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Weekend Radar: O Canada, Grand Analog at the Drake, The Rager, Scotch is On Robbie, Modernboys Moderngirls at the Mod Club, Bent Expressions, To Haiti With Love, the Believer

Photo: "Double Trouble" by flat401, member of the blogTO Flickr Pool.

Events on Toronto's Radar for SATURDAY JANUARY 23 and SUNDAY JANUARY 24, 2010... lovingly handpicked from blogTO's events calendar.

CONTINUING: The Interior Design Festival

Saturday, January 23:

GALLERY | O Canada
The venerable Stephen Bulger Gallery presents a collection of vintage Canadian photographs that it has been amassing for several years now. Covering a wide range of locations and topics, some of the photos date back nearly 150 years and offer and analog history our country at a time when almost all forms of documentation have gone digital. Runs til February 27.
Stephen Bulger Gallery, 1026 Queen St. W., Free, Tuesdays - Saturdays 11 am - 5 pm

MUSIC | Grand Analog at the Drake Underground
Originally from Winnipeg, the Toronto-based hip hop collective Grand Analog has made some giant strides since forming in 2006. Recently invited to play New York City's biggest music festival CMJ, the group is currently on tour before they make their way to Whistler in February to play at the Olympic Games. Frontman Odario Williams is adept at blending his diverse influences of rock and roll, punk, dub, and soul into an infectious sound and tonight's show at the too-small Darke Underground should be real treat.
Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen St. W., $10, 8:30 pm

PARTY | The Rager
The reshuffle at Sneaky Dee's continues with the debut of a new weekly party in their upstairs room. The DJs promise classic jams and the latest dancefloor hits but what should really get the Rager going is Sneaky's ridiculously cheap drinks, which they're making even cheaper with $3 drinks before midnight. If that wasn't easy enough on the old pocket book, you can email the club for $5 guestlist before 12:30 am. Rage on!
Sneaky Dee's ,431 College St., $5 12:30 am, 10 pm

GALLERY | One Night Stand Closing Party
Most exhibitions kick things off with party, but One Night Stand has flipped things around and has decided to go out with a bang. The joint show displays the work of two very different artists in Catharine MacIntosh and Joey Bruni. MacIntosh's featured Sexuality Series is a collection of lino-cuts depicting naked, in some cases transsexual, bodies while Bruni's paintings are reproductions of photographs taken on his travels throughout North America.
3109 Dundas St. W., Free, 6 pm - 10 pm

PARTY | Scotch is On Robbie
Fionn MacCool's has put together all the elements of an authentic celebration of Scottish national holiday Robbie Burns Day (except for the fact they're doing it two days too early!). Throughout the evening there will be intimate Scotch tasting sessions from Dewar's, hourly toasts to Scotland's greatest poet, and at 8 pm a "delicious" haggis will be paraded into the room and formally addressed. Not bad honours for a poet who wrote mainly about getting drunk and knocking up the local girls.
Fionn MacCool's, 70 the Esplanade, Free, 6 pm to 1 am

MUSIC | Modernboys, Moderngirls at Mod Club
Local indie rockers Modernboys Moderngirls continue their assault on the Toronto music scene tonight with one of their biggest shows to date. The dance-rock band is known for its raucous live shows and charismatic frontman Akira Alemany should be able to rile up the Mod Club's pre-party crowd with his growling vocals and dirty guitar riffs. Stick around after the show for the club's UK Underground night featuring indie electro and britpop sounds.
The Mod Club, 722 College St., $10, 9:30 pm

Sunday, January 24:

BOOKS AND LIT | Bent Expressions
Queer lit party Bent Expressions returns tonight with poetry and spoken word performances at Dundas West hotspot the Press Club. Brought to you by the Queer West Art Collective, an umbrella arts organization serving the city's LGBTQ population, tonight's edition features nine writers and performers including poet Philip Arima, playwright and author Philip Cairns, spoken word poetess Nichola Ward, and poet Kirk Dematas.
The Press Club, 850 Dundas St. W., $5, 7:30 pm

FUNDRAISER | To Haiti With Love
Da Kink In My Hair's Trey Anthony hosts this evening of performance at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti. A slew of the city's queer talent will be on hand including international drag stars Jade Elektra and Sofanda Cox, burlesque queen Dainty Smith, and singer Tory Jackson. Organizers are attempting to contact Grasadis, the only Haitian organization dedicated to helping the country's LGBTQ community, but failing that all proceeds will go to the Red Cross.

THEATRE | Telling Tales Out of School
Fledgling art space 52 McCaul presents this remount of a theatrical cycle by the playwrights of York University's undergraduate theatre program. The original work is being presented in conjunction with the good people at Well and Good, who specialize in bringing street-inspired art to the masses. Proceeds from the show will go to support Well and Good's future projects. Conceived and directed by critic, playwright and York faculty member Judith Rudakoff.
52 McCaul, $10, 2 pm

FILM | The Believer
The Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre presents The Stranger, the acclaimed 2002 flick about the ultimate self-hating Jew. A young Ryan Gosling stars as a neo-Nazi whose deep hatred covers up a dangerous personal secret (hint: he doesn't eat pork), and whose destructive tendencies ultimately send him on a path to confront the demons of his past. Based on the true story of Danny Balint and directed by Henry Bean, whose career subsequently took an unfortunate turn when he decided to direct Basic Instict 2. The film will be introduced by Eye Weekly film critic Adam Nayman.
Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Ave., $15, $15 ages 18-29, 4:00 pm and 7:30 pm

For full listings, head on over to our events calendar.
Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO calendar, contact us directly, or use our handy Facebook app.

For Toronto movie showtimes, view our Movie Listings section.


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