A conversation with the legendary Brian Hamill about his forty-plus years as a film still photographer will inevitably make its way to the director he's closely associated with - New York's son Woody Allen.

"Back in the mid-70s I was sitting in [famous Upper East Side eatery] Elaine's one day, and Woody was there," he told me last night at the opening of his exhibit Raging Bull and Manhattan at Pikto. "He was looking at me the whole time then he asked someone 'who is that guy?' It turned out that I was the brother of his friend and I was a unit still photographer, so I met him and he offered me to take pictures on his set. I asked him, 'Did you want to see my work first?' and he said he didn't need to."

I thought this was weird (I would think Woody Allen staring at me would border on both flattering and uncomfortable) but the director's instinct proved right. Shortly after, Hamill was shooting on the Annie Hall set and went on photographing every Allen film since 1977.

After last week's truck fire on the 401, expect this evening's commute on the continent's busiest highway to be just as bad.

According to 680 News, the eastbound collector lanes of the 401 have just been closed east of the 400 due to a criminal investigation.

This afternoon a man was shot several times and thrown from a moving Lexus, which exited the highway at Keele. The victim was was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. If it's not too late, it's highly advisable to think of alternative routes to avoid the standstill.

Filipinos are one of the largest visible minority groups in Toronto, and I would be willing to bet that everyone who lives in the city knows at least one Filipino person. But unlike the Chinese, Japanese, even Vietnamese or Thai, Philippine culture lacks representation in the mainstream, earning the monicker "the invisible minority". Most of us have eaten pho or pad thai but how many have tasted the garlicky goodness of adobo?

A group of young Filipino-Canadians at the Kapisanan Philippine Centre in Kensington Market are slowly trying to change this and bring their heritage to the forefront. After successful productions from Carlos Bulosan Theatre (People Power at Passe Muraille) and Pulang Maleta Collective (Baggage at this year's Fringe), the KPC is holding Kultura, the third annual showcase of Filipino-Canadian visual arts, music, theatre and spoken word tomorrow afternoon in the heart of Kensington Market.

With a passport and customs declaration form in hand I, along with fifty other people, waited to enter the Walnut Studio Loft last night for the opening of The Movement Project's "How We Forgot Here". A security guard started checking our bags for liquids and asked us to fill out our customs forms. Funny, I never get nervous in airports and immigration but for some reason I was jittery when she grabbed my passport and asked, "Are you a Canadian citizen?"

As all eyes will be on this Friday's Summer Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. But this week in the city a number of galleries and festivals are aiming to take the spotlight off the athletes and direct our attention to both traditional and contemporary Chinese visual art.

The Power Plant at Harbourfront Centre has opened its doors to the public All Summer, All Free. This year's major group exhibit, Not Quite How I Remember It is a cohesive collection of visual and aural imagery from fourteen accomplished Canadian and international artists who rehash and sample history and iconic works previously done by other artists. Rather than looking at these as a wistful memory, the exhibiting artists reenact and fuse separate events, making one question the authenticity of the present.