The spicy Baconator comes to town

8:59 am

Hollywood heavies who rekindle their rock and roll roots with vanity side projects are a dime a dozen. One needs only take a gander at the concert calendar for a local casino to find familiar names. Yes Kevin Costner, I’m talking about you. But to pay your dues, play clubs and earn the respect that comes with consistently proving your musical mettle is a different thing entirely. Kevin Bacon, who fronts the Bacon Brothers along with brother Michael, falls decidedly in to the latter camp.

Fifteen years and six albums later, the band has displayed a particular talent for a bluesy blend of Americana that plays to the brothers’ blue collar Philly roots. Post City Magazines caught up with the sizzling brothers Bacon for a chat in anticipation of their Feb. 3 concert at T.O.’s hottest new concert venue Koerner Hall.

You’ve been doing this for 15 years now. Are people finally accepting you guys as a legit band?

Well, I think we just kind of chip away at it, in terms of people’s perceptions. I mean, I’m always surprised when I hear that people had no idea we were a band. On the other hand, we do have some fans who are very, very loyal
and really like the music. But, we haven’t done nearly enough in Canada.

This band was supposed to be a one off. What happened?

Well, you know, it’s funny: we played the one show, and as far as I can remember, a small club owner from the East Coast called us up and said,
“I heard you play. How about if you guys come up here and play?” And then it just kept rolling along whether we wanted it to or not.

What does this musical collaboration do for you, in terms of creative fulfillment, that you can’t get from acting?

I think it’s fun to challenge yourself creatively, and certainly writing a song and standing in front of people to perform is a great creative challenge. I think that
playing live in a lot of ways is a real test — it’s a risky proposition much more so than a recording studio. It’s good to take creative risks.

I see five movies listed under your name for release in 2011 — how do you find the time for this?

You know, it is tough to find the time. That’s probably one of the biggest challenges, you know. I just sit down with the calendar
and see how to make it work.

Will it ever be music first, acting second?

Well, I don’t think I’ll ever stop being an actor. There’s a lot of stuff I want to do
and haven’t done … producing, directing. I think I’ll
always have both.

Bacon Brothers are playing at Koerner Hall on Feb. 3.

Bacon: the gateway meat

1:30 pm

The intangible, irresistible lure of bacon is no secret. Consider the recent proliferation of such pork-ified items as chocolate covered bacon, bacon ice cream and even bacon beer. But that temptation is exactly why vegetarians should stay away from bacon at all costs, NPR suggests.

According to NPR’s hearsay evidence, long time vegetarians frequently break their dedication by indulging in a piece of fried pig belly — more than with other meat — but the scientific evidence is there, too. Johan Lundstrom, a scientist from Monell Chemical Senses Center, told NPR that bacon’s taste, odour and caloric makeup all maximize its temptation potential. “Bacon is in the perfect position to take advantage of how the brain is wired," he said.

In other words, bacon is a gateway drug for vegetarians. Simply being in the same room as bacon could result in disaster, and we can only imagine the implications should the lure not be staunchly resisted. Eventually, former vegetarians could make their way to the hard stuff, like Big Macs.

[NPR]

New in the Neighbourhood: Ozzero

11:04 pm

For signori and donne in Italy, Ozzero is a municipality in the province of Milan in the Lombardy region. For Torontonians, it’s a new trattoria in North Toronto that serves up classic plates of Italian without pomp or fanfare.

It’s evident right from the get-go that they’ve taken a few shortcuts when it comes to the decor and atmosphere. Dollar store frames of black and white photographs of Italian-looking families and sceneries hang on walls. But other design choices give the experience a more sophisticated feel, as in new dark hardwood floors, burgundy linens over tables set with bundles of cutlery and bottles of vino lined up on shelves against the north yellow wall.

A page of daily specials rounds out the regular menu’s offerings.

A shrimp antipasto starts things off with a bang ($10). Four expertly grilled jumbo crustaceans (and I mean “jumbo”!) repose over a bed of fresh spinach, juicy, cold orange segments and sticks of crisp fennel.

The salad’s refreshing lime dressing is for tart-loving tarts.

Drizzles of pesto and crumbled feta cheese overpower the flavour of diced tomatoes in bruschetta over a decorative layer of baby spinach ($7), but the ingredients are fresh and the six baguette slices are expertly toasted to retain crispness.

Huge appetites rejoice in chicken parmigiano ($14). A Dolly Parton–sized poultry breast — baked in tomato sauce and topped with a duvet of mozzarella — strikes a pose over a saucy mountain of linguine tangled in light, homemade tomato sauce. The meat is juicy and tender, and the noodles al dente.

Linguine di mare ($16) makes a splash with plenty of seafood nibbles — scallops, calamari, mussels, and black tiger shrimp (not the same jumbo variety as in the appetizer, but well timed just the same). Chewy calamari rings, on the other hand, threaten to thwart the experience, and we wonder what happened to the promised “light olive oil and tomato sauce.”

Instead, this assembly is tossed in the same sauce as the linguini. A solo server works the room quietly and efficiently, and she wins us over with her smile.

505 Mount Pleasant Rd., 416-916-3930, $55 dinner for two

The true meaning of ‘Aflockalypse Now’

12:02 pm

On New Year’s Eve, 5,000 red- winged blackbirds dropped out of the sky in Beebe, Arkansas.

Necropsies revealed no evidence of poisoning but did indicate the birds had suffered massive internal trauma. Days later, fisherman observed schools of fish floating belly up on Chesapeake Bay.

In England, tens of thousands of dead crabs washed up on local beaches, and reports come in almost daily of penguins, turtles, and even dolphins dying unexpectedly in the wild. Are these events signs of the “aflockalypse,” as the media have dubbed the recent die-offs? The answer is yes. And no.

Our inherent love and respect for the natural world compels us to take notice when animals die in large numbers, but observations going back more than a century suggest that the mass-mortality events of recent weeks aren’t as unusual as we might think, and they are often the result of natural causes, such as adverse weather, disease outbreaks, or stress associated with long- distance migration.

In analyzing bird counts, journal records, and other observations dating back to the late 19th century, European researchers found frequent reports of deaths of birds in the hundreds and thousands. One massive kill occurred in spring 1964 when an estimated 100,000 king eiders, representing nearly a tenth of the species’ western Canadian population, perished in the Beaufort Sea.

These large, beautiful ducks starved when pools of open water among the sea-ice re- froze suddenly, preventing them from getting to the food in the water below. More recently, an estimated 40,000 individual birds from 45 different species were killed on April 8, 1993, when a tornado crossed their migration routes off the coast of Louisiana.

While the sudden death of wildlife in great numbers is alarming, the unravelling of entire food webs is happening all around usandeveryday—butinafarless obvious manner. With every patch of forest cut, wetland drained, or grassland paved, our ongoing destruction of wildlife habitat is leading to population declines and even driving some species to extinction.

According to the experts, more than 17,000 plants and animals are threatened with extinction because of human activity, mostly through habitat loss.

This includes 12 per cent of all known birds, nearly a quarter of known mammals, and a third of known amphibians. Climate change is predicted to sharply increase the risk of species extinction within our own children’s lifetime. The unsettling events of recent weeks reveal the inherent vulnerability of wildlife to sudden and dramatic population declines, often as a result of natural causes. This is all the more reason to ensure we don’t exacerbate the challenges faced by wildlife in an increasingly busy world. We need to reduce the environmental stressors that we impose on wildlife, so that they can better cope with and survive the challenges they face every day.

It’s good that people are concerned about the recent animal die-offs, but if we really care about the future of wildlife, we need to start paying more attention to our own role in the extinction crisis — and urge our elected officials to take concrete steps to protect the biological richness with which our planet is blessed.

Ringing in the Year of the Rabbit

11:49 am

Do you pick up the phone when your mother is calling and you’re face down at a massage parlour in Chinatown?

It’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m waiting for David Chen, the Clint Eastwood of Dundas Street who became a local hero after catching a shoplifter and hogtying him in his van behind his Lucky Moose Grocery Store.

Chen is a nice guy; a father of two. We’ve met a few times and I’ve even become fond of Nina, his shockingly cute wife who, from what I can gather, spends most of her days shucking peas in the small Lucky Moose kitchen.

Chen is a man who works hard so when I show up for our guided tour across Chinatown he’s as present as a Jewish deli on Spadina Avenue. So I pass the time by giving myself a little tour that begins at the Oriental Health Beauty Centre and find myself topless and face down in a white-walled room getting worked over by a woman in black boots and dark blue jeans.

“What does the Chinese New Year mean to you?” I ask her, in between grunts and groans as she works me over with her elbows, fists and wok-hard hands.

“It’s a chance to start over,” she says,as my telephone begins its guilt-inducing ring and I peer over to see the familiar phone number of Mom.

The massage only takes 10 minutes and it hurts more than it helps, but the answer to my opening question is simple: whenever you find yourself at a massage parlour, let your voice mail handle your mother’s phone call.

The Chinese New Year begins on Feb. 3 and this year it leaps from the Year of the Tiger to the Year of the Rabbit. There are 12 animals in the Chinese celestial cycle. When I do find David Chen, after my massage when I’m feeling like jelly, he tells me the Year of the Rabbit will bring positive change.

“It’s a good thing, a proud time; the rabbit is a symbol of wisdom and strength,” says Chen, a hero to Chinatown’s local merchants who say they’re sick of being robbed by folks like Anthony Bennett, the thief Chen captured who has 43 convictions for theft.

Chen, who was acquitted of his charges in October, turned a gangland hot spot into a bustling grocery, and says he’s pleased to be turning the page on last year.

“We didn’t even fight him, we waited for the police,” Chen says, before passing me off to his tenant, a 68-year-old man named Son Myung Soo. “Everyone hopes that the new year is better,” Chen adds, “but you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

Chen advises Son Myung Soo and I to dine at Asian Legend, but when we walk through the door, the only faces staring back at us are white. I dip back into the Chinese massage parlour for another opinion, and it’s on my masseuse’s authority that I end up at The House of Gourmet.

“Canada is different from our country. Here, if we catch a thief, they sue us, but we need someone to protect us because people steal from us all the time,” says Melissa Szeto, who opens her restaurant at 8 a.m. and sometimes works until four in the morning.

For Szeto, the Chinese New Year means second chances. She is part of the growing Asian community living in Markham and she knows her downtown restaurant faces stiff competition north of the city and from Toronto’s east side.

“The Year of the Rabbit is very important,” says Szeto. “This last year was very, very hard on our area, but everyone likes a rabbit, right?”

At this point I should say a few words about Son Myung Soo.

He’s a colourful character who dips into his denture case for change when we receive our bill (I swear I was going to chip in, but they don’t accept credit cards). And, he believes David Chen should run for office.

“He changed Chinatown,” says Son, as we head back onto Dundas Street and pass the vendors selling roast sweet potato for two bucks.

“The rabbit outsmarts anybody. He’s tough like the tiger, but even stronger — that’s David Chen.” Of course, the mysteries of Chinatown only reveal themselves in the shadows and so after I ditch the old man, I’m yanked into a hidden commercial strip of fly-by-night shops by a hoodlum wearing an Asahi ski cap and shades. The knock-off DVDs sold here seem so corrupt that if you put them into your machine the entire system might explode.

“I love David Chen!” says the young woman behind the desk in the alley between Darcy and Dundas streets as she directs me to DVDs of The King’s Speech and 127 Hours.

“David helps people who no one else can,” says the woman, who says she’s from mainland China.“Everyone knows about David Chen. Everyone here followed his case.”

Unfortunately the woman was unable to recommend a nice place for coffee, so I find Ten Ren’s Tea Shop at Huron and Dundas on my own. I buy a $15 packet of make-it-yourself bubble tea and then scurry over to Ten Mile Aroma, which sells fried pork intestine and lamb entrails, but I am much more taken with their $1.75 glasses of cold draught beer.

Outside, the snow has started falling and I know that I need to call my mother and check out the new Owl of Minerva that just opened inside the Dragon City Mall, but I can’t shake the image of David Chen. I walk back across the street to his grocery store and order a cup of coffee and exchange a few pleasantries with Nina who, of course, is still shucking peas.

Along Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street, the Chinese New Year is a celebration to behold. For David Chen, who returns to the Lucky Moose when the day has darkened, it’s just another day at the office.

“When I bought this building, Chinatown was terrible, dangerous, violent,” he says. “I made it a supermarket because I thought that means safety. Everybody has to eat.”

Decoding Valentine’s for dim-witted dudes

11:46 am

Let me be honest and say that last year I had possibly the saddest Valentine’s Day ever.

I had a boyfriend, but we broke up two days before Valentine’s Day and then got back together a couple days after Valentine’s Day. Oh, how convenient you may think. But, the truth is I think the breakup was kind of my fault. I put so much pressure on the guy that I think he lost it, temporarily.

But I’m not entirely to blame. I was dating the one guy in North America who didn’t know that Feb. 14 is Valentine’s Day.

Although it seemed funny at the time, looking back it wasn’t so funny. I actually sent him an e-mail with directions of what to get me like I was writing out a map. I directed him to the website and the bracelet. I think I annoyed him so much he just wanted to hide from me.

But Valentine’s Day is important to me. Yes, yes, it’s a made-up day. I don’t care! My thought is that you can’t go wrong with a piece of jewellery. And that’s what I wanted. When we finally made up, the guy gave me the present, which was still in the FedEx envelope. I give him a B+ for actually getting me the gift, but he would have received an A if he had actually wrapped it or bothered to take it out of the envelope.

For the majority of women, even those who say it’s a “Hallmark holiday,” they still want to be acknowledged.

The man I’m dating now always brings me flowers. I was telling this to my friend, as we discussed the big V-Day, and mentioned that, since he always gets me flowers, he’d have to do something different.

“Are you kidding me?” my single friend said. “I would give anything for a guy to give me flowers! If I’m on the subway on Valentine’s Day and see all the men rushing around with flowers in their hands, I get jealous.”

But what I’m really getting at is a way to decode what a Valentine’s Day gift says about how the man in your life feels about you.

Flowers are definitely sweet and so are chocolates, the standard gifts on Valentine’s Day. Now, I hate to be so demanding, but I think that flowers and chocolates may show a man cares, but there’s not much effort or creativity involved.

I spoke with a number of women about decoding Valentine’s gifts, and it turns out that all of them want to be acknowledged on Valentine’s Day, and, moreover, they want gifts. And, the right kind of gifts. It has nothing to do with the price tag.

“I agree flowers are nice, but not creative,” says one woman. “But my husband knows what my favourite flowers are, so he gets me those, which does make it a little more special.”

Another one of my friends says, “One of my exes bought me this cheesy red lingerie set and it was the worst quality. It wasn’t from La Perla. It was like from some crappy department store,” she says. “It was more a gift for him than it was for me.”

This is where men have to be careful. Sexy lingerie, if it’s good quality, is a nice gift. But slutty lingerie, let’s be honest, is really a gift for him not for her.

Another friend moaned about her boyfriend getting them a couple’s massage. Most people would think this is nice, right? “It was nice for him! He loves massages, and I can take them or leave them. And I’m so not into couple’s massages. I can’t relax at all with someone right next to me. It doesn’t do anything for me. He knows this. He just really wanted a massage,” she says. Another friend is all about giving an A for effort when it comes down to decoding Valentine’s Day. Her boyfriend once sent her on a treasure hunt, starting at a video store and ending up at a fancy restaurant. “It was so much fun and it must have taken him so much time to plan. So he definitely gets an A for that.”

Another friend’s most memorable Valentine’s Day involved a book of all their dating memories including movie and concert stubs and photos. “I still have it. It may seem cheesy to some people, but I loved it.”

Another friend’s boyfriend sent her a huge bag of her favorite candy. “It wasn’t an expensive gift, but he did have to order them from the States, and it showed that he really listened to what I like,” she says.

All the women I talked to do feel bad for men because of the pressure we put on you poor fellas. “I can buy myself whatever I want,” says one friend. “So it’s not so much about the present. It’s about showing appreciation, romance and effort. It’s not about money.” This year, I’m not putting pressure on anyone. I do feel bad for men, too. So my advice is don’t worry so much about the gift just worry about the effort.

And, lose the FedEx package!

The lost art of making a good impression

11:46 am

It was just after New Year’s, and I was looking forward to watching the first new episode of Saturday Night Live of 2011, hosted by my old friend Jim Carrey. As it turned out, it was a lame 90 minutes.

But a sketch toward the end of the show caught my attention. Carrey played a swami who tried to contact the departed for his clients, only to channel the voices of celebrities. It gave Carrey a great opportunity to do impressions, and it reminded me that this is how he had started out in the ’70s.

It made me wonder what happened to all the impressionists.

In the ’80s, there were some great impressionists onstage in Toronto. Mark Halloran, who did Richard Dreyfuss so well you could swear he was in the room; Maurice LaMarche, whose Johnny Carson set the standard for all other Carson impersonators; and Ray Landry, who specialized in political figures.

LaMarche eventually made his way to Hollywood and made a fortune in cartoons, but the others faded from public view.

More recently, Rodney Pentland had some local success with his great impressions of Bill Cosby and Jack Nicholson before his untimely death a few years ago.

A few other comics, such as Mark Walker, do voices, but incorporate them into their larger stand-up show. And then there are the singing impressionists, most obviously Andre-Philippe Gagnon, who would wow crowds by doing a “We Are the World” tribute using all the voices in the original.

Also Martin Dube and Gordie Brown are two Canadian impressionists making it big in Vegas. Of course, Rich Little was the platinum standard in the impressionist game for decades, one of the biggest comedy stars in the world. He still works, although his material hasn’t changed since the Diefenbaker era.

It’s slim pickings for fans of the impressionist’s craft. One exception is Frank Caliendo, who’s a big hit in Vegas now with his mixture of politicians and celebrities. And if you’re looking for someone classic yet original, look no further than this year’s breakout star on Saturday Night Live, Jay Pharoah.

Pharoah’s expert impressions of African-American stars such as Denzel Washington and Will Smith are eerie in their perfection.

It’s a short list, and the genre has been in decline for years. Why?

In the classic movie Sunset Boulevard, aging movie star Norma Desmond laments what Hollywood has become. “We had faces then,” she says. She might also have included voices. We now occupy a universe so obsessed with the visual that what we hear is no longer relevant. Compare classic impressionists’ choices — Jimmy Stewart, Fonda, Bogart, Jack Benny — all unique and recognizable, whereas today’s stars, such as Clooney, Damon, Hanks and DiCaprio, possess voices that are neutral and uninflected.

Perhaps the nature of stardom has changed. Everyone knew what Johnny Carson sounded like. And though Craig Ferguson has his own unique Scottish brogue, in a 500- channel universe, Ferguson can be a TV star with only a slim market share. Someone could imitate him, but not everyone would know him.

A few years ago, a producer in L.A. made the rounds pitching a game show that revolved around impressionists. The networks were quite keen on the idea, and the producer sensed he had a hit on his hands. But the show never got off the ground. The producer wasn’t able to find enough impressionists!

A Light at the end of the tunnel for Toronto synth sensation

11:39 am

“It’s kind of a weird story,” says Juno Award–winning electro-pop star Lights, when asked about her so-called discovery. “I lived in Owen Sound at the time, and my Mom worked at Walmart. They were recruiting people to appear in their flyer — and I ended up being chosen.”

At the Walmart flyer photo shoot, Lights encountered makeup artist Paul Venoit (of Canada’s Next Top Model and Celebrity Look- Alike fame).

Taking his cue from the guitar she had brought along to the shoot, Venoit asked the then- teenaged Lights if she could sing.

“I sang a Mariah Carey song, I think,” says Lights, who, at the time, had already recorded dozens of demos at home on her own eight track. “He left the trailer right away and called Jian [Ghomeshi]. Turns out they were friends.”

A few weeks after this encounter, Lights and her father met up with Ghomeshi at an Owen Sound hotel room. (He had come to the area for a folk festival.)

The popular CBC radio host (and former Moxy Fruvous member) told Lights what every budding musician hopes to hear: “I want to help you get what you deserve.”

Today, Lights — whom Ghomeshi has managed for several years now — is sitting on a high- back chair in the lounge at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. She’s back in Toronto, the city she now calls home, to play a sold-out, end- of-tour gig.

It’s only 3 p.m., and already Lights’ fans (or “Lightsarmy” as they self-identify) are lining up outside the building. It’s well below freezing, and there’s another six hours to go — to wait — until Lights will relieve her opening act. Evidently, these realities aren’t deterrents.

Lights, born Valerie Poxleitner, has played more than 200 shows in the past year alone. Though touring was a challenge at first (“It takes years to get good at performing”), she says she’s finally, and fully, comfortable onstage. And it shows.

When Lights walks on to the stage later that evening, beaming, the audience is suddenly animated. Young tweens accompanied by Mom and Dad begin to scream, their other-worldly warbles competing with the fluctuating drone of Lights’ synthesizer.

Suddenly, as if directed by an invisible Wizard of Oz, dozens of teenagers rise from their seats and begin to run, sneakers thumping, to the front of the stage. Lights doesn’t ask; she commands the attention of her adoring fans. Switching seamlessly from guitar to keyboard to synthesizer and chasing every song or two with a pitch-perfect anecdote, Lights positions herself as a real contender.

Sure, she’s an idol of Justin Beiber proportions in the eyes of some of her young fans, but she’s also a musician’s musician.

She writes her own songs, she plays her own instruments (keys, guitar, and she’ll pick a mean banjo if she has to), and she’s clearly honed her craft as an onstage performer. When she’s not touring, Lights spends the majority of her time writing new material from her quiet, at-home studio in the north end of the city.

“It’s so peaceful there. I like to sit in front of the window and play out to Toronto,” she says. “I get to play to thousands and thousands and thousands of people — when no one’s watching.” As her set at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre comes to a close, a familiar figure appears onstage: Jian Ghomeshi.

He presents his protege with an unexpected gift: a plaque that informs the rising star that her most recent EP, The Listening, has just “gone gold” in Canada.

More sneakered fans thunder toward the stage, and Lights wipes away tears.

Sign, signs, everywhere signs

11:37 am

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and apparently, it is time to buy a fire extinguisher.

So says the queen of Canadian astrology, Georgia Nichols, whose new, and first, book, You and Your Future, is rocketing up the best-seller list faster than a Sagittarian with its moon in Uranus.

Born in Winnipeg and living “in a forest on an island” in British Columbia, Nichols took to reading the 12 signs of the zodiac as a profession after being laid off. But she’s been learning astrology for as long as she can remember.

“I would lie on the floor and read horoscopes. It was this esoteric knowledge, and it wasn’t mentioned in school, church whatever, but there it was in the newspaper for everyone to see,” says Nichols. “It was this hidden knowledge. Why wasn’t everyone talking about it?” After she found herself out of a job, Nichols turned to astrology.

“I was in Vancouver, and I took out an office. I didn’t know how, but I did,” Nichols explains. “I did readings for people, and then the columns took over to such an extent that I couldn’t do readings any more.”

What began as a weekly column in Monday Magazine grew into a regular daily horoscope in The Province as well as a full-page weekly article.

Now, Nichols is one of the most widely read astrologers in the country, appearing in the National Post, Winnipeg Free Press and Calgary Herald as well as American newspapers such as the Chicago Sun-Times.

“I still feel like this little daily horoscope is light stuff right,” Nichols says. “But I cannot tell you how many e-mails I’ve received about how I’ve helped them through their husband’s death or that I gave them courage to do something…. I talk to people daily, you see. Daily you hear this voice speaking to you. Eventually, it has an influence in their lives.”

Nichols’ 600-page tome offers up a couple of firsts in the astrology genre: a 40-year timeline for her horoscopes as well as delving into the past.

“They might be out by maybe one or two years, but the whole broad stroke of your life will be there,” she says. “You can go into the past, and a person can judge me, judge the accuracy — did they leave home then, did they find a partner then, right up to 2025.”

For non-believers, Nichols says, at its root, astrology is just math.

“I agree with a very famous astrologer, Sir Isaac Newton, who, when criticized by Edmund Haley for studying astrology said, ‘Sir, I have studied the subject you have not. If you actually started to study it, you would be shocked.’”

Movie star returns to T.O. stage

11:31 am

“Sixteenth-century Machiavellian murderers” sounds more like a Jeopardy category than a conversation starter, yet it’s the mention of Lucrezia Borgia that sets the 30-year-old Genie- nominated star of One Week, The Trotsky and New Waterford Girl giggling.

Balaban, you see, provides the voice of the medieval madwoman in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the best-selling hack-and-slash video game.

“My dream role was to play a villain and Lucrezia Borgia is the ultimate villain,” says Balaban gleefully.

Balaban recently spoke to a group of high school students as part of the Reel Canada initiative to bring film appreciation into the classroom.

She had grand aspirations of inspiring a generation of future thespians with her stories of starring alongside Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson and Julianne Moore, or at least enthralling them with tales of sharing the screen with hunky heartthrobs like Joshua Jackson and Ryan Reynolds.

“I thought it might be like Mr. Holland’s Opus where I come in and inspire the students and change their lives with my stories, but when they found out about Assassin’s Creed, that was probably the most impressive thing to them,” she says, feigning a bruised ego before bursting out laughing.

Balaban laughs a lot between bites of leftover pasta with chicken and meatballs that she made herself.

She’s in the kitchen beneath the Canadian Stage Company, where she is rehearsing Divisadero: a performance, Michael Ondaatje’s adaptation of his Governor General’s Award-winning novel. Directed by Necessary Angels theatre director Daniel Brooks and co-starring Maggie Huculak, Tom McCamus, Amy Rutherford and Juno-nominated musician Justin Rutledge, Divisadero runs Feb. 8 to 20 at Theatre Passe Muraille.

The play, like the novel, tells the story of a family whose lives are changed by a single violent event, and it explores themes of memory, identity, love and the way the past maintains a grip on the present.

Balaban plays Claire, the adopted daughter of a farmer, whose other daughter has an affair with a farmhand who ends up a Vegas gambler. But the story “doesn’t follow conventional narrative lines like a film does,” Balaban says, as it combines music, performance and storytelling to create a mood and atmosphere and “hopefully a very strong connection with the audience.”

“I am not necessarily embodying the character. As much as Claire the character is present, I feel that Liane the actress is also present in the telling,” she says. “It’s not a question of losing myself in the character or the story — it’s about treading the line between reality and imagination, which is something that will be useful for future film roles.”

Primarily a film and television actress who has been dividing her time between Montreal and L.A., Balaban has had a string of guest- starring roles on hit American series like NCIS: Los Angeles, Numbers and Covert Affairs (which begins airing in Canada this month) in-between small independent films like The Trotsky and Last Chance Harvey. In fact, her role in the Ryan Reynolds rom- com Definitely, Maybe is responsible for her appearing in Divisadero.

Definitely, Maybe director Adam Brooks is the brother of Divisadero director Daniel Brooks. “Adam had been saying to Daniel that he should meet this actress f rom Toronto and one weekend I was in New York working and I had lunch with Adam when Daniel called looking for me,” she says. “I came to Toronto, we met and he asked me to workshop this play and now we’re actually doing it.”

Of course, working in film and theatre are “two very different animals,” she says. “I really love how thorough you can be in theatre. I love the aspect of time and process that you have in the rehearsal process. Most of the film projects I’ve worked on have been so underfunded and rushed that there is no time for that kind of thinking and preparation.”

Theatre also emphasizes details in an actor’s performance to a much greater degree, Balaban has learned. “In theatre there is room to discuss ideas, for every gesture to have meaning,” she explains. “In film, you analyze it after; you have an editor who can create that meaning for you later. It’s not as methodical all the time.”

The result, she says, is that in many ways theatre feels like much more of a collaborative process. “And it takes the pressure off your shoulders because you’re just one part of a larger device that is intended to awe and inspire,” says Balaban. “I find it liberating that so much is going on without me.”

Not that Balaban has any plans to give up her film and television career to focus solely on the stage. In fact, she’s taking the advice that film, television and stage actress Kathy Baker shared with her on the set of Last Chance Harvey.

“She just wants to work with the best people. I feel the same way,” says Balaban, who points to the short film The New Tenants as an example.

“I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided to be in it except that the casting director is someone I respect immensely and has amazing taste,” she explains. “I worked just two days on it, but over the course of those days I found out our DP had been nominated for an Oscar, oh and our costume designer did Jesus’ Son.” The New Tenants went on to win the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at last year’s Academy Awards.

Balaban is often asked for advice from aspiring actors — and not just those who wonder how they can become an Xbox villain. And her response is a bit surprising. “The thing we need to discuss is how they are going to generate their own careers and take responsibility for their livelihoods as actors.” Instead of hoping to win an audition, which isn’t so different than hoping to win the lottery, actors need to make their own work, she says.

She’s planning to take her own advice by writing a screenplay based on How Should a Person Be, a book by Toronto writer Sheila Heti.

“It’s about treating your job like a job, and the nice thing about living in Los Angeles is that acting is a valid career,” she says. “You can live and work as an actor and it’s not some magical, mysterious Holy Grail. It’s not so special and whenever acting is debunked I find it so liberating and joyful.”

Local resident blazed trail for Canada’s Black History Month

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On Dec. 5, 1995, Rosemary Sadlier received a phone call telling her to turn on the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC). That day she watched the federal government, prompted by her efforts, declare February national Black History Month.

For the president of the Ontario Black History Society (OBHS), the moment was a far cry from Sadlier’s earlier years at Vaughn Road Collegiate where, as an African-Canadian, she says she felt alone. “We were the only family of African origin in the area,” she recalls.

So she found her sense of belonging in other ways. It was in her own family’s history: her ancestors had come to Canada via the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes that helped American slaves reach freedom. She also found belonging at the black community church she attended on Sundays and the after- school programs she involved herself in.

However, it wasn’t until Sadlier had children of her own that she felt compelled to become active in the struggle to further equality.

“When your child comes home and shares with you — whatever the incident, be it from interactions with other students, comments from teachers, the nature of the curriculum — then you know things aren’t changed. They’re changed a bit but they haven’t changed.”

So she joined the OBHS. Three years later, she became president. It was a tough time, as the province had just cut funds to cultural organizations. But there was work to be done. During her almost 20 years as president, in addition to being the impetus for national Black History Month, Sadlier succeeded in having Aug. 1 declared provincially as Emancipation Day. The day marks the abolition of slavery under the British Empire. She’s also working on having the day declared nationally.

Sadlier has also published a number of books, including biographies on journalist Mary Ann Shadd, Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman and a book called Leading the Way: Black Women in Canada.

“When the light is pretty much always on white men, it just helps to give a little bit more balance,” she says. Her storytelling doesn’t stop with books. Currently the OBHS is working to establish a cultural centre and museum in Toronto. And in honour of this year’s Black History Month, the group is working with the federal government to launch a virtual museum, giving the stories behind the people and the buildings that have enriched and helped define the African-Canadian experience.

Sadlier says keeping these stories alive helps build a sense of identity and promotes understanding across the board. However, she says there are strides to be made, for the sake of equality and the benefit of all society. And she won’t be giving up any time soon. “You try to do something meaningful,” she says. “Black history is for everybody’s benefit. It’s a way to try and bring balance, to try and extend people’s ability to accept.”

Richardson siblings team up for interior design challenge

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The event is called Sibling Revelry, but when Theo Richardson and his sister Sarah Richardson, Toronto-based designer and star of the Sarah’s House TV series, team up this weekend to design a space for the Interior Design Show, will there be any sibling rivalry?

“Um … no. A lot of people keep asking me that. Perhaps that’s short- sightedness,” says Theo, 27, with a laugh. “I work with partners and my sister works with partners … so we are accustomed to collaboration.”

Theo is co-founder and partner of the New York City product design studio Rich Brilliant Willing, a name inspired by the last names of the three partners, Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams. This will be Theo’s first time working professionally with his sister.

As anyone who has seen Sarah’s House can attest, the elder Richardson’s preference is for warm colours, soft fabrics and a cozy, luxurious interior. Theo’s studio, meanwhile, is known for stripped- down, industrial-style products.The Excel floor lamp, a popular piece that put them on the design map in NYC, resembles a game of pick-up sticks attached to a light. So how will they bridge the design gap?

“Our concept for working together is reverse engineering,” explains Theo. “Sarah’s going to take our products first and build the rooms around those. Which is basically the complete opposite of the way you would normally do something.”

For the challenge, each sibling pairing has been tasked with designing 600 square feet of space. Other siblings in the competition include David and Glenn Dixon, Thien and My Ta Trung of Periphere and Jason and Lars Dressler of Brothers Dressler. The Interior Design Show kicks off with an opening night party tonight at the Metro Convention Centre. Tickets are $55 in advance, $60 at the door. The Sibling Revelry exhibit runs Saturday to Sunday. Tickets are $22.

Theo’s first brush with design came while he was a student at Upper Canada College where he studied painting and graphic design. “I remember being in high school and being really inspired by things I was seeing in magazines. I remember the car [leading industrial designer] Marc Newson did for Ford. Just the fantasy of new forms and future technologies. I guess that was when I started clicking on to [the possibility] that this could be done as a profession.”

At the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, he met classmates and future business partners Brill and Williams. Since its founding in 2007, their company has been reviewed by the New York Times Style Magazine and named among the top 40 designers by I.D. magazine in January 2009 — signs that they’ve become an established player in the New York design world. But working in harmony with an elder sibling? Now that’s a real sign of maturity.

The Interior Design Show, Jan. 27-30

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