The Silver Lena's are the Serial Diners answer to the Oscars. Along with the traditional awards like Best Film, Best Actor and Actress, there are such gems as Coolest Villian, Coolest vehicle and "The Bullitt Connection Award for Best Chase Sequence(s)" .

Then there are the totally bizarre awards "The Jon Bunnyman Award For Artistic Excellence Through The Judicious And Intentional Use Of Bad Writing", "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Award" (you'd have to see the movie to get it) and my favourite, "The Short Circuit 2 Award for Most Inept Disguising of Toronto".

In the end Serenity proved to be the award winner and Star Wars III proved to be a winner... depending on how you look at it.

As is my wont, I was listening to National Public Radio from the US. Two segments on the education of Black male youth caught my ear and while the pieces were done from an American perspective, there were some valid points and ideas regarding the issue that I think could easily apply to to Toronto's Black population(s).

With Black History Month coming to a close, I think it would serve us well to look at as many options and offered solutions as possible.

You gotta wonder about a group called The Royal Sarcophagus Society - then again, I was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism for 11 years so who am I to talk?

Anyhow, the RSS is up to it's usual tricks: it is presenting Wanderlust: Erotic Tales in Strange Lands , "an evening of provocative poetry, raunchy road-trip tales and alluring adventures", tonight at the Gladstone Hotel ArtBar, 1214 Queen St. W. Doors open at 8 pm with $6 cover.

But what caught my eye was the opportunity to view "a naughty new photography exhibit by Gentlemen's
Pornographer, David Keyes. Photos will be available for sale as a series of Parisian-style postcards. Should make for interesting viewing...

While watching the opening of the Winter Olympic games, I was truely overwhelmed. I have NEVER seen a more stunning opening of the games.

But what does that performance have to do with Toronto?

Everything. Torontonians got so see some of "Renaissance to Baroque" close up at the 40th anniversary of Nathan Philips Square last September.

So why is this important? It's important because it shows that Toronto is capable of being ahead of the game in terms of the arts - be it with artists that we invite to Toronto or with our own amazing talent. The trouble is, Toronto does not promote this aspect very well nor do we show it to its best ability. And our venues are either inadequete or used inefficiently.

Okay, well I have finally come to accept the fact that we are stuck with the Conservatives for the next 2-3 years, if not longer. Harper has been sworn in and he has chosen his cabinet, decreasing the number of cabinet members by 12 . I have a question though.

Why don't we have a Ministry of Poverty?

As for this Cabinet being able to address the needs of Toronto... I'm not holding my breath.

Joe (Guiseppe) Mercurio is truely a Renaissance man. Manager of Bar Mercurio's L'Espresso, he has created Salon L'Espresso: on the third Thursday of every month for $20 you get a glass of wine, buffet appetizers and the opportunity to participate in civic discourse.

Or perhaps, it is more like civil discourse. After watching a video which explored myth in modern society, the group of some 30-40 people got into discussion, overseen by the video's presenter - who reminded me of Bob Barker with a microphone. Neither heavy disagreement nor high intellectualism was allowed. Of course, we're Canadian, so we don't get into disagreements.

Ultimately whole event was sort of like literary dinner theatre.