Youth Shorts

Episode 53 of This Is Toronto is now available!

This latest edition previews the 3rd annual Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: June 17, 2011

My City Lives

Episode 33 of This Is Toronto is now available!

This latest edition features My City Lives, a website that allows Torontonians to upload videos about their favourite parts of the city.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Sept. 10, 2010

Late Night in the Bedroom

Episode 30 of This Is Toronto is now available.

This latest edition profiles Late Night in the Bedroom, an online talk show that features local artists, musicians and cultural players.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: July 30, 2010

Parkdale Showcase

Episode 28 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition previews the 12th annual Parkdale Film + Video Showcase; June 25-27.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: July 2, 2010

Burning Hell Video from Sappyfest

Via Zunior TV comes video from Sappyfest 2008 - the Burning Hell starts their show with their standard "The Things that People Make" after a tip of the cap to the vastly underrated Phil Collins work of the 1980s.

Seriously if you get the chance to see them don't miss it. This band is insanely fun.



The Burning Hell - In the Air Tonight/the Things that People Make

An Offer You Can't Refuse from Run With the Kittens

On September 12 Toronto's Run With the Kittens is having a CD release shoe at the Horseshoe. A friend of theirs has put together this brief message to make sure everyone knows why attendance isn't optional for you, or your sister.

RVT: Levi MacDougall

Almost everyone knows who Levi MacDougall is. If you don't know the name he is the guy with the really bad cell phone service in Rogers Wireless ads (Don't believe the hype, Rogers service is not that great.) But Levi is more than a guy with bad cell phone service. He's also one of Toronto's better stand up comics.



p.s. It's also his birthday. Happy Birthday Levi

Imponderables: History's Greatest Pervs Continued

Awhile back I posted the first three episodes of History's Greatest Pervs from Toronto sketch comedy troup the Imponderables - just to complete the set here are episodes 4 and 5.




History's Greatest Pervs [Ep4]: Catherine the Great



History's Greatest Pervs [Ep5]: Mahatma Ghandi

Imponderables: Histories Greatest Pervs

From Toronto Sketch Comedy Troupe the Imponderables comes "An ill fated PBS series entitled Histories Greatest Pervs; canceled after only 5 episodes." Here are the first three of those.

Episode 1: Henry VIII (should especially appeal to Tudors fans.)



Episode 2: Lord Byron



Episode 3: of Emperor Elagabalus (Heliogabalus)

Johnny Cash Money Machines?

Okay......be honest.

This was a joke, right?



This clip is part of two YouTube channels that features a wide assortment of television clips from the 1980's; the majority of which were prominent on television screens across Southern Ontario.

To view the channels (put together by the same user), head to www.youtube.com/Retrontario and www.youtube.com/WNED17

Happy Birthday to You Say Party! We Say Die!

You Say Party! We Say Die! sent out this video today (in which Stephen O'Shea has no head) in celebration of the 4th Anniversary of their first show. Happy Birthday!!!



You Say Party! We Say Die! - Monster

Blue Jays Thriller

I love this time of year.

Why you ask? It's simple....

SPRING TRAINING!!!!

The Blue Jays are in Florida, getting ready for the upcoming season. Their first exhibition game is this Thursday against Detroit.

In honour of Spring Training, here's a video that was posted on Yahoo's MLB Blog. It's a unique preview of the 1984 Blue Jays. It features CityTV's Peter Gross.

For the record, the Jays had a great season in '84. Unfortunately, the Detroit Tigers had a much, much, MUCH better season.

RVT: Dance Party of Newfoundland

I was lucky enough to see Dance Party of Newfoundland at the last night. In a just world they'd have a sketch show already.

Old Timey Law Talking

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Twixters

At one point, not so long ago, there was a video podcast called Cynically Tested, then it went away. Now it's back...kindof. From the Toronto Star comes word that the Cynically Tested folk are back but this time it's called Twixters:

"a series of satirical episodes about life between adolescence and adulthood broadcast recently on Bite Television (Rogers Channel 322) and currently on the Web at bitetv.ca and on Facebook, with a blog and additional content at twixterstv.com."

So, it's still sort of a video podcast - but it primarily exists on bitetv.ca, Facebook, Myspace and YouTube. So, I don't have a proper feed to add it to the podcasts. They do however have a blog - so, I'm putting that in the blogs. Twixters looks something like this:

Eyes on Toronto - The Channel

So do you ever get tired of me posting Eyes on Toronto stuff? Didn't think so (no comments please). Now you don't have to wait - Eyes on Toronto has it's very own You Tube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=EyesOnToronto. So you don't have to wait for me to post them all any more, though I probably will eventually. Now - Pirates of the Caribana!

Blood Lines: Rough Cuts and Behind the Scenes

The Blood Lines have been posting a new rough cut of a song every week. They are putting together a new album and would like to know what you think of the rought cuts before they sit down to mix the final version. So, stop by their Myspace, have a listen and let them know - like it, don't like it, have a suggestion?

Their sixth (I think) song is up today - a tune called "Radio Beacon." The video below is a little 'behind the scenes' for you.

Check out this video: The Blood Lines Recording "Radio Beacon (Smiles Away)"

..

RVT: Debra Digiovanni

Debra Digiovanni was brilliant at last nights Eyes on Toronto - no, this isn't video from that but apparently she's been funny before! You can find more stuff from her at debradg.com.

The World Says a Reluctant Goodbye to Oscar Peterson

The great Oscar Peterson was laid to rest today. Not knowing what to say that hasn't already been said I thought I'd just post a bit of a roundup of some of what is being said.

First from the family at OscarPeterson.com

A Message from Kelly & Celine Peterson:

We would like to thank everyone who has sent their condolences, and the hundreds of you who sent e-mail messages. We appreciate it very much. There will be a public memorial service in the near future, and we will provide all the details right here once everything has been decided. For anyone who would like to make donations, we ask you to please make them to World Vision or Christian Children's Fund in honour of Oscar Peterson. Thank you once again for all your love and support. May God Bless his Soul!

CBC Archives has posted a multimedia galleryof Peterson's work:

Oscar Peterson was a giant in every sense of the word. Standing well over 6 feet, he'd even been mistaken for a football player. But there's no mistaking his brilliance on the keyboard. His dazzling technique combined with his swinging style made the Montreal native, as one critic remarked, the best damn jazz pianist in the whole world.

From the Globe and Mail's arts section

Few pianists swung as hard or played as fast and with as many grace notes as Canada's Oscar Peterson. The classically trained musician could play it all, from Chopin and Liszt to blues, stride, boogie, bebop and beyond. He led his own jazz trios, performed with such legendary figures as Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, who called him "the man with four hands," recorded more than 200 albums and wrote such memorable works as Hymn to Freedom and the Canadiana Suite.

From blogto.com

I was lucky enough to have studied jazz at York University while Oscar Peterson was the school's chancellor. Even though our paths never crossed, his presence was almost palpable. I played in an ensemble under the tutelage of Don Thompson, a Canadian jazz giant in his our right, and every once in a while he'd make us put down our instruments and stop talking theory so we could listen to the masters. He'd play us records from his collection - Clifford Brown, John Coltrane, Bill Evans - but more often than not we'd find ourselves listening to Oscar Peterson.

From Drawn! the Illustration and Cartooning Blog

I just read that Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson died last night. In tribute, here’s Begone Dull Care, the groundbreaking abstract animated film from 1949 by Norman McLaren, featuring the music of the Oscar Peterson trio.

From Canoe

Throughout his career, Peterson was showered with accolades. He collected eight Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award in 1997, hundreds of prizes from the jazz community, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement and was a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2005 Canada Post marked his contribution to music with a 50-cent stamp.

From CityNews:

He was a man who tickled the ivories and audiences across the globe. He was a Canadian icon, a teacher, an eight-time Grammy winner and even one of the few Canucks with his face on a postage stamp. But to the world he could be summed up in just two words - "the best."

From the National Post

Considered by many to be one of the greatest piano players of all-time, Mr. Peterson was born in Montreal in 1925. He died at his home in Mississauga. His affair with piano spanned six decades, resulted in more than 200 recordings, and earned him seven Grammy Awards, and saw him named Down Beat magazine's best jazz pianist 13 Times.

From the Halifax Chronicle Herald.

The music was so powerful, so propulsively swinging that fellow musicians found it hard to believe Monday that such a force of nature as Oscar Peterson had finally been stilled.

From Vancouver Jazz

Oscar Peterson, Canada's most renowned and probably greatest jazz musician has died. For the last day or two I've received emails informing of Oscar's death, followed by emails reporting that these were unconfirmed rumours. This morning CBC News confirmed the worst.

Oscar Peterson Trio - A Gal In Gallico (1958)
with Ray Brown & Herb Ellis

From Canoe

Known for the propulsive swing of his music as well as his astounding technical virtuosity, the Montreal-born Peterson visited almost every major concert hall around the globe, recording some of the country's most distinctive music including "Canadiana Suite" and "Hymn to Freedom."

From the Montreal Gazette

Peterson, who last played the Montreal jazz festival in 2004 was named Down Beat magazine's best jazz pianist 13 times. Even though Peterson suffered from arthritis most of his life he routinely topped international jazz polls. His memory for notes and lyrics was photographic. He played with such soul it seemed the piano spoke.
"You can't just sit down and play the piano. You have to think of phrases, colours, intensities. That's the only way it can be," he said once, "I have to become the piano."

From What's On Winnipeg

The jazz community in Canada and at large was one member short this Christmas, but for some the death of Oscar Peterson felt more like an entire orchestra had been silenced instead of just one man.

From Reuters

One of jazz's most recorded musicians, both as leader and accompanist, Peterson rose from working-class beginnings in Montreal -- where his father let him pursue music only if he promised to be "the best" -- to become a major influence on generations of top-flight musicians

From Peace, Order and Good Government, eh?

Oscar Peterson died yesterday at age 82. As an artist and a man, he was a glorious citizen of Canada and the world. We remember with joy his life and his conversations with his piano.

Here is "Cubana Chant" from his 1964 concert in London

From the Australian

The technical brilliance, unprecedented speed and hard-driving swing of Peterson's best work inspired generations of artists. But it also drove them to despair, for they knew Peterson's feats could not be matched, much less topped.

From the Telegraph (UK)

In a career spanning more than half a century Peterson enjoyed celebrity, public acclaim and almost unqualified critical approval. The only sour note came from a few critics who, early in his career, suggested that the effortless fluency of his playing was a mark of glibness.

From the Wall Street Journal

For Peterson, who died on Sunday at age 82, his full mastery of the instrument enabled him to keep striving for what to him was his ultimate reason for being. In his equally masterful autobiography, "A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson" (Continuum, 2002), he said of the "dare-devil enterprise [the jazz experience]" in which he engaged for so many years that it "requires you to collect all your senses, emotions, physical strength and mental power, and focus them totally on the performance. . . every time you play. . . . Uniquely exciting, once it's bitten you, you never get rid of it. Nor do you want to; for you come to believe that if you get it all right, you will be capable of virtually anything. That is what drives me, and I know it always will do so."

From Pravda (Russia)

Oscar Peterson's dazzling keyboard technique, commanding sense of swing and mastery of different piano styles could leave even his most accomplished peers awe-struck. His death brought forth tributes from jazz pianists spanning the generations.

From the Los Angeles Times

Speed, endurance, articulation and imagination -- Peterson embodied them in one perpetually explosive package, and he made it look easy, as is evident in loads of clips on YouTube.

Oscar Peterson performing "Goodbye"

Oscar Peterson 1925-2007

Oscar Peterson, one of the great legends of jazz and one of the best known Canadian musicians in the world has passed. I'm sure you'll hear alot about him in the next few days, but if you are not familiar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Peterson. Holiday or no, I would have been remiss if I didn't take a moment to not the passing of a Canadian icon.

Here is a 1961 clip of Oscar performing Goodbye

CBC Doc Zone: The Pagan Christ

Oops, one more. If you're bored and looking for something to do here's the CBC Doc Zone presentation the Pagan Christ



Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V