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.