside Drive (rock) 9:30 pm.

CAMERON HOUSE Ollie Vee (retro rock) 10 pm, Corin Raymond 6 pm.

THE CENTRAL The Backtracks & the Heavyset Quartet 10 pm.

C’EST WHAT Blair Packham (pop) 9:30 pm.

CLINTON’S Iconic Albums: The Smashing

Pumpkins-Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness Waterbodies, Black Lady Soul doors 9 pm.

COFFIN FACTORY LOFTS Garbageface, ELMS, Cosi E Cosi, the Holy Gasp (doom rap/gloom pop/noisepop/beatnik-tropicalia).

DAKOTA TAVERN Jason Collett’s Basement Revue doors 8:30 pm.

EL MOCAMBO UPSTAIRS Sean Leon 10 pm.

ETON HOUSE Paul Churchills Bonfire (easy listening/top 40) 7 pm.

FIRKIN ON KING Full Tilt (rock/top 40) 9:30 pm.

ñ

THE GREAT HALL KASHKA. See album review, page 60. ñ THE HIDEOUT Scully & the Crossbones (rock)

10 pm.

HOLY OAK CAFE Body Help (funk/jazz) 10 pm.

HORSESHOE Austin Lucas, Allison Weiss, PJ

pm, $11.50. RT, SS, TF. February 9.

Bond (punk alt-country) doors 8 pm.

LEE’S PALACE Are You Willing To Give? Concert And Charity Raffle Cache Cameron, PinKush’n Kids, the Willing (hip-hop/electronic) doors 8:30 pm.

LOLA Brian Cober (double slide guitar) 9 pm.

MAGPIE TAPROOM Trace Minerals 10:30 pm.

REVIVAL A Primitive Evolution, Squid Lid (rock) 10 pm.

RIVOLI Sonreal, Kayo, ShaqisDope and Jutes doors 8 pm.

SILVER DOLLAR The Effens, Let’s Eat Alice, Marriage doors 8:30 pm.

SNEAKY DEE’S Josh Martinez (rap).

TRANZAC SOUTHERN CROSS Songs We Write, Covers We Love 10 pm.

FOR TODAY, LIKE MOTHS TO FLAMES, STRAY FROM THE PATH AND OTHERS Opera House doors 6 pm,

ASPETTA CAFFE Open Jam El Faron 8 pm.

CASTRO’S LOUNGE Jerry Leger & the

Just Announced JD ERA, RICH KIDD Rivoli December 12.

112 Guvernment/Kool Haus doors 9 pm,

$25. INK, PDR. December 13.

SEE THROUGH TRIO, MATT MILLER, MIKE SMITH Musideum 8 pm,

pwyc. December 17.

THE GREEN RAY, GOLD PONY Mag-

pie Taproom 9 pm, free. December 20.

NATHAN BARATO, THE JUNKIES,

CARLO LIO UNION Holiday Warehouse Edition The Circus Academy West doors 9 pm, $25-$30. December 21.

NAUTILUSS, BETA FRONTIERS, ALVVAYS, PHEDRE, DOOMSQUAD, AUSTIN PAUL, RICH AUCOIN AND OTHERS What’s In The Box Music Fest: 5

Nights, 5 Bands, 5 Bucks Drake Hotel 7 pm, $5. December 26 to 30.

ELISSA BARCLAY’S WARRIOR GIRL, MANDY MAYHEM, GINGER ALE & THE MONOWHALES, BLAIRMOJO, BLACK STONE 3 War-

rior Girls: Damn The Stereotypes Tattoo Rock

Parlour $10. December 29.

THE SADIES NYE Show Horseshoe doors 8:30 pm, sets at 11:15 pm & 1:15 am, $25.

HS, RT, SS, TF. December 31.

TORRO TORRO The Hoxton doors 10 pm, $15. TW. January 3.

DEL BEL Silver Dollar doors 9 pm. January 11.

TOY Horseshoe doors 8:30 pm, $11.50. HS, RT, SS, TF. January 14.

CODY SIMPSON, PLUG IN STEREO

Virgin Mobile Mod Club doors 5 pm, all ages, $25. LN. January 16 and 17.

BRUCE CASSIDY, SOPHIA PERLMAN AND OTHERS African Jazz In Janu-

ary: benefit concert for Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers Campaign Hugh’s Room 8:30 pm, $45, adv $40. January 16.

RED MASS, DIRTY FRIGS, DILLY DALLY

Silver Dollar doors 9 pm. January 18.

REVEREND HORTON HEAT, NEKROMATIX, THE BRAIN The Hox-

ton doors 8 pm, $26. TW. January 20.

1976 & BEARBABES Horseshoe doors 8:30 pm, $10. HS, RT, SS, TF. January 22.

PERFECT PUSSY Silver Dollar doors 9

pm. January 25.

PREFUSE 73, NOSAJ THING, FALTY DL Yellow Year Tour The Hoxton. January 31.

AFI Phoenix Concert Theatre doors 8 pm, all ages, $35. RT, SS, TF. January 31.

WOLFGANG GARTNER, BASS JACKERS, FELIX CARTAL, HENRIX, JOE GHOST, MATT ZANARDO, SHARAM, LEE FOSS, HOT SINCE 82, ERIC VOLTA, HOLLOH Brrrrr! Winter

Music Festival Echo Beach at Molson Amphitheatre doors 5 pm, $37.50-$77.50. brrrrrto. com. February 1.

THE BALCONIES, SAY YES Lee’s Palace doors 9 pm, $10.50. HS, RT, SS, TF. February 1.

JASON ALDEAN, FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE, TYLER FARR Night Train

Tour General Motors Centre doors 6:30 pm, all ages, $40.25-$60.25. February 6.

DOWN WITH WEBSTER, SONREAL, D-PRYDE Sound Academy doors 7 pm, all ages, $30. LN, RT, SS. February 7.

MARIA TAYLOR Drake Hotel doors 8

all ages, $22.50. RT, SS, TF. February 11.

THE HIDDEN CAMERAS CD release party Lee’s Palace doors 9 pm, $15. HS, RT, SS, TF. February 15.

DELOREAN The Hoxton doors 8:30 pm, $15. TW. February 20.

QUILT Drake Hotel doors 8 pm, $10. RT, SS, TF. March 3.

BRIT FLOYD Discovery Tour Sony Centre for the Performing Arts 8 pm, $39.50$59.50. SC, TM. April 8.

ONE DIRECTION Where We Are Tour Rogers Centre $39.50-$99.50. LN. August 1 and 2.

ñ

FOLK/BLUES/COUNTRY/WORLD

Situation (folk/rock/country) 9 pm. ñ DOMINION ON QUEEN Wee Folk Club.

FREE TIMES CAFE Ian White 8:30 pm.

GATE 403 Melanie Brulée Band (folk

ñ

cabaret) 9 pm, Danny B & Brian Gauci Blues Duo 5 to 8 pm.

GLADSTONE HOTEL MELODY BAR Jake Chisholm (blues) 9 pm.

GROSSMAN’S Robine Antoine Blues Band 10 pm.

HUGH’S ROOM Craig Cardiff 8:30 pm.

MONARCHS PUB Jerome Godboo, Shawn Kellerman, Alec Fraser, Gary Craig 9 pm.

RELISH BAR & GRILL Liane Fainsinger 7 to 9 pm.

REPOSADO The Reposadist Quartet (gypsy bop).

continued on page 52 œ

50

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

JUST ANNOUNCED!

No Joy Dream-Pop

TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY DEC 9 AT 10AM

FRI FEBRUARY 21 QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE SHOW 8PM • ALL AGES

NOW ON SALE

Montreal shoegazers look up By Benjamin Boles

No Joy with HSY and Beliefs at the Garrison (1197 Dundas West), Friday (December 6), 9 pm. $10.50. RT, SS, TW.

One of the standout aspects of Montreal dream pop band No Joy’s recent Pastel And Pass Out EP (Mexican Summer) is the surprisingly funky rhythmic undercurrent of the first song, Last Boss. That upbeat energy expresses itself in other ways throughout the ­record, suggesting the band might be in the process of shifting their sound from the hazy shoe­gaze that initially won them praise.

“I’m not sure if it’s a good indication of where we’re going next, because we haven’t really thought about it,” guitar­ist Laura Lloyd says from the tail end of their European tour.

“We were offered a weekend in the studio, we recorded [debut 2013 fulllength] Wait To Pleasure, and we wrote the three songs [on Pastel] there. I view EPs as an experimentation phase for bands – a time to try out new ideas and play around. Whe­ther we stick to it or not is impossible to say.”

While the exact direction of their next full-length remains unknown, it’s safe to say they are still interested in finding new ways to update the soft vocals, loud guitars formula. Unlike so many other bands heavily influenced by My Bloody Valentine, No Joy have never totally embraced the gentle and sleepy side of that model.

Even when the guitars become a formless wall of noise, the pummelling drums maintain a sense of urgency.

“It’s important to note that shoe­ gaze isn’t our defining inspiration. We were recently talking to someone about how it’s important to have song and structure before venturing into noise and chaos, because without those elements your noise would have no purpose,” says Lloyd.

“That being said, we’ve all grown up listen­ing to punk and alternative music, where fast-paced songs are common, and I’ve always been drawn to that kind of energy – like Hüsker Dü would do,” she continues, referencing the American formerly hardcore punk band.

“Though – having just watched the [drummer] Grant Hart documentary – he might resent me for saying that.”

T H E 9 TH A N N U A L

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS:

GORD DOWNIE RON SEXSMITH DAN HILL THE TREWS

AMY MILLAN KARDINAL OFFISHALL GLASS TIGER

WITH SPECIAL GUEST:

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 SOUND ACADEMY

TREBLE CHARGER

DOORS 8PM SHOW 9PM RT, SS • ALL AGES

KEVIN DREW & BRENDAN CANNING (OF BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE)

WED S ODECEMBER L D O U 11 VIRGIN MOBILE MOD T !CLUB DOORS 7PM SHOW 8PM • RT, SS • 19+

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO:

JAKE BUGG

TUESDAY JANUARY 14 SOUND ACADEMY

THE STRYPES

3

MONDAY JANUARY 20 LEE’S PALACE

benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles

JOHN BUTLER TRIO w/ Little Hurricane

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6 DANFORTH MUSIC HALL

YOUNG THE GIANT w/ Vance Joy

FRIDAY MARCH 7 KOOL HAUS

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20 NEW POLITICS PHOENIX CONCERT THEATRE w/ Magic Man, Sleeper Agent

DOORS 6PM SHOW 7PM • RT, SS • ALL AGES

TUESDAY JANUARY 28 THE OPERA HOUSE

THIS SATURDAY DEC 7 THE GREAT HALL

DOORS 7PM • SHOW 8PM • RT, SS • 19+ W W W . DA L E Y. T V With special guest:

THE DEVIN CUDDY BAND

FEB 19 & 20 MASSEY HALL SHOW 8PM MASSEYHALL.COM

new album out now

Ticket Location Legend: RT - Rotate This, SS - Soundscapes.

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@LiveNationON

/LiveNation

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All dates, acts and ticket prices subject to change without notice. Ticket prices subject to applicable fees.

NOW December 5-11 2013

51

clubs&concerts œcontinued from page 50

TRANZAC SOUTHERN CROSS Bluegrass Thursdays Houndstooth (bluegrass/old-time) 7:30 pm.

THE WILSON 96 The Sinners Choir (roots/ Americana) 9 pm.

WINTER GARDEN THEATRE Dala, Kevin Fox (folk) 8 pm.

WISE GUYS Open Jam Jimmy James 10 pm.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/EXPERIMENTAL

ALLSTREAM CENTRE The David Foster

ñ

Foundation Miracle Concert Andrea Bocelli, Earth Wind & Fire, the Tenors, Sinbad.

ARRAY SPACE Array Session 20 Branko Dzinovic, Dimitar Pentchev, Nate Robertson, Rick Sacks 8 pm.

EMMET RAY BAR John Wayne Swingtet (Gypsy swing) 9 pm.

FFLATO MARKHAM THEATRE Christmas Show The Manhattan Transfer (jazz fusion) 8 pm.

FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS RICHARD BRADSHAW AMPHITHEATRE

French Impressions Ensemble Made in Canada noon to 1 pm.

HY’S STEAKHOUSE Krystle Blue 7 pm.

JANE MALLETT THEATRE The Gryphon Trio (chamber music) 8 pm.

KAMA Thursdays At Five Canadian Jazz Quartet, Vern Dorge (saxophone) 5 to 8 pm.

METROPOLITAN UNITED CHURCH Noon At Met Arnold Tirzits & Matthew Coons (piano) 12:15 to 12:45 pm.

MUSIC GALLERY Gates, Northumbria, thisquietarmy (experimental) 8 pm.

OLD MILL INN HOME SMITH BAR Thursday Night Jazz Party Lenny Solomon, Alexandra Tait, Bernie Senesky, Lew Mele 7:30 to 10:30 pm.

THE PAINTED LADY The Heavyweights Brass Band 8 to 10 pm, Eric St Laurent Trio 10:30 pm.

THE REX Don Byron & Michael Occhipinti 9:30 pm, Amanda Tosoff Trio 6:30 pm.

ROOSTER COFFEE HOUSE Sam Dickinson, Rob Christian, Gram Whitty, Lee Clarke (jazz) 5 to 7 pm, Ewen Farncombe Trio (jazz) 3 to 5 pm.

THE WHIPPOORWILL A Little Rambunctious w/ Michael Louis Johnson (jazz/swing/jump blues) 10 pm.

ñ

WYCHWOOD BARNS THEATRE Singing The

Earth Marion Newman, Continuum Contemporary Music Ensemble (mezzo-soprano) 8 pm.

DANCE MUSIC/DJ/LOUNGE

BASSLINE MUSIC BAR ITSVYNL (house/electro/

hip-hop) 10 pm.

DRAKE HOTEL LOUNGE DJ DB Cooper doors 11 pm.

EFS Untitled Thursdays Soundbwoy doors 10 pm.

GUVERNMENT Sub Focus, Delta Heavy (drum

’n’ bass) 9 pm.

MIDPOINT Nintendo Thursdays (80s Vs 90s).

RIVOLI POOL LOUNGE DJ Bunitall (R&B/hip-hop).

TROIKA VODKA BOUTIQUE Magik Thursdays DJ Magik Mike 10 pm.

WAYLA BAR Random Play DJ Dwayne Minard (70s/80s) 10 pm.

Friday, December 6 POP/ROCK/HIP-HOP/SOUL

ALLEYCATZ Lady Kane.

THE ANTLER ROOM Paddy Townsend Band (alt

rock) 9:30 pm.

BOVINE SEX CLUB The Creepshow, Organ

Thieves, Brutal Youth doors 9 pm.

CADILLAC LOUNGE Carl Henry 9:30 pm.

CAMERON HOUSE BACK ROOM The Golden Dogs w/ Neil Quin.

CASTRO’S LOUNGE The Untameable Ronnie Hayward (rockabilly) 5 to 7 pm.

CBC BROADCAST CENTRE Sounds Of The Season Serena Ryder, Walk Off the Earth, Wexford Gleeks, JP Saxe, Toronto Mass Choir, Amanda Martinez, Justin Aedin Trio, Evaristo, Chris Hadfield 5:30 am to 6:30 pm.

THE CENTRAL Justine’s Cargo Pants 6 pm.

DC MUSIC THEATRE Indie Alternative Showcase doors 7 pm, all ages.

EL MOCAMBO DOWNSTAIRS The Weber Brothers, Hot Rocks 9 pm.

ETON HOUSE When We Was Young (five bands) 7 pm.

THE GARRISON No Joy, HSY, Beliefs (shoegaze) doors 9 pm. See preview, page 51.

HARD LUCK BAR Mandroid Echostar, Searching for Satellites, Body Doubles, Kill the Messenger, Mirrelia doors 9 pm.

HICKORY HOUSE Empress Divine’s Red Affair Supa Loaded, Military, King Turbo, King Stur

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Grav, Gunz N Rozez doors 10 pm.

THE HIDEOUT The Cover Boys, Hayley Stark (rock) 10 pm.

HORSESHOE The Highest Order, Teenanger, Saffron Sect (indie psych rock).

LEE’S PALACE AudioJunkies & Squirtgun Party The Shanks, Kevin Kane, Lily Frost, Jose Contreras.

LOLA Daniel ‘Flow’ Sherkin 8 pm.

LUXY NIGHTCLUB Out Of Many, One Music Tour Shaggy, Rayvon.

FMEASURE A Not So Silent Night In The Annex The Breaking Lakes, Bordeen, Ladyface, the Retrievers doors 9 pm.

ON THE ROX Fully Loaded Metamorphosis Black Magic, Brimstone Gold, Illmatic, VIP, Kevlartone, Mystic, Soul Survival, Klymaxx, Starkade and others doors 9:30 pm.

RAKIA BAR Muscle Souls, Claude Kent 9:30 pm.

ROCKPILE Kamusta Noa Dekada 90 The Youth, Dong Abay, Glenn Jacinto.

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM Friday Night Live: Season Finale Derek Miller, the Beauties 7 to 11 pm.

SILVER DOLLAR Record release Pkew Pkew Pkew, Mad Ones, the Oooohh Baby Gimme Mores, Stuckouthere 9 pm.

FTHE SISTER Ska/Rockabilly Xmas Bash SKAFACE, the Greasemarks, the Harmonauts.

SNEAKY DEE’S 7-inch release party Neon Windbreaker, Nice Head, WTCHS, Pink Wine (punk). See preview, this page.

FSOUND ACADEMY Edgefest Jingle Bell Concert Series: Dean Blundell’s Christmas Fest USS, Head of the Herd doors 8 pm.

TRANZAC SOUTHERN CROSS Jenny Berkel & Baby Eagle (indie pop) 7:30 pm.

ñ

ñ ñ ñ ñ

FOLK/BLUES/COUNTRY/WORLD

CAMERON HOUSE Kayla Howran 10 pm, Patrick Brealey 8 pm, David Celia 6 pm.

DAKOTA TAVERN Big Tobacco & the Pickers (country) 10 pm.

GROSSMAN’S Combo Royale 10 pm, Sandie Marie 6 to 9 pm.

HUGH’S ROOM Leon Redbone, Paul Asaro, Kate Davis (early American jazz/ ñ blues) 8:30 pm.

LULA LOUNGE Changui Havana (salsa) 10:30 pm.

RELISH BAR & GRILL The Danger Bees 9:30 pm.

ROCK ’N HORSE SALOON Grand Opening (coun-

try/rock) 6:30 pm.

TRANZAC SOUTHERN CROSS Healing Power Fes-

tive Fest! 9 pm, the Foolish Things (folk) 5 pm.

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/EXPERIMENTAL

ARRAY SPACE The Signal Itself James Tenney 8 pm.

BLOOR STREET UNITED CHURCH La Mode 2

Music... Well Dressed Kathleen Kajioka, Alison Melville, Justin Haynes, Christopher Bagan (music from Baroque France) 8 pm.

DOMINION ON QUEEN Havana to Toronto (Afro Cuban jazz) 9 pm.

FENOCH TURNER SCHOOLHOUSE Founder’s Dinner Susan Ryman (carol singing) 6:15 pm.

GATE 403 Donné Roberts Band 9 pm, Roberta Hunt Jazz & Blues Band 5 to 8 pm.

GRACE CHURCH ON-THE-HILL Laudamus Te The Upper Canada Choristers (baroque concert) 8 pm.

HART HOUSE ARBOR ROOM Jazz At Oscar’s University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra 9 pm.

HY’S STEAKHOUSE Krystle Blue 7 pm.

LULA LOUNGE David Buchbinder (Latin jazz) 8 pm.

OLD MILL INN HOME SMITH BAR Fridays To Sing About Julie Michels Trio (jazz) 7:30 to 10:30 pm.

THE REX Hansford Rowe & HR3 9:45 pm, Aimee Butcher 6:30 pm, Hogtown Syncopators 4 pm.

FROY THOMSON HALL Masterworks: All Tchaikovsky The Toronto Symphony Orchestra 7:30 pm.

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DANCE MUSIC/DJ/LOUNGE

794 BATHURST BT, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Jordan Suckley doors 10 pm.

BASSLINE MUSIC BAR Team Birthday Barmak,

Joel, Rublez, Danny Thrax, Ben Cormier (house) 9:30 pm.

BUNDA LOUNGE Overfunk’d – James Vs Fela DJ King Curtiss Winston & Son of S.O.U.L. (funk/ soul/Afrobeat) 10 pm.

CASTRO’S LOUNGE Record Party DJ ‘I Hate You Rob’ (soul/funk/R&B/punk rock/rockabilly/ power pop) 10 pm.

THE CENTRAL DJ OhBall 9 pm.

CRAWFORD City Love Beast DJ (hip-hop/R&B).

DRAKE HOTEL UNDERGROUND Elementary Cosella, HRLD, Rynecologist, Meech doors 11 pm.

EMMET RAY BAR DJ Pie & Mash (reggae/ska) 10 pm.

GUVERNMENT Reggae Cafe Appreciation Party Renegade Squad, Whitebwoy, Black Reaction, DJ Zee, 2Touch, Jungle Junkee and others doors 10 pm.

HOLY OAK CAFE Rave Collier (pop/dance/R&B) 10 pm.

THE HOXTON Cut Chemist doors 10 pm. ñ THE PAINTED LADY DJ Frank Phantastik John-

son 10 pm.

RIVOLI POOL LOUNGE DJ Stu (classic rock & roll).

THE STEADY CAFE & BAR S.W.A.G: Secretly

We’re All Gay DJ Max Mohenu, Scarlett Bobo 10 pm.5 WAYLA BAR Superstar DK Mark Falco (top 40/ house/hip-hop) 10 pm.5 WRONGBAR Big Primpin: Glamourest Life DJ Marianista, DJ HazelOMG, Phil V, Nino Brown (hip-hop) doors 10 pm.5

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Saturday, December 7 POP/ROCK/HIP-HOP/SOUL

ADELAIDE HALL Blackalicious, Philly (hip-hop) 10:30 pm. ñMoves FAIR CANADA CENTRE The Big Jingle Fall ñOut Boy, Icona Pop, Serena Ryder, Down with Webster, Ylvis, Fefe Dobson, Hedley.

ALLEYCATZ Lady Kane.

THE ANTLER ROOM Alter Eager (funk rock) 10 pm.

BOVINE SEX CLUB Fatality, Pryes, Razorwire, Ayahuasca doors 9 pm.

CADILLAC LOUNGE Purple Onion 3 Pete Otis & the DejaBlues, Mike McKenna, ñ Luke & the Apostles, Keith McKie 9 pm.

CAMERON HOUSE BACK ROOM The Golden Dogs w/ Snoqualmie.

THE CENTRAL Bob Menzies 7:30 pm, Social Potion 6:30 pm, Gina Horswood 5:30 pm.

THE DANFORTH MUSIC HALL Electric ’13 Tour The Cult doors 8 pm.

DORA KEOGH The Swingin’ Blackjacks (rockabilly/blues).

EL MOCAMBO UPSTAIRS Screw Cancer benefit 10 pm.

ETON HOUSE Tim Kennedy & the Roadhouse Boys 7 pm.

GLADSTONE HOTEL MELODY BAR Fleetwood Mix (Fleetwood Mac tribute) 9 pm.

FHARD LUCK BAR Xmas Metal-Massacre Fest Burning the Day, Nordheim, Will of the Ancients, Eclipse Prophecy, Endemise, Karkaos, Primalfrost doors 7:30 pm.

THE HIDEOUT Shawn Brady & the Electric

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NEON WINDBREAKER

LORI WALTENBURY

NOISE-PUNK

Local five-piece keeps it super-short and super-fun on new 7-inch By CARLA GILLIS

NEON WINDBREAKER, NICE HEAD, WTCHS and PINK WINE at Sneaky Dee’s (431 College), Friday (December 6), 9 pm. Free.

Neon Windbreaker’s hot-off-the-press 7-inch, New Sky, includes a song called New Sky. The reference is to Chinatown’s New Sky Restaurant, where the local noise punk band frequently hangs out post-midnight after shows at the Silver Dollar or drinks in Kensington Market.

Apparently during the day, the vibe is completely different.

“It’s like an alternate universe,” says bassist/ guitarist Pat McCormack, glancing around the gaping eatery dotted with quiet lunchtime diners. Drummer Ben Reinhartz is similarly bewil-

52

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

dered. “I don’t know any of these people.”

Aside from the EP’s nods to their favourite hangout, the five-piece don’t make a habit of singing about life in Toronto, at least as far as McCormack and Reinhartz know. Both admit to usually having no idea what lead singer Eric Warner is shouting about.

They do know, however, that Neon Windbreaker – rounded out by guitarist Stan Simon and guitarist/bassist Mat Wronski – is the most fun band they’ve ever been in. That’s saying a lot, considering their busyness. McCormack also plays in Milk Lines, Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs and Non-Stop Girls; Reinhartz drums for Beliefs and Rituals.

“For me, this is a band with no egos,” says McCormack.

“It’s the easiest band to be in,” adds Reinhartz.

“No headaches ever,” McCormack says.

“Hands-down the funnest,” Reinhartz declares.

“And I play in a lot of fun bands,” McCormack interjects.

“Me, too!” exclaims Reinhartz.

Their New Sky EP is boisterous and invigorating, its noise elements never grating, its raucousness offset by melodicism, its urgency more amusingly unhinged than sternly intense. But brevity is Neon Windbreaker’s most singular characteristic. A typical sweaty live set sees them play 12 songs in 20 minutes.

“I don’t think this band is capable of writing a three-minute song,” Reinhartz says. “We’re all on the same page, and that page is, ‘Let’s just get it

out there.’ It’s also super-liberating to get onstage and have the only thing that matters be the energy that’s translating. There’s no worry about banter or whether this song sounds weird next to the other one. It’s just boom, boom, boom.”

Same goes for the 7-inch, released on Warner’s We Are Busy Bodies label with help from Scion Sessions (who are also paying for the free release party). It’s five songs in seven minutes.

That’s got to be a historic feat, I wonder aloud.

“What about Nervous Breakdown?” counters McCormack, before reciting the seminal hardcore EP’s song titles from memory.

“Four, I think,” says Reinhartz.

McCormack smiles. “Take that, Black Flag.” carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis

Blood Band (rock) 10 pm.

Holy Oak Cafe Sing Leaf & Ox Fet (pop) 10 pm.

Horseshoe Juno Concert Series: Songs From Winnipeg – MusiCounts Benefit Cuff the Duke, Damon Mitchell, Danny Greaves, Harlan Pepper, Jeremy Fisher, Lindy, Miranda Mulholland, NQ Arbuckle, Del Barber, Ridley Bent and others 9 pm.

The Hoxton Carnage doors 10 pm.

Lee’s Palace Planet Smashers, Mustard Plug, Fundamentals (ska/punk) doors 9 pm.

Opera House Tosca doors 8 pm.

Rancho Relaxo CD release party Gypsy Chief Goliath.

Revival Aint Nuthin’ But A Solid Garage House Party Jellybean Benitez, Groove Institute doors 10 pm.

The Rex Danny Marks (pop) noon.

Silver Dollar TimeGiant, Static Revolt, the Commoners, Slyde 8 pm.

Sound Academy MGMT, Kuroma doors 8 pm, all ages. See preview, page 56.

Virgin Mobile Mod Club Mars Hotel, the Gratefully Dedicated Sound System (Grateful Dead tribute) doors 9 pm.

Wrongbar Humans, Thomas Cade doors 9 pm.

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Folk/Blues/Country/World

Betty Oliphant Theatre From Rage Raging Asian Women Taiko ñComes Drummers 8 pm. See preview, page 58.

Blue Goose Tavern Danny B’s House Party

The Danny B Band (blues harp) 3 to 6 pm.

Cadillac Lounge Cadillac Ranch 4 pm.

Cameron House Fraser Melvin 10 pm, Whitney Rose 8 pm, Rattlesnake Choir 6 pm.

Castro’s Lounge Big Rude Jake (blues shouter) 4:30 pm.

C’est What The Boxcar Boys (Gypsy/Dixieland jazz/klezmer) 3 pm.

Dakota Tavern Big Tobacco & the Pickers (country) 10 pm, Bluegrass Brunch 10 am to 2 pm.

Dakota Tavern Alistair Christl (folk/rock) 10 pm, Ana Egge 7 to 9 pm.

Daniels Spectrum Songs Of My Mother: A Celebration Of African Women Tapa Diarrra, Blandine Mbiya, Ruth Mathiang, Evelyn Mukwedeya, Memory Makuri and others doors 8 pm.

Drake Hotel Underground Howe Gelb (alt country) doors 8 pm. See album review, page 60.

Free Times Cafe Winterfolk Blues & Roots Festival Preview & Benefit Rick Taylor, Soozi Schlanger, Ginger St James, Tony Quarrington, Mr Rick, HOTCHA!, Brian Gladstone, Noah Zacharin, Julian Taylor 8 pm.

Gate 403 Bill Heffernan (folk/country/blues) 5 to 8 pm.

The Great Hall Daley (singer/songwriter) doors 7 pm.

Hugh’s Room Leon Redbone, Paul Asaro, Kate Davis (early American jazz/blues) 8:30 pm.

Lula Lounge Ricardo Barboza (salsa) 10:30 pm.

Mélange Beaches Blues Fest December Edition Johnny Jensen w/ Bonnie Elvis, Soul Instigators, Lee Van Leer 7 pm.

Monarchs Pub Toronto Blues Society Xmas Party Jerome Godboo, Alec Fraser, Eric Schenkman 9 pm.

Portobello Jeff Burke, Susan MacDonnell 1:30-4:30 pm.

Relish Bar & Grill Brady Harden 9:30 pm.

The Rex Raoul & the Bigger Time (jump blues ensemble) 9:45 pm.

Southside Johnny’s The Bear Band (rock/ blues) 4 to 8 pm.

Tranzac Southern Cross Abigail Lapell (singer/songwriter) 7:30 pm, Jamzac 3 pm.

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Jazz/Classical/Experimental

FChurch of the Redeemer Christmas At The Redeemer Weston Silver Band, the Mimico Children’s Choir 7:30 pm.

Gate 403 Jason Raso Jazz Band 9 pm.

Glenn Gould Studio French Bonbons Sin-

fonia Toronto, Julian Milkis, Nune Melikian, Dick Hyman and others 8 pm.

Grossman’s Laura Hubert 10 pm, The Happy Pals (trad jazz) 4:30 to 8 pm.

Habits Gastropub Kohen Hammond Quartet (jazz) 9 pm.

Hy’s Steakhouse Krystle Blue 7 pm.

FJane Mallett Theatre Lights Of December Singing Out Choir 3 & 7:30 pm.

FThe Jazz Bistro Swingalong Saturday Brunch: Songs Of The Season in support of the Daily Food Bank & CBC’s Sounds Of The Season Jenni Burke 12:30-2:30 pm.

FLiving Arts Centre RBC Theatre Gloria!

Mississauga Festival Choir 2 & 8 pm.

FMassey Hall Christmas At Massey Hall St Michael’s Choir School 7:30 pm.

Nawlins Jazz Bar Sam Heineman (piano) 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

Old Mill Inn Home Smith Bar Jazz Masters Jake Wilkinson Trio 7:30 to 10:30 pm.

Paul’s Churrasco The Tavares Trio/Botos (jazz/Latin) 7:30 to 11:30 pm.

The Rex Ugly Beauties 7:30 pm, Chris Hunt Tentet + 2 3:30 pm.

lius, Rev Throwdown.

Sneaky Dee’s Shake A Tail (60s pop/soul) 11 pm.

The Steady Cafe & Bar Tramp DJ Jacqie Jaguar (girl dance party) 10 pm.5 WAYLA Bar DND DJ Dwayne Minard (house) 10 pm.5

Sunday, December 8 Pop/Rock/Hip-Hop/Soul

Cadillac Lounge The Hipshakers 3 pm.

Dakota Tavern Hot Rock (members of Blue

chestra 7:30 pm.

Rodeo, the Beauties and Flash Lightnin’ play the Stones) 10 pm.

FThe Danforth Music Hall Riverdale Share Concert Tim Bovaconti, Lorraine Segato, Suzie Wilde, Sharon and Lois, Teresa Tova and others 3 pm.

Dominion on Queen Rockabilly Brunch The Cosmotones (old school rockabilly) 11 am to 3 pm.

The 460 Where’s Your Head At Tour Where Giants Once Stood, Deterrence, Finding Kilroy 8 pm.

Full of Beans Coffee Roman Walte (moody rock) 2 to 4 pm.

The Garrison Holograms, TV Ghosts, Pow Wows doors 8 pm.

The Hideout Mad June (rock) midnight, the Cheap Thrills (rock) 10 pm.

Holy Oak Cafe Nude As The News Sandro Perri & Thom Gill 9 pm.

Hugh’s Room LeE HARVeY OsMOND & Harlan Pepper (rockabilly/country/ blues/gospel/folk/roots) 8:30 pm.

Paradise Bar & Billiards Terry Logan Trio 4 to 7:30 pm.

Village Vinyl Sunday Session James Clark 2 to 5 pm.

FRunnymede United Church 25 Year Cele-

Folk/Blues/Country/World

FRichmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts Festival Of Carols Toronto

ñ Mendelssohn Choir (classical) 8 pm.

FRoy Thomson Hall Masterworks: All Tchaikovsky The Toronto Symphony ñ ­Orchestra 7:30 pm.

Royal Conservatory of Music Koerner Hall Celebrating Frank Sinatra And Paolo

­Conte John Pizzarelli & Daniela Nardi 8 pm.

Royal Conservatory of Music Mazzoleni Hall Discovery Series Academy Chamber Orbration & benefit for the George Herman House Cantores Celestes Women’s Choir, Ellen Meyer, the Emperor String Quartet, Matthew Coons, Paul Otway 7:30 pm.

Seven44 Climax Jazz Band (traditional jazz) 4 to 7 pm.

Tranzac Southern Cross Anna Webber & Evan Tighe (NYC sax jazz) 10 pm.

Dance Music/DJ/Lounge

794 Bathurst The Prototypes, Evol Intent,

NC-17, illweather & ThuuN 10 pm.

The Ballet Classics Mista Jiggz, DJ P Plus (hits from the 50s-90s) doors 10 pm.

BassLine Music Bar F*CK Winter DJ C-Hard, DJ P Love (old-school funk/hip-hop/trap) 10 pm.

Beaver STIFF Colin D, Fawn BC (queer film ­festival party) 11 pm.5 The Central 7-Year Anniversary Party Leela, Patty, Emily, Defne 10 pm.

Clinton’s Shake, Rattle, Roll (60s rock/pop/ soul) doors 10 pm.

Crawford Grill$ Chetty & Redi (disco/Motown/reggae).

Drake Hotel Underground Never Forgive Action DJ Riccachet, DJ Numeric, DJ Dalia (hip-hop/R&B) 11 pm.

Emmet Ray Bar DJ Sawtay (soul/hip-hop) 10 pm.

Hot Box Puff Lounge Magic 3 Lukas Stark, DJ Iain, DJ Man, WillNoye 7 pm.

Johnny Jackson Heavy Rotation DJs Riccachet, Thera-P, Mercilless, Royale (funk/soul/hip-hop/house on 4 turntables) doors 10 pm.

FLi’ly Yuletide Therapy DJ Shamz, Fire 4 Hire Soundsystem doors 10 pm.

Monarch Tavern Dancecrasher! The Soul Bhoys (soul/ska/reggae).

The Painted Lady Music by Salazar 10 pm.

Phoenix Concert Theatre Paul Kalkbrenner doors 10 pm.

Polish Combatants Hall Break & Enter & Box Of Kittens Six Year Anniversary Ben Klock, Martin Fazekas, Mike Gibbs, Jamie Kidd, Fabio Palermo 10 pm.

Rivoli Pool Lounge DJ Plan B (hip-hop/rap/club).

751 Motown Party Fawn BC, DJ Caff, Brett Mil-

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Betty Oliphant Theatre From Rage Comes Raging Asian Women Taiko Drummers 2 pm. See preview, page 58.

Black Bear Pub Jam SNAFU 3:30 to 7:30 pm.

Cadillac Lounge The Danny B Blues Band 7:30 pm.

Cameron House The Double Cuts 10 pm.

Dakota Tavern Bluegrass Brunch 10 am to 2 pm.

Free Times Cafe Zack Werner Canadian Idol School Showcase 7 pm.

Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar Acoustic Family Brunch (bluegrass) 11 am to 2 pm.

Grossman’s The National Blues Jam Brian Cober (double slide guitar) 10 pm.

Knox College The Ulyssean Society Founding Celebration Glen Gary’s 3 for 4 (old time blues and jazz) 2 pm.

Lula Lounge Carlinhos Pernambuco, Forró de Pé w/ Luciano Porto, Batizado & Troca de Cordas, Maculele, Puxada de Rede (Brazilian) 7 pm, Jorge Maza Group (Cuban) 1 pm.

The Painted Lady Asiko Afrobeat Ensemble w/ Foly Kolade 9:30 pm.

Relish Bar & Grill Stir It Up Sunday Open Mic 9 pm.

Rose & Crown Music City North Open Mic 9 pm.

Sotto Voce Wine Bar Sunday Music Session Open Mic. Southside Johnny’s Open Jam Rebecca Matiesen & Phoenix 9:30 pm.

Tranzac Southern Cross DroneDoctor 7:30 pm, Max Layton & Robert Priest (folk singer/ songwriters) 5 pm, the Toronto Improvisers Orchestra 1 pm.

Winchester Kitchen & Bar Open Mic Porter 9 pm.

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Jazz/Classical/Experimental

Aspetta Caffe Luke Vajsar (solo bass) 4 pm.

The Central Lizzie Violet’s Cabaret Noir Matt

Gerber & the Four Winds, Kat Leonard, Arlene Paculan, Heather Pirie, Meghan Morrison 7 pm.

Church of the Holy Trinity Rise Echo Women’s Choir, Annabelle Chvostek 7:30 pm.

Dominion on Queen Wintegarten Orchestra 4:30 pm.

Emmet Ray Bar John Shearsmith Group (jazz) 9 pm.

Gate 403 Toronto Jazz Collective 9 pm, Whitney Ross Barris Jazz Band 5 to 8 pm.

FGladstone Hotel Melody Bar Christmas Cabaret Jennifer Potter 4 to 6 pm.

Hart House Great Hall Sunday Concert 3 pm.

Heliconian Hall Syrinx Concert Ishay Shaer (piano) 3 pm.

FMetropolitan United Church Carols

United Metropolitan Silver Band 1:30 pm.

Morgans on the Danforth Reg Schwager

(jazz guitar) 2 to 5 pm.

The Rex Francois Jalbert Quartet 9:30 pm, Tim Postgate 7 pm, Red Hot Ramble 3:30 pm, Excelsior Dixieland Jazz noon.

FRoy Thomson Hall A Christmas Carol Family Concert The Toronto Symphony Orchestra 3 pm.

Royal Conservatory of Music Koerner Hall Kirill Gerstein (piano) 3 pm.

FSt Anne’s Anglican Church Cantante!

Seasonal Singalong The Junction Trio, St Anne’s Church Choir 2 pm.

FSt Michael’s College School Centre For The Arts Carnival Of The Dinosaurs Family Friendly

(jazz) 7 pm.

Gate 403 Richard Whiteman Jazz Band, Terra Hazelton 9 pm, Denis Schingh 5 to 8 pm.

Kitch Luke Vajsar (solo bass).

Lola The Big 3 (old jazz) 6 to 9 pm.

FMassey Hall Jazz At Massey Hall: Big Band Holidays Jazz at Lincoln Center ­Orchestra w/ Wynton Marsalis 8 pm.

The Rex Chocolate Hot Pockets 9:30 pm, Jim Gelcer Groups 6:30 pm.

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Dance Music/DJ/Lounge

Reposado Mezcal Mondays DJ Ellis Dean.

Thompson Hotel 1812 Bar Blacklist DJ PG-13.

Tuesday, December 10 Pop/Rock/Hip-Hop/Soul

Adelaide Hall Premiere of Inside Llewyn Davis afterparty and benefit for Musiñ Counts Jim Cuddy, Justin Rutledge, Lindi Ortega, Jaylee Todd, the Beauties and others doors 9:30 pm.

The Duke Live.com Live Jam Night 8:30 pm.

Grossman’s Nicola Vaughan (pop rock) 10 pm.

The Hideout Jeans Off Duo (acoustic rock) 10 pm.

continued on page 55 œ

Program NYCO Symphony Orchestra 2 pm.

FToronto Centre for the Arts George Weston Recital Hall Holiday Jewels Orchestra Toronto, Sijing Ye (piano) 3 pm.

Tranzac Southern Cross The Lina Allemano

Four (jazz) 10 pm, Allemanda: A German Baroque Pub Afternoon Rezan Onen-Lapointe, David Podgorski, Justin Haynes 3 pm.

Dance Music/DJ/Lounge

BassLine Music Bar Diffraction CVilla (bass) 9 pm.

Bovine Sex Club Metal Health 9 pm.

Castro’s Lounge Watch This Sound (rare vin-

tage ska/reggae/dub) 9 pm.

The Red Light 80s Dance Party 9 pm.

Monday, December 9 Pop/Rock/Hip-Hop/Soul

Castro’s Lounge Rockabilly Mondays The Cosmotones 9 pm.

Double Double Land Sean Nicholas Savage, Sing Leaf, Ice Cream doors 9 pm. ñ Drake Hotel Underground Elvis Monday

Kira, the Shelters, Subject to Change, N.L.P. doors 9 pm.

Drake Hotel Lounge Yuka (funk) doors 10 pm.

The Hideout Don Campbell (acoustic rock) 10 pm.

Horseshoe Shoeless Monday Hallowell, Mike Butler, Benami 9 pm.

Hugh’s Room Tribute To Sam Larkin Ron Sexsmith, Kurt Swinghammer, Anne Bourne, Michael Johnston, Kyp Harness, Eric Newby, Paul Linklater, Robert Priest, Don Kerr and others 8:30 pm.

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Palace King Krule, Tops doors 8 pm. ñLee’s

Folk/Blues/Country/World

Cameron House Weatherstone 10 pm, Rae Billing (country) 6 pm.

Cameron House Back Room Ava Markus.

Dominion on Queen Good Neighbor’s Open Mic 8 pm.

Free Times Cafe Open Stage Monday Jessica Bundy 7:30 pm.

Grossman’s Jam No Band Required 9 pm.

Hawaii Bar Will Gillespie, Signe Miranda

9:30 pm.

Magic Oven Queen E Magic Mondays Open Jam

Shahi (soul/R&B/jazz/funk) 9 pm to midnight.

The Painted Lady Open Mic Mondays 10 pm.

Relish Bar & Grill Bentroots (New Orleans blues) 8 pm.

Tranzac Southern Cross Open Mic Mondays 9 pm.

Jazz/Classical/Experimental

Emmet Ray Bar Anna Webber’s Montreal

People (jazz) 9 pm, French/Davidson/Fortin

21 AWARDS AND COUNTING GREAT BEER LIVES HERE NOW December 5-11 2013

53

T.O. MUSIC NOTES SEAT-GATE

Liar. Crack-smoker. Conspirator. Seatstealer?

Of all the accusations flung at our besmirched mayor, sitting in the wrong spot is perhaps the least serious, but he’s been called on it nonetheless. Perhaps if it were just any ol’ seat Rob Ford nabbed in the VIP section at the Buffalo Bills game on Sunday, December 1, at the Rogers Centre, not much would have been made of it.

But it wasn’t. At the beginning of the game, Canadian rocker Matt Mays tweeted that the mayor had stolen his seat, then further tweeted his inner struggle: whether and how he would oust him.

Ultimately, Mays decided not to cause a stir, settling into an empty chair a few rows back. An hour or so later, when Ford left at half-time – apparently taken to a corporate box because it was less disruptive to the game – the conflict was over. Mays tweeted that he’d recaptured his

rightful place.

In an interview with Indie88 the following day, the singer said: “It was quite the interesting day. I asked the guy, like, the usher dude, like, ‘Where’s my seat?’ He was a little apprehensive, like, ‘Rob Ford’s in your seat, bro.’ I waited it out. I wasn’t mad at all – I just thought it was really funny. I threw down a couple tweets and it just went absolutely bonkers.”

If only getting Ford out of office were that easy.

STEVEN PAGE VS. SKELETONWITCH We shouldn’t have been surprised.

When NOW published a negative but kind review of Art Of Time Ensemble With Steven Page’s album back in 2010, the former Barenaked Ladies frontman had an army of Page devotees come to his rescue in the form of a slew of retrospectively hilarious comments.

American thrash metal outfit Skeletonwitch are the latest victims of

Page’s Army. When bassist Evan Linger chose 1998’s One Week as his most hated song for the A.V. Club’s recurring HateSong feature, the online comments betrayed a similar ferocious fidelity to what super-fans casually refer to as BNL. For example: “BNL has two Canadian Grammys to your none.”

Granted, there were just as many Skeletonwitch defenders: “I also like how he calls BNL an insult to Canada. As a Canadian I’ve always felt that way, too.”

Ouch.

ARTS ON THE BACK BURNER Looks like the party at City Hall back in January celebrating new funding for the arts was premature.

At the time, council agreed that proceeds from a new billboard tax would go to culture. The goal was a $25 per capita increase in overall arts funding by 2016.

Unfortunately, budget documents revealed last week indicate that staff have proposed pushing the increase back another two years, to 2018. If that proposal goes through, it will be the third time in a decade the city has failed to meet this particular objective.

The 2014 budget will be finalized in January 2014.

ROCK ’N’ HORSE

Running out of places to wear your finest belt buckle? There’s a new saloon out west. Well, 250 Adelaide West.

Located on the third floor (above Adelaide Hall), the Rock ’N’ Horse saloon is both a country/rock bar and a live venue on Thursday nights. The space opens to the public on Friday (December 6), and the inaugural performer is TBA. Yeehaw!

’TIS THE SEASON

The holidays are upon us, and a number of holiday-related charities are ramping up.

Mississauga punk-rockers Billy Talent are teaming up with Bluenotes to raise money for Kids Help Phone.

(Over the past 16 years, the retailer has raised a total of $1.6 million for the non-profit.)

The sale of each $10 collaboratively designed limited-edition T-shirt goes toward the retailer’s goal of raising $40,000 for the Canadian youth charity. A gift that gives back, available at 120-plus Bluenotes locations (blnts. com).

Another great way to make merry?

JAZZ.FM91 and Long & McQuade are partnering for the Holiday Heroes Instrument Drive, donating gently used music-makers to Parkdale schools in need of jamming essentials.

Last year the radio station gathered more than 75 instruments for the Regent Park School of Music.

Brass, guitars, woodwind, strings, percussion and electric keys can be dropped off until December 20 at Long & McQuade’s Bloor location (925 Bloor West) or at JAZZ.FM91 (4 Pardee).

Win TickeTs! collective concerts presents

The kills

Wednesday, December 11

Doors: 8:00pm / Show: 9:00pm The Danforth Music Hall $24.50 - $29.50 / 19+ ticketmaster.ca On sale now. Check out collectiveconcer ts.com for more info.

hugh cornWell Sunday, December 15

Doors: 8:00pm / Show: 9:00pm Lee’s Palace $18.50 / 19+ RT/ SS/HS

Visit nowtoronto.com/contests to enter!

One entry per household.

54

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

clubs&concerts œcontinued from page 53

Holy Oak Cafe Army Girls, Luka, Omhouse (pop) 9 pm. ñ Horseshoe Nu Music Tuesdays The Bright

Skies, McSon, the Northern Empties, Programm 9 pm.

Hugh’s Room David Bowie Then & Now ­Stardust (Bowie tribute) 8:30 pm.

Izakaya Sushi House Endure The Storm Tour A Faylene Sky, Drag the Lake, Playing God, Certified Valor, the Existent (metal/hardcore) doors 8 pm.

Lee’s Palace Monster Magnet, Royal Thunder, Anti-Mortem, Public Animal (heavy rock) doors 8 pm.

The Painted Lady I Hate Todd, Big Name ­Actors, Dan German, Clara Engel 9:15 pm.

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Folk/Blues/Country/World

Axis Gallery & Grill The Junction Jam Derek Downham 9:30 pm.

Cameron House Friendly Rich 10 pm, Pat Maloney 6 pm.

Castro’s Lounge blueVenus (singer/songwriter) 10 pm.

Dakota Tavern Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Kyte, the Nice Guys.

Drake Hotel Memphis Tuesdays The Unseen Strangers (country) doors 10 pm.

Free Times Cafe Emily Flack 8:30 pm.

Gate 403 Blues Night James Thomson 9 pm, Howard Willett Blues Duo 5 to 8 pm.

Relish Bar & Grill The Usual Suspects 7 to 9 pm.

The Savoy Tim Lucas (singer/songwriter) 9 pm.

The Whippoorwill The Sudden Valley Boys (bluegrass) 9:30 pm.

Jazz/Classical/Experimental

Alleycatz Carlo Berardinucci Band (swing/ jazz) 8:30 pm.

Dominion on Queen Hot Club of Corktown Django Jam 8:30 pm.

The Flying Beaver Pubaret Oy To The World 2 David Gale & Randy Vancourt (cabaret) 7:30 pm.

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre

Hammerklavier Stefan Chaplikov (piano) noon to 1 pm.

Nocturne Drum Circle 8:30 pm.

The Rex Classic Rex Jazz Jam 9:30 pm, Brian de Lima Quartet 6:30 pm.

FRoy Thomson Hall Pops Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Etobicoke School of the Arts Chorus, Ashley Brown 8 pm.

Royal Conservatory of Music Koerner Hall Nessun Dorma! The Great Songs of Italy

The Ontario Philharmonic, Richard Margison (tenor) 8 pm.

Tranzac Stop Time (jazz) 10 pm, Aurochs Singalong Session Ali Berkok, Jake Oelrichs 7:30 pm.

TranzaC Main Hall Album release show Bespoken Plays Nick Storring & Daniel Brandes (classical) 7 pm.

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Dance Music/DJ/Lounge

BassLine Music Bar Tech Tuesdays Techster (techno) 10 pm.

Bloke & 4th Swank Tuesdays.

Reposado Alien Radio DJ Gord C. Toby’s Famous All Dressed Tuesdays DJ Caff (funk/soul/new Jack swing/rock/reggae) 10 pm.

Wednesday, December 11 Pop/Rock/Hip-Hop/Soul

Cadillac Lounge The Ghetto Hicks (blues).

Cameron House Motel Blanco (roots/country/rock) 10 pm.

The Danforth Music Hall The Kills, US Girls doors 7 pm. ñ Drake Hotel Lounge The Digs (funk/R&B/

soul) doors 10 pm.

The Hideout Hideout’s 7-Year Anniversary Party The World Is Yours (rock) 10 pm.

Horseshoe Tiger Star, the Last True Gentlemen, Duck Duck Goose 9 pm.

Lee’s Palace Spacehog, Sponge, Lionize (90s alt) doors 7 pm.

Lola Open Stage Wednesday’s Child 8 pm.

Magpie Taproom Trace Minerals 10:30 pm.

Opera House A$ap Ferg, ASAP Mob, Ashton Matthews, OverDoz, 100s doors 8 pm, all ages.

Rockpile Kool G Rap & AZ (hip-hop) doors 8 pm, all ages.

FVirgin Mobile Mod Club Andy Kim Christmas Show Andy Kim, Gord Down-

ñ ñ

continued on page 58 œ

NOW December 5-11 2013

55

JUNO Concert Series_Now print ad_update.pdf

1

2013-11-29

3:41 PM

MGMT ELECTRO-PSYCH

M

Y

Y

Brooklyn duo learn to be who they wanna be

Y

By KEVIN RITCHIE

MGMT with KUROMA at Sound Academy (11 Polson), Saturday (December 7), 8 pm, all ages, $35-$45. RT, SS, TF.

S, Sign up !

T E E S for NOW’s CKSSE OR I M T A & Contest Clique T P R E V IE newsletter.

C N O O nowtoronto.com/newsletters C M

56

W

N I

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

!

MGMT was not an easy band to be in three years ago.

The introspective psych-folk of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser’s second album, Congratulations, asked more of listeners than their celebrated debut, 2007’s Oracular Spectacular.

That album’s trio of feel-good electro-pop hits – Time To Pretend, Kids and Electric Feel – launched the Brooklyn-based duo’s career and inspired legions of neon-headband-wearing fans to emulate their shamanistic hippie pop star aesthetic.

When Congratulations came out, critics and fans alike accused MGMT of insolence and self-sabotage. Kids, their biggest hit, vanished from the set list, and audiences’ disappointment was palpable.

“In 2010 we went through a weird phase of feeling really self-conscious onstage,” singer/guitarist VanWyngarden explains during a tour stop in Charlotte, North Carolina. “But we probably made it worse ourselves than it really was.”

The press honeymoon effectively over, the pair took their psychedelic experimentation in a blistering electronic direction on their self-titled third album (Columbia).

Written in the studio with producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Black Moth Super Rainbow), its densely layered songs are full of feedback-

drenched hi-hats, vocal effects and churning noise that nod to the solo work of Martin Rev and Alan Vega from influential proto-punkers Suicide.

MGMT’s sunny pop melodies occasionally shine through the digital din on tracks like Alien Days and Introspection – a cover of a 60s psych-pop obscurity – but others completely dispense with pop structure.

“It’s a tiny bit abrasive, aggressively mixed and a little bit grating sometimes,” VanWyngarden admits. “But what we’re trying to do under that initial messiness and noisiness is to create a whole slew of paths you can take through a song. So you can follow one sound and hear the song completely differently from the last time.”

VanWyngarden’s lyrics were inspired by surrealist poet Philip Lamantia, whose druggy verse conjures a world of erotic mysticism and melancholy. A political undercurrent grapples with disillusionment and apathy about current affairs.

That theme is bluntly articulated on confrontational single Your Life Is A Lie, a reaction to the blue-eyed escapism the band revelled in on songs like Electric Feel.

Nowadays, MGMT make room for both the escapist and the introspective in their set list. Having weathered the awkward sophomore phase, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser are high on a sense of liberation.

“We feel more at ease with the fact that there’s not a certain sound that we’re expected to make,” he says.

“Anything could be MGMT.” 3 music@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

concerts at

leespalace.com

Original Live Music @ 8:30pm horseshoetAvern.com street West / spadina Fridays & Saturdays @ 9:00pm 370 QueenArtist Bookings Front Bar 12:00pm - 2:00am 416-598-0720 or craig@horseshoetavern.com

529 Bloor street West / Bathurst

Artist Bookings

416-598-0720 or ben@leespalace.com thurs hip-hop charity show

alternative rock dance club

thurs

the wanted pin kush’n kids 15.00 @Door cache cameron 10.00 with non-Perishable Food

dec 05

dec 12

$

2nd floor of lee’s palace 10:00pm — 2:30am

$15.00

adv

$

thursday • no cover

thurs

dec 05 $10.50 adv

$24.50 $28.50 adv

aLLiSOn weiSS + pj BOnd

fri

dec 06

tues

With grounders

$10.00

@Door

fri

dec 13 $15.50

adv

dec 10

white

no cover

friday

thurs

teenanger

dec 17

saffron sect

$12.50 adv

no cover

saturday

royal thunder

dec 19

tues

catL + MOkOMOhai

& the do good assassins

anti-mortem + public animal

annual x-mas bash

wed dec 11 • $23.00 adv

sat

dec 14

annual holiday show

peter elkas + lindy

monday • no cover

$20.00 adv

$27.50 adv

mon shoeless monday

dec 16

NO COVER

no cover

with StUDENt i.D.

the shrine

NEON & thE meate dreams norway ENDS by yOU

with DEViN CUDDy baND

Adv Tickets @ TickeTfly.com • Ticketmaster.ca • Rotate This • Soundscapes • H-Shoe front Bar

thurs DECEmbER 12 @koolhaus $25.50 advance • all-ages • doors 8:00pm

fri DECEmbER 20 @opera house • $ 18.00 adv • all-ages

the FLatLinerS

tues DECEmbER 31 lee’s palace • $ 22.50 advance

Off with thEiR hEaDS + SightS & SOUNDS tues DECEmbER 31 @horseshoe • $ 25.00 advance

tues fEbRUaRy 11

With the Jay vons (members of Reigning sound!)

the phoenix • $ 27.50 advance

saturday

fEbRUaRy 1 mod club $ 17.50

adv • 7:00pm

sat fEbRUaRy 22

tues fEb 11 @ opera house $22.50 adv • all-ages • doors 6:00pm

lee’s palace • $26.50 advance

tues apRil 8 $ 23.50

like moths to flames stray from the path & more!

fri DECEmbER 27

hugh cornwell

lee’s palace • $ 11.50 adv

academy all-ages

& thE jiCkS

wed jaNUaRy 22 lee’s palace • $ 13.00 adv

sat DECEmbER 7 drake hotel • $ 17.50 adv

the balconies zeppelin 2 Say yES

with

deafheaven + intronaut + the kindrid

jaNUaRy 11 • $ 13.50 advance

kevin devine cate lebon fEbRUaRy 1 • $ 12.50 advance

wednesday jaNUaRy 15 @lee’s palace • $ 25.00 adv

hidden cameras darkside yuck north mississippi weekend allstars casket girls march 4 • $ 21.50 adv

Between the Buried & Me tues jaNUaRy 14 $ horseshoe • 11.50 advance

jaNUaRy 21 • $ 12.50 advance

february 1 • $ 10.50 adv

february 15 • $ 15.00 adv

- $ 28.50 adv • All-Ages

friday fEbRUaRy 28 @phoenix concert theatre • $ 24.50 adv • all-ages • doors 6:30pm

tuesday

fEbsound 18

rOky erickSOn

danforth music hall

sunday DECEmbER 8 @garrison • $ 12.50 advance

sat feb 15 @ 794 BathuRst • $18.50 adv

sun march 3 @ gaRRison • $10.00 adv

jaNUaRy 17 •

$ 15.00

advance

jaNUaRy 21 • $ 10.50 advance

fEbRUaRy 22 • $ 10.00 adv

lanterns ON thE lakE fEbRUaRy 9 •

$ 11.50

advance

maria taylor fEbRUaRy 18 • $ 10.50 adv

tOgEthER pangea

jaNUaRy 10 • $ 13.50 adv • all-ages jaNUaRy 16 • $ 13.50 adv • all-ages maRCh 27 • $ 16.50 adv • all-ages

friday jaNUaRy 17

jim jones horseshoe • $ 13.50 advance

revue

• horseshoe tavern • february 6 • $12.50 adv

nOrthcOte dave hause

february 10 • $15.50 adv

the millwinders

jonathan

sat DECEmbER 14

march 3 • $15.50 advance

DaNy laj & thE lOOkS silver dollar • $ 13.50 adv

wilson

white denim march 20 • $10.00 adv

saturday may 3 $ the great hall • 18.50 adv

Bend SiniSter war On drugS april 18 • $16.50 advance

with CORy bRaNaN

• horseshoe tavern •

NOW December 5-11 2013

57

THURSDAY DECEMBER 5 PRESENTED BY MannPromo

WORLD

SATURDAY DECEMBER 7

TUESDAY DECEMBER 10

CHRISTMAS SHOW

RICHARD LOA

MARS HOTEL

RAGING ASIAN WOMEN TAIKO DRUMMERS Twelve-woman collective rage with joy, embrace vulnerability By JULIA LECONTE

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 11

much fun together,” says RAW member Christine Kim. “When we experience racism, sexJarvis), Saturday (December 7), 8 pm, and ism, systemic barriers or life circumW/ SPECIAL GUESTS: Sunday (December 8), 2 pm. $15-$25. BP. stances that seem unfair, what do we ANDY KIM, GLASS TIGER, do with that? That’s the real question GORD DOWNIE, BRENDAN CANNING, Don’t confuse rage with anger. we explore.”

THE TREWS, KEVIN DREW, DAN HILL, The 12 Asian-Canadian women who Kim and fellow RAW member Young KARDINAL OFFISHALL, RON SEXSMITH, make up Toronto’s Raging Asian AMY MILLAN Park explain the feminist music collecWomen Taiko Drummers are fuelled tive’s raison d’être between sips at a onstage and off by a variety of pasTHURSDAY DECEMBER 12 downtown coffee shop. sions. But they aren’t angry. Usually (ANDREW) “A lot of activist groups that call on they’re the opposite. us see Raging Asian Women as anger at “Raging is an intensity of emotion.

722 COLLEGE STREET the injustice you feel when something RCM_NOW_contests_1-5bw_Nov21_Carter&Freelon__V 13-11-29 4:49 PM Page 1 Raging in joy is something that I would is not just in the world,” says Park, a forthemodclub.com say describes us because we have so mer alternative dance company founder who handles much of the group’s musical direction.

“We use anger to empower ourselves as a group to try and fix it.”

This year is RAW’s 15th anniversary, and after a decade and a half of performing for social justice groups, unions, events and festivals like Pride – usually about once or twice a month – this weekend’s shows mark their first full-length concert production, From Rage Comes.

9th Annual ANDY

KIM CHRISTMAS SHOW

RAGING ASIAN WOMEN TAIKO DRUMMERS at Betty Oliphant Theatre (404

CHARITY EVENT

CONTESTS

Regina Carter and Nnenna Freelon

SAT., DEC. 14, 2013 8PM KOERNER HALL Nnenna Freelon “has long been regarded as a direct descendant of the great jazz singers of the past.”

(USA TODAY) MacArthur genius Regina Carter integrates jazz, funk, Motown, African, and soul music.

This concert is part of the TD Jazz: Celebrating Dinah and Sarah concert series.

WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO THIS CONCERT AT:

nowtoronto.com

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! 416.408.0208 www.performance.rcmusic.ca 273 BLOOR STREET WEST (BLOOR & AVENUE RD.) TORONTO

58

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

In addition to choreographed drum works (including the world premieres of two RAW originals), the show has six video presentations between songs.

“It’s more an experience than just a show,” explains Kim. “We engage with the audience through our emotions and through being vulnerable. It’s that authentic experience that, I think, is contagious.”

RAW’s form of taiko drumming is a modern reclamation of a traditional Japanese instrument often used in shrines and temples as a way of calling out to the community. It became popular as a performance art in North America in the 60s and 70s, and today the women of RAW – who crafted their own drums from scratch over a decade ago – use it to challenge stereotypes.

“What makes us unique is that we’re all women. We not only consider ourselves a taiko group, but we use taiko as a way to be seen in the way we want rather than the way the media portray us,” says Kim. Over the years, the women have slowly seen these portrayals changing

for the better.

“At the beginning of RAW, it was really about [countering] the old stereotype of the Asian as being quiet, meek, not having an opinion or voicing their opinion. Obviously that’s changed a lot – look at Olivia Chow,” says Park.

“We’ve evolved in the sense that RAW is now us presenting ourselves.

For some people that might be shocking. A lot of kids will come and say, ‘Is that a girl or a boy?’ But we just present who we are and people get to see that.”

Adds Kim, “Before, it was about dispelling stereotypes; now it’s about ensuring that we’re seen. How much can you talk in words about inclusivity? But if you can do something that’s easy to grab onto, like drumming, it takes away a lot of the layers.”

The group members’ own attitudes have evolved, too.

“Now we say, ‘Great. Be shy and quiet and demure.’ We don’t have judgment, whereas before I think we did,” says Kim. “Now it’s like, ‘Look at us.

There’s all sorts of diversity within.’” 3 julial@nowtoronto.com | @julialeconte

JAZZ/CLASSICAL/EXPERIMENTAL

thurs dec 5

lipS SuxeSS

Building BlockS Fri dec 6

dJs general eclectic + gueStS dance party HitS Rock Funk PoP R&B HiP HoP

WitH it Sat dec 7 mon dec 9

dJs nico & dave BarneS dJ magniFicent Mod Soul Ska indie

JunkSHop

triBute nigHt - live BandS an evening oF THe BeST oF

taddle creek magazine launcH tHe Smoking BellS Wed JeSSica Speziale dec 11 Second SonS tue dec 10

Serving great Food • 5:30 - 10:30pm!

416.532.3989 • 937 Bloor Street West www.thepiston.ca

clubs&concerts œcontinued from page 55

ie, Amy Millan, Ron Sexsmith, Kardinal Offishall, Dan Hill, Glass Tiger, Kevin Drew & Brendan Canning doors 7 pm.

FOLK/BLUES/COUNTRY/WORLD

FBARBARA FRUM LIBRARY Chanukah Concert The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir 7 to 8 pm.

THE CENTRAL Stevie Joffe & the Bayonets 9:30 pm, Singer/songwriter Roundtable 6 pm.

DAKOTA TAVERN NQ Arbuckle.

DOMINION ON QUEEN Corktown Ukulele Jam 7:30 pm.

EMMET RAY BAR Peter Boyd (blues) 9 pm.

FREE TIMES CAFE Where Have All The Folk

Songs Gone Sing-a-long Sue & Dwight, Michelle Rumball & Tony Laviola 8 pm.

GROSSMAN’S Bruce Domoney 10 pm.

HUGH’S ROOM CD release The Rucksack Willies, the O’Pear 8:30 pm.

RELISH BAR & GRILL The BTB’s 7:30 pm.

SILVER DOLLAR High Lonesome Wednesdays Crazy Strings, Roman Walte 9 pm.

STEELWORKERS HALL Fat Albert’s Coffee House & Open Stage (folk/country/blues) 8 pm.

TRANZAC SOUTHERN CROSS Segger Vs Segger, Craig Pedersen 10 pm.

ALLEYCATZ Carlo Berardinucci Band (swing/ jazz) 8:30 pm.

CASTRO’S LOUNGE The Mediterranean Stars (fusion jazz) 8 pm.

CHALKERS PUB Lisa Particelli’s GNOJAZZ Jam Session 8 pm.

FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS RICHARD BRADSHAW AMPHITHEATRE

Espejo Eliana Cuevas Quintet 5:30 to 6:30 pm.

GATE 403 String Theory Collective 9 pm, Ken Skinner Jazz Trio 5 to 8 pm.

HY’S STEAKHOUSE Thompson Egbo-Egbo (piano) 7 pm.

MEZZETTA Brian Katz (solo guitar) 9 pm.

NAWLINS JAZZ BAR Jim Heineman Trio 7 to 11 pm.

THE REX Ricardo Grilli Quintet 9:30 pm, Junik 6:30 pm.

FROY THOMSON HALL Pops Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Etobicoke School of the Arts Chorus, Ashley Brown 2 & 8 pm.

FYORKMINSTER PARK BAPTIST CHURCH Festival Of Carols Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Ben Heppner (tenor) 7:30 pm.

DANCE MUSIC/DJ/LOUNGE

BASSLINE MUSIC BAR Hardcore Wednesday DJ Dynamics (hardcore).

CROCODILE ROCK 911 Wednesdays DJ Perry (top 40/dance) 9 pm.

DROP LOUNGE Mercredi@Drop DJs Shanelle Williams, Boots Boogie & Bones Mcleod.

REPOSADO Spy Vs Sly Vs Spy (live guitar soundtracks).

3

THE OSSINGTON

HOME OF THE BLUES SINCE 1943

THU 5 THE JAMZ New series...

Our best DJs spin their own faves and the dark corners of their collections... this week DJ Big Jimmy Mills...

FRI 6 SWEAT PANTS w/DJ Coolin Hip hop, soul, grime, RnB dancehall, reggae & beyond...

SAT 7 LUCKY BITCHES All-out, glam-positive, dance-party, freakout extravaganza for 5 straight years...

SUN 8 BRASS FACTS TRIVIA w/host Famous Kirk Hero...prizes, specials & new knowledge...

MON 9 COMEDY AT OSS New open mic night... sign up and knock ‘em dead...

THE WORLD IS EMBARRASSING, PT 1 TUE 10

Chris Locke- live stand up album recording... 2 nights... very special guests... do not miss... very limited seating...

WED 11 THE WORLD IS EMBARRASSING, PT 2

The hilarious conclusion... contact The Oss for tickets...

61 OSSINGTON AVE | 416•850•0161 | theossington.com

THANK YOU TORONTO FOR MAKING US A BEST BLUES BAR FINALIST!

THURSDAY DEC 5

ROBINE ANTOINE BLUES BAND 10pm-2am

FRIDAY DEC 6

SANDIE MARIE 6pm-9pm COMBO ROYALE 10pm-2am SATURDAY DEC 7

THE HAPPY PALS 4:30-8pm LAURA HUBERT 10pm-2am SUNDAY DEC 8

NEW ORLEANS CONNECTION ALL STAR JAZZ BAND 4:30-9pm THE NATIONAL, BLUES JAM with BRIAN COBER 10pm-2am

BOVINE SEX CLUB; 3.6389 in; 529738; 1cols thu dec 5

THE DAKOTA TAVERN

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Fri Dec 6

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alisTaiR ChRisTl

neW! Beau’s Sun Dec 8 10-2 Presents: BluegRass BRunCh

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SundayS at the Bovine Sex cluB

10pm

hoT RoCks

Doing Rolling sTones anD CCR! feat. members of the Blue RoDeo,

METAL HEALTH

Flash lighnin’ & The BeauTies Tue Dec 10 9pm-clOse Ryan o’Reilly (uk)

The PiNk & BLAck PReSeNTS:

tueS dec 10

The Jason ColeTT BasemenT Revue 10 Big ToBaCCo & The PiCkeRs 7-9pm

w/ORgAN ThieVeS, BRUTAL YOUTh Sat dec 7

9pm

Big BroTHEr

w/STigmAchiNe, The SkeTch

anD TyleR kyTe anD The niCe guys WiTh sPeCial guesTs Wed Dec 11 10 nQ aRBuCkle

thu dec 12

SHoTgUN WEDDiNg BAND w/BLAck RhiNO RiOT, RiVAL BOYS

pm

249 OssingtOn Ave (just north of Dundas) 416-850-4579 · thedakotatavern.com

542 Queen St W • 416 504 4239 bovinesexclub.com • bovinebooking@gmail.com

MONDAY DEC 9

NO BAND REQUIRED TUESDAY DEC 10

NICOLA VAUGHAN 9:30pm-2am WEDNESDAY DEC 11

BRUCE DOMONEY 10pm-2am

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59

album reviews album of the week

ñHOWE GELB

The Coincidentalist (New West) Rating: NNNN Howe Gelb’s latest album is constantly in the process of gelling. The Giant Sand songwriter, pianist and guitarist often lingers in barroom jazz piano or experimental territory for a while before returning to something more familiar.

Say, late-period Neil Young-style folk

rock or alt-country.

The philosophical lyrics are rooted in the past and full of funny wordplay. And the haphazard impressionistic moments are balanced by cloudbursts of ramshackle glory like the rhythmic intro on Left Of Center and the Ram-style backup vocals on Triangulate.

Gelb invited a lot of guests to join in,

including KT Tunstall, Bonnie Prince Billy and Andrew Bird, but it’s his excellently loose band (featuring M. Ward and Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley), intimate vocals and fondness for chimes that keep the disintegrating threads woven together.

Top track: Picacho Peak Howe Gelb plays the Drake Underground Saturday (December 7).

SARAH GREENE

never really left.

Still, it sets a tone. On air-horn-heavy lead single Fire, with Rick Ross, 2 Chainz and Serani, Bun delivers a fierce opening verse before Chainz chimes in with his signature witty drawl; Big K.R.I.T-produced Cake is a torch-passing moment as Bun allows the younger MC to shine; while The Best Is Back and Dippin’ & Swervin’ showcase Bun’s solo skills.

Kirko Bangz could pass for Drizzy during the hook in head-nodding standout Triller. Sandwiched by Bun verses reminding us of his longevity (“had dirty money way before P. Diddy”), the song is simultaneously current and classic.

The Epilogue isn’t packed with jawdroppingly fresh or groundbreaking material. But as the fourth in his Trill series, it’s a reminder of what Bun does best and why he’s been able to do it for so long.

Top track: Cake HOLLY MACKENZIE

CHILDISH GAMBINO Because

Rap TASHA THE AMAZON ñ NNNN

Fidiyootdem (independent) Rating:

Photography Photography Exhibition Exhibition OctOber OctOber 15, 201315, - January 2013 - January 31, 201431, 2014 Photography Exhibition Presented Presented by the Japan by the Foundation Japan Foundation In association In association with yokohama with yokohama noh theatre theatre OctOber 15, 2013 - January 31,noh 2014 and yamaguchi and yamaguchi noh costume noh costume institute,institute, Kyoto Kyoto

Presented the Japan Gallery by Hours Gallery Hours Foundation In association with yokohama noh theatre Monday: Monday: 11:30 am11:30 - 7:00am pm- 7:00 EXT E Npm D E D HEXT OUE RN S DED HOU RS andTuesday: yamaguchi noh costume institute, Kyoto Tuesday: 11:30 am11:30 - 4:30am pm- 4:30 pm Gallery Hours Wednesday: Wednesday: 11:30 am11:30 - 4:30am pm- 4:30 pm Thursday:Thursday: 11:30 - 7:00pm am pm-EXT 7:00 EXT E NDpm DEEDD HHO EXT OUUR E RS N S DED HOU RS Monday: 11:30 amam - 11:30 7:00 EN Friday: Friday: 11:30 - 4:30 am pm- 4:30 pm Tuesday: 11:30 amam - 11:30 4:30 pm Wednesday: 11:30 am - 4:30 pm SaturdaySaturday openings: openings: Noon - 5:00 Noon pm- 5:00 pm Thursday: - 7:00 pm 25 EXT E N D E D H O U R S DecemberDecember 7, 11:30 Januaryam 7,11& January 25 11& Friday: 11:30 am 4:30 pm Closed: Closed: Other Saturdays Other Saturdays and Sundays and Sundays

Toronto’s Tasha the Amazon is a refreshing alternative to the new sophisti-rap.

There’s a time and place for the GQ swag of your Drakes, the forced self-examination of your Shads, the one-step-ahead-ofyou wit of your Rich Kidds.

Sometimes, though, you just want unpretentious, snarling, rum-sipping, harddancing rap music for a party that might get out of hand.

Self-produced with her partner Danthrax (together they form Bass & Bakery) Tasha’s debut mixtape bangs with harsh, blasty beats – none of which are subtle but which match the frank ferocity of a rapper who compares herself, most badassedly, to the Khaleesi.

With a steady flow manipulated effectively for emphasis (see Tru Life), Tasha is intent on being heard. There’s a great sense of intent in each line.

At times, the Caribbean-dappled production could be more smoothly integrated, and Where Are You Now’s compelling autobiography is proof that she could’ve furthered her storytelling on other songs.

Our city’s next rap star? Hopefully.

Top track: Where Are You Now JULIA LECONTE

www.jftor.org www.jftor.org 416.966.1600 416.966.1600 x229 x229

The Japan Foundation, Toronto 131 Bloor Street West, 2nd floor of The Colonnade 60 DECEMBER 5-11 2013 x229 NOW www.jftor.org 416.966.1600

Pop/Rock OH SEES ñTHEE NNNN

Closed forClosed Christmas for Christmas and New and Year:New Year:

Saturday openings: Noon - 5:00 pm From December From December 21, 2013 to 21,January 2013 to5,January 2014 5, 2014 December 7, Admission January 25 Admission Free 11& Free Closed: Other Saturdays and Sundays Thefor Japan TheFoundation, Japan Toronto Closed Christmas andFoundation, New Year: Toronto Bloor 131 Street Bloor West, Street West, 5, 2014 From131 December 21, 2013 to January 2nd floor 2nd of The floorColonnade of The Colonnade Admission Free

The Internet (Glassnote/Universal) Rating: NNN On his latest record, Childish Gambino’s influences are showing.

There’s a Drake-like hook on 3005; Telegraph Ave. couldn’t be more Channel Orange-esque, right down to the ambient background noise and phone alerts; and there are definite House Of Balloons moments.

Donald Glover sounds more like himself – peppered with some Kanye snarl – on The Worst Guys, a twinkly duet with Chance the Rapper, whose hippie-trippy production belies the bleak vulnerability of its lyrics. He’s also excellent on Sweatpants, demonstrating some of the flash of his earlier mixtapes.

R&B/hip-hop fusion tracks like Earth: The Oldest Computer (The Last Night) are among the best, and futuristic jazzy splashes à la Thundercat or Flying Lotus are everywhere. The former steps in to produce Shadows, a very Thundercat song on which Glover’s flow is totally hypnotic.

Overall the effort is sadly, starkly pretty – like winter. He should be applauded for being painfully open about his current emotional state. But also like winter, the album drags on without much momentum. There are plenty of springtime buds under the frost. It’s just hard to find them.

Top track: Shadows JL

BUN B Trill OG: The Epilogue (Rap-a-

Lot) Rating: NNN Bun B starts his fourth solo album with the greeting “Goddamn! Guess who’s back in the motherfucking house?” Thing is, Bun, one-half of southern rap duo UGK,

Singles Collection Volume 3 (Castle Face) Rating: No longer a cult band championed by inthe-know indie nerds, Thee Oh Sees have become trendsetters thanks to their ever-broadening sonic language and seemingly tireless work ethic. With seven full-lengths in the last five years alone, the San Francisco five-piece still seem incapable of writing the same song twice.

The increased spotlight hasn’t decreased their propensity to spaz out. Not their most accessible record, Volume 3 – a collection of non-album tracks – isn’t an ideal introduction for newcomers. But it does speak to the range of leader John

Dwyer, who guides the band through spooky, tribal jams (FBI2), mod-influenced stomps (Always Flying) and loose, jazzy breakdowns (Ugly Man).

Sure, there’s a lack of cohesion, but it’s not a bad thing. The record revels in the band’s enjoyable madness. And though they might still be categorized as garage rock, they’re expanding the genre’s boundaries by acting out each fantastical whim.

Top track: Devil Again JOSHUA KLOKE

KASHKA Bound (independent) Rating: NNN When Toronto folk-pop band Forest City Lovers disbanded last year, Kat Burns leapt into the electro-pop solo project Kashka, whose promising debut album got a big hand from producer/musician James Bunton. The muscular electronic stylings were a world away from FCL’s soft, delicate orch-pop.

Kashka’s follow-up, with Leon Taheny in the producer’s chair, bridges the distance. We Let The Shadow In (with guest vocals by Neil Haverty) and Prophet have an Austra-like icy goth-ness that adds shadows to Burns’s airy melodies. She pushes her voice on Body Like Lead and turns out a terrific performance. Never Had It grows into a full-on dance-floor jam, while thudding bass gives Grain Of Salt a major kick.

Then the electronic focus steps aside for gentler, wistful fare likely to appeal to FCL fans. The second-half songs are gorgeously orchestrated (and the sliding violins in Bloodlines righteously creeptastic) but ultimately less arresting. We get slower tempos, increased minimalism and some eerie textures. It’s a bit of a comedown, but you can’t deny Burns’s fearless risk-taking, which mostly pays off.

Top track: Prophet Kashka plays the Great Hall tonight (Thursday, December 5).

CARLA GILLIS

Folk SUMIE (Bella Union) Rating: NNN

Sometimes less is more – and in the case of Swedish singer/songwriter Sumie’s sparse, delicate debut album, that can be both an asset and a limitation. While her sister Yukimi uses a sunnier palette as frontwoman for electro-pop quartet Little Dragon, Sandra Sumie Nagano paints minimalist, silvery soundscapes with little more than her soft vocals and strummed acoustic guitar.

Recorded at German composer/pianist Nils Frahm’s studio with producer Dustin O’Halloran (if you’re familiar with his old band, Devics, you’ll have a sense of the hushed vibe at play here), the 10 tracks rarely rise above a murmur. But what a pretty whisper it is, from the gentle fingerpicked melody of opener Spells You to the cathedral-echo effect of the doubled vocal on Hunting Sky. At her best, Sumie evokes the poeticism of Joni paired with the headiness of Mazzy Star. But given the songs’ lack of variation in tone and tempo, an EP might have offered a more focused introduction.

Top track: Hunting Sky TABASSUM SIDDIQUI

= Critics’ Pick NNNNN = Perfect NNNN = Great NNN = Good NN = Bad N = Horrible

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art

Photographs

by Steven Beckly are on sale at Gallery 44.

MUST-SEE SHOWS BAU-XI Painting: Darlene Cole and Gordon Weins, Dec 7-22, reception 2-4 pm Dec 7.

340 Dundas W. 416-977-0600.

CHRISTOPHER CUTTS Painting: Lorne Wagman, to Dec 7. 21 Morrow. 416-532-5566.

CREATIVE WORKS STUDIO The Courage Show, Dec 5-14, reception 5:30-8 pm Dec 5.

793 Gerrard E. 416-465-5711.

DANIELS SPECTRUM ARTSCAPE LOUNGE Fall In Love With The Arts 2!, Dec 7 (Free, 2-5 pm, fallinlovewiththearts2.eventbrite. com). 585 Dundas E. 416-392-1038.

DAVENPORT-PERTH NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE CAPIC Toronto HELP Portrait 2013, 9

Steve Payne’s Cantonese is available at TPW’s Photorama holiday sale.

HOLIDAY SHOWS

Buying art benefits all

Support the local scene with a gift that’s worth more every day By FRAN SCHECHTER Astronomical sums may change hands at the top of the art market, but we’re fortunate to have a local art scene where even established artists’ work is surprisingly affordable. That’s especially true during the holiday season, when many galleries offer smaller pieces, prints and photo editions.

Signed original artworks make fantastic gifts, and it’s also a good time to build your own collection.

Action at 401

Receptions happen tonight (Thursday, December 5) at 401 Richmond West for Open Studio’s Artist Proof Sale and Gallery 44’s Wall To Wall – Off The Wall! John Armstrong and Andy Fabo demonstrate printmaking techniques tonight at Open Studio (416-504-8238, openstudio.on.ca), where etchings, relief prints, lithographs, silkscreens and more are on sale for $50 to $400, plus cards, pins, Ts and other stocking stuffers, until December 21. At Gallery 44 (416-979-3941, gallery44.org), 150 unframed photographs, part of editions, by artists including Sally Ayre, Toni Hafkenscheid and Louise Vezina range from $50 to $500, until December 15.

Metropole magic

Art Metropole (1490 Dundas West, 416-703-4400, artmetropole.com) also holds a reception tonight for Gifts By Artists: Grid Systems, in which local and international artists like Kelly Mark, Shane Krepakevich and Laurie Kang contribute unusual books, editions and multiples that fit into 5-, 11or 17-inch cubes in a staff-designed display. With a few high-end exceptions, price range from $30 to $300, until February 1 (closed December 24 to January 1).

Photo ops

You have until Saturday (December 7) to check out two excellent photo-buy-

Ñ

ing ops. At Photorama, Gallery TPW (1256 Dundas West, 416-645-1066, gallerytpw.ca) raises funds with prints, many under $600, by more than 70 local luminaries, among them Sara Angelucci, NOW’s Kathryn Gaitens, Robert Burley and Nina Levitt. At Ryerson’s I.M.A. Gallery (80 Spadina, 416703-2235, imagallery.ca), the Full Frame silent auction presents work by faculty and alumni like Mark Peckmezian (reviewed in last week’s issue), Annie MacDonell, Dominic Nahr and Rafael Goldchain for under $1,000 (many under $500) and student work for under $300.

musician/artist Amy Bowles, who also has a solo show, and small works by 30 gallery artists including Tom Dean, Maura Doyle, Janet Morton and Melanie Rocan, to December 21.

Think big, go small

At Art Interiors (446 Spadina Road, 416-488-3157, artinteriors.ca), the Festival Of Smalls has works by 50 artists, among them Yael Brotman, Iza Mokrosz and NOW’s Jay Dart, for $55 to $250, many under $100, until December 24.

Hashtag for the holidays

#Hashtag Gallery (801 Dundas West, 416-861-1866, hashGambling taggallery.com) offers 4x4-inch originals by goodness more than 75 emerIn the gambling ging artists for $40 at spirit? Two galleries its Biggest Little Art hold fundraising Snap up Alan Belcher’s work at Show In The City, to evenings where Art Metropole’s December 24. Gallery guests get to attend Gifts By Artists: Grid Systems.

Hittite (107 Scollard, a party and choose 416-924-4450) shows smaller works in a piece of art to take home in an order a variety of media by 18 international drawn by lottery. Admission is $150 to artists in its Christmas show, with Off The Wall at Propeller (984 Queen prices from $400 to $2,000, to DecemWest, 416-504-7142, propellerctr.ca), ber 21.

Saturday (December 7), with work by gallery artists and guests including 3D thrills Holly Wheatcroft, Anastessia Bettas 3D pieces by Andrew Benyei, Maryon and Gwen Tooth. For Redrospective on Kantaroff, Dina Torrans and a dozen December 17, Red Head (401 Richothers in stone, bronze, steel and more mond West, 416-504-5654, redheadare part of Joy Of Giving at the Cangallery.org) offers a similar deal for adian Sculpture Centre (500 Church, $100, with prints by Ed Pien, Johannes 647-435-5858, cansculpt.org), until Zits, Lois Andison and more than 30 January 10, with a reception Saturday others. afternoon (December 7).

Petro can

Paul Petro’s (980 Queen West, 416979-7874, paulpetro.com) 17th annual Christmas Spice features a tree by

You can’t go wrong if you buy or give something you love.

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am-4 pm Dec 7. 1900 Davenport. 416-6568025.

DE LUCA FINE ART Painting: Viktor Mitic, reception 6-9 pm Dec 5, Dec 6-28. 217 Avenue Rd. 416-537-4699.

DIAZ CONTEMPORARY Mixed media: Patrick Bernatchez, to Dec 21. 100 Niagara. 416361-2972.

FIRST UNITARIAN CONGREGATION Textiles: Alana McLeod, Dec 8-23, reception noon1:30 pm Dec 8. 175 St Clair W. 416-9249654.

FULL OF BEANS COFFEE Mixed media: Gregg Allan McGivern, to Jan 6, 2014, opening 2-4 pm Dec 7. 1348 Dundas W. 647-347-4161.

GALLERY 111 Glass/Textiles: Jesse Bromm and Jill Price, Dec 5-Jan 5, 2014, reception 5-9 pm Dec 5. 111 Dunlop E (Barrie). 705503-7111.

GALLERY SIETE-7 Cuban group exhibition, Dec 7-Feb 28, 2014. 100 Front W. 416-3682511.

GALLERY 1313 Art Aesthetics (benefit for Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic), Dec 10-11, reception 6:30-10 pm Dec 10. Hyperbolic Crochet Reef; Fundraiser for Philippines; Marc-André Brzustowski, to Dec 8.

1313 Queen W. 416-536-6778.

INDEXG GALLERY Shelley Savor, Irina Schlesvoich and Han Xu, to Dec 31. 50 Gladstone.

416-535-6957.

KATHARINE MULHERIN CONTEMPORARY ART

Khydup Gyatso kids’ book illustrations hang at North York Central Library.

PROJECTS Video installation: Olivia Boudreau, to Dec 22. Textiles: Heather Goodchild, to Dec 22. 1082/1086 Queen W. 416993-6510.

MKG127 Laurel Woodcock, to Dec 21. 1445 Dundas W. 647-435-7682.

NORTH YORK CENTRAL LIBRARY Tibetan Children’s Book Illustrations Khydup Gyatso, to Dec 31. 5120 Yonge. 416-395-5535.

OLGA KORPER Painting: Ron Shuebrook, Dec 7-Jan 18, 2014, reception 2-5 pm Dec 7. 17 Morrow. 416-538-8220.

OLGA KORPER Painting: Ron Shuebrook, Dec 7-Jan 18, 2014, reception 2-5 pm Dec 7. 17 Morrow. 416-538-8220.

TWIST GALLERY Lives (On Canvas) group exhibition, to Dec 21, reception 6-10 pm Dec 5. 1100 Queen W. 416-588-2222.

URBAN GALLERY Photos: Brian Bantugan, Dec 5-Jan 4, 2014, reception 6-9 pm Dec 5.

400 Queen E. 647-460-1278.

WALNUT CONTEMPORARY Little Salon: These Post-Neo-Pop Like Days group exhibition, Dec 5-Jan 23, 2014, reception 6-9 pm Dec 6. 201 Niagara. 416-271-6599.

THIS WEEK IN THE MUSEUMS

ART GALLERY OF MISSISSAUGA Allegory Of The

Cave; Nataliya Petkova, to Jan 1, 2014. 300 City Centre (Mississauga). 905-896-5088.

ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO Self-Portrait: As I Think Of Myself, to Dec 8. Marina Abramovic and Ulay, to Dec 15. Aimia Photography Prize nominees, to Jan 5, 2014. The Great Upheaval: Modern Masterpieces From The Guggenheim Collection, to Mar 2, 2014 ($25, stu $16.50).

Light My Fire: Five Propositions About Portraits, Part 2, to Apr 30, 2014. Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater, to Jun 15, 2014. $19.50, srs $16, stu $11, free Wed 6-8:30 pm (special exhibits excluded). 317 Dundas W. 416-9796648.

DESIGN EXCHANGE Playing Favourites II: Geometry (Textures), to Jan 3, 2014. 100% TobeUs: 100 Cars, to Feb 9, 2014 (free, todesignoffsite.com). $10, stu/srs $8. 234 Bay. 416-363-6121.

DORIS MCCARTHY GALLERY You Cannot Kill What Is Already Dead, to Jan 25, 2014. 1265 Military Trail. 416-287-7007.

GARDINER MUSEUM OF CERAMIC ART 12 Trees, to Dec 15 (party $150). Nurielle Stern, to Jan 5, 2014. The Art Of The Everyday: Faience In 17th And 18th Century France, to Jan 5, 2014. Animal Stories, to Jan 12, 2014. $12, stu $6, srs $8; Fri 4-9 pm half-price, 30 and under free. 111 Queen’s Park. 416-5868080.

JUSTINA M. BARNICKE Something More Than A Succession Of Notes, to Dec 20. Céline Con-

dorelli, ongoing. 7 Hart House. 416-978-8398.

MCMICHAEL CANADIAN ART COLLECTION Kim Dorland, to Jan 5, 2014. Karine Giboulo, to Jan 26, 2014. $15, stu/srs $12. 10365 Islington (Kleinburg). 905-893-1121.

ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE BioART: Contemporary Art And The Life Sciences, to Feb 2, 2014. $20, stu/srs $16. 770 Don Mills. 416696-1000.

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM Mesopotamia: Inventing Our World, to Jan 5, 2014 ($27, srs/stu $24.50; Fri after 4:30 pm $23, srs/stu $20).

Raja Deen Dayal, to Jan 12, 2014. Textiles: BIG, to Jan 26, 2014. Carbon 14: Climate Is Culture, to Feb 2, 2014. $15, stu/srs $13.50; Fri 4:30-8:30 pm $9, stu/srs $8. 100 Queen’s Park. 416-586-8000.

RYERSON IMAGE CENTRE Elena Malkova, to Dec 15. (ImagineNATIVE): Ghost Dance: Activism. Resistance. Art., to Dec 15, curator tour 6 pm Dec 11. 33 Gould. 416-979-5164.

TEXTILE MUSEUM OF CANADA Maya Textiles From Guatemala, to Jan 12, 2014. Telling Stories, to Apr 13, 2014. $15, srs $10, stu $6; pwyc Wed 5-8 pm. 55 Centre. 416-599-5321.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ART CENTRE Framing Narratives: Renaissance To Modernism, to Mar 8, 2014. 15 King’s College Circle. 416978-1838.

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MORE ONLINE

Complete art listings at nowtoronto.com/art/listings

ART LINK

WEEKLY ART GALLERY DIRECTORY

ReseRve youR ART eveNT oR gALLeRy - cALL 416-364-1300 x 381

RON SHUEBROOK Dec 7, 2013 - Jan 18, 2014

Opening Sat. Dec 7 | 2-5 PM

olga korper gallery

17 Morrow Ave, Toronto 416 538 8220 | olgakorpergallery.com

art@nowtoronto.com

= Critics’ Pick NNNNN = This could change your life NNNN = Brain candy NNN = Solid, sometimes inspirational NN = Not quite there N = Are we at the mall?

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

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Hair & Make-up: Taylor Savage using TRESemme Professional Styling Putty/ Judyinc.com

Bruce McCulloch (from left), Kevin McDonald, David Foley, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson

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december 5-11 2013 NOW

“

Hall Pass: an oral history of the kids in the hall

”

By JOHN SEMLEY

T

he Kids In The Hall informs my entire world view. A late-20-something Ca­nadian white male, I was weaned on those after-school reruns. There’s always a sketch, a bit, a joke that relates to any issue. Rob Ford denying the laundry list of bad behaviour charges is just Bruce McCulloch as an aloof grease­ball pathologically denying to his girlfriend that he’s married, and acting like the allegations will just wick off him if he keeps his cool.

When I was growing up at the southern tip of the Niagara Peninsula, the Kids’ TV show expanded my conception of Toronto, which at the time basically amounted to a big high­way leading to the SkyDome.

Photos by DAVID HAWE Watching them – not as Chicken Ladies, Head Crushers or Kings of Empty Promises, but as themselves – flitting around the city in their show’s cre­dits and black-and-white interludes between sketches – made Toronto feel like a place where people hung out and goofed around. The Kids in the Hall made Toronto seem cool.

So it’s fitting that the Kids return to Toronto with Rusty And Ready, a run of five shows presented by the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, conceived as a sort of testing ground for a potential 2014 live tour. Though three of them (Dave Foley, McCulloch and Kevin McDonald) have settled in L.A., the troupe’s as fun­da­men­tal to Hogtown’s cultural DNA as Bro­ken Social Scene or the Blue Jays.

It’s not just McCulloch and Mark McKinney’s sluggish OPP of-

ficers or the show’s minting of the phrase “took me to a Leafs game” as a euphe­mism for gay sex. It’s the attitude.

By pointedly satirizing the staid norms of Canadian politeness, skewering broad cultural and sexual stereo­types and, most of all, moving into outright silliness and the surreal, the Kids captured the shifty anx­iety and patent a>>bsurdity of living in a place that struggles to define itself, a place that sometimes feels like no place at all.

This is the story of the Kids in the Hall in their own words: about their beginnings as guys brought together by a shared sense of outsider humour, the success of their CBC/HBO sketch show, the stress, in-fighting and animosity that drove them apart and that special chemistry that keeps drawing them back together.

>>

NOW december 5-11 2013

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THE KIDS IN THE HALL: RUSTY AND READY written and performed by David Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Presented by the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival at Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles West). Through Saturday (December 7), ThursdayFriday 8 pm, Saturday 7 and 9:30 pm. $39. torontosketchfest.com.

The Toronto (and Calgary) Kids The five-headed mutant of funniness that is the Kids in the Hall began as two troupes: McCulloch, McKinney, Norm Hiscock and Gary Campbell formed the Audience after meeting at TheatreSports competitive improv nights in Calgary; and the Kids in the Hall (McDonald, Foley and Luciano Casimiri). There’s also a dark horse: a stage actor named Scott Thompson.

“I started doing stand-up at Yuk Yuk’s as a teenager.

Then I took Second City classes. At my first class I met Kevin McDonald. We were paired up by our teacher to do the mirror exercise, which is lame. But he made me laugh all the way through class, then asked me to join his troupe with Luc Casimiri.”

– Dave Foley “Kids in the Hall was my name. We were called the Mixed Nutz, with a zed. A producer at Global told us about how Sid Caesar used to have gag writers who were waiting to feed lines to him, and they were called ‘kids in the hall.’ But there was this double meaning – in school, the bad kids get sent to the hall.”

– Luciano Casimiri, founding Kid “That’s cited as the foundation of the Kids in the Hall because we’re the ones who called ourselves the Kids in the Hall. Logistically, Mark and Bruce met a year earlier in Calgary, but we never talk about that because it’s boring.”

– Kevin McDonald

“

KIDS IN THE HALL WAS MY NAME.

”

“Thank god we took their name. I fought it because I thought of the Audience’s name, and thought it was so clever. ‘Ladies and gentleman… The Audience! Get it?!’”

– McKinney

donuts and started whipping them onstage. I just needed them to know I existed. I wanted to send them a message that I was soon to be in that troupe.”

– Scott Thompson

– Foley

“Scott embraced the idea of entertaining the audience more than we did. The audience was almost incidental to us; it was more about the ideas. He was an actor, which is why Kevin and I fought against him being in the group.”

– Foley

“The Audience is a terrible name.”

“We only became a truly integrated entity when the ferocious Scott Thompson arrived.”

– McCulloch “I was going to be a theatre actor, a real actor. Then I met them. I went to a midnight show at the Poor Alex with my friend Darlene and was just blown away. I remember being in the audience, and they had donuts taped under the seats for a sketch later and I found the

“

I THOUGHT ABOUT Nobody likes us In a mid-80s Toronto comedy scene dominated by tourCHARACTER. like Yuk Yuk’s and Second City, the Kids in the SKETCH IS USUALLY istHalltraps wanted to do something different. They weren’t sure but they knew there had to be another way. It was SO CAUGHT UP WITH what, that outsider mindset – frequently combative, always oriCARICATURE. SO ginal – that drew its members to one another and kept THAT’S SOMETHING them together (more or less) for the past 30 years.

“I always say that the Kids in the Hall were the five losI BROUGHT. THAT that couldn’t get any work.”

– McDonald AND A BAG OF WIGS. ers “We all come from troubled childhoods. A lot of our

”

“Bruce and I kind of hit it off. But we kind of didn’t. We would get in arguments. I remember Bruce screaming at me onstage when I was rehearsing a sketch he thought was going too long. It was all ego stuff.”

– Mark McKinney

64

Luciano Casimiri

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

dads, mine included, were alcoholics. We exploded from the suburbs, saying, ‘Fuck this shit!’ I guess that’s what people connected with. There is that outsider thing, which is still what we’re doing now. There are a lot of us out there who think family isn’t such a good thing. But that was the anger of getting over our childhoods. Now we’re quite happy guys.”

– McCulloch “We were just born rebels. We wanted to change things. I guess we felt that Second City had gotten stale. Not SCTV. But that was the way it was; we just thought there was another way to do things. I don’t think it was conscious. We decided to write about things they weren’t writing about. I got fired [from Second City] because I’d take my clothes off a lot. They didn’t like that.”

– Thompson

“For me, Toronto was the place where the Damned and the Viletones played. That was part of it, too. My best friends moved out to Toronto before me for musical reasons. It was natural for me. I saw opportunity. Mark wanted to check out Vancouver, then check out Toronto, and I was like, ‘No. We’re moving to Toronto.’”

– Bruce McCulloch “Everyone thought there’d be competition between their group and our group. But we were all booked for a late-night show up on Eglinton: Kids in the Hall, which was Kevin and Luc Casimiri and myself, and Bruce and Mark’s group, the Audience. We thought we should all be doing shows together. We merged that week.”

– Foley

Dave Foley

“I thought about character. Sketch is usually so caught up with caricature. So that’s something I brought. That and a bag of wigs.”

– Thompson

Scott Thompson

“You’d go to Yuk Yuk’s and one person would be fantastic and four people would be horrible. Then there was Second City, which I didn’t viscerally relate to – all those songs and stuff. Then there was some weird fringe stuff going on at the Rivoli. Briane Nasimok was curating a show. And we sort of took it from him and made it our own, which was a prick thing to do.”

– McCulloch

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BROADWAY VIDEO ENTERPRISES

“Yuk Yuk’s at the time was the only game in town, but it was closed Mondays. So I think they saw it as an opportunity to do something alternative.”

– David Stearn, co-owner, the Rivoli “Alternative comedy at the time was just aggressively weird. Now I’d call it ‘cable comedy.’ It was just doing your own thing instead of jokes about the post office.”

– McKinney “We did a sketch – oh my god, it was so stupid in retrospect – called The Gun Store: a gun store being robbed by a guy with money. So... the reverse.”

– Casimiri “We always felt like underdogs. That’s our common bond. When we first started as a stage troupe, we’d get better when we hired directors we didn’t like; we could all meet after rehearsal and talk about how much we didn’t like them. We got stronger when it was us against them. I don’t know if that’s a positive thing that makes your life happier.”

– McDonald

A date with destiny A compressed narrative of the Kids in the Hall goes like this: troupe forms, takes the stage at the Rivoli, gets tapped by Lorne Michaels, gets TV show, history. “Print the legend,” sure. But it omits all the hard work and suffering the Kids went through to establish themselves in Toronto, and all the months with no audience and no press. Heck, even NOW slept on them during the 80s!

Their big break came when a well-timed positive review brought them to the attention of Saturday Night Live creator and fellow Canadian Michaels.

“We told them to do less improv. They were very good at improvising. But when they took the time to write down and hone their skits, they were smart, it was funny and it was more dramatic.”

– Andre Rosenbaum, co-owner, the Rivoli “This might sound arrogant, but I honestly knew the first time I saw the Kids in the Hall that they’d be very successful. The moment we started performing, I thought, ‘You can not not notice us.’”

– Thompson “We got a good review in one of the daily papers the day the SNL talent scouts were in Toronto for one day to look at Second City performers. So they saw the review and figured they’d have to see us, too.”

– McKinney “There were no jobs really in comedy. So Saturday Night Live coming was huge. It was in the press. It was like a huge hand coming down and picking us up.”

– McCulloch

“

FOR THE FIRST COUPLE OF YEARS AT LEAST, WE’D PLAY TO 10, 15 PEOPLE EVERY WEEK.

”

“I think it comes down to Lorne loving comedy, more than anything else. He saw the group as something that was special and didn’t want to break us up. He thought about bringing us down, and thought we’d be assets to Saturday Night Live. But what I’m told is he thought we worked too well as a unit to break us up.”

– Foley “When someone tells our history, it’s always, ‘Oh, Lorne Michaels discovered us and we got a show!’ But they forget the nine months of pain previous to that.

The bullet points make it sound like everything happened fast, but every hurdle we got over, we just got over it. Our bellies were hitting the hurdle.”

– McCulloch

Screw you, taxpayer!

For five seasons between 1988 and 94, The Kids In The Hall aired on CBC in Canada and HBO in the States. One typically confrontational sketch actually mocked the public funding structure of Canada’s national broadcaster, smashing expensive props and goading the audience into yelling, “Screw you, taxpayer!”

For the CBC, a network that these days seems allergic to taking chances, their provocations were unprecedented. Has any show used the word “fag” so liberally?

The Kids were adamant about doing what they wanted, even if it involved overindulging their weirder urges.

And Michaels, the show’s veteran comedy producer, backed their right to be themselves.

“If there was a milquetoast virus that could have diluted what the Kids in the Hall did, it couldn’t get past the other players.”

– McKinney

“The cool people in the city did not like the Kids in the Hall. We were too successful. We were males.

And I wasn’t the right kind of homo.”

– Thompson

“We had an American hammer to smash the CBC with.

You need an American hammer. That’s a sad statement about Canada. It’s such a colonial way to behave.

We were constantly being monitored, censored, constantly being advised not to do things. We just did it anyway. The truth is, a lot of those fights were fun.”

– Thompson

“For the first couple of years at least, we’d play to 10, 15 people every week.”

– Foley “For a while, they did every Monday night. They’d write new material, rehearse material; there was a lot to do. They started losing their audience because it was getting kind of thin.”

– Stearn

“I remember Scott getting upset that he couldn’t show come on TV. ‘But it’s the stuff of life!’ ‘Yes, Scott, but we still can’t show it on TV.’” – McCulloch

“We were on the verge of breaking up because nothing much had happened. We were having fun but couldn’t get people to show up. Then in March of 84, we thought we’d do a best-of show. The Rivoli, god bless them, gave us three or four nights in a row. And on a weekend. Suddenly it was on.”

– McKinney Dave Foley

“Scott sort of crystalized the way we do these real, three-dimensional characters. He had a big influence on the way we played women, which is: it’s not a comment. You don’t comment on women. We didn’t have women in the troupe, but we have girlfriends and

»

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

65

wives and sisters and moms and stuff, so we’re just going to play it straight as well. It seemed like an interesting ethic.”

– McKinney

“The show reached a point where we got a little too self-indulgent. But by then we were done.”

– Thompson

“The drag came just out of necessity. We couldn’t get any women to stay in the group. [Prominent Canadian comics Sandra Shamas and Deborah Theaker rotated through the Kids’ ranks. – Ed.] Every time a woman performed with us, she’d get hired by Second City. At the time, women in Toronto who could do comedy were at a premium. For every hundred guys, there were one or two women.”

– Foley

“When we took the vote on whether we should do a sixth season, I was the only one who shot my hand up like, ‘Yeah! C’mon! Hands up, guys!’”

– McKinney “You’re trapped with these people in this little office in this thing called The Kids In The Hall. Even the theme music starts to drive you nuts. It’s like being at Disney World with It’s A Small World looping over and over.

It’s claustrophobic.”

– McCulloch

“I think a lot of the surreal stuff was my hand. I wanted to get weirder. I love surreal. For a while, the pendulum swung too far that way.

– McCulloch

Huge, huge, immense problems

“

BRAIN CANDY DIDN’T DO WELL, WHICH IS THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE OF EVERYTHING IN THE KIDS IN THE HALL. EVERYTHING WE TOUCH TURNS TO CULT.

”

Following in the footsteps of Monty Python, the Kids in the Hall parlayed the success of their sketch show into a film – 1996’s Brain Candy. The production was notoriously troubled. Foley had already been cast as the lead in NBC workplace sitcom NewsRadio, and there was a sense that he’d outgrown the troupe. Their long-simmering rivalries reached a rolling boil and, combined with a perfect storm of personal tragedies, ended up driving the Kids apart.

Foley was stripped of a writing credit on the film, and McDonald assumed the film’s lead role. The dark days of writing and shooting Brain Candy are evident in the film itself: it’s about depression and prescription meds and makes a strong case that the very idea of happiness is the lobotomized illusion of a spoiled culture. Bleak.

“I felt great pressure playing the lead. It took away what I do best, which is being silly around the main person. The only time you see me alive in the movie is when I play the dad killing himself.”

– McDonald

“Dave wouldn’t play women. That was the problem.

The Americans didn’t think that was smart. They thought everyone would think he was gay. You have to remember: being gay was the kiss of death. Lorne Michaels told me I would not have the career I could have if I came out. He told me that point blank.”

– Thompson “At the time there was a certain amount of arrogance on my part, where I thought I didn’t need it any more. I stopped valuing what the Kids in the Hall were to me.”

– Foley “When Python did their first film, they picked something very simple, the Arthurian legends, so they could riff off it. We did an original story. It was the wrong choice, I think. It’s a big – and I’m misusing this word – ontological problem. It’s deep. We should have done Little Red Riding Hood. I’m serious. We could have riffed on it. The wolf would have been a great character.”

– McKinney “It didn’t do well, which is the blessing and the curse of everything in the Kids in the Hall. Everything we touch turns to cult.”

– McCulloch

“

I ALWAYS SAY THAT THE KIDS IN THE HALL WERE THE FIVE LOSERS THAT COULDN’T GET ANY WORK.

”

“By the time we got to making Brain Candy, we were exhausted. Our creative cracks were getting larger.

We lacked appreciation of ourselves and each other.

We didn’t realize how protected we were by the TV show. When you do a movie, there are more people involved: financiers, writers and rewriters. It was a terrible time for us. We had a lot of pain. It was hard to make that movie. I feel that when I watch it now.”

– McCulloch “In the period of a month, Dave’s marriage broke up, one of Kevin’s parents died and my brother committed suicide. I was pretty much in shock. My brother died literally a week before we started shooting. All those things conspired to make it a dark time.”

– Thompson “I quit the troupe while we were writing Brain Candy because I had a fight with Scott during a writing session. I was at odds with the guys about where the story would go. I was tired of being in a group that fought all the time. When all my ideas were getting dismissed, I’d had enough. I got up and left the meeting and said goodbye, and that was it.”

– Foley Bruce McCulloch

32 YEARS OF THE KIDS

66

Kevin McDonald

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch meet doing TheatreSports at the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary.

Along with Gary Campbell and Norm Hiscock (both future writers for the KITH TV show), they form a troupe called the Audience.

Kevin McDonald meets Dave Foley at an introductory Second City seminar and invites him to join his sketch troupe, the Kids in the Hall.

McCulloch and McKinney relocate to Toronto. They hear whispers of a local sketch troupe that shares their off-kilter sensibility.

The Audience and the Kids in the Hall join forces.

Scott Thompson, a stage actor performing in a sketch troupe called the Love Cats, joins the Kids. McCulloch and McKinney relocate to New York to write for Saturday Night Live, while Thompson and McDonald join the Second City touring show.

The Kids in the Hall reunite in Toronto and begin doing a regular Mondaynight spot at the Rivoli, where their legend would form.

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

1988: After seeing the troupe perform, Lorne Michaels decides to back a TV show, and the Kids’ pilot special airs on CBC in Canada and HBO in the U.S.

1989-1994 The Kids In The Hall sketch show enjoys a five-season run, airing on HBO and CBC.

After middling reviews and box office for Brain Candy, the Kids went their separate ways. Foley did five seasons of NewsRadio. McKinney went to SNL (bringing one of his signature characters, braceface teenager Melanie, with him). McDonald ran the gauntlet of voice work and sitcom cameos (including a memorable turn as Denim Vest, one of Elaine’s many suitors on Seinfeld). Thompson turned in a nice performance as Brian, assistant to Jeffrey Tambor’s talk show sidekick on HBO’s seminal The Larry Sanders Show.

But eventually the Kids in the Hall would find themselves glomming back together, like that metal-liquid bad guy in Terminator 2 reconstituting himself, for a 2000 stage tour.

Their show’s continuous re-airing on cable networks in the U.S. and Canada ensured a hungry audience ready to receive them. The 2000 tour was followed in 2008 by another run of North American dates, in 2010 by an eight-part CBC miniseries, Death Comes To Town, and, of course, their current Toronto shows and a tentative plan to tour the continent in 2014.

“I was never hired, ever, as an actor. I was hired as an agenda. I was hired because I was an openly gay comedian-actor. I was not hired for my talents. Well, I was, but there was the liberal agenda at work. My whole career after Kids in the Hall for 10 years, 15 years was, ‘Hire Scott Thompson to show everyone that we’re on the right page socially.’ I got very embittered over that.

I felt people were using me.”

– Thompson “Kevin and Scott were living in L.A. at the time as well.

I started calling Kevin up and inviting him over and hanging out with him. We’d go to movies together and became friends again. Then I did the same thing with Scott. We put all the fights behind us. When we’d go out together, we’d see how people were affected by seeing us together and started thinking, ‘Wow. What we had was something really special.’”

– Foley “I knew we were on repeats, but I didn’t think repeats meant anything. We found out that it was the numbertwo-ranked show on Comedy Central, next to repeats of Saturday Night Live. A cult develops when you see the same thing over and over and you want to keep seeing the same thing over and over. That’s what happened. In four years we developed a devoted base of fans. All of a sudden we were selling out these big theatres. Our tour grossed $1.5 million, which was astounding to us.”

–McDonald “Kids In The Hall was a fairly successful show. We got nominated for Emmys and people liked us. But, wow, put us on Comedy Central every day for five years and you’ll get some fans. That was marvellous.”

– McKinney

“I wasn’t a great partner all the time during the TV show. I’d say, ‘That wasn’t a very funny sketch, So-andso’ or ‘If you do an ad parody you’re a hack.’ Death Comes To Town was sort of my apology for being hard to work with during the show.”

– McCulloch “Every time we do this I wonder, ‘Do we still have it?’

Last time we did. But now we’re all in our 50s. Do we still have it? I don’t know.”

– McDonald “When we show up, there’ll be stuff that comes out just with us being together. A lot of our greatest stuff just came from hanging out: riffing, partying, being bored. That’s what we’re looking forward to. Those muscles are still there.”

– Thompson

“When the five of us are together, we become the Kids in the Hall. It becomes something that is apart from any one of us. That’s why we keep doing it. It’s fun and exciting when we’re together. It can also become pretty horrible and mean, but we end up laughing more together than we do at any other time in our lives. We also think we’re young punks when we’re together. When we’re not, we feel like these old fossils.”

– Foley “We have to do something together until the first one dies. Maybe even after. Depends who dies first. If it’s me, they can go on.”

– McDonald “Most likely I’ll always be remembered as a Kid in the Hall. And that’s fine. For a while we felt like we were five brothers who all had to prove we were great on our own. And let’s face it, we haven’t had the best postshow careers. We were never as successful after our shows as people from SCTV or SNL or MADtv. No, wait... they’ve had it as bad as us.”

– Thompson

“

Thank god, it’s never over Though the Kids’ post-show fortunes have been varied, their status as one of the most formidable and influential sketch troupes endures to this day. It’s impossible not to see their fingerprints on everything from the defiant fuck-you attitude of HBO’s Mr. Show and the surrealist goofballery of Tim and Eric to the impressively threedimensional characters of the Kroll Show and the complex racial drag of Key & Peele.

Their 1988-94 TV sketch show remains exceptional: smart, irreverent, crass, ironic, formative not just for the subsequent history of sketch comedy but also for the sensibilities of the generations that grew up on it.

But it’s still always exciting to see the Kids in the Hall reunited. It’s like those 90s alt-rock bands that get back together not just to cash in on their legacy but because each of them is at his/her best when they’re together: not so much the Pixies as Dinosaur Jr. The comedians may have outgrown the “Kids” name, but their comedy is still fresh. There will always be stuffy social norms to satirize in a Buddy Cole monologue, always a businessman to lampoon. There are plenty of heads left to crush, plenty of empty promises left unkept.

WHEN WE TOOK THE VOTE ON WHETHER WE SHOULD DO A SIXTH SEASON, I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO SHOT MY HAND UP LIKE, ‘YEAH! C’MON! HANDS UP, GUYS!’

”

TOP 5 MINOR

“When they had their TV show that was popular, people from the States came up to make a pilgrimage to the back room of the Rivoli. These were hardcore fans!”

– Rosenbaum

KIDS IN THE HALL CHARACTERS

“We never expected The Kids In The Hall would last.

We just thought we’d do it until we could make a living in comedy.”

– Foley “We lucked out. Luck. It’s that thing you have to be ready for.”

– McKinney “There’s a chemistry there that’s always there.”

– McDonald

nowtoronto.com

Mark McKinney

1996

1996-2000

2000

2001

2007

2008

2010

Jul. 2013

Dec. 2013

The Kids’ first (and so far only) movie, Brain Candy, is released. Due to internal strife, the troupe breaks up following Foley’s departure.

The Kids embark on solo careers with varying degrees of success. During this time, The Kids In The Hall reruns air on the Comedy Channel in Canada and the Comedy Network in the States.

The troupe reunites for a North American tour of greatest-hit sketches and finds its fan base has increased significantly.

A documentary capturing the 2000 tour, Kids In The Hall: Same Guys, New Dresses, is released.

The Kids debut 90 minutes of new material at the 25th annual Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.

On a 30-city North American tour, they perform material based largely on the Just For Laughs show. They receive a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Their eight-part miniseries, Death Comes To Town, premieres on the CBC.

All five Kids reunite at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto for a benefit for Alberta flood relief. They also tape an appearance on Spun Out, a new CTV sitcom starring Foley.

The Kids in the Hall premiere Rusty And Ready, their new stage show, in Toronto in advance of a potential 2014 tour.

Compiled by JOHN SEMLEY

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

67

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BROADWAY VIDEO ENTERPRISES

Break up, see other people and get right back together again

“Foley had NewsRadio, and I had Larry Sanders, and Mark had SNL. But those things dried up and we were cast adrift. Our lack of financial success and superstardom has kept us together. If one of us had become Will Ferrell, we’d never still be together.” – Thompson

stage

more online nowtoronto.com/stage Audio clips from interview with HALEY McGEE • TOP 5 MINOR KIDS IN THE HALL CHARACTERS • Features on THE TIN DRUM and REPETITIVE STRAIN INJURY • and more Fully searchable listings with venue maps nowtoronto.com/stage/listings WRITER INTERVIEW

Braving Haley’s comet Haley McGee’s play blends fairy tale, the Canadian winter and the notion of family.

Rising star was inspired by Swedish fairy tale for outdoor show By JON KAPLAN WEATHER THE WEATHER by Haley McGee, directed by Jennifer Brewin, with Kawa Ada, Lisa Karen Cox, Colin Doyle, Amy Lee and Courtenay Stevens. Presented by Theatre Columbus at the Evergreen Brick Works (550 Bayview). Previews begin Friday (December 6), opens Wednesday (December 11) and runs to December 30; see artsboxoffice.ca for schedule. $32, stu $23, children $12.50, previews $12.50 or pwyc. 416-504-7529.

Theatre Columbus has given Toronto audiences an unusual form of outdoor winter entertainment.

For the past two years, the company staged the walkabout family holiday show The Story at the Evergreen Brick Works, an updated, clown version of the Nativity tale.

The troupe’s new production, Weather The Weather, Or How We Make it Home Together, blends fairy tale, blustery Canadian winter and the idea of family.

“Theatre Columbus’s Jennifer Brewin gave me a book of Swedish fairy tales as inspiration,” recalls playwright Haley McGee, who played Mary in The Story. “At first it didn’t resonate with my ideas, which had to do with home, getting through a Canadian winter and having women as hero and villain.

“But then I found a story called Dag And Daga And The Flying Troll Of Sky Mountain, which provided all the ele-

ments I needed. In it, two siblings are separated and, when Daga searches for her brother, she confronts a troll.”

The result is Weather The Weather, in which a world-class storm throws the earth into confusion and uproots sibs Daga and Diwrnod (both names mean “day,” the first in Swedish, the second in Welsh) and their protective household gnome, Tomte, and sends them far from home.

When Diwrnod is captured by Igora, the mean-spirited troll who controls the weather, the practical Daga sets out on a quest to find him and, along the way, meets a magical prince who falls for her.

“I decided to focus on what home means to these people,” says McGee, who recently gave a fine performance in George F. Walker’s Moss Park and is resident artist at Theatre Columbus.

“Is it a place, a location on a map, a specific person or being in a community?

“The fairy tale story isn’t set in a specific time or place. The storm represents any kind of disaster that forces people to end up somewhere new. It could be disaster, war or something as personal as your parents getting divorced. Daga and Diwrnod still get to complain about the weather in the way Canadians like to do.”

Igora, the villain, collects anything that contains light, which includes Diwrnod, who’s been struck by lightning and radiates an electric charge. She

theatre listings How to find a listing

Theatre listings are comprehensive and appear alphabetically by title. Reviews are by Glenn Sumi (GS) and Jon Kaplan (JK).

F = Festive event

ñ

= Critics’ pick (highly recommended)

How to place a listing

All listings are free. Send to: stage@nowtoronto.com, fax to 416-364-1166 or mail to Theatre, NOW Magazine, 189 Church, Toronto M5B 1Y7. Include title, author, producer, brief synopsis, times, range of ticket prices (include stu/srs discounts and PWYC days), venue name and address and box office/info phone number. Listings may be edited for space. Deadline is the Thursday before publication at 5 pm.

Opening FTHE B-GIRLZ: HELL FREEZES OVER (The Flying

JACQUI JENSEN ROY

Beaver Pubaret). The original members of the troupe reunite for a night of holiday glamour.

Dec 6-7, Fri 7 and 9 pm, Sat 9 pm. $15-$20.

488 Parliament. 647-347-6567, pubaret.com.

FTHE CHRISTMAS STORY (Church of the Holy Trinity). Professional musicians and a volunteer cast present a nativity pageant. Opens Dec 6 and runs to Dec 22, Fri 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun

68

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

4:30 pm (Dec 14, 21 and 22 also at 7:30 pm). $20, child $5 (suggested donation). 10 Trinity Square. 416-598-8979, thechristmasstory.ca.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Lower Ossington Theatre).

A flower shop clerk raises a plant that feeds on human blood. Opens Dec 5 and runs to Jan 12, 2014, Thu-Sat 8 pm, mat Sat 2 pm, Sun 4 pm (no shows Dec 22-Jan 2). $59. 100A Ossington. lowerossingtontheatre.com.

NEW ART NIGHT (Living Room Theatre). Short plays and excerpts will be presented. Dec 5-7 at 7:30 pm. Pwyc. My Living Room, 296 Brunswick. facebook.com/livingroomtheatreto.

NO EXIT by Jean-Paul Sartre (Victoria College Dramatic Society). Three strangers must endure each other in this existential drama. Dec 5-7, Thu-Sat 8 pm. $15, stu/srs $10. Goldring Student Centre, 150 Charles W, Cat’s Eye Theatre. 416-978-8849, uofttix.ca.

REPETITIVE STRAIN INJURY by Rob van Meenen (Company Kid Logic). This play follows a couple as they hastily plan their wedding, then checks in on them a year later. Previews Dec 6.

Opens Dec 7 and runs to Dec 15, Tue-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, mat Sat-Sun 2 pm. $15-$25, mat pwyc. Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst, Studio.

416-504-9971, factorytheatre.ca.

SPECIAL CONSTABLES (Circlesnake Productions).

This improvised play features the TTC Transit Police taking on a Metropass counterfeiting

was named, smiles McGee, for bike thief and hoarder Igor Kenk.

“Igora is a miserable person and has allowed her personal life to affect her ability to do her job, controlling the weather,” she says. “Lighting designer Glenn Davidson’s done an amazing job providing the troll with the brightness that obsesses her.”

As McGee, the actors and director Brewin continue to develop Weather before its first performance, they’re constantly reminded that less is more.

“I keep relearning that everything has to happen visually, that the scenic elements do the work for you, since the audience can’t be kept standing for more than a few minutes in any one spot before they’re distracted by the cold.

“It’s shifted me away from theatre as an auditory medium, which is hard because I love language so much. It was my entry point into the art form.

Here I’ve had to distill the text as if it were a poem, and discovered it’s not hard to kill your darlings in this kind of setting, where the action simply has to keep moving.”

No matter what the weather, by the way, the show will always go on, since there are contingencies for rain or extreme cold.

3 jonkap@nowtoronto.com

MORE ONLINE

Interview clips at nowtoronto.com

ring. Opens Dec 5 and runs to Dec 21, WedSun 8 pm, mat Sat 2 pm. $20. The Storefront Theatre, 955 Bloor W. circlesnake.com.

SUPPERFESTA! by Natasha Boomer (Take Your Mark Productions). Secrets are revealed and relationships tested at a raucous family dinner party. Opens Dec 10, runs to Dec 15, Tue-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm. $15-$20. Unit 102 Theatre, 376 Dufferin. takeyourmarkproductions.bpt.me.

THE TIN DRUM adapted by Chris Hanratty and Shira Leuchter (UnSpun Theatre). The Günter Grass novel about a boy who refuses to grow up is adapted for the stage. Opens Dec 5 and runs to Dec 14, MonSat 8 pm, mat Sat 2 pm. $15-$25. Daniels Spectrum, 585 Dundas E, Aki Studio Theatre. unspuntheatre.com.

FWEATHER THE WEATHER by Haley McGee (Theatre Columbus). A young girl must outwit trolls and gnomes in this outdoor production for all ages (see story, this page). Previews Dec 6-10. Opens Dec 11 and runs to Dec 30, TueSun 8 pm, mat Dec 21 and 23 at 5 pm (no shows Dec 17 and 24-26). $12.50-$32, previews pwyc. Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview. 416-504-7529, theatrecolumbus.ca.

ñ�

One-Nighters

ALUNA’S CABARET (Aluna Theatre). This funder for the company and the Panamerican Routes Festival features music, dance, burlesque and more. Dec 6 at 7:30 pm. $10.50-$12. 1 Wiltshire, studio 128. alunatheatre.ca.

THE EMERGENCY MONOLOGUES (Morgan Jones Phillips). Phillips performs his solo show about the life of a Toronto paramedic.

continued on page 70 œ

theatre reviews

Daniela Pagliarello has a blast as upstart gangster Arturo Ui.

political allegory

Power play

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI by

ñ

Bertolt Brecht (Red Light District). At the Great Hall Black Box (1087 Queen West). To December 7. $20-$25. See Continuing, page 70. Rating­: NNNN

This engaging remount of Brecht’s famous gangster allegory about the rise of Hitler joins the growing list of revivals inspired by Rob Ford’s shady behaviour.

Back in the summer, Shakespeare in the Ruff wowed with a prescient update of Richard III that delivered the

title character’s political scheming and ruthless skullduggery with a wink and a nod to City Hall. Here, true to epic theatre form, Ted Witzel uses projected text to explicitly encourage links beyond Chicago mobsters and Nazis, extend­ing Brecht’s alarm over powergrab politics and cults of personality to more recent phenomena like 9/11 and Ford Nation.

Fresh from helming this summer’s well-received reworking of Taming Of The Shrew in High Park, Witzel’s the perfect choice to bring Brecht’s voice to bear on contemporary problems. Not only has he spent the past decade breathing new life into nearly forgot-

ten gems like Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck and 17th century revenge play The Witch Of Edmonton, but he also spent years in Germany studying under Brecht’s­granddaughter Johanna Schall.

This adds up to a very authentic-feeling 1930s cabaret-style production.

He’s helped by a snappy new translation by Jennifer Wise and a strong ensemble of recent grads from York University’s theatre program. That said, Daniela Pagliarello stands out in the role of Hitl…, um, Arturo Ui, the upstart gangster obsessed with cornering Chicago’s cauliflower market. Sounding a bit like Joe Pesci with an adorable speech impediment, Pagliarello nails both the icy moments of silent intimidation and the intense fiery outbursts the Führer was so feared for. Captivating to watch, she’s at her best in one scene when Ui oscillates between begging for and demanding compliance from a rival, and in another where Ui receives PR instruction from a terrified actor.

As in Witzel’s other works, there’s meticulous attention to detail here – both the program and the overhead projections offer lots of great background information – but he’s also taken some fun tongue-in-cheek liberties with the original. Multiple mentions of the “gravy train” are dropped in (they don’t sound out of place) and modern music selections are mixed in with more classical-sounding cuts.

The result hangs together very well, the thinly disguised Nazis coming across as funny, instructive and terrifyJORDAN BIMM ing all at the same time.

Evergreen

BRICK WORKS & THEATRE

DEC 6 PWYC , 7, 8, & 10!

Columbus

Weather the Weather or

how we make it home together

By Haley McGee

FREE SHUTTLE FROM BROADVIEW STATION

Directed by Jennifer Brewin

40% OFF

OUTDOOR WINTER THEATRE

GROUPS OF 4 OR MORE!

DECEMBER 6 – 30, 2013 From the company that brought you “The Story”

theatrecolumbus.ca

Book by Dec 11

artsboxoffice.ca 416.504.7529

Stuart Ward and Dani De Waal make beautiful music in Once.

musical

Once bitten ONCE by Glen Hansard, Markéta Ir-

ñ

glová and Enda Walsh (New York Theatre Workshop/Mirvish). At the Royal Alexandra (260 King West). To January 5. $35-$130. 416-872-1212, ­mirvish.com. See Continuing, page 70. Rating: NNNN

Unconsummated love has powered many sitcoms and the first four-fifths of pretty much every romantic comedy ever made. It’s also a big theme in Once, the Tony Award-winning show about two lonely Dubliners who make beautiful music together yet can’t be a couple.

The unnamed Guy (Stuart Ward) is a disillusioned busking singer/songwriter who’s getting over a bad breakup, mourning his mom’s recent death and working at/living above his dad’s vacuum repair shop. One day Girl (Dani De Waal), a Czech émigré, stops to listen to him, obviously moved by the raw emotion in his music. Turns out she’s got a broken Hoover, plays the piano and writes lyrics. She’s also got lots of sadness in her life.

As in John Carney’s hit 2006 indie film, from which this is cleverly adapted, there’s little plot. The two jam, he introduces her to his Da (Raymond Bokhour), she introduces him to her mother (Donna Garner), daughter (Kolette Tetlow) and Czech friends, and convinces him to record a few songs.

The show is really about mood, emotion and the power of music to touch

Ñ

= Critics’ Pick

in asso ciat ion with

NAOM I SNIE CKUS MAT T BAR AM

the soul. The atmosphere begins as soon as you enter the theatre, where you’re invited to join the actors as they play (they’re all musicians) and sing on the stage, which, in Bob Crowley’s set, is a homey old bar.

Enda Walsh’s book and John Tiffany’s direction are simple yet effective, scene changes occurring without a lot of fuss. There’s much beauty in how Natasha Katz’s lighting shifts to create levels of intimacy, especially at the beginning and in a lovely scene in which Guy and Girl look down, at night, on a twinkling cityscape.

Steven Hoggett’s choreography adds another layer to the characters, whose movements are a response to the power of the music.

And the music itself, by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, is drenched with feeling. Songs begin simply and

nnnnn = Standing ovation

nnnn = Sustained applause

gain depth and complexity as instruments are added. The arrangements are haunting, especially one scene set on a beach in which the characters reprise a song in an a cappella version.

It’s a shame that there’s little chemistry between the two leads. Ward feels recessive, holding back even when he’s rocking out, while De Waal’s Girl is a talented singer, but her accent sounds mannered and put-on.

There’s fine work from Benjamin Magnuson as a cell0-playing banker, Evan Harrington as boisterous bar owner and Erica Swindell as Girl’s opportunistic friend Réza.

And even if the central couple isn’t exactly magnetic, the show offers a touching look at an émigré community struggling to find work and love in a GLENN SUMI new country.

dEC 12 – 15 festival sponsor

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416 866 8666 photo: david leyes

reviews continue on page 70œ

nnn = Recommended, memorable scenes

nn = Seriously flawed

n = Get out the hook

NOW December 5-11 2013

69

theatre reviews

comedy of manners

Divine acting GOD OF CARNAGE by Yasmina Reza (Studio 180/Mirvish). At the Panasonic (651 Yonge). To December 15. $19-$79.

416-872-1212. See Continuing, this page.

Rating­: NNN

If you want to see four great actors strutting their stuff, head to the Panasonic for Studio 180’s production of God Of Carnage.

But if you want to see a great play, look elsewhere.

The action takes place in the home of the Novaks, who are negotiating with the Raleighs about an incident in which their boy struck the Novaks’s son with a stick, damaging two teeth.

The conversation begins civilly enough, but as the play’s 70 minutes hurtle along, the couples descend into less than civilized behaviour.

Each character changes in specific ways. As the art-loving Veronica Novak, Linda Kash takes a wonderful turn from gracious host to petulant drunk.

Tony Nappo, her hardware-flogging husband, starts off as a milquetoast appeaser but proves to be a complete boor. John Bourgeois plays Alan Ra-

family musical

Big splash The Little Mermaid: Ontario’s

ñO-Fish-Al Family Musical

by Reid Janisse (Ross Petty Productions). At the Elgin (189 Yonge). To January 4. $27-$85.

1-855-599-9090, rosspetty.com. See Continuing, this page. Rating: NNNN

Perhaps it was because I recently saw the over-hyped, underwhelming adaptation of Disney’s Aladdin just up the street, but Ross Petty’s panto The Little Mermaid, costing a fraction of the former’s budget, is a lot funnier and more memorable.

Much of the credit goes to Reid Janisse, who wrote the book and co-stars as one of the narrators, Carl the Clown Fish. (Think of him as Nemo’s Toronto­cousin.) The Second City alum’s script is a socially conscious yet lighthearted look at what’s happening down at the waterfront, all seen from the novel perspective of its underwater creatures.

Mermaid Angel (Chilina Kennedy) is about to turn 18 and longs to be part of the

70

December 5-11 2013 NOW

Sarah Orenstein (left), Tony Nappo, John Bourgeois and Linda Kash let loose in Carnage.

leigh, a lawyer defending Big Pharma – his cellphone figures prominently – with an irritating hard edge that softens in strange ways. And as his wife, Sarah Orenstein finally lets go of a helluva lot of bottled-up anger.

The problem with Yasmina Reza’s play is not its artifice. The hermetically sealed environment and obvious use of metaphor work way better onstage than they do in Roman Polanski’s film adaptation.

It’s the arc of the thing that’s wonky, peaking at the 30-minute mark and staying at near-shriek level to the end.

With its short run-time, the absurdity of the precipitous descent pays off in some laugh-out-loud moments, but forget about getting a backstory for any of the characters.

Don’t blame director Joel Greenberg for the absence of texture. He keeps the actors moving when they should be mobile and then tries to slow the action by keeping them still, but the text gives the characters no time to breathe.

If you want to see what a playwright can accomplish with two cou­ ples in one room – over three hours, no less – Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? remains the touchSUSAN G. COLE stone. human world, but when her friends and family get wind of the Evil Ogopogo’s (Petty) plot to turn the increasingly polluted waterfront into a casino, she joins in the protest.

This involves a quick swim to Nia­ gara Falls, where Ogopogo’s magic turns the finned creatures into humans and robs Angel of her voice. This complicates her burgeoning romance with bipedal Adam (Marc Devigne), and ­necessitates one of the production’s many showstoppers, a Cyrano-like number involving Shelly the Shrimp The Little Mermaid gets big laughs.

Ñ

= Critics’ Pick

theatre listings œcontinued from page 68

Dec 5 at 8 pm. $15-$20 (RSVP required).

Cameron House, 408 Queen W. morganjonesphillips@gmail.com.

FLunacy Cabaret – Grotesque Helladays

(Zero Gravity Circus). This vaudeville cabaret features clown, comedy, burlesque, music and more. Dec 7 at 9 pm. $20-$25. Centre of Gravity, 1300 Gerrard E. ­lunacycabaret.com.

FThe Naughty Nutcracker (Love Letters Cabaret/Go Play Producing). This musical cabaret looks at the toys that are too naughty for Santa’s bag. Dec 10 at 10:30 pm. $25$45. Second City, 51 Mercer. ­secondcity.com.

Nicolas Landry: Le Pêcheur D’Or (Alliance Française). The French storyteller performs.

Dec 6 at 7:30 pm. $10, stu/srs $5. 24 Spadina Rd. alliance-francaise.ca.

Putin On The Ritz (What Dyke Looks Like).

Chris Tsujiuchi and others perform a cabaret to support an LGBTQ project in Russia. Dec 5 at 7:30 pm. $20 or pwyc. The Flying Beaver Pubaret, 488 Parliament. pubaret.com.

The Receptionist (Siobhán Dungan). This performance features a live recording of a radio comedy based on a true story. Dec 6 at 8 pm. Pwyc. Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex. ­SeeTheReceptionist@yahoo.ca.

Saints & Sinners Burlesque (Habits Gastropub). This revue features Lucky Minx and others. Dec 5 at 9 pm. $15-$18. 928 College. ­facebook.com/events/199483690235386.

ShakesBeer at ROM’s FNL (The Classical Theatre Project). The company presents swordfights, young love and interactive performances as part of the Friday Night Live series.

Dec 6 at 7 pm. $12, stu $10. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park. rom.on.ca.

Continuing

Aladdin by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin (Disney Theatrical Productions/Mirvish). This Broadwaybound adaptation of the 1992 animated movie about the resourceful street urchin who falls for a disguised princess suffers from generic new songs, an awkward structural device involving three narrators and leads who lack chemistry. But it’s worth waiting an hour for James Monroe Iglehart’s Genie, who adds a bit of stage magic to the dull proceedings. Runs to Jan 5, 2014, Tue-Sat 7:30 pm, mat Sat-Sun and Wed 1:30 pm (see website for more shows). $35-$130. Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria. 416-872-1212, ­mirvish.com. NN (GS) Annie (TYA) by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin (Young People’s Theatre). This version of the hit Broadway (musical comedy powerhouse Lana Carillo) singing in her place.

As usual, the show involves drag (Dan Chameroy’s Plumbum takes the word “Merman” literally by belting out a few bars of Ethel Merman’s Everything’s Coming Up Roses), ridiculously silly plot points and a climactic competition that draws on an equal number of current pop hits (cue Blurred Lines parody) and viral videos (What Does The Fox Say?).

Director Tracey Flye keeps everything moving at a steady clip, Marc Kimelman’s choreography is fresh and fun, and the performers – down to the hardworking chorus – are all bright and focused. Eddie Glen is once again superb as a sidekick called Sponge Bill Triangle Pants, and Jordan Clark channels her inner Kate Pierson as the sleek Eris.

Michael Gianfrancesco’s set is highly imaginative, especially in one early sequence involving Angel and her fishy friends and Adam and his landlubbers.

And the humour, including the sponsor ads, is tart yet family-friendly, although I can imagine a couple of ­inquisitive kids wondering about the battery-powered magic wand that comes out of an audience member’s GLENN SUMI purse.

nnnnn = Standing ovation

nnnn = Sustained applause

musical, aimed at young audiences, is tuneful and offers some strong performances, but the narrative and characterizations become twodimensional in the slimmed-down book.

Jenny Weisz, perfectly cast, is a dream in the title role, innocent and optimistic without being saccharine or Pollyanna-ish. Runs to Dec 29, see website for schedule. $22-$35. 165 Front E. youngpeoplestheatre.ca. NNN (JK) FCool Yule (Famous People Players). The black-light dinner theatre company presents a multifaith celebration of the holidays. Runs to Jan 4, 2014, call/see website for times. $40-$62. 343 Evans. 416-532-1137, fpp.org.

Danny And The Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley (BARO Theatre). Two of society’s rejects meet in a bar in this look at love and loneliness. Runs to Dec 15, Tue-Sun 8 pm. $20, stu $15. Brockton Collective, 442A Dufferin. brownpapertickets.com/event/482669.

December One Acts (Sterling Studio Theatre). Double bills: John Patrick Shanley’s Sailor’s Song and The Red Coat (Dec 3-8), and Michael Eisner’s Red Bill and Edward Allen Baker’s Dolores (Dec 11-15). Runs to Dec 15, Tue-Sat 8 pm, mat Sat-Sun 2 pm (no show Dec 10). $20. 163 Sterling. ­sterlingstudiotheatre.com.

Evil Dead – The Musical by Christopher Bond, George Reinblatt, Frank Cipolla and Melissa Morris (Starvox Entertainment/Jeffrey Latimer Entertainment). The homegrown musical based on the splatterific cult horror films gets a 10th anniversary production that’s chock full of intentional stupidity and silliness. Excessive mugging mars the first act, but there are lots of surprises (and better songs) in act two. Ryan Ward reprises his role as the stiff, chainsaw-wielding Ash. And the directors have found some inventive ways to illustrate fake stage blood. Runs to Jan 5, 2014, Tue-Thu 8 pm, Fri-Sat 7 and 10:30 pm, Sun 3 pm. $19.99-$79.99. Randolph Theatre, 736 Bathurst. evildeadthemusical.com.

NNN (GS) The Gay Heritage Project by Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew Kushnir (The GHP Collective/Buddies in Bad Times Theatre). Exploring their personal histories and examining what being gay has meant over the centuries, Damien Atkins, Paul Dunn and Andrew Kushnir create an entertaining, thoughtful look at what it means to be queer today. There’s sadness and anger mixed in with the laughs, and the three talented actors bring life to dozens of characters for a kaleidoscopic but not limiting view of gay heritage.

Runs to Dec 8, Tue-Sat 8 pm, Sat-Sun 2:30 pm.

Pwyc-$37. 12 Alexander. 416-975-8555, buddiesinbadtimes.com. NNNN (JK)

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The Girl In The Picture Tries To Hang Up The Phone by Hume Baugh (Optic Heart The-

atre). Baugh performs his solo show about being raised by his successful yet alcoholic mother. Runs to Dec 8, Tue-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2:30 pm. $20, mat pwyc. Videofag, 187 Augusta. ­thegirlinthepicture.eventbrite.ca.

God Of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (Mirvish/ Studio 180 Theatre). Civility turns to hostility when two couples meet to resolve their kids’ dispute (see review, this page). Runs to Dec 15, Tue-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, mat Sat-Sun 2 pm. $19-$79. Panasonic Theatre, 651 Yonge. 416872-1212, mirvish.com. NNN (Susan G Cole) Heaven Above Heaven Below by Linda Griffiths (Theatre Passe Muraille/Duchess Productions). The sequel to Griffiths’s celebrated 1991 drama The Darling Family takes place 25 years after the young couple at the centre of the action decided to end their pregnancy. Now comfortable middleaged professionals, their awkward hotel catch-up turns into something more. There’s lots of humour, but it’s also a tense examination of guilt, class and reproductive politics.

Runs to Dec 7, Thu-Sat 7:30 pm, mat Sat 2 pm. $15-$27.50, mat pwyc. 16 Ryerson, Backspace. 416-504-7529, passemuraille.on.ca.

NNNN (Jordan Bimm) Jabber by Marcus Youssef (Geordie Productions). This drama for ages 12 and up examines cultural stereotypes as experienced by a teenage Muslim girl. Runs to Dec 7, see website for schedule. $17-$22. Young People’s Theatre, 165 Front E. youngpeoplestheatre.ca.

Les Miserables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg (Cameron Mackintosh/Mirvish). This 25th-anniversary production of the popular musical is dominated by Ramin Karimloo, whose ex-con Jean Valjean grows in complexity and depth and delivers some transcendent moments, even if he’s too young to pull off the final scenes.

He’s surrounded by lots of talent and a handsome production that’s majestic yet intimate, with stirring new orchestrations that add extra fire to this dramatic musical. Runs to Feb 2, 2014, Tue-Sat 7:30 pm, mat Sat-Sun and Wed 1:30 pm (see website for excep-

ñ

ñ

nnn = Recommended, memorable scenes

tions/extra shows). $35-$130. Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King W. mirvish.com.

NNNN (GS)

FThe Little Mermaid: Ontario’s O-

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Fish-Al Family Musical by Reid Janisse (Ross Petty Productions). The mermaid seeks true love and happiness in this holiday panto (see review, this page). Runs to Jan 4, 2014, see website for schedule. $27-$85. Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge. 1-855-599-9090, r­ osspetty. com. NNNN (GS) Munsched! (George Brown Theatre School).

This family-friendly show is based on Robert Munsch stories. Runs to Dec 7, Sat 1 pm. $18, srs $12 stu $7. Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House. 416-866-8666.

Once by Enda Walsh, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (Mirvish). An Irish musician and a Czech immigrant are drawn together by their love of music (see review, page 69). Runs to Jan 5, 2014, Tue-Sat 8 pm, mat Sat-Sun and Wed 2 pm (no shows Dec 24, 25 and Jan 1. See website for more dates). $35-$130. Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King W. 416-872-1212, mirvish.com. NNNN (GS) FParfumerie by Miklós László (Soulpepper). Soulpepper’s revival of this affectionate, old-world romantic comedy follows the stressed-out staff of a Budapest cosmetics shop during the Christmas rush.

Solid acting, clever directing and a great set make this heartwarming love story a holiday classic. Runs to Dec 28, see website for schedule. $32-$68. Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill. 416-866-8666, soulpepper.ca. NNNN (Jordan Bimm) RAPunzel (Cow Over Moon Children’s Theatre). A girl wants to perform but doesn’t fit in with peers in this version of the fairy tale. $15, child $10. Runs to Dec 8, Fri 10:30 am & 1:30 pm, Sat-Sun 11 am & 2 pm. Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen E. Also Dec 10-15, Tue-Fri 10:30 am & 1:30 pm, Sat-Sun 11 am & 2 pm, at Maja Prentice Theatre (3650 Dixie, Mississauga). cowovermoon.ca.

The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui by ­Bertolt Brecht (the red light district). A Bronx gangster discovers corruption in Depression-era Chicago (see review, page 69).

Runs to Dec 7, Thu-Sat 8 pm, mat Sat 2 pm. $25, stu $20. The Great Hall, 1087 Queen W, Black Box Theatre. theredlightdistrict.ca.

NNNN (Jordan Bimm) Suddenly Mommy! by Anne Marie Scheffler with Rosie Shuster (Scheffler). Scheffler performs her comedy about motherhood. Runs to Dec 8, Tue-Sat 7:30 pm, mat Sat-Sun and Wed 2 pm. $15-$20. Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson. 416-504-7529, ­artsboxoffice.ca.

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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Rebecca Feldman, William Finn and

Rachel Sheinkin (Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts). Teens participate in a tense contest in this musical comedy. Runs to Dec 7, Tue-Sat 8 pm, mat Sat 2 pm. $22. Annex Theatre, 730 Bathurst. ticketmaster.ca.

Two International Tragedies by Harvey Markowitz (Avenal Productions). Two plays tell the stories of people in crises. Runs to Dec 7, Thu-Sat 7:30 pm. Pwyc. George Ignatieff Theatre, 15 Devonshire. 416-948-0506.

The Valley by Joan MacLeod (Tarragon Theatre). MacLeod’s drama about a mentally unstable young man whose encounter with a Vancouver police officer changes several lives is explosive theatre, with well-rounded characters, lived-in performances (especially Susan Coyne as the young man’s mother) and a production that enhances all the play’s themes. Runs to Dec 15, TueSat 8 pm, mat Sat-Sun 2:30 pm. $21-$53, rush $13. 30 Bridgman. tarragontheatre.com.

NNNNN (GS) Warriors by Michel Garneau (Stuck in the Mud Theatre). Two ad men are hired to create a slogan for the army in this satire about war.

Runs to Dec 8, Tue-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm. $20, stu/srs $15. Ernest Balmer Studio, 9 Trinity, #316. eventbrite.com/event/8994945123.

Winners And Losers by Marcus Youssef and James Long (Crow’s Theatre/Canadian Stage/Theatre Replacement/ Neworld Theatre). Youssef and Long’s simple game – name a topic and determine if it’s a winner or a loser – runs the gamut from funny to political to personal with both performers ruthlessly interrogating each other’s beliefs and backgrounds. An interesting but at times uncomfortable piece of meta-theatre. Runs to Dec 8, Tue-Sat 8 pm, mat SatSun 2 pm. $22-$49. Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley. 416-368-3110, canadianstage. com. NNNN (Jordan Bimm) You Said Love by Noah Davis (Sterling Studio Theatre Collective). A gathering of two couples blurs the lines between friendship, love and lust. Runs to Dec 6, Thu-Fri 8 pm. $20. Sterling Studio Theatre, 163 Sterling, unit 5. sterlingstudiotheatre.com.

3

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nn = Seriously flawed

n = Get out the hook

comedy

listings



How to find a listing

Comedy listings appear chronologically, and alphabetically by title or venue.

F= Festive event = Critics’ pick (highly recommended)

“PERFECTLY PERFORMED...

SEE IT YOU MUST”

ñ

How to place a listing

Q&A Kenny Robinson Producer/host, The Ford Follies Mayor Ford’s fuck-ups have made us the laughing stock of the world, but at least our comics are getting decent material out of it.

Now some of the city’s best band together for a gravy-laden blowout that’ll put you in a drunken stupor of laughter. Air Farce’s Alan Park and Craig Lauzon, Simon Rakoff and Ed the Sock (aka Steven Kerzner) are among the comics taking part in The Ford Follies, tonight (Thursday, December 5) at the El Mocambo.

See listings, this page.

Is this situation a comedy or tragedy?

It’s a tragi-com. The comedy is the circus that’s been going on. The tragedy is that someday it will come to an end.

I’m assuming you’re all rich, liberal elites, right?

We’re Canadian entertainers who are not eligible for grants or gravy-train handouts. So we’re actually dirt-poor – elitists without any political connections, convictions or aspirations.

If Ford shows up, will there be enough to eat?

Yes. Since he has plenty to eat at home, I’m sure there will be plenty for all.

Is the American media attention helpful or not?

It’s helpful. Like everything Canadian, it must succeed in the States before we embrace it here in Canada. Come on down to the show. You’ll see that we can do Canadian political humour better than the Yanks.

You’ve got the creator of Ed the Sock on the bill. What does Ed think about saving taxes?

Taxes... what taxes? As a sock, he can write off the dresser and the house he rehearses in, and the cigars, and enjoy a special single-sock tax ­bracket.

If you could create a Ford Follies drink, what would be in it?

The Robbie Ford would be vodka and Gatorade, on the rocks, of course, served in a life-size hollowed-out pumpkin-head glass by a staff member whom he would never offer to....

Well, you get the idea.

Why was the Ford Nation TV show really cancelled after one episode?

Its demographics chose to watch Duck Dynasty that evening. Uncle Si was getting a boil lanced.

In Ford’s angry rant video, whose “fucking throat” does he want to rip out?

The KFC executive who decided to ­remove the Double Down from the permanent menu.

What will come out of the wiretap documents of Ford’s conversations with alleged drug dealer Sandro Lisi?

Ford was peeing against the wall in Dallas near the grassy knoll.

What’ll happen on October 27, 2014?

It will be a day that lives in infamy.

Ford will win by three votes, as the left fought for control of the gravy bowl, splitting the vote. The Ford bro­ thers will have removed all members of City Hall with the efficiency of Michael Corleone. The American me­dia will have grown bored and returned to covering mass shootings. Canadian comics will dance and chant, “Four more years!” in the streets. And I’ll start work on the Ford Follies New GLENN SUMI Year’s Eve Special.

All listings are free. Send to: stage@nowtoronto.com, fax 416-​364-​1166 or mail to Comedy, NOW Magazine, 189 Church, Toronto M5B 1Y7. Include title, producer, comics, brief synopsis, days and times, range of ticket prices, venue name and address and box office/ info phone number/website. Listings may be edited for space. Deadline is the Thursday before publication at 5 pm.

“DELIGHTFUL...

HEART-WARMING” – NOW Magazine

T he D ora Award-w inning holi d ay hit ret ur n s!

– Toronto Star

OLIVER DENNIS PATRICIA FAGAN

Thursday, December 5 ABSOLUTE COMEDY presents headliner Andy

Pitz w/ DJ Demers and host Andrew Chapman.

To Dec 8, Thu 8:30 pm, Fri 9 pm, Sat 8 & 10:45 pm, Sun 8 pm. $15-$20. 2335 Yonge. 416-4867700, ­absolutecomedy.ca.

BRIAN REGAN Live Nation presents the comedian in an all-ages show. 7:30 pm. $47.50.

Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 190 Princes’ Blvd. ­ticketmaster.ca.

THE FORD FOLLIES Kenny Robinson and the Toronto Comedy Council present an unapologetic evening of Ford bashing w/ Alan Park, Simon Rakoff, Mark Walker, Steven Kerzner, Mike Rita and others (see Q&A, this page).

8:30 pm. $15. El Mocambo, 464 Spadina. ­elmocambo.com.

GIGGLES @ THE GROOVE BAR presents a weekly open-mic w/ rotating hosts. 9:30 pm. Free. 1952 Danforth. sssuperfly@hotmail.com.

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ON STAGE NOW gen erously su pport ed by

THE KIDS IN THE HALL – RUSTY AND READY TOsketchfest presents the ñ troupe in a new live show (see cover story,

page 62). To Dec 7, Thu-Fri 8 pm, Sat 7 & 9:30 pm. $39. I­ sabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles W. ­torontosketchfest.com.

KITCH KOMEDY presents a weekly show. 9 pm. Free. Kitch, 229 Geary. kitchbar.com.

NOT MY DOG COMEDY presents a weekly open mic w/ host Hannah Hogan. 8:30 pm.

Free. Not My Dog, 1510 Queen W. 416-5322397.

THE RECEPTION LIVE Comedy Bar presents Dan Galea and Steve Boleantu. 8 pm. $5. 945 Bloor W. c­ omedybar.ca.

FTHE SECOND CITY HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR (MIRACLES NOT INCLUDED) Second City pre-

sents sketches, songs and improvisations to celebrate and satirize the holiday season. To Jan 1, Mon 8 pm, Tue-Wed 1:30 pm, Thu 1:30 & 10 pm, Fri 1:30 & 4 pm. $22. 51 Mercer. 416-343-0011, ­secondcity.com.

YUK YUK’S DOWNTOWN presents Tim Steeves. To Dec 8, Thu-Sun 8 pm, plus Fri-Sat 10:30 pm. $13-$22. 224 Richmond W. 416-967-6425, yukyuks.com.

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continued on page 72 œ

PARFUMERIE MIKLÓS LÁSZLÓ

ADAPTED BY ADAM PET TLE & BRENDA ROBINS

2013 lead sponsors

photo: cylla von tiedemann

Kid friendly event

BrinG a toy & enjoy!

Great music let’s build a

over 62,000

mountain of toys

toys raised so Far!

so little can do so much for so many arts & crafts for the kids, cookie decorating, face painting, and a visit from santa Claus!

Bring the entire family and spend a couple of hours sharing the spirit of giving with us.

The BirchmounT • 462 BirchmounT rd (at Danforth Rd.) SundAY, decemBer 8Th • 2 - 4 pm www.uncleneilToymountain.com

Supported by:

NOW December 5-11 2013

71

COMEDY LISTINGS œcontinued from page 71

Friday, December 6 AASTHA LAL: WORDS TO LAUGH BY The Flying

Beaver Pubaret presents inspirational comedy. 7 pm. Pwyc/$10 adv. 488 Parliament. brownpapertickets.com/event/515571.

ABSOLUTE COMEDY See Thu 5.

FBELLEVILLE-VILLE: GET READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS The Joy of Camping presents an improv

soap opera about small-town Canada in the 70s w/ Becky Belton, Adam Bailey, Don Berns and others. 8:30 pm. $10. Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton. facebook.com/TheJoyOfCamping.

CATCH 23 Comedy Bar presents a weekly improv pit fight. 8 pm. $10. 945 Bloor W. 416551-6540, comedybar.ca.

FRIDAY NIGHT FUNNIES Papa J’s presents headliner Monty Scott, Chris Allin, Pat MacDonald and host Tim Golden. 9 pm. $10. 631 Kennedy.

416-346-9346.

THE KIDS IN THE HALL – RUSTY AND READY See Thu 5.

THE SECOND CITY HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR (MIRACLES NOT INCLUDED) See Thu 5.

TOP SHELF COMEDY presents The Main Event, a

weekly pro headliner and others. 9:30 pm. $5.

St Louis Bar & Grill, 1963 Queen E. 416-6377427, facebook.com/TopShelfComedy.

YUK YUK’S DOWNTOWN See Thu 5.

Saturday, December 7 ABSOLUTE COMEDY See Thu 5.

THE KIDS IN THE HALL – RUSTY AND READY See

Thu 5.

MONKEY TOAST The Tite Group presents

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the improvised talk show w/ author Lyranda Martin Evans, political columnist Andrew Coyne, the Monkey Toast Players and host Ron Tite. 8 pm. $10. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. 416-551-6540, comedybar.ca.

THE SUPERSTARS OF COMEDY Comedy Bar presents Ryan Horwood, Pat MacDonald, headliner K Trevor Wilson and host Stephanie Tolev. 9:30 pm. $10. 945 Bloor W. 416-5516540, comedybar.ca.

THEATRESPORTS FALL TOURNAMENT Bad Dog Theatre presents the improv competition. To

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Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy books...

which is pretty close

Dec 14, Saturdays 8 pm. $12, stu $10. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. baddogtheatre.com.

YUK YUK’S DOWNTOWN See Thu 5.

Sunday, December 8 ABSOLUTE COMEDY Second City presents new

comics at the Stand-Up 101 Grad Show. 12:30 & 3 pm. $5. Evening show, see Thu 5. 2335 Yonge. 416-486-7700, absolutecomedy.ca.

COMEDY AT THE VICTORY CAFE presents weekly comedy w/ Vanessa Dangerstorm and guests.

9 pm. Free. 581 Markham. victorycafe.ca.

HAPPY HOUR COMEDY Ein-Stein presents Rene Payes, Daniel Bingham, Mike Lynch, Alessandro Nahon, Niesha Davis, host Todd Van Allen & others. 8 pm. Free. 229 College. ein-stein.ca.

THE PLAYGROUND Playful Grounds presents weekly open-mic comedy w/ hosts Kris Siddiqi and Melissa Story. 9 pm. Free. 605 College. 416-645-0484, playfulgrounds.com.

SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE The Sketchersons present a weekly show w/ guest hosts and musical acts. 9 pm. $10. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. thesketchersons.com.

WAR PORSCHE Lara Johnson presents bold storytelling and dynamic improv w/ Mark Little, Naomi Snieckus, host Carmine Lucarelli and others. 8 pm. $8. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. comedybar.ca.

YUK YUK’S DOWNTOWN See Thu 5.

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Monday, December 9 ALTDOT COMEDY LOUNGE Rivoli presents Ryan Belleville, John Hastings, Graham Chittenden, Amanda Brooke Perrin, Darryl Orr, Chris Locke, Diana Love, Kyle Hickey, MC Alex Pavone and others. 9 pm. $5. 332 Queen W. altdotcomedylounge.com.

CHEAP LAUGHS MONDAY PJ O’Briens Irish Pub presents a weekly show w/ Russell Roy and guests. 9:30 pm. Free. 39 Colborne. 416-8157562.

I HEART JOKES The Central presents open-mic comedy w/ host Chris Robinson. 10 pm. Pwyc.

603 Markham. 416-913-4586.

ILLUSTRATED MEN & FRIENDS Red Sandcastle Theatre presents a comedy show w/ Patrick McKenna & Kathy Greenwood, Michael McCreary and a musical guest. 8 pm. $20. 922 Queen E. 416-845-9411, redsandcastletheatre.com.

IMPERIAL COMEDY SHOW Imperial Pub presents 10 comics, a pro headliner and rotating hosts every week. 9:30 pm. Free. 54 Dundas E. 416-977-4667, imperialcomedy.com.

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THE SECOND CITY HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR (MIRACLES NOT INCLUDED) See Thu 5.

TOP SHELF COMEDY presents The Tournament,

an amateur competition decided by audience votes, plus a pro comic pre-show & headliner.

8 pm. Free. The Office Pub, 117 John. 416-9771900, facebook.com/TopShelfComedy.

K Trevor Wilson headlines December 7’s Superstars Of Comedy.

Tuesday, December 10 CHEAP SMOKES: THE GOOD DEEDS SHOW Kaitlin Loftus and Laura Danowski ñ present and headline with Sara Hennessey

and host Pat Thornton, in support of the Daily Bread Food Bank, Toy Mountain and the Canadian Diabetes Association. 9 pm. $10. Rivoli, 332 Queen W. facebook.com/ events/568057366597389.

FLAT TIRE COMEDY Amsterdam Bicycle Club presents weekly stand-up w/ host Chrissie Cunningham and guests. 9 pm. Free. 54 the Esplanade. facebook.com/FlatTireComedy.

I HEART JOKES The Central presents comedy w/ host Chris Robinson. 7 pm. Pwyc. 603 Markham. 416-913-4586.

THE OTHER DOPE SHOW Vapor Social presents weekly open-mic stand-up. 9 pm. $5. 896 College. 647-765-4422.

THE SECOND CITY HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR (MIRACLES NOT INCLUDED) See Thu 5.

THE SKIN OF MY NUTS presents a weekly open

mic w/ host Vandad Kardar. 9:30 pm. Free.

Sonic Espresso Bar, 60 Cecil. facebook.com/ skinofmynuts.

THE WILD CARD Fox & Fiddle presents a mixed lineup of booked pros and random lotto spots w/ host Kyle Andrews. 8:30 pm. Free. 280 Bloor W. 416-966-4369.

THE WORLD IS EMBARRASSING Chris Locke presents his comedy album recording show w/ Dylan Gott, Tim Gilbert and host Adam Christie. 9 pm. $10. The Ossington, 61 Ossington. flavors.me/chrislockefun.

Wednesday, December 11 ABSOLUTE COMEDY presents Pro-Am Night w/

Brian Lazanik, Allen Yiu, Dr. Ron, Dylan Beeson, Jeff E Strella, Marc Anthony Sinagoga, Precious Chong and host Jenn Hayward. 8:30 pm. $10.

2335 Yonge. absolutecomedy.ca.

CHUCKLE CO. PRESENTS weekly stand-up w/ rotating hosts Joel Buxton, Amanda Brooke Perrin, Mikey Kolberg, Steve Patrick Adams, DJ Demers and Jordan Foisy. 9:30pm. $5. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. chuckleco.com.

MAGIC OVEN COMEDY presents a weekly show w/ host Shannon McIntyre. 8 pm. Free. Magic Oven, 347 Keele. 416-604-0202.

POINSETTIA The Bad Dog Repertory Players present unscripted comedy about unexpected connections w/ Jess Bryson, Kyle Dooley and others. To Dec 18, Wednesdays 9:30 pm. $12, stu $10. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. 416-551-6540, baddogtheatre.com.

PROVOCATEUR Bad Dog Theatre presents an improvised espionage comedy thriller w/ Kirsten Rasmussen, Roger Bainbridge, Carmine Lucarelli and others. To Dec 18, Wednesdays 8 pm. $12, stu $10. Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor W. 416-551-6540, baddogtheatre.com.

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THE SECOND CITY HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR (MIRACLES NOT INCLUDED) See Thu 5.

SIREN’S COMEDY Celt’s Pub presents open-mic

stand-up w/ host Kirk Jorgenson and headliner Kurtis Conner. 8:30 pm. Free. 2872 Dundas W. 416-767-3339.

TOP SHELF COMEDY presents The Spotlight, a weekly night of top comics. 9 pm. $5. WAYLA Bar, 996 Queen E. 416-901-5570, facebook. com/TopShelfComedy.

THE WORLD IS EMBARRASSING Chris Locke presents his comedy album recording show w/ Kathleen Phillips, James Hartnett and hosts Tom Henry & David Dineen-Porter. 9 pm. $10.

The Ossington, 61 Ossington. flavors.me/ chrislockefun.

YUK YUK’S DOWNTOWN presents Patrick Haye. To Dec 15, WedSun 8 pm, plus Fri-Sat 10:30 pm. $13-$22. 224 Richmond W. 416-967-6425, yukyuks. com.

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dance listings THE LAND ACROSS

by Gene Wolfe

84 Harbord St • 416-963-9993

bakkaphoenixbooks.com 72

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

FTHE GIFT Danza Corpus presents a holiday

F = Festive event

Opening ARABESQUE WINTER GALA Arabesque Dance Company presents Yasmina Ramzy and more than 200 student and company belly dancers.

Dec 7 at 8 pm. $15-$20. Estonian House, 958 Broadview. 416-920-5593, arabesquedance. ca.

ARKEMY Gadfly Dance presents dance storytelling with choreography by Ofilio Sinbadinho and Apolonia Velasquez. Dec 5-7, Thu-Sat 8 pm. $35-$45. The Citadel, 304 Parliament. arkemy.eventbrite.com.

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family dance show. Dec 7-8, Sat 8 pm, Sun 5 pm. Pwyc ($20 sugg donation). Unity Church, 173 Eglinton W. unitytoronto.ca.

NEXT STAGE 2013 George Brown Dance presents a showcase by graduates. Dec 6-7, FriSat 8 pm. $23. Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge, Studio Theatre. ticketmaster.ca.

PARADISE LOST Janak Khendry Dance Company and Harbourfront NextSteps presents an adaptation of John Milton’s classic performed in Western contemporary and classical Indian styles. Dec 6-8, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 3 pm. $28$36. Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay W. harbourfrontcentre.com.

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books LIFE CRISIS FICTION

Banal Bock GOING HOME AGAIN by Dennis Bock (HarperCollins), 257 pages, $27.99 cloth.

Rating: NN

Getting Giller-shortlisted can work against you. In the case of Dennis Bock’s Going Home Again, it raised expectations the book doesn’t come close to meeting.

Central character Charlie runs a number of language schools around the world and has just returned to Toronto after separating from his wife, who lives with their daughter in Madrid.

Bock isn’t sure, however, that this is his main thread.

Charlie’s emotionally fraught relationship with his brother Nate gets way more attention, as does his preoccupation with first love Holly, whom he rediscovers in T.O. All of which damages the narrative.

It’s hard to get invested in Charlie’s determination to get back with his wife when your attention is being pulled away to other characters and situations.

Nate is a fascinating guy, a potent combination of bravado and anxiety, whose bond with Charlie was strengthened when their parents died before they were teens. Nate’s also separated from his wife and two sons but has none of Charlie’s awareness or sense that he might be missing something by running out on his sons. But Bock doesn’t really know what to do with him.

And he drops Charlie’s backstory with Holly, his best friend’s former girlfriend, just as soon as he delivers a key piece of information. That tidbit should have deepened the connection, not ended it.

We’re left with Charlie’s guilt about his abandoned daughter that, with too little development, comes across as banal.

And unlike Bock’s previous work, especially his very vivid The Ash Garden, the prose here is downright bland, at times actually slack. You get the feeling that he stopped taking care of his craft.

SUSAN G. COLE 3 Disappointing. susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole

IN PERSON When Julie Maroh sold the film rights to her graphic novel Blue Is The Warmest Colour ($19.95 Arsenal Pulp), I’m sure she didn’t think the adaptation would win the Palme d’Or and become one of the most controversial movies of 2013. Fans of the film will want to check out the novel that inspired it. But the book has a markedly different emotional narrative and definitely stands up on its own. Maroh does a Q&A and signing at the Central bar tonight (ThursSGC day, December 5). See Readings, this page.

READINGS THIS WEEK 5 indicates queer-friendly events Thursday, December 5 JIAN GHOMESHI AND SHEILA HETI Discussing

the interplay between traditional memoirs and writing that blends facts and fiction. 7 pm. $25, stu$15. Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park. rom.on.ca.

ELLY GOTZ Reading poetry in Yiddish with translation. Noon. $18 (includes brunch). Free Times Café, 320 College. yiddishvinkl.com.

5GREG KEARNEY Launching his novel The Desperates. 6 pm. Free. Black Eagle, 457 Church. cormorantbooks.com.

JULIE MAROH Presentation, Q&A and signing of her graphic novel Blue Is The Warmest Color. 7 pm. Free. Central, 603 Markham. facebook.com/events/ 1385900688317854.

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Friday, December 6 TORONTO POETRY SLAM Spoken word compe-

612 Markham. beitzatoun.org.

Sunday, December 8 CHRIS HADFIELD/RACHEL JOYCE/LYNN COADY/

JASON TETRO Authors’ brunch. 10 am. $50.

King Edward Hotel, 37 King E. Pre-register 416-361-0032.

MANSFIELD PRESS FALL LAUNCH PARTY

Launching new books by Stephen Brockwell, Jason Camlot, Glen Downie, Stuart Ross and Sara Heinonen with hosts Denis De Klerck and Stuart Ross. 7:30 pm. Free. Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton. mansfieldpress.net.

ROBERT PRIEST/JACOB MCARTHUR MOONEY/ MAX LAYTON Poetry and songs. 5:30 pm.

Free. Tranzac, 292 Brunswick. 416-923-8137.

Tuesday, December 10 TADDLE CREEK WINTER LAUNCH Readings by

Becky Blake, Julie Cameron Gray and Robin Richardson. 8 pm. Free. The Piston, 937 Bloor W. taddelcreekmag.com.

tition. Doors 7 pm. $5. Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen W. 416-531-5042.

Wednesday, December 11

Saturday, December 7

the 2011 election campaign, Fire And Ashes.

7 pm. Free. Reference Library, 789 Yonge.

416-395-5577.

ANAND MAHADEVAN Musical interpretations, poetic recitations and narrations from his novel American Sufi. 7 pm. $15. Beit Zatoun,

MICHAEL IGNATIEFF Discussing his memoir of

books@nowtoronto.com

= Critics’ Pick NNNNN = Can’t live without it NNNN = Riveting NNN = Worthy NN = Remainder bin here we come

N = Doorstop material

movies

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nowtoronto.com/movies Audio clips from interviews with JEREMY IRONS and MITCHELL KEZIN • Friday column • and more

actor interview

Jeremy Irons

Strike while Irons is hot Oscar winner discusses his breakthrough role, the art of listening and tackling challenging parts while on hiatus from his juicy TV series, The Borgias By NORMAN WILNER NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON directed by Bille August, written by Greg Latter and Ulrich Herrmann from the novel by Pascal Mercier, with Jeremy Irons, Mélanie Laurent, Jack Huston and Martina Gedeck. A Pacific Northwest Pictures release. 111 minutes. Opens Friday (December 6). For venues and times, see Movies, page 78.

Jeremy Irons looks exactly the way you expect him to, only slightly taller.

In Toronto for a few appearances at the Lightbox’s David Cronenberg retrospective – he starred in Dead Ringers and M. Butterfly – Irons is squeezing in a few hours of press for his new movie, Night Train To Lisbon, which reunites him with Bille August, who last directed him in 1993’s The House Of The Spirits.

Irons is the audience’s guide through Night Train’s elaborate flashbacks, playing a Swiss professor who impulsively winds up playing detective when he stumbles across a love triangle that dates back to Portugal’s years under a military junta decades earlier.

It’s a role of pleasant serenity for Irons, and as it turns out, one he was uniquely suited to play.

“In a way, he has a very similar function to Charles Ryder in Brideshead,” the actor explains, namechecking the 1981 miniseries that

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made him an international star. (Its full title, of course, is Brideshead Revisited.)

“I remember when I was making that, I thought, ‘I have to think of myself as a really good host to a really great party. I want to get people together; I want to let them shine. I don’t want to [conduct them], I want to sit there and bring them out.’”

This is something he’s worked at over the years, he says, in films and onstage. His magnificent dual performance in Dead Ringers is a master class in responding naturalistically to his own recorded responses.

“Acting is listening, at its best, you know. I always tell actors that – that acting is listening, and allowing what is said to you to have an effect,” he says. “And in order to do that, you have to be relaxed and you have to be open. Otherwise, it’ll be a pretended reaction to that effect. So I sort of know about that area, and that’s what I was doing in the movie. I hope it holds the audience’s interest, because in a way, you know, they have to stay with him on this journey.”

Given that Irons has spent most of the last three years being sinister on the TV series The Borgias, I ask whether his other acting choices are designed to remind people he’s more than just a sneering villain.

“You choose on your gut, and part of you is conscious of your career,” he

REVIEW NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON (Bille August) Rating: NN A dreary Euro-pudding that wastes several very talented actors, Night Train To Lisbon tells two stories separated by four decades.

After stopping a young woman from jumping off a bridge, a Swiss professor (Jeremy Irons) finds himself taking her seat on the eponymous train to Portugal.

Once there, he winds up investigating a decades-old love triangle between a writer (Jack Huston), a militant (August Diehl) and a remarkable young woman (Mélanie Laurent), all of whom were in the same resistance cell during the Portuguese military junta of 1974 to 76.

Neither plot thread is all that compelling, and the actors seem to know it. Bille August has never been particularly confident working in English, and it feels like he’s barely paying attention to what’s happening in front of him.

Irons is a great listener, and he has a few nice scenes with Martina Gedeck (The Lives Of Others) as an optometrist with whom he becomes friendly, but that’s hardly a reason to endure the rest NW of it.

= Critic’s Pick NNNNN = Top ten of the year NNNN = Honourable mention NNN = Entertaining NN = Mediocre N = Bomb

Martina Gedeck and Jeremy Irons almost make this Train trip worthwhile.

says. “I was doing The Borgias and I thought, ‘Well, this is going to remind people I’m still alive. In between [seasons] I’ll do some interesting movies.’ Because you have to keep your career floating. And if you think of Margin Call and The Words and Night Train To Lisbon – you know, those are three really difficult movies to sell.”

Is that really how it works? Are actors’ decisions quite so mercenary?

“As you get older, you actually don’t want to work quite as much,” he allows.

“I did three and a half years sort of solid doing The Borgias and the other films and then selling the films, [so] I was very relieved this July when finally I had two months of summer. I began to build up my appetite again. And now I think I’ll go to work in the beginning of next year and be very busy for about nine months.”

3 normw@nowtoronto.com | @wilnervision

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Interview clips at nowtoronto.com

NOW DECEMBER 5-11 2013

73

Mitchell Kezin (left) and the ­Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne want you to have a rockin’ holiday.

“I’ve just seen this cool doc. But, like, it could be better.”

documentary

Net effects INREALLIFE (Beeban Kidron). 86 minutes.

Opens Friday (December 6). For venues and times, see Movies, page 78.

Rating­: NNN

Q A MITCHELL KEZIN

Beeban Kidron’s InRealLife is a wideranging survey of the causes for alarm prompted by the internet’s unprece­ dented effect on social interaction and individual psychic health. These are all things you should be thinking about, but Kidron squashes them into 86 minutes, depriving any one topic of breathing room and specificity.

Commentators include astute MIT pundits, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, who declares the internet “the greatest spying machine ever developed.”

Director, Jingle Bell Rocks!

Mitchell Kezin’s Jingle Bell Rocks! is a loving look at Christmas songs that seldom crack the charts but burrow into the hearts and minds of people looking for an alternative to the ­holiday standards. He took a few minutes to chat over a dodgy Skype connection from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

When you were looking to finance a documentary about Christmas music, what sort of ­response did you get on the Canadian ­development circuit?

The first two development deals I had were with Bravo and CTV, but they didn’t work out because I was working with partners who didn’t understand the film. They wanted to make something far more commercial. You know, Michael Bublé and Sarah McLachlan and whoever else you can think of on the Canadian landscape – [artists] whose work I can respect, but I don’t love or think is particularly good. It’s just conventional mainstream Christmas music. Bublé has a Christmas special already. So does Anne Murray. So does Sarah McLachlan, I think. If she doesn’t she’ll probably have one next year. It’s boring talking to them about those songs, because we’re all sick to death of hearing them.

Instead, you focus on artists like Clarence Carter and Bob Dorough, who are well ­respected but not household names.

Were they interested in participating?

That was the biggest challenge. This was my

74

December 5-11 2013 NOW

review JINGLE BELL ROCKS! (Mitchell Kezin) Rating: NNN BC filmmaker Mitchell Kezin dives into the rich, strange world of alternative Christmas music in Jingle Bell Rocks! The results are odd and frequently joyful.

Though the music industry will never stop covering White Christmas and Little Drummer Boy, each new Yuletide produces a few weird, lovely tracks like the Flaming Lips’ A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn’t So), Clarence Carter’s Back Door Santa and Clarence Reid’s Winter Man, all of which Kezin investigates at length.

He even tracks down bebop legend Bob Dorough, who collaborated with Miles Davis on the bitter, pointed Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern). The filmmaker’s fascination with the Nat King Cole track The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot – with which he’s been obsessed since childhood – does edge into the maudlin, but it pays off in a pretty great way.

NW

first feature documentary, so I had no track record, nothing to speak for me outside of the passion I had for the music and songs. It was very difficult breaking down those walls and getting through management to the artist. I knew if I could present my pitch [directly] to the artist, they would understand and want to do it. I felt very strongly about that, and it turned out to be the case. Some of the artists took way longer than others to secure, for various reasons, and in the interim some died.

You managed to get Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, who seems to be at least as much of a Christmas music ­obsessive as you are.

I knew I wanted the Flaming Lips’ A Change At Christmas to play at the end of the film and continue over the c­ redits. I wanted it to be the signature song that expressed everything the movie was trying to say. It would be the final stamp, my point of view on Christmas music.

And you put A Girl Called Eddy’s cover of The Little Boy That Santa Claus ­Forgot back into circulation, which is a noble thing.

It is. She’s incredible. And she has a new record coming out sometime in 2014, so it’s perfect. She’s been out of the limelight for a while – since her debut album, really – so now she’ll have a new record and we’ll have the movie released in the States at the same time. It’ll be wonNorman Wilner derful.

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They weigh in on everything from gaming addiction to the dizzyingly ­rapid depletion of our capacity for ­solitude.

But the heart of InRealLife lies in its adolescent case studies: a boy who can’t have sex without comparing his partner to the last porn clip he wanked to; a prolonged attack of cyber-bullying that ends in tragedy; a girl so desperate to keep her smartphone that she resorts to trading sexual favours and ultimately submitting to gang rape just to retain it.

Such narratives are irrefutably trou­ bling, though the fundamental social phenomena driving most of them predate the web. Like the eerie statistics that appear onscreen at every transition point, the stories lack the context that would give them greater meaning JOSÉ TEODORO and lasting impact.

Breitbach’s Country Dining owner Cindy Breitbach dishes it out real good in Spinning Plates.

documentary

More, please?

Spinning Plates (Joseph Levy). 93 minutes. Opens Friday (December 6). Some subtitles. For venues and times, see ­Movies, page 78. Rating: NNN The three restaurants profiled in ­Joseph Levy’s Spinning Plates couldn’t be more different. That’s the point.

At Chicago’s Alinea, chef Grant Achatz uses elaborate molecular gastronomy technology to turn a meal into abstract art. Breitbach’s Country Dining, in Balltown, Iowa, is a massive family-run restaurant built on American staples like fried chicken and fruit pies. And Tucson’s La Cocina de Gabby is a Mexican place opened by Francisco Martinez to showcase his wife’s traditional home cooking.

The editorial strategy is purely mechanical, cycling through the three venues to show how the restaurants function, recount the challenges they’ve faced and the personal obstacles the owners have had to overcome. For instance, Achatz survived cancer of the tongue, Breitbach’s burned down twice in one year, and La Cocina de Gabby has a cash flow problem.

Spinning Plates works well enough as food porn – Breitbach’s buffet looks mouth-watering on a big screen – but it lacks the transcendent feel of something like Jiro Dreams Of Sushi, where the preparation of food is an exercise in devotion and patience. There’s no greater statement being made, which left me unsatisfied.

Hungry, sure, but unsatisfied.

NORMAN WILNER

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SIXTH WAVE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS “WATERMARK” DIRECTED BY JENNIFER BAICHWAL AND EDWARD BURTYNSKY DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NICHOLAS DE PENCIER CSC EDITOR ROLAND SCHLIMME WRITER JENNIFER BAICHWAL SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR DAVID ROSE ORIGINAL MUSIC MARTIN TIELLI, ROLAND SCHLIMME RE-RECORDING MIXERS LOU SOLAKOFSKI, DAVID ROSE ASSISTANT EDITOR DAVID SCHMIDT ASSOCIATE PRODUCER NOAH WEINZWEIG EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS EDWARD BURTYNSKY AND DANIEL IRON PRODUCED BY NICHOLAS DE PENCIER PRESENTING PARTNER: SCOTIABANK PRODUCED WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF SKION GMBH, ONTARIO MEDIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, THE CANADA MEDIA FUND, ROGERS DOCUMENTARY FUND, IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE MOVIE NETWORK – AN ASTRAL MEDIA NETWORK, MOVIE CENTRAL, AND WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE SHAW MEDIA-HOT DOCS COMPLETION FUND, THE ONTARIO FILM AND TELEVISION TAX CREDIT AND THE CANADIAN FILM OR VIDEO PRODUCTION TAX CREDIT © 2013, SIXTH WAVE PRODUCTIONS INC.

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NOW December 5-11 2013

75

drama

Archival footage captures a key moment in the incendiary doc Let The Fire Burn.

Out-classed Out Of The Furnace (Scott Cooper).

116 minutes. Opens Friday (December 6). For venues and times, see Movies, page 78. Rating: N

documentary

All fired up Let The Fire Burn (Jason Osder). 95 minutes. Opens Friday (December 6). For venues and times, see Movies, page 78. Rating: NNNN

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On May 13, 1985, the Pennsylvania State Police dropped two incendiary bombs on a row house in West Philadelphia.

The house was the headquarters of

the militant black organization MOVE, which had been engaged in an armed standoff with authorities. The result­ ing blaze would destroy 61 more homes and kill 11 p ­ eo­ple, including five children, because it burned for more than an hour before firefighters were allowed to move in.

Jason Osder’s Let The Fire Burn makes the formally daring choice to reconstruct the standoff, the bombing and its aftermath exclusively from archival footage – all of it in ugly lo-fi You’ll be brassed off after seeing The Italian Character.

analog video.

The deposition video of 13-year-old Michael Ward, who survived the bombing, opens a window onto the confusion and horror that unfolded inside the building, while the proceedings of a special commission to inves­ tigate the incident give us a very dif­fer­ent perspective, revealing the institutional prejudice and disturbing dehumanization that motivated the police­.

Osder doesn’t paint MOVE as inno-

cents. He includes clips from the organ­ization’s propaganda videos that make founder John Africa seem more a cult leader bent on fiery confrontation than a political revolutionary.

Africa got what he wanted, dying in the blaze. What Let The Fire Burn suggests is that part of Philadelphia was waiting for the opportunity. It’s a grim look at the way a crisis can give lawenforcers licence to do awful things in the name of keeping the peace.

sci-fi horror

enon. Soon people are getting infect­ ed, cut off from mission control and scurrying through their spaceship’s ­corridors and hatches that seem lifted – just like the plot – from Alien.

This would all be straight-to-DVD fodder if not for the cast, which includes a drolly amusing Liev Schrieber, a having-fun-as-the-ship’s-bitch Olivia Williams, an unintentionally spacedout Romola Garai and Canadian Elias (remember, he was going to be the next De Niro?) Koteas.

If only they had characters to play, this mission might not be such an GLENN SUMI ­utter failure.

Mars attacked THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (Ruairi Robinson). 98 minutes. Opens Friday (December 6). For venues and times, see Movies, page 78. Rating: NN

documentary

Way off-key THE ITALIAN CHARACTER: THE STORY OF A GREAT ITALIAN ORCHESTRA (Angelo Boz­ zo­lini). 100 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (December 6) at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See Times, page 88. Rating­: NN

Even classical music lovers will be frustrated by this rambling, self-indulgent portrait of Rome’s Orchestra dell’Acca­ demia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which under its current musical director, Antonio Pappano, has emerged as one of the world’s great orchestras, attracting renowned guest conductors and selling out its tours.

The title refers to what makes the orchestra so special: namely, that innate Italian quality that favours passion, theatricality and romance over technical perfection. Pappano and sev-

76

December 5-11 2013 NOW

eral musicians repeat this sentiment, and the result is a fawning and aimless documentary that seems more the work of a PR machine than an inquisitive filmmaker.

Director Angelo Bozzolini takes us through the history of the orchestra, which has been helmed by everyone from Mahler and Toscanini to Karajan, Giulini and Bernstein. Current guest conductors like Valery Gergiev and Yuri Temirkanov weigh in on their conducting philosophies, and the amusing archival footage includes some great bits, like Georges Prêtre laughing and gesticulating wildly while conducting Ravel’s Bolero.

But despite all the terrific music, the film lacks a focus. That becomes painfully clear when members of the orchestra recount their dreams and – hohum – discuss how difficult life is on GLENN SUMI the road.

In space, no one can hear you scream.

Neither can they hear you groan and mutter, “This film is so damn derivative.”

That’s the verdict you’ll likely deliver midway through The Last Days On Mars, a sci-fi horror film that begins well enough but descends into total chaos.

A group of astronauts collecting samples on the Red Planet is a few hours away from returning to Earth when one of them discovers a mysterious phenom-

NORMAN WILNER

You don’t realize how awful Out Of The Furnace is right away. It takes a little while to reveal itself.

Scott Cooper’s follow-up to Crazy Heart positions itself as a grand Ameri­can tragedy but it’s just a turgid, laughably grim slog through hoary old working-class clichés.

Christian Bale stars as Russell Baze, a noble ex-con in Braddock, Pennsylvania, who works at the mill, cares for his dying father and tries his best to keep his hapless brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) out of trouble. Rodney’s a veteran who expresses his PTSD through bare-knuckle boxing, which puts him on a collision course with Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrel­ son), a seething brute who runs an underground fight club up in the mountains.

One thing leads to another, and eventually Russell winds up on a collision course with Harlan as well, against the warnings of the local law (Forest Whitaker). And it’s here that Out Of The Furnace goes completely off the rails, spinning into one preposterous contrivance after another in ­order to reach its predetermined conclusion.

There’s no dramatic weight or emotional resonance, just affectation. And the plot wouldn’t sustain an episode of Justified, let alone a feature film. It’s kind of awesome that Whitaker delivers all his lines in Bale’s Batman growl, though.

NORMAN WILNER

Christian Bale (left) and Casey ­Affleck hammer away at workingclass clichés.

Liev Schreiber and Romola Garai tell Elias Koteas not to ­include The Last Days On Mars on his IMDB page.

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= Critic’s Pick nnnnn = Top ten of the year nnnn = Honourable mention nnn = Entertaining nn = Mediocre n = Bomb

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Flick Finder

NOW picks your kind of movie FOREIGN

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

INDIE

SHORT TERM 12

Brie Larson (United States Of Tara) is Léa Seydoux and riveting as a young therapist at a Adèle facility for Exarchopoulos emotionally play a young troubled children French lesbian who becomes couple in unhinged when a Abdellatif new inmate has a Kechiche’s absorbing Palme history much like d’Or-winning film. her own.

FAMILY

FROZEN

Broadway belters Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana and a surprisingly good Kristen Bell voice characters in this new Disney animated pic loosely inspired by the Snow Queen fairy tale.

DRAMA

NEBRASKA

Bruce Dern won best-actor honours at Cannes playing a forgetful man who travels from Montana to Nebraska to cash what he believes is a $1 million sweepstakes prize.

Playing this week How to find a listing

Movie listings are comprehensive and organized alphabetically. Listings include name of film, director’s name in brackets, a review, running time and a rating.

Reviews are by Norman Wilner (NW), Susan G. Cole (SGC), Glenn Sumi (GS), John Semley (JS) and Radheyan Simonpillai (RS) unless otherwise specified.

The rating system is as follows: NNNNN Top 10 of the year NNNN Honourable mention NNN Entertaining NN Mediocre N Bomb

Ñ= Critics’ pick (highly recommended)

Movie theatres are listed at the end and can be cross-referenced to our film times on page 88.

ABOUT TIME (Richard Curtis) is another of

Curtis’s sappy, what-a-wonderful-world romantic comedies, only now the goofy guy (Domnhall Gleeson) who falls for a lovely American (Rachel McAdams) has the ability to travel back within his own lifetime to do things over as he sees fit.

The gimmick doesn’t affect the plot in any meaningful way, but it does give Curtis’s sappiest, cheesiest impulses free rein.

(When a scene goes awry, he simply starts it again and takes it in a different direction.) Gleeson and McAdams are charming, and Bill Nighy is delightful, as always, as Gleeson’s father, but About Time is so insistently, explicitly manipulative – and so wilfully blind to the moral implications of its hero’s actions for the lives of the people around him – that it says more about the filmmaker’s machinations than perhaps he intends. 123 min. NN (NW) Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Colossus, Grande - Steeles, SilverCity Mississauga, Yonge & Dundas 24

ñA.K.A. DOC POMUS

(Peter Miller, William Hechter) is a standard rockumentary in which directors Hechter and Miller use talking heads, still photos and archival footage (including several TV interviews with the eponymous songwriter, born Jerome Solon Felder, who died in 1991) to give Felder his proper standing in rock and roll history. It doesn’t break the mould for musician docs, but that’s okay.

The music is terrific, the story almost as compelling. And any doc that gets the stellar There Must Be A Better World back in circulation is worthy of the highest praise.

98 min. NNNN (NW) Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24

ñALL IS LOST

(J.C. Chandor) may not break new cinematic ground for the survival thriller in the way Gravity does, but it doesn’t have to; it’s just one hell of a

good movie. Writer-director Chandor’s follow-up to his economic horror movie Margin Call is a nautical story with just one character and virtually no dialogue. And it’s just as gripping, if not more so. Robert Redford plays the never-named sailor whose boat is badly damaged by a shipping container somewhere in the Indian Ocean; All Is Lost follows him over eight days as he attempts to steer the damaged vessel through nightmarish weather to rescue in commercial shipping lanes. Redford’s character simply exists in the moment, solving problems with dwindling supplies and doing whatever he can to prolong his life – and Chandor’s intimate, immediate direction puts us right there with him for every second of it. 106 min.

NNNN (NW) Canada Square, Carlton Cinema

THE ARMSTRONG LIE (Alex Gibney) opens

with Lance Armstrong just after the 2013 Oprah interview in which he confessed to years of deceit. Then director Gibney cuts back to 2009, when he hoped to capture Armstrong’s Tour de France comeback victory. His strategy throughout: remind viewers of Armstrong’s layered shams while still egging them on to root for him.

It’s as if Gibney is trickily inflating his subject’s charisma and, in turn, his film’s drama. Add his insistence on writing his own infatuation with Armstrong into the story and the film feels overly engineered.

That’s a shame. Gibney exhaustively exposes Armstrong’s strong-arming, selfdelusion and flat-out lying. He also dismantles the mechanics of the Tour de France, which to the untrained eye seems like a swarm of people with massive calves. The director’s attention to detail is admirable, but for those who found the Armstrong myth hard to swallow all along, the mix of sympathy and outrage is hard to stomach. 122 min. NNN (JS) Canada Square

THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (Malcolm D. Lee) is like the Christmas dinner that starts off with laughs and high spirits but keeps dragging along until you can’t hold down the eggnog. This sequel to 1999’s The Best Man is an overstuffed turkey. The itinerary for this holiday weekend includes the typical sex, secrets and scandals, followed by a rah-rah football game, a shamelessly dour cameo by the Grim Reaper and a climactic visit from the stork. There’s enough material to last until Easter. The schmaltzy, contrived sub-dramas clamour for attention, but none warrant a kleenex despite the best efforts of a mostly fine ensemble cast. They do much better with the gags and camaraderie in the early goings. Terrence Howard is the gift that keeps on giving as the chronic bachelor who drops the best zingers, including one that could describe the whole movie: “That was some melodramatic shit.” 120 min. NN (RS) 401 & Morningside, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24 BLACK NATIVITY (Kasi Lemmons) fre-

Director

MITCHELL KEZIN e

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quently tips its hat to Langston Hughes but doesn’t do his work justice. The holiday musical inspired by the Harlem Renaissance poet’s Gospel play never exhibits the verbal wit or carefully composed anger that marked Hughes’s writing, except of course when it quotes him directly. A stiff Jacob Latimore plays Langston, a young, troublesome Batlimore native shipped off by his penniless mother (Jennifer Hudson) to spend Christmas in Harlem with his estranged well-to-do grandparents (Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett). While tangling with the old folks and their churchgoing ways, Langston is on the prowl for the secrets that caused a family rift. The bare-bones plot, propped up by redundant R&B tunes, hinges on revelations so obvious you won’t need a prophet to call them out. Apart from a rousing take on Silent Night called Hush Child, the musical numbers don’t live up to the promise of the talent on board. 93 continued on page 80 œ

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Sam Claflin heats up the screen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

œcontinued from page 78

min. NN (RS) 401 & Morningside, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Interchange 30, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24

ñBlue Is the Warmest Color

(Abdellatif Kechiche) tracks university art student Emma’s (Léa Seydoux) multiyear relationship with high schooler Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos). The big buzz surrounding this Palme d’Or winner centres on the protracted sex scenes, but there’s more going on here than a whack of lesbian erotica. Kechiche shoots in intense close-up, showing people eating, showering, weeping (chronic crier Adèle is a mess of bodily fluids) in what turns out to be a unique, in-your-face exploration of inti­ macy and sensuousness. And it’s as much about what happens when an artist partners with someone who lacks similar aspirations. Emma works toward success as a painter, while Adèle is happy to become an elementary school teacher, to Emma’s increasing dissatisfaction. Both Seydoux and Exarchopoulos – who received a dual acting award at Cannes – are superb, and, yes, the sex is plentiful and hot. Let’s hope there’s no American remake. They’d wreck it. Subtitled. 179 min.

NNNN (SGC) Carlton Cinema, Kingsway Theatre, TIFF Bell Lightbox

ñBlue Jasmine

(Woody Allen) stars Cate Blanchett as the emotionally unhinged wife of a corporate sleazebag (Alec Baldwin) who moves to San Francisco to live with her sister (Sally Hawkins) when he’s busted. Expect Oscar to come calling on the amazing Blanchett. 98 min.

NNNN (SGC)

Interchange 30, Kingsway Theatre, Mt Pleasant

The Book Thief (Brian Percival) reframes the Second World War as a coming-of-age story about a young German girl (Monsieur Lazhar’s Sophie Nélisse). It’s a great idea on the page – specifically, in Markus Zusak’s experimental young-adult novel – but it doesn’t work nearly as well on screen. In 1938, 10-year-old Liesel, illiterate and traumatized, arrives at the home of childless couple (Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson). Over the next six years she will learn many things about good and evil, a number of them from the sickly young Jewish man (Ben Schnetzer) hiding in their basement. The resolutely mass-market execution insists on treating this brutal period in German history as a delicate fairy tale. Director Percival has helmed a lot of Downton Abbey episodes, and it shows in film’s odd propriety, where the bombing of a city street results in rows of unblemished corpses. A movie about the Holocaust can’t be afraid of confronting its own message. 131 min. NN (NW) Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Rainbow Promenade, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24 Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass) stars Tom Hanks in a fantastic performance as the eponymous skipper of the commercial vessel Maersk Alabama, which in 2009 was boarded by four Somali pirates who eventually took Phillips hostage in a lifeboat and led Navy warships on a slowspeed chase through the Indian Ocean.

The actor invests a one-dimensional character with his own humanity and genial-

“CRITIC’S PICK! A RIVETING CHRONICLE. Relives an incredible chapter in American history.”

–Nicolas Rapold, THE NEW YORK TIMES

“A SEARING MASTERPIECE!” –Brandon Harris, FILMMAKER MAGAZINE

“ELECTRIFYING!” –David Edelstein, NEW YORK MAGAZINE

“EXTRAORDINARY!” –Andrew O’Hehir, SALON “POWERFUL!” –Emily Bazelon, SLATE A FILM BY JASON OSDER

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ity; he gives a totally transparent performance that allows us to see when he’s blatantly lying to his captors while appearing outwardly helpful. And in the last five minutes of Captain Phillips, Hanks opens up to the camera in a way that feels almost uncomfortably intimate. The rest of the film is far more problematic, with director Greengrass applying the tense, jangled docudrama aesthetic of United 93 to another true-life hostage crisis. Some subtitles. 134 min. NNN (NW) Carlton Cinema, Colossus, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24

Carrie (Kimberly Peirce) is what happens

when a director has no vision and a star gets no direction, trading in the hazy eroticism and explosive horror of Brian de Palma’s 1976 film for a bland sleepwalk through the same material. What a pointless, bloody waste. 96 min. NN (NW) Interchange 30

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

(Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn) is a merely okay sequel to the brilliant original. It’s visually lively and has laugh-out-loud moments, but the characters and story are flat, and nothing here resembles the first movie’s surreal equation of food and shit.

94 min. NN (Andrew Dowler) Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Grande Steeles, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, Yonge & Dundas 24

Concussion (Stacie Passon) tracks an L.A. mom Abby (Robin Weigert), who’s finding her business flipping real estate increasingly soulless and her erotic life with her busy lawyer partner (Julie Fain Lawrence) sadly lacking. Soon she’s spending quality time in the loft she’s renovating doing something a lot more interesting: turning tricks with women. First-time director/ writer Passon does some clever stuff: Guerrilla Girls art on the walls, a curious trick who’s taking women’s studies. In a smart scene, Abby, dealing with her re­cy­ cling, encounters a client who’s walking her dog: danger collides with the mundane. But if you’re looking for a movie that reflects the queer community and its values, this isn’t it. As in The L Word, also brought to you by Concussion producer Rose Troche, these lesbians look like

Ñ

straight women, with nary a piercing in site. But unlike those in that iconic TV series, these characters are happy to live in a het world. 96 min. NNN (SGC) Carlton Cinema

The Counselor (Ridley Scott) is a thriller about an unnamed El Paso attorney (Michael Fassbender) whose world collapses into chaos when a drug deal in which he’s mixed up goes south. Stultifyingly dull and thick-witted, it plays out its inevitabilities like a tabloid journalist flipping through a selection of crime scene photos.

Yes, it’s all very ugly. What was the point again? 117 min. N (NW) SilverCity Mississauga

ñThe Croods

(Chris Sanders, Kirk De Micco) proves that even the familiar and clichéd can be reformulated into something smart, fun and endearing. The animated romp, about a cave-dwelling family trying to stick together while Pangaea begins to break apart, cherry-picks elements from the evolution of animated movies. But it’s also fertile with fresh gags, characters developed beyond stereo­types and a splendid visual design that owes much to acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins, who serves as a consultant. 92 min. NNNN (RS) Rainbow Market Square

ñDallas Buyers Club

(Jean-Marc Vallée) stars Matthew McConau­ ghey as Ron Woodroof, a hard-living, woman­izing Texas electrician who became an unlikely AIDS activist in the mid1980s after being diagnosed with HIV and told he had 30 days to live. Unable to withstand the side-effects of AZT, which he buys illegally, he hits upon a scheme of importing a cocktail of drugs – unapproved in the U.S. – first from Mexico, then from other countries. He sells them to other AIDS patients whose lives are then extended, and changes from a bigoted redneck to a man of compassion and purpose, fighting the FDA to get the drugs approved. McConaughey, his body emaciated, is almost unrecognizable, but his charm and passion shine through, and he gets strong support from Jared Leto, whose dignified transsexual Rayon provides a lovely contrast to Ron, and Jennifer

Garner’s concerned doctor. Although the pace wavers near the end, director Vallée does a fine job with the difficult material, which spans years and countries. Expect major acting nominations come awards season. 117 min. NNNN (GS) Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24

Delivery Man (Ken Scott) finds Quebec

writer/director Scott remaking his 2011 comedy Starbuck for the American market, with Vince Vaughn replacing Patrick Huard as David Wozniak, a no-account meat truck driver who discovers the sperm donations of his youth samples have resulted in 533 children – about a fifth of whom are now looking for their biological dad. Those familiar with Starbuck have basically already seen Delivery Man; it’s exactly the same movie – down to shot choices, character names and even the casting of Sébastien René in a key role – with the action moved from Montreal to Brooklyn. Vaughn’s shifty/manic tendencies are a nice echo of what Huard did in the original, and Cobie Smulders musters some dignity as David’s long-suffering girlfriend, but this version is stolen by the delightful Chris Pratt as our hero’s hapless attorney. 105 min. NNN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queens­way, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24

Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin) has about 35 minutes of story and an hour of frickin’ minion jokes. If you love watching little tubular yellow guys run around jabbering at each other and making fart noises, this will be your new ­favourite thing. If you’re me, you end up with a headache and a sense that the world hates you. I did appreciate the running gag about the guacamole sadness hat, though. 98 min. NN (NW) Interchange 30

continued on page 82 œ

= Critics’ Pick nnnnn = Top ten of the year nnNn = Honourable mention nnn = Entertaining nn = Mediocre n = Bomb

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT STARTS DECEMBER 13 Documentarian Lucy Walker (Waste Land) directs this intimate portrait of former pro snowboarder Kevin Pearce as he struggles to recover from his debilitating 2009 training accident and return to the slopes.

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Don Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) stars writer/director Gordon-Levitt as a pornaddicted stud who thinks porn is more ex­ citing than the real thing – including Bar­ bara (Scarlett Johansson, who’s terrific), his latest gorgeous but demanding con­ quest. The script is sometimes supersavvy but it’s just a little too on the nose.

Caution: tons of (non-explicit) porn clips.

90 min. NNN (SGC) Scotiabank Theatre Elysium (Neill Blomkamp) is virtually identical, plot-wise, to the director’s wildly overrated 2009 debut, and fans of District 9’s spectacular carnage and garbled polit­ ical posturing will doubtless find this one even more meaningful and relevant and stuff. The Phantom Menace still has its defenders, too. Some subtitles. 109 min.

NN (NW) Interchange 30 Empire of Dirt (Peter Stebbings) is a

quiet, absorbing look at the cycle of abuse

and abandonment among three genera­ tions of First Nations women. Lena (Cara Gee), a 30-year-old single mom, has been drug-free for eight years but is gradually losing touch with her teenage daughter, Peeka (Shay Eyre). When near-tragedy strikes, Lena and Peeka hitchhike north from Toronto to stay with her mother (Jennifer Podemski), a gambling addict who kicked her daughter out years earlier.

Also still in town is Lena’s ex (Luke Kirby), who may or may not be Peeka’s dad. Steb­ bings never finds a consistent tone for the film, which wobbles between earnest understatement and something grittier and more exciting. And the dirt metaphor in the title doesn’t pay off. But it’s beauti­ fully shot, newcomers Gee and Eyre are revelations, and the central theme of cul­ tural pride is stirring and urgent. 99 min.

NNN (GS) Yonge & Dundas 24

Ender’s Game (Gavin Hood) is Harry Pot­ ter And The Starship Troopers, a very ex­

pensive, very elaborately designed at­ tempt to build a new super-franchise out of Orson Scott Card’s 1985 sci-fi novel about a gifted young boy (Asa Butterfield) chosen to save the world from an alien threat. But screenwriter/director Hood has no vision of his own, instead applying the grim aesthetic of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy to Card’s novel. We’re not allowed to enjoy or appreciate Ender’s in­ genuity at winning a zero-gravity contest; we’re told his merciless calculation is Exactly What Humanity Needs. Imagine Nolan tackling The Hunger Games. You’d never get the comic relief that Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks or Woody Harrelson brought to it, which is desperately needed here. 113 min. NN (NW) Colossus, Kingsway Theatre, Yonge & ­Dundas 24

ñEnough Said

(Nicole Holofcener) is an alt romantic dramedy about a masseuse (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who can’t reveal to her glamorous new client (Cath­ erine Keener) that she’s dating the wo­ man’s ex (James Gandolfini). It has all the qualities that make writer/director Holof­ cener so good: a great cast, complicated relationships and smart writing. LouisDreyfus is surprisingly nuanced as the needy Eva, and fuhgeddabout The Sopra­ nos – Gandolfini has a lovable charm as

CHRISTIAN BALE WOODY HARRELSON

The Family (Luc Besson) is a forgettable

and not very funny comedy carried by the charm of its stars and by director Luc Bes­ son’s skills with camera and editor’s scis­ sors. Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, with Dianna Agron and John D’Leo as teen daughter and son, play the titular family, living under the witness protection pro­ gram but still carrying on with crime.

Some subtitles. 110 min. NN (AD) Interchange 30

Free Birds (Jimmy Hayward) finally brings audiences the inevitable talkingturkey CGI Thanksgiving comedy. Thank­ fully, it’s actually decent. Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson lend their voices to a pair of turkeys who travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving to take their ances­ tors off the menu. Pixar veteran Hayward and long-time Kevin Smith collaborator

CONTEST

Academy Award® Winner

Academy Award® Nominee

the schleppy ex. The always watchable Toni Collette is on board as Eva’s best friend. As in Please Give, Holofcener dis­ plays a clear eye for relationships between parents and teens, never using the kids as mere devices. And though she has taken a bit of the edge off the proceedings, her dialogue is as sly as ever. 93 min. NNNN (SGC) Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Kingsway Theatre

PICK OF THE WEEK

Academy Award® Nominee

CASEY AFFLECK SOMETIMES YOUR BATTLES CHOOSE YOU

Scott Mosier deliver a surprisingly clever script packed with just enough silly slap­ stick for kids and pop culture references for parents to turn the dull concept into an amusing comedy. It’s ultimately just fam­ ily fluff, but at least it’s fun family fluff, and that’s really all you can ask from a talking-turkey picture. 91 min. NNN (Phil Brown) 401 & Morningside, Canada Square, Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Grande Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Mississauga

Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee) feels like a throwback to the classic golden period of Disney animated musicals, and while it doesn’t reach the heights of a Lion King or Beauty And The Beast, it’s entertaining enough, despite a lopsided narrative and the lack of a compelling villain. Orphaned princesses Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) have grown up apart (but in the same castle) since child­ hood, ever since Elsa’s power to turn everything to ice nearly got Anna killed.

But when Elsa ascends the throne, her gift reveals itself, and she flees to icy isolation in the mountains, followed by Anna, loner outdoorsman Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and happy-go-lucky snowman Olaf (Josh Gad). It’s basically The Snow Queen mixed with Wicked, but the creators were smart enough to cast one of the latter’s stars (Menzel) and a host of other Broadway belters. The songs are derivative but ef­ fective, but only Olaf’s hilarious ditty about wanting to experience summer is destined for classic status. And Gad’s Olaf is the most entertaining sidekick since ­Timon and Pumbaa. 102 min. NNN (GS) 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queens­way, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24

ñGravity

(Alfonso Cuarón) plays as both an immediate, nail-biting thrill­ er and a stunning technological accom­ plishment, following two astronauts (San­ dra Bullock, George Clooney) stranded in orbit and cut off from mission control. It’s not science fiction – it’s set firmly in the present day, and the stakes are as intim­ ate as they come. Cuarón’s screenplay, cowritten with his son Jonás, is a triumph of psychological realism and narrative ef­ ficiency; there isn’t a wasted shot or an extraneous line of dialogue. There are things here you’ve never seen before; this is a great, unprecedented picture. One word of warning, though: even if you don’t have vertigo, the IMAX 3D version may well leave you with it. 91 min. NNNNN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Canada Square, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24

“POWERFUL” “STIRRING” “UNIQUE” “ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST-ACTED AND GUTSIEST FILMS”

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THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY Director Sophie Fiennes reunites with philosophical provocateur Slavoj Zizek for this follow-up to their hit The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, in which Zizek applies his inimitable and penetrating insights to films both famous and obscure as he interprets their overt and concealed meanings.

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Grown Ups 2 (Dennis Dugan) is an ex­ cuse for Adam Sandler and his posse to loiter onscreen as adults playing hooky (art imitates life), milking money just by being present. The jokes are aimless and contrived and often lack punchlines. Sand­ ler could very well have scribbled this mess on the back of the cheque he re­ ceived to produce a sequel, any sequel – just a movie with the number two in it, the same number of times you will laugh.

101 min. N (RS) Interchange 30 Hawking (Stephen Finnigan) humbly bows to scientist Stephen Hawking, who’s struggled with motor neuron disease most of his life and unravelled mysteries of the universe from the confines of a wheelchair, able to speak only with the aid of a computerized voice simulator. Re­ counting his extraordinary life through standard-issue re-enactments and talking heads, this is a serviceable tribute but not much of a movie. The man is an appealing

continued on page 84 œ

= Critics’ Pick nnnnn = Top ten of the year nnNn = Honourable mention nnn = Entertaining nn = Mediocre n = Bomb

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Director Skype Q&As—December 6 & 9, select times.

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INREALLIFE Discover how the internet is affecting our children in this provocative look at the alienation and addiction that 24/7 connectivity can create.

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GIVE THE GIFT OF DOCS Official Selection, IDFA 2013

JINGLE BELL ROCKS! A trippy, cinematic sleigh ride that unearths twelve of the most amazing Christmas songs ever recorded, featuring The Flaming Lips, Run-DMC, The Free Design, Clarence Carter and more. Director Q&As—December 7, 8, 10 and 21, select times.

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Celebrating Celebrating the best the best in Canadian incinema.

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Ñ

Homefront (Gary Fleder) is an utterly

Tremaine) spins off Johnny Knoxville’s long-time old-man-makeup character into a Borat-style mixture of hidden camera pranks and simple storytelling. There’s no social satire, but the combination of Knox­ ville and 8-year-old Jackson Nicoll’s public pranks with intergenerational-bonding road comedy tropes feels like a vintage John Hughes comedy with Jackass inter­ ludes. As close to a sign maturity as these permanent adolescents can manage. 90 min. NNN (Phil Brown) Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Kingsway Theatre, Yonge & Dundas 24

ñThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire

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shared by Quinn and Harden is easily the best thing in the movie, an oasis of heart and wit in a desert of strained comedy.

115 min. NN (José Teodoro) Kingsway Theatre

generic shoot-’em-up starring writer/pro­ ducer Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables buddy Jason Statham as an ex-DEA agent who moves to a small Louisiana town to raise his young daughter (Izabela Vidovic).

He’s drawn back into warrior mode when a school fight with a bully leads to an es­ calating feud with the kid’s uncle (James Franco, better than he needs to be), a meth dealer who sees an opportunity in selling the agent’s location to some old enemies. Stallone could write this sort of movie in his sleep, but director Fleder is a professional, and Homefront’s progres­ sion from cat-and-mouse thriller to full-on action movie is efficient and enjoyable.

Not original in the slightest, mind you, but it is entertaining. 100 min. NNN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Yorkdale

cinema.

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and inspiring presence, narrating the film using technology that interprets the twitches on his face. He doesn’t let physi­ cal constraints keep him from galas and cocktail parties, where he’s spoon-fed champagne. The way he soaks up celebrity seems to deserve its own story; there’s a suggestion that it ended his marriage. ­Finnigan barely touches on that and on the actual science, evidently deeming it too complex for audiences just here for the PR. 94 min. NN (RS) TIFF Bell Lightbox

(Francis Lawrence) proves the Oscar curse can be beaten. Best-actress winner Jennifer Lawrence is a knockout in this second instalment of the franchise, which, unlike many actors’ releases following Os­ car wins, is not total crap. It’s much better than Part 1: the script doesn’t need much set-up, there’s more focus on the relation­ ship between Katniss (Lawrence) and Gale (which means more charismatic Liam Hems­worth), and director Lawrence keeps the violence offscreen instead of sanitiz­ ing it. Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) are having trouble faking the love rela­ tionship that made them co-winners of the 74th Hunger Games, the arena spec­ tacle in which a male and female from 12 districts fight to the death until there’s one person standing. But they’re sparking revolution against the wealthy 1 per cent, so baddie President Snow dreams up a new tourney in which the winners of the previous 24 games have to go into the ring. Who cares about plot holes in a fan­ tasy? This is highly entertaining, and Law­ rence is red hot in all ways. 145 min. NNNN (SGC) 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queens­way, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity

If I Were You (Joan Carr-Wiggin) features

an all-too-rare leading turn from the tal­ ented, woefully underused Marcia Gay Harden. She plays a woman who discovers her husband is cheating on her and within minutes strikes up a duplicitous alliance with his mistress. Harden exhibits superb comic timing and a knack for translating her character’s desires and anxieties into physical activity. Unfortunately, her fine work is at the mercy of a baggy script fraught with mostly cartoonish support­ ing characters and zany developments that are neither convincing nor amusing.

At least Aidan Quinn turns up to play a small but pivotal role. The midpoint scene

InRealLife (Beeban Kidron) 86 min. See

review, page 74. NNN (Jose Teodoro) Opens Dec 6 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema

The Italian Character (Angelo Bozzo­ lini) 100 min. See review, page 76. NN (GS) Opens Dec 6 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Jeff

Jingle Bell Rocks (Mitchell Kezin) 83 min. See Q&A and review, page 74. NNN (NW) Opens Dec 6 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas) re­

counts a murder in the mid-1940s that linked the lives of Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), William Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and their charismatic friend Lucien Carr (Dane De­ Haan). Krokidas and co-screenwriter Aus­ tin Bunn fail to find a clear perspective, and for all their characters’ talk about new art, the look of the film – and its approach to the era’s burgeoning queer scene – is pretty conservative. 103 min. NN (GS) Carlton Cinema

The Last Days on Mars (Ruairi Robinson) 98 min. See review, page 76. NN (GS) Opens Dec 6 at Carlton Cinema Last Vegas (Jon Turteltaub) stars veter­ ans Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Mor­ gan Freeman and Kevin Kline in a bachelor party comedy that sets up gags as familiar as the routine in a seniors home. Even the jokes have bunions. Yet the four Oscar winners are so good at playing against each other, you can’t help wondering why they finally decided to do so now n a com­ edy that pays out as rarely as a slot ma­ chine. 110 min. NN (RS) 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Cana­ da Square, Carlton Cinema, Colossus, Court­ney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Promenade, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Mississauga Lee Daniels’ The Butler (Lee Daniels) is

one big black history lesson featuring great performances by Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo and especially Forest Whitaker as a White House butler. But don’t expect anything like the director’s disturbing Precious or The Paperboy. Dan­ iels is decidedly domesticated here, aim­ ing to teach and please. 132 min. NNN (SGC) Kingsway Theatre, Mt Pleasant

ñLet the Fire Burn

(Jason Osder) 95 min. See review, page 76. NNNN

(NW) Opens Dec 6 at Carlton Cinema

Looking is the Original Sin (Gail Harvey) stars Katie Boland as Anna, a 19-yearold mostly ignored by her mother, Helene (Maria del Mar), a successful but unstable photographer inspired by Diane Arbus.

Uncomfortable with her maternal role, Helene moves out of her home without warning, hiding from Anna to focus on continued on page 86 œ

= Critics’ Pick nnnnn = Top ten of the year nnNn = Honourable mention nnn = Entertaining nn = Mediocre n = Bomb

“RIVETING AND OFTEN HILARIOUS!” –THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“IRRESISTIBLE! TERRIFICALLY ENTERTAINING” –THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

SLAVOJ ZIZEK

THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY A film by Sophie Fiennes

Skype intro by director Sophie Fiennes at the 6:45pm screening on Dec. 13

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movie reviews œcontinued from page 84

work. Much of the film revolves around Anna’s attempts to get to know her absent mother by perusing photographs and tracking down associates and former lovers. Meanwhile, Helene intermittently delivers a monologue to the camera (the only thing she has an open relationship with), communicating her turbulent emotions and thoughts – many of which mirror Arbus’s – on photography, her subjects and life. Too bad they’re framed so awkwardly within the story. Despite fine performances by Boland and especially del Mar, the drama remains stilted and underdeveloped. 83 min. NN (RS) Carlton Cinema

Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion

(Yukihiro Miyamoto, Akiyuki Shinbo) is an animé feature about the fate of a group of magical girls. 123 min.

Dec 9 at Coliseum Scarborough, Courtney Park 16, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, Yonge & Dundas 24

The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca ­Encore is an encore presentation of last

fall’s high-def broadcast of the Puccini opera starring Finnish soprano Karita Mattila in the title role. 166 min.

Dec 7, noon, at Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Yonge

PRESENTS

ñMuscle Shoals

(Greg Camalier) is about the musically inclined backwater town in Alabama that has seen everyone from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones come through to produce hits.

They’re among the many who speak affectionately here about their time with Rick Hall, of FAME Studios, arguably the backbone of the Muscle Shoals music industry. The interviews are woven together like music, composing a film with storytelling rhythms that strikes emotional chords. Soul aficionados will savour every beat. 111 min. NNNN (RS) Kingsway Theatre, Regent Theatre

DAVID CRONENBERG

MAJOR EXHIBITION | FILMS | GUESTS

ñNarco Cultura

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Dec 7 1pm

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INTRODUCED BY COMPOSER HOWARD SHORE

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(Shaul Schwarz) is a striking and sobering doc that focuses on how cartel violence has seized upon popular culture, specifically a musi­ cal genre called narcocorrido, which glamorizes kidnapping, torture and murder.

The Mexican drug wars have claimed approximately 60,000 lives in the last six years. You can purchase the soundtrack on iTunes. Edgar Quintero, a Los Angelesbased narcocorrido singer, guides us through the lucrative music industry that worships kingpins and makes light of victims. Schwarz provides stark contrast by trailing Richi Soto, a crime scene investigator in Ciudad Juarez who collects mutilated corpses and shell casings, even though most of the crimes won’t be investigated. His sunken eyes and solemn gaze say it all. Doing a grim, hopeless job and unable to quite explain why, he faces death, poverty and a culture singing about its own moral bankruptcy. Subtitled. 102 min. NNNN (RS) Bloor Hot Docs Cinema

Nebraska (Alexander Payne) is a black-

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and-white road movie about a Montana speaker salesman (Will Forte) who gets to know his remote, alcoholic father (Bruce Dern) as the pair drive to Lincoln to cure the older man’s obsession with a sweepstakes. It lacks the highs and lows of The Descendants and Sideways, feeling much more like director Payne’s 2002 drama About Schmidt: a slow, deliberate roll through a series of modest incidents that inform our understanding of its central character. Problem is, Nebraska never surprises. Road movies are by definition formulaic, but there’s a predictability to the way Bob Nelson’s screenplay trickles out details and shading that feel more calculated than they should. This isn’t to say

that Nebraska is bad, but it’s awfully safe and contrived – not what we’ve come to expect from Payne. 115 min. NNN (NW) Scotiabank Theatre, Varsity

Night Train to Lisbon (Bille August) 111 min. See interview and review, page 73.

NN (NW) Opens Dec 6 at Regent Theatre Oldboy (Spike Lee) doesn’t just bungle the baroque insanity of Park Chan-wook’s 2003 revenge thriller. It doesn’t even seem to understand it. Lee was an interesting choice to direct the remake, having made his reputation on a combination of emotional volatility and formal elegance that’s not unlike Park’s approach to cinema, and Josh Brolin seems a good fit for the role of a selfish drunk who’s abducted and imprisoned in an anonymous room for two decades without ever learning why, only to be released without explanation and sent on a mission of vengeance. But the moment Sharlto Copley shows up as the villain, wearing false cheekbones and affecting a simpering delivery out of a 1930s Universal horror movie, the thing falls apart. It’s clear Lee has no interest in taking the story seriously, which is the only way it can work. The original is still out there, just waiting to be rediscovered in the wake of this disaster. 104 min. N (NW) Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Yorkdale Out of the Furnace (Scott Cooper) 116 min. See review, page 76. N (NW) Opens Dec 6 at Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, Varsity

ñPhilomena

(Stephen Frears) tells the true story of journalist Martin Sixsmith’s attempt to help an Irish woman, Philomena Lee, track down the son she was forced to give up five decades earlier. It’s an odd but effective combination of investigative drama and buddy picture, as the devout, working-class Lee (Judi Dench) and the privileged, cynical Sixsmith (Steve Coogan, who also cowrote and co-produced the film) find common ground in the search for her son.

Director Frears lays it on a little thick in the glimpses of the young Philomena at a home for wayward mothers, but the rest of the story is handled far more elegantly, framing the historical blemish of baby trafficking through an immediate, personal lens. It’s a tribute to both actors that Dench’s performance doesn’t feel like a naked Oscar bid, nor does she totally obliterate Coogan’s fine supporting turn. 98 min. NNNN (NW) Beach Cinemas, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24

Planes (Klay Hall) is a shameless Cars rip-

off about a modest crop-dusting plane named Dusty Crophopper (voiced by comic Dane Cook) who dreams of being a competitive flyer even though he’s scared of heights. The clunky script feels like a first draft, and Cook communicates as little personality as his character’s bland design. 92 min. N (GS) Interchange 30

Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve) stars Hugh Jackman as a Pennsylvania contractor who reacts to his daughter’s abduction by grabbing the most likely suspect (Paul Dano) and trying to beat the truth out of him. Jackman’s entirely convincing as a righteous hothead, but Villeneuve’s unable to keep Prisoners from collapsing into overwrought, mildly preposterous contrivance. And there’s simply no reason this

= Critics’ Pick nnnnn = Top ten of the year nnNn = Honourable mention nnn = Entertaining nn = Mediocre n = Bomb

movie needed to be two and a half hours long. 153 min. NNN (NW) Interchange 30, SilverCity Mississauga

ñRush

(Ron Howard) chronicles the ongoing rivalry in the mid-70s between two wildly different Formula One racers: the cold, cerebral Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and the wildly charismatic English playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth). Director Howard and superb screenwriter Peter Morgan contrast their stories effectively, getting even non-fans intrigued by the politics of commercial endorsements and the psychology of competition. 123 min. NNNN (GS) Kingsway Theatre

ñShort Term 12

(Destin Daniel Cretton) is a powerful, deeply felt character study of a young therapist (Brie Larson) at a California facility for disturbed children whose own issues come rushing to the surface when she meets a particularly troubled new intake (Kaitlyn Dever).

Writer-director Cretton creates a dramatic environment that’s fraught with emotional tension but doesn’t milk it; the explosions of feeling seem natural rather than calculated, the result of totally believable interactions between the adults and the kids. And he has an amazing eye for casting: Scott Pilgrim’s Larson and Justified’s Dever are both riveting, and supporting players John Gallagher Jr., Rami Malek, Stephanie Beatriz and Keith Stanfield are all terrific too. 96 min. NNNN (NW) Carlton Cinema, Kingsway Theatre, TIFF Bell Lightbox

Spinning Plates (Joseph Levy) 93 min.

See review, page 74. NNN (NW) Opens Dec 6 at TIFF Bell Lightbox

ñThor: The Dark World

(Alan Taylor) is a very silly movie for all its self-seriousness, which is why it works.

Director Taylor may not have the surprisingly graceful action sensibility Kenneth Branagh brought to Thor’s first solo outing, but he knows enough to stay out of everyone’s way, letting the actors play and the CG teams go wild depicting the universe-threatening danger that erupts on Asgard and Earth as evil elves seek to possess a destructive energy force that’s infected Thor’s mortal beloved, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). The story is far less involving than the emotional stakes and the interplay between the characters; who’d have thought the Thor movies would be the most casually charming output of the Marvel Studios project? Chris Hemsworth continues to have sly fun underplaying Thor’s might, and the contrast of wee Portman with his brawny god continues to pay great visual dividends. And once again, Tom Hiddleston steals the picture as the unpredictable Loki, though this

time Kat Dennings comes awfully close to stealing it herself as Jane Foster’s scrappy sidekick. Some subtitles. 112 min. NNNN (NW) 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande - Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotia­bank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale

ñ12 Years a Slave

(Steve McQueen) finds McQueen rebounding from the uneven Shame with this stunning adap­ tation of the memoir by Solomon Nor­ thup, a free American sold into slavery in 1841 and forced to spend more than a decade concealing his identity on a series of Southern plantations before he could contact his friends in the North. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a revelation as a man forced to conceal his intelligence and compassion – his very essence – in order to survive, and Benedict Cumberbatch and McQueen regular Michael Fassbender offer dia­ metrically opposed performances as Nor­ thup’s masters over the years. Alfre Wood­ ard, Sarah Paulson and Michael Kenneth Williams make effective appearances, and producer Brad Pitt turns up as a good-natured Canadian. McQueen directs with a total lack of sentiment, crafting each sequence with a merciless forward momentum that compensates for the episodic nature of the narrative. One of the best films of the year. 133 min. NNNNN (NW) Canada Square, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Humber Cinemas, Interchange 30, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, SilverCity Mississauga, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24

ñWatermark

(Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky) feels very much like a continuation of Manufactured Landscapes, collaborators Baichwal and Bur­ tynsky’s previous work, once again exploring the effects of human industry on the natural world – in this case, our oceans and rivers. Baichwal’s contemplative approach meshes nicely with Burtynsky’s fondness for finding geometric patterns in gargantuan constructions like dams and aquifers, and producer-cinematographer Nicholas de Pencier captures some splendid high-definition images. (Watermark may set a record for the most helicopter

shots in a Canadian production.) Baichwal and Burtynsky cushion their potentially grim ecological message with philosophical digressions and moments of unexpected whimsy, which seems like an awfully good idea right now. Some subtitles. 90 min. NNNN (NW) TIFF Bell Lightbox

We’re the Millers (Rawson Marshall Thurber) takes a reasonably interesting idea – a low-level drug dealer (Jason Sudeikis) recruits a stripper (Jennifer Aniston), a runaway (Emma Roberts) and the weird kid next door (Will Poulter) to pose as his family so he can smuggle drugs over

the border in an RV – and does as little as possible with it. And that’s a real disappointment given the talent assembled.

110 min. NN (NW) Interchange 30

When Jews Were Funny (Alan Zweig) is

a survey of North American Jewish comics with an elusive theme and a lack of female subjects. But it’s very entertaining – it took Best Canadian Feature honours at TIFF 2013 – and interviews with the likes of old pros Norm Crosby, Jack Carter and Shelley Berman are fascinating. 90 min.

NNN (SGC) Kingsway Theatre 3

presents

SPIRITED AWAY:

The Films of Studio Ghibli

ñ2 Guns

(Baltasar Kormákur) pairs Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg as Texas gunmen who accidentally steal $43.125 million of the wrong people’s money and must shoot a whole lot of bad guys to get themselves out of trouble. You can’t help but enjoy the ride.

Some subtitles. 109 min. NNNN (NW) Interchange 30

ñWadjda

(Haifaa Al-Mansour) tracks 10-year-old schoolgirl Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), who enters a Koran study contest so she can buy a bicycle with the winnings. The premise is sly enough – females aren’t allowed to drive in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia – and Mohammed is appealing as the young heroine, but Al-Mansour’s depiction of everyday Saudi life is what counts here.

Subtitled. 97 min. NNNN (SGC) Kingsway Theatre

DECEMBER 13 to JANUARY 3, TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX Reitman Square, 350 King Street West

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® Toronto International Film Festival Inc.

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Visit tiff.net/ghibli for full film lineup Public tickets on sale December 11

© 2011 Nibariki - G

Returning just in time for the holidays, this dazzling 18-film showcase devoted to the Academy Award®–winning animation studio features such classics as My Neighbor Totoro and the rarely screened masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies.

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Online expanded Film Times

Aurora Cinemas • Cine Starz • Elgin Mills 10 • First Markham Place SilverCity Newmarket • SilverCity Richmond Hill • Interchange 30 5 Drive-In Oakville • SilverCity Oakville • Winston Churchill 24

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Available for selected films: RWC (Rear Window Captioning) and DVS (Descriptive Video Service)

Downtown

BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA (I) 506 BLOOR ST. W., 416-637-3123

INREALLIFE (14A) Fri 3:45 THE ITALIAN CHARACTER Fri 6:30 Sat 1:00, 6:00 Sun 1:00 Mon 9:30 Wed 3:00 JINGLE BELL ROCKS Fri, Sun 8:45 Sat 8:30 Tue 9:30 NARCO CULTURA (18A) Thu 9:30

CARLTON CINEMA (I) 20 CARLTON, 416-494-9371

ABOUT TIME (14A) Thu 1:30, 6:45 ALL IS LOST (PG) Thu 1:40, 6:40 Fri, Mon-Wed 4:15, 9:25 Sun 4:40, 9:35 BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (R) Thu 1:10 4:45 8:25 FriWed 1:15, 4:50, 8:25 CABARET Sat 2:00, 7:00 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (14A) Fri-Wed 1:10, 3:50, 6:35, 9:20 CONCUSSION (14A) Thu 9:15 DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu 1:35 4:05 7:00 9:35 Fri-Wed 1:35, 4:20, 7:00, 9:35 ENOUGH SAID (PG) Thu 1:15, 4:15, 9:25 Fri-Sat, Mon-Wed 1:30, 7:10 Sun 7:10 HELLO, DOLLY! Sun 2:00, 7:00 HOMEFRONT (14A) Thu 1:30 3:55 6:50 9:10 Fri-Wed 1:50, 4:15, 6:50, 9:10 KILL YOUR DARLINGS (14A) Thu 4:10, 9:30 Fri-Sat, MonWed 4:05, 9:30 Sun 9:30 THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (14A) Fri-Wed 1:25, 4:00, 7:05, 9:20 LAST VEGAS (PG) Thu 1:45, 4:15, 6:55 Fri 1:40 Mon-Wed 1:40, 6:55 LET THE FIRE BURN (14A) Fri-Wed 1:45, 4:10, 7:00, 9:15 LOOKING IS THE ORIGINAL SIN Thu 4:05, 9:20 SHORT TERM 12 (14A) Thu 1:50, 4:00, 7:05, 9:15 SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (18A) Sat 4:15, 9:15 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG) Thu 1:20 3:50 6:45 9:20 Fri-Wed 1:20, 3:55, 6:45, 9:25 TORONTO FILM SOCIETY Sun 2:00 WAITING FOR SUMMER Thu-Fri 7:00

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THE CROODS (G) Sun 11:00 DELIVERY MAN (PG) 1:00, 3:25, 6:55, 9:20 Sat, Tue 11:40 late FROZEN (G) 12:30, 2:50, 5:05, 7:10, 9:30 HOMEFRONT (14A) 12:45, 3:15, 7:00, 9:15 Sat, Tue 11:25 late THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu 3:30, 6:35, 9:35 Fri, Sun-Mon, Wed 12:30, 3:30, 6:35, 9:35 Sat, Tue 12:30, 3:30, 6:35, 9:35, 11:15 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG) 12:55, 3:40, 6:45, 9:30 Sat, Tue 11:35 late

12 YEARS A SLAVE (14A) 12:35, 3:20, 6:30, 9:25

SCOTIABANK THEATRE (CE) 259 RICHMOND ST W, 416-368-5600

DON JON (18A) Thu 1:20, 3:50, 6:20, 8:40, 10:50 Fri-Sat 1:50, 4:00, 6:25, 8:45, 11:00 Sun, Tue 1:50, 4:00, 6:25, 8:35, 10:45 Mon 1:50, 4:00, 10:45 Wed 1:50, 4:00, 6:20, 8:35, 10:45 HOMEFRONT (14A) Thu 12:40, 3:20, 5:45, 8:20, 10:50 Fri 2:30, 5:15, 7:55, 10:30 Sat 12:00, 2:30, 5:15, 7:55, 10:30 Sun 1:10, 3:40, 7:40, 10:20 Mon 12:45, 3:35, 6:20, 9:30 Tue 1:10, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20 Wed 1:10, 4:40, 7:40, 10:20 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE – THE IMAX EXPERIENCE (PG) Thu 12:30, 3:40, 7:00, 10:10 Fri-Sat 12:25, 3:40, 7:00, 10:10 Sun 12:25, 3:40, 7:00, 10:05 Mon, Wed 12:25, 3:40, 6:50, 10:00 Tue 12:25, 3:40, 6:50, 10:05 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu 1:00, 2:00, 2:40, 3:10, 4:10, 5:15, 6:00, 7:30, 8:50, 9:20, 9:50, 10:40 Fri 12:55, 1:40, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 5:05, 5:45, 6:15, 7:35, 8:25, 9:10, 9:40, 10:50 Sat 12:55, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 5:05, 5:45, 6:15, 7:35, 8:25, 9:10, 9:40, 10:50 Sun 12:55, 1:40, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 5:05, 5:45, 6:15, 7:30, 8:20, 9:00, 9:30, 10:45 Mon 12:55, 1:40, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 5:05, 5:45, 7:25, 8:20, 9:00, 10:15, 10:40 Tue 12:55, 1:40, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 5:00, 5:40, 6:10, 7:20, 8:20, 9:00, 9:35, 10:45 Wed 12:55, 1:40, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 5:05, 5:45, 7:30, 8:20, 9:00, 10:45 LAST VEGAS (PG) Thu 1:50, 4:20, 7:20, 10:00 Fri-Sat 1:20, 4:20, 7:10, 10:00 Sun 1:20, 4:20, 7:10, 9:50 Mon 1:15, 4:20, 7:10, 9:50 Tue 1:20, 4:20, 7:00, 9:30 Wed 1:20, 4:20, 7:10, 9:45 THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: TOSCA ENCORE Sat 12:00 NEBRASKA (PG) Thu 12:50, 3:30, 6:40, 9:30 Fri-Sat 12:45, 3:30, 6:40, 9:30 Sun, Tue 12:45, 3:30, 6:35, 9:20 Mon, Wed 12:45, 3:30, 6:30, 9:20 OLDBOY (18A) Thu 1:40, 2:30, 4:30, 5:05, 7:10, 7:45, 10:00, 10:15 Fri 2:40, 5:25, 8:10, 11:00 Sat 12:10, 2:45, 5:30, 8:10, 11:00 Sun-Wed 12:20, 2:50, 5:20, 7:55, 10:30 OUT OF THE FURNACE (14A) Fri-Sat 1:00, 2:00, 3:50, 4:50, 6:50, 7:45, 9:50, 10:40 Sun 1:00, 2:00, 3:50, 4:50, 6:50, 7:50, 9:40, 10:35 Mon 1:00, 2:00, 3:50, 4:50, 6:40, 7:40, 9:40, 10:25 Tue 1:00, 2:00, 3:50, 4:50, 6:40, 7:40, 9:45, 10:35 Wed 1:00, 2:00, 3:50, 4:50, 6:40, 7:50, 9:30, 10:35 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG) Thu 1:10, 4:00, 6:50, 9:40 Fri-Sat 12:35, 3:20, 6:05, 9:20 Sun-Wed 12:35, 3:20, 6:05, 9:10 THOR: THE DARK WORLD 3D (PG) Thu 2:10, 4:55, 7:40, 10:30 Fri-Sat 1:30, 4:30, 7:25, 10:20 Sun-Mon, Wed 1:30, 4:30, 7:20, 10:10 Tue 1:30, 4:30, 7:10, 10:00

TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX (I) 350 KING ST W, 416-599-8433

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (R) Thu 12:00, 3:30, 7:05, 9:30 Fri-Sat 12:00, 3:30, 7:05, 9:00 Sun, Tue 12:00, 3:30, 7:05, 9:25 Mon 7:05, 9:00 Wed 12:00, 3:30, 7:05, 9:35 HAWKING (PG) Thu 2:30, 7:15 Fri-Sat, Wed 1:00, 5:00 Sun 12:25, 5:00 Mon 6:00 Tue 5:00 SHORT TERM 12 (14A) Thu 12:10, 4:30, 8:30 SPINNING PLATES Fri-Sun, Tue-Wed 12:15, 2:30, 7:15, 9:30 Mon 7:15, 9:30 WATERMARK (G) Thu 12:25, 1:00, 4:45, 6:20 Fri 12:20, 2:35, 4:45, 6:45 Sat, Wed 12:20, 2:35, 4:45, 6:45, 9:05 Sun 12:20, 2:35, 4:45, 7:10 Mon 6:05, 9:05 Tue 1:00, 2:35, 4:45, 7:05

Fri-Sun 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:15 12 YEARS A SLAVE (14A) Thu 1:00, 4:10, 7:10, 10:05 Fri-Sun 1:00, 4:00, 7:10, 10:20 Mon-Tue 1:00, 4:05, 7:10, 10:10 Wed 1:00, 4:05, 10:10

VIP SCREENINGS

A.K.A. DOC POMUS Fri-Sun 1:30, 4:25, 7:00, 9:30 MonWed 1:50, 4:25, 7:00, 9:30 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (18A) Thu, Mon-Tue 1:10, 3:55, 6:35, 9:15 Fri, Sun 12:35, 3:35, 6:15, 9:00 Sat 12:35, 3:35 Wed 6:35, 9:15 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu, MonWed 12:30, 3:40, 6:50, 10:00 Fri-Sun 12:55, 4:05, 7:15, 10:25 NEBRASKA (PG) Thu 12:50, 3:25, 6:10, 8:50 PHILOMENA (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 1:30, 4:05, 6:25, 9:00 Fri-Sun 1:15, 3:50, 6:45, 9:15

YONGE & DUNDAS 24 (CE) 10 DUNDAS ST E, 416-335-5323

ABOUT TIME (14A) Thu 7:20, 10:15 Fri, Mon-Wed 1:40, 4:30, 7:20, 10:15 Sat-Sun 12:10, 3:00, 6:30, 9:35 A.K.A. DOC POMUS Thu 2:00, 9:55 THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (14A) Thu 7:30, 10:20 Fri, MonTue 1:30, 4:15, 7:05, 9:55 Sat-Sun 1:30, 4:15, 7:25, 10:15 Wed 1:30, 4:15, 7:05, 10:25 BLACK NATIVITY (G) Thu 2:25, 4:45, 7:00, 10:00 Fri 2:00, 5:00, 7:45, 10:05 Sat-Sun 1:15, 3:55, 6:45, 9:25 Mon-Tue 7:45, 10:05 Wed 9:35 THE BOOK THIEF (PG) Thu 6:55, 10:05 Fri, Mon-Wed 3:40, 6:40, 9:40 Sat-Sun 12:20, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40 BULLETT RAJA (PG) Thu 3:30, 6:35, 9:45 Fri 3:00, 6:50, 9:55 Sat-Sun 12:50, 3:50, 6:55, 9:55 Mon-Tue 6:50, 9:55 Wed 9:55 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (14A) Thu 4:00, 10:10 Fri 3:15, 6:15, 9:15 Sat-Sun 11:55, 3:15, 6:15, 9:20 Mon-Wed 7:00, 10:00 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (G) Thu 1:40 COMMITMENT Fri-Sun 1:50, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Mon-Wed 1:30, 4:10, 7:10, 9:50 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (18A) Thu 2:05 4:50 7:35 10:20 FriWed 1:55, 4:40, 7:25, 10:20 DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu 7:50, 10:30 Fri 2:35, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15 Sat-Sun 12:15, 2:50, 5:20, 7:55, 10:30 Mon-Wed 1:50, 4:25, 7:40, 10:15 DIE HARD (14A) Thu 4:00, 7:00 Wed 6:30, 9:30 EMPIRE OF DIRT (14A) Thu 9:40 ENDER’S GAME (PG) Thu 6:55, 9:35 Fri, Mon-Wed 2:05, 4:45, 7:25, 10:05 Sat-Sun 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 FROZEN (G) Thu 3:45, 6:50 Fri, Mon-Wed 3:20, 5:55, 8:30 Sat-Sun 12:30, 3:20, 5:55, 8:30 FROZEN 3D (G) Thu 1:40, 4:15, 7:05, 9:50 Fri-Tue 1:45, 4:20, 6:55, 9:30 Wed 1:45, 4:20, 6:55, 10:00 GORI TERE PYAAR MEIN (PG) Thu 3:20, 6:40, 9:55 GRAVITY: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE (PG) 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 10:10 HOLIDAY INN Sun 12:45, 6:45 Mon-Tue 4:15 Wed 4:00 JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA (14A) Thu 8:05, 10:25 Fri 2:25, 4:45, 7:05, 9:15 Sat-Sun 11:50, 2:25, 4:45, 7:05, 9:15 Mon-Tue 7:05, 9:35 Wed 7:45, 10:15 THE KING OF COMEDY Tue 7:00 MADOKA MAGICA THE MOVIE: REBELLION (PG) Mon 7:30, 10:15 NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION Fri 1:45, 4:15, 7:00, 9:30 Sat 12:00, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30, 9:50 Sun 3:30, 9:15 Mon 1:45 Tue 1:45, 9:50 Wed 1:30 PHILOMENA (PG) Thu 2:30, 5:00, 7:35, 10:00 Fri, Mon-Wed 2:00, 4:25, 6:50, 9:15 Sat-Sun 12:45, 3:30, 6:50, 9:15 R... RAJKUMAR 3:10, 6:35, 9:45 Sat-Sun 12:00 mat RAM-LEELA (PG) Thu 6:40, 10:00 12 YEARS A SLAVE (14A) Thu 1:30, 4:25, 7:30, 10:30 Fri 1:35, 4:35, 7:35, 10:30 Sat-Sun 12:25, 3:25, 6:45, 9:50 Mon-Wed 1:35, 4:35, 6:45, 9:50

Midtown

VARSITY (CE)

CANADA SQUARE (CE)

THE BOOK THIEF (PG) Thu, Tue-Wed 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:50 Fri-Sun 12:30, 3:40, 6:50, 9:50 Mon 9:50 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (14A) Thu 1:00, 7:20, 10:10 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (18A) Thu, Mon-Wed 1:45, 4:30, 7:15, 9:55 Fri-Sun 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:30 GRAVITY 3D (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 2:25, 4:40, 6:55, 9:10 Fri-Sun 12:20, 2:35, 5:00, 7:20, 9:40 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu, MonWed 12:40, 3:50, 7:00, 10:15 Fri-Sun 12:00, 3:20, 6:40, 10:00 NEBRASKA (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 1:15, 4:00, 6:40, 9:25 FriSun 12:50, 3:30, 6:30, 9:20 OUT OF THE FURNACE (14A) Fri-Wed 1:10, 4:00, 7:00, 10:05 PHILOMENA (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 2:00, 4:25, 7:05, 9:45

ABOUT TIME (14A) 4:15, 7:00 Fri-Sun 9:40 ALL IS LOST (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:05, 6:30 Fri 3:45, 6:10, 8:30 Sat-Sun 1:20, 3:40, 6:10, 8:30 THE ARMSTRONG LIE (14A) 4:10, 6:50 Fri 9:30 Sat-Sun 1:30 mat, 9:25 ENOUGH SAID (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:25, 6:40 Fri 4:20, 6:30, 8:50 Sat-Sun 2:10, 4:20, 6:30, 8:50 FREE BIRDS (G) Sat-Sun 2:00 GRAVITY 3D (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:45, 7:10 Fri 4:40, 7:10, 9:20 Sat-Sun 2:20, 4:40, 7:10, 9:20 HOMEFRONT (14A) 4:00, 6:20 Fri 8:40 Sat-Sun 1:40 mat, 8:40 LAST VEGAS (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:35, 7:15 Fri 4:30, 6:45,

55 BLOOR ST W, 416-961-6304

2200 YONGE ST, 416-646-0444

9:10 Sat-Sun 1:50, 4:30, 6:45, 9:10 12 YEARS A SLAVE (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:00, 7:00 Fri 3:50, 6:40, 9:30 Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:50, 6:40, 9:30

MT PLEASANT (I)

675 MT PLEASANT RD, 416-489-8484 BLUE JASMINE (14A) Fri-Sat 9:30 Sun, Tue 7:00 LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER (14A) Thu, Wed 7:00 Fri-Sat 6:45 Sun 4:10

REGENT THEATRE (I) 551 MT PLEASANT RD, 416-480-9884

MUSCLE SHOALS (PG) Thu, Sat, Mon 7:00 Fri 9:05 NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON (14A) Fri, Sun, Wed 7:00 Sat 9:05

SILVERCITY YONGE (CE) 2300 YONGE ST, 416-544-1236

THE BOOK THIEF (PG) Thu 12:50, 3:50, 6:50, 10:05 Fri, Sun, Tue 1:10, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20 Sat 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 Mon, Wed 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (14A) Thu 3:30, 6:30, 9:50 Fri, Sun, Tue 3:05, 6:30, 9:40 Sat 3:10, 6:30, 9:40 Mon, Wed 3:20, 10:00 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (G) Thu 1:10 Fri, Tue 12:35 Sat 12:10 Sun 12:25 Mon, Wed 12:50 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (18A) Fri, Sun, Tue 1:20, 4:30, 7:40, 10:30 Sat 1:10, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20 Mon 1:10, 4:20, 7:25, 10:25 Wed 4:20, 7:25, 10:25 DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu 1:20, 4:10, 7:20, 10:00 Fri, Tue 12:10, 2:55, 5:30, 8:05, 10:40 Sat 7:10, 9:55 Sun 2:55, 5:35, 8:05, 10:40 Mon 1:00, 3:35, 6:35, 9:10 Wed 12:55, 3:35, 6:10 FROZEN (G) Thu 1:50 Fri, Tue 12:00 Sat 12:40 Sun 12:05 Mon, Wed 1:20 FROZEN 3D (G) Thu 4:25, 7:00, 9:40 Fri, Tue 2:40, 5:20, 8:10, 10:45 Sat 3:30, 4:40, 7:40, 10:30 Sun 2:45, 5:30, 8:10, 10:45 Mon, Wed 4:10, 6:50, 9:35 HOLIDAY INN Sun 12:45 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu 12:45, 1:00, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:20, 7:10, 8:15, 9:30, 10:30 Fri 12:50, 4:10, 7:15, 7:30, 10:30, 10:45 Sat 12:00, 12:50, 3:20, 4:10, 6:40, 7:30, 10:10, 10:45 Sun, Tue 12:00, 12:50, 3:20, 4:10, 6:40, 7:30, 10:00, 10:45 Mon, Wed 12:45, 2:30, 4:00, 6:00, 7:15, 9:20, 10:30 THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: TOSCA ENCORE Sat 12:00 PHILOMENA (PG) Thu 2:00, 4:50, 7:40, 10:15 Fri, Tue 12:20, 2:45, 5:10, 7:50, 10:15 Sat 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:35 Sun 12:10, 2:35, 5:05, 7:50, 10:15 Mon 1:40, 4:40, 7:45, 10:15 Wed 4:40, 7:45, 10:15 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG) Thu 1:40 Fri, Sun, Tue 1:00 Sat 12:20 Mon, Wed 1:30 THOR: THE DARK WORLD 3D (PG) Thu 4:40, 7:30, 10:30 Fri, Sun, Tue 3:50, 6:50, 9:50 Sat 3:40, 6:50, 9:45 Mon, Wed 4:30, 7:35, 10:30

Metro

West End HUMBER CINEMAS (I) 2442 BLOOR ST. WEST, 416-769-2442

DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu 4:10 6:50 9:40 Fri-Wed 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 9:40 Thu-Fri, Wed no 1:10 FROZEN (G) Thu-Fri, Wed 4:00, 7:00, 9:20 Sat-Tue 1:30, 4:00, 7:00, 9:20 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu-Fri, Wed 3:45, 6:45, 9:50 Sat-Tue 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:50 12 YEARS A SLAVE (14A) Thu-Fri, Wed 3:30, 6:30, 9:30 SatTue 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30

MUSCLE SHOALS (PG) Thu 3:35 9:15 Fri-Wed 4:00, 9:15 RUSH (14A) Thu 4:00 Fri-Wed 7:00 SHORT TERM 12 (14A) Thu 12:10 WADJDA (PG) Thu 5:30 Fri-Wed 6:00 WHEN JEWS WERE FUNNY (14A) Thu 2:00, 6:05 Fri-Wed 12:30, 7:45

QUEENSWAY (CE)

1025 THE QUEENSWAY, QEW & ISLINGTON, 416-503-0424 THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (14A) Thu 9:05 THE BOOK THIEF (PG) Thu 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:35 Fri 12:30, 3:40, 6:50, 10:00 Sat 3:40, 6:50, 10:00 Sun-Wed 12:15, 3:25, 6:30, 9:50 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (18A) Thu 2:15, 5:05, 7:50, 10:30 Fri 1:35, 4:25, 7:30, 10:25 Sat 1:25, 4:20, 7:30, 10:25 Sun-Wed 1:10, 4:20, 7:15, 10:05 DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu 1:35, 4:15, 6:50, 9:25 Fri 12:00, 2:35, 5:15, 7:55, 10:40 Sat 2:35, 5:15, 7:55, 10:40 Sun-Wed 2:10, 4:55, 7:45, 10:30 DIE HARD (14A) Thu 7:00 Wed 9:30 FREE BIRDS (G) Thu 1:10, 3:25, 5:50 Fri 12:10 Sat 12:50, 3:25 Sun 12:05 Mon-Wed 12:35 FROZEN (G) Thu 1:00, 2:00, 3:40, 6:25 Fri 1:25, 4:20, 7:00 Sat 1:10, 4:10, 7:00 Sun 12:00, 1:00, 3:55, 6:40 Mon-Tue 1:00, 3:55, 6:40 Wed 12:50, 3:55, 6:40 FROZEN 3D (G) Thu 4:40, 7:25, 10:00 Fri 2:10, 4:55, 7:45, 10:30 Sat 11:10, 2:05, 4:55, 7:45, 10:30 Sun-Wed 2:00, 4:45, 7:30, 10:15 GRAVITY 3D (PG) Thu 12:55, 3:20, 5:40, 8:00, 10:20 Fri 12:20, 3:00, 5:25, 7:50, 10:15 Sat 3:00, 5:25, 7:50, 10:15 SunWed 12:25, 2:45, 5:20, 7:50, 10:20 HOLIDAY INN Sun 12:45 HOMEFRONT (14A) Thu 2:35, 5:10, 7:45, 10:15 Fri-Sat 1:55, 4:30, 7:10, 9:50 Sun 2:20, 4:05, 6:55, 9:55 Mon-Tue 1:25, 4:05, 6:55, 9:55 Wed 1:25, 4:05, 6:55, 10:25 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu 12:35, 1:45, 3:15, 3:50, 5:00, 7:10, 8:15, 9:30, 10:25 Fri 12:35, 2:30, 3:15, 3:55, 5:55, 6:40, 7:25, 9:20, 10:05, 10:50 Sat 11:20, 12:30, 3:15, 4:00, 5:55, 6:40, 7:25, 9:20, 10:05, 10:50 Sun 12:10, 1:50, 2:55, 3:45, 5:15, 6:25, 7:10, 8:40, 9:45, 10:35 Mon-Wed 12:10, 1:50, 2:55, 3:45, 5:15, 6:20, 7:10, 8:40, 9:45, 10:35 LAST VEGAS (PG) Thu 8:05, 10:35 Fri-Sat 9:40 Sun-Wed 9:25 MADOKA MAGICA THE MOVIE: REBELLION (PG) Mon 7:30 THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: TOSCA ENCORE Sat 12:00 OLDBOY (18A) Thu 1:10, 3:55, 6:45, 10:10 Fri 12:05, 2:40, 5:20, 8:05, 10:45 Sat 4:25, 8:05, 10:45 Sun 5:00, 7:40, 10:25 Mon 1:35, 4:10, 10:25 Tue 2:20, 5:00, 7:40, 10:25 Wed 2:20, 5:00, 7:40 OUT OF THE FURNACE (14A) Fri 12:25, 2:15, 5:05, 8:00, 10:55 Sat 12:55, 2:15, 5:05, 8:00, 10:55 Sun-Tue 1:40, 4:35, 7:35, 10:30 Wed 4:35, 7:35, 10:30 PHILOMENA (PG) Thu 2:20, 4:45, 7:20, 9:40 Fri 2:05, 4:40, 7:15, 9:55 Sat 1:00, 1:50, 4:40, 7:15, 9:55 Sun-Tue 1:30, 4:15, 7:00, 9:35 Wed 4:15, 7:00, 9:35 THE POLAR EXPRESS (G) Sat 11:00 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG) Thu, Sun-Wed 1:20 Fri-Sat 1:45 THOR: THE DARK WORLD 3D (PG) Thu 4:10, 6:55, 9:50 FriSat 4:35, 7:35, 10:35 Sun-Wed 4:25, 7:20, 10:10 12 YEARS A SLAVE (14A) Thu 12:30, 3:35, 6:40, 9:45 Fri 12:40, 3:50, 7:05, 10:20 Sat 12:45, 3:50, 7:05, 10:20 Sun, Tue-Wed 12:20, 3:35, 6:50, 10:00 Mon 6:50, 10:00

RAINBOW WOODBINE (I)

WOODBINE CENTRE, 500 REXDALE BLVD, 416-213-1998 THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (14A) 6:35, 9:20 BLACK NATIVITY (G) 1:20, 3:55, 7:10, 9:30 DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu-Tue 1:05, 4:05, 7:05, 9:35 Wed 4:05, 7:05, 9:35 FREE BIRDS (G) 1:25, 4:00 FROZEN (G) 1:15, 4:15, 7:00, 9:25 HOMEFRONT (14A) 1:10, 4:10, 6:55, 9:40 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45 THOR: THE DARK WORLD (PG) 1:00, 3:50, 6:40, 9:15

KINGSWAY THEATRE (I)

East End

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (R) Fri-Wed 9:10 BLUE JASMINE (14A) Thu 2:10 Fri-Wed 2:00 ENDER’S GAME (PG) Sat-Sun 12:00 ENOUGH SAID (PG) Thu 7:45 Fri-Wed 5:20 IF I WERE YOU Thu 7:15 Fri-Wed 2:00 JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA (14A) Thu 9:25 FriWed 3:45 LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER (14A) Thu 12:00 Fri, Mon-Wed 11:45

BEACH CINEMAS (AA)

3030 BLOOR ST W, 416-232-1939

1651 QUEEN ST E, 416-699-1327

DELIVERY MAN (PG) Thu 7:20, 9:50 FROZEN (G) Fri 5:20 Sat-Sun 12:00, 2:40, 5:20 FROZEN 3D (G) Thu 6:30, 8:50 Fri 4:00, 6:40, 9:15 Sat-Sun 1:00, 4:00, 6:40, 9:15 Mon-Wed 6:40, 9:15 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (PG) Thu 7:00, 8:00, 10:10 Fri 3:45, 5:00, 7:00, 8:15, 10:15 Sat-Sun 12:30, 1:45, 3:45, 5:00, 7:00, 8:15, 10:15 Mon-Wed 7:00, 8:15, 10:15 LAST VEGAS (PG) Fri-Wed 8:00, 10:30 PHILOMENA (PG) Thu 6:50, 9:15 Fri 3:30, 6:30, 9:00 SatSun 12:45, 3:30, 6:30, 9:00 Mon-Wed 6:30, 9:00 THOR: THE DARK WORLD 3D (PG) 7:10, 10:00 Fri 3:15 mat Sat-Sun 12:15, 3:15 mat

North York CINEPLEX CINEMAS EMPRESS WALK (CE) 5095 YONGE ST., 416-847-0087

A.K.A. DOC POMUS Fri 5:20, 8:00, 10:35 Sat-Sun 2:40, 5:20, 8:00, 10:35 Mon-Wed 4:25, 7:15, 9:55 THE BOOK THIEF (PG) Thu 3:35 6:40 9:50 Fri-Wed 3:35,

88

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

6:40, 9:45 Sat-Sun 12:30 mat Delivery Man (PG) Thu 4:50, 7:25, 10:05 Frozen (G) Fri 5:15 Sat-Sun 12:00 Mon-Wed 4:10 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 4:10, 6:55, 9:35 Fri 7:50, 10:25 Sat-Sun 2:35, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Mon-Wed 6:50, 9:35 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu 5:05, 7:30, 9:45 Fri-Wed 10:15 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – The IMAX Experience (PG) Thu 3:40, 7:00, 10:20 Fri 4:10, 7:30, 10:45 Sat-Sun 12:50, 4:10, 7:30, 10:45 Mon-Wed 3:50, 7:00, 10:20 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 3:00, 6:20, 9:40 Fri 3:30, 6:50, 10:10 Sat-Sun 12:00, 3:20, 6:50, 10:10 Mon-Wed 3:30, 6:45, 10:10 The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca Encore Sat 12:00 Oldboy (18A) Thu 4:40, 7:20, 9:55 Fri, Mon-Wed 4:50, 7:35 Sat-Sun 2:10, 4:50, 7:35 Out of the Furnace (14A) 4:20, 7:20, 10:00 Sat-Sun 1:40 mat Philomena (PG) Thu 4:20, 6:50, 9:20 Fri 4:30, 7:00, 9:30 Sat-Sun 1:20, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30 Mon-Wed 4:30, 7:05, 9:30 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Fri, Mon-Wed 4:45 Sat-Sun 1:50 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 4:25, 7:15, 10:10 Fri 7:40, 10:40 Sat-Sun 4:45, 7:40, 10:40 Mon-Wed 7:30, 10:25 12 Years a Slave (14A) Thu 4:15, 7:10, 10:00 Fri, Mon-Wed 4:15, 7:10, 10:05 Sat-Sun 4:20, 7:10, 10:05

SilverCity Fairview (CE)

Fairview Mall, 1800 Sheppard Ave E, 416-644-7746 The Book Thief (PG) Thu, Mon 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 Fri-Sun 12:50, 4:00, 7:00, 9:55 Tue 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:55 Wed 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 2:00, 4:50, 7:20, 9:55 Fri-Sat, Tue 2:10, 4:50, 7:30, 10:05 Sun 4:50, 7:30, 10:05 Mon 1:45, 4:25, 9:55 Wed 1:45, 4:25, 7:10, 9:55 Frozen (G) Thu 1:20 Fri, Sun, Tue 12:45, 3:45 Sat 11:20, 12:45, 3:45 Mon 2:00, 5:00 Wed 5:00 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 4:10, 6:55, 9:45 Fri 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:25 Sat 11:40, 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:25 Sun, Tue 12:00, 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:25 Mon, Wed 1:20, 4:10, 6:55, 9:45 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 2:20, 5:10, 7:30, 10:05 Fri-Sun, Tue 12:40, 3:10, 5:30, 8:00, 10:10 Holiday Inn Sun 12:45 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 1:10, 1:50, 2:30, 4:20, 5:00, 6:30, 7:40, 8:20, 9:50 Fri, Sun, Tue 12:30, 2:40, 3:50, 6:00, 6:40, 7:10, 9:15, 10:00, 10:30 Sat 11:10, 12:30, 2:40, 3:50, 6:00, 6:40, 7:10, 9:15, 10:00, 10:30 Mon, Wed 1:10, 2:30, 4:20, 6:30, 7:40, 8:20, 9:50 Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion (PG) Mon 7:30 Philomena (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 2:10, 4:40, 7:05, 9:40 Fri-Sun 2:30, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 Tue 12:10, 2:30, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Thor: The Dark World (PG) 1:40 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 4:30, 7:15, 10:10 Fri-Sun, Tue 4:30, 7:20, 10:15

Coliseum Scarborough (CE) Scarborough Town Centre, 416-290-5217

The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu 1:00, 4:05, 7:05, 10:05 Fri-Sun 1:40, 4:40, 7:40, 10:35 Mon-Wed 1:05, 4:05, 7:05, 10:05 Black Nativity (G) Thu 2:15, 4:45, 7:10, 9:45 Fri, Sun 3:40, 9:45 Sat 7:10, 9:45 Mon-Wed 4:30, 10:20 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 1:35, 4:20, 7:15, 10:00 Fri-Sun 1:35, 4:20, 7:05, 10:00 Mon-Wed 1:35, 4:20, 7:10, 10:00 Frozen (G) Thu 1:25 Fri, Sun 12:25, 3:15 Sat 12:00, 1:30, 4:30 Mon-Wed 12:40, 3:25 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 4:10, 7:00, 9:50 Fri 12:00, 2:35, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Sat 11:30, 2:25, 5:10, 7:50, 10:30 Sun 12:00, 2:35, 4:45, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Mon-Wed 1:25, 4:10, 7:00, 9:50 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu 2:00, 4:25, 6:55, 9:30 Fri-Sat 1:15, 4:00, 6:45, 9:15 Sun 12:05, 2:25, 7:35, 10:15 Mon-Wed 2:00, 4:25, 6:55, 9:15 Homefront (14A) Thu 2:05, 4:50, 7:25, 10:10 Fri-Sun 12:40, 3:10, 5:45, 8:20, 10:55 Mon-Wed 2:10, 4:55, 7:35, 10:10 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 12:45, 2:30, 3:10, 4:00, 5:50, 6:30, 7:15, 9:15, 9:55, 10:30 Fri, Sun 12:30, 1:00, 3:45, 4:15, 6:00, 7:00, 7:30, 9:30, 10:20, 10:50 Sat 12:30, 1:00, 3:15, 3:45, 4:15, 7:00, 7:30, 9:50, 10:20, 10:50 Mon 12:45, 3:10, 4:00, 6:30, 7:15, 9:30, 9:55, 10:30 Tue-Wed 12:45, 3:10, 4:00, 6:00, 6:30, 7:15, 9:30, 9:55, 10:30 Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion (PG) Mon 7:30 Oldboy (18A) Thu 2:10, 4:55, 7:35, 10:25 Fri-Sun 2:50, 5:25, 8:05, 10:45 Mon 2:05, 4:45, 6:05, 10:25 Tue-Wed 2:05, 4:45, 7:25, 10:25 Out of the Furnace (14A) Fri-Sun 2:00, 4:50, 7:45, 10:40 Mon-Wed 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:15 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Thor: The Dark World (PG) 12:55 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 3:45, 6:40, 9:35 Fri-Sun 3:55, 6:55, 9:55

Eglinton Town Centre (CE) 1901 Eglinton Ave E, 416-752-4494

Scarborough

The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu 3:35, 6:35, 9:45 Fri-Sat 12:25, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30 Sun 12:15, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30 Mon-Wed 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 The Book Thief (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:00, 7:15, 10:25 Fri-Sat 12:50, 3:50, 6:55, 10:00 Sun 12:55, 3:55, 6:55, 10:00 Bullett Raja (PG) Thu 3:30, 6:50, 10:15 Fri-Sat 1:10, 4:20, 7:35, 10:50 Sun 12:35, 4:00, 7:15, 10:30 Mon-Wed 3:30, 6:50, 10:05 Dallas Buyers Club (18A) Fri-Sat 1:20, 4:15, 7:15, 10:20 Sun 1:10, 4:30, 7:25, 10:20 Mon-Wed 3:50, 6:50, 9:50 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 1:20, 4:10, 7:10, 10:15 Fri 1:40, 4:20, 7:00, 9:45 Sat 1:45, 4:20, 7:00, 9:45 Sun 1:00, 4:20, 7:00, 9:45 Mon-Tue 5:05, 7:45, 10:30 Wed 3:55, 6:45, 10:30 Die Hard (14A) Thu 7:00 Wed 9:30 Frozen (G) Thu 1:05, 3:45, 6:40 Fri 1:40, 4:30, 7:20 Sat 11:00, 11:30, 1:40, 4:30, 7:20 Sun 1:20, 4:10, 7:00 Mon-Wed 3:45, 6:40 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 1:45, 4:30, 7:25, 10:10 Fri 12:05, 2:45, 5:25, 8:10, 10:50 Sat 12:00, 2:40, 5:25, 8:10, 10:50 Sun 11:45, 2:25, 5:15, 8:00, 10:40 Mon-Wed 4:30, 7:25, 10:10 Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (PG) Thu 5:10, 8:40 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu 1:50, 4:25, 7:00, 9:25 Fri, Sun 1:30, 4:10, 6:45, 9:20 Sat 11:15, 1:35, 4:10, 6:45, 9:20 Mon-Wed 4:10, 6:30, 9:10 Holiday Inn Sun 12:45 Homefront (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 5:00, 7:40, 10:20 FriSat 12:30, 3:10, 5:45, 8:20, 10:55 Sun 2:10, 4:50, 7:30, 10:15 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 1:40, 3:15, 3:50, 5:00, 6:30, 7:10, 8:30, 9:50, 10:30 Fri 12:00, 12:40, 3:20, 4:00, 6:45, 7:30, 10:15, 11:00 Sat 11:45, 12:40, 3:20, 4:00, 6:45, 7:30, 10:15, 11:00 Sun 11:45, 12:25, 3:10, 3:50, 6:30, 7:15, 10:00, 10:45 Mon-Wed 3:30, 5:30, 7:00, 9:00, 10:30 Last Vegas (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 9:30 Fri-Sat 10:05 Sun 9:50 The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca Encore Sat 12:00 Out of the Furnace (14A) Fri 1:50, 4:50, 7:45, 10:40 Sat 12:45, 4:50, 7:45, 10:40 Sun 1:40, 4:40, 7:45, 10:40 MonWed 4:15, 7:20, 10:10 Philomena (PG) Thu 2:10, 4:40, 7:20, 10:00 Fri 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 Sat 12:10, 2:35, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 Sun 11:55, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 Mon-Wed 4:35, 7:10, 9:45 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Ram-Leela (PG) Thu 1:30, 5:15, 9:00 Fri 12:10, 3:35, 7:05, 10:35 Sat 3:35, 7:05, 10:35 Sun 3:40, 7:05, 10:35 Mon-Wed 4:50, 8:30 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Fri 2:05 Sat 2:10 Sun 1:50 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 3:50, 6:45, 9:40 Fri-Sun 5:00, 7:55, 10:45 Mon-Wed 3:45, 6:45, 9:40 12 Years a Slave (14A) Thu 3:25, 9:45 Fri-Sat 12:20, 3:30, 6:40, 9:50 Sun 12:05, 3:20, 6:40, 9:50 Mon-Tue 3:35, 6:40, 9:45 Wed 3:35, 6:40

401 & Morningside (CE)

Woodside Cinemas (I)

SilverCity Yorkdale (CE) 3401 Dufferin St, 416-787-2052

The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu 1:20, 4:20, 7:15, 10:10 Fri-Sun, Tue 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20 Mon, Wed 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30 Black Nativity (G) Thu 2:00 4:30 7:00 9:30 Fri-Wed 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:35 Sat 11:30 mat Delivery Man (PG) 1:40, 4:25, 7:05, 10:00 Sat 11:05 mat Frozen (G) Thu 1:00 Fri 12:45, 3:30, 6:30 Sat-Sun, Tue 12:30, 3:30, 6:30 Mon, Wed 12:20, 3:10, 6:15 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 3:50, 6:40, 9:15 Fri 1:15, 4:10, 7:10, 10:10 Sat-Wed 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 10:10 Homefront (14A) Thu 2:05, 4:45, 7:30, 10:05 Fri 2:35, 5:10, 7:45, 10:25 Sat 12:00, 2:35, 5:10, 7:45, 10:25 Sun-Wed 1:05, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 12:30, 1:30, 3:00, 3:45, 4:50, 6:15, 7:00, 8:10, 9:30, 10:15 Fri 1:00, 3:30, 4:15, 6:50, 7:30, 9:20, 10:15, 10:45 Sat 12:15, 1:00, 3:30, 4:15, 6:50, 7:30, 9:20, 10:15, 10:45 Sun, Tue 12:15, 12:45, 3:30, 4:00, 6:50, 7:15, 9:20, 10:15, 10:30 Mon, Wed 12:30, 2:45, 3:45, 6:10, 7:00, 9:00, 9:30, 10:15 Oldboy (18A) Thu 2:10, 4:55, 7:30, 10:05 Fri 1:55, 4:35, 7:15, 9:55 Sat 11:15, 1:55, 4:35, 7:15, 9:55 Sun, Tue 1:55, 4:50, 7:40, 10:25 Mon, Wed 1:55, 4:40, 7:25, 10:05 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Thu 1:15 Fri 1:50 Sat 11:10 Sun-Wed 1:00 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 4:10, 7:10, 10:10 Fri 4:45, 7:40, 10:35 Sat 1:50, 4:45, 7:40, 10:35 Sun-Wed 3:55, 6:55, 9:50

785 Milner Ave, Scarborough, 416-281-2226

The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:25, 8:20 Fri, Tue 4:10, 7:00, 9:55 Sat-Sun 1:10, 4:10, 7:00, 9:55 Black Nativity (G) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:50, 8:05 Fri, Tue 4:55, 7:20, 9:45 Sat 12:00, 2:30, 4:55, 7:20, 9:45 Sun 2:30, 4:55, 7:20, 9:45 Delivery Man (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:10, 7:50 Fri, Tue 4:30, 7:30, 10:05 Sat 2:00, 4:30, 7:30, 10:05 Sun 2:00, 4:30, 7:30, 10:00 Free Birds (G) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:15 Sat 11:10, 1:20 Sun 1:20 Frozen (G) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:05 Fri, Tue 4:20, 6:55 Sat 11:05, 1:30, 4:20, 6:55 Sun 1:30, 4:20, 6:55 Frozen 3D (G) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:40, 8:15 Fri, Tue 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Sat 12:05, 2:40, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Sun 2:40, 5:15, 7:50, 10:15 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 6:00, 8:30 Fri, Tue 5:45, 8:10, 10:30 Sat 3:30, 5:45, 8:10, 10:30 Sun 3:30, 5:45, 7:55, 10:10 Homefront (14A) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:30, 8:00 Fri, Tue 5:30, 8:00, 10:30 Sat 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30 Sun 2:15, 5:10, 7:40, 10:05 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:00, 6:15, 7:30, 8:10 Fri, Tue 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:10, 8:15, 9:15, 10:20 Sat 11:35, 12:45, 1:50, 2:50, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:10, 8:15, 9:15, 10:20 Sun 1:00, 1:50, 2:50, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:10, 8:15, 9:15, 10:15 Last Vegas (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 7:40 Fri-Sun, Tue 9:35 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 5:35 Fri, Tue 4:45 Sat 11:05, 1:40, 4:45 Sun 1:40, 4:45 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 8:25 Fri-Sat, Tue 7:40, 10:25 Sun 7:30, 10:10

1571 Sandhurst Circle, 416-299-3456

Arrambam (14A) Thu 7:30 Bullett Raja (PG) 3:30, 9:30 Thu 6:30 Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (PG) Thu 6:30 Irandaam Ulagam Thu 4:30, 10:30 R... Rajkumar Fri-Wed 3:30, 6:30, 9:30 Ram-Leela (PG) Thu 3:30 9:30 Fri-Wed 3:30, 6:30 Thagaraaru Fri-Wed 7:30 Vidiyum Munn Fri-Wed 10:30

GTA Regions Mississauga

Coliseum Mississauga (CE) Square One, 309 Rathburn Rd W, 905-275-3456

The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu 3:30, 6:40, 9:50 Fri-Sun 3:40, 6:45, 10:05 Mon-Wed 3:35, 6:40, 9:40 Black Nativity (G) Thu 1:40, 4:30, 7:25, 10:00 Fri, Sun 4:30, 10:30 Sat 4:25, 10:30 Mon-Wed 4:30, 10:20 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (G) 1:10 Die Hard (14A) Thu 7:00 Wed 9:30 Free Birds (G) Thu 1:30 Fri, Sun-Tue 12:35, 3:00 Sat 12:40,

3:00 Wed 12:35, 3:00, 5:00, 7:45 Frozen (G) Thu 2:20, 5:05, 7:50 Fri, Sun 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 Sat 11:10, 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 Mon-Tue 2:00, 5:00, 7:45 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 1:20, 4:05, 6:50, 9:30 Fri, Sun 1:20, 4:10, 7:00, 9:50 Sat 12:50, 4:05, 7:00, 9:50 Mon-Wed 1:20, 4:10, 6:50, 9:35 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu 4:45, 7:40, 10:10 Fri, Sun 1:30, 4:35, 7:40, 10:15 Sat 1:30, 4:45, 7:45, 10:25 Mon-Wed 1:30, 4:35, 7:35, 10:10 Holiday Inn Sun 12:45 Homefront (14A) Thu 1:50, 4:35, 7:35, 10:05 Fri, Sun 1:05, 4:00, 7:10, 10:25 Sat 12:20, 4:00, 7:10, 10:15 Mon-Wed 1:05, 3:50, 7:10, 10:05 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – The IMAX Experience (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 12:45, 4:00, 7:15, 10:30 FriSun 1:00, 4:15, 7:30, 10:45 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 12:30, 2:00, 3:00, 3:45, 5:20, 7:00, 8:40, 9:40, 10:15 Fri, Sun 12:30, 1:45, 3:55, 5:15, 6:25, 7:20, 8:45, 9:55, 10:50 Sat 11:30, 1:45, 3:00, 5:15, 6:25, 7:20, 8:45, 9:55, 10:50 Mon-Wed 12:30, 1:45, 3:45, 5:15, 6:20, 7:00, 8:45, 9:45, 10:15 Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (14A) Thu 10:25 Fri 2:10, 4:45, 7:35, 10:20 Sat-Sun 4:55, 7:35, 10:20 Mon-Tue 2:10, 4:45, 7:25, 10:00 Wed 1:25, 4:20, 6:55 The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca Encore Sat 12:00 Oldboy (18A) Thu 1:00, 4:15, 7:05, 9:45 Fri-Sun 11:00 MonWed 10:25 Out of the Furnace (14A) Fri, Sun 1:50, 4:50, 7:45, 10:40 Sat 1:20, 4:30, 7:40, 10:40 Mon-Tue 1:00, 4:05, 6:55, 9:50 Wed 4:05, 7:20, 10:10 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Thu-Fri, Sun-Wed 12:50 Sat 12:30 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 3:40, 6:55, 9:55 Fri, Sun 3:45, 6:55, 10:00 Sat 3:30, 6:55, 10:00 Mon-Wed 3:40, 6:45, 9:55

Courtney Park 16 (CE)

110 Courtney Park E at Hurontario, 416-335-5323 The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu 1:15, 4:05, 7:05, 9:55 Fri-Sat 1:10, 4:05, 6:50, 9:55 Sun-Wed 1:10, 4:05, 6:50, 9:40 Bhaji in Problem (PG) Thu 1:10, 3:55, 6:55, 9:40 Fri 1:00, 3:45, 6:35, 9:45 Sat 11:55, 3:45, 6:35, 9:45 Sun 11:55, 3:45, 6:35, 9:30 Mon-Wed 1:00, 3:45, 6:35, 9:30 The Book Thief (PG) Thu 1:20, 4:15, 7:10, 10:05 Fri-Sat 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:40 Sun-Wed 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:25 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 1:35, 4:05, 6:35, 9:25 Fri-Sat 1:40, 4:15, 7:00, 9:50 Sun-Wed 1:40, 4:15, 7:00, 9:35 Frozen (G) Thu 1:30, 4:00, 6:45 Fri-Sun, Tue-Wed 2:00, 4:35, 7:10 Mon 1:00, 3:35, 6:10 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 4:45, 7:15, 9:45 Fri 1:00, 3:35, 6:10, 9:00 Sat 12:45, 3:35, 6:10, 9:00 Sun 12:45, 3:35, 6:10, 8:45 Mon 2:00, 4:35, 7:35, 10:20 Tue-Wed 1:00, 3:35, 6:10, 8:45 Homefront (14A) Thu 2:35, 5:25, 7:50, 10:15 Fri 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:30 Sat 12:00, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:30 Sun 12:00, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:15 Mon-Wed 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:15 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – The IMAX Experience (PG) Thu, Sun-Wed 1:00, 4:10, 7:20, 10:30 Fri-Sat 1:00, 4:10, 7:20, 10:45 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 1:55, 2:40, 3:25, 5:05, 5:50, 6:35, 8:15, 9:00, 9:45 Fri-Sat 1:45, 3:30, 5:00, 6:45, 8:15, 10:15 Sun 12:15, 1:45, 3:30, 5:00, 6:45, 8:15, 10:00 Mon-Wed 1:45, 3:30, 5:00, 6:45, 8:15, 10:00 Last Vegas (PG) Thu 9:15 Fri-Sat 10:00 Sun-Wed 9:45 Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion (PG) Mon 7:30 Oldboy (18A) Thu 1:05, 3:45, 6:40, 9:35 Fri 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:25 Sat 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:25 Sun 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 Mon 2:40, 5:10, 10:10 Tue-Wed 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10 Out of the Furnace (14A) Fri-Sat 2:05, 4:50, 7:35, 10:35 Sun-Tue 2:05, 4:50, 7:35, 10:20 Wed 4:50, 7:35, 10:20 Philomena (PG) Thu 2:55, 5:15, 7:35, 9:50 Fri-Sat 1:30, 3:55, 6:30, 9:10 Sun-Wed 1:30, 3:55, 6:30, 8:55 Ram-Leela (PG) Thu 3:25, 7:00, 10:20 Fri-Sat 3:15, 6:40, 10:20 Sun-Wed 3:15, 6:40, 10:05 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Thu 2:10 Fri-Wed 1:35 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 4:50, 7:30, 10:10 Fri-Sat 4:20, 7:05, 10:05 Sun-Wed 4:20, 7:05, 9:50 12 Years a Slave (14A) Thu 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:25 Fri-Sat 1:05, 4:00, 6:55, 10:10 Sun-Wed 1:05, 4:00, 6:55, 9:55

SilverCity Mississauga (CE) Hwy 5, east of Hwy 403, 905-569-3373

About Time (14A) Thu 5:45, 8:30 Fri 4:30, 7:30, 10:25 Sat 12:50, 4:15, 7:30, 10:25 Sun 1:15, 4:30, 7:25, 10:15 Mon-Wed 5:30, 8:15 The Book Thief (PG) Thu 5:20, 8:15 Fri 4:10, 7:10, 10:10 Sat 1:00, 4:10, 7:15, 10:20 Sun 12:20, 4:15, 7:00, 10:05 Mon-Wed 4:10, 7:45 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (G) Sat 12:05, 2:30 Sun 12:00, 2:30 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 3D (G) Thu 5:00, 7:15 Fri 5:00, 7:40, 10:00 Sat-Sun 4:55, 7:40, 10:00 Mon-Wed 5:00, 7:30 The Counselor (14A) Thu 5:10, 8:10 Fri 3:35, 6:55, 9:50 Sat 12:45, 3:40, 6:55, 9:45 Sun 12:45, 3:40, 6:50, 9:45 Mon-Tue 5:10, 7:50 Wed 7:00 Dallas Buyers Club (18A) Thu 4:50, 8:00 Fri 4:00, 7:25, 10:15 Sat 1:20, 4:30, 7:25, 10:15 Sun 12:50, 3:50, 7:15, 10:15 Mon-Wed 4:40, 8:10 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 4:45, 5:30, 7:40, 8:45 Fri 4:25, 7:45, 10:30 Sat 1:30, 4:20, 7:45, 10:30 Sun 1:20, 4:25, 7:20, 10:05 Mon-Wed 5:15, 8:30 Free Birds (G) Fri 5:15, 7:35, 10:20 Sat 12:20, 2:45, 5:15, 7:35, 10:20 Sun 12:15, 2:45, 5:15, 7:35, 9:50 Mon-Wed 5:20, 7:35 Last Vegas (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 5:35, 8:20 Fri 3:50, 6:45, 9:40 Sat 12:40, 4:05, 7:00, 9:40 Sun 1:10, 4:05, 6:55, 9:40 Prisoners (14A) Thu 4:30, 7:50 Fri 3:30, 6:40, 10:05 Sat 12:00, 3:30, 6:40, 10:05 Sun 12:05, 3:30, 6:40, 10:05 MonWed 4:30, 8:00 12 Years a Slave (14A) Thu 4:40, 7:35 Fri 3:45, 6:50, 10:05 Sat 12:30, 3:45, 6:55, 10:10 Sun 12:30, 4:00, 7:10, 10:10 MonWed 4:45, 8:05

North Colossus (CE) Hwy 400 & 7, 905-851-1001

12:45, 3:55, 6:45, 10:05 Mon-Wed 3:55, 6:45, 10:05 The Book Thief (PG) Thu 4:00, 6:55, 9:50 Fri-Sun 1:10, 4:25, 7:25, 10:20 Mon-Wed 4:25, 7:25, 10:20 Captain Phillips (14A) Thu 9:10 Fri-Sun 6:40, 9:50 MonWed 6:15, 9:40 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (G) Thu 4:05 Fri, Sun 12:10 Sat 11:05, 12:10 Dallas Buyers Club (18A) Fri-Sun 1:50, 4:40, 7:40, 10:35 Mon-Wed 4:40, 7:40, 10:25 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 4:20, 7:30, 10:00 Fri-Sun 1:05, 3:40, 6:35, 9:25 Mon-Wed 3:40, 6:35, 9:25 Die Hard (14A) Thu 7:00 Wed 9:30 Ender’s Game (PG) Thu 8:45 Free Birds (G) Fri, Sun 12:10, 2:20, 4:30 Sat 11:30, 12:10, 2:20, 4:30 Mon-Wed 3:45 Free Birds 3D (G) Thu 3:55, 6:30 Frozen (G) Thu 3:45, 4:45, 6:20, 9:55 Fri, Sun 1:00, 4:00, 6:55 Sat 11:15, 1:00, 4:00, 6:55 Mon-Wed 4:00, 6:55 Frozen 3D (G) Thu 4:30, 7:00, 9:35 Fri, Sun 12:05, 2:40, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Sat 11:55, 2:40, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Mon-Wed 4:45, 7:35, 10:15 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu 3:30, 5:50, 8:05, 10:20 Fri-Sun 12:15, 2:35, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30 Mon-Wed 5:00, 7:15, 9:30 Homefront (14A) Thu 5:25, 7:50, 10:10 Fri, Sun 12:20, 2:50, 5:25, 8:00, 10:30 Sat 11:45, 2:50, 5:25, 8:00, 10:30 Mon-Wed 4:30, 7:15, 9:50 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – The IMAX Experience (PG) Thu 3:40, 6:50, 10:00 Fri-Sun 12:25, 3:45, 7:00, 10:15 Mon-Wed 3:30, 6:50, 10:00 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 4:10, 6:00, 7:20, 8:15, 9:15, 10:30 Fri-Sun 12:00, 12:50, 2:30, 3:15, 4:10, 6:00, 6:30, 7:30, 9:15, 9:45, 10:45 Mon-Tue 4:10, 5:15, 6:00, 7:20, 8:30, 9:15, 10:30 Wed 4:10, 6:00, 7:20, 10:20, 10:30 Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (14A) Thu 6:05 Fri-Sun 1:30, 4:05, 6:25, 9:10 Mon 4:05, 6:25, 9:10 Tue 5:30, 7:55, 10:20 Wed 4:05, 6:25, 9:50 Last Vegas (PG) Thu 4:25, 7:25, 10:25 Fri-Sun 1:40, 4:20, 7:05, 9:55 Mon-Wed 4:20, 7:05, 9:55 Oldboy (18A) Thu 5:10, 7:40, 10:15 Fri-Wed 9:35 Out of the Furnace (14A) Fri-Sun 2:00, 4:50, 7:55, 10:40 Mon-Wed 4:35, 7:30, 10:30 Philomena (PG) Thu 4:40, 7:10, 9:45 Fri-Sun 12:35, 2:55, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10 Mon-Wed 5:20, 7:45, 10:10 The Polar Express (G) Sat 11:00 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Thu 6:45, 9:40 Fri-Sun 12:40 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 4:35, 7:45, 10:30 Fri-Sun 3:50, 6:50, 9:40 Mon-Wed 3:50, 7:00, 9:45

Interchange 30 (AMC)

30 Interchange Way, Hwy 400 & Hwy 7, 416-335-5323 Black Nativity (G) 5:15, 7:30 Fri 9:45 Sat 3:00 mat, 9:45 Sun 3:00 mat Blue Jasmine (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 5:05, 7:45 Fri 5:05, 7:15, 9:30 Sat 2:50, 5:05, 7:15, 9:30 Sun 2:50, 5:05, 7:15 Bullett Raja (PG) Fri 6:00, 9:15 Sat 2:30, 6:00, 9:15 Sun 2:30, 6:00 Mon-Wed 6:30 Carrie (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:55, 7:25 Fri 4:40, 7:25, 9:45 Sat 2:25, 4:55, 7:25, 9:45 Sun 2:25, 4:55, 7:35 Despicable Me 2 (G) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:50, 7:35 Fri 4:50, 7:00, 9:20 Sat 2:20, 4:50, 7:00, 9:20 Sun 2:20, 4:50, 7:00 Elysium (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 5:10, 7:40 Fri 4:45, 7:10, 9:40

Sat 2:15, 4:45, 7:10, 9:40 Sun 2:15, 4:45, 7:10 The Family (14A) Thu 7:40 Fri 4:40, 7:10, 9:50 Sat 2:00, 4:35, 7:10, 9:50 Sun 2:20, 5:10, 7:35 Mon-Wed 4:35, 7:10 Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela (PG) Thu, Mon-Wed 6:00 Fri 5:30, 9:00 Sat 2:10, 5:30, 9:00 Sun 2:30, 6:45 Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (PG) Thu 6:30 Grown Ups 2 (PG) Thu 4:35 Planes (G) Thu, Mon-Wed 5:00, 7:15 Fri 4:45, 7:45, 10:00 Sat 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:00 Sun 2:45, 5:15, 7:45 Prisoners (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 6:25 Fri 6:25, 9:25 Sat 3:15, 6:25, 9:25 Sun 3:55, 6:55 12 Years a Slave (14A) 7:00 Fri 9:50 Sat 4:00 mat, 9:50 Sun 4:00 mat 2 Guns (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:35, 7:00 Fri 4:30, 7:20, 9:55 Sat 2:00, 4:30, 7:20, 9:55 Sun 2:00, 4:30, 7:25 We’re the Millers (14A) Thu, Mon-Wed 4:30, 7:25 Fri 4:40, 7:20, 10:00 Sat 2:05, 4:40, 7:20, 10:00 Sun 2:05, 4:40, 7:20

Rainbow Promenade (I)

Promenade Mall, Hwy 7 & Bathurst, 416-494-9371 The Book Thief (PG) Thu-Sun, Tue-Wed 1:05, 3:50, 6:40, 9:35 Mon 3:50, 6:40, 9:35 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 1:10 3:55 7:05 9:25 Fri-Wed 1:10, 3:55, 7:05, 9:20 Frozen (G) 1:20, 4:05, 7:00, 9:20 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) 12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45 Last Vegas (PG) Thu 7:00, 9:40 Thor: The Dark World (PG) 1:00, 4:00, 6:50, 9:30 12 Years a Slave (14A) Fri-Wed 1:00, 3:55, 6:45, 9:40

West Grande - Steeles (CE) Hwy 410 & Steeles, 905-455-1590

About Time (14A) Thu 7:05 10:15 Fri-Wed 7:05, 10:00 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (G) Sat-Sun 12:40 Delivery Man (PG) Thu 7:30, 10:10 Fri, Tue 4:40, 7:30, 10:10 Sat-Sun 2:10, 4:40, 7:30, 10:10 Mon, Wed 7:25, 10:10 Free Birds (G) Fri, Tue 4:15 Sat-Sun 12:20, 3:10 Frozen (G) 3:50 Sat-Sun 12:45 mat Frozen 3D (G) Thu 7:00, 9:45 Fri, Tue 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 SatSun 12:00, 2:35, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25 Mon, Wed 7:20, 10:00 Gravity 3D (PG) Thu 6:55, 9:40 Fri, Tue 4:00, 6:55, 9:40 Sat-Sun 1:05, 3:30, 6:55, 9:40 Mon, Wed 7:00, 9:40 Homefront (14A) Thu 7:45, 10:20 Fri, Tue 3:40, 7:40, 10:20 Sat-Sun 1:00, 3:40, 7:40, 10:20 Mon, Wed 7:40, 10:15 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG) Thu 6:45, 7:15, 9:30, 10:00, 10:25 Fri, Tue 3:45, 4:30, 6:30, 7:00, 8:00, 9:45, 10:15 Sat-Sun 12:30, 1:15, 3:45, 4:30, 6:30, 7:00, 8:00, 9:45, 10:15 Mon, Wed 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 10:15 Last Vegas (PG) Thu, Mon, Wed 7:10, 9:55 Fri, Tue 3:30, 7:10, 9:55 Sat-Sun 3:25, 7:10, 9:55 Thor: The Dark World (PG) Sat-Sun 12:25 Thor: The Dark World 3D (PG) Thu 7:20, 10:05 Fri-Sun, Tue 3:35, 7:15, 10:05 Mon, Wed 7:15, 10:05 3

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About Time (14A) Thu 4:15, 7:15, 10:05 Fri-Sun 1:20, 4:15, 7:10, 10:00 Mon-Wed 4:15, 7:10, 10:00 The Best Man Holiday (14A) Thu 3:35, 6:40, 9:30 Fri-Sun

NOW december 5-11 2013

89

indie&rep film complete festivals, independent and How to find a listing

Repertory cinema listings are comprehensive and appear alphabetically by venue, then by date. Other films are listed by date. = Critics’ pick (highly recommended) ñ F indicates Festive events

How to place a listing

All listings are free. Send to: movies@nowtoronto.com, fax to 416-364-1166 or mail to Rep Cinemas, NOW Magazine, 189 Church, Toronto M5B 1Y7. Include film title, year of release, names of director(s), language and subtitle info, venue, address, time, cost and advance ticket sales if any, phone number for reservations/info or website address. Deadline is the Thursday before publication at 5 pm.

Cinemas big picture cinema gerrard 1035 gerrard e. bigpicturecinema.com

Thu 5 – If I Were You (2012) D: Joan Carr-

­Wiggin. 7:30 & 9:45 pm.

Fri 6-wed 11 – Check website for schedule.

BLOOR hot docs Cinema

506 Bloor W. 416-637-3123. bloorcinema.com

Thu 5 – Hot Docs Doc Soup presents

Gore Vidal: The United States Of Amñ nesia (2013) D: Nicholas Wrathall. 6:45 pm.

$15. hotdocs.ca. Narco Cultura (2013) D: Shaul Schwarz. 9:30 pm.

Ffri 6 – The Italian Character: The Story Of A Great Italian Orchestra (2013) D: Angelo Bozzolini. 3:45 pm. InRealLife (2013) D: Beeban Kidron. 6:30 pm. Jingle Bell Rocks! (2013) D: Mitchell Kezin. 8:45 pm.

Fsat 7 – The Italian Character: The Story Of A Great Italian Orchestra. 1 & 6 pm. InRealLife. 3:45 pm. Jingle Bell Rocks! 8:30 pm.

Fsun 8 – The Italian Character: The Story Of A Great Italian Orchestra. 1 pm. InRealLife.

6:30 pm. Jingle Bell Rocks! 8:45 pm. mon 9 – InRealLife. 6:45 pm. The Italian Character: The Story Of A Great Italian Orchestra.

9:30 pm.

FTue 10 – Cinema Politica presents Insurgence (2013) D: Groupe d’action en cinéma Epopée, a collective interpretation of Quebec’s Maple Spring. 6:15 pm. Suggested donation $2-$10. cinemapolitica.org/bloor. Jingle Bell Rocks!. 9:30 pm.

Wed 11 – The Italian Character: The Story Of A Great Italian Orchestra. 3 pm. InRealLife. 9:15 pm.

Camera Bar

1028 Queen W. 416-530-0011. camerabar.ca

Fsat 7 – Elf (2003) D: Jon Favreau. 3 pm.

cinematheque tiff bell ­lightbox

reitman square, 350 king w. 416-599-8433, tiff.net

thu 5 – Tangled Art & Disability present two

films in celebration of International Day for People With Disabilities. Tangled Bodies. 5 pm. This Artist’s Body. 7:30 pm. Free. The Free Screen: TwoHundred­FiftySix­Colors D: Eric Fleischauer and Jason Lazarus. 6:30 pm. Free.

Coen Brothers: Raising Arizona (1987) D: Joel Coen. 8:45 pm. fri 6 – Bette Davis: Three On A Match (1932) D: Mervyn LeRoy. 6:30 pm. Coen Brothers: Barton Fink (1991) D: Joel Coen. 8:45 pm. sat 7 – David Cronenberg: Crash (1996).

Intro by TIFF artistic director Noah Cowan. 1 pm. Bette Davis: What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) D: Robert Aldrich. 4 pm.

David Cronenberg: A History Of Violence (2006). Intro by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky. 7 pm. Body Horror: Sisters (1973) D: Brian De Palma. 10 pm. sun 8 – David Cronenberg: A Dangerous Method (2011). Panel discussion to follow. 1 pm. Bette Davis: Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) D: Robert Aldrich. 4:30 pm. David Cronenberg: Naked Lunch (1991). Intro by

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90

December 5-11 2013 NOW

repertory schedules

Unveiling Canada’s Top Ten So this is interesting.

Canada’s Top Ten, the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s annual celebration of domestic features and shorts, has rebranded itself as a film festival – with all the bells and whistles that implies.

TIFF’s announcement promises a “star-studded festival” packed with filmmaker Q&As and long-form interview sessions – including a cocktail party, a free panel discussion on “What makes a film Cana­ dian?” and a sit-down with John Greyson, whose filmmaking efforts were disrupted this year when he was imprisoned in Cairo.

Will that bring a little more heat to the early January play dates? It can’t hurt.

This year’s selection is unlikely to cause much controversy, mixing new work by respected directors like Denis Villeneuve (Enemy), Michael Dowse (The F Word), Xavier Dolan (Tom At The Farm) and Denis Côté (Vic + Flo Saw A Bear) with well-received projects by veteran documentarians (Alan Zweig’s When Jews Were Funny, and Watermark, which reunites Manufacturing Landscapes

Oscar hopeful Gabrielle, starring Gabri­elle Marion-­ Rivard, made the cut.

collaborators Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky).

Breakouts from the festival circuit that made the cut: Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver’s Asphalt Watches, Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes For Young Ghouls and Chloé Robichaud’s Sarah Prefers To Run. Louise Archambault’s Gabrielle, Canada’s o ­ fficial submission for this year’s Oscar for best foreign-language film, rounds out the list.

Industry watchers who’d fretted TIFF might compromise its mission statement by forcing in one or more

of the three major American films directed by Canadians – Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club and Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot – will be relieved to find the line still holds, although Villeneuve and his Enemy star Jake Gyl­lenhaal will surely bring Prisoners up in their scheduled In Conversation With tête-àtêtes with artistic director Cameron Bailey.

The fest runs January 3-12, 2014.

Norman Wilner tiff.net/topten.

Canada’s Top Ten film festival short films A Grand Canal (Johnny Ma) An Extraordinary Person (Monia Chokri) The Chaperone 3D (Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone) The End Of Pinky (Claire Blanchet) In Guns We Trust (Nicolas Lévesque) Noah (Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg) Nous Avions (Stéphane Moukarzel) Paradise Falls (Fantavious Fritz) Subconscious Password (Chris Landreth) Yellowhead (Kevan Funk)

Fox Theatre

2236 Queen E. 416-691-7330. foxtheatre.ca

Thu 5 – 20 Feet From Stardom (2013) D:

ñ

Morgan Neville. 7 pm. All Is Lost (2013) D: JC Chandor. 9 pm.

Fri 6 – Last Vegas (2013) D: Jon Turteltaub. 7 pm. Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013) D: Lee Daniels. 9:15 pm. sat 7 – Holy Crap I’m Trapped premiere with live musical and dance performances. 7 pm.

Last Vegas. 9:30 pm.

Fsun 8 – It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) D: Frank Capra. 1:30 pm. Rising From Ashes (2012) D: TC Johnstone. 4 pm. Last Vegas. 7 pm. Lee Daniels’ The Butler. 9:15 pm.

Mon 9 – Last Vegas. 7 pm. Lee Daniels’ The Butler. 9:15 pm. tue 10 – Last Vegas. 7 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013) D: Abdellatif Kechiche. 9:15 pm.

ñ

ñ

the royal

608 College. 416-466-4400. theroyal.to

fri 6 – Night Train To Lisbon (2013) D: Billie

Asphalt Watches (Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver) Enemy (Denis Villeneuve) The F Word (Michael Dowse) Gabrielle (Louise Archambault) Rhymes For Young Ghouls (Jeff Barnaby) Sarah Prefers To Run (Chloé Robichaud) Tom At The Farm (Xavier Dolan) Vic + Flo Saw A Bear (Denis Côté) Watermark (Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky) When Jews Were Funny (Alan Zweig)

ñ

ñ

Thu 5 – Escape From Tomorrow (2013) D: Randy Moore. 7 pm. Short Term 12 ñ (2013) D: Destin Daniel Cretton. 9 pm.

Canada’s Top Ten film festival features

composer Howard Shore to follow. 7:30 pm. mon 9 – Check website for schedule. tue 10 – Mongrel Media presents a benefit screening for MusiCounts of Inside Llweyn Davis (2013) D: Joel and Ethan Coen.

7:30 pm. $60 includes after party at Adelaide Hall. Tickets at InsideLlewynDavis.ca. wed 11 – Packaged Goods: The Year’s Best, a program of music videos, commercials and short films. 7 pm.

days Comedy Revue: Chaplin shorts including The Adventurer (1917), Back Stage (1919) and One Week (1920). Live piano accompaniment by Jordan Klapman. 4:15 pm.

All Is Lost. 7 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color.

9:15 pm. mon 9 – Blue Is The Warmest Color.

6:30 pm. All Is Lost. 9:45 pm.

Tue 10 – Book Revue: Girl With The Pearl Earring (2003) D: Peter Webber. 6:45 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color. 9:30 pm.

Wed 11 – All Is Lost. 7 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color. 9:15 pm.

Wed 11 – Last Vegas. 1 pm. Out With Dad Season 3 premiere. 7 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color. 9:30 pm.

GRAHAM SPRY THEATRE

CBC Museum, CBC Broadcast Centre, 250 Front W, 416-205-5574. cbc.ca

thu 5-wed 11 – Continuous screenings ­Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. Free.

Thu 5-fri 6 AND mon 9-wed 11 – Holiday season and winter preview.

ontario science centre

770 Don Mills. 416-696-3127. ontariosciencecentre.ca

thu 5-fri 6 – Great White Shark. 11 am and 2

pm. Flight Of The Butterflies. Noon. The Human Body. 1 pm.

Sat 7-sun 8 – Great White Shark. 11 am, 1 & 3 pm. Under The Sea. Noon. Flight Of The Butterflies. 2 & 4 pm. mon 9-wed 11 – Great White Shark. 11 am & 2 pm. Flight Of The Butterflies. Noon. The Human Body. 1 pm.

reg hartt’s cineforum 463 Bathurst. 416-603-6643.

thu 5 – Old Ironsides (1926) D: James Cruze.

4 pm.

sat 7 – Four Sons (1928) D: John Ford. 4 pm.

The Best Of The Sex & Violence Cartoon ­Festival. 7 pm. sun 8 – The Godless Girl (1928) D: Cecil B DeMille. 4 pm. Jane Jacobs: Urban Wisdom (2007) D: Don Alexander. 6 pm. Kid Dracula: Nosferatu (1922) D: FW Murnau, with music from Radiohead’s Kid A and OK Computer ­albums. 7 pm.

Mon 9 – Hula (1927) D: Victor Fleming. 4 pm.

Peter Bogdanovich X 2: The Last Picture Show (1971). 7 pm. Targets (1968). 9 pm. tue 10 – The Garden Of Eden (1928) D: Lewis Milestone. 4 pm. wed 11 – Sparrows (1926) D: William ­Beaudine. 4 pm. Gilgamesh (2012) D: Reg Hartt. 7 pm.

revue cinema

400 Roncesvalles. 416-531-9959. revuecinema.ca

Thu 5 – Jane Bunnett: On Screen And On

Stage. Screening of Embracing Voices: The Woman Behind The Music Of Jane Bunnett (2012) D: Elisa Paloschi, live concert and Cuban food. 7 pm. $20.

Fri 6 – All Is Lost (2013) D: JC Chandor.

7 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013) D: Abdellatif Kechiche. 9:15 pm. sat 7 – Ender’s Game (2013) D: Gavin Hood.

1:30 pm. All Is Lost. 4 & 7 pm. Blue Is The Warmest Color. 9:15 pm. sun 8 – Ender’s Game. 1:30 pm. Silent Sun-

ñ

August. 7 pm. Short Term 12. 9:15 pm. Late Night Fridays: Trailer Wars (2012). 11:30 pm. sat 7-mon 9 – Night Train To Lisbon. 7 pm.

Short Term 12. 9:15 pm.

Tue 10 – Night Train To Lisbon. 7 pm. Don Jon (2013) D: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 9:15 pm. wed 11 – Night Train To Lisbon. 7 pm. Don Jon. 9 pm.

other films thu 5-wed 11 – The CN Tower presents

Legends Of Flight 3D. Continuous screenings daily 10 am-9 pm. 301 Front W. ­cntower.ca.

Casa Loma presents The P­ ellatt Newsreel (2006) D: Barbra Cooper, a film and permanent exhibit on the history of Casa Loma and Henry Pellatt. Daily screenings 10 am4:30 pm. Included w/ admission. 1 ­Austin Terrace. 416-923-1171, ­casaloma.org.

The Hockey Hall of Fame presents Stanley’s Game Seven 3D, a film of Stanley Cup history. Plays daily at the top of and half past each hour. Mon-Sat 9:30 am-6 pm, Sun 10 am-6 pm. Included w/ admission. Brookfield Place, 30 Yonge. hhof.com. thu 5 – Barbara Frum Library presents a screening of La Traviata (1982) D: Franco Zeffirelli. 2 pm. Free. 20 Covington. 416395-5440, torontopubliclibrary.ca.

F BlueMoon Fair Trade presents a screening of Girl Rising D: R Robbins, and fair trade shopping. 8 pm. Free. RDA Photo 19, 19 Atlantic. Reserve social-gem.com. fri 6 – Pleasure Dome presents Re-visioning Cultural Encounters including Mosori Monika (1970) D: Chick Strand, Mexico (1992) D: Mike Hoolboom and Steve Sanguedolce, and others. 7:30 pm. $8. CineCycle, 129 Spadina.

416-656-5577, pdome.org. sat 7 – Aid to Latvia presents a benefit screening of Kolka Cool (2011) D: Juris Poskus. 7:30 pm. $10. CineCycle, 129 Spadina. 416-300-7782. sun 8 – Darchei Noam, Toronto’s Reconstructionist Synagogue, presents The Jewish Exodus From Arab Lands 1947-1967, a series of five programs: Part One Jews Of Egypt D: Amir Ramses. 7:30 pm. $10. 864 Sheppard W. 647-345-6249.

Koffler Centre and Toronto Jewish Film Society present Tango, A Story With Jews (2009) D: Gabriel Pomeraniec, and Rio Klezmer (2012) D: Thomas Bouët. 4 & 7:30 pm. $15, 18-35 yrs $10. Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina. ­milesnadaljcc.ca.

The Winchevsky Centre presents Conversations With Lee Lorch (2013) D: Rachel Deutsch, a documentary on the human rights activist. Intro by Chandler Davis. 11 am to 1 pm. Discussion to follow. 918 Bathurst. 416-789-5502, ­winchevskycentre.org.

Toronto Film Society Winter Screening Series presents Hooray For Love (1935) D: Walter Lang, and Lady Be Good (1941) D: Norman Z McLeod. 2 pm. $15. Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton. 416-970-6011.

Fmon 9 – The Japan Foundation presents Tokyo Godfathers (2003) D: Satoshi Kon. 7 pm. Free. 131 Bloor W, 2nd floor. RSVP online at jftor.org/whatson/rsvp.php.

3

blu-ray/dvd

By ANDREW DOWLER

disc of the week

ñLa Notte

(Criterion, 1961) D: Michelangelo Antonioni, w/ ­Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau. Rating­: NNNNN; DVD package: NNNNN

nightclub and a lavish party. They say little until the final eruption, but we understand their characters very well.

In the extras, critic Adriano Aprà and historian Carlo di Carlo detail director Michelangelo Antonioni’s methods and meanings. In another interview, visual and environmental studies professor Giuliana Bruno uncovers layers of meaning in La Notte’s striking use of architecture.

EXTRAS Three analytical interviews, two print essays. Italian audio.

English subtitles.

The oppressive imagery of glass and concrete tells La Notte’s story of an alienated married couple better than the deliberately muted acting and minimal plot.

Middle-class Milanese couple Giovanni and Lidia (Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau) go through a day: a hospital visit, a book launch, a long walk, a

The Jack Ryan Collection (­Paramount)

ñThe Hunt For Red October

(1990) D: John McTiernan, w/ Alec Baldwin, Sean Connery. Rating: NNN; Blu-ray package: NNNN

Patriot Games (1992) D: Phillip

Noyce, w/ Harrison Ford, Sean Bean.

Rating: NNN; Blu-ray package: NNN

Clear And Present Danger (1994) D: Phillip Noyce, w/ Harrison Ford, ­Willem Dafoe. Rating: NNNN; Blu-ray package: NNN The Sum Of All Fears

ñ

(2002) D: Phil Alden Robinson, w/ Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman.

Rating: NNNN; Blu-ray package: NNNN In the wake of the Snowden leaks and drone-strike scandals, it’s a little tough to choke down movies that feature the CIA as global good guys. If you can get past that and the tendency of yesterday’s high tech to look like today’s stone axes, the Jack Ryan thrillers offer solid A-picture entertainment.

Ryan is a CIA analyst, an academic who keeps getting thrown by circumstance into peril and a desperate race to avert some disaster or other. All

the movies are well plotted and tense, but Clear And Present Danger stands out as the only one that delves into spying’s inherent moral darkness.

Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck each give Ryan a different twist but always make him thoughtful and likeable. There’s more fun in the supporting roles, including sharply etched portraits by James Earl Jones, James Cromwell, Willem Dafoe and Scott Glenn among others.

A pair of commentaries highlight the solid extras sets. John McTiernan focuses on his flaws and failings in Red October, a rarity on director commentaries. On The Sum Of All Fears, source novel author Tom Clancy, who recently died, puts his energy into comparing the movie with real life.

Ryan gets another kick at the can when Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit hits theatres January 17 with Chris Pine and Keira Knightley in the leads.

EXTRAS (all titles): Making-of docs.

English, French, Spanish audio. English French, Spanish, Portuguese sub-

Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni look tense in La Notte.

titles. HFRO: director commentary.

SOAF: director and cameraman commentary, director and Clancy commentary, ­visual effects docs.

No One Lives (An-

chor Bay, 2012) D: Ryuhei Kitamura, w/ Luke Evans, A ­ de­laide Clemens. Rating: NNNN; DVD package: NNN No One Lives does a brilliant job of subverting horror movie clichés while delivering the expected gushing, gory thrills.

There’s a slick serial killer with bizarre tastes (Luke Evans), a criminally degenerate family of yokels and their buddy (Lee Tergesen), and a plucky girl (Adelaide Clemens). Bad things happen over the course of a night.

The generally solid making-of doc goes into great detail about the ­movie’s biggest effect and strangest idea. Otherwise, you can watch director Ryuhei Kitamura having a grand time while his actors groan through a tough shoot.

For more gruesome fun, check out his director’s cut of The Midnight Meat Train.

EXTRAS Making-of doc. English ­audio. English, Spanish subtitles.

ON DEMAND THIS WEEK

Anchorman: The Legend ñ Of Ron Burgundy, The Rich Mahogany Edition (Para-

with Applegate and Ferrell’s little posse: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner. It’s funnier than the theatrical, and provides needed breaks from Ferrell’s overloud braying.

The third item, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie is stitched together from deleted and alternate scenes and it’s almost a different film. A slightly altered premise turns it into a sequel, with a new plot and climax. It’s easily as funny as the others, and a bit sillier. It’s also an excellent lesson in what can be accomplished in editing.

The theatrical version’s commentary is hilarious. Ferrell and director Adam McKay riff on random topics, bicker and deal with visitors, notably soul singer Lou Rawls, who has nothing to do with the movie and has no idea why he’s there.

EXTRAS Two commentaries, bloopers, music video, auditions, table read, much more. English, French, Spanish audio and subtitles. 3 movies@nowtoronto.com

mount, 2004) D: Adam McKay, w/ Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate.

Rating: NNN; B ­ lu-ray package: NNNNN It’s the previously unseen third movie that makes this edition of Anchorman, released to coincide with the sequel later this month, very well worth checking out.

The theatrical and extended cuts tell the same story: In pre-cable 1970s San Diego, narcissistic ass and top-rated­local news anchor Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his tight-knit news team can’t hack it when management hires a woman anchor (Christina Apple­gate). Mutual sabotage and romance ensue.

The extended cut devotes much of its extra footage to comic digressions

Every DVD & Blu-ray you desire is available here!

Sales & Rentals 1172 BAY STREET Just South of Bloor

416.964.9088 baystreetvideo.com

Early Listings Deadline Due to the upcoming holidays we will have an early listing deadline for our December 26 issue.

ON ROGERS

ON BELL

ON iTUNES

ON NETFLIX

The Wolverine (2013) Hugh Jackman’s cranky superhero b ­ attles a giant robot and his inner ­demons in Japan.

Jobs (2013) Ashton Kutcher portrays Steve Jobs’s rise from college dropout to master of Apple.

The Canyons (2013) Jealousy and violence erupt between a p ­ roducer and his girlfriend. Lindsay ­Lohan stars.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) Classic romance between a Manhattan call girl and a novice writer stars ­Audrey Hepburn and George ­Peppard.

Ñ

= Critics’ Pick nnnnn = Must have nnNn = Keeper nnn = Renter nn = Coaster n = Skeet

Please submit all listings by Tuesday, December 17 at 5 pm to listings@nowtoronto.com or by by fax to 416-364-1166.

Everything Toronto

nowtoronto.com NOW December 5-11 2013

91

Classifieds 416 364 3444 CONTACTS > classifieds@nowtoronto.com 416 364 3444 fax 416 364 1433 189 Church, Toronto, ON M5B 1Y7 DEADLINES > Tuesday at 6pm Adult Classifieds ~ Monday at 6pm

{

nowtoronto.com/classifieds

Magazine Racket — WE’VE GOT SOME ISSUES

help wanted ACTORS NEEDED

By Matt Jones ©2013 Jonesin’ Crosswords editor@jonesincrosswords.com

29 32

38 39 40 41 44 45 46 47 49 50

3 Cable movie channel that used to have an exclamation point 4 Body shop concern 5 Enlists 6 Chick of jazz 7 Boo-boo 8 “Lights out” music 9 Ed who voiced Carl in “Up” 10 Not the best bedmate 11 “The Mod Squad” role 12 “Behold!” to Caesar 13 King: Sp. 21 Invisible 22 Herb in poultry rubs 26 “Idiocracy” actor 27 Video game segment 28 Tandoor, for one 30 ___ Bizkit 31 Baby horse 32 ___ for “victory” 33 Cheers at a bullfight 34 Cave in 35 Movie holder 36 Uma, in “The Truth About Cats and Dogs” 37 180 degrees from SSW Job in “The Santaland (kiddie lit classic) 42 Arena section Diaries” 53 Magazine that draws 43 Feature of subscriptionMagazine that stops readers to it 52 times a only websites you from dancing to a year?

48 Gin game Madonna hit?

58 Earth tremor 49 Liam’s “Schindler’s List” First words of “Baby Got 59 ___-Seltzer role Back” 60 Cold War org.

50 Footwear for a frozen lake Plumb of “The Brady 61 1983 comedy with the 51 “Good Eats” host Brown Bunch” line “Kenny, don’t paint 52 City on the Rhone “What now?!” your sister!”

53 Prefix with nautical Magazine that shouldn’t 62 Factual 54 Long ride? try to fit into an elevator? 63 “Let’s Get ___” 55 “Deadwood” lawman Do some quilting 64 Not all there Wyatt “Licensed to ___” (Beastie 65 Programming language 56 “Gold” getter in a 1997 Boys album) designed by Larry Wall film “Solve for x” subj.

66 Book-lined retreats 57 City west of Tulsa Blind rage DOWN 58 T-shirt size lineup, for Olive ___ (Popeye’s lady) 1 Bring into one short “Blueberries for ___” 2 Drink with marshmallows solution in next week’s classifieds

Classified

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ATTENTION RECRUITERS! Buy a recruitment ad in NOW Classifieds and receive a Contact your NOW Classified Sales Rep @ 416.364.3444 nowtoronto.com/classifieds FREE posting on TorontoJobs.ca – The Greater Toronto Area’s leading recruitment source.

92

DECEMBER 5-11 2013 NOW

386,000 Print Readers Weekly.

Source: PMB Fall 2013, National 18+

Employment

Crossword Puzzle

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18 Handlebar feature 19 1980’s White House name 20 Magazine that summarizes the contents of some cookies?

23 “Upstairs at Eric’s” duo 24 Electronic surveillance gp.

25 Noah’s project 26 Pelican State sch.

27 Captain Kirk’s journal

}

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RESEARCH SUBJECTS NEEDED

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Is Your Pain Medication Causing You Constipation?

Manna Research is looking for people with constipation caused by prescription Opioid Pain Medication to participate in a clinical research study of an investigational medication for this condition If you are 18 to 80 years old and have constipation caused by your opioid pain medication, you may be eligible participate For more information, please call:

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Employment

Rentals & Real Estate

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offices

DO YOU EXPERIENCE OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)?

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The START Clinic is currently enrolling adult volunteers in a research study examining OCD and treatment options.

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Buying/Selling… I

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Coming December 12 & 19 to NOW Magazine’s annual Holiday and Gift Guide issues

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Health + General + Music Attract the

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automobiles UP TO $3500 A1A Best Price For Any Scrap Car. Fast Free Tow 24/7 Call 416-303-8881

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Volunteer Opportunities of the Week

VOLUNTEER TORONTO CONNECTS PEOPLE TO THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES AND PROVIDES SUPPORT TO TORONTO’S NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS. FIND THESE AND OTHER OPPORTUNITIES AT

www.volunteertoronto.ca

Canadian Cancer Society seeks volunteers to chair Teams Recruitment and Retention Committees for 2014 Relay For Life events.

Positions in the Beaches and Scarborough. Meet one eve a month with some work in between, up until June. If you’re a natural leader and a team player with strong communications, project management & fundraising skills. Contact John:jcox@ontario.cancer.ca

Classifieds

LGBT Youth Line seeks two LGBTQ people to join their Board of Directors to help the organization through fundraising, policy writing, board meetings and strategic planning. 10-15 hours per month over 2 years. One member should be 18-26 and the other over 26. Should have skills in finance, fundraising, strategic planning, HR or public speaking. Apply at www.youthline.ca

everything goes. in print & online.

416 364 3444 • nowtoronto.com/classifieds

Mid Toronto Community Services needs Meals on Wheels drivers to deliver nutritious meals to individuals who are unable to prepare their own.

Should be 18+, reliable, able to carry meal delivery bags and have a valid Ontario Driver’s license. Drivers can use own vehicle or the agency’s vehicle. Mondays/Thursdays/ Saturdays, 11:15 AM – 1:30 PM. Contact Heather: volunteer@midtoronto.com

Yonge Street Mission is looking for tutors to help make a huge difference in the lives of children/youth from grades 6 to 12 in the Regent Park and St. James Town communities.

Proficiency in English, Math, and Science sought.

Mondays-Fridays between 3:30pm to 5:30pm – commitment to 1 shift each week sought.

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Savage Love

By Dan Savage

I’m a bi woman in my mid-20s in a

great monogamish relationship with my straight boyfriend. We occasionally invite other women into our sex life, which is really enjoyable for both of us. He isn’t threatened by other women, only by other men, which isn’t an issue since I’m not interested in any other men. So on the occasions when we find a lady we’re both into who’s also into us, anything goes, and it’s awesome. We’ve hooked up with both friends and strangers, but always as a couple because it makes us both feel safe. That’s all lovely. Enter the problem: I was visiting some friends of ours I used to live with before my boyfriend and I moved in together. After going out for drinks, we were playing an alcohol-fuelled card game that turned into an alcohol-fuelled strip card game. This is in my former home where I am very comfortable, feel safe and was frequently in various states of undress while I was a housemate. One friend soon had her lovely breasts out and she made a few comments that were direct and inviting and turned me on a little. I touched her boobs and sucked on her nipples, but that’s as far as things went. Her boyfriend witnessed this but wasn’t involved. It was a fun, playful moment, and soon after, I went to bed – alone. It wasn’t anything my boyfriend would’ve objected to had he been there, but he wasn’t there. Should I tell him about it, or is this a case where he has the right not to know? I’m not interested in pursuing anything further with this friend, and I’m not sure what talking about it would accomplish, other than being honest at the expense of my boyfriend’s feelings, and probably making me feel bad for something that, although it seemed innocent and harmless in the moment, I shouldn’t have done.

Non-Intentional Playful Partying Lady

Experiences Situation This experience would seem to fall in the “right not to know” column, NIPPLES, but “right not to know” always has to be weighed against “likelihood of finding out.”

You indicate that this couple – the girl with the lovely, direct and inviting breasts (LDIBs), and the boy who witnessed the touching and sucking of said LDIBs – aren’t just friends of yours, NIPPLES, but friends of “ours.” If either of them makes a reference to this game of strip cribbage – or strip Uno or strip poker or strip Schnapsen – the next time the four of you hang out, the boyfriend could be blindsided. And it’s not clear whether there were other witnesses to your drunken touch-and-suck. But if there were others there, and if you socialize with these other witnesses IRL or online, the chances that your boyfriend will find out increase exponentially.

You know your boyfriend better than I do, ­NIPPLES, so you’ll have to ask yourself if finding out about the incident at a party or via a snarky Facebook post would leave him feeling twice as upset – because then we’re talking about a crime and a coverup, and learning about the LDIBs incident in a manner (from a friend, in front of other people) that leaves him feeling humiliated.

He won’t say “I love you” My boyfriend of nearly a year and I

l ive together and are planning to move across the country in about a month.

We have never fought and get along swimmingly. We have amazing sex, we see eye to eye on almost everything and we are planning a future together.

The only thing is, we have never said, “I love you,” to each other. Is this normal?

I know we love each other, but being in a serious, committed relationship of almost a year and not saying those words? Could it be possible that he doesn’t love me?

Hopefully Not Unlovable Even if your boyfriend had said, “I love you,” a hundred thousand times over the last year, HNU, it would still be possible that he didn’t love you. People have been known to lie about this shit.

But I don’t think a guy would move across the country or plan a future with a woman for whom he felt nothing.

Either he already loves you but hasn’t found the right moment to say so, or he’s sensible enough to realize that you can’t be certain that you’re in love with someone until after you’ve had at least one fight.

That said, HNU, if you’re ready to say it to him, go ahead and say it. Just don’t have a meltdown if he’s not ready – yet – to say it to you.

Avoid the gay brother Say you’ve always wanted to peg a

uy, but your otherwise GGG hot husg band isn’t into receiving anal – for good reason (he’s had health problems back there) – but he jokingly suggests he would be fine with you pegging

his equally hot gay little brother.

Should you ask his gay little brother if you can peg him?

Wanting It For Evah

No.

Sex with the boss’s kid?

How stupid would it be to sleep with

y boss’s gorgeous 18-year-old son? My m boss has become a mentor to me. He and his wife have welcomed me into their home, which includes their aforementioned son, a high-school senior. I am a 23-year-old woman. Normally, I wouldn’t sleep with anyone younger than 20. But besides being very attractive, my boss’s son is funny, kind and sweet. He’s also incredibly horny and has some serious unexplored kinks that most girls his age have no interest in. I want to spend the next few months fucking my boss’s son – bearing in mind and honouring, of course, your campsite rule. Here are the two problems as I see them: (1) Fucking around with your boss’s kid seems a surefire way to seriously wreck your relationship with your boss. (2) He is still in high school.

Sex Or Not 1. Fucking your boss’s kid seems like a surefire way to get your ass fired, SON, and depending on what field you’re in – and how important good recommendations and work histories are in your field – fucking the boss’s son could seriously derail your career. If, you know, you manage to get caught. But if you do decide to fuck the shit out of a gorgeous,

? e v o l e m o Need s

funny, sweet and kinky adult who happens to be your boss’s son, well, you wouldn’t be the first person in human history to risk everything for sex. As Mark Twain observed more than a century ago: “The human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys – yet he has left it out of his heaven!

The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state, he will risk life, reputation, everything – even his queer heaven itself – to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax.”

2. He is an adult – who is still in high school. You are not that far out of high school. Math is hard for me, SON, but according to my calculations, you’re not that far apart in age. You might be sabotaging your career, but you wouldn’t be robbing the cradle.

3. The campsite rule for new readers: The older and/or more experienced person in a sexual relationship with a large age and/or experience gap is obligated to leave their younger and/or less experienced partner in better shape than when they found them. That means no sexually transmitted infections, no fertilized eggs, no unnecessary drama and no unnecessary trauma.

F ind the Savage Lovecast (my weekly podcast) every Tuesday at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @­fakedansavage on Twitter

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