Toronto events on January 24, 2013

MUSIC | 2nd Annual Big Smoke Music Festival
January is depressing, but buzz bands and booze under a (heated) big top tent is the best cure. The 2nd Annual Big Smoke Music Festival is an affordable, three-day festival of good hometown tunes. Beginning tonight with performances by Graydon James and the Young Novelists, Kira May, Moon King and DIANA, Amsterdam and Great Lakes Breweries will be peppering the show with hooch. Head over to Bloor and Ossington to watch Tallboys Craft Beer House transform into a mini-music fest this Thirsty Thursday. (And Friday. And Saturday.)
Tallboys Craft Beer House (838 Bloor Street West) 7PM $5

BOOKS & LIT | "Some Great Idea" Book Launch
The Grid's senior editor Edward Keenan follows in the footsteps of editors and broadcasters like Stuart Berman and Jian Ghomeshi with the release of his book "Some Great Idea: Good Neighbourhoods, Crazy Politics, and the Invention of Toronto." Launching at Lee's Palace tonight, Keenan's book about the rise of Toronto to its current status as a global city will be celebrated with performances by secret special guests and music by DJs Track Meet. The party is a free celebration of one of the city's great journalists and Hogtown's ascension to glory. It is your duty as a Torontonian to attend.
Lee's Palace (529 Bloor St. West) 8:30PM Free

ART & DESIGN | Come Up To My Room
40 artists experiment in alternative design inside the rooms of the historic Gladstone Hotel at the tenth Come Up To My Room. The four-day exhibit will see the hotel's interior elements supplemented with art pieces and the outside expanded by CUTMR alumni Rob Southcott, Orest Tataryn, and The Brothers Dressler. Neon signs, crochet blankets, and blow-up vinyl installations will fill the rooms for this event, which will have it's (loud) quiet opening at the hotel tonight. A party and reception will follow on Saturday night with all the artists and curators Christina Zeidler, Pamila Matharu, Noa Bronstein, and David Dick-Agnew present.
The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West) 6PM $10

ART | Zip The Bright
With the rise in popularity of .gifs on blogs like What Should We Call Me and Hollywood Assistants, it was only a matter of time before someone in Toronto turned it into art. Zip The Bright honours our love of the .gif with animations by four artists, Nicolas Sassoon, Rick Silva, Sara Ludy and curator Lorna Mills. With connections to landscapes, cinema, urban planning and colour theory, the .gif works of these artists will fill Trinity Square Video until the exhibit closes February 16th.
Trinity Square Video (401 Richmond Street West, Suite 376) 6:30PM Free

DESIGN | Do Design 2013
The vibrant Dundas West neighbourhood surrounding Trinity Bellwoods Park launches a streetwide event as part of Toronto Design Offsite Festival. Starting this morning, thirty artists will showcase their contemporary design works in salons, cafes, a lumberyard and boutiques over the course of four days in this free community exhibit. Venue hop around the 'hood and stop in at various opening receptions on Saturday between 3PM and 8PM or go on a guided tour on Sunday at 2PM. The best part about Do Design 2013? Most projects can be viewed from the sidewalk, 24 hours a day.
Dundas West (Bathurst Street to Grace Street) Free

OTHER EVENTS ON OUR RADAR:

• Interior Design Show
• The Wa Magazine: Energy Issue
• Indie Night at Carlton Cinema
• Fortnight Music: Lowlands, The Belleregards and Alanna Gurr

MORE EVENTS THIS WEEK

For more Toronto event suggestions, check out these posts:

• This week in food
• Hot Ticket
• This week in film
• This week in fashion
• This week in theatre
• This week in comedy

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

Photo from Come Up To My Room 2011