It seems Matt Blackett of Spacing wants not altogether too many people to know he’ll be “debating” Adam Giambrone on Wednesday night.
True. He will be. It’s part of the Salon Voltaire series (also “on the Facebook”). It’s at the Gladstone (inevitably) and it’ll cost you $29.36, net, to get in. The subject is land use on Queen St. West. I don’t see how a “debate” is actually achievable between these two parties, who like and generally support each other and, I assume, agree in broad strokes and also in detail about the needs of West Queen West Queen West. Maybe Blackett will act like a journalist/publisher/blogger and ask what the hell gave with settling a zoning complaint behind the scenes with two developers on the eve of winning a functionally identical complaint with a third developer.
There’s been no mention of the debate on Spacing Wire or on Giambrone’s events page. Spacing Wire did cover a previous Salon Voltaire event in April, with rather damning entries in the comment section.
I sent mail to Blackett asking if he planned to plug the event on Spacing. No response. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him at the Spacing release party last night (also: I didn’t feel like it).
I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say that both parties are trying to keep this quiet because, in Blackett’s case, appearing at an event with a $24 cover charge seems anticommunitarian and ladder-climbing and, for Giambrone… no, actually, I can’t see why Giambrone would want to keep it quiet. Unlike a lot of Canadians, I don’t support the beheading of tall poppies. It’s OK that Blackett wants to incubate a good solid business. Just please be upfront about it.
Salon (not Cabaret) Voltaire is not the same event that brought Camille Paglia to Bar Italia; that’s a competitor. Nonetheless, I feel a snowclone is in order: “I knew Camille Paglia and, gentlemen, you’re no Camille Paglia.”