SOMETHING FROM "THE FUTURE"
Today, the future can finally begin in Toronto, with the opening of HMV's new "Store of the Future" at their old, pre-future location on 50 Bloor W. (Story previously discussed here.) According to the company's press release, new services offered at the store include an "interactive hub" of six iMacs "featuring easy access to a variety of entertainment and social networking sites" — that'll be a computer with internet access, then — as well as "gaming stations," a new book section, and a selection of "entertainment-focused mobile phones," or as we in the future business call them, Nokias with Tetris. There will also be free performances by Sam Roberts, Billy Bragg and The Stills (see times here). And to think it all started with a dead man from Bristol and his dog Nipper.

 
SOMETHING TO DANCE TO
The latest stunt from Mammalian Diving Reflex is the Parkdale Public School vs. Queen West festival, a series of events (as the name suggests) pitting the kids from Parkdale Public School against a cadre of Queen West West artsters. Last night, the school's baking club did battle with chef Nathan Isberg, serving a fully prepared five-course meal at Isberg's Coca restaurant. (For a full writeup, see tommorow's Toronto Notes.) Tonight, they'll be DJ-ing at the Gladstone, with sets from Kids on TV, The Phonemes and Bob Wiseman, who the kids will be accompanying for one song each. For more details, check out the Mammalian website.
 

SOMETHING TO GET MILDLY PANICKY ABOUT Asteroids. Ebola. Bird Flu. Nuclear War. The monster from Cloverfield. There may be as many as eight million ways to die — but that's no excuse for not being prepared. According to the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness, "up to 86 per cent of small-to-medium sized businesses without a preparedness plan fail within three years of a major incident or disaster," and this week the CCEP is launching the first in a series of seminars to help "save small business enterprises in case of ever-increasing environmental emergencies such as floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes and world threats such as terrorism or computer/information sabotage." You can also find more information at this weeks CCEP-sponored World Conference on Disaster Management, at the Metro Trade Convention Centre. Today's talks include fire officer Jim Sideras on the "Meatpacking Plant Nightmare: Lessons Learned in a Winter Mass Casualty Incident," and York University professor Amin Mawani on Pandemic Preparedness at the Corporate Level.

SOMETHING TO STICK IT TO THE MAN
Last month teen indie band Spiral Beach were fined $1,470 by the EcoMedia Direct group for unlawful postering on eight of the company's recycling bins. But was EcoMedia's hefty fine just as unlawful? (The story was covered by several local newspapers and websites, including EYE WEEKLY, Now magazine, Torontoist, Illegal Signs, and, er, Reg Hartt on an American animation history forum.) Either way, the band were left disastrously in the hole, and mounted a series of fundraisers to repay the debt, which will conclude this Friday night with their special Anti-Anti-Postering Show at the Whippersnapper Gallery. "This is BULLSHIT," reads the band's Facebook invitation, "and also a great excuse to have a party!" Cover is $10/PWYC, and for bonus ironic value, the original version of the offending poster (as drawn by Spiral Beach singer Maddy Wilde, above) will be auctioned off. For the bereft-of-Facebook, there are further event details here.

SOMEONE TO ASK ABOUT SELLING KIDNEY STONES ON EBAY
Later this week, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will be performing an exclusive suite of songs from the Star Trek TV series at the Roy Thomson Hall, featuring guest vocals from actor John De Lancie, better known as the inter-dimensional miscreant and terminal Picard-botherer "Q." But if there's one sci-fi related nerd event worth your time this week, we suggest checking into the BBC website, where William Shatner, the former VIC-20 pitchman and official 56th greatest Canadian ever, will be doing an online Q&A to promote his entertaining new autobiography Up Till Now. (Yes, I've already read it.) Questions are being solicited by the BBC here, but the possibilities seem endless to us. Like, how do you explain this? Or this? Or this? And what exactly is the Klingon for "shameless"?

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