In collaboration with Schimmel Pianos, Studio Daniel Libeskind has designed a piano that will fit right at home in the newly designed Michael Lee Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum. This 5 metre (16 feet) long behemoth incorporates Libeskind's trademark jagged style for the exterior shell that will envelope the core inner workings of a "normal" grand piano. According to the Globe and Mail this design has been in the works since 2002, taking longer to build than the Crystal itself. An old USA Today article estimates the Libeskind piano will cost over $300,000.

As with the design of the Michael Lee Chin Crystal, you gotta love it (or hate it)! Personally, I'm not feelin' it. I wish he could channel more diversity into his design palette, such as his Chamber Works from the 80's.

Blue Screen of Death (photo by Sean Galbraith)

For the last few days, the four giant display "screens" at The Bay downtown have been crashed. Could this be the world's largest BSOD?

UPDATE (Nov10, 11am):
This photo, taken last night, suggests that someone finally got to the source and fixed it. Thanks for dropping your photo in our pool, Jen44!

Halifax's Jenn Grant has drawn more than a few comparisons to Feist thanks to her jazzy, warbling style of singing. A few of the songs on her excellent debut album Orchestra For The Moon even sound like they could have been outtakes from Canada's reigning queen of indie rock's last couple of albums.

But the country and folk sound found on the album quickly sets her apart. Since releasing the CD this summer, she's shared the stage with everyone from Feist and The Great Lake Swimmers to her current tourmates The Weakerthans, who she'll open for at The Phoenix on November 7th and 8th.

Grant took a few minutes while on the road to a tour stop in Quebec City to speak to me.

Q: Tell blogTO's readers a bit about yourself.

JG: Well, I was born in PEI, I live in Halifax. I'm just touring with my band right now with The Weakerthans.

Well, I'm 27 and I have freckles. I grew up in Halifax and done a lot of time around the Maritimes and stuff like. I started writing music when I was a kid and started performing when I was half way thorough getting an art degree.

I've always done music and painting but I didn't do any performing until about four years ago because I was really afraid of people looking at me and stuff. But it's okay now!

Last week the city released a new set of guidelines geared towards improving the environmental standards for all future parking lots. Parking facilities are bad for the environment in at least three reasons: (1) the dark asphalt absorbs sunlight and makes the city warmer, (2) this added heat leads to higher smog levels, and (3) this paving prevents rainwater from entering the ground and is dumped into stormwater sewers. It's bad enough that cars pollute the city when they're moving (which kills people), it's even worse that these storage facilities further add to the city's environmental woes.

The new environmental guidelines for private and municipal parking lots include: adding landscaped areas with irrigation systems, using light-coloured porous paving materials, switching to energy efficient lighting, and adding public art. Unfortunately these guidelines won't apply retroactively to all of the parking lots that are currently out there, but at least they raise the bar for new ones.

The next step for the city should be to hire Plant Architects to make a bold statement and put the green into their "Green P" lots (rendering pictured above). More info on their "Greener P" design, after the jump.

Last week I had a chance to attend the 2-day Green Building Festival held at the Atlantis Pavilions at Ontario Place. I'm not sure if there was a prophetic message attached to their choice of venue, but I found it an odd place to host a trade show / conference. Anyways, I just finished studying sustainable architecture in a grad program, so I was quite keen to check out what the festival had to offer in comparison to the more broad Green Living Show.

Over 70 exhibitors set up booths ranging from consumer friendly outfits such as Zipcar and Tridel to more specialized outfits such as Waterloo Biofilter Systems Inc. and Aesthetic Earthworks. Needless to say there was a little something for everyone. My favourite booths were the ones organized by the Forest Stewardship Council and Bullfrog Power.

More on the trade show, and a mini slide show, after the jump.

Last night I checked out the first night of inthemix 2007 - a series of improvised live multimedia performances down at Spin Gallery. The format of each performance featured a video jockey paired up with a musician working turntables or some sort of software or hardware based electronic gear. The resulting video was projected on four screens around the space and audio was transmitted from all directions. Needless to say it was an incredibly immersive environment.

I caught bits and pieces of four acts, but the highlights for me were the pairing of George Bones and Walter Benjamin, as well as "The Corematrix". The Bones vs. Benjamin performance was a tour de force exploration into the deeply nuanced macho stylings that only Ben Affleck can deliver, from Armageddon to Gigli. "The Corematrix" followed with a frenetic live hand-drawn animation that was constantly looping and morphing in scale, orientation, and dimension alongside a solid minimal techno soundtrack. After these performance I had to get outside to let my brain cool off.

Inthemix 2007 continues through until Sunday. The main attraction for tonight is the video stylings of Peter Mettler (of Gambling, Gods, and LSD fame) alongside a host of musicians including minimal techno wizard Tom Kuo. I believe cover is $10.

A smattering of hastily captured screenshots from last night's show, after the jump.