Award winning Toronto sci-fi writer Nalo Hopkinson gave me this heads-up regarding author Colin Channer. Channer will be in town to read from his new book "Iron Balloons: Hit Fiction from Jamaica's Calabash Writer's Workshop," which he edited and to which he contributed a new story.

Joining him will be a special guest: poet, author and Toronto academic Afua Cooper will be reading from her new book of poetry Copper Woman.

These readings will occur on Monday, June 26, 7 pm at A Different Booklist on 746 Bathhurst St.

I happened to score tickets to see comedy troupe The Frantics at the St. Lawrence Centre last night. The show was a fun retrospective of favourite skits like "Boot to the head" plus hilarious new material.

My friend made a valid comment though. For a comedy troupe that is left leaning you would think that they would attempt to not price out the fans - the bulk of my friends could not attend due to the price tag of $45 a pop. As it was, a theater that could seat a couple hundred had some 50 attending. Better to have had fewer dates and a smaller venue. The show ends its run on June 17th.

Precision - this is what characterises the presentation of CanAsian Dance's Transformations, which explores the "expressions of Gender Roles in Asian Dance". Cross-dressing in Asian dance performance not an unfamiliar concept but the great lengths that the Transformations' dancers go, in costume, makeup, gesture and articulation of movement is something that I believe Toronto has yet to see on a stage...until now.

All facets of cross-gender dance are displayed: from Peking Opera (Song Chang Rong and Yao Zhong Wen) to the Cirebon Topeng tradition (Elly). We also introduced to in the disciplines of butoh (Yukio Waguri) and bharatanatyam (Sudarshan Belsare) as well as the classical Javanese Yogyakarta style (Didik Nini Thowok). Each piece bore its own mythology and as this critic arrived just in time for the first dance performance, I had no program to use as a guide.

I did not need one.

Looks like Sasha - erstwhile edgy sexspert of eye magazine - is at it again with a new production from The Scandelles, her burlesque theatre company (having moved on from the traditional cabaret style). Who's your Dada is playing at the Buddies In Bad Times theatre on Friday, June 16th and Saturday, June 17th. Tickets are $15 and doors open for "installation cruising" at 8pm.

Sweet Fantasies is a ice cream parlour at 398 Bloor St. W. , on the corner of Bloor St. W. and Brunswick Ave. (across the street from the infamous Brunswick House). Open only during the summer months, Sweet Fantasies is one of the most popular patio hangouts in the Annex.

Its manager, John Chronopoulos, has endeavoured to keep up with the times, and two steps ahead of his competitors nearby, by offering both low fat and dairy-free alternatives as well as the usual ice cream treats. Given that fact that many of his customers have children with nut allergies, etc. he is now offering organic ice cream, which he gets from a small Ontario company based out of an organic farm a few hours northwest of Toronto.

Now, this stuff is far from cheap - but at special price of $3.50 a generous scoop it is well worth it. Indeed, when he offered me a cone of it (friendship has its privileges) I swore that I had died and gone to heaven. Yes this stuff is that good.

[photo: John's sister, graphic designer Kat Chronopoulos; photographer: Kristine Maitland]

Toronto's Bi-Community, along with bi-communities worldwide, is mourning the death of Dr. Fritz Klein who died yesterday as a result of cardiac arrest, having had surgery several weeks prior for a cancer-related blockage.

Dr. Klein the founding father of the bisexual movement, author of The Bisexual Option and creator of the of The Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, was due to speak at the 9th International Conference on Bisexuality, Gender and Sexual Diversity (9icb) in downtown Toronto at Ryerson University June 15 to 18.

His partner Tom Reise has stated that Klein "himself a medical doctor, chose to have his body donated to science" and that in lieu of flowers, contributions were to be made to San Diego's Diversionary Theater, "a nonprofit organization near and dear to him".