FILM: War/Dance, winner of the 2007 Hot Docs Audience Award, will be screened tonight at the Bloor Cinema. The documentary follows a children's dance troupe from northern Uganda invited to compete at an annual dance and music festival. The screening is presented in association with GuluWalk and AMREF Canada. Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West), 7 p.m., $10 ($5 for students). WORDS: Pages' This Is Not A Reading Series continues with the release of......

MUSIC: We can't really think of a better way to nurse your Nuit Blanche hangover than spending an afternoon with Nardwuar. The Human Serviette himself will be performing at Trash Palace with his band, The Evaporators. He'll also be presenting clips from his "Video Vault," which feature interviews with Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, and Michael Moore. The 3Tards and The Weirdies will also perform. Trash Palace (89-B Niagara Street), 3 p.m., $6. ART: Feel like......

MUSIC: Today, War Child Canada is presenting "Busking For Change," a day-long busking event featuring a number of reasonably successful Canadian performers. Among those performing are Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida (a fervent supporter of War Child Canada), Chantal Kreviazuk, Zack Werner, The Waking Eyes, and Neverending White Lights. Expect to see lots of teenaged girls unable to control their excitement, and a slough of disgruntled buskers who've had their spots stolen by real musicians......

MUSIC: The Polaris Music Prize Gala is happening tonight at the Phoenix Concert Theatre, where the winner of this year's best Canadian album will receive $20,000. The gala will include performances from nominees Holy Fuck, Shad, Two Hours Traffic, Basia Bulat, and Plants and Animals—but it's also invite-only. Those of you who can't get in have still got a number of options, though: CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence will be hosting a live broadcast......

WORDS: Zoocheck Canada founder Rob Laidlaw wants your kids to be as jaded as possible from an early age. To implement this idea, he's releasing Wild Animals in Captivity, a new non-fiction kids book that examines animal life in decidedly un-Disney-like settings. Laidlaw will be speaking to elementary students this morning at the Yorkdale Indigo (3401 Dufferin Street, 10 a.m., FREE). Later tonight, he's giving a lecture at the George Ignatieff Theatre called "The......

MUSIC: Psychedelic folk band These United States are playing at Sneaky Dee’s tonight. Coincidentally, today is also the release date of their sophomore LP, Crimes. No strangers to the Ist-a-Verse, These United States actually wrote a few tour blog entries for DCist a year ago. Also playing at Dee’s this evening are Entire Cities and Dickie Haydon. Sneaky Dee’s (431 College Street), 9 p.m., $5. BENEFIT: The Arts for AIDS Orphans benefit, an auction-style......

ART: In anticipation of Thursday’s launch party for his new book, 2nd: The Face of Defeat, photographer Sandy Nicholson will be showing photos for the next four days at the Gladstone Hotel. The book, a series of shots taken of second-place finishers immediately after losing a competition, is for those who are sick of coming in second place, and also for those who take pleasure in seeing the facial expressions of miserable bodybuilders. Until......

WORDS: “This Is Not A Reading Series For Tots,” a new monthly literary program for children that we told you about a few weeks ago, is launching today at the Gladstone Hotel. Kids aged two to eight will get to meet the authors of childrens’ books and participate in art activities, sing-a-longs, and puppet shows. Speaking today is Matt Hammill, who will be giving a PowerPoint presentation about his new book, Sir Reginald’s Logbook.......

ART: As part of the continuing Manifesto Festival of Music and Art, there will be an opening party tonight at the Well and Good Art Space for “Us & Them,” a four-section art expo that will run until September 30. One section will showcase the work of artists who over the last ten years have been a part of Canada’s largest street art organization, them.ca (Dstrbo, Fauxreel, Omen, and Specter, to name just a......

WORDS: We all have a couple of things lying around, maybe hidden in a box somewhere, that carry serious emotional ties: borrowed sweaters, mix tapes, love letters, and the like. Most of those items come with a great background story, so tonight the Victory Café is presenting "Awkward Show and Tell: Things My Ex Gave Me," an open mic night dedicated to presenting relationship baggage in front of a group of people so speakers can......

BENEFIT: Best Buddies Canada, a non-profit organization that promotes individual friendships between students and intellectually disabled youth, is having their thirteenth annual gala fundraiser this evening. The gala will be hosted by eTalk Daily's Tanya Kim, and will feature a performance by Chantal Kreviazuk and an appearance by special guest of honour Shirley MacLaine. Muzik (15 Saskatchewan Road), 6:30 p.m., $750. MUSIC: Experimental rock band The Walkmen are in town this evening, playing at The......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. Contrary to rumours, this is not a frequent sight in Elora Oh, the things we do for our art. It is......

ART: Photographer/former photo editor of Vice Magazine Tim Barber is celebrating the release of his new limited-edition art and book series, TV Books, adapted from his online art gallery Tiny Vices. Tonight's opening reception is being held at Studio Gallery and will feature appearances by Tim Barber and some of the other Tiny Vices artists. Studio Gallery (294A College Street), 7 p.m., FREE. THEATRE: The Red Light District's production of Witold Gonbrowicz's awkward love story......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. The Boondock Saints is a perfect example of the post-Tarantino school of filmmaking. It's got killing, cussing, and style to spare.......

Going to see a staged reading is pretty much the theatrical equivalent of watching a live jam band, only in this case the target audience is not inhalant abusers. It’s like a play, but with no movement and featuring an additional character—Mr. or Mrs. Reads The Stage Directions. The HOTscrawlsfestival is a showcase of this often overlooked art form, which puts a focus on the writer and the actors, throwing away such frivolities as......

Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com. Hi Ms. Snappy Answers, I was just wondering where I could find a nice, affordable karaoke place in the downtown core, one that has private karaoke rooms? —Kwara......

With temperatures finally floating above zero, tonight's the tonight to dance and drink away the dregs of winter. And tomorrow morning? Head to the Gladstone Hotel for hangover brunch at noon... then start the party all over again with Shameless Magazine. The glossy for "girls who get it" is fêting the launch of the latest issue at the Gladstone Ballroom from 1—4 p.m. Saturday, March 15, with a something-for-everyone celebration. Star performers include Emma......

Boozy Suzy is the undisputed champion of the Pillow Fight League. When she’s not downing beers, she’s downing opponents with her dreaded hammer fist. Boozy Suzy is also Suzanne Carte-Blanchenot, an event coordinator who has been involved with the Pillow Fight League since its inception. She has watched the girls-only league grow from a local curiosity to an international sensation that has been covered by Anderson Cooper 360º, Good Morning America, and ESPN: The......

Dan Misener's unstoppably rad reading series, Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, is moving to new digs for its fourth installation next Monday. The little event that could—wherein grownups read their grade school stories, diaries, and poems to a bunch of people they've never met before—is picking up from its former home at the Victory Cafe and bopping over to the Gladstone to accommodate its ever-increasing audience of believers. Even with the bigger venue,......

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Stephen Eyes puts his catchy name to good use. Eyes on Toronto is a live TV talk show held monthly at the Gladstone Hotel. Tonight, Eyes banters with Trevor Boris and Major Maker. You can also watch clips of Royal Wood, Bob Wiseman and others on Eyes' site.......

Oh, the seemingly endless toil and frustration of being an underpublished and underappreciated writer. There's the mailbox full of polite, predictable rejections and the depressing rite of passage otherwise known as "open mic night." When you finally emerge from it all, it's certainly time to rejoice. Thankfully Pages Books & Magazines’ This Is Not A Reading Series has stepped up to celebrate some of the lesser-known but soon-to-be-well-known players in Toronto’s vibrant literary scene.......

It's fight night at the Gladstone Hotel this Thursday as the Pillow Fight League rolls back into town. The homegrown product and first professional pillow fighting league of its kind is just six months away from its second anniversary. With a glowing write-up in ESPN Magazine, a potential TV deal, and an April gig at Miami's Exxxotica Festival, the PFL is looking to make 2008 their biggest year yet. At PFL 14, two hundred......

Photo from Deko-ze. The holidays are normally a time for rest but nobody told that to Deko-ze. The man dubbed Canada's hardest working DJ has a doozy of a week. On top of the Christmas Bash he is throwing at Footwork on Friday, Deko-ze will be spinning a six hour extended set at CZ on Sunday for Mass and is a part of CZ's Christmas Come Get Your Fcukin Beats party. He's also at......

Next week, Taddle Creek, a Toronto-based literary magazine that publishes Toronto authors exclusively, will be celebrating their tenth anniversary. Expected to release a "giant-sized" Christmas 2007 Issue, the 72-page magazine has writing from Alex Boyd, Emily Schultz, Camilla Gibb, Stuart Ross, and many, many others, for the simple price of $4.95. The anniversary party will be at the Gladstone Hotel on November 28th, with readings, music by the Eradicators, door prizes, and maybe cake.......

Ok, so we're starting to get the message that we need to act on this whole "we're killing the planet" thing, and fast. But amongst all the noise about how much trouble we've gotten ourselves into, it's sometimes hard to hear the solutions and see the positive ideas. Enter GreenTOpia, the third installment in Coach House Books' uTOpia series, which is being released at a party this weekend into our eagerly outstretched arms. As we......

On Sunday afternoon, over 150 independent publishers, writers, artists and bloggers from across the continent will pack Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel for Canzine, Canada’s largest celebration of small press publishing and alternative culture. The affair is organized by Broken Pencil, a quarterly magazine devoted to mobilizing the scattered community of small-circulation art. This year, to coincide with the release of its Horror Issue and, well, Halloween in general, the theme is Indie Horror. That means the......

November 14 to 18 marks the return of the Reel Asian International Film Festival. Last night, the Japan Foundation played host as filmmakers and media types gathered at a press conference to kick off the 11th annual incarnation of the fest. And with more than 70 independent works from all over the world, this year’s Reel Asian Festival will be worth cracking open that golden piggy bank for. Showcasing work from 13 different countries,......

Trampoline Hall, the lecture series/literary salon with a reputation for being playful and inventive, is upping its quirk factor slightly this week in two ways. Instead of being held at its usual venue, Sneaky Dee's, this week's lectures (on robotism, hyperbolic crochet and diverse curiosity) will be delivered at Fort York. The event's organizers have also found an experimental new way to capture the evening's events: a group of Toronto-based comics artists will act......

No word yet on whether that giant lemon will be making an appearance (Yonge and Dundas anyone?), or whether it will finally be revealed how one might actually dismantle an atomic bomb, but hundreds of U2 fans will be rattling and humming into Toronto for the fifth annual (!) inTO the Heart U2 Fan Festival, taking place from November 1 to 3. With fans expected from New York, California, England, and even the Netherlands,......

On Sunday, as an unofficial kickoff to the Walk21 pedestrian conference coming to Toronto next month, the Walking Life exhibit opened at the Gladstone Hotel. The exhibit is an eclectic mix of paintings, maps, architectural drawings, collages and video. It represents images of urban walking from many different viewpoints, from the casual rambler to the urban planner. Highlights of the show include Adam Krawesky’s “Clockwork,” a digital composite showing pedestrians crossing to all four......