Art Pop fundraiser
DOING JONI LIVE: Rory SeydelAugust is almost over, which means that Pop Montreal is right around the corner. With this in mind, the fantastic folks behind the festival’s Art POP have put together a “once-in-a-summertime” extravaganza to raise funds for their 2009 program.
Taking place this weekend, Aug. 29 and 30, at Galerie Push (5264 St-Laurent), the two-day event features over 20 artists and musicians, stepping outside of their normal practices (and at times, comfort zones) and into territories provocative, entertaining and amusing.
Rory Seydel of Shapes + Sizes is just one of the performers gracing the stage. With a host of back-up dancers and musicians lending their support, Seydel will bravely attempt to conquer Joni Mitchell’s “Jungle Line,” a song he describes as one that “Joni Mitchell would probably never attempt to recreate live.”
Also on the bill is saxophonist and composer, Matana Roberts, whose 12-part sound project COIN COIN traces her family’s history across three continents. For Art POP, Roberts will perform one of the solo segments, which she describes as an abstract exploration that diverges from narrative to examine “the place of ritual in human experience.”
To see a schedule of performances, check out the Web site at: popmontreal.com/art/en.
by STACEY DEWOLFE
Sunday morning
film school
MAKING MOVIE MAGIC: CinéRobothèque Workshop
If Sunday morning you find yourself hung over and leaning into a plate of greasy home fries at Dusty’s—great (I’m probably at the next table)! If you decide you want more out of life, though, consider the following: every Sunday at 1 p.m. from Aug. 30 until May, the National Film Board’s CinéRobothèque (1564 St-Denis) is offering introductory sessions in stop-action animation.
Officially, these are family workshops for ages seven and up, so bring the brood if you’ve got spawn. Don’t fret if not. “Adults can come, too. It’s really open,” assures Francine François of the NFB.
Each two-and-a-half hour workshop is led by a bilingual animator and participants are divided into “teams,” each using materials like modelling clay, sand and paper, or recycled objects to make a one-to-two-minute movie. The materials change each time, as does the theme. “Sometimes it’s just about getting ideas,” says François. “What’s most important is the technique; it’s not that you have to create the storyboard first. It’s really an initiation.”
Most workshops are free, although some cost $5–$7. Reservations are required and can be made at (514) 496-6887.
by DAVID LEVITZ
Burning down the falla
Why not end this summer with a bang and head off to La Tohu (2345 Jarry E.) this weekend for O Hasard Bathazar!, the fifth edition of la Falla, a nocturnal fire festival that closes by setting a towering wood and papier-mâché sculpture on fire.
 The two-day freebie fest kicks off this Friday night, Aug. 28, 7 p.m., with an open-air dance party. Brazilian band Estação da Luz pumps out samba rhythms before DJ Baby takes over the turntables. While you’re there, grab a mechoui supper and check out the colourful 10-metre sculpture that a dedicated team of volunteers has been building for the past four months. The structure, which has Spanish origins and is known as “La Falla,” will be set ablaze during the festival’s closing night, Saturday Aug. 29 at 9 p.m.
For those shutterbugs who are planning on attending the event, Tohu is holding a contest for the best shots of the evening. Find all the details at www.tohu.ca.
by MARITES CARINO
Fractured fairy tales
Remember the myths and fairy tales people told you as a child, the unsanitized pre-Disney versions, where the protagonist’s punishment for not cleaning his hands was to have them cut clean off?
The works of Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, a German folk-teller proficient in stories about punishing small children for practically any reason, provided artists Naomi  Cook and Rebecca Rosen with inspiration for their latest collaboration at the Red Bird Gallery (135 Van Horne). Cook and Rosen settled on illustrating The Story of Flying Robert (directly on the gallery walls, no less) in which an unruly boy is blown away by the wind with his umbrella for the sin of, well, being a kid.
“It’s a little more open-ended than Hoffmann’s other works, and the moral isn’t quite as clear or as causal as in the other stories,” said Rosen. “So it sort of opened the door to interpretation.”
Just as fairy tales often get twisted and redefined due to the nature of storytelling, both Rosen and Cook’s take on the story prove unique.
“Illustration and visual art often interpret the story for you,” said Cook, “and so this new story comes out of it that is unavoidable.”
It opens tonight, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. and runs until Sept. 3.
by CHRISTOPHER OLSON
IS IT ART?
LOOK MA, NO HANDS!: The Japanese are great inventors—sushi, samurai, Sega—but they’re also great at inventing seemingly useless objects. The latest of these is the Shoulderbrella, a rubbery tube that attaches to your umbrella and wraps around your shoulder for free-handed convenience.
 Listed on Tokyu Hands’—a department store where the attachment is sold for $28 CDN—Web site as a “Black Brera shoulder” (at least for those who don’t read Japanese), the product also comes with a few warnings: “Please do not use your bike ride as well” and “windy day use, please stop us.”
It’s important to note, however, that it wasn’t just anyone who came up with this idea. The product was, in fact, “invented by a doctor familiar with the structure of the shoulder.”
http://is.gd/2wHtj
Arts hole
CUT OUT IMPRESSIONS: Artist Kevin McDermott uses stencils to create his multi-layered impressions; he presents his latest work in Life in Layers at Foufounes Electriques (87 Ste-Catherine E.) this Sunday, Aug. 30 from 4–8 p.m • SIDEWALK CELEBRATION: Galerie la Centrale (4296 St-Laurent) presents Boom-Chix-a-Boom #08 this weekend, Aug. 27–30, with multidisciplinary activities including tonight’s Greasy Goose Salon on the theme “Electricity” at 8 p.m., a lip syncing workshop on Saturday, Aug. 29 at 2 p.m. and a sidewalk sale featuring the work of 15 female artists which will be taking place throughout the day all weekend long.
Artistat
The amount it’ll cost you to attend KoSA Music Academy’s (5325 Crowley) open house on Thursday, Sept. 3 from 6:30–9 p.m. with interactive
workshops, door prizes and more: $0
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