Photo: "Kensington Festival of Lights" by Eyeline-Imagery, member of the blogTO Flickr Pool.

Events on Toronto's Radar for TUESDAY DECEMBER 22, 2009... lovingly handpicked from blogTO's events calendar.

BOOKS AND LIT | Bad Day Launch Party
Quarterly culture mag Bad Day launches its sixth issue tonight at Toronto's favourite underground movie house. The magazine is run out of an office in the cultural hotbed that is the Ossington strip, and the winter issue features such luminaries as recently de-monikered international indie star Owen Pallett and heartthrob for the quarter-life crisis set Jason Schwartzman. Music for the party tonight will be supplied by Mikey Apples and Jamie Sin and there will be special holiday treats provided by Bad Day. Come hang out with some of those literary types you're always hearing about.
Cinecycle, 129 Spadina Ave., PWYC, 9 pm

PANEL DISCUSSION | Bent - An Evening of Queer Expressions
TX Production's monthly panel discussion is back tonight and this month's theme is literature. Some of the city's most exciting authors join the panel to discuss lit issues and read from their latest work. Gender-jammer and culture critic S. Bear Bergman will be joined by novelists Farzana Doctor, Jeffery Round, John Miller and Tamai Kobayashi, making for a diverse and heavily-talented panel. Moderated by writer and Gay Guide Toronto blogger Andrew Vail.
Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W., Free, 7 pm

MUSIC | Bookie's Holiday Bash
The Horseshoe's venerable Tuesday night Nu Music concert series throws its holiday party tonight with a set by blue-collar Hamiltonian rockers the Arkells. The boys from Steeltown will set aside their own tunes for the night in favour of performing their favourite Motown hits from the 1960s, presumably while wearing funny Christmas hats. Hollerado and In Order of Good Cheer open. Show up early cause this will definitely be packed.
The Horseshoe Tavern, 368 Queen St. W., Free, 10 pm

PARTY | Hey Rebel! Dance Party
The gay village's hottest all-ages dance party returns tonight with its holiday edition. Not sure what the difference will be from its previous editions, but presumably everyone will be feeling warm and fuzzy and very generous. It's gonna be three floors of electro, top 40, and mash-up party music that can be enjoyed by the young-uns and the legally drunk alike. Is it just me or does this event have "jail bait" written all over it? Stay safe, kids!
The Barn, 418 Church Street, $10 before 10 pm, 9 pm

PARTY | Timebomb Tuesday at Tattoo Rock Parlour
Back in 2007, somebody had the bright idea of opening bar that was so hardcore in its rawkiness that it had a real working tattoo parlour built right into it. Since then, aside from sending hundreds of drunken partiers home with ill-advised ink jobs, TRP has become the place to be on a strip of Queen West that was heavy on the skeez but seriously lacking in cool factor. The bar celebrates another successful year with $3 drinks and a suspended dress code tonight.
Tattoo Rock Parlour, 567 Queen St. W.,

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