David J. Widmann

On Sunday, as an unofficial kickoff to the Walk21 pedestrian conference coming to Toronto next month, the Walking Life exhibit opened at the Gladstone Hotel.

The exhibit is an eclectic mix of paintings, maps, architectural drawings, collages and video. It represents images of urban walking from many different viewpoints, from the casual rambler to the urban planner.

Highlights of the show include Adam Krawesky’s “Clockwork,” a digital composite showing pedestrians crossing to all four corners of a street; “Walking Maps,” a collection of paintings based on Marlena Zuber’’s strolls with the Toronto Psychogeography Society, and Val Nye’s stark and stunning photograph entitled “Open Road.”

A stroll through Walking Life is free. It will be on the third floor of the Gladstone until October 4, and is open daily from noon to 5:00pm.

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There are things that go on in this city at night that are far weirder than the leather-clad teenagers on Queen West. Did you know that vampires stalk High Park? Or that Toronto Police Services crossed into another dimension to investigate a suspicious death? No? Then you should check out Karen Bennett’s Fantastic Toronto project.

Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing drew our attention to Bennett’s labour of love. Bennett, a writer, photographer, panelist, and fixture in Canada’s speculative-fiction community has posted the results of a literary survey she’s been working on for the past four years. For this survey, she has combed hundreds of novels and stories of the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres for any mention of our fair City of Toronto.

The results are, well, magical. The list of authors alone is impressive, but Bennett has gone far beyond that by including publishing information, plot synopses, and descriptions of Toronto’s place (whether the city is the centre of the action, or just mentioned in passing by a secondary character) in the story.

The project is still ongoing, so if you have any suggestions for stories or books Bennett might have missed, submit the info. And if you’re looking to read some of the books listed in Fantastic Toronto, check out the Merril Collection of Science Fiction at the Toronto Public Library.

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Have you ever marvelled at the sheer partying power of a group of drunken bridesmaids? Now you can join those elite ranks without all the expense and bother of a wedding.

Funkless.com presents the fourth incarnation of Bridesmaidmania this Saturday, May 5. Billed as “the city’s weirdest and most entertaining pub crawl,” Bridesmaidmania IV participants (both male and female) will deck out in frilly, tacky, thrift-store bridesmaid dresses and descend upon a myriad of secret locations around the city. This year’s Bridesmaidmania is extra special due to the fact that Funkless.com’s venerable party host Cynthia Gould is going to be a bride herself next month.

The Bridesmaidsmania phenomenon started as an off-handed comment Cynthia made to a friend and ballooned into an annual event. “The first Bridesmaidmania was a total gamble,” Cynthia confides. “What if nobody showed up? What if nobody had a good time? Half an hour into it, we looked around at the giggling ladies and ‘ladies’ and knew we were on to something fantastic.”

Dinner, dancing, sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them, and travelling with one of the freakiest packs of party-goers you’ll ever see are just a few of the events planned for this monumental evening.

And how do people react to having their favourite watering holes invaded by a band of drunken bridesmaids?

“Strangers are afraid of strange things, but who can be threatened by a gaggle of people in pastel dresses?” Cynthia says. “People honk, wave, take pictures with their cell phones, and accept our offers of candy. If you haven’t given candy to strangers while dressed like a doofus, you really need to get out more and live it up!”

In order to participate in this event, you have to sign up in advance on the super-secret email list (it’s Bridesmaidmania-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Shh!). On Thursday, directions to the staging area will be revealed.

As with all Funkless.com events, Bridesmaidmania IV is fragrance-free.

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Listen up doodlers, animaniacs, and true believers. This month, Max the Mutt Animation School wants to give you super powers! Well, super-artistic powers, anyway.From Saturday, March 10 to Sunday, March 18, Max the Mutt will be open to the public. If you’ve been considering animation as a career, or if you’re just curious about how all those neat-o pictures come to life, this is your chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the animation process. The school teaches everything from classical animation to state-of-the-art 3D graphic design, so whether you’re into Felix the Cat or the latest incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you’re bound to find something to make your eye stalks pop out of your head.

For those who like to do more than just watch, Max the Mutt will also be hosting free weekend workshops during their open house. On March 10 and 17, cartoonist, character designer and Max the Mutt animation director Tina Seeman (Polka Dot Door, Bookmice) will host the “Let’s Animate!” animation workshop. On March 11, veteran comic book artist Richard Pace (X-Men, Terror Inc.) will present “Drawing Comic Book Monsters.”

Max the Mutt Animation School is located at 952 Queen Street West, near Shaw. For more information, or to sign up for one of the workshops, call (416) 703-6877.

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Forget what “they” told you about the dearth of cheap tinfoil at Dollarama. The truth is much more insidious: now in its third year, Funkless.com is hosting a contest to judge the most innovative mind-control-beam deflecting apparatuses in the city. Hey, who says paranoia has to dampen creativity?

Hostess Cynthia Gould is pleasantly surprised at the success of this and other Funkless.com parties. “The funkless philosophy began when I told a few people about my crazy ideas for parties,” she says. “Instead of asking if I was on crack, they all said, ‘Where? When? I want this to happen!’”

A big part of the “funkless philosophy” revolves around creating parties that aren’t just artsy and fun, but are also free of people wearing heavy perfumes and other chemical scents.

“All Funkless.com events are fragrance-free because I am severely allergic to chemical fragrances,” Cynthia explains. “15% of the population have asthma and other respiratory problems. It’s nice to have just a few evenings a year where we can all breathe freely.”

Think you’ve got what it takes to twist humble tinfoil into a work of head-hugging art? Previous Tinfoil Hat Contests have produced metallic sculptures of Darth Vader, dragons, trees, antlers, aliens, and elaborate suits of armour, among many other creations. This year’s event takes place on Saturday, March 3 at The Renaissance Cafe, 1938 Danforth Avenue. Doors open at 7:30, sculpting starts at 8:00, and judging starts at 9:30. All hats must be created at the event, not before. For full contest rules and details, click here.

After the contest, music will be provided by Tomboyfriend. The wearing of tinfoil hats for the duration of the show is encouraged. After all, you don’t want Major League Baseball to know what brand of beer you’ve been drinking, do you?

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Have you always said you couldn’t get enough books? The Toronto Book Awards want to test your mettle.Five jurors are needed to pick the short list and the winner for 2007. With 80 to 100 books to choose from, plus meetings to attend, this will take up a lot of your time between February and March. The upside (besides being an integral part of Toronto’s literary history) is that you get to keep all the books you read. You might want to review Torontoist’s post on BookCrossing for a way to make room on your groaning shelves before signing up for this gig.

If you’re interested, send an email with a paragraph about yourself and a paragraph about your interest in the Toronto Book Awards to protocol@toronto.ca (no file attachments or resumes, please), along with your address and phone number by Monday February 12, 2007.

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The Capitol Theatre has announced the summer 2003 Port Hope Festival Theatre season.

“We are trying to get a little bit of something for everybody,” said managing director Uwe Meyer.  “We have a musical, we have a murder mystery, we’ve got a farce, and a sort of period comedy.  It’s quite a varied season, and I think people would be hard-pressed to say there is nothing there that they like.”

The musical, and the show that will kick off the season on June 5, is I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.  The show takes a close look at relationships where single women are concerned that there are not enough single men who aren’t jerks, and married men complain about wives who shop too much or criticise their driving.

On June 26, Caught in the Net begins its run.  In the sequel to Run For Your Wife, bigamist taxidriver John Smith is keeping his two families unaware of each other.  Things get complicated when his teenage children – one girl and one boy by each wife – meet on the Internet and he tries to keep them apart.

The Mousetrap, which premieres July 17, is a favourite Agatha Christie mystery. In it, a group of strangers are stranded in a boarding house during a snowstorm.  One is a murderer.  The suspects include the newly-married couple who run the house, a spinster with the curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired army major, a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone.  No sooner does a policeman travelling on skis arrive when a second murder is committed.  From then on, it’s searching for clues and rattling a few skeletons in everyone’s closets.

The final play in the summer series is Noel Coward’s comedy of manners, Private Lives.  Premiering August 7, the play is about two people who were once married and are now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel.  They meet by chance, reignite the old spark, and impulsively elope.  After some days of being reunited, they find their fiery romance alternating between passions of love and anger.  For those who have attended the festival before, Mr Meyer promises some familiar faces in the casts of these four plays.

“We are having people back who have been here before,” he said.

He is optimistic that the variety of productions in this year’s festival will appeal to a wide audience.

“Pre-sales are excellent already,” he said.  “Bus sales are up over last year.  It’s still very early, but looking at last year’s numbers and this year’s numbers, we are very pleased.”

Sudbury shop is Ontario’s most northern source for woodcarving supplies and classes

In a blink-and-you-might-miss-it storefront location on Sudbury’s Bancroft Drive, a small shop is starting to build, among other things, a reputation.

Thompson’s Woodcarving is owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Morris (“Moe”) and Brigette Thompson.

They have built what started as a way for Moe to relieve the stress of working as a Sudbury Regional Police Officer into Ontario’s most northern source for woodcarving supplies and classes.

“We started the shop here in 1999,” said Moe. “I was still working full-time in the police service at the time. I retired in the summer of 2001, and we’ve been steady at this ever since.”

After trying several different types of woodcarving, Moe found his passion was in carving caricatures.

Shelves and display cases at Thompson’s Woodcarving are dominated by wooden characters, many of which are originals drawn from Moe’s experience as a police officer.

Reference Materials, Supplies

Thompson’s Woodcarving also carries reference materials and supplies for several styles and methods of carving.

“Just about anything that’s out there, I have some supplies here that will help,” said Moe.

You can’t buy what they sell just anywhere, said Brigette, who takes care of the business end of running the store.

“Woodcarving tools are so different from any other carpentry tool or any other woodworking tool.”

“There was no place in Northern Ontario to purchase carving tools,” Brigette said. “People in Sudbury, until we opened, were limited to looking at either a print catalogue or a Web site. They couldn’t try anything in their hand. We thought if we could get the tools in, people could try before they buy.”

As well as running the store, the Thompsons attend woodworking and carving shows. This helps them expand their customer base, as well as help their current customers.

“Morris loves to carve, and it’s a way to meet people,” Brigette said.

“We’re the central contact point for information about woodcarving in the area. Through shows, we’re able to keep tabs on what’s going on and pass that on to other carvers. Plus, we get to see new products.”

The store is also working on increasing its inventory of wood- burning supplies.

“‘Artistic arson,’ as one person put it,” she said. “With the aid of your burning pen, you’re sketching a picture onto wood or other mediums. It’s not a new art, but it is seeing a revival.”

Before retiring from the police, Moe’s job was the main source of funding for the business. The business grew slowly, and as time went on, became self-sufficient.

“We ran a cash business, which we still do,” Brigette said. “We find that has been the best way to do business. We buy what we can afford. Once we have sold it, we buy more. Occasionally we do run out of things, especially the big-ticket items, but generally we can get it in a short period of time.

“For the first few years, growth was very slow. Where we’re at today is about where we should be. We have no bank loans.”

Brigette cites the banks’ lack of understanding of small- business issues as one reason why she and Moe couldn’t get financing for Thompson’s Woodcarving.

“The banks would not look at us, because they had nothing to assess this type of store against,” she said. “As a small business, we’ve found that the banks have been very frustrating to deal with.”

Brigette also said that other industries still haven’t figured out the needs of their small-business customers.

“If I want high-speed Internet, because I’m a business I have to pay nearly twice as much as I would as an individual, yet my usage is probably less.”

Still, by avoiding bank loans, creating and following a business plan, and choosing a location that is “tailored to the budget,” the Thompsons have managed to keep their love of woodcarving — and each other — from being overtaken by the stresses of running a business.

“Being retired, we don’t depend on this for our bread and butter,” Brigette said. “We do it mostly because we love it.”

One of the things Moe loves most about woodcarving is teaching. In the past, he has taught classes at Cambrian College, and given instruction to hearing-impaired children. Now he teaches classes in his Bancroft Drive shop.

“I keep my classes very small, because that way I can give individual attention to everybody,” he said. “I carve along with the students, so we all start with the same blank cut-out of wood cut the same way.”

More Carving Shows

In the future, the Thompsons hope to get the word out about their business by doing more woodworking and carving shows. They have also made the first few steps onto the Internet, with their Web site at ww.woodcarve.netfirms.com.

The Thompsons are also working on a project to help increase awareness of Sudbury’s small-business community.

“We’ve tried to interest local cable companies to do a hobby show,” Brigette said. “The reason hobby stores don’t make it in this town is because people don’t know they exist. We’ve got to get them to understand that retailers here in Sudbury carry the same products and often at a competitive price or cheaper.

“People in Sudbury still have to learn to support their local businesses.”

For the volunteers with the Angel Pillow Project, it’s all in the eyes.

“The children’s eyes light up when they receive a pillow, but it is the mothers’ teary eyes that tell the tale,” said Brenda Verdiel of the Angel Pillow Project.

The project is a volunteer effort to give hospitalized children a brightly coloured pillow. The pillows provide comfort for children who are scared and away from home, often for the first time.

“I volunteer my services to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (NOFCC), and started a Parent Support Connection to help parents through difficult times,” Verdiel said.

“Both the pillows and Parent Support Connection started for families who had to go through the crisis of having a child with cancer in Northern Ontario,” she said. “It has grown to helping parents and children regardless of the illness.”

To date, 492 pillows have been made and distributed by several organizations, such as the NOFCC, St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Sudbury, the Timmins and District Hospital, Toronto Sick Kids’ Hospital, and Ronald McDonald houses in Toronto, Hamilton, London and Ottawa.

“At first we decided to make enough pillows to give to all the children across northeastern Ontario who have cancer,” Verdiel said. “I contacted crafters from the Timmins area and a few from Sudbury. It was a huge success and before we knew it, 492 pillows (were made).

“The first 38 pillows came from crafters in the (United) States. Then we made the push for area crafters and the rest is history.”

The Angel Pillow Project will continue its mission of bringing smiles to children into the new year. Verdiel would like to welcome any craft groups, quilters clubs, senior groups, church groups and individuals who would like to show sick children that “someone cares” to join the effort.

“The pillows are anywhere from six inches by eight inches to 10 inches by 10 inches,” Verdiel said. “All we ask is that an angel be on the pillow. Some crafters have done needlepoint, some use angel material. We have quilted pillows and Angel of Hope pillows.

“The children clutch and squeeze with the biggest smile that lights the room,” said Verdiel. “To many crafters, each pillow represents a child’s smile. If, but for a moment, someone feels that someone else cares, especially at a time of crisis, this can make all the difference. An Angel Pillow takes a little time to make, but gives a lifetime of hope and strength.

“We have a request now for pillows for seniors that have dementia. If we can find the crafters, then this is another area we can go forward with.”

For more information, or to join the Angel Pillow Project, contact Verdiel by phone at (705) 969-1283 or by email at butterflymom06@hotmail.com. Information about the Parent Support Connection can be found online at http://groups.msn.com/ParentSupportConnection.

From glamour to grunge, there’s a Dec. 31 party for everyone this year

For most of December, people scurried frantically through the malls and main streets looking for perfect decorations, perfect dinner ingredients and perfect presents.

Now that Christmas is over, there’s only one thing left to look for: the perfect New Year’s Eve party.

Before making it out to Respect is Burning’s Supperclub 2003 — Shaken Not Stirred party, though, you’ll have to find the perfect outfit.

“We’re converting the whole three floors to a candle-lit supperclub setting with a 25-item international buffet,” said Rob Gregorini, owner of Respect is Burning.

“As the night goes on, we’ll be morphing it into a 007 James Bond- themed cocktail party.”

With unlimited champagne fountains, classic Bond flicks on the big screen and a musical melange of disco, spy tunes, blues and Motown funk, Gregorini describes the dress code as “classic glamour. Retro chic, with dinner jackets and evening gowns.”

Tickets will be available at Respect is Burning starting Boxing Day, with a dinner and club-night package going for $60.00 per person. A club-night-only package is also available at $35.00 per person.

Looking for something a little less formal?

Try the Hardcore New Year’s bash at the Towne House.

“Wear your chains, studs, wristbands, leather, whatever else you want,” said James “Belgium” Emond at the club.

The Towne House will offer a three-pronged sonic assault force of Nevess, The Nice Guys and Fleshcraft.

Doors will open at 9:30 p.m.. Tickets are available only at the club for $10 in advance or $12 at the door.

“Semi-formal” is how Barry Lind at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel described the dress code for the dinner-and-dancing extravaganza hosted by Diva, Sudbury’s “premier party band.”

The night begins with cocktails at 7 p.m., followed at 8 p.m.with an extravagant dinner which includes over 20 items to choose from.

Dessert is accompanied by Eastside Frankie, with song stylist Karen following. Then Diva hits the stage and plays straight into next year.

Tickets for the Howard Johnson Plaza event are available from the Sudbury Theatre Centre Box Office, or by calling 674-8381.

“Dress to impress,” is the advice from Dan Ramsay, co-owner of the Club Galaxy on the corner of Elm and Paris.

“We’re going to have black lighting.”

Jitterjaw’s Into the Future party hosted by Galaxy will also have 17 DJs, including Oystrixxx, Navigator, Wizdom, Technoid and Phaty McSlim.

The DJs will be fighting it out in 8 battles that will start at 10 p.m. and keep going until 7 a.m. New Year’s Day

This one is not for early risers.

Tickets are available for $10 at Skadurz, Records On Wheels, and at the door.

Other big parties happening downtown include Peddler’s Pub’s Celtic New Year celebration, the Night Club’s party (with Plain Jane onstage) and more.

If your kids are your favourite fashion accessory, Science North will be hosting Northern Ontario’s largest alcohol-free event.

Nancy Griffin at Science North said: “In addition to live family entertainment, make-and-take workshops, snacks, fireworks and more, this year’s event will feature live animals from Jungle Cat World.”

To ensure that the kiddies who can’t stay awake until midnight still get a chance to celebrate, a 10:00 “kinder countdown” will take place, as well as the usual midnight blow-out.

Tickets are $20.00 for Science North members, $25.00 for non- members.

Tickets are also good for special discounts on IMAX movies and Virtual Voyages.

Check out the Internet site www.sciencenorth.ca/plan/ specialevents/nye/ for more details on events and for information on Mega Bite’s special family buffet.