1. NBA Playoffs, starts Saturday April 28. Despite a protracted schedule, the 2011/2012 NBA season offered up a bevy of story lines in need of resolutions: Will LeBron show up in the post-season? Can Kobe earn a sixth ring and make a legit challenge to MJ’s claim as the best of all time? o the Celtics have enough gas to make one more run? How many dunks is too many dunks? Am I writing this while watching the Heat dominate the Knicks in Game 1? Only basketball will tell.
2. Hot Docs, All week. If “real life” story lines that “actually matter” are more your speed, maybe the North America’s largest documentary festival is for you. There are 189 docs from a record 51 countries on offer at the newly reno’d Bloor Hot Docs Cinema including the Canadian premiere of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, the story of the Chinese dissident artist, and Indie Game: The Movie, a look inside the lives of indepedent video game developers. For the inside scoop on what to see, read what Toronto Standard film critic Scott MacDonald had to say about the films.
3. Toronto Monologue Slam, Sunday April 29. Twelve actors have three minutes each to perform a monologue. If they can impress a panel of “industry professionals” they could take home $100. Created as an alternative outlet for actors to develop their craft and share their talents, it’s also apparently just a really fun night out.
4. Willis Earl Beal, Monday April 30. The lo-fi folk singer’s origin story reads like a Hank Williams song: he flirted with homelessness in Albuquerque after spending time in the army; he taught himself to play music and released homemade recordings on casettes and CD-Rs; he put out flyers with his phone number and would sing to callers. Despite his too-cool-to-be-true reputation, his passionate performances show he’s the real deal. See for yourself at Drake Underground.
5. Laughable at Unlovable, Monday April 30. The menu selection for Nick Flanagan and Steph Tolev’s every-other-weekly PWYC stand-up spread is particularly salivating this time around: Kids in the Hall writer Paul Bellini (of Touch Paul Bellini noteriety), Picnicface wunderkind Mark Little (the voice of Powerthist), the uber-talented Kayla Lorette of the lamentalbly cancelled YTV sketch show That’s So Weird! (What’s weird is how funny this kids’ show could be most of the time) and more! Plus $4.50 Wellington pints.
6. Toronto Symphony Orchestra: Sci-Fi Spectacular, Tuesday May 1. George “Sulu” Takei will be your guide through an evening of “out of this world” scores from classic sci-fi films like Star Wars, E.T., and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. It’s going to be “out of this world.”
7. Yann Tierson, Wednesday May 2. The French composer has collaborated with the Cocteau Twins, wrote the score for Amelie and created his own avant-garde tunes. See him play tunes from his latest album Skylines at the Phoenix.
8. The Best of The Boom, Thursday May 3. Toronto’s raunchiest sketch troupe trot out their best bits at Drake Underground to capture them on video for posterirty/commercial distribution. Hosted by James Hartnett (That’s So Weird!) and featuring stand-up from Matt Watts (Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays) $10 gets you a seat and a free pair of The Boom underwear.
9. Kid Koala’s Space Cadet Headphone Experience, Thursday May 3. Best known for his envelope-pushing hip-hop jerry-rigging, the Montreal turntablist leads participants through the graphic novel Space Cadet while they sit in inflatable “space pods,” music pumped in through individual headphones.
10. Jerry Seinfeld, Friday May 4. I was just going to write out the theme to Seinfeld, but slap bass is really hard to spell out phonetically. (Bumpa dum bump bum bahhh da bump. dada da da da. See, it doesn’t do it justice.)
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Michael Kolberg is a writer who writes for Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter at @mikeykolberg
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