During the May 20-25 run of the festival, a whole pile of music, theatre, literary, visual art and other types of creative events will be happening. Probably your best bet to get up to speed is to grab one of the festival guides that was included in our May 16 issue. But if that’s not doable you can find more information here.

To close here’s a video by one of the musical groups that will be playing at the festival. It’s “Slings & Arrows” by Jeffery Straker, and he and his band will be playing at the Holy Rosary Park Main Stage on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. after the Streetfair:

After Gene Roddenberry and Paramount Studios decided to move Star Trek from a television show into a movie, the results left Paramount a little unhappy. Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a whopping $46 million budget at a time when that was a lot of money. And while the film did opening at number one at the box office and made a respectable $139 million worldwide (only $82 million domestically) Paramount was hoping for more. The critics weren’t too kind on the film either. The main complaints were that the movie was boring and talky. Paramount also felt that Gene Roddenberry’s interference during production drove up the film’s cost and created an inferior film. When it was decided that they should make a sequel, Roddenberry was removed from production. Harve Bennett was placed in charge of the franchise and Nicholas Meyer was tasked with directing the film.

The film’s budget was slashed to $8 million and then bumped up to $11 million. Footage, sets, props and costumes were reused to cut costs but redressed so it wasn’t so obvious. The plot followed up an old Star Trek episode called Space Seed to give the film a villain and it kicked up the action too. Meyer wanted the film to be similar to Horatio Hornblower and added a nautical and swashbuckling feel to the film.

The plot has the aging crew of the Enterprise taking the ship out with a group of Starfleet trainees. They receive a distress call from a nearby science station. It appears that the science crew have uncovered someone long forgotten and his wrath is long reaching. What ensues is a battle between two captains over revenge and a powerful science experiment that can be used as a weapon.

The movie opened in June of 1982 and was number one at the box office for a week, kicking the previous week’s winner, Rocky 3 down to the number two spot. It also beat another new film, Poltergeist, which debut in the number three spot. The following week a certain Steve Spielberg movie opened that broke all sorts of box office records and moved Star Trek II into the number two spot. Of course who could forecast that E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial would become the highest grossing movie at the time. Still the success of Wrath of Khan ensured that there would be a Star Trek franchise for a few years to come.

When the scandal first broke the PM released a statement expressing support for Wright.  But today it was announced that Wright had resigned from his position as chief of staff. With Harper set to jet to South America on Tuesday for an official visit to Peru and the Pacific Alliance Leaders Summit in Cali, Columbia May 22-23, the PMO released this statement concerning Wright’s resignation:

“It is with great regret that I have accepted the resignation of Nigel Wright as my Chief of Staff.  I accept that Nigel believed he was acting in the public interest, but I understand the decision he has taken to resign.  I want to thank Nigel for his tremendous contribution to our Government over the past two and a half years.

“Our Government’s top priority is, and will continue to be, securing jobs and economic growth for Canada.  This is the focus of all our efforts and attention.”

Both Duffy, and senator Pamela Wallin from Saskatchewan, whose expense account claims are also being scrutinized by an auditor, have withdrawn from the Conservative caucus.  The Opposition, meanwhile, is pressing for further investigation of what it regards as a serious breach of ethics.

As for the government, maybe the Conservatives should consider expanding the scope of their mandate beyond “securing jobs and economic growth for Canada [or at least their backers in the resource sector]” to include principles like honesty, integrity, compassion, peace, stewardship of the environment, promotion of knowledge, creativity and innovation and other ideals that have  served this country reasonably well over its 140 plus year history.

Tonight, Penner is in town to play a show at Artesian on 13th (show at 8 p.m., tickets $12 advance and $15 door). To close, here’s video of Penner performing “Driftwood” with guitarist John Wood:

Doors are at 7 p.m., and tickets are $17 advance and $20 door. To get you pumped up for the show here’s  video of the band’s drummer playing along to tracks laid down by other band members for the song “In Pursuit Of”:

As you may have heard, Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, smokes crack cocaine. We’ve seen a video of him smoking crack cocaine, and the people who have the video would like to sell it. Through the miracle of crowdfunding, you can help. Please consider donating to the Rob Ford Crackstarter.

How Much Do We Need? $200,000. That’s what the owners of the video want. That sounds like a lot of money. The good people at Indiegogo believe that, with the appropriate amount ofvirality, that goal is achievable.

Christ, That’s a Lot of Money. Yes, it is. But they’ve got the video! And it’s not all about greed, though of course most of it is. The owners of this video fear for their safety, and want enough money to pay for a chance to get out of Toronto and set up in a new town. Their fear is not entirely unwarranted. Rob Ford is a powerful if buffoonish man, and he was wrapped up in a drug scene that purportedly involved many other prominent Toronto figures.

What Will We Get? A crystal clear, well-lit video of the mayor of Toronto smoking crack cocaine, published on Gawker for the world to see. We will also be throwing in some perks, for specific donation amounts. But the main thing is the video of the mayor of Toronto smoking crack cocaine.

This is going to end with Ford fighting biplanes at the top of the CN tower, isn’t it? Oh Gawker. Oh Internet. Oh Rob Ford.