Caribana

Vodpod videos no longer available. from musicalchairpersons. posted with vodpod

Slideshow 2 – Caravan’s 39th Anniversary

Vodpod videos no longer available. from s113.photobucket.com posted with vodpod

Slideshow – Caravan’s 39th Anniversary

Vodpod videos no longer available. from s113.photobucket.com posted with vodpod

Osho’s “Participation”

Osho Zen Tarot – 41 Participation

Have you ever seen night going? Very few people even become aware of things which are happening every day. Have you ever seen the evening coming? The midnight and its song? The sunrise and its beauty?
We are behaving almost like blind people. In such a beautiful world we are living in small ponds of our own misery. It is familiar, so even if somebody wants to pull you out, you struggle. You don’t want to be pulled out of your misery, of your suffering. Otherwise there is so much joy all around, you have just to be aware of it and to become a participant, not a spectator.
Philosophy is speculation, Zen is participation. Participate in the night leaving, participate in the evening coming, participate in the stars and participate in the clouds; make participation your lifestyle and the whole existence becomes such a joy, such an ecstasy. You could not have dreamed of a better universe.

Osho Zen: The Miracle Chapter 2

Commentary: Each figure in this mandala holds the left hand up, in an attitude of receiving, and the right hand down, in an attitude of giving. The whole circle creates a tremendous energy field that takes on the shape of the double dorje, the Tibetan symbol for the thunderbolt.
The mandala has a quality like that of the energy field that forms around a buddha, where all the individuals taking part in the circle make a unique contribution to create a unified and vital whole. It is like a flower, whose wholeness is even more beautiful than the sum of its parts, at the same time enhancing the beauty of each individual petal.
You have an opportunity to participate with others now to make your contribution to creating something greater and more beautiful than each of you could manage alone. Your participation will not only nourish you, but will also contribute something precious to the whole.

When Will We Ever Learn

– from the song “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”

The following Tarot readings analysis is based upon all the cards that appeared in the readings you selected for this analysis:

The cards below came up most often in your saved Tarot readings, which indicates that they may have a special meaning in your life. It’s would be wise to pay more attention to these archetypes, in order to master their qualities or learn the lessons they represent.

Six of Arrows

The Six of this suit has generally been associated with the objectivity of scientific method, employed through the generations to sift fact from superstition, build facts into theories, and theories into Laws which we can trust and use to improve our lives. One early title for this card was The Navigator — one who has learned enough about the relation between the Earth and the Heavens to be able to set a course across trackless oceans and arrive at a chosen spot on distant shores.
At the time of the first Tarot decks, this skill was considered akin to magic, so few were the individuals who understood the principles involved. So the person who draws this card is being typified as a person with special knowledge, an insight into sophisticated techniques that may be powerful enough to effect a rescue in a dangerous time. Other related titles that are common to this card are The Path (out of danger) and The Way Through.

In Tarot, the Minor Arcana cards are divided into the 4 suits of Wands, Coins, Cups, and Swords. Each suit represents different qualities and associates with one of the 4 elements Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. You can look to see which suit appears most frequently in your readings for more insight into your situation.

The suit of Swords is plentiful in your selected readings. This airy suit represents the rational mind and its ability to discriminate. Swords cut through things in order to pierce illusion, to differentiate between fantasy and reality. Air, an extroverted, optimistic and freedom-oriented element, is prominent in your readings. This suggests that you tap into the logical and analytical mind to free yourself from whatever may be holding you back. A great future awaits you.

The astrological influences are evenly distributed throughout these readings you are trying to analyze, such that no one influence stood out above the rest. Either the number of readings analyzed was too small, or you life is astrologically in balance!

Analyzing the numbered Tarot cards (Aces through Tens) in your set of saved readings often reveals a significant recurring number. Like all numbers, it has numerological significance, which is a part of how Tarot card meanings were classically derived. Looking at the meaning of this number can help you recognize and deal with major influences in your personal life.

A lot of cards numbered 6 remind you to strengthen the ties between you and those you care about. This is a time of reaching out to those you love, to be there for them. To provide support and comfort where needed. Often, when the 6 is prominent, you find that one of your friends or family members needs you to the extent that you must sacrifice some of your own comfort and privacy for his or her well being.
Besides the nurturing aspects of the 6, it also points toward greater responsibility in other areas, quite often at work. Promotions are common under the power of the 6. There is almost always financial reward, respect and recognition of your talents and abilities. The 6 is also good for romantic prospects. Your heart becomes capable of radiating warmth and comfort. This makes you exceedingly attractive, but it is also the kind of eye-catching energy that can attract the wrong person. You are in a vulnerable position and someone may try to take advantage of that. Listen to your friends. They can be objective and are in a position to protect you.

Celtic Cross

• People of Third World countries, aside from their fight for survival, must deal with fundamental violations like children militias, genital mutilation and basic human rights
  Jun 12, 2007 11:35am PST
• Mother Teresa cited the main problem of the Industrial populations as related to loneliness
  Jun 12, 2007 11:36am PST
• Depression and obesity and subsequent self-medication from Rx drugs to food, shopping, addiction to TV and computer are signs of the dissolved family and so alienation – a society of disconnected members
  Jun 12, 2007 11:41am PST
• Dr. Hoover, my Urban Studies professor from Brock called such alienation “anomie”
  Jun 12, 2007 11:43am PST
• Even Third World and Industrial countries are dissociated from each other but we are still suffering the common pain of separation and human indignity
  Jun 12, 2007 11:46am PST
• Third World people may need to satisfy their physical hunger and the Industrial people to numb their emotional hunger but neither is ever satisfied
  Jun 12, 2007 11:51am PST
• Satisfaction evades us though resources are sufficient. We need each other but borders and belief systems ensure we remain segregated
  Jun 12, 2007 11:54am PST
• Universal practices – we all celebrate holidays and holy days with festivities and we all have music at our festivities – we share music
  Jun 12, 2007 11:57am PST
• Attempts to share resources, dissolve boundaries, practice ecumenism have failed; I say don’t fight the negative, enhance commonality, i.e., share music
  Jun 12, 2007 11:59am PST
• Therapeutic properties of music are proven. Baby-boomers are by numbers trendsetters. Sell the idea to them by appealing to what they find feel-good music
  Jun 12, 2007 12:04pm PST
• Baby-boomers are facing their mortality and may be ready to give a final thrust to the flower power and peace movements of their youth
  Jun 12, 2007 12:06pm PST
• Appeal to the heartstrings of Baby-boomers thru their music to heal their souls. Re-awaken their idealism and maybe they will want to share music healing with humans still in pain
  Jun 12, 2007 12:10pm PST
• I am powerless, never had a successful career, and never even had children as a woman. Still, for these reasons I believe my work is still ahead of me though I’m already 54.
  Jun 12, 2007 12:14pm PST

Luminato :: Lizt Alfonso’s Danza Cuba

Singer Omara Portuondo, of Buena Vista Social Club fame, rehearses with members of Ballet Lizt Alfonso. She plays an older version of Vida, who is portrayed by performers of different ages as her story — reminiscent of Lizt Alfonzo’s life and Cuba’s history — unfolds.

Lizt Alfonso’s Danza Cuba prepares for their dance musical Vida for Toronto

May 24, 2007 04:30 AM

Susan Walker
DANCE WRITER

HAVANA– On a Monday afternoon in the third floor studio of Ballet Lizt Alfonso, the dancers – six girls, 15 women and Vadim, a male guest artist – gather for a run-through of Act I of Vida. Omara Portuondo (of Buena Vista Social Club) is at the side of the room going over lines from a revised script.

Although they don’t show it, this is a tense moment for Lizt Alfonso and her Canadian co-director Kelly Robinson, because much refining is still to be done before the company flies to Toronto.

Along the back wall of the studio the musicians take their places: company composer Denis Javier Peralta Amigó on keyboards, a woman cellist, a violinist, a trumpeter, and three percussionists on bongos, djembes, caixa and drum sets.

 

A rough journey to dance fame

Ask anyone in Havana about Lizt Alfonso and the answer invariably is, “Yes. Everyone knows who she is.”

The show is the co-creation of Lizt Alfonso; her world manager, Torontonian Peter Sever; and Robinson’s employer, Mirvish Productions. It is a first for Toronto and for Ballet Lizt Alfonso: a Cuban-Canadian co-production of an elaborate dance musical.

But Danza Cuba, as Ballet Lizt Alfonso is known in North America, is comfortable on the big stage. They sold out two performances in Havana’s 5,000-seat Karl Marx theatre for their 15th anniversary show last October. On their first U.S. tour in 2001, they played to 3,000 people in New York City’s Summerstage festival in Central Park.

Alfonso’s shows, including Alas (Wings), Elementos (Elements) and Fuerza y Compas (Strength and Beat), are dance and music of a kind no one else creates: a seamless fusion of Spanish classical dance, ballet, flamenco, Afro-Cuban dance and Cuban social dance – mamba, rumba and cha-cha-cha.

Vida is the story of one woman’s life, told from her vantage point near the end of her life to her granddaughter Alma. It is a parallel to Lizt Alfonso’s own life and alludes to Cuba’s 20th-century history. It’s “an ode to life,” says Robinson. (“Vida” is Spanish for “life.”)

Sever’s journey with the company began in the fall of 2005 when a friend in Texas handed him a videotape and suggested he might want to represent Lizt Alfonso.

“On Christmas day in Toronto,” Sever recalls, “I took a look at the video.” The show amazed him. “I had never seen anything like it.”

Sever flew to Havana in the early part of 2006 to discuss with Alfonso the idea of representing her company outside of Cuba and mounting a major show in Canada.

“I said, `Yes, a musical. Okay. It’s perfect,'” Alfonso recalls. “It’s a big difference, and it’s a challenge: right away we started to work on it.”

Sever took his idea to David Mirvish and a deal was soon struck for a show. Veronica Tennant, former National Ballet prima ballerina, joined the project to make a TV documentary. She’s now talking about a dance film of Vida.

Everything moved very quickly, as the show’s creative team gathered in Havana in January.

“It was like combustion,” says Tennant.

---

Behind the scenes of a theatrical joint venture, things do not often go smoothly, at least at the outset. But with Vida, the exception became the rule.

“By the end of the first day, we were actively talking about the creation of the show,” says Robinson of his initial meeting with Alfonso, her husband and company manager Juan Carlos Coello. They all agreed they didn’t want a show that would be folkloric, or a floor show like Tropicana or a revue. “We wanted it to be something to touch an audience emotionally.”

A theme developed as Robinson gathered existing choreography from Lizt’s shows and shaped it to a story of survival in difficult times.

“I think it’s easy to come to that knowing just a little bit about Cuba, and seeing Lizt, seeing the girls, the work, seeing what she’s doing.” In the first act of Vida, a teenage dancer joins a revolutionary movement and meets the man she will marry.

Omara, a family friend of Lizt’s, was the natural choice to play an old Vida, who tells the story of her life to her granddaughter Alma. Omara tells her own story through Pedro, son of a company administrator. She has been a singer all her life, she says, and made her first trip to the U.S. with a musical group in 1951. “The invitation to join this project came as a great pleasure to me. I have a lot of admiration for Lizt’s work,” she says.

Alfonso felt there should be two women to play the grandmother, so she chose Ele Valdez, lead singer in the Cuban group Sintesis, as the second one. “Because I thought they should be very different and give a different feeling to the part,” says the choreographer.

---

Tennant runs her video camera as the rehearsal begins. Grandma Vida enters on a cane, and approaches Alma, a role taken by a student in the Lizt Alfonso school. She is Yaraidy Fernández Ojito, an engaging child of 10, with a dynamite dance style. Camila Sánchez Pérez plays Vida 1, the youngest. A couple of years ago, this child had a major heart operation done by a team of Cuban and American doctors. Lizt was the first person after her parents admitted to see the girl.

Omara does her narration in Spanish, but she’ll record the English text so it is heard in the theatre as a voice-over. “In Cuba, like many other places, the old leave the young a gift, a token some might call an amulet …” Later she also sings, on the remembered occasion of a birthday party, with the dancers surrounding her and applauding.

The scenes in Act I include a charming piece adapted for students in the Lizt Alfonso school, from an earlier Alfonso show. Three girls play Spanish mistresses in flamenco shoes, dancing classical Spanish style. Three more are servants. They wear flat wooden sandals and beat out Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Death, played by Maysabel Pintado Santidriàn, is a captivating character who doubles as a punishing military general and will eventually take Vida to the next world.

Yudisley Martínez Ventura, a striking young dancer, is Vida II, in her 20s when she dances a pas de deux with her lover, a rebel. Vadim Larramendi Paz a guest artist, dances this role.

The rehearsal goes well.

Robinson gets to talk first, as the dancers and musicians gather in a semi-circle, with Amigó translating for him. Robinson is explaining that there are going to be a lot of little changes to be made, and in some cases, unmade: “An audience makes meaning out of everything, music words, movement, expression, things that you have in your hands. How you stitch it together is very important.” Later, Robinson, a ballet dancer turned opera and theatre director, says the language difference is not all that the co-directors face. “We’re working with different performance lexicons,” he says, meaning dance, spoken theatre, song and music.

It has been a difficult session, but the smile hasn’t left Lizt’s face as she speaks in rapid-fire Spanish to the dancers. They seem like her daughters. Nor is she fazed by the work that must be accomplished before Vida hits the stage in Toronto next week.

Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid

ARCHIVE – Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid

Toronto, Canada (Pop. 4,800,000, 51st)

Bid Record:  Last bid for 1996.  Canada last hosted with Calgary 1988 Winter Games and Montreal 1976 Summer Games. 

Toronto first received permission to represent Canada from the Canadian Olympic  Association (chosen over Vancouver). They have  received City Council support and have set up a City office. They are also supported by Provincial Members of Parliament.  Solid venue plans have been proposed and there is widespread public support.  On January 16 the Bid Committee received a financial support guarantee from the province of Ontario, and it was sent to the IOC along with the bid book.

Toronto Bid Committee Information
(PDF) Toronto’s Bid Operating Budget
Toronto Proposed Venues

Conclusion from May 15, 2001 IOC Evaluation Commission Report

” The bid is driven by the NOC and all levels of government, which offer strong support. It also contains a large element of private sector involvement.
The compact sports concept based on a unique site adjacent to the city centre with good transport links and a legacy to sport make the bid very attractive. The major challenge is the capacity of the combined private sector and government alliance to deliver the waterfront sports venues and Village developments.
However, the Commission is confident that this could be achieved and that Toronto would stage an excellent Games.”

Applicant City Evaluation Report Results From August 2000

Bold = Highest City in Category
Italics = Lowest City in Category

General Infrastructure – 6.95

Accommodation – 7.80

Olympic Village – 6.95

Sports Infrastructure – 7.90

Transport Infrastructure –  8.10

A Place Of Meeting
October 25, 2000

“Toronto” is a Huron Indian word meaning “a place of meeting”. Toronto’s 2008 Olympic bid motto is appropriately “Expect The World”. Should Toronto win the 2008 Summer Olympic bid it will “expect the world” in Toronto, a “place of meeting”.

After three levels of government, (federal, provincial and municipal) committed $1.5 billion to revitalize the city’s waterfront where many of the Olympic venues will be located, supporters of Toronto’s 2008 bid were able to breathe a little easier. The city’s failed 1996 bid was not fully supported by all three governments. The bid’s President and Chief Executive Officer John Bitove said, “I don’t believe anything of this magnitude has ever been undertaken by a Candidate City”.

The primary focus of Toronto’s bid is “Sport and Athletes: together with the promotion of Olympic ideals and values”. If the city is awarded the Games, all the athletes will be accommodated in a single Olympic Village located on the waterfront within walking distance of the Olympic stadium. Twenty-five sports with competition venues will be within 0.5 to six kilometres of the Olympic Village. There will be an Olympic Village Island that includes private and secure recreation facilities on premier beaches and waterfront parks. A Media Village will be located within one kilometre of the Olympic Stadium, the International Broadcast Centre and the Main Press Centre. And visitors to the Games will be accommodated in more than 72,800 hotel rooms within one hour of the Olympic Village and all of the sport venues.

Toronto’s Olympic bid committee says that Toronto’s 2008 Games would have one of the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in the world, comprised of state-of-the-art digital, wire-line, wireless and broadcast networks.

The area will be divided into Olympic Rings East, Central and West and the rings will be linked by a continuous Olympic Waterfront Promenade creating an international stage for the Games’ cultural festivities. The Promenade will be reserved for pedestrians, the Olympic family and spectator shuttle-bus transportation.

More than 100 training facilities will be located within 30 minutes of the Olympic Village.

After the Games, the facilities would contribute to a strengthened nation-wide sport and recreation infrastructure at the community level.

National Acclimatization Centres would be established across Canada to host foreign teams and individual competitors for a period of time prior to the commencement of the Games in Toronto.

The bid has a strong environmental policy that includes guiding principles to which the bid is committed. Principles that ensure issues such as transportation, energy and waste were all considered in the planning process. Toronto’s bid committee wants to create the healthiest conditions possible for athletes, visitors and residents by promoting the restoration and maintenance of clean air, land and water; ensuring safe, healthy indoor environments; using non-toxic materials and minimizing pollution.

Toronto’s bid wants to preserve and restore existing greenspace and sensitive habitats, regenerate the waterfront with new green infrastructure and minimize impacts to Toronto’s residents and neighbourhoods. And there are plans to use renewable energy and materials while reducing, reusing and recycling energy, water and materials.

The bid is committed to creating barrier-free accessible conditions for athletes and spectators by ensuring all buildings and sites are barrier-free, including venues and facilities, training sites, the Olympic and Paralympic Village, designated accommodations, food service areas, and media sites.

As for the Paralympics, a Paralympic Working Group and Planning Committee has been established as a sub-committee of the Sports & Venues Committee. Sixteen of the 18 Paralympic sport venues are located within six kilometres of the Paralympic Village and two sports, archery and goalball, will be located within 30 minutes (40 km) of the Paralympic Village.

If Toronto becomes the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the city will be ready to “Expect The World” in Toronto, a “place of meeting”.

 

BidIndex 2014 Details : BidIndex Archive

GAMESBIDS.COM BIDINDEX

BidIndex is a mathematical model developed by GamesBids.com that when applied to an Olympic Bid, produces a number that can be used to rate a bid relative to past successful bids – and possibly gauge its potential success.

This complex model is a result of months of research and development by analysts with expertise in statistics, mathematics and the Olympic Bid process. Information for BidIndex is obtained from both public and inside sources.

The primary model looks at the actual Olympic bids voted on by the International Olympic Committee. GamesBids.com BidIndex will also analyze selected bids with our National Olympic Committee (NOC) model. These are qualifying bids conducted by the NOC’s (e.g. The United States Olympic Committee’s selection for the 2012 bid).

While it is impossible for anyone to know which city will win a bid, BidIndex combines the current geopolitical and technical status of a bid and projects how it might compete based on past voting patterns. Since the IOC does not always pick the best quality bid, BidIndex does not predict the winner or rank the bids. It is designed to measure the competitiveness of each bid on a static scale.

BidIndex was reviewed in the March 2004 edition of Significance Magazine, a publication by the Royal Statistical Society.

BidIndex 2014 – Description and current statistics
BidIndex 2012 – Description and statistics
BidIndex 2010 – Description and statistics
BidIndex USA for 2012 – Description and statistics
BidIndex Archive – BidIndex for previous bids
BidIndex News
BidIndex Helps Us Keep Score (More Info.)

For further questions or additional information please click here.

Buy none, get 10 free

May 31, 2007 04:30 AM

Bruce DeMara
Entertainment Reporter

Free the artistic soul within or sample freely from Toronto’s rich culture, music and heritage.

And do it for free.

 

The free Muhtadi drumming festival features performers from Africa and beyond.

 

…Toronto’s inaugural Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity offers 10 days of daring, dazzling and dizzying entertainment and what’s more, more than half of the events are free.

One of the festival’s three defining pillars, alongside diversity and collaboration, is accessibility, said CEO Janice Price.

“It’s one of the things that attracted me to this festival was this commitment to accessibility, access to the programs,” Price said.

 

Photo gallery: Summer of Love

Photo gallery: Luminato

Luminato special section

Luminato events for June 1

Luminato Creativity blog

CP Video: Cohen and Glass

Video: Preview of Vida

Graphic: Map of Luminato events

Official site

Luminato events for June 1

Jun 01, 2007 12:51 PM

Highlights of today’s Luminato events. Full details and ticket info available at www.luminato.com. Times are subject to change.

Music
Opening night concert features performances from Chantal Kreviazuk, Gordie Sampson, Molly Johnson and the Muhtadi International Drummers. 9 p.m., BCE Place, Garden Court, 181 Bay St. (free)

Art of Jazz features a performance by Kenny Wheeler with friends Dave Holland, Bob Brookmeyer, Lee Konitz, Joe La Barbera, Don Thompson and Norma Winstone. At the Distillery District, 55 Mill St. ($25-$39.50). more shows June. 2-3

Book of Longing is composer Philip Glass’s interpretation of the poetry of Leonard Cohen. 8 p.m., Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre, 189 Yonge St. ($25-$125). more shows June 2 at 8 p.m. & 3 at 7 p.m.

Not The Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) is a “comic oratorio inspired by Monty Python’s Life of Brian.” From Eric Idle and John Du Prez, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. 7:30 p.m., Roy Thompson Hall, 60 Simcoe St. ($25-$125) more shows Jun 2 & 4

Theatre & Performance
Spiegeltent’ntavern is designed to reflect the European cabarets of the 1920s, with a variety of entertainment each evening; ticketed events at 8 p.m. nightly to June 10. Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W. ($25)

Vida! has Lizt Alfonso’s Danza Cuba with Omara Portuondo exploring Cuba’s vivid social history. 8 p.m.; continues to June 10 at varying times. Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W., ($20-$85)

The Walker Project: Escape from Happiness is part of Toronto playwright George F. Walker’s look at hardscrabble urban life. 8 p.m., Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst St. ($20-$35) on to June 10

Norman from 4D art and mix-media masters Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon celebrates Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. 8 p.m., St. Lawrence Centre, 27 Front St. E. ($30-$50) June 2 at 8 p.m. & 3 at 7 p.m. too

Visual Arts
“Auroras/Testimony” features two works by artists Atom Egoyan and Kutlug Ataman. On display to June 10, Distillery District, Artcore/Fabrice Marcolini, 55 Mill St.

Floating Artworks are larger-than-life exhibits at several downtown venues, including BCE Place (181 Bay St.), TD Tower (222 Bay St.), Union Station (65 Bay St.)and others. On display to June 10.

Celebrating the Beauty in Art is live painting from Carlito Dalceggio; 5 p.m.-midnight through Jun. 10 on the exterior billboard at Hotel Le Germain, 30 Mercer St. (free).

The Robotic Chair from Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea and Matt Donovan has its premiere Canadian exhibition; at various times until June 10. Roots, 100 Bloor St. W. (free).

Other
The Distillery District offers installations, live poetry booths, music, multi-disciplinary events and more, 6-11 p.m. 55 Mill St. (free and ticketed events). continues to June 10

24 Frames per Second is a workshop that gives an introduction to the history and technology of the moving image. 6 p.m. at the NFB Mediatheque, 150 John St. (free).

Luminato ~ Toronto 2007

Luminato

A festival of literature, music, art, theatre and dance June 1 to 10

May 24, 2007 04:00 AM

Your guide to the inaugural Luminato festival.

• Concert lights up festival
• Has the cultural renaissance begun?
• Not the Messiah captures best ’70s British humour
• Elite shine at Crystal fundraiser
• Lee-Chin: A gift of the possible

 ANDREW WALLACE/TORONTO STAR

Pulse, an artwork by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, features 10 sculptures with electronic sensors, a computer and 20 searchlights. The public touches the sensors in the sculptures near The Power Plant art gallery and their pulse is converted into a flashing searchlight beam.

PERFORMERS ROLL INTO TOWN

TheStar.com – News – Concert lights up festival

Spectators on a closed Front St. applaud an opening act at Luminato’s free outdoor concert at BCE Place,
June 1, 2007.

 

Jun 02, 2007 04:30 AM

Thulasi Srikanthan
STAFF REPORTER

Under the dim lights, hundreds of Torontonians spilled into the streets for Toronto’s first Luminato festival of “arts and creativity.”

On this warm night, gone was the hustle and bustle of the once-gridlocked downtown core. All that was left were the pounding drums, the blazing multicoloured lights and the swaying crowds filling up the sidewalks.

“It’s about time we take advantage of the entertainment that Toronto offers,” said Aubrey Bannister, a long-time Toronto resident who had come out for the event.

Bannister said more events promoting culture like this are needed, adding “it makes Toronto a world-class city.”

The free concert was part of the 10-day festival that will last until June 10.

Last night’s event featured songwriter and singer Chantal Kreviazuk, East Coast singer/songwriter Gordie Sampson (who wrote the hit single “Jesus Takes the Wheel”) and vocalist Molly Johnson.

Other performers included the Muhtadi International Drummers and a “waist drum” group from Northern China.

The festival has been hyped as a “multi-genre celebration” combining classical and contemporary music, theatre and visual arts, dance and film.

More than $10 million was raised to hold the event, which organizers say is intended to be the world’s “newest international festival.”

“Anything that promotes culture is great,” said David Davidar, who works in the cultural industry and decided to spend the night with his wife at Luminato.

“It would be great if Toronto became a cultural destination of sorts.”

It’s a sentiment that Nazim Karmali echoed.

“It’s a good time for the tourists to visit,” he said. “There is so much going on here.”

SPOTLIGHT ON ROM CRYSTAL

TheStar.com – News – Has the cultural renaissance begun?

DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR

A gala fundraiser last night attracted the country’s political and artistic elite, raising millions for the ROM as Luminato, a city-wide festival, kicked off its 10-day run.
 

At last, controversial new Royal Ontario Museum opens its doors to the public for the first time tonight

Jun 02, 2007 04:30 AM

Christopher Hume
Toronto Star

Toronto has never seen anything like it. Suddenly, it seems, entertainment, arts and culture are everywhere around us.

After five years of hard work and considerable controversy, the much-anticipated Michael Lee-Chin Crystal opens tonight at the Royal Ontario Museum. The gala fundraiser took place yesterday, but this evening’s unveiling is the real thing. To mark the occasion, the ROM’s new Bloor St. entrance will become an outdoor concert venue and the museum will be open all night.

If that weren’t enough, Luminato, the city-wide, 10-day, mega-festival that offers something for everyone, also kicked off yesterday.

Are these the signs of a new Toronto, or the exception that proves the rule?

The Star examines this question and others in a comprehensive Entertainment series starting today.

At a time when cities are increasingly defined by their cultural infrastructure, the race to build ever more spectacular museums, galleries, opera houses and performance halls has grown intense. Will Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance enable us to keep pace? Or will it fall short? Find out today through Monday in Entertainment.

And don’t forget the Star’s daily Luminato coverage. This is the monster festival conceived as a means to thrust Toronto onto the international ranks of culture cities. It’s too early to tell if it will work, but there’s a lot riding on the success of this event, not just in terms of the economy and prestige, but also for the civic ego.

If we build it, will they come? If we mount it, will they show up? It may be too soon to say, but finding out has never been more fun.
 

Elite shine at Crystal fundraiser

ROM celebration draws cultural rich and famous, but it’s tonight’s party that will really make a statement

Jun 02, 2007 04:30 AM

Martin Knelman
entertainment columnist

The Royal Ontario Museum marched into the new century last night with one of the bubbliest gala fundraisers in the history of the Toronto arts world, celebrating the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

No doubt the $1,000-a-head price tag, the rich-and-famous names on the guest list, and the tantalizing menu were all part of the mix. But there was something with more resonance that made it special.

For the first time in its history, the ROM has become downright lovable.

In the end, what people will remember decades from now is the transformative impact on the entire city of architect Daniel Libeskind’s iconic building, which virtually shouts: “Stop thinking of museums as stuffy, austere places! This place is for everyone, not just the elite, and the adventure beings even before you step inside, when just the shape of it tells you something exciting is about to happen.”

Among the 500 guests at the sold-out dinner: Libeskind and his wife, Nina; $30 million lead donor Michael Lee-Chin and his parents, Gloria and Vincent Chen; campaign chair Hilary Weston and her family; finance minister Jim Flaherty; Mila and Brian Mulroney; Peter and Melanie Munk; Ivan Fecan and Sandra Faire; Murray Frum and Nancy Lockhart; Wallace McCain and Margaret Norrie McCain; Ontario culture minister Caroline Di Cocco.

The evening began outside the new main entrance on Bloor St. and flowed through the Spirit House lobby into the four-storey Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court.

Some women flew to Paris to buy couture dresses for the special event, while one guest reportedly paid as high as $2 million for a table of nine in the dining room, reports the Star‘s Rita Daly.

“Toronto has all the ingredients to be a great city, it already is,” accomplished architect Bruce Kuwabara said as he walked up the red carpet, adding the Crystal has people all over the world talking about it.

“If Toronto wants to grow up … it has to get comfortable with debate.”

After dinner, an additional 500 guests arrived for a night of exploring and dancing at the Big Bang Party ($250 per person), which was to go on until 3 a.m.

While last night was a big-deal occasion for the privileged members of Toronto’s social and cultural elite, the true significance of the Crystal will shine even more brightly tonight, when thousands of ordinary people gather on Bloor St. for a free concert in collaboration with Luminato that begins at dusk.

After the concert, crowds will be welcomed through the doors of the Crystal, accepting the museum’s invitation to stay all night and explore its wonders.

That speaks to an anything-goes spirit of inclusiveness, diversity and democracy that Libeskind’s witty and surprising shapes and angles celebrate. It announces an end to the old Toronto, where museums belonged principally to members of the establishment club.

Michael Lee-Chin likes to tell the story of the day Mrs. Weston came to Burlington to say she wanted him to write that $30 million cheque.

He asked her why she went to the trouble of going all the way to Burlington when she could have looked across the breakfast table and asked her billionaire husband to take care of it.

“Well,” said Mrs. Weston, “if Galen wrote the cheque, it wouldn’t cause a ripple. But if you do it, it will be an inspiration to every immigrant.”

Mrs. Weston, of course, was absolutely right.

Yes, the elite had their special night last night. But now it’s time for the rest of the city to start the real party, which will go on for decades, making sure that Toronto will never be the same.
 

Elite shine at Crystal fundraiser

ROM celebration draws cultural rich and famous, but it’s tonight’s party that will really make a statement

Jun 02, 2007 04:30 AM

Martin Knelman
entertainment columnist

The Royal Ontario Museum marched into the new century last night with one of the bubbliest gala fundraisers in the history of the Toronto arts world, celebrating the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

No doubt the $1,000-a-head price tag, the rich-and-famous names on the guest list, and the tantalizing menu were all part of the mix. But there was something with more resonance that made it special.

For the first time in its history, the ROM has become downright lovable.

In the end, what people will remember decades from now is the transformative impact on the entire city of architect Daniel Libeskind’s iconic building, which virtually shouts: “Stop thinking of museums as stuffy, austere places! This place is for everyone, not just the elite, and the adventure beings even before you step inside, when just the shape of it tells you something exciting is about to happen.”

Among the 500 guests at the sold-out dinner: Libeskind and his wife, Nina; $30 million lead donor Michael Lee-Chin and his parents, Gloria and Vincent Chen; campaign chair Hilary Weston and her family; finance minister Jim Flaherty; Mila and Brian Mulroney; Peter and Melanie Munk; Ivan Fecan and Sandra Faire; Murray Frum and Nancy Lockhart; Wallace McCain and Margaret Norrie McCain; Ontario culture minister Caroline Di Cocco.

The evening began outside the new main entrance on Bloor St. and flowed through the Spirit House lobby into the four-storey Hyacinth Gloria Chen Crystal Court.

Some women flew to Paris to buy couture dresses for the special event, while one guest reportedly paid as high as $2 million for a table of nine in the dining room, reports the Star‘s Rita Daly.

“Toronto has all the ingredients to be a great city, it already is,” accomplished architect Bruce Kuwabara said as he walked up the red carpet, adding the Crystal has people all over the world talking about it.

“If Toronto wants to grow up … it has to get comfortable with debate.”

After dinner, an additional 500 guests arrived for a night of exploring and dancing at the Big Bang Party ($250 per person), which was to go on until 3 a.m.

While last night was a big-deal occasion for the privileged members of Toronto’s social and cultural elite, the true significance of the Crystal will shine even more brightly tonight, when thousands of ordinary people gather on Bloor St. for a free concert in collaboration with Luminato that begins at dusk.

After the concert, crowds will be welcomed through the doors of the Crystal, accepting the museum’s invitation to stay all night and explore its wonders.

That speaks to an anything-goes spirit of inclusiveness, diversity and democracy that Libeskind’s witty and surprising shapes and angles celebrate. It announces an end to the old Toronto, where museums belonged principally to members of the establishment club.

Michael Lee-Chin likes to tell the story of the day Mrs. Weston came to Burlington to say she wanted him to write that $30 million cheque.

He asked her why she went to the trouble of going all the way to Burlington when she could have looked across the breakfast table and asked her billionaire husband to take care of it.

“Well,” said Mrs. Weston, “if Galen wrote the cheque, it wouldn’t cause a ripple. But if you do it, it will be an inspiration to every immigrant.”

Mrs. Weston, of course, was absolutely right.

Yes, the elite had their special night last night. But now it’s time for the rest of the city to start the real party, which will go on for decades, making sure that Toronto will never be the same.

Inside the ROM crystal
More than a thousand Royal Ontario Museum donors and supporters will be the first members of the public to visit the ROM’s new crystal expansion at a gala tonight. But you can take a virtual reality sneak peak now.
Full Story, video, 360 views

Cohen’s poetry music to Glass’s ear
In a new work at Luminato, 22 of Leonard Cohen’s poems have been set to music by Philip Glass, one of contemporary classical music’s most recognized and celebrated composers. By Vit Wagner
Full Story, video

Drawn to Cohen’s artistry
As part of the Luminato arts festival, the Drabinsky Gallery in Yorkville is featuring the debut exhibit of Leonard Cohen’s drawings. In this Star exclusive, we have several selections from that show. By Martin Knelman
Full Story, photo gallery

Action centres
Twenty pulsing, uber-bright searchlights will pierce the night sky May 31, flicking the switch on a 10-day Luminato festival downtown from June 1-10. By Matthew Chung
Full Story

Many activities geared to families
As most parents know, trying to get kids to enjoy art is a prospect that can be fraught with peril. Questions of appropriateness aside, there’s the fear of hearing “I’m bored.” By Raju Mudhar
Full Story

It all started over lunch
Tony Gagliano, it can be fairly said, enjoys a good lunch. “That’s my portion,” he laughs, full and body-shaking, as a platter of grilled breads with various tapenades arrives at his table. By Murray Whyte
Full Story

To life, Cuban-style
On a Monday afternoon in the third floor studio of Ballet Lizt Alfonso, the dancers – six girls, 15 women and Vadim, a male guest artist – gather for a run-through of Act I of Vida. Susan Walker
Full Story

Taking it to the streets
Don’t tell George F. Walker that you can’t go home again, because he’s been doing it for years. By Richard Ouzounian
Full Story

Legend gives voice to jazz
As is his way, Jon Hendricks was forthright about adapting the moniker of his famed ’50s trio for a new ensemble, Lambert, Hendrick & Ross Redux, which performs at the Art of Jazz Celebration on June 3. By Ashante Infantry
Full Story

Glenn Gould’s music brought to life on stage
It was shortly before midnight when John McGreevy’s phone rang. Glenn Gould was calling to thank the documentary filmmaker for his 50th birthday greetings and to invite him over to his studio at the Inn on the Park the following week. By William Littler
Full Story

Inside the ROM crystal

Jun 01, 2007 01:28 PM

More than a thousand Royal Ontario Museum donors and supporters will be the first members of the public to visit the ROM’s new crystal expansion at a gala tonight.

They’ll attend a lavish dinner with architect Daniel Libeskind, who designed the crystal, and Michael Lee-Chin, the $30 million donor for whom the crystal is named.

Saturday, the museum will officially unveil the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal with a 9:30 p.m. concert featuring Jann Arden, Gordon Pinsent and other entertainers (doors open at 8 p.m.). Governor General Michaëlle Jean will dedicate the crystal at approximately 10:45 p.m.

From 12:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, members of the public can visit the museum free. They’re encouraged, though, to pick up their tickets between noon and 5 p.m. Saturday.

Take a virtual-reality tour of three new rooms inside the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal with our 360-degree panoramic images:

* Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall – With 1,670 sq. m. of space, the ROM claims it to be Canada’s largest hall for international exhibitions. Located on the lower level of the Lee-Chin Crystal, it is scheduled to display a collection of Japanese paintings from 1690 – 1850.

* The Crystal Five Restaurant Lounge or C5 for short is located on the top-most floor of the Lee-Chin Crystal. The space offers visitors a unique view of Toronto. Adjoining the restaurant is a cocktail lounge with soft leather seating. The main dining room will offer an a la carte menu and seating for 100. 

* Work is still underway in what will be the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume. This 600-sq. m. gallery is located on level four of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal