Foodie Icon Michael Pollan to Speak at ROM, Will the Jays Finally have their Day? TorontoIAM

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Two Animal Services May be Cut from City Budget

From Toronto City Councillor Gord Perks, Perks writes a response to citizen concerns over possible cuts to Animal Services in the 2008 budget. The Mayor introduced the draft budget to the Budget Committee in early February after “several months of intensive review by senior City staff and members of the Budget Committee.” The committee had also held public hearings, during which several issues were raised, including “two possible cuts to the Animal Services budget.” One cut is regarding “injured animal pick up” and the other is for “voluntary animal surrender.”

Perks states in the post that “these two programs are a small portion of the overall Animal Services budget” and in order to save the programs, expenditures elsewhere in the City budget would need to be reduced. The cuts are still being reviewed, “along with a few others in other City departments.” The final recommendations “go to the City’s Executive Committee, and then to City Council for a final vote at the end of March.” Cutting important public services is a concern, and Perks states he “will work hard to identify possible savings elsewhere.”

Small Gauge Film Festival Features Vintage and Found Films

Over at the Torontoist, Ashley Carter invites readers to Trash Palace this weekend for the 8 Fest. The small-format film festival “is new to Toronto and will exclusively feature films shot on Super 8, 8mm and 9.5mm, as well as loops and zoetropes.” The programme begins at 7 pm tomorrow (Saturday, February 23) with films “by experimental cinema guru Saul Levine, once called ‘the foremost dissenting filmmaker in America’ by critic and avante-garde film historian P. Adams Sitney.”

For those “still mourning the loss of Splice This!” the programme offers much to fans of “bad classroom reels, found footage, grainy home movies, and low- to no-budget outsider flicks.” There will be screenings such as the silent vintage classroom loops Desert Tortoise Courtship Ritual narrated by Toronto artists and a found film program called “Orphan Films,” a collection of years of filmmaker dumpster-diving. In addition, there will be a Home Movie Repair Clinic. More details found in the post.

Michael Pollan Live Interview Moves to ROM

Greg Clow at Taste TO announces that “the most anticipated foodie event of the next seven days,” takes place next Wednesday at the ROM theatre. Matt Galloway will conduct a live interview and Q&A with Michael Pollan, “celebrated author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food.” The event is presented by The Cookbook Store, and was moved to the ROM after the original Heliconian Hall venue was sold out.

There is a full slate of foodie happenings in Toronto over the next week, in addition to Pollan’s interview. Tonight and on Tuesday you can take a “Global Wine Tour” of Argentina over at The Fine Wine Reserve and Sunday it’s “Cheese on the Italian Table” over at Volo. And on Thursday (February 28), you can find out how to reduce your dinner’s global footprint at the Riverdale Library’s “Think Globally, Eat Locally.” Details and links may be found in Clow’s post.

Blue Jays on the Cusp of Something Good

Over at The Tao of Steib, “hope springs eternal” for Blue Jays fans, who have anticipated big growth for the Jays over the past several year. “There's been this sense…” writes Steib in the post, “that they're almost there. Since the 86-win season in 2003, we've felt like we're on the cusp of something good.” We’ve been “teased” as well by the American pundits “picking the Jays as the team that ‘just might surprise this year’ for pretty much the last three years.” Disappointments have made us leery.

With those disappointments in mind, “we allow ourselves to get marginally excited about the prospects of the 2008 squad.” We’ve finally got “Major League” calibre players “at virtually every position… who can step in if the putative starter goes down in a flaming heap.” There’s Barajas to cover for Zaunie, Stairs to take over for Overbay, Scutaro to step in for Rolen. “There will be no extended periods where a Jason Phillips-type or a Howie Clark-type will be a starter on this year's roster.”  We’ve got legitimate pitchers in the rotation as well as the bullpen. We may not have the same level of talented core as the Tigers or Red Sox, but the depth of the team gives us hope.

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