Time to Enjoy City Life

Especially after a miserable winter when many of us declined to show ourselves outdoors unless forced, spring is a great time to get to know your city all over again (even though it just snowed).

The Hot Docs film festival starts at the end of the month and runs into May. With 197 films on the roster, you’re bound to find one (or three) to enjoy, but (with thanks to UrbanToronto.ca’s fine work sifting through them all) here are a few that will appeal particularly to those with an interest in architecture and the urban experience:

The Creator of the Jungle (in which a Catalan recluse builds elaborate tree houses in a bid to live as Tarzan), Everything Will Be (which focuses on Vancouver’s Chinatown), Penthouse North (in which an “aging” — and who isn’t? — Swedish actress tries to hang onto her $2,500/mo. Central Park apartment in spite of having no income), Sacro GRA (which focusses on the people who live and work along Rome’s Grande Raccordo Anulare (GRA) superhighway), Slums: Cities of Tomorrow (which argues that slums are often better than the apartment blocks for which they’re bulldozed), and Tomorrow We Disappear (which visits the lives of the puppeteers, acrobats, painters and magicians who live in New Delhi’s Kathputli slum as the government sells it to developers).

While you’re there: Hot Docs takes place at various venues throughout the city. While you’re at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor St. W. at Bathurst) check out B.Streets Condos by Lindvest at 783 Bathurst St.

Try TIFF’s Food on Film series (monthly) to catch some local flavour while you catch a flick. The series brings together “chefs, food experts and film lovers to enjoy the best in culinary cinema and conversation,” says TIFF’s website at tiff.net. After each screening, stick around while special guests discuss the film. Upcoming films include My Dinner With Andre, Soylent Green and the documentary Hey Bartender. There are dozens of restaurants to try in the Entertainment District, which is handily surrounded by other great neighbourhoods. If you can’t find something good to eat here, you deserve to go hungry.

While you’re there: The Entertainment District is teeming with condo life. Check out Picasso by Monarch, 318 Richmond St. W.; Pinnacle on Adelaide, 295 Adelaide St. W.; The Bond Condos by Lifetime Developments, 290 Adelaide St. W.; and Bisha (also by Lifetime), King West and Blue Jays Way.

Presented by The Daniels Corporation, Toronto Taste is a high-end fundraiser for Second Harvest. It’s $250 a ticket, but if you’re a foodie, you shouldn’t balk. The event features 70 gourmet food and beverage stations and a bunch of well-respected chefs. What is the collective noun for a bunch of chefs anyway? A bouquet garni of chefs? A crock of chefs? At any rate, chow down with the likes of Buca’s Rob Gentile, Café Boulud’s Tyler Shedden, Dufflet Rosenberg of Dufflet Pastries; Petite Thuet’s Marc Thuet; Tallis Voakes from Daniels’ own Paintbox Bistro, and perennial Food Network faves Michael Smith and Mark McEwan. The event takes place at the lakeside Corus Quay on Dockside Drive on June 8.

While you’re there: Check out the view and visit the presentation centre and model suites at Tridel’s Aqualina at Bayside, Queens Quay East and Bonnycastle.

The AGO is hosting a huge Francis Bacon and Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty exhibit until July, with more than 60 works on display. Both Brits were inspired by the violence they saw during the London Blitz, but only Bacon is actually capable of giving you nightmares. Enjoy a little bleak existentialism with your neighbourhood explorations. Skinned animals, screaming popes and grotesquerie is always appropriate for spring, isn’t it?

While you’re there: Visit the future home of Smart House (by Urban Capital and Malibu Investments) at 219 Queen St. W. and drop by the sales centre at 11 Nelson St. You can also check out 210 Simcoe by Sorbara and Diamondcorp or stroll through the U of T campus.

Indulge your love of comics and graphic novels at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival at the Toronto Reference Library on May 10 and 11. Events include a Kids Day, launch party, and a conversation with featured guest Reinhard Kleist and Alan Scott Haft, award-winning artist and author, respectively. Admission is free.

While you’re there: You can’t run out of things to see near Toronto’s most famous intersection, and you don’t have to wander far from Yonge and Bloor to check out One Bloor by Great Gulf, Milan Condominium by The Conservatory Group (Yonge & Church), Chaz.Yorkville by 45 Charles Ltd. and Edenshaw Homes (45 Charles), and Casa 2 by Cresford (42 Charles).

There are dozens of goings-on ramping up for spring and summer all over the city. Take the opportunity to get to know a new neighbourhood, and check out what’s under construction nearby. You just might find yourself buying more than a movie ticket.