ROBOTS: They predicted this decades ago: the year 2010 would bring sophisticated robots that could dance, paint, play tug-of-war, and duke it out sumo-style. Since 1992, tech-savvy robot designers—from OCAD artists to local high-school students—have geared up for the annual Sumo Robot Challenge. This year’s fusion of cybernetics and art will feature homemade robots of all shapes and sizes competing for prizes based on performance and audience popularity. All proceeds from the event will go towards scholarships for OCAD students. Ontario College of Art and Design (100 McCaul Street); Saturday 1:30–4 p.m.; adults $5, students $2, children FREE. more ›

Artist Unknown

Ex-stripper Christian Aldo is a big talker with bigger plans (and swears like a sailor, so be warned)—the painter, sculptor, and figurine-maker, who is the subject of a NFB doc series and moved to Toronto in November, is starting an avant-garde nudie magazine, filming an elaborate sci-fi short film, and launching a new art gallery in a Roncesvalles shoe store. Team Art Stars* dropped by his house party to learn that he’s doing a secret series of guerrilla cardboard spaceships on west-end rooftops in the coming months. You heard it here first. *snap* more ›

When faced with a snarling CG enemy, most video game characters will unsheathe a sword or yank out a rifle. Some even throw handfuls of magic. But Molly Greenthumb goes for ownage with a trowel and some sprouts. She’s the protagonist of Guerrilla Gardening, the upcoming PC game from local indie outfit Spooky Squid that gives the growing (ahem) activist movement a pixel-over. more ›

Everyone who works at Invisible Publishing is cooler than you. And why wouldn’t they be? A creative collective masquerading as a publishing house, the six superstars (Robbie MacGregor, Nic Boshart, Megan Fildes, Jenner Berger, Emily Leeson, and Sacha Jackson) at Invisible make kick-ass books by kick-ass authors. Make-you-think, sock-you-in-the-stomach, blow-your-mind good books. This American Drive turns the archetypal American road trip upside down with it’s imaginative take on the graphic novel. Migration Songs is an engaging examination of a 30-year-old underachieving cough-drop addict. Even Richard Nash thinks they’re cool. And no one is cooler in publishing than Richard Nash. more ›

When you’re an up-and-coming indie rock band, you have to do a lot with a little. For Dinosaur Bones, that meant making a run for the border. more ›

This is not a post about punctuation. more ›

If we all could show the restraint that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty used in the 2010 federal budget, there would be no need for gym memberships. The smallest spending increase in thirteen years comes at the expense of public services, climate action, and foreign aid, but at least taxes won't rise and we should be out of the fifty-four-billion-dollar deficit by 2015 as long as the economy stays on track. Of course, the opposition is dissatisfied, but not enough for the "e" word. Which means the fabric of our economy is Flaherty's to control (literally). more ›

ART: Patrick Bellegrade-Smith, professor of Africology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a "Houngon Asogwe" (high practitioner of Vodou), is at OCAD today to speak about Vodou and Haitian art. While addressing misconceptions about the religion, his talk will reveal the strength drawn from its cultural practices and historic vision. The pieces featured in a companion exhibit represent the work of Haitian artists from the 1940s until today, and all are either influenced by or directly represent Vodou practices. Also on display are several beautiful Vodou flags used in ceremonies, which portray the exuberance of the Haitian people and their characteristic spirit of resistance. There will also be a silent auction, with proceeds going to SOPUDEP, a community school in Petion-ville that serves the poorest residents of the city. OCAD (100 McCaul Street), 1 p.m., FREE. more ›

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On Tuesday at about 1:30 p.m., Scott Pilgrim marched to the south-east corner of the Yonge and Dundas scramble intersection. With photographer friend Carl W. Heindl perched on the south-west corner pretending to take photos of the massive building now known as 10 Dundas East, and videographer friend Steve Rock hovering nearby too, Pilgrim quickly stripped down to his boxer shorts, waited for the cars in all directions to stop and the pedestrian scramble to start, then pulled down the shorts and bolted into the middle of the road, totally naked. For school, obviously. more ›

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TorontoList—Torontoist's daily email newsletter, with Urban Planner and lots more delivered every morning—has just hit one thousand subscribers. If you are not one of them, are you not ashamed? Do you not care about having Urban Planner dropped right into your inbox, like magic, every morning? Do you not wish to win things, like tickets to Remember Me, or a prize pack from Purina valued at three-hundred-dollars for your dog? Of course you do. Sign up right here: more ›