Toronto International Film Festival

So the TIFF is on again. The best description of its new home, the Bell Lightbox, came from a food review:

"... a monolithic block-long Sears store covered in black aluminum siding, with a generic 46-storey condo plopped on top and a restaurant on the first floor."

Yes, to house such an exciting event, the building is kind of boring. And it doesn't look at all like a "light box"...

My new favorite image

I finally got around to reading Brian Azzarello's run on Superman. Even though it starts full of promise in the first volume (Superman going to confession?), the second descends into some utopia nonsense with lots of unnecessary fights. Jim Lee's art though is impeccable. Check out his Wonder Woman.

Dancing iconography

Some videos I saw recently and I thought somehow went together in their morphing natures.

This new video by animation studio FILM BILDER, directed and animated by Andreas Hykade, has already received many awards for both music and animation.

This video collage was photographed and animated by Nina Paley and is supposed to illustrate the derivative nature of art. All figures were photographed at the Met in New York.

Another one from FILM BILDER, this one contains the art of nine designers in a video for the German hip-hop band Freundeskreis.

Lastly, the ever humble Kanye West is some sort of deity in his new “art video” directed by Marco Brambilla (author of the elliptical and ambitious Civilization.)

Brazilian Day

The second annual Brazilian Day in Toronto attracted thousands to Dundas Square, mostly to watch Ivete Sangalo, self-proclaimed “queen of Brazil.”

Ivete proved she can make the crowds move in the northern hemisphere as well as she can in the southern. She delivered hit after hit, but remains “the biggest star you’ve never heard anything about” in Canada.

Despite some goofy choreography, the concert was effective in getting people off the floor. Ivete was funny and in a great mood. She had just come from New York where she performed at Madison Square Garden for 15 thousand people. Even though Brazilian Day Canada was a much more modest event, Ivete was as enthusiastic as ever. She greeted the crowd in Portuguese, English and French, was gracious with fans and wasn’t afraid of the few drops of the rain she felt. Thankfully, she didn’t talk much about her newborn baby (whose name is also Marcelo.)

In the crowd, the diverse face of Brazil in Canada. And line-ups everywhere, in good Brazilian style.

My new favorite image (part 2)

From hilarious cartoon blog Cat Versus Human.

My new favorite image

The Man KISS by illustrator James Blagden for KING magazine, 2007.

Scissor Sisters

The Sisters were in town Tuesday night with their Night Work Tour at the Sound Academy.

For a pop group with queer sensibilities, Jake Shears and company turned out a show that was more rock 'n roll than dance. Since their sophomore album, the Sisters have ben struggling with an identity crisis: wanting to be taken seriously by the industry, yet known for their tongue-in-cheek camp, the band is trying to strike a balance between mainstream and underground. Unfortunately, they were more fun when they took themselves less seriously.

Not that they didn't try. Former go-go stripper Jake Shears is a bundle of manic energy in a tight little gym body with an aerobic performance of sustained falsettos and disco moves. I could barely get a picture of him in focus.

Ana Matronic looked demure in comparison, with a severe hairdo and clunky accessories.

The pair have good chemistry on stage and had one thing in common: their outfits were equally atrocious.

In terms of production value, the Night Work Tour could have used a little more sparkle. But the most disappointing part was opening act Casey Spooner, of Fischerspooner fame, who was stilted, amateurish and failed to engage the audience.

On the other hand, the Sisters' presence on stage is undeniable. They may not be as edgy and new as they were when I first saw them live in Lawrence, Kansas in 2005 (The Return to Oz?), but their concert is still entertaining, tight and high-energy. Highlights were Invisible Light, I Don't Feel Like Dancing (naturally) and the encore double-whammy of Filthy/Gorgeous and new single Any Which Way.

Overall, an energetic show that lacked a certain glitz and glam that put the band in the map in the first place. At least the view from Polson Pier had enough shine to make up for whatever was missing on stage.

The L Tower

No, it's not the Lex Luthor tower. This L Tower is going on top of the Sony Centre (former Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts) and should be done by 2012. At least it's something more interesting to look at in the sea of new condos coming up these days in Toronto.

The Shakespeare Experiment

Buddies In Bad Times presented an academic experiment this weekend, having three different directors enact a scene from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (the death of Cleopatra), resulting in three radically different interpretations.

The point was to examine rhetorical gesture and the representation of gender in theatre (the thin line between men interpreting women and drag queens). Sky Gilbert read his entire paper on the subject at the end. The actors were University of Guelph theatre students.

My new favorite image

Fan Expo

Fan Expo was in full force this weekend in Toronto. The convention is an all encompassing (and delicious) media smorgasbord including gaming, movies, anime and, of course, comic books. Part Halloween party, part industry launchpad, this year's show was packed to the gills and the lineups were a nuisance, but overall, fun was had by all.

And a chance to hear Spider-Man's father, the legendary (and charmingly self-effacing) Stan Lee talk about his days in the Marvel bullpen -- priceless.

And guess who was taking pictures...

Buskerfest

Sights from the annual street performers festival to benefit Epilepsy Toronto. "Bizarre. Fantastic. Engaging."

The Emotionalists

As part of the Summerworks indie theatre festival this weekend, this Sky Gilbert play about “the most rational people you will ever meet” was a welcome surprise. The play is based on Ayn Rand, real life Russian-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter and philosopher founder of Objectivism, a philosophical system that values rationality above all else. But when she has a love affair with a student and tries to explain that to her husband, things get tricky as emotions are rationalized and the line between feeling and philosophy gets blurred.

The acting was great throughout and the fictional gay subplot becomes indispensable for the final blow. One of Sky’s most reflective plays with an interesting topic that is food for thought for anyone who's ever tried to seek truth objectively just to discover that isn't always possible.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

In the ever-expanding sea of comics-based movies, this year has given us two that got it right. One was Kick-Ass and now we have Scott Pilgrim, based on the graphic novel by Toronto artist Bryan Lee O’Malley.

The movie uses the comics aesthetics and video game imagery from the series to create a unique visual style that pop out of the screen and complements the off-the-wall humor of original material perfectly. Androgynous Michael Cera gives Scott a boyish look and innocent aura that makes his awesome fighting scenes and general rocking out all the more satisfying and exciting. The girls are good too, even though Scott’s object of desire wears too many bad wigs. And Brandon Routh plays another super-powered being.

An added bonus is the fact that the movie is set in Toronto, so lots of familiar sights and real places (even the inside of a streetcar!) Zany, frantic, absurd and thoroughly fun -- Scott Pilgrim has it all.