If you've ever fancied yourself a pinball superstar, this weekend marks the first Canadian Pinball Championship. Over 70 players have registered for the three day tournament at the Playdium Store in Etobicoke, but new players are welcome to register today or early tomorrow. Registration for the tournament is $25 and the top 32 players will advance to the finals on Sunday.

On Saturday there will also be a live auction (starts 11:30am, more info) of over 150 pinball machines, air hockey tables, arcade games, pool tables, foosball tables, dome hockey games, jukeboxes and more. Most of these games were purchased from Funland Amusement Arcade on Yonge after it closed, a place I spent many hours of my youth. If I had saved all the quarters I put into Mortal Combat and Street Fighter in high school, I'd probably be able to buy the machines now. These machines will go for bargain prices, if you have ever wanted to start your own basement arcade, don't miss this auction.

This weekend, Torontonians have a chance to be secret agents, improv actors and participate in yet another massive urban "scene" hosted by Improv Everywhere.

Mp3 Experiment Toronto will take place this Sunday at Riverdale Park at exactly 2:00. Participants are asked to wear a Red, Blue, Yellow, or Green t-shirt and bring an umbrella, an uninflated balloon and an mp3 player. Most importantly though, everyone must download the same mp3 and sync their watches so everyone can start listening at the same time. If you plan to attend, be sure to read the detailed instructions before you do.

Manifesto 2008 was officially launched last night with a film festival on hip hop, but what really got the festival started was a gathering of artists outside the ROM.

The evening featured live spray paint art (pictured above) by Starship (HVW8), Dstrbo (HVW8) and Elicser of Canadian artists, and music by DJ X, Son Of S.O.U.L., iNSiDEaMiND (pictured below), DJ Mensa and Mister Grumpy.

One of the highlights of the night though was the first public display of SKRTCH (pictured below) by Rob King from the CFC Media Lab. SKRTCH is an "interactive digital graffiti projection that allows users to digitally 'tag' a wall using a laser." Even more exciting, passersby could animate the tag through scratching a turntable, making the graffiti art dance as a 3D image on the wall. What better wall to tag, at least temporarily, than the North East corner of the ROM.

If there was ever an exhibit to drag your friends and family too this summer, the sixth annual Square Foot Exhibit, opening this weekend, is definitely the one. Presented by AWOL Gallery on Ossington Street, the exhibit features close to 1400 pieces of work from nearly 600 artists, each measuring a square foot, 12x12 inches.

I stopped by the 2,500 square foot exhibit space early this week to document the frantic work that goes into hanging so many pieces in such a short amount of time. I put together a short audio slide-show of the work with a time-lapse sequence at the end that was shot over 8 hours.

Video interview with AWOL Gallery artist Paul Robert Turner.

But to really understand the size of the exhibit you need to see a big photo like the one below.

Vintage (by it's essence) was gone for a while, but with stores like The Public Butter in Parkdale, it's pretty safe to say it is officially here to stay. The new store, opened in February, is a massive collection of everything retro. On top of a wide-variety of furniture and clothing, you'll also find local artists on the wall and silk screens shirts a mile long. Oh, and I can't forgot to mention the bikes out front and the wide variety of, to name a few, bags, games, lamps, hats, lunch boxes and belts from days gone by.

Read my profile of Public Butter and an interview with co-owner Bernard Chung in the fashion section.

Starting today you might have notice that Queen Street West sidewalks got a little busier thanks in part to Dance Like No One Is Watching, a special presentation as part of Toronto's Summerworks Festival.

I strolled by today to take a look. The event was described as pockets of dancers performing "amidst street traffic connected by a shared soundtrack heard only through their individual headsets." I was most intrigued by their shirts that read, "F**k off, I'm dancing like no one is watching," and I didn't want them to wear the shirts without the irony that someone is in fact watching.

I'm no dance critic but I found I actually have something to say about the piece.