Toronto Life articles from November 2001

Toronto Life archives from November 2001

Karma chameleon: (Karma Clarke-Davis).
November 1, 2001... When she struts down the street, people get out of the way. At five-feet-11, with another foot of hair and a penchant for spiky high heels, Karma Clarke-Davis is a towering vision. "My friends tease me," she says. "They call me the queen of...

Boogie nights (at the Toronto Film Festival).
November 1, 2001... Early on in the film festival revelry, at the so-hip-it-hurts Yorkville bar Amber, a star-studded pack congregated for an action-packed adventure. Surrounded by a cluster of female admirers, Brad Rowe of Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss lurked in...

Very well suite (at the charity event Luxury by design).
November 1, 2001... The charity event Luxury by Design, sponsored by Harry Rosen along with Elte and Jaguar, drew a crowd of Bay Street heavy, hitters to Rosen's Yorkville headquarters in late September. Despite the slow markets, they just couldn't say no to an...

Flight of fancy: (with Chantal Kreviazuk).
November 1, 2001... When director David Weaver's film Century Hotel is released, one of its leads will have to tear herself away from a life of leisure to attend the opening. Winnipeg-born chanteuse Chantal Krevlazuk plays a chambermaid named Mary. The winsome...

Paper bag princess (Leah McLaren).
November 1, 2001... It's no secret that behind every red carpet stride is a designer willing to lend out a frock. The arrangement works for everyone: the celebs look fab, the paparazzi slobber, and the fashion houses score full-figured exposure. Comely Globe...

East meets West: (Brian Johnson jumps on stage at a Independent Film Channel party).
November 1, 2001... The Power Plant's decidedly anti-corporate Independent Film Channel party was perhaps the best of this year's fest. In keeping with the Maritime theme, guests munched on lobster salad lakeside, while inside the gallery they were serenaded by...

Author, author: (Book City's 25th-anniversary party).
November 1, 2001... Book City's 25th-anniversary party, just nine days after the attack on the U.S., had a warm, if somewhat sombre feel. More than 350 guests gathered to toast owners Frans and Gini Donker at the Top of Toronto Room on the 33rd floor of Sutton...

Marcello (Mastroianni) and Pat (Mastroianni).
November 1, 2001... Marcello vs. Pat With so many Ricky Martins shaking their bonbons for all the world to see, the image of the Latin lover has become as cliched as a heart-shaped box of chocolates. But that wasn't always the case. Marcello Mastroianni, the late,...

Bug's life: (Jim Lovisek is a bug wrangler for film and TV).
November 1, 2001... A bug's life At 10 in the morning, inside a drab low-rise office archipelago just north of the 401, Jim Lovisek governs a tiny nation of creepy-crawly things. The jovial 53-year-old, who studied herpetology in Calgary before a stint in the...

(Terrorist attacks in the United States and violence is society).
November 1, 2001... I HAD INTENDED, THIS MONTH, TO WRITE ABOUT GEORGE Whiteside, whose photographs fill almost half the pages of the issue ("City of Actors," page 107). I was going to reflect on the glamorous place fashion photographers like Whiteside have...

This month (in Toronto): theatre.
November 1, 2001... OPENINGS Down Dangerous Passes Road. Three estranged brothers take a drive (one imagines somewhere in the vicinity of Cape Fear) on the 15th anniversary of their father's drowning. Each is dealing with a different drama: marriage,...

This month (in Toronto): classical music.
November 1, 2001... NUMUFEST Massey Hall 178 Victoria St., 415-593-4828 www.numufest.com Arraymusic and Evergreen. With music by Richard Ayres, Henry Kucharzyk, Michael Longton and James Rolfe, this is an ambitious finale showcasing the Arraymusic Ensemble...

This month (in Toronto): dance.
November 1, 2001... The Car Man. Cheekily subtitled "An Auto-Erotic Thriller," the latest from bad-boy British choreographer Matthew Bourne transforms Bizet's classic opera Carmen into a gender-bending contemporary dance piece (see the highlight on page 45)....

This month (in Toronto): art.
November 1, 2001... [FREE] David Blackwood. So taken was writer Annie Proulx, with this Newfoundland artist's etchings of mummers, ships and icebergs that she made an extended visit to his native isle. Thus inspired, she went on to write her Pulitzer Prize-winning...

This month (in Toronto): nightlife.
November 1, 2001... Aerosmith, With the Cult. The lean, leathery quintet pumps out its brand of sleaze and cheese with trademark '80s subtlety. More than Steve Tyler's monster mouth, what makes the concert arresting are special guests the Cult. Never was a group...

This month (in Toronto): jazz and standards.
November 1, 2001... CONCERTS Sound of Toronto Jazz. Since its 1974 inception, this series backed by JAZZ.FM91 has presented rare opportunities to hear some of the city's finest musicians. Two forceful players who seldom enjoy the spotlight, trombonist Russ...

This month (in Toronto): kids' events.
November 1, 2001... HarbourKids Creative Workshops. Tykes tuckered out from the banality of fingerpainting and pasta-based crafts can take heart. Sassy make-and-take projects include picture frames, pinwheels, masks, puzzles, wind socks, kites and clay sculptures....

This month (in Toronto): diversions.
November 1, 2001... FREE Cavalcade of Lights. Mel flicks the switch, and 100,000 lights illuminate a 65-foot Christmas tree, two skating shows, bands and buskers, family fun and the official start of Toronto's holiday season. Nov. 30. Nathan Phillips Square,...

Awakenings: Paul Bates, the much admired head of Charles Schwab in Canada, has found God and wants to bring Him to Bay Street ...
November 1, 2001... YOU CAN WITH IMPUNITY ON BAY STREET give self-serving advice to your clients, or you can be caught in the service stairwell with a woman not your wife, or you can be a foul-mouthed, back-stabbing son of a bitch to your colleagues in the office....

Family plot: beyond his mother's protective embrace, Arthur Durie came into his own during World War 1 ...
November 1, 2001... When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, Canada, as part of the Empire, was automatically included. The cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Borden authorized the formation of a Canadian Expeditionary Force of officers and men "willing...

Romancing the tome: the most successful book publisher in Canada has mastered the production and marketing of romance novels. Now, in keeping with the times, Harlequin has turned up the heat ...
November 1, 2001... IN THE EMPIRE OF NARRATIVE THAT HARLEQUIN Enterprises runs from an office building in Don Mills, sex is a subject frequently discussed these days. Sex has not been entirely alien to Harlequin for a long time, despite the company's image as a...

City of actors: they have appeared in Hollywood blockbusters and fringe plays. They act on TV and on stage. They are veterans and up-and-comers ...
November 1, 2001... THE FIRST ACTOR I SEE in the morning is David Hemblen, walking his two scrappy dogs; primarily a film actor now, he has returned from his annual sojourn in the South of France. On the other side of the street, Neil Foster, who had a role in...

Sharp utensils and fantasy flesh.
November 1, 2001... In the clear Lamps of Lucite glow when lit, appear to float on a side table and could not be more current. Yet their effect is typically spoiled by an unsightly electrical cord. This fixture, inspired by a '70s-era Italian model, has...

Case for wine: inspiration for Jackson-Triggs' new winery came not from the famed chateau of Bordeaux, but the landscape of Niagara ...
November 1, 2001... ON A COLD FEBRUARY NIGHT IN 1999, Marianne McKenna took her slide projector and set it before Niagara-on-the-Lake's architectural conservancy committee. The town of 12,000 takes the manicured charm of its colonial houses and Victorian...

Hearty boys: Russell Nicholls and David Ginsberg.
November 1, 2001... They seem as laid back as their two Aunties and Uncles restos. Their vintage shirts, ball caps and sneakers are sartorial equivalents of the Arborite tables and mismatched lighting that accompany a boffo omelette or ratatouille with frites. Yet...

Shell game: call it the year of the oyster: first, Oyster Boy opened to rave reviews. Weeks later and only a few blocks away the legandary Rodney's moved to larger digs on King West ...
November 1, 2001... WHY SO FROWNFUL? WHY SO GLUM? AROUND me swirls the laughter, beer and backslapping bonhomie of Rodney's Oyster House--high tide of merriment--while I sit at the bar with a scowl as black as Guinness. Across the granite, the shucker works his...

Tasting notes.
November 1, 2001... Pret-a-porter The Douro made its fame and fortune in port production, but these days the region presses half its grapes into table wine service. As with the fortified drink, the most important red varieties are touriga nacional, touriga...

Restaurants.
November 1, 2001... Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by A LA MODE Pangaea *** 1/2 In this gracious, genteel setting, bronze figures recall Acrobat's heyday; otherwise, the wide, understated dining room is unrecognizable. Like the...

Saturday Night December 3, 1887 - September 22, 2001.
November 1, 2001... I knew it in the good old days: not in the mythical age of Robertson Davies but under the omniscient tutelage of Robert Fulford and then, after it had been bought by a tycoon whose name I don't want to remember, under the gossipy John Fraser. I...