Here you go guys - our tips on how to conquer HotDocs 2009!  I CAN’T WAIT for the festival and am looking forward to tweeting and blogging along the way.  My mind is always blown when I go.  I am seeing ten films over the next week - not a ton, but respectable given my commitments these days.  Here are some links I mention in the ‘vlog’ that you should check out:

HotDocs Festival General Site

HotDocs Channel on YouTube with interviews/tips from the programmers

Episode 19 which includes an interview with Hot Docs Director of Programming and great guy Sean Farnel

Last Sunday, Blair and I went to see Dedicated to the Revolutions at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.  I can not tell you how excited I was to see this show.  The thing is that this company, Small Wooden Shoe, is one of the most innovative and refreshing companies in town.  They take ideas; they screw around with them, and take you on a ride.

They are looking at 7 revolutions that have shaped our modern world.  These include the invention of the printing press, the industrial revolution, Darwin’s theory of evolution and the information revolution.

Perhaps you are asking:  “What is it exactly?  Is it performance art?  Theatre?  A musical?  Experimental?  How can I categorize it?” DO NOT BE AFRAID – but be very intrigued. During our interview,  Artistic Director and Performer Jacob Zimmer said he can only best describe it as  “Lecture-Demo Theatre”. In the hour and a half or so you are in the space, you are taken on a performative explanation/exploration of the many shifts in our world that have led us to the time we live in.

Their enthusiasm for the subject is infectious.  I dare you not to leave there more curious about the world around you.  I also dare you not to leave humming a tune or two.  This is an excellent way for us as humans to ponder where we are.

Who knows what the next revolution will be?  Maybe Vlogging…

Dedicated Preview

This is a bit late getting to the blog, but it’s finally up. Episode 19 took Katherine and I to the Bloor Cinema to see a documentary called Guest of Cindy Sherman, part of the Doc Soup series of documentaries (a program run by Hot Docs). To give you an idea about the film, we found this trailer for it:

You will see what we thought of the film at the end…  It sure was provocative!  It got Katherine quite ticked off, that’s for sure.  At its core, it is really two stories rolled into one.  One being the New York art gallery scene from the 80’s until now, and the other being the story of a man who is with a woman who is much more successful and talented than him.  It sure is a lot of things, but definitely worth a look, especially if you want to know a bit more about Cindy Sherman and her amazing work as an artist.

We got a chance to talk to Sean Farnel, Director of Programming at Hot Docs to talk about the upcoming festival and what Doc Soup is. If you love documentary films, and you haven’t been to Doc Soup or Hot Docs, you’re missing out on one of the best film festivals in Toronto. And it’s pretty darn cheap to see some fantastic stories from around the world.

The second part of our evening took us down to Bread & Circus in Kensington Market to see The Carnegie Hall Show:

… an Improvised meta-variety show that satirizes the gala retrospective not unlike The Lincoln or Kennedy Centre Honours.  After getting a suggestion from the audience of “an event to celebrate” the tuxedo and boa-clad cast (Matt Baram, Chris Gibbs, Ron Pederson and Naomi Snieckus) take the audience on a timeline retrospective of the greatest improvised scenes based on that event as they make them up from scratch before their very eyes. That’s why we can say we offer the greatest Improvised scenes of all time!

For a night of “Pay-What-You-Think-It’s-Worth” comedy, this was a great evening of improv. We got a chance to sit down (or stand) with Chris Gibbs, one of the stars of the show, to talk to us about the beginnings of The Carnegie Hall Show. If you’re ever in the area on a Wednesday night and looking for something off the beaten path to check out, may we highly suggest having a drink and a laugh with some of Toronto’s finest improvisers (for a quick clip, click here).

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Is there anything better than sitting down to a delicious meal with friends or family and enjoying the amazing flavours of the food sitting infront of you? We don’t think so. On Wednesday, Katherine and I sat down with Chef Jamie Kennedy at the Gilead Café to talk about the Slow Food Movement, why buying locally produced food is important to the economy and the environment and the new Thursday night Local Food Movement Dinner Series at the Gilead Cafe. It was an inspiring chat - and there was so much to be said that we decided to include the full interview as a separate video.

We had some time to kill before heading over to the Berkeley Street Theatre to see Une maison face au nord, so we took off to the Distillery District which is just down the street from the Gilead Cafe and grabbed a delicious turkey chili to fill up on from the Brick Street Bakery. We took some time to chat and catch up and split a delicious cookie as desert.

At 8pm the curtain was raised on Théâtre français de Toronto’s latest production:

OSCILLATING BETWEEN FAMILY DRAMA AND A COMEDY OF MANNERS, A North-Facing House takes on some serious subjects, such as the rural exodus, the integration of immigrants, and generational conflict, all of which are dramatized with the author’s humour spicing up the text. Between a son pursued for money laundering, a young Guatemalan worker, and an elderly Pole, a man in his twilight years (played by Guy Mignault) feels at a dead end despite the kindness and good sense of his wife (played by Louisette Dussault). He sees the heritage that he created and the country of his dreams inexorably losing its sense and future. Far from witnessing the collapse of a microscopic world, something quite different happens, which allows us to tackle questions of spirituality confronting today’s reality. Jean-Rock Gaudreault, whose work TfT first presented in 1999 with La Raccourcie, has since become a definite pillar of Canadian francophone theatre.

We got the chance to chat with one of the stars of the show and TFT Artistic Director, Guy Mignault. It’s not easy being the Artistic Director and one of the actors in the show, but Guy did a fantasitc job - along with the rest of the cast.

All in all another excellent night in Toronto.

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Guess what! Now you can follow us on Twitter! Katherine and I do a crap load of cultural things that we don’t have time to film, so now we’re going to tweet about it. Follow us along and find out what’s going on in the city!

That is all …

It was a beautifully warm-ish day in Toronto on Wednesday - perfect weather for a skate down at the waterfront at arguably one of the best rinks in the city, the Harbourfront Natrel Rink (it is also the city’s largest rink!).

Katherine and I took off after work, threw on some skates and took to the ice - something Katherine hadn’t done in almost 7 years! We had a blast skating around and enjoying the music being pumped into the cool evening air. It was a perfect way to finish off a long day of work.

All that exercise made us hungry so we decided to chow down on some delicious Thai food at Spice Thai Cafe across the street from Harbourfront. But on our way over, we wandered through the York Quay Centre to check out some of the free public art on display at the various galleries. There is some great pieces on display which you can see in the video.

Dinner was delicious and inexpensive (always a bonus) and the wait staff were as pleasant as always. But we were on a schedule as we had to get over to the Fleck Dance Theatre to see That Night Follows Day, part of the World Stage Festival. The show was conceived by the group Campo in Belgium and is only here until tomorrow (Saturday). Here’s a brief description:

You feed us. You wash us. You dress us. You sing to us. You watch us when we are sleeping. You make promises that you think we won’t remember.

Featuring a cast of 16 children between the ages of 8 and 14. That Night Follows Day is the creation of revolutionary theatre maker Tim Etchells of the UK’s Forced Entertainment.

From the acclaimed theatre company that brought Toronto audiences Aalst, That Night Follows Day examines the systems of parenthood, upbringing, discipline, care and welfare that define the worlds of children and adolescents. A play with children written for adults, That Night Follows Day playfully yet poignantly highlights how adults project their worlds onto the lives of the children around them.

This original production promises to be one of the most talked-about of Toronto’s theatre season.

It’s a really amazing piece of theatre - not your typical dramatic piece of text. We got a chance to speak to two of the actors in the show to get their perspective on what the show meant and their experiences.

That rounded out an excellent evening. There’s so much to see and do at Harbourfront year round, and a lot of it is free (which is amazing!). We certainly advise you to take a walk, bike, TTC or, if you must, drive down to the waterfront and explore the hidden treasures awaiting you.

That was a bit cheesy, wasn’t it?

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Hey all,

Here is another moment in Toronto. Using footage from this fall while I was in the car with my dad and my brother on our way to do some ‘antiquing’ on Queen at Roncesvalles.  I bought nothing, but my brother bought some cool theatre style seats and we found the world’s most beautiful and prohibitively expensive teak table.  Afterwards, I got my hair trimmed and the lady blow dried it so high, I was a little embarassed on the walk home.  I had to flatten it out before going out with my friends.  Hair is not meant to defy gravity.  You will never see a picture of this phenomenon.

In an effort to warm up these cold winter days, That Night In Toronto takes a trip down to The Hideout on Queen St. West to catch up with the Mob Barley’s and The Railers - a Bob Marley Cover band featuring Darren Dumas of The Salads fame and Chris Collins, lead singer of The Cheap Suits.

Friday February 6, 2009 was Bob Marley’s birthday. Born in 1945, Bob would have been 64 if he were alive today.

It was a great night of great covers. The crowd loved it - and hopefully you will too! If you want to see the Mob Barley’s, you should check them out at The Sound Academy on February 28, 2009!

Katherine joined up after seeing Ubuntu at the Tarragon Theatre and gives a little review and info on it towards the end of the episode.

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Katherine put together a great little “moment in Toronto” video with music by Ohbijou.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to put up a new post, but finally, here it is - the first episode of 2009!

Katherine and I took to the cold last Friday night to witness the first performance of the new Close Act show titled PI-LEAU. Close Act has been in Toronto before a few years ago with another show, but they out did themselves with this underwater exploration and struggle between good and evil. The show opened the 14 day festival, WinterCity - a favourite among Torontonians at this time of year.

Not only does the city embrace the cold and snow for these two weeks, we also gorge ourselves on food during Winterlicious. Many restaurants book up quickly so if you want to take advantage of some of the amazing world-class cuisine Toronto has to offer at affordable prices, best to book now!

What are your thoughts on WinterCity? Do you embrace the cold, or hibernate for 6 months?

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