Gobsmacked! a revel of offbeat expression
[gob¹ smack¹: with ref. to clapping one's hand to one's mouth in astonishment]
August 27 through August 29 at Harbourfront Centre
TORONTO, August 9, 2004– A jaw-dropping, genre-defying showcase of idiosyncratic arts and culture takes over Harbourfront Centre from August 27 to August 29 at Gobsmacked! a revel of offbeat expression. The second edition of the festival continues to cleverly pay tribute to the quiveringly quirky, the surreptitiously surprising, the wacky and the wild!
Gobsmacked! a revel of offbeat expression gathers the fringe into one place and celebrates the independents, the decidedly creative, the starving artists, and the left-of-centre. This is the same festival that ironically, in its inaugural year, was derailed by the Eastern North American blackout. Gobsmacked! is back on track with a 2004 line-up of marvelous music, experimental films, do-it-yourself zines, interactive art projects, eclectic collections and much more. All events are FREE admission!
MUSIC (full listings, times and dates below):
Toronto's thriving indie music scene is showcased all weekend long with
a slew
of free concerts on the CIBC Stage. Versatile lo-fi
home-rocker Jim
Guthrie opens the weekend on Friday
evening (August 27) at 8 p.m. His recordings show an affinity for
combining
existing
ambient noises such as broken dishes, sirens, and rain-soaked street
noises
with guitar, powerful string arrangements and thoughtful vocal lyrics.
Guthrie
makes way for Toronto based
indie-rock
collective Broken Social Scene's 9
p.m. set. The group is not only
credited with spotlighting the virtues of indie artists across the
country by
winning the Best Alternative Album Award at the 2003 Juno Awards, but
also for
breaking down the traditional set band line-up by introducing an
ever-in-flux
line-up of their self-proclaimed friends and lovers. This two hour
free
show will
be a unique live performance by the group developed especially for
their first highly
anticipated
appearance at
Harbourfront Centre.
New York's One Ring Zero make their Toronto debut on the CIBC Stage on Saturday (August 28) evening at 8 p.m. The genre-bending musical duo (borne of a basement idea to write to celebrated authors asking for lyrics because they didn't want to write the lyrics themselves) perform live using lyrics donated by Margaret Atwood, Rick Moody, Dave Eggers, Paul Auster and Jonathan Ames among others. Touted as a cabaret version of They Might Be Giants, their sound has been dubbed by critics as "lit-pop". Symphonic indie-pop band The Hidden Cameras bring their elaborate live show to Harbourfront Centre at 9:30 p.m. Their recently released album, Mississauga Goddam, combines strings, tambourines and exquisite vocals (from singer Joel Gibb) to produce an unexpected level of musical clarity while referencing homo-erotic imagery alongside straight-up sacred folk and gospel inspirations.
Sunday (August 28) at 3 p.m., local
instrumental band Tricycle takes
to the stage putting the oft-overlooked banjo front and center.
Ushering in
experimental jazz via banjo, guitars, drums, percussion and double
bass, the
band aims to blow open the boundaries of banjo music. Re-appropriating
the
Asian idea of perpetual motion in music, and aptly naming the ensemble
Tricycle in tribute to this idea, the band's composer Jayme Stone has
studied
with Tony Trishka, Alan Mude and Bela Fleck.
Beat-heavy Guelph band King Cobb Steelie takes
to to the CIBC Stage at 4:30 p.m. An injection of post-rock,
funk,
disco and
more adds texture to King Cobb Steelie's music which has been featured
on the
HBO series Six Feet Under and
the Clement Virgo film Love Come Down.
Their 2004 release, Destroy All Codes,
is an oeuvre of raw analog sounds.
Toronto's contemporary phenomena of do-it-yourself
entertainment, Kickass Karaoke (hosted by Carson T.
Foster), takes over the Toronto Star Stage for an entire
Sunday afternnoon of outside karaoke with special guests beginning
at 2 p.m.
DANCE (full listings, times and dates below):
INSTANdictable unpreTANEOUS, the
performance collaboration from dancer Yvonne
Ng, composer/percussionist Erin
Donovan and sound engineer John
Adams, appears at Gobsmacked! on
the Toronto Star Stage on Saturday afternoon (August 28) at 1 p.m.
The dance is
performed on a six-foot tall iron sound sculpture called Sagromides
of
Venus.
FILM (full listings, times
and dates below):
Toronto's Shot-in-a-Day, Cut-in-a-Day, Screened-in-a-Day festival of
digital
filmmaking, On the Fly, presents a
first-ever The Best Of! on August
27 and 29 in the Studio Theatre. Showcasing the best films from
directing
talents, established or undiscovered, that participated in the last 5
years of
the festival. OTF aims to prove
that almost anyone can make a movie! Highlight films include
Win/Loss/Tie (OTF3
Mouche D’Or Winner) directed by Sudz
Sutherland - also known for his full length film Love, Sex and
Eating
the Bones. Well-known video artist/activist Allyson Mitchell
screens My Very Own
Afterschool Special (OTF1) and talented actor/director Sarah
Polley's
The Best Day of My Life (OTF4)
also is screened.
The Liaison of
Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) presents a touring
exhibition
of 16 mm films titled
No Excuses $99 Film
Festival. Pushing artists to reconsider the
idea that making a film needs to be expensive, this retrospective of
films made
throughout the festival's history screens in the Studio
Theatre on
August 28 and 29. LIFT also adds a filmic feeling to
Harbourfront Centre's site, projecting images against tents, trees, and
more
throughout the festival.
KIDS (full listings, times and dates below):
LIFT leads all-ages drop-in
workshop in the Kidzone Tent on Saturday and Sunday (August
28
& 29) on Cameraless
Animation. Kids can draw, paint
and scratch on film and then screen their own creation! The Lakeside
Terrace tent features a Film Scrap
Craft where kids make
wearable art like hats, bracelets and more using old film stock
throughout the weekend. Meanwhile, Second City leads all-ages improv
demo workshops on Saturday and Sunday at the Lakeside Terrace.
LITERARY (full listings, times and dates
below):
anec/notal: a
musical-lit-riff soirée occupys the Brigantine Room on Friday
August 27 at 11
p.m. for Late
Night NOW presented by Blue Light.
Local authors Andrew Kaufman (All My Friends are Superheroes),
Brian Francis (Fruit: A Novel About A Boy and His Nipples)
and Sheila
Heti
(The Middle Stories) gather for
live readings from their novels with musical accompaniment provided by
cabaret
lit-band One Ring Zero.
Theatre/Cabaret (full listings, times and
dates
below):
Evalyn Parry's Cheeky Cabaret (August 28, 11 p.m.
- Brigantine Room) brings in an evening of
reckless,
irreverent entertainment to Late Night NOW. Equally known in Toronto's
indie theatre and music scenes, Ms.
Parry,
dubbed "a modern day Joni for the young, political queer" by
Xtra
Magazine, brings her songwriting talents, quirky sense of humour and
wit as she
hosts the evening with her band. Vancouver-based storyteller and writer
Ivan Coyote (voted by Shift Magazine as one
of the world's top 75 cultural movers and shakers) and local
performance
diva Jess Dobkins are featured as well as a taiko drumming
performance by Three Strong Women from the Inner Truth Taiko
Dojo.
VISUAL ARTS (full listings, times and dates
below):
All weekend long in the Marilyn Brewer Community Space,
two local
collectives
provide interactive art projects:
A Crafty Graffiti Project presented
by The Church
of Craft establishes a creative forum for anyone
who has ever carved their initials in a tree or taken a magic marker to
a
bathroom wall. A large soft fabric base erected on the gallery
wall allows anyone with an ‘itch to stitch’ or other crafty
urges to participate in this public crafting event. Visitors are
encouraged to
bring their own textile or paint to add to the wall. Onsite
materials are also provided. Art parties on both Friday and
Saturday (August 27 and 28, 8 to 11 p.m.) are guaranteed to up the
creative ante.
The Toronto Comic Jam launches a weekend-long safe haven for the alternative comic community. This family-oriented version of the jam (which normally occurs monthly at the Cameron House on Queen Street) allows for an exchange of ideas with participants drawing panels of comics as a team. Finished comics are displayed on the walls and will be collected and made into a special-edition Gobsmacked! zine to be distributed to participants after the festival.
Last year's Eclectic Collections was so popular that it is returning again this year. Now known as Eclectibles!, this year's collections should top last year's (which included Eva Gabor wigs, fortune cookie fortunes, oil cans, wet naps, lint balls and more). Rumored collections in this year’s exhibit include Romance novels with the word ‘love’ in the title, road-kill eye-glasses and Angus the dog’s found ball collection. Gobsmacked organizers are issuing a last call for collectors wishing to submit their odd collections to this year's grouping. Those interested are invited to write to collections@harbourfrontcentre.com For aspiring collectors - eBay Explained's workshop schools those collectors wanting to be in the know about this internet tool.
FOUND BALL PROJECT - The ball stops
here! Harbourfront
Centre and artists Michael Davey and Daniel O’Connor
need the public's
help in collecting found game balls of all sorts to create a new
sculpture or to
possibly put Toronto on the map as holding one of the largest ball
collections
ever assembled in North America. Currently exhibiting at Canada Quay,
Davey
and
O'Connor's newest installation, Inter
Species (a sculpture portraying Angus the cairn terrier) is
made out
of 2,832 balls that
have been found on the beaches of Toronto Island and along Boston’s
waterways and railway corridors. This is a unique opportunity for the
public to participate in the
making of an
art piece by making their contribution to the FOUND BALL DROP OFF
box
at York
Quay Centre by Canada Quay throughout the month of August. The
final found ball collection tally will take place on the final day
of
Gobsmacked! a revel of off-beat expression.
PANEL (full listings, times and dates
below):
(Sub)Cultures In The Global Mainstream explores the tenuous
and ambiguous relationships between subcultures and mainstream artistic
and cultural practices in an age of globalized, technologized
consumption. Moderated by Jowi Taylor (host of CBC Radio's Global
Village).
Gobsmacked! a revel of offbeat
expression
Complete Event Listings - August 27
to August 29
August 24 to August 29 - Visual Arts (York Quay Centre) -
Eclectibles!
Friday August 27
Visual
Arts - A Crafty
Graffiti Project with The Church of Craft (6 p.m.-11
p.m. - Marilyn Brewer Community Space)
Visual Arts/Comics - The
Toronto Comic Jam (6 p.m.-11 p.m. - Marilyn Brewer Community
Space)
Film - The
On the Fly Festival - The Best Of! (7:30 p.m.-
Studio
Theatre)
Programme 1 (some mature content): 6 Years & 364 1/2
Days Later… (Director: Christopher
Behnisch); Stunned &
Disoriented (Director: Nancy
Grieveson); green (Director:
Brett Shama); I’m the Man
(Director: Randall Cole); Work (Director: Kika
Thorne); Close Your Eyes (Director: Cherie Spencer); Those
Who Wait
(Director: Heather Braaten); Snacktime
(Director: Scott McLaren); Subway Transfer
(Director:
Kate Lushington); Wading In
(Director: Tim Burton); Win/Loss/Tie
(Director: Sudz Sutherland)
Visual Arts - Art Party! (8 p.m.-11 p.m. - Marilyn
Brewer Community Space)
Music - Jim Guthrie (8 p.m. - CIBC Stage)
Music- Broken Social Scene (9 p.m. – CIBC
Stage)
Music/Literary -Late Night Now
presents anec/notal: a musical-lit-riff soirée
featuring...
One Ring Zero with local authors Andrew Kaufman, Brian
Francis & Sheila
Heti (11 p.m. - Brigantine Room)
Saturday August 28
Kids - Cameraless Animation (noon.- 6 p.m. - Kidzone
Tent)
Kids - Film Scrap
Craft (noon - 6 p.m. - Lakeside Terrace Tent)
Visual Arts - A
Crafty Graffiti Project with The Church of Craft (noon-
6 p.m. - Marilyn Brewer Community Space)
Visual Arts/Comics - The
Toronto Comic Jam (noon- 6 p.m. - Marilyn Brewer Community
Space)
Workshop - eBay Explained - a
workshop for collectors (12:30 and 5:30 p.m. - Studio Theatre)
Dance - INSTANdictable
unpreTANEOUS (1 p.m.- Toronto Star Stage)
Kids/Theatre - The Second City - demo and workshops
(2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. - Lakeside Terrace)
Film- Liaison of Independent
Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT)
No Excuses $99 Film Festival retrospective (3
p.m.-Studio Theatre) - 4 x 8 x 3
(Director: Chris Kennedy); Subterranea
Gargantua (prelude) - (Director: Daniel
Cockburn); In the Garden
(Director: Larissa Fan); Last Still Life (Director:
Michèle Stanley); Half Man 1/2 God (Director: Darryl
Callender); the eye of the beholder (Director: Stefan
Chiarantano); MisOrderDisOrder (Directors: Alexi Manis
& Eyan Logan); Défi des étoiles (Director: Sara
MacLean); She Was So Young Back Then (Director:
Francisca Duran); Does This Mean We’re Going Together?
(Director: Francisca Duran); locks part 2: dread execution!
(Director: Juliana Saragosa); Body Scares (Director:
Andréa Cohen)
Music - One
Ring Zero (8 p.m. - CIBC Stage)
Music - The Hidden Cameras (9:30 p.m. - CIBC Stage)
Theatre - Late Night Now
presents Evalyn Parry's Cheeky Cabaret with
guests
Ivan Coyote, Jess
Dobkins, Three Strong
Women & more (11 p.m. - Brigantine Room)
Sunday August 29
Kids - Cameraless Animation
for all ages (noon - 6 p.m. - Kidzone Tent)
Kids - Film Scrap
Craft for all ages (noon - 6 p.m. - Lakeside Terrace Tent)
Visual Arts - A
Crafty Graffiti Project with The Church of Craft (noon
- 6 p.m. - Marilyn Brewer Community Space)
Visual Arts/Comics - The
Toronto Comic Jam (noon - 6 p.m. - Marilyn Brewer Community
Space)
Kids/Theatre - The Second City - demo and workshops
(2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. - Lakeside Terrace)
Music - Kickass Karaoke (begins at 2 p.m. - Toronto Star
Stage)
Film- Liaison
of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT)
No Excuses $99 Film
Festival (2 p.m.-Studio Theatre - Note: Same program as August
28 at 3 p.m.)
Panel Discussion - (Sub)Cultures In The Global Mainstream
(2:30
p.m.
– Brigantine Room)
Music - Tricycle (3 p.m. - CIBC Stage)
Music - King Cobb Steelie (4:30 p.m. - CIBC Stage)
Film - The On the Fly
Festival - The Best Of! (4:30 p.m.-Studio Theatre)
Hinterland
What’s What (Directors: John Todd & Dan Peel); Playtime
with
Heracles (Director: Lise Brin); Trade
(Directors: Rupert Lazerus, Sarah Peat & Rebecca Ruddle); Sweet
Blue (Director:
Daniel Slat); The Bunny Project
(Director: Ingrid Veninger); My Very Own
Afterschool Special (Director: Allyson
Mitchell); Doctor Virtuous
(Director: Daniel Cockburn); Teef (Director:
Andrew Bee); The Best Day of My
Life (Director: Sarah
Polley)
-30-
Attention Media: Hi-res jpegs and event releases available at: www.harbourfrontcentre.com/summerfestivals/mediakit.php
Media Contacts:
Rebecca Webster,
416-973-4397, rwebster@harbourfrontcentre.com
Shane Gerard,
416-973-4655, sgerard@harbourfrontcentre.com
Bill Bobek,
416-973-4428, wbobek@harbourfrontcentre.com