What's Happening

Attention gardeners: St. Alban's is holding its Annual Plant and Garage Sale this Saturday. You can donate garage sale items until Friday. Contact the club for more info.

Irish traditional music is on tap at the Tranzac as the weekend is devoted to the annual Chris Langan series of performances and workshops. The weekend "gives you the opportunity to learn or polish your skills on uilleann pipes, tin whistle, fiddle, flute,button accordion as wellas dance and song."

A variety of additional acts are on the schedule, too, including a Mariposa Folk Festival preview Sunday evening.

We BLOGged about how to join the VIVA Youth Singers awhile ago and now their concert is happening this weekend. Blue Green Hills of Earth takes place Saturday, May 24th at 7 pm at the Trinity St. Paul's Centre on Bloor, near Spadina. The concert features "a newly commissioned work by Toronto composer Alice Ho and poetry composed by children of VIVA! Youth Singers." Check the website for more details.

Lee's Palace on Bloor just east of Spadina has a full slate of music acts scheduled, including the intriguingly named Dark Meat With Quiet Hooves on Monday.

The Toronto Hispano-American Film Festival continues at the Bloor Cinema until the end of the weekend. Other screenings include the Brazilian import The Year My Parents Went On Vacation on various dates, a smattering of Woody Allen movies and a fundraiser for the Toronto Cyclists Union on Thursday, May 29th.
The latter will feature two screenings of Pee Wee's Big Adventure (at 7 and 9:30 pm) supported by a live cast including Sook Yin Lee and members of bands including The Apostles of Hustle, Broken Social Scene and The Hidden Cameras.
Tickets are $14 and are available at Grassroots Bloor, 408 Bloor St West, Toronto Women's Bookstore, 73 Harbord St., and the Bloor Cinema box office.

The Art Bar Poetry Series, housed at Clinton's, features Carmine Starnino, George Elliott Clarke and Kevin Fortnum this Tuesday at 8 pm. It's free, but donations are appreciated.

ROMwalks take a stroll around the Royal Ontario Museum and its neighbours on Wednesday. Meet in front of the ROM at 6 p.m. The guided series of tours are free.

Sonia Rodriguez, Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, gives a special reading of Cinderella and donates a pair of her ballet shoes to the Bata Shoe Museum. Things get underway Saturday at 2 p.m.

Whatever you do, enjoy it!
Vanessa

New Toronto Cyclists Union

This landed in my inbox and I thought it would interest the many intrepid cyclers in our area: there's a new Toronto Cyclists Union in the works. You can join now to receive updates about its progress.
It will be "Toronto's first membership-driven bicycle advocacy organisation." Here's the concept:

"Working with other groups such as the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT), Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists (ARC), iBikeTO, Toronto Bicycling Network, Biking Toronto, Community Bicycle Network and many others, the Cyclists Union will help provide a loud voice for all bicycle riders."

I don't have to bore you with the many, many good reasons why it's crucial to make cycling around Toronto better and easier, or get on the soapbox about the importance of installing more dedicated bike lanes (even though I like to call them "Delivery Truck Parking Lanes.") So I'll leave you with some inspiration... a pic of one of Ottawa's gorgeous bike/walking paths, right beside the river, proving how GREAT cycling can be in a major urban centre.
Cyclers of the city, unite!
Vanessa