I met Faith Erin Hicks at Paradise Comic Con earlier this year, where she stuffed a Zombies Calling postcard into my hand and told me all about her then-in-progress graphic novel wherein zombies attack a university campus. Half a year later, the book is in the shelves, and is even better than my lofty expectations - one of the most entertaining reads I've had all year.

Tonight, Hicks is in town signing copies of ZC at The Beguiling, alongside fellow graphic novelist Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon). After reading Zombies Calling for the second time, I fired a slew of questions at Faith about the work, its origins, and what she'd like to do next.

The page ain't getting any prettier, and today's entry might best be filed under "no s***, Sherlock," but after navigating my way through the haze of mystifying buttons on the TTC.ca front page and finding my way into the service advisory, I was reasonably heartened to see that the page might actually be counted on tomorrow to tell me whether or not I can get to work. In the meantime, I'm going to build a snow fort and call it "Transit Control."

In the ongoing effort to turn those video monitors on the TTC into something other than "those video monitors on the TTC," Art for Commuters and ONESTOP Media Group have announced a new call for submissions, this time focusing on student filmmakers and eco-friendly urbanism.

The programme is called "Greening Toronto: Ideas for a Living City," and aks post-secondary students (not specifying, of course, that they be film students) to envision a green future for our city. Sharon Switzer, Art for Commuters Director says, "We want to see green visions, hopes and dreams for the city. Healthy, vibrant cities are only possible if people are engaged in transforming their urban communities into places where they want to live. You don't have to be a scientist or a specialist to imagine the possibilities. Have fun, be bold, go crazy - for sixty seconds."

Tonight, the TRANZAC Club plays host to the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers Toronto (LIFT)'s annual holiday party and silent auction. The event is a fundraiser for LIFT's operating endowment, and any Toronto filmmaker who has ever leaned on LIFT's invaluable assistance in production and post-production can testify to the importance of keeping the funds flowing in.

The evening will also see the presentation of the Roberto Award, created in memory of Roberto Ariganello, who passed away in 2006 after serving as LIFT's executive director for three years. The Roberto is a cash award presented to an individual who demonstrates outstanding commitment to Toronto's film community, through volunteering, mentorship, or new initiatives, all while maintaining practice in filmmaking-produced-on-good-old-fashioned-film. More information about the award can be found here.

Ariganello's 2001 short film, Shelter, will be screened before the award presentation.

Auction donations come from a wide variety of intriguing sources this year (see this page for a complete list), and music for the evening will be provided by Isabelle Noel and DJ Satan Macnuggit. The event is $7 for general admission, or $5 for LIFT and TRANZAC members. Doors open at the TRANSAC at 7:00 p.m., at 292 Brunswick Avenue.

Some days, pointing out the flaws of the TTC isn't even as easy as shooting fish in a barrel; it's more like shooting ducks in a barrel. Imagine: a whole barrel full of ducks. How could you possibly miss?

The TTC (can I get a city-wide craze going around calling it "The Teet?") has launched a Subway/RT Disruptions page, which they will use to keep their ridership up to date about any service disruptions which may be occurring. The page evidently self-generates every minute or so, with a nice big tag line reading "There are no major disruptions at this time" in any instance in which there is... uh... no major disruption.

The disclaimer on the page already shoots the first hole in the usefulness of this information, with its hedging around the use of the word "major." What's major? A five minute delay during rush hour? A twenty minute delay at 1:00 in the morning? The collapse of the Bloor Viaduct?

With the Star reporting this morning that Halton's Catholic school board has pulled copies of Phillip Pullman's fantasy novel The Golden Compass off the shelves - reputedly due to complaints about its "atheistic" nature - questions are already being asked around school boards in the GTA following suit.

These are heady times for The Golden Compass: New Line is banking that next month's movie adaptation will hit the same fantasy movie jackpot that bankrolled The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia - the latter featuring doggedly pro-Christian themes which did not, of course, invoke the attendant faith-based hand-wringing earned by Harry Potter and now The Golden Compass. Remarkable how atheists rarely petition school boards to remove books about resurrected Jesus-lions from the shelves, lest those books corrupt the innocent godless children.