Welcome to the 11th Arts Now podcast. This week guest host Nicholas Brown and I chat about Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation and photographer Scott McFarland. Plus we highlight some of the shows you should check out next week.



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The Arts Now is a weekly podcast about the Toronto arts scene hosted by Ella Cooper and Amil Niazi.

If you want to see the power of the human condition, now's your chance. This Saturday, wake up early and make your way down to one of the bigger LCBOs frequented by the richer folk - Summerhill, Queen's Quay, or Bayview Village are all good examples - just before they open. Observe the queues of smartly dressed people waiting - sometimes patiently, sometimes not - for the doors to open. See them bring any family members of legal drinking age along to avoid any per person limits. They might even be given tickets to save the staff the hassle.

Watch as the doors open. Follow them as they rush to the New Zealand section of Vintages, grabbing for their precious prize. It's that time of the year again; Vintages is releasing the 2005 vintage of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc ($29.95, #304469), the New Zealand cult wine that all the wine snobs go ga-ga for. There's no denying it's a good wine - bordering on very good - with it's aromas of gooseberry, raspberry and grapefruit, but it's not 30 dollars good, and better New Zealand Sauvignons can be found for ten bucks less, at least.

Still, it's always fun to watch them charge for their prize.

For those looking for better value, this release offers more than a few possibilities, three of which are detailed, of course, below.

It's nearly time for that favourite of semi-annual celebrations to occur - the 2006 edition of Summerlicious. Prices are slightly higher this year ($25 and $35 for a dinner, $5 greater than for Winterlicious; lunch prices remain the same) but the value is still unbeatable; now's your chance to eat at the restaurants that you usually only walk by.

Seating doesn't start until the 7th of July, but reservations (for Amex cardholders, everbody else has another two days) start today. Reservations are essential, and for some of the top restaurants, booking early is about the only chance you have of getting seats for the festival - unless you're willing to schedule your week around their seating plans. However, if you're just looking for a nice night out, and arn't bothered by the restaurant, you can generally make reservations the same day.

While some of the ultra-shmansy restaurants - Susur, par example - don't participate, many other top class ones do; I've done Canoe and Pangaea before, and I think that I'm putting Lobby or the restaurant @ king edward on my hit list for this summer.

Now's the time to eat like the fabled folk do.

Roses - and I've often wondered why even in English, they are known by their colour in French - as a class, have never really been given much respect. Although they are often one of the first types of unflavoured wines that people try, more often than not after they've moved on to reds and whites, they completely abandon the pink coloured wines.

In large part, this is because the very qualities that are approachable to new drinkers - the light, sweet, candy notes prevalent in the 'white' Zinfandels, and the Mateus roses of the world - tend to be ones that more frequent drinkers pass off as uncultured and simple. They're right, for the most part; a great wiine is much more than juice or soda precisely because of the complexities it can offer.

Of course, not all roses fall into the catagories mentioned above - in fact, traditionally, they don't. The vast majority of rose wines are fermented to dryness and, if properly made, exhibit great deals of complexity. It is to these roses that the cognoscenti turn in the warmer months, when the heat and humity makes a deep brooding red seem like too much of a chore. Thankfully, the LCBO has recognised that it is rose season, and are coming out with quite a few new bottles in Vintages this Saturday. Enjoy them.

Nothing says hot fun, summer in the city like Summerlicious, Toronto's festival of food.

Running from July 7 to 23, the fourth-annual event offers three-course prix fixe menus available at both lunch and dinner and at unbelievable price points ($15 or $20 lunch menus and $25 or $35 dinner menus) at 130 restaurants.

Summerlicious and its frigid counterpart, Winterlicious, promote Toronto's restaurant industry and are an open invitation to sample some of Toronto's haute cuisine without putting too much of a dent in the wallet.

It's not quite the Olympics or the Noble Prize, but when it comes to celebrating the best of Ontario's beer, the Ontario Brewing Awards certainly carry their share of bragging rights. This year, 24 breweries entered a total of 81 different beer in nine judged catagories. Yesterday, at the Esplanade Bier Markt the award winners were revealed (and more importantly, sampled).

Although the beer spanned the range of styles from clean lagers to heavy stouts (and everything in between) they were all well made, and all had a very filling, well rounded, mouthfeel. Each was distinctive and interesting, but far and away my favourite was the Niagara Eisbock (#263673 at the LCBO, $7.95 for a 750mL bottle) by the Niagara Brewing Company, winner of the potpourri Best Specialty Beer catagory. A pale copper colour, the nose was incredibly complex, including aromas of honey, coffee, milk chocolate, caramel and vanilla. In the mouth, it was medium full and rich, with distinct flavours of honeycomb, chocolate, mocha, vanilla, and nutmeg. It woudl be gorgeous with a beef stew or chocolate cake.

The only real downside to what was otherwise a fantastic event was the questionable inclusion of The Beer Store as a major sponsor. While the sponsorship may be thematically appropriate, one must remember that The Beer Store is owned almost entirely by the big three brewers - Labatt's, Molson, and Sleeman - and money buys influence. Indeed, while there were nine judged awards this year, there was also a tenth, non-judged, award: the 'Best Seller' award. That award stayed in the Beer Store's family tree, going to the insipid, sex-in-a-canoe-like liquid known as Coors Light. Remember kids, don't let McDonald's sponsor a Restaurant Awards either.