This Friday, Dec 7th at 6:00pm there is a great event going on at the International Student Centre. They’re hosting a Casablanca-themed party complete with costumes, cocktails and wine. In fact, they also have Moroccan Mint tea as well as a full dinner. But that’s not all. Included with the drinks and dinner is a raffle for a weekend trip, as well as a free screening of Casablanca. If that wasn’t enough, the hosts will be in costume and there will be opportunities to play roulette and blackjack.

And this all comes for only 15 bucks. Really, there’s no reason not to go.

If you haven’t heard, Newmindspace (that is, the same people who did urban capture the flag a month or so ago) is holding a massive light saber battle this Friday Nov. 16th at 9:30pm in front of the ROM. They’ll illuminate the front courtyard with giant blacklights and hand out painted cardboard tubes with which to battle. If you’re not doing anything else, it’s definitely worth checking out. There’s an afterparty at Randomland with Datarock, a Norwegian electrorock band. You can use a form on their website to get reduced tickets.

Thery’re also looking for some volunteers to help with pre-event planning. If you want to help out, they’re people to help them with painting the cardboard tubes before the event. Wednesday from 3 pm to 8pm they’ll be at 1153 Queen St. West painting the tubes, and you can just stop by and start painting.

Tuesday, October 23rd a farmer’s market is being held by University of Toronto Food & Beverage Services just outside of the Medical Sciences Building, from 11:30 to 2:00. In case of rain the market will be moved into the Atrium. In addition to selling Autumn produce (so apples, eggplant, squash, yams and so forth) there will be soup and biscuits. As an added bonus, they’ll have simple recipies intended for students in residence. This seems to be quite an easy way to get a little variety in one’s meals.

Not only that, but all of the farms participating are Local Food Plus certified, so that they are producing food in a sustainable manner.

More information available on the facebook event page or the U of T Food & Beverage Services webpage.

Image from the Tsoundcheck page

It turns out that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is concerned about the paucity of young folk interested in classical music. To address the issue they started a program they call Tsoundcheck. Basically, several tickets at classical music events are reserved for Tsoundcheck members and are sold at reduced prices (usually around $12). The tickets are sold on a first-come first-serve basis. At any point you can see the events that they are selling tickets for buy clicking on the ‘buy tickets’ link.

Currently they are selling tickets for two concerts by Russian Violinist Vadim Repin in which he plays music by Profokiev and Ravel. However, this information changes relatively often as tsoundcheck tickets are generally available only a few weeks before the concert.

So you may already know that Jane Goodall (of chimpanzee fame) is giving a talk this Saturday Sept. 15 at Convocation Hall. Of course, if you do know this, then you’re probably also aware that the event is sold out.

However, it appears as if there might be another chance to catch her. She is giving a talk this Monday September 17 that takes place at University of Toronto Schools. Moreover, registration is free, and appears to open Monday morning. I haven’t heard much about this, but it seems like it could be interesting.

Most free food events on campus are pretty much the same. Primarily they involve crappy pizza which appears to have been made from the boxes it comes in. If you’re lucky you might find free burgers or hot dogs. Which is all fine; I mean, it’s free right?

But free alcohol is a rarity and should be treasured whenever you can find it. And there might be some this weekend. Specifically, this weekend (Friday Sept. 14 – Sunday Sept. 16) there is a wine fair at the LCBO in Summerhill. The event listings mentions that the event is free, and that participants will be able to sample wines. In a seperate paragraph it is mentioned that there will be opportunites to pair the wines with food prepared on the spot. It’s all a little ambigious, but I suspect that if you go you’ll be able to get free samples of wine while having to pay for anything more substantial. Which, after all, means that you can get free wine.

Image from Grad Escapes website

If you’re anything like me you didn’t realise that Grad Escapes were still going on during the summer. However a quick check of their website reveals otherwise. Indeed, several programs have already sold out. (Although the Music in the Garden program is free. You can just as well make your way to the Garden yourself and catch any of the many free concerts. The Grads Escapes one is occurring on the 12th of July).

Before summer’s end there is still canoeing down on the waterfront the 17th of July (which includes a lesson), a Jays-Yankees game on the 8th of August, and most interestingly (at least to me) a ceramics painting lesson on the 16th of August. For twenty dollars you get one ceramic piece to paint and studio time for up to three. As I understand it this means that you’d have to buy the other two pieces yourself. Still, it seems like a really nice way to be introduced to ceramics painting, as you’d be with a whole bunch of beginning grad students. As always, only U of T grad students are eligible for grad escapes events. So, if you’re not a grad student, you’ll have to ask one of your grad student friends to get you a ticket.