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Of man bands and concert douchebags

Chick Corea and Return to Forever played a one-date show at the Sony Centre (formerly the Hummingbird) on Wednesday, as part of their first reunion tour in more than 25 years. It was the classic lineup: Chick Corea on keys, Al Di Meola on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums.

And wow. Like, wow.

These guys, after first pioneering jazz-rock back in the 70’s, still know how to jazz-rock da hi-zouse. All four of them must be in their sixties by now, and they kept alluding to their age throughout the show. At one point, the bassist walked up to the microphone and said, emphatically: “In this age of boy bands, [long pause], we are a MAN band”, then strapped his bass back on and they proceeded to rock out with the coolest, grandest of tunes.
Continue reading “Of man bands and concert douchebags”

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Frisky Business: The Top 10 Make Out Spots on the U of T Campus

Not U of T Students Making Out

Summer is here, it’s getting warmer (for the most part), and animals are procreating. You are probably in love, looking for love, or have aching loins. What do you all have in common? You’re frisky and you want to make out; don’t deny it! The U of T campus is pretty empty now that it’s summer, and if you are taking summer courses, why not take advantage of this? You might have your own secret areas to make out on campus, but here’s a list of our suggestions. Read on for photos, ratings, and a map of the best make out spots on campus!

Continue reading “Frisky Business: The Top 10 Make Out Spots on the U of T Campus”

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BlogUT’s picks for the 2008 Toronto Jazz Festival

Today (Thursday)
 What: Salute to Jazz at the Philharmonic with Roy Hargrove, et al.
Where: Toronto Star Mainstage @ Nathan Phillips Square
When: 8PM
Tickets: $35 @ Ticketmaster

Friday, June 27
 What: Sophia Perlman & Adrean Farrugia
Where: Commensal – 655 Bay Street – (416)-596-9364
When: 6:30PM
AND
What: Don Thompson & Reg Schwager
Where: Mezzetta Restaurant – 681 St Clair Avenue West – 416-658-5687
When: 9:00 PM

Saturday, June 28
 What: Hilario Duran and Arturo Sandoval
Where: Toronto Star Mainstage @ Nathan Phillips Square
When: 8PM
Tickets: $30 @ Ticketmaster

Wednesday, July 2nd
 What: Dave Brubeck
Where: Four Seasons Centre
When: 8PM
Tickets: $40-$120 @ Ticketmaster

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Worldwide Short Film Festival Recap: Scene Not Herd

Challengers

On Friday the 13th, I, along with several other music and short film keeners, ploughed my way through the crowds at the Little Italy street festival on College to head on over to The Royal Cinema for an evening of short music films, music videos to be precise. Luckily, many of these videos can be found online, so if you missed the experience of seeing them on the big screen, you can still see them, albeit with much less audio punch and probably much blurrier picture.

Scene Not Herd was mostly a showcase for music videos by Indie Canadian band talents. There were two videos of music by The New Pornographers, Myriad Harbour and Challengers, off their latest album. Challengers was also one of my personal favourites from the programme. Aside from being a big NPs fan, the weird paint-oozing simplistic aesthetic of the film is actually quite appealing. The main focus is a boy and girl who start of in black and white, but as they begin to hold hands, colour rushes to them starting at their hands, a la Pleasantville, and then coloured paint starts seeping in from every nook and cranny. It’s actually a pretty creative way to show that sexual charge that can come with that first time you hold someone’s hand. And if the visuals bore you, the music is swell. Continue reading “Worldwide Short Film Festival Recap: Scene Not Herd”

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Toronto Jazz Festival 2008 Review: Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes

On Monday, jazz piano fans gathered at the Enwave Theatre at Harbourfront to see the husband-and-wife team, Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes, perform duets on two pianos. The seating was general admission – first come first serve – and this was a bit of a disaster with the push to get good seats (assigned seating would have been better). However, the concert was quite good.

Charlap and Rosnes treated the crowd to a mix of old standards, which ranged from mediocre to quite good, and original compositions, which is where the couple really shined.

The standard repertoire included: Fats Waller’s delightful “Jitterbug Waltz”, Allie Wrubel’s “Gone With The Wind”, which was also pretty good, and Joe Henderson’s “Inner Urge”. None of these are particular favourites of mine, though I certainly enjoyed “Jitterbug Waltz”.

Often, the four hands, two pianos, ended up leading to some unwanted dissonance and at times, were just too busy. In an attempt to make something of these pieces, and provide melodic complexity, Rosnes and Charlap, sadly, made too much of them. The back-up often was overwhelming, while the main melody or solo wasn’t pronounced enough to give the piece enough momentum and clarity; this made these pieces too busy. Some of Charlap’s best work was when he was playing with just his right-hand: he accented his melody, and Rosnes could take care of the back-up harmony with two hands. Continue reading “Toronto Jazz Festival 2008 Review: Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes”

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What Can You Do for blogUT? Find Out at the Next blogUT Meeting!

blogUT

Dear readers, the long and the short of it is: yours truly (JP) will be graduating from U of T in 2 months. That means I will no longer be able to hold the position as editor of blogUT. The torch shall be passed on to a generation of younger, better, faster, and stronger bloggers. That leaves the question: who (in the plural sense) will rise to the occasion?

To answer the above question, I’d like to ask two more questions: What has blogUT done for you, and what can you do for blogUT?

What has blogUT done for you? The goal of blogUT was to make U of T campus life more interesting by highlighting various cool, fun things that enrich student life. It is my hope that blogUT will continue to do that in the coming years for future U of T students.

What can you do for blogUT? Aside from the obvious roles of writers, photographers, and web designers (which we all welcome and are in sincere need of), there are a lot of other ways you can get involved. Are you a business or commerce major? You can work on marketing and advertising efforts to build the reach and revenue of blogUT. Interested in leadership? Managing a publication is going to put your leadership skills to the test! (It certainly has put mine to the test… hell, I didn’t even know I had leadership skills till I started blogUT). Are you a political science major? I don’t really know what you do… but perhaps you’d be interested in working with U of T administration and putting together funding proposals to see blogUT grow as a campus establishment.

So, if you do feel that blogUT has done something for your student life and you have something to contribute to blogUT, I hope to hear from you and see you at our next meeting! Thanks for you attention, my lovely readers.

Yours truly, JP

When: Thursday June 26, 2008. 6 – 8 pm.
Where: Hart House Committees Room (ask the front desk where it is)
Details: You can indicate your attendance at this link. If you can’t attend this meeting but feel like contributing, why not join the blogUT Facebook group and the blogUT Flickr Pool. Talk to us, tell us your ideas. We’ll talk back!

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DemoCampToronto18: Where Technology Meets Fun

Democamp
Image from Flickr by davidcrow

I don’t know when it officially happened, but there’s been an unequivocal trend that being a geek is now cool. I still remember the O.C. episode where Seth uttered the prophetic phrase: “Geek is the new chic”. I think that was in the first season, when the show was still good. And then second and third season came around and the quality went on a steady decline.

… but wait, I’m wandering off topic. I want to tell you about a very cool Toronto Tech Community institution called “DemoCamp”:

DemoCamp is a variation of the un-conference style of event, started by the TorCamp group as an excuse to have more regular meetings where community members share what they’ve been working on, demo their products, meet others (and share a drink or 3).

And just why should you care? Please read on! Continue reading “DemoCampToronto18: Where Technology Meets Fun”