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09/30/11
In a strangely diplomatic move, Rob Ford is abstaining from any party endorsements in the Ontario election.
[Globe and Mail]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/29/11
This weekend, two major free arts extravaganzas are taking over the city. Nuit Blanche, from dusk Saturday to dawn Sunday, and Culture Days, which spans the whole weekend and the whole country. Either one alone is too much; how can you handle both at the same time? Let’s do a quick comparison and see what you can get out of all this artiness.
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09/29/11
Not surprisingly, when Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple premiered in 1965, it was a smashing success. A droll play about two divorced men living together as poker-playing bachelors certainly had its charms back then. It was an era when divorce was just becoming an acceptable option for couples, and a “boys will be boys” motif was always a popular cause to champion. But what was novel “fun” back then borders on “kitsch” today.
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09/29/11
Towing has been in steady decline over the past five years. Are Torontonians turning into better parkers, or does this have something to do with the heftier parking fines in place?
[Toronto Star]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/28/11
Feist’s new album, Metals, due out Oct. 4, is easily one of the two most hotly anticipated releases of 2011. The other, with apologies to Drake, is the new compilation CD by Toronto’s Nash the Slash, dubbed The Reckless Use of Electricity.
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09/28/11
Lewd, crude and sometimes rude, Ed the Sock has been pushing the envelope on hot-button topics since the ‘90s. With all that ‘tude, it’s no surprise that the most famous tube sock in the world is long overdue for a good roasting. The first Dark Comedy Festival presents The Roast of Ed the Sock on Sept. 28 as part of its 10-day event. Just don’t mention the word "dryer." We caught up with Ed to talk about boy bands, politics and Mel Gibson.
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09/28/11
This relatively young band has been making some pretty big waves in the few years they’ve been together, garnering praise from local music rags and the likes of Gordon Lightfoot. It’s no wonder: Great Bloomers mix genres like a group of chemists, combining just the right doses of country, indie and ‘70s-era stadium rock to create pristine explosions of sound.
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09/28/11
City council approved some cuts and rejected others yesterday to bring the total savings to $27.6 million. Among the cuts, council voted to seek buyers for the Toronto Zoo and the city’s three government-owned theatres.
[Toronto Star; Toronto Sun]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/27/11
Remember when Toronto used to be a “two blog” town? When BlogTO and Torontoist were the main players when it came to local, and locally reported, online content? Thanks to new(ish) startups like Toronto Standard and OpenFile, it’s fair to say that our online media landscape is changing. As in, our two-voice-strong chorus has turned into a veritable cacophony.
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09/27/11
The hit of Luminato 2010, this high-tech staging weaves a sharp-witted and entertaining story about the relationship between Africa and the West.
Bluma Appel Theatre at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, 416-366-7723. Sept. 29 - Oct. 22.
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09/27/11
For university graduates in Canada, a bachelor’s degree may not be enough. Numbers from OECD show that one in five university graduates in Canada will end up at the low end of the income scale. Guess it’s time to sign up for that master’s. Sigh.
[Globe and Mail]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/26/11
Wild Beasts (September 29 @ The Mod Club) are critical darlings, and it’s no surprise: they've mastered the ancient critic-pleasing formula of being accessibly, cautiously weird, and making it look effortless.
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09/26/11
Torontonians will no longer be able to let their imaginations take off at the Canadian Air and Space Museum. The museum closed its doors to visitors this weekend following an eviction notice from Downsview Park.
[Toronto Sun]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/23/11
Toronto’s first CyborgCamp hits our city this Saturday promising a low-cost, day-long opportunity to klatch with folks who know about the simpler topics in life such as quantified self, robots, and what else? Cyborgs. Feeling a little too, um, intellectually intimidated to go? Here are some tips on how get your cyborg on at CyborgCamp, even if you never made it past high school science and math.
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09/23/11
After a relatively late start in a gritty industry, Toronto-born Stephen Lobo has had a consistent role on screen for the past five years, including past roles in major Canadian and American TV shows like Godiva’s, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Smallville, Falcon Beach and Painkiller Jane. His latest starring role is in the Canadian film Afghan Luke, directed by Mike Clattenburg (Trailer Park Boys).
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09/23/11
Secrets, secrets, secrets. The new Toronto Blue Jays logo — decidedly retro-looking — appears to have leaked online, but the organization hasn’t confirmed it yet.
[Toronto Star]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/22/11
A hundred years after the birth of Marshall McLuhan, “prophet of the Information Age” and Canada’s most baffling icon, his legacy is being celebrated this year around the world with McLuhan 100, especially in Toronto, where he made his home and his mark on the world. In preparation for Monday's event at the Toronto Reference Library, McLuhan 100: Toronto's Future in McLuhan's Global Village, here are six ways to get a better understanding of McLuhan.
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09/22/11
Who in their right mind would call Rob Ford the “art mayor?” Rob Sysak, executive director of the West Queen West BIA, that’s who. Sysak says the city’s new graffiti management plan is so great that Ford will be known as the art mayor because of it. Seriously. Rob Ford. Our mayor.
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09/22/11
With the new Total Recall set to be the most expensive movie in Toronto history, the city could break a record this year. In total, Toronto is close to seeing over a billion dollars in production value for 2011, the most ever.
[Toronto Star]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/21/11
Load up on guns and bring your friends. On Oct. 1, as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, a rotating cast of local and national celebrities, including members of Fucked Up, Tokyo Police Club and The Flatliners, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's breakthrough album, Nevermind, by playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" 144 consecutive times.
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09/21/11
Lovers of quality theatre have been blessed once again, this time with John Mighton's The Little Years, playing at the usually Shakespeare-oriented, and more recently, musical-obsessed Stratford Festival. Anyone who saw the Dora-Award-winning, profoundly moving Half Life, about men and women sinking into Alzheimer's, knows what a gifted, thoughtful artist Mighton is.
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09/21/11
The music of The Shanks exists in a perpetual struggle with itself. It is at once unsettling and familiar, dark and soothing, heavy and pretty, while managing to remain cohesive. This Orangeville-area twosome take a White Stripes-minimalist approach, crafting tunes on just drums and bass, but managing to create enough dynamics and layers to keep the listener engaged — no easy feat, but made less painful by vocalist/bassist Ian Starkey’s haunting, at times operatic voice.
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09/21/11
Rob and Doug Ford have decided to abandon their plan to turn the waterfront into a glitzy fantasyland. Lovers of giant ferris wheels collectively mourn.
[Toronto Star]
Plus more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/20/11
After digressing a little to collaborate with Danger Mouse as Broken Bells, The Shins (September 22 @ Phoenix Concert Theatre) frontman James Mercer still finds time to tour with his flagship indie band.
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09/20/11
It was environmentalist Tzeporah Berman’s second summer on Vancouver Island helping conduct scientific research for the Wilderness Committee. The data the team had collected the previous summer, while camped in a grove of Sitka spruce in an old-growth temperate rainforest, proved that the survival of a seabird called the marbled murrelet depended on the forest. It was supposed lead to the permanent preservation of the forest.
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09/20/11
Yep, this Pulitzer Prize-nominated play is about the invention of the vibrator. At the dawn of the age of electricity, women are treated for a variety of disorders by paraoxysms induced by, well, a vibrator, and soon the little device becomes, er, a sensation, inducing a whole different kind of hysteria. All women hail Thomas Edison.
Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Avenue, 416-531-1827. Sept. 21 - Oct. 23.
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09/20/11
This isn't your typical slumber party. Complementing fringe sports like the Lingerie Football League, Toronto's female athletes are giving a whole new meaning to the term pillow talk.
[Toronto Star]
Plus, more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/19/11
Just when you thought your morning commute couldn't get any worse: talks between GO Transit bus drivers and Metrolinx are slowly moving forward. How fitting.
[CTV]
Plus, more Toronto headlines after the jump
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09/16/11
With service cuts on the table, Rob Ford is taking a dive in public support, according to a new poll. It seems the so-called gravy train has run out of steam.
[Toronto Star]
Plus more Toronto headlines, after the jump
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09/15/11
It’s a week full of festivals all over Toronto, so get on your dancing shoes for samba and polka, and then feast on perogis and bulgogi. Known by a variety of names, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated all over East Asia; this week, it’s being celebrated all over the GTA. But there’s also a Polish festival and a Ukranian festival, as well as samba on Dundas. Read on to find out the where, when and why of this festi-full week.
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09/15/11
Kim Cattrall might be best known for her role as Samantha Jones in Sex and the City, but there is more to this actress than a narcissistic nymphomaniac. A classically trained stage actress, Cattrall has managed to craft an enduring career that includes both TV and film work as well as stage productions.
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09/15/11
Toronto’s strippers are apparently some of the “most intellectual” in the country. With a third of the city’s strippers enrolled in college or university, students can earn big bucks in tips and table dancing, not that we would know what goes on in strip joints.
[Canoe]
Plus more Toronto headlines, after the jump
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09/14/11
When one thinks of the most successful musicals of the 20th century, one thinks of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser and, of course, the inspired Stephen Sondheim. Lerner and Loewe also teamed together for what is arguably the single, perfect musical of the 1900s, now playing to full houses at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, My Fair Lady. (When 60 per cent of its book is taken from Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, what can you expect?)
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09/14/11
School Damage walk a well-beaten path in terms of method: light-speed guitar, punishing drums and bouncing bass are the backdrop for snotty lead vocals, angry lyrics and sugary-sweet harmonies. But sometimes there’s no point in trying to expand on something that’s been tried and tested. Guitar, drums, bass, attitude: there’s really not much room for improvement there. Throw in a decent hook and you’ve got the formula for the best songs of the last 70 years or so.
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09/13/11
The Polaris Music Prize is awarded to the best Canadian album of the year independent of record sales, genre or popularity. In recent years it’s become one of the premier incentives for, and promotions of, Canadian music. On Sept. 19 the winner will be named, and this year’s may be a surprise for being, well, a little unsurprising. Here are the shortlist nominees, along with a selected track from their albums, plus, a highly unscientific estimate as to their chances of winning.
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09/13/11
“Is this a donut which I see before me? D’oh!” Blending William Shakespeare’s text while impersonating no less than 50 of Springfield’s infamous residents, Rick Miller presents a unique theatrical experience for those who prefer Bart over the Bard.
Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, 416-504-9971. Sept. 13-25
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09/12/11
Wilco (September 16-17 @ Massey Hall) will love you (wait for the chorus). The indie/alt-country godfathers will greet you with open sonic arms and no trace of bitterness, even though they haven’t quite managed to release an album of the seminal Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s extraordinary caliber.
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09/09/11
With the 8th annual The Beach Celtic Festival happening at Kew Gardens this weekend, everyone will be asking one question: “what’s worn under your kilt?” The answer, of course, is “nothing,” but seriously, what’s up with the kilt? Here’s an explanation of how the traditional attire of Scotland — now catching on around the world — is more than just a plaid skirt for men.
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09/08/11
TIFF is here, and the question on everyone's mind is where the best parties are (aside from what the best movies are, of course). Here, we've conveniently grouped the parties into the ones anyone can get into and the ones that, if you haven't heard about them yet, you'll probably need some serious negotiating skills to take part in. Below, 10 of TIFF'S best parties.
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09/08/11
It’s been said that attending the opening night of a play is much like attending a wedding: with everyone dressed to the nines, eager to say “I do,” it’s a bit difficult not to get swept up in the magic of it all. I’d have to agree. At curtain’s fall, Soulpepper’s rousing revival of Arthur Miller’s The Price made me want to raise my glass in a celebratory toast.
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09/07/11
So the big T word is coming to town this week. You know, that event with all the big movies and big fancy celebrities. But for movie-goers who like to keep things a little more obscure, there’s another film fest opening this week: the fifth annual Toronto Urban Film Festival, a nine-day event of short silent films that promises, literally, to keep its films on the down low by screening on TTC platforms. Here’s how the two fests square up.
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09/07/11
The Stables are the type of band that thrive within their collective limitations. Sure, their bass is made out of a bucket and a hockey stick and they use a suitcase for a kick drum, but it’s not about what those items can’t do, it’s about what they can. The Stables circumnavigate whatever drawbacks might be contained within those instruments to find the powerful and unique tones they offer, using them to lay the foundation for their music.
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09/06/11
Once upon a time, students wrote in cursive and marveled at the wonders of technology (like the light bulb). Nowadays, students write with technology and marvel at the simplicity of yesteryear. In celebrating the annual ritual of back-to-school, we present these pictures of school life in Toronto towards the beginning of last century.
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09/06/11
Earlier this year, Eddie Vedder put out an album of ukulele songs, ingeniously titled Ukulele Songs, but if you'd prefer to hear the "golden baritone" atop, y’know, electric guitars and whatnot, then Pearl Jam (September 11 @ Air Canada Centre) is swinging by Toronto this week.
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09/06/11
What do disenchanted youth, carnies in love, six queens, “The Little Rascals”, and Rob Ford have in common? Nothing, except that they’re currently trending in Toronto’s theatre scene this week, and with that mixed bag, you’re bound to catch a show you’ll surely enjoy.
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09/02/11
The life of a theatre critic can be awkward and embarrassing. Consider that I only recently saw Soulpepper’s latest stab at delivering to us one of the finest, most moving American plays of the 20th century: Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. It closes this coming Tuesday, Sept. 6, unless Soulpepper chooses to extend it. The superlative company now presents up to a half-dozen plays or more per month throughout the season, an admirable and wonderful thing.
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09/01/11
The countdown is on. We’re staring the end of summer in the face, with our remaining dog days numbered in the single digits. Such little time, and yet, so much left to do in our city before the big end. Here’s our to-do list of what to take in before summer turns into a pumpkin at 11 p.m. on Labour Day (because, as everyone in Toronto knows, when The Ex closes its gates, it means school’s on and summer is gone).
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