A little couch time
Tony Award-winner Bob martin embraces his anxiety as psychiatrist in new cbc-tv comedy
Category: Culture
Made In Toronto
Kate Middleton’s recent endorsement of T.O. style got us thinking what other great stuff is made here: Meet 20 trendsetters selling our city to the world
Band of the Week: Rattlesnake Choir
Toronto’s Rattlesnake Choir looks like a band with more than a few stories to tell. Fortunately the band makes good on its anecdotal potential, backing it all up with a strong country music foundation that takes as much influence from Tom Waits as it does Hank Williams. Watching the group live is an experience in and of itself, with percussive slinkys and the musical saw making regular appearances throughout the band’s set.
Spent puts on a limited-run show before heading abroad
Spent, a comical play about the 2008 financial crisis, made its debut two years ago to a fair bit of critical acclaim (it won a Dora award). It’ll be appearing at the Edinburg Fringe Festival next month, but a “final” series of fundraiser shows are taking place in Toronto over the next few days to raise money for festival costs. We caught up with writer and actor Ravi Jain to talk about the play.
Q&A with Jann Arden: Juno Award winner, author and celebrity judge on Canada Sings
With a new live album, a new book and a weekend radio show, multiple Juno Award winner Jann Arden is having a busy year. Next month, she’ll appear on Global’s Canada Sings, a six-part series in which teams of ordinary Canadian co-workers form singing groups to compete for a $10,000 donation to their chosen charity. The judges are Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan, Rob “Vanilla Ice” Van Winkle and, of course, Jann Arden.
This Week in Sound: Death Cab for Cutie, Frightened Rabbit, The Weeknd and more
Indie flagship band Death Cab for Cutie (July 29 @ The Molson Amphitheatre) are indie only in name and don’t need to be introduced. Their electronics-heavy new album Codes and Keys has bewildered critics, and, well, Narrow Stairs wasn’t exactly their finest 45 minutes either — but it’s easy to forget that Death Cab are still among the sturdiest acts in indie rock, with a huge stable of quality material reaching back to 1998. How much of it they’ll play, mind you, is anyone’s guess.
Next to Normal is next to perfect
Nearly all art forms go through constant changes and growth. Musical theatre, for instance, has gone from silly vaudeville to the gorgeous, memorable music of George and Ira Gershwin; through the uneven but hauntingly-singable works of Rodgers and Hammerstein to the occasionally high art of Stephen Sondheim, who covers such serious themes as divorce, betrayal, adultery, aging, and even operatic bloodshed (as in the great Sweeney Todd).
The weird, wistful and wonderfully delirium-inducing sounds of Philip James
Philip James is all about the good vibes. Like Real Estate, his music is, in fact, for the faint of heart. Call it shoegaze, call it chillwave or post-rock, call it a pop song wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and fed helium until it floats — Philip James is a link in the new chain of bedroom-based “rock” musicians coaxing listeners into pleasant delirium instead of bludgeoning them into submission.
It's official: Captain Canuck is getting his own film
Toronto’s limelight went up and then away with the creation of the world’s most recognized superhero, Superman, in the 1930s. Toronto-born Joe Shuster was one of two creators of the icon, but unfortunately for us, Canadian pride was in short supply: Superman’s loyalties have always resided with the U.S. However, Canada does have its own purebred comic book hero, Captain Canuck, who will be sweeping the nation once again — and this time, it’ll be on the silver screen.
Alternate landscapes: Q&A with Toronto photographer Adam Makarenko
In the world of digital photography, everybody’s an Ansel Adams. But Toronto-based photographer Adam Makarenko isn’t your run of the mill point and shooter. Makarenko handcrafts dioramas of uncanny worlds, which he then photographs.
Q&A: Trish Dolman, the filmmaker behind Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson
This Friday, Trish Dolman’s thrill-doc Eco Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson comes to TIFF Bell Lightbox for one week. Paul Watson, a Toronto-born animal rights activist, takes the peace out of Greenpeace (of which he was a founding member) by using aggressive tactics to save whales. Come hell or high water, he’ll be riding the righteous wave of environmentalism — not for humanity, but for all the other animals.
Band of the Week: Mariachi Fuego
While there may be an inclination to treat Mariachi Fuego like a novelty act, you’d be missing the point. The group’s genuinely entertaining live show is enough to get the most cynical of us out of our chairs, and now the Dakota Tavern is hosting Mariachi Mondays, which has the band kicking off every work-week with a bang. We caught up with band founder and trumpet player Rob Dickson to talk about what’s coming up for the band.