FutuRéale Magazine - May 2010 by OMAR MURJI

r t s .volume c u l t u r2eissue . l i v i15 ng Maya2010

www.futuréale.com

arts . culture . living

Chloe Mobile Giving Dimitri the lover Conflicting catwalks The Last Song Review Eating with the masses Cowbell butchery sessions Head, Feminine Flaws, Untitled

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Note From the Editor

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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 13

Acting Editor in Chief Russ Martin

Editor in Chief Shawn Shapiro

Associate Editors Russ Martin Karen Lam Melissa Doyle

Dear FutuRéale Readers, My size eight shoes are tiny for a full-grown male. Shawn, Futureale’s regular Editor In Chief, admittedly has much bigger feet. Still, I’m stepping into his shoes and trying to fill them as best I can. Shawn is a bit under the weather but will return soon, better than ever. Until then, readers, I’m all yours. This month we’ve found a cast of eager writers: they’re fresh, young, and hungry. We’re excited to watch them grow and read the stories they cultivate along the way.

Junior Editors Dany Pen Bev Spritzer

Senior Editorial Designer Ravish Rawat

Junior Editorial Designers (interns) Dan Ball Mojdeh Ahrabi Neraj Bhardwaj Patrick Burns Kirsten Parucha Terra Ciolfe Olga Shugurova

Contributing Writers Mark Kinash Sian Loyd Marta Maslej Russ Martin Craig Wilkins Lauren Wilton Amanda Harvey Idil Herzi

On the pages of this issue you’ll find fashion, film, art, and food. We’ve got stories on music and mobile giving, alongside captivating prose. Slip in some photography, shake, and you’ve got our May issue.

Webmaster

Heronymo Allen

Online Content Editor

Let us know what you think. By Russ Martin

Shawn Shapiro

E xecutive D irector Omar Murji

Contact FutuRéale at: info@futureale.com www.futureale.com ISSN 1916-3215

Russ Martin

Acting Editor in Chief

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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04 Dimitri the lover: Girls! Girls! Girls!

Mark Kinash

05 Mobile giving: how charitable giving has changed as a result of the Haiti earthquake Sian Loyd

07 Sakis and Nicole Katsuras: Sakis and Nicole Katsuras showcase their art at Toronto’s Moore Gallery Marta Maslej

10 Eating with the masses: How social media changed Toronto’s food community Russ Martin

14 Conflicting catwalks: Why many of Canada’s top designers are opting out of LG Fashion Week Russ Martin

16 Chloe: Is Chloe the film that will finally find Canada’s Atom Egoyan mainstream success? Craig Wilkins

18 Cowbell butchery sessions: Cowbell’s Contribution to Toronto’s growing Locavore Movement Lauren Wilton 20 The Last Song Review: A review of the film, based on Nicholas Spark’s 2009 novel Idil Herzi

21 Poetry

Harvey: Head, Feminine Flaws, Untitled

Cover image: Photograph of models in the Joe Fresh Show by Russ Martin

arts.culture.living

Dimitri THE

LOVER

hits the silver screen (and won’t return our calls) Well, men are more insecure than you IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD, the age of political correctness is dead. Turn on MTV, Fox think, and shy men come in all shapes and News, or any of the reality smut which graces sizes. A former co-worker of mine once conyour television screen and see. And what’s fessed that he spent a lot of time on the internet more, male chauvinism is back, baby. This is chatting with men from “the seduction thanks, in part, to the runaway success of Neil community”. A former superstar college Strauss’s “The Game”, a penetrating expose (or football jock, he had a name ten times sexier celebration, depending on how you look at it) than “Dimitri” coupled with the bronzed and of pick-up artists in the “seduction community”. ripped body of a Greek god, making him the Remember the guy in high school who envy of my nerdy film-geek brethren, although used to brag that he had a system for getting a he confessed that girls weren’t into the “buff ” chick to go to bed with him? Remember Robert look anymore. (I was tempted to add that Downey Jr. in “The Pick-up Artist”? Or Tom spending a lot of time with male seducers on the internet probably Cruise in “Magnolia”? wasn’t the best way to Well, one of their own “Men are more insecure than learn how to pick is supposedly doing very well preying on you think, and shy men come chicks, and was likely to give women the wrong the ladies in downtown in all shapes and sizes”. impression, but I knew Toronto. His name is Dimitri...yes Dimitri, the Lover, the subject of that was risking a painful punch to the face.) an upcoming documentary, courtesy of Brad He taught me that the art of the pick-up is not Goodman, the producer behind Borat and about what you are, but how you act. And guys like Dimitri have certainly spent a lot of Bruno. Of course Dimitri isn’t his real name. It’s time coming up with a good act. If you don’t James Sears, but I guess he thought the name believe me, check out Dimitri’s own hype on his “Sears” sounds as sexy as shopping for a website and twitter page. Unfortunately Dimitri’s “management” discount lawn mower in an overcrowded department store, and decided to share the declined an interview at our request. Given name of a character in a cheesy Italian horror that a lot of people are (rightfully) offended by film from the 1970’s. He used to be a doctor him perpetuating the notion that you can pick until he started seducing his patients. Now he’s up any woman like fresh produce at a grocery offering courses for “real men” to become store, I guess I can’t blame him. He realizes golden women’s phone number retrievers like that his act must be protected at all costs from him. But why are men so eager to learn from a attack. In his absence, I wish him the best of blatant narcissist who advertises himself as “a luck with his documentary, and his 21st century pseudo-Valentino persona. prophet”? --rr

By Mark Kinash

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MOBILE GIVING THEY WERE THE 140 CHARACTERS read around the world: “text HAITI to a short code to make a donation for Haiti relief.” While most associate Twitter with people posting about their lunches or latest breakups, the message here was charity, loud and clear. Twitter exposed millions to the idea of mobile giving following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, a way of giving that ended up raising over $27 million, according to the Mobile Giving Foundation. The earthquake occurred on January 12, 2010 and according to Haiti’s government, claimed the lives of over 230,000 people. After seeing its horrific effects, many were overwhelmed with the desire to help. Nontraditional ways of giving were brought to the forefront—with people using social media and mobile technologies to help in ways that no one expected. Mobile Giving Immediately after the quake, North Americans were urged to get out their cellphones and text a donation to help those in Haiti. Although this was the first time many had heard of mobile giving, millions donated. Just ten days after the quake Americans donated $3 million using mobile, and by February 1st Canadians had raised $500,000. A study conducted by The Pew Research Centre, found that 14% of Americans who donated to Haiti, did so via text. Mobile giving originally emerged in response to the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami, but was nowhere near as successful as the Haiti relief campaign. Realizing that mobile is a powerful communication channel that has been missing as a major player in raising funds for non-profits, the Mobile Giving Foundation FUTURÉALE

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(MGF) expanded on the initial idea and made mobile giving what it is today. MGF launched in the United States in 2007 and Canada in November 2009. “We’ve spent a lot of time trying to ensure that the ecosystem of players is put together correctly and the structure is there,” says Jim Manis, Chairman and CEO of MGF. When setting up a mobile giving campaign, all charities must work with MGF. “We think of the MGF as the enabling entity,” says Manis, explaining further, “We bring the [phone] carriers together, we maintain the contracts, we set standards, we certify campaigns and charities to those standards, we control the billables on our platforms and we issue the tax receipts to the donor.” MGF also does research about mobile giving to help educate the marketplace. “Every charity that uses mobile giving has to be vetted, so we require that they go through an application process,” says Manis. The charity has to answer 28 questions and meet a minimum score to be accepted. MGF is looking at the financial transparency of the charity—how (and how efficiently) they use their money. So what happens when you text a donation to a charity? Your mobile company instantly flags that text message. You then receive a text tax receipt acknowledging your donation. According to Manis, 100% of the donation you make goes to the charity. However, the charity pays an initial application fee of $350 when setting up a mobile donation campaign that helps MGF process their application and agreement. When a natural disaster strikes and we see the effects, we have an immediate emotional response. In that moment we want to do something to help, but often forget. Your mobile phone allows you to donate in that instant, wherever you are.

arts.culture.living “The [mobile] phone allows for an immeWhile mobile giving appeals to a younger diate response mechanism, if I see something demographic who text daily, it also can be used now, I can give because I have my phone in my by the older generation. Fritz does not text ofhand or purse—near me,” says Manis. He adds ten, in fact she struggles to reply to the few texts that the simplicity of the mobile billing model she receives from her granddaughter, but she helps people act immediately. “It bills to your did text a donation for Haiti. “I knew how to carrier phone bill, so the person doesn’t have donate to the Red Cross for Haiti, I knew that to have a credit card, or go in search of a laptop much, it’s not that hard,” she says. The micro to donate online, or write a cheque and drive donations of $5 or $10 used in mobile giving down to the mailbox.” are appealing to a new group of donors who “The whole thing about giving to help perhaps would not give otherwise. “If a person someone, is how good it makes you feel,” only has five dollars to give – you’ve done a says Joanne Fritz, the About.com Guide to pretty good job of making that available,” says Nonprofits. “Well that’s a really quick shot of Manis. “Nonprofits need to broaden their base adrenaline, when you can use your phone to of donors, and the only way to do that is to protext and donate that way—it has a lot of “Mobile giving was also starting to receive media appeal to people.” attention, which let people know that mobile And just because it donations exist”. is an immediate way to give doesn’t mean that it is the only donation vide that micro donation level.” people are willing to make. “Its not as though Some skeptics believe that after the success if someone uses mobile to donate, it’s the only of Haiti relief, mobile giving will fizzle out. But thing they are going to do, but it’s a wonderful on February 27 when an earthquake ravaged thing to do in the moment,” Fritz says. Chile, we pulled out our phones again. Since The timing of when the disaster in Haiti February, Americans have pledged $100,000 took place is another reason that the mobile via cell phone for Chile relief according to a campaigns were successful. “It was the perfect report from MSNBC. storm for mobile giving because everybody It’s true technology can’t solve all probhas a mobile phone now. There were organi- lems, or stop earthquakes in their paths. But zations that had experience with it, and knew instead of tweeting our lunch entrees or texwhat to do with it when the time was right,” ting about our dates, maybe we can use our says Fritz. Mobile giving was also starting to re- mobiles for a more noble cause. After all, we’ve ceive media attention, which let people know seen that help can be just a text away. that mobile donations exist. Fritz believes that a simple marketing campaign was another reason that mobile giving worked so well in the case of Haiti. “I thought --rr it was a great marketing campaign because we were all watching this thing unfold on our TV sets, we didn’t need any other information,” she says. “I mean we understood what was going on immediately, so they could just send us one simple message and a call to action, and we could respond.”

Haiti e Helplin

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LOCATED IN THE DOWNTOWN CORE, the Moore Gallery prides itself on be-

ing the only gallery in Toronto that showcases strictly Canadian art. Amanda Moore, curator for the March exhibition, emphasizes the gallery’s support for local talent in its developing stages. “We are drawn to younger, emerging artists,” she says, “those who demonstrate a level of individuality and quality, but above all, potential.” Indeed, many of the gallery’s younger artists are recommended by their senior counterparts. The two emerging artists featured in the gallery’s recent exhibition, Sakis and Nicole Katsuras, each have something unique to offer to the world of contemporary art. Sakis began his studies in Greece and now works and resides in Toronto. His exhibition, “Paint”, reflects this cultural and stylistic shift. Since the start of his artistic career, Sakis worked with encaustics, a traditional method he acquired in Athens. In this first major exhibition involving acrylics, he experiments with the dynamic colour and mutability of the paint. His vibrant collection of works functions as a reassessment of this common media, leaving the audience floored by the results. Where Sakis offers a new perspective, Nicole Katsuras adopts a non-conventional method to working with conventional forms. The young, Toronto artist showcases her work in many different countries and has an array of private and corporate collectors. In “Little Roar”, she sets herself apart by incorporating new and unusual tools, such as knives, which produce a very distinct effect in her work. The innovation of these artists is marked by their ability to expand the boundaries of the current, collective artistic vocabulary. Their paintings hang on the walls of the spacious galFUTURÉALE

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lery; each image compresses a world of ideas that threaten to spill out of its confines, bursting at the seams with energy, colour, form and some very interesting conceptual underpinnings. Sakis discusses the notions he explores in his recent works, “I am inspired by high fashion and couture designs,” he says. “This influences the colors I choose and the image that is produced.” This inspiration is most apparent in the painting, named after the infamous Louis Vuitton bag, which bears its characteristic

brown and yellow hues. Yet, much of his imagery moves beyond familiar, mass-produced prints. Sakis’s distinctive forms create meaning on many levels, as he explains. On “a micro level”, they evoke the repetitive and primitive movements of micro-organisms, and on “a mega scale”, they represent astrological designs, mimicking the natural patterning of the cosmos. He links various polarities in the human experience—the commercial and industrial,

arts.culture.living but also the biological, astrological, and even the spiritual—binding all aspects together in a single, economical image. There is a sense of transcendence to Sakis’ work. A painting begins as an inspiration derived from a common wardrobe accessory and ends up morphing into something beyond the ordinary or familiar.

Where Sakis hints at this breakthrough, Katsuras’s method of transcendence is more violent; she evokes catastrophe and disaster to portray a literal breakthrough into the sublime. The artist describes a common interpretation of her art that she encounters. “I work with sets of dichotomies and islands,” she explains. “I of-

ten find that people envision a concrete wall, with the centre blown out.” Her paintings appear as uniform walls, slashed or cracked open to reveal a plethora of colour, form and unprecedented texture. This is what makes Katsuras’s work so fundamentally appealing. An everyday object is also a point of entry into a separate realm, a fleeting encounter with the sublime. Both artists value a sense of freedom in their process of creation, paying heed to their intuition and the effects of the materials they use. Katsuras plans out the first marks on her blank canvas, but after the imagery is started, the painting can change entirely. As she explains, “It goes in its own direction. It takes on a life of its own.” Working and reworking her pieces, she builds unexpected layers until satisfied with the result. Sakis also yields to the energy and movement of the medium he works with. The identifiable quality of the wax was what initially drew him to encaustics. “It’s an amazing media,” he asserts, “It has its own life, does its own thing.” For this exhibition, he similarly notes the distinct features of the paint; he lays the canvas on the ground, and pours acrylic through a syringe directly on its surface. After he has done his part, the painting swerves onto its own path. “I leave the painting overnight,” says Sakis. “Things start moving and cracking and the paint shifts itself.” Using this method, Sakis enables the medium to become animated, reflecting a progressive decentralization of the role of the artist. Becoming more of a guide, he retreats from controlling every detail and aspect and embraces the cracks, leaks and dents, rather than lamenting over them as imperfections. Sakis no longer creates an interpretation of physical reality. Instead, he reveals what is already there, rumbling under the surface—the life of the materials themselves. Elements that were once invisible, considered useless without human intervention, become part of the creative process. The image is transformed by various FUTURÉALE

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arts.culture.living forces, characteristics of the tools and the flow of the medium itself, and not just by the hand of the artist or the mind of its viewer. Over the years, the Moore gallery has become a haven for such innovative, Canadian abstract artists. “We’ve carried figurative works,” Moore describes, “but always with some feature, such as colour or texture, abstracted.” Interestingly, both Sakis and Katsuras initially created representational art and eventually, veered into abstraction. Katsuras’s earlier works feature ordinary objects, such as “The Sun Bed” (2005) or “The Microwave” (2006). Sakis’s work with encaustics displays equally recognizable imagery influenced by Native Canadian art and Japanese anime. As with any craft, over time, creation through feeling and intuition replaces pre-determined ideas and deliberate execution. Eventually, the evolution of these artists has allowed them to free their subjects from their form, which has led to this sense of transcendence and release. Moore identifies emotion as the main appeal of abstract art. It functions in a way that cannot be easily grasped or understood, both in its creation and the response it evokes. As viewers revel in the host of interpretations that can arise from a single image, colour or texture, they are transported into a realm that surpasses the logic and familiarity of the everyday. Apart from their aesthetic value, what the works of art offer then is an opportunity to experience the intangible and surreal, or in words of Sakis himself, “a moment away from the usual.” --rr

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Eating with the masses

By Russ Martin

IT’S FRIDAY, JANUARY 29 AND THE DINING ROOM AT NYOOD IS PACKED. Vegetable antipasto, panko crusted chicken, and malta braised short ribs are coming out of the kitchen of the restaurant in Toronto, Ontario, courtesy of head chef and Food Network personality Roger Mooking. The lights are dim and the music is loud. Champagne and wine are flowing. A Tribe Called Quest is pumping from the speakers and diners are getting out of their seats to dance. The front of the restaurant is glowing dimly in the light of a projection floating over the DJ booth on the rough white wall opposite the bar. On screen is the restaurant’s twitter feed, which is shifting with updates in real time. First it reads, My good buddy from Unique is in the house with a lovely girl... Enjoy the bubbles. Then, Seating 2 is on its way. Servers and Kitchen—are you ready? Later the words, Was that dessert for real? Or was I Champaign Dreamin? float by, followed by Table 210 drinks wine like water... Love that. Tonight begins Winterlicious, Toronto’s two-week culinary festival. To kick it off Nyood

created tonight’s event, Eats, Beats and Tweets, a nod to music and social media. Nyood has invited DJs to spin and is asking guests to post 140-character messages to its twitter page. Only one year earlier this twitter-themed event might have seemed a touch too geeky for a West Queen West resto that neighbours 69 Vintage and The Social. Now twitter is all the rage. It was also not so long ago that restaurants saw smart phones as a distraction from

Elwakeel decided it was better to join twitter than fight it, which is why Nyood hosted the event. “I thought: how can I turn this into a good thing?” he says. The tactic worked. The foodies that fill the review sections of crowd sourced sites like Chow Hound and chatter on twitter and the blogosphere came out, along with less tech-savvy food lovers who were excited to included on the front end of the trend adoption curve. Eats Beats and Tweets was so successful that the restaurant is considering planning a similar monthly event. The food business in every wellwired city has had to shift its practices as social media has intertwined itself into mainstream culture. Like every industry that serves the public, it has had to realize consumers now interact with the places they shop in a drastically different way. While the reputations of restaurants were once made by a handful of critics writing for well-respected papers, the merit of our eateries is now largely decided by a sea of amateur reviewers posting on websites that change in real time.

“The food business in every well-wired city has had to shift its practices as social media has intertwined itself into main stream culture”.

carefully constructed entrees. Even Sacha Elwakeel, the Nyood manager who helped plan Eats, Beats and Tweets, was initially hesitant to join the mobile revolution. “My pet peeve is people bringing BlackBerrys into the restaurant,” Elwakeel admits a month later, pulling out his own to peck at the buttons and imitate a distracted diner. But

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As Toronto-based food critic and chef Ivy Knight puts it, “Why pay [a journalist] when you’ve got a million people doing it for free with the same credentials?” “It’s taken the monopoly away from one voice saying ‘this restaurant sucks, this one is great,’” she says. “It’s given it to the masses. That’s now the way the world works.” Toronto has long had an active food culture full of buzz-worthy restaurants, talented chefs, and educated patrons. The restaurateurs have always known one and other, as have the critics and the chefs. But before a boom in social media, Toronto’s food community was largely industry based. Even regular diners at city hot spots usually ate with dates, friends, and family—not other food lovers or restaurant-goers. In the earlier days of the social web, a handful of Toronto’s most tech-friendly foodies frequented food message boards and organized trips to markets and group dinners. But many others were unconnected, sharing opinions,

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reviews, and gossip with foodies they knew through offline social circles. Or worse— they waxed on about the perfect sticky tofu pudding and the city’s best blood sausage to friends who listened with one ear open, waiting for the conversation to turn. In many ways, until recently, the city’s food community had yet to meet itself. In the spring of last year Brassaii tweeted its patio opening. Two local foodies, Andrea Chiu and Suresh Doss tweeted back, writing that it was one of their favourite spots. Chiu messaged Doss, suggesting they plan a meet up for the motley crew of geeky food lovers they chatted with online. They pitched the idea to the twitterverse, using the tag #foodiemeet. The tag caught on and was rapidly re-tweeted; a sign tweeting foodies in Toronto were eager to meet up in real life. Interest in #foodiemeet snowballed quickly and Doss and Chiu soon realized what they were planning was not a casual meet up between internet acquaintances but a full-fledged food community event. Brassaii created a special menu, the Lifford Wine Agency offered to bring a wine for attendees to test and Steamwhistle agreed to provide samples of beer. By the time the event took place two weeks later, on May 14, around 100 people had signed up to attend. It made sense so many people were eager to attend a free food based event. As Chiu says, many of Toronto’s food events are gala dinners carrying high price tags some foodies can’t afford. “As much as people love food, there weren’t many opportunities to meet up,” she says. “There are some things that are really, really great, but they’re generally $100 a plate or more for an evening.” On the day of the meet up it rained all afternoon. But by the time the sun set the clouds had parted and the patio furniture came out, saving the event. Many foodies came out, but the crowd was largely young, single workingprofessionals, not unlike Chiu or Doss.

As the editor of SpotlightToronto.com, a local food and events site, Doss knew the local foodie scene was vibrant and plugged in, but it wasn’t until that night that he and Chiu saw the community’s true capacity. The two knew they were onto something and after a flood of e-mails and tweets asking about future events came in, they decided to continue hosting meet ups and promoting them on twitter. Since last May Doss and Chiu have hosted another four events. Each has sold out. In late August they held a local cheese and wine tasting at Café Taste on Queen St. Then in September eager tweeters filled the National Film Board Mediatheque to taste out the mysterious miracle berry that turns sweet salty and salty sweet. By the time they arranged a tour of Prince Edward County’s wineries in October, most of the attendees knew one and other by name and many had become good friends. As an outgrowth of the meet ups new hash tags appeared, organizing meetings to sample

arts.culture.living different types of food and bring Toronto’s tweeting masses together. Soon after the first meet up smaller groups began to meet regularly for dim sum, sushi, burgers, BBQ, and spirits. “There’s something going on almost every week,” says Doss between sips of coffee on a recent morning at Hank’s. “The medium has allowed for a lot of physical interaction.” Beauty queens are supposed to starve themselves, but Marie Nicola has always loved to eat. A teenage beauty competition contestant, Nicola’s pageant days are now past and she’s found a career in food. Nicola was previously editor-in-chief of the website Dine.TO and is now food editor at Women’s Post. Before twitter launched, she would post on cooking forums and occasionally meet up with fellow foodies. She isn’t sure how food lovers met up prior to that. “Before the internet, I have no idea how that would have happened,” she says, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. Many of Nicola’s closest friends were made online, including Anastasia Tubanos, the producer of the weekly video blog the Naked Wine Show, who is joining her for coffee this morning at Balzac’s in Liberty Village. Nicola recalls the first foodie meet up, where she says she met an amazing group of people, some of whom are now friends. “It was another event that showed there were people that are not just in the industry,” she says, adding that a boom of interaction between local food lovers followed the event. “There was a food explosion on twitter,” she says. “There was a lot of foodie pride at that time, and it hasn’t let up since.” More so than individual users, restaurants are hoping to impress more established new media, like locals She Does The City, BlogTO or SweetSpot.ca, as well as crowd sourced sites like Chow Hound, who she calls “a feared bunch.” “A lot of restaurants fall prey to foodie opinion,” she says. But staying active in online

conversations gives restaurants a chance to respond quickly to criticisms, adapt, and show the ever-vocal foodie community that they are being heard. “They need to be able to interact in these circles. If they have misstep, foodies cut them up.” Tubanos chimes in with a wide-eyed taunt, “You don’t want to mess with the foodies,” she quips, only half-kidding. Airing a restaurant’s dirty laundry and addressing complaints on a public, searchable channel can be an intimidating change from the old customer service regimen. “If you talk to a waiter there is a lot of hushed tones and a desire to make it right,” says Greg Bolton, owner of the College St. café Pantry. “It’s a potentially scary thing for a restaurant to live publicly.”

someone posts a negative review of a dish on the web, Elwakeel tries the dish that night to make sure its up to standard and considers whatever was said. Next, he’ll e-mail to apologize for the bad experience, ask for a detailed description of what went wrong an invite them back to fix it. Jenn Godbout, marketing manager of the Drake Hotel says she uses the same technique. Buster Rhino’s Southern BBQ is far, far away from the neighbourhoods Ontario’s resto hot spots usually reside in. The restaurant’s address is 2001 Thickson Road, south of the 401 in Whitby. Still, Buster Rhino’s is one of the most buzzed about restaurants outside of city limits and a trending topic amongst Toronto’s tweeting foodies. On the web, everyone is a click away. Buster Rhino’s owner Darryl Koster knows this, which is why he took to twitter to expand his customer base, interacting with prominent foodies like Suresh Doss on the service and watching the positive word of mouth act as an informant. Koster found the followers he interacted with both online and in his restaurant became friends and vocal advocates, urging others to get out to Whitby and try the BBQ. “Your friends are always the best advocates for you,” he says. “Referrals are always more sincere than advertisements.” Koster says he’s lucky—the local internet has been good to him. He knows other restaurants haven’t been so lucky. Koster refuses to name names, but says he’s seen many restaurants hurt by foodies ranting about them on the web. “I’ve seen several instances on Chow Hound when someone was torn down,” he says. If someone has a legitimate complaint, Koster will respond. But if a tweeter, blogger, or online critic is mean or malicious, he’ll leave the comment alone and other users judge its merit. “Mistakes happen and sometimes they don’t warrant a response,” he says.

“ Staying active in online conversations gives restaurants a chance to respond quickly to criticisms, adapt, and show the ever-vocal foodie community that they are being heard”.

Bolton prefers twitter to Chow Hound, which cuts restaurants out of the conversation. When someone posted that Pantry’s counter staff was not helpful and that they disliked his product, Bolton was eager to respond. He had replaced both the counter person and chef in question. He wanted to thank the reviewer and note that the problems had been addressed. But as a restaurant he was not allowed to respond. When he contacted the site Chow Hound held firm and wouldn’t let him share his side of the story. Frustrated, Bolton deleted his own Chow Hound account, saying that refusing to let him post defeats the conversational nature of the social web. Elwakeel at Nyood has a new era regimen for dealing with online customer complaints. If

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arts.culture.living Every Friday night when Joel Solish was a young boy, his parents would drop him off at his grandmother’s house. There, he would stand in awe in the kitchen for hours as his grandmother cooked without ever consulting a recipe. It was in that kitchen, learning about each ingredient, that Solish’s love of food was born. Two decades later, Solish has found a way to share his love. Over the past year Solish has become active on twitter, getting to know other foodies and participating in meet ups large and small. In December he hosted his own meat themed meet up at his home near Dupont and Bathurst using the hash tag #meatluck. Now he’s hooked. He’s got to know Doss, Chiu, Nicola, and Bolton, as well as a slew of other meet up regulars, a group whose tastes are so similar only a match-making service like twitter could have brought them together. “That’s the thing twitter has been so successful at,” he says. “Pointing out who you should be hanging out with.” “It’s nice to connect with people as an adult that share that passion,” he says. “It gives you an inner calm to be around people who are the same as you. You don’t have to explain yourself. They get it.” When Darryl Koster and his wife Beth visit Toronto, they usually call Solish up and make plans for dinner. A few years back, foodies like Solish and restaurateurs like Koster may never have got to know each other. Today, they’re the best of friends. --rr

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Conflicting catwalks

u s s Ma r t

TWO SETS OF STILETTOS PITTERPATTER ACROSS FOUR LANES OF TRAFFIC. A small army of waif-like women smoke cigarettes and pose for photographs outside the Allstream Centre in Toronto. The sun is shining, but it’s easy to spot full, heavy coats dripping in fur. The cab driver does a double take. “Wow. This is a fashion party,” he says. So it began. IZMA opened Toronto’s LG Fashion Week on Sunday March 28, sending out a string of dark, romantic dresses spun from heaps of leather, sheer, and fur. It was a standout collection and strong start to the week. But by the time fashion week rolled around this spring most of Canada’s biggest design guns had already fired off their bullets. Two weeks earlier Philip Sparks filled a loft in the Burroughes Building on Queen St. with male models in nautical looks inspired by Moby Dick. A week after that Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, the designers behind the buzzed-about Greta Constantine line, held their runway show in the sprawling glass Audi dealership on Bayview Ave. Two more top young Canadian talents, Jeremy Laing and Mark Fast, showed at more established fashion weeks—Fast in London, Laing in New York. And Monday morning of fashion week Holt Renfrew paraded designs by Denise Gagnon, Lida Baday, and Mikhael Kale on a make shift runway in its store—the only Toronto show attended by a staffer from Vogue. The question has to be posed: what’s keeping top designers away from LG Fashion Week? It could be the late date during the high holidays, weeks after shows in Paris, Milan, and New York. Or the out of the way venue, a last minute replacement for the previously

arts.culture.living announced warehouse space at 30 Ordnance Avenue in Liberty Village. Maybe it’s Robin Kay, president of the Fashion Design Council of Canada and head of fashion week, who inspired an anonymous e-mail sent to Mayor David Miller a few seasons back, calling for the president’s head. Kay has more than a few enemies, but she’s been on her best behaviour since a tipsy speech at fashion week in 2008 that caused a rush of public embarrassment, so that’s probably not it. No, the best designers don’t show at LG Fashion Week because they know they don’t have to. Labels like Greta Constantine and Philip Sparks know the second they send out invitations fashion buyers and editors will save the date. And the it-girls and sartorial somebodies will follow, filling the front row. They don’t need the LG stage or the mass of national newspaper press. The clothes will sell themselves. When you’re the youngest and hippest of the pack, word of mouth works just fine. All of this is not to say LG Fashion Week was without glitz and glamour—or talent. Some of the industry’s mainstays, such as David Dixon, Pink Tartan, and Joe fresh, showed on site during the official week. All three of those labels showed on-trend, welltailored work, as they do each season. LG Fashion Week also brings out the Canadian celebrities. Shawn Desman and Keshia Chante did the fashion tour this season, taking in shows and chatting with the press backstage. Former NHL star Tie Domi attended Tuesday’s shows with his newly brunette girlfriend on his arm, Kelly Carlson of Nip/Tuck and Melrose Place. And Canada’s Next Top Model’s Stacey Mackenzie sat in her standard front row seat most of the week. One group of young designers that does show with LG is the Project Runway Canada alumni, who are all quickly growing up. Sunny Fong, winner of Project Runway’s second season, presented his VAWK label on Monday FUTURÉALE

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Fashion Week March 29. Albeit off-site at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Fong’s show was an official LG event. The elegant, well-executed collection proved there is talent behind his much loved on-screen person. As FDCC president Robin Kay said as she exited the show, “Now that was a collection.” Fong’s runner-up, Jessica Biffi, penned a deal with plus-size retailer Addition Elle to create two capsule collections for the brand and its younger label, MXM, which she showed on Wednesday March 31. And Evan Biddell, winner of the show’s first season, closed Tuesday night with his best collection to date. The Biddell line, inspired by the protective shells of prehistoric animals, prompted praise from Flare Editor-in-chief Lisa Tant, who live tweeted that night: “All I can say is thank God for Evan Biddell tonight. Nice to see something fearless, provocative and really exciting—with a good p-o-v.” Bustle closed fashion week on Thursday night with several guest models, as the label FUTURÉALE

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usually does. While the brand has enlisted MTV’s Dan Levy and Jessi Cruickshank to model in the past, this season it chose Stacey Mackenzie, Evan Biddell, Fashion Television host Jeanne Becker, and famed hair stylist Jie to walk in its show. But the most famous fashion face that graced Toronto during the week was predictably absent from all of LG’s events. Supermodel Agyness Deyn, known for her quirky-cute boyish style, came to town not to walk on the Canadian runway, but to spin records for our city’s coolest kids. Deyn was guest DJ at the last late night after-party of the week. Long after the final runway show, when the crowd from the Allstream Centre was likely safe in bed, Deyn showed up at Studio Gallery, the grimy art gallery on College St. known for hosting afterhours parties attended by the likes of Daft Punk and Steve Aoki. Worlds away from the official site in that small, smoky space, Deyn quietly made the most notable appearance of the week. And as dawn

broke and industry insiders who usually know better stumbled out of Studio, one can only imagine what the cab drivers must have said. --ma

CHLOE

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BY C R A I G W I L K I N S

WHAT DOES AN INDEPENDENT FILM LOVER do during his three-week dream vacation down under? Ayers Rock, the Sydney Harbour, and Footy in Melbourne to be sure. But this guy also got his indie fix onboard Quantas watching real Australian gems like “Bran Nue Dae” and “The Boys are Back.” Not to mention dragging my senior citizen mother to a showing of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, subtitled-rape scene and all. (She was less than thrilled.) What can I tell you, I love movies! As an indie movie guy I don’t care a lot about box office results or profit and loss sheets. Both are important, even for independent filmmakers. Maybe especially so for independent filmmakers who use the money they make from their current release to help fund the next. As I learned researching the Spirit Awards, a talented young filmmaker who is recognized and rewarded for their artistic achievement might still wait years if there isn’t a financial windfall to accompany the artistic achievement. But from the point of view of a film lover what I care about is the movie going experience, not the business side of the equation. So I ask: does a filmmaker need to move beyond the art house to find a larger audience for his or her films?

It’s a question I have been posing to friends in and out of the business for years. A question which is being played out for one great Canadian filmmaker while I am over in Australia driving the Great Ocean Road and posing for pictures next to a stuffed Pharlap in the Melbourne Museum. Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe” was released on March 23. It’s a sexy thriller with Amanda Seyfried in the title role, and Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore as the upper class couple who bring Chloe into their world, only to be dragged down into hers. Could the casting be any better? Seyfried is as hot as they come right now, after “Mama Mia” and “Dear John”. Neeson is on top of the world with “Clash of the Titans” and he still has “The A-Team” coming out. And who doesn’t love Julianne Moore? Behind the camera, the movie is an adaptation of a great little French film, “Nathalie”, from the writer/director of “Coco Avant Chanel”, Anne Fontaine. It’s being produced by super kid Jason Reitman of “Up in the Air” and “Juno” fame and it even has some tabloid appeal. As filming was coming to a close in Toronto, Neeson’s wife, the wonderful actress Natasha Richardson, died in a skiing accident at Mont Tremblant.

“Chloe” has all the elements of successful. Atom Egoyan has been here before. In 2005 he was given a large budget of $25 million for his film noir “Where the Truth Lies.” He attracted three genuine stars in Colin Firth, Kevin Bacon, and then flavour-of-the-week, Alison Lohman. The movie was poorly received not making more than $3 million worldwide. A talented director with a reputation for making intelligent, arty movies with universal themes, he has never had a real break out film. Many directors would be happy making small movies with micro budgets for a select audience. From Egoyan’s actions and film projects this does not seem to be the case. He wants his films to be watched and appreciated. Should “Chloe” fail as badly as “Where the Truth Lies”, he may not get another chance. I got my first introduction to Atom Egoyan in 1991 at the Summer Institute for Film and Technology’s workshop in Ottawa. That year Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient”) was an instructor, just having finished his first feature, “Truly, Madly, Deeply”. But it was Egoyan who was given the red carpet treatment for his breakout film, “The Adjuster”. “The Adjuster” was brilliant, but very difficult to watch. Everything about it, from the subject matter to the pacing required a lot of

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arts.culture.living work from the audience. I didn’t love the movie, but respected it as a work of art. Three years later “Exotica” came out and I became a huge supporter of that film. Working at a video store I recommended it to everyone who walked through the doors. It was equally hard to watch, and not everyone enjoyed it, but to this day Timmins, Ontario holds a great number of Egoyan fans. In 1997 his career reached a peak most only ever dream of. I re-watched “The Sweet Hereafter” as part of my research for this article (I know, tough job). It is as good today as it was then and I fully understand the two Oscars he was nominated for (one for directing the movie, one for writing.) It is a wonderful film, which every movie lover should watch, and yet few have. Over the past twenty years his films have played festivals all over the world, he has glowing reviews to fill several binders, and has been nominated and won so many awards it would take an entire magazine just to list them. And still Atom Egoyan remains a hidden treasure, a secret most people still have not discovered for themselves. I wish I could explain to you while I sit here thinking about “Chloe”, longing to get back to Canada and see it for myself, why so many movie lovers back home choose to ignore him altogether. Judging from the numbers at boxofficemojo.com, the mass of movie lovers are not

interested in this film any more than they were in his other mainstream feature. And I ask again, does a director need to move beyond the art house to find a larger audience? No. Not unless they want their films to be watched and appreciated. Some of the best art ever created sits in the desk drawers of people not interested in pleasing the public. Many more artists make a life out of working a “day job” and doing art on weekends at the local spoken word poetry night or theatre group.

largely is. He wants people, perhaps you, (and most certainly me) to sit and watch his work unfold on the big screen. He wants us to think about it on the train ride home and talk about it while we’re snuggling close to our loved ones before bed, and, if all the stars align, he wants us to dream about it as we sleep. Public art needs a public. Expensive public art requires more of a public in order to continue. That is simply the way of things. Does a director need to move beyond the art house to find a larger audience? Public art needs a public—expensive public art needs even more of a public. It doesn’t get any simpler or than that. Atom Egoyan has been given a second chance to operate with a larger budget, hoping to find a larger audience. I haven’t had the chance to see the movie yet (it’s not playing in Australia) but I am eager and nervous. I hope this is the movie that opens him up to the audience he deserves and movie lovers across the globe get the chance to enjoy all of his movies. Honestly, I don’t believe Egoyan needs a large budget or big name stars to create his art. But I have a feeling it might be the only way to get it seen.

“ Public art needs a public. Expensive public art requires more of a public in order to continue. That is simply the way of things ”. Both are worthy ways of celebrating the artistic voice we all have within. But as soon as an artist crosses over that line and turns their work into a commercial venture, be it a local copper smith who sells her wares on the internet, or a big time film maker who asks for millions of dollars in order to create something universal, that no turns into a yes. An artist like Atom Egoyan does not make his art in a vacuum. He does not make it to stay hidden away and undiscovered, which it

--rr

arts.culture.living

BUTCHERY SESSIONS

By Lauren Wilton LEAN, RED AND SINEWY, the body is sprawled out on a maple countertop deep in a basement in Toronto’s Parkdale neighborhood. This is certainly not the only naked body I have had before my eyes this weekend, but it definitely is the most beautiful. No, it is not a new boyfriend, but the svelte carcass of a magnificent 90lb free-range, grass-fed, humanely slaughtered New Zealand red venison, and the magic is happening in the restaurant Cowbell’s butchery room, not your parent’s rec room. If butchers are the new rock stars, with locavores sinking their teeth into do-it-yourself butchery faster than they can chew, then Chef Mark Cutrara is Toronto’s Mick Jagger. Wielding a boning knife instead of a microphone, Cutrara hosts a monthly butchery seminar in his restaurant, inviting everyone from fellow professional chefs to amateur gourmands to watch the disassembly of entire animals head to toe, or nose to tail. A dozen or so of us gather in the restaurant on this especially chilly Sunday evening, all of us strangers to one another but none of us strangers to Cowbell’s philosophy. “What I really want to do is help bridge the gap between Ontario’s farming community and the people of Toronto,” Cutrara explains. “If one person leaves Cowbell happy, full, and a little more educated about where their food is coming from, I’m happy.” Like a herd of eager cattle, we are led by Cutrara to the basement butchery room where we meet Ryan Donovan, Cowbell’s in house

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arts.culture.living Butcher/Baker (hold the candlestick maker), honing steel in one hand and boning knife in the other. He is standing over the fleshy carcass of the New Zealand red, a sight that would send most vegetarians straight to their cellphones, to speed dial in dinner reservations at Fressen. While we settle in, Cutrara sets up two bowls—one for scrap meat and fat (to be made into sausages) and one for waste. Donovan, dressed to the nines in pristine chef ’s whites, sharpens his knives with the precision and speed that I never expect to achieve myself, even after two years of culinary school. Beginning with the neck, a job usually handed down to his apprentices, Donovan guides the tip of his boning knife with ease along the complicated physics of the animal’s spinal cord. Working with both his hands and his knife, Donovan proceeds to debone and rip apart the body’s flesh with ease, while I stand by like a deer caught in the headlights wishing he’d do the same to my dress (Donavan is kind of a babe). It is amazing how relaxed Donovan is in his element, skillfully sliding his hands through the thin white layer of fat that separates each muscle group. There is an audible slap every time a hunk of flesh hits the surface of the butcher’s block, but just barely before Cutrara grabs it with his left hand while seemingly simultaneously trimming it down with his right. By the time Donovan meets the tenderloin, a widely known cut of meat nestled between the ribs and the back-strap of the animal, his whites are freckled with blood stains—but far less than you’d see in a late night AMC showing of Goodfellas. It takes less than two hours for Cutrara and Donovan to tackle the task at hand; not only the butchery itself but also an eye-opening explanation of the importance of eating at a sustainable table. Less than 3lbs of the 90lb animal lays to rest in the small metal waste bowl, but Donovan is clearly disconcerted. “There’s gotta be some useable collagen in there,” he says, shaking his head. He uses his FUTURÉALE

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fingertips to root around the bowl, still resting atop the scale. “Collagen and silver skin (a thin membrane found on some cuts of meat) can be used to fortify and thicken stocks.” Typically, less than one per cent of the animal is wasted at Cowbell, with only the bitter-tasting glands being wheeled to the curb at the end of the evening. Because they purchase whole animals at Cowbell, each pound of bone is worth just as much as each pound of meat. Liver is just as valuable as tenderloin. The animal’s bone structure, still intact in all of its’ skeletal glory, is brought to the restaurant’s walk-in fridge to be later transformed into rich venison stock. Later, snacking on lardo washed down with pints of Flying Monkey Amber Ale, we chewed the fat with head chef Cutrara and attendees including Carrie Oliver, a woman who makes her living hosting artisanal meat tastings, as Donovan grinds meat for us to take home. Lardo is a traditional salume consisting of strips of pig fat cured in assorted herbs and spices, with Donovan’s version, a staple on Cowbell’s charcuterie plate, being cured and then rubbed with juniper and rosemary. Originally, Cowbell started these butchery demonstrations to make a little extra cash, Donovan says. They were inspired by an article they read in the New York Times about similar demos being done in the USA, but they have had such a positive response from the public that they’ve sold out all six demonstrations. “We just want people to leave our demos with some knowledge about lesser known cuts of meat that you can take to your local butcher shop. We want to try to give people the same power that we have; the ability to spend less money to buy better food.” I left Cowbell that evening with a pocketful of ground venison and a head swimming with newfound knowledge, happy, fat, and full. --rr

arts.culture.living

By Idil Herzi HAVING READ NICHOLAS SPARKS’ The film was crawling with clichés and 2009 NOVEL, The Last Song, I thought I Cyrus’ performance was expectedly below par. knew what I was getting myself into when I stepped into the theatre. I didn’t. Considering Sparks co-wrote the screenplay for the adaptation, it is safe to say that I expected more. The Last Song is a melodramatic film about a melodramatic girl, behaving melodramatically. It was very disappointing. Taking place on Tybee Island, in Georgia, the film follows young Veronica “Ronnie” Miller (Miley Cyrus) who is forced to spend the summer with her father, Steve Miller (Greg Kinnear), who she hasn’t seen or spoken to in three years. Driven down by her mother, Kim (Kelly Preston), and accompanied by her little brother Jonah (Bobby Coleman), she displays a bitter attitude towards her father, instead bonding with her brother. Somehow, between the dramatics of playing “I hate my life!” and “I’m 18, I can do what I want!” Ronnie managed to fall in love. Cute? Not quite. In the novel, the scene where Ronnie and Will Blakelee (Liam Hemsworth) met was realistic and full of imagery. However, in the film it seems stiff, as if I was there, on set, hearing the director, Julie Anne Robinson, yelling, “Action!”

Learning she was cast as Veronica made me furious: I was sure she would somehow manage to ruin the film. Luckily, Bobby Coleman saved it. The 12-year-old Coleman is a phenomenal young actor, outshining Kinnear, and Hemsworth, demolishing any opportunity they had to stand out. The wide range of emotion displayed by Coleman was remarkable for an actor of his age. Without spoiling the movie, the sentimental issues in the film were authentically performed and won the crowd over, despite the actors chosen for the film. The biggest issue is everything seems to be in fast-forward and the in-depth prose written by Sparks was overlooked in filming. Without them, The Last Song is out of tune. --rr

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HEAD she mentioned that I make no sense, I sung at her “I make NO SENSE, I make NO SENSE at all” she didn’t attempt to catch the reference, she muddled across the room, lacking confidence in her stride. she snarled “you enjoy embarrassing other people” I blinked and giggled, as though, it were only natural for her to feel this way. she waited for me to cower, she glared with intention, I held my breath as response. I am happiest in my head. © Amanda Harvey 2010

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Feminine Flaws. \\ if only, you’d made it as easy as plastering on red lips, polish, paint, tint, stain. to look as ideal as an accidental sun spot, in a black & white photograph. BossaNova breasts, Hollywood hips. primed, prim and stunning. simple, as divine, as, perfectly whipped meringue on lemon pie. peaked, just right. instead of appreciation through kissed teeth, wet whistling tongue, cat calls, howls, men should fund women’s education, throw books in place of bills, to persist our effortless crawl, in vein of lacking flaws. © Amanda Harvey 2010

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Untitled finally, lightness. optimism exposed yet again, assuming, it’s only because the sun is finally out, making the vegetation visible. the floral and fauna that’s been sedated can breath, slightly, gradually, uncovering the lush patchwork amid our metropolis loved, on occasion. there is appreciation for the thin road home. the fine lines that curve between street and person. encompassing whole bodies, busy turning the dial and brushing their teeth. allowing this city to continue mobility, momentum of the moving. © Amanda Harvey 2010

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