The Canada Japan Society, together with the National Film Board of Canada, is hosting a special movie night to celebrate 80 years of diplomatic relations between Canada and Japan.

The film, After Life, is a fantastic piece of Japanese cinema. Understated and subtle in tone, it’s a slow film that conveys layers of mood and feeling. The plot itself is quite intriguing as well:

After people die, they spend a week with counselors, also dead, who help them pick one memory, the only memory they can take to eternity. They describe the memory to the staff who work with a crew to film it and screen it at week’s end; eternity follows. – IMDB

The screening of “After Life” will be preceded by the Genie and Cannes award winning, as well as Oscar nominated, Canadian animated short film “Madame Tutli Putli” directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.

When: Friday, May 16, 2008. 6:30pm
Where: NFB Cinema (150 John Street)
Details: $15.00 General Admission. There will be a wine and cheese reception following the films.

What: Free Passes (4 passes, each for 2 people) for American Teen, Advanced Screening
When: Wednesday, May 14 @ 8PM
Where: Innis Town Hall, Innis College
How to get a pass: Comment on this post and tell an embarrassing story from high school. We will draw winners from the entries. Post by Tuesday at 11:59PM
About the film: (From CINSSU) From Academy Award nominated director, Nanette Burstein (On the Ropes). Winner of the Directing award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. THE DIRECTOR WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE FOR A ‘Q and A’ AFTER THE SCREENING!
Plot Summary (from CINSSU): The touching and hilarious film that follows the lives of four teenagers, in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. Take a look at the TRAILER.

Image from Wikipedia

So, summer is fast approaching and you’re probably thinking, “Hey, I should really do something active.” Good thinking! But what sort of sport should you participate in? Well, BikeChain would like to invite you to consider bike polo! Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Imagine polo, minus the horses, and insert the bikes where the horses used to be, and voila: bike polo.

Below are the listed requirements for participation:
- Access to a road or track bike
- Excellent riding and balancing skills
- An interest in organized bike polo competition

So, if you satisfy those requirements, then head over to the first BikeChain bike polo team practice this Saturday.

When: Saturday, May 10th, 2008. 2pm – 5pm
Where: Meet outside BikeChain – 33 St. George St
Details: Bring a bike. They’ve got the mallets. Don’t bring a horse. I repeat, don’t bring a horse.

Above: The BLAST team standing next to BLAST (right) in Antarctica

This year’s HotDocs festival showcased a few science-related films. Although the subject matter they approach is often fascinating, the films themselves falter by attempting to bring an emotional pull through Hollywood cliché to tell the stories. The science, however, is what brought me to these films, and it makes these films worth the see.

BLAST!

BLAST! is a documentary about the fascinating work being done on a hot air balloon machine of the same name, which has been launched into low earth orbit to collect data about the cosmic microwave background. In layman’s terms, this means getting information about the history of the universe and how the universe evolved, looking back many, many years, which is exciting even if you don’t have much of a scientific background. The story of the work itself is also rather engaging: five years of work, building, designing, researching, and getting funding and everything depends on a launch in Antarctica. The launch gets screwed up because a mechanic’s glove gets caught in the balloon, so the balloon gets damaged. And when the machine finally returned to earth, in Antarctica, it was lost in the middle of nowhere, with the precious data – in a white tube on white snow and ice – separated from the actual machine. (more…)

Video of Trampoline Hall, by 52 Mondays

Well, it’s not quite what you’d imagine when you hear “Trampoline Hall”. You’re probably thinking of a long, gilded hallway, with vaulted ceilings, where slender, acrobatic youths in tights are somersaulting between a row of trampolines stretching into the vanishing point (… at least that’s what I imagined). What Trampoline Hall actually is, is a lecture series that’s entertaining, whimsical, and quite an active local tradition.

Happening at Sneeky Dee’s on the second Monday of every month, Trampoline Hall is a lecture series that has only one stipulation: The lecture may not give a talk on a subject in which they are a professional expert. The result is… well, you can watch the video above and tell me whether or not you think it’s awesome. Hosted by a frenetic dude who speaks with nervous excitement and attended by a sold-out crowd of curious, well-humoured guests every month, Trampoline Hall is a really quaint and charming local tradition that you should probably check out, at least once. I know I’ve been coming back for more ever since I attended my first one.

When: Second Monday of every month. May 12th this month. 8PM Sharp. Get tickets beforehand!
Where: Sneaky Dee’s (431 College Street)
Details: Get your tickets ($6) starting Thursday the week before (May 8th in this case) at Soundscapes (572 College Street)! Tickets sell out quickly. You can find out about the topics of this month’s lectures on the Trampoline Hall website.

The snow may have finally melted, and you may be gratefully putting those Uggs back into storage for another year. But wait… there’s joy to be had from the ice yet. Or ON the ice, to be more precise. Enter the Imperial Ice Stars, performing their latest production Swan Lake On Ice at the Sony Centre (formerly the Hummingbird Centre).

I have to admit I was a tad sceptical of the show when I first saw the posters in the TTC a month ago. Mostly because they were EVERYWHERE, and what with commercial juggernauts like Disney On Ice on my mind, I was afraid this one would be cheesy, or at least that it wouldn’t hold up next to the ballet. But, blogUT got media passes for the opening night yesterday, so who was I to say no? (Taking one for the team – that’s me).

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With lyrics like “we keep on fighting for a free world”, “enough’s enough, youth be tough”, and “we only care about what’s right for us and what’s right for humanity”, RedEye Empire (myspace) manages to deliver poignant, socially-conscious messages in a rich concoction of ska, reggae, and rock. That’s why it’s no surprise that Gabe Davis, Mike Redmond, Eric Stephenson, Ben Brown, Andre Arsenault, and Ali Siadat have played to packed crowds throughout Canada and parts of the United States.

A personal favourite is “Trippin on Babylon”, with its instantly dance-worthy melody, lyrics, and beats. Another crowd-pleaser is “Blood Right”, perfect for chilling under the summer sun.

Experience the catchy, high-energy beats in a casual, laid-back setting at El Mocambo this Saturday night, where they’ll be playing crowd favourites from their latest album, The Diary of Everett Miley. The event will be part of the Toronto Freedom Festival, which is happening this Saturday at Queen’s Park. If you’re curious about the festival, check out the BlogTO post.

When: Saturday May 3, Doors: 9:30pm. Redeye Empire – 12am
Where: El Mocambo (464 Spadina Avenue)
Details: $10 cover