Photo: "Untitled" by The CJM, member of the blogTO Flickr Pool.

Events on Toronto's Radar for WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2009... lovingly handpicked from blogTO's events calendar.

FILM FESTIVAL | Planet in Focus 2009
Canada's most notable environmental film festival celebrates its 10th anniversary with a program packed full with vital, alarming, and uplifting films. Over 85 films from all over the world will be screened, with this year's spotlight program, Fast Forward Towards a 20/20 Vision, focusing on the next decade of environmental change. A special series on emerging superpower China's environmental issues will also be shown. Tonight's opening gala is the Toronto premiere of Finding Farley, which follows the unique vision of iconic Canadian author Farley Mowat.
Opening Gala: Royal Cinema, $10 Single, $100 Festival Pass

BOOKS AND LIT | International Festival of Authors
For the next eleven days, writers from all over the world converge on Toronto for one of Canada's premiere literary festivals. Authors on the bill include Margaret Atwood, Mark Kingwell, Garrison Keillor, Stuart Berman, and Broken Social Scenesters Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, who are apparently authors now. Over the course of the 30th edition of the festival, authors will read from their works and participate in public discussions on topics ranging from bike lanes to the nature of fiction in the 21st Century.
Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queen's Quay West, Various times and prices

COMEDY | Debra DiGiovanni at the TCA
In 2007 Debra DiGiovanni was voted Canada's Best Female Comic, but at some point we might want to drop the infamous f-word from that title. Not many Canadians, man or woman, are able to out-funny the Tillsonburg, ON native, and she begins a two-night stand at the Toronto Centre for the Arts tonight. She's joined by Laurie Elliot, who's just returned from a cross-country Russell Peters-produced comedy tour.
Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St., $15, 7:30 pm

MUSIC | Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle at the Dakota Tavern
Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle are the kind of musicians that make up the back bone of the music industry in this country. A Victoria native, Mark has played all over Canada for years with all kinds of talented people, including her good friend Neko Case. NQ Arbuckle is a country band made up of four long-time players, who variously work at this city's music publishers, recording studios, and music stores in between tours. These folks have the chops and they have the tunes, and they celebrate the release of a new collaboration tonight.
Dakota Tavern, 249 Ossington Ave., 10 pm

ART PARTY | Art'd Halloween Edition at Marben
The Art'd party transforms local restaurants into galleries for month-long periods, bringing art, food and booze together in blissful harmony. Tonight the party comes to Marben with a premiere of works by some very young artists including OCAD illustrator Andrew Foerster, Jean-Paul Langlois (who's been kicked out of two separate art colleges), and tattoo artist Lisa Vanin. If a little bit of culture doesn't float your boat there's also $4 Steam Whistles and a $35 Prixe-Fixe Harvest Dinner Menu.
Marben, 488 Wellington, 8 pm

MUSIC | X Avant New Music Festival
You've probably never heard of most of the musicians involved in the X Avant Festival, but that is precisely the point. Forsaking the idea made popular in these days of bedroom rock of the individual artistic genius, these artists believe that the best music is not made by a single personality but in collaborations and unexpected convergences of musical ideas. Spanning five days and featuring artists from Japan, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US, you literally will not know what to expect. Kicks off tonight with German electronic pioneers Cluster.
Opening night: Polish Combatants Hall, 206 Beverley St., $20, 8 pm

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