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*                         CYBERSPACE                         *
*         A biweekly column on net culture appearing         *
*                in the Toronto Sunday Sun                   *
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* Copyright 1999 Karl Mamer                                  *
* Free for online distribution                               *
* All Rights Reserved                                        *
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There was a time, shortly after the invention of the movie 
camera, when people went to see movies simply for the sake of 
spectacle. Watching a man sneeze was considered great fun. 
Spectacle, according to Aristotle's Poetics, is the lowest form 
of drama. So the fun couldn't last. Sure every other summer the 
producers of Independence Day try to revive spectacle as an art 
form but then Fall comes and studios release their Oscar 
contenders. For a few brief months we can try to forget a humid 
summer filled with TTC buses painted black and green 
proclaiming "size matters." Shudder.

For some, the best mental ablution available in Fall is 
Canada's film festival season. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver 
all host international film festivals in September and October.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 
to September 19. Its web site at www.bell.ca/filmfest is a 
little devoid of important details, like what and its 
accompanying when and where. The chrome and animated GIFs are 
in place, though. Oh well. One day archaeologist may find 
Aristotle's fabled HTML style guide. The web site promises by 
September 2 to have film dates, times, locations, and a search 
engine.

Search engines can be a wonderful thing for planning your 
entertainment calendar. I make frequent use of Now magazine's 
movie site search engine (www.now.com). For pre- or post-flick 
food, DineNet's Toronto restaurant data base (www.dine.net/cgi-
bin/search?location=443) is quite extensive, letting you search 
by location and cuisine. The location feature should come in 
handy mid-September. A table at Bistro 990 or any restaurant a 
5 limo radius away from Yorkville might be a little hard to get 
during the film fest. 

If you're squeamish about trying a new restaurant, Toronto Life 
magazine maintains an archive of capsule restaurant reviews at 
its web site (www.tor-
lifeline.com/new/tl/restaurant/cframe.html). Not everyone 
trusts critics, including this critic. For the opinions of the 
common folk, I like to do a search of the newsgroup tor.eats 
using the DejaNews search engine (www.dejanews.com).

Probably one of the best heads-up for film and film fest 
information in Toronto, from the everyman perspective, is Don 
Marks' Swimming Through Celluloid page at 
www.interlog.com/~lamedog/film. Marks is a Java programmer by 
day and hardcore film go'er by night. During the Toronto 
International Film Festival he books off work, becomes a fest 
rat, and updates his web page with regular dispatches from the 
film fest front.

For someone with a day job on the cutting edge of internet 
technology, Marks' personal site is pretty minimalist. In my 
five years on the net, I've noticed a definite inverse 
relationship between the amount of chrome a web master hangs 
out and the quality of the actual information provided. The 
more time you waste mucking around with animated GIFs and 
stupid Java tricks, the less time you have to crank out good 
text.

While Now and Eye fall over themselves to give the Toronto 
International Film Festival maximum coverage, Mark gives lesser 
known film fests that grace our city extensive coverage. Mark 
was all over August's Fant-Asia Film Festival like a critic on 
a free buffet.

Another excellent source for some lesser known film happenings 
in Toronto is the Women in Film and Television web site 
(www.wift.com). The WIFT promotes film-related events and 
workshops from a female perspective. WIFT members are kicking 
off the Toronto film festival in style with a "Martini Madness" 
cocktail party hosted by my page mate (look up, look way up) 
Sara Waxman. Sounds fun. Wish I was a woman.

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