Culture: June 2009 Archives

Few things are better suited to the sleepy, sun-soaked air of summer than acoustic folk-pop songs about girls and nature. Toronto singer-songwriter Nick Rose sure knows how to nurture the big ol' sentimental sap that lurks inside all (okay, most) of us, and Oxbow Lake—released independently and available for purchase through Indiepool—is a sweetly sung and gently played testament to simplicity and wistful reflection. How seasonally appropriate.

While we think it's really sleazy to force customers to pay extra for a connection they're already paying for, we have to admit that Rogers surprised us when they enabled the tethering option of the iPhone at no extra charge this month (tethering allows you to basically use your mobile device as a modem when not connected to your usual service). Could this be a sign of a kinder, gentler Rogers-slash-Fido?

Phil Pick does not enjoy being called a villain. Wait, which Toronto publication was it that described him that way, again? Oh, right. It was us.

If you’re looking for Canadian content in non-permanent gallery collections this summer, you’re going to have to think outside the AGO—and the ROM, and just about everywhere else in Toronto for that matter. In fact, you’re probably going to have to visit Kleinburg, Ontario (yeah, we know: that's way north of Bloor) to witness Ian M. Thom’s latest guest-curatorial effort for the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. And trust us—it’s worth it.

The passing of the King of Pop last Thursday inspired different reactions. Tweeting about it and frantically downloading his discography were two popular ones. In Toronto, rather than mourn, people celebrated his legacy by moonwalking all over Yonge-Dundas Square. And we suspect a slew of tribute shows are already in the works. Torontoist got in touch with some well-known local fans who were eager to share their tales of MJ worship with us.

WHERE: Queen Street West and Bathurst Street.

Overheard by reader Allison Prole at the bus stop at Rockcliffe Boulevard and Alliance Avenue last Friday at 2:45 p.m.

                    

In addition to being in the Pride Parade on Sunday (it's okay to be jealous), Torontoist also lingered in the crowds. Our Nick Kozak arrived towards the end of the parade and wandered the closed-off streets, snapping photos as he went of Pride partiers—some more extravagantly dressed, and some just more dressed, than others—and a dissenter or two, too.

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.

With his intention to shove the Ontario PC party back to the right, newly hatched leader Tim Hudak demonstrated that he is the true heir to Mike Harris. But what kind of son will he be? Will he fit the mould of the creature in the Toho studio's Son of Godzilla film or will he be like the comical sidekick, Godzooky, from the animated US Godzilla TV series? In a city that never recovered from the "Common Sense Revolution," the answer to that question will suggest future perils for Toronto.

                            

Thanks to Derek Forgie, founder of Heterosexuals for Same-Sex Equality, Torontoist didn't just get to see Toronto's 29th Annual Pride Parade; we were in it! Marching behind HSSE's proud banner, we got to look out and see the masses of happy faces lining the parade route from start to finish. They perched on rooftops, dangled out of windows, swung from lampposts, and stood twenty rows deep—all dancing, waving, and cheering. While the crowd was taking photos of us (well, maybe not us specifically, but surely the lovely body-painted topless girls we were with), we turned our camera outwards on them to capture the amazing people who endured the early afternoon downpour to show their support, love, and pride. Happy Pride, everyone.

WHERE: Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue.

             

Last night Yonge-Dundas Square filled up with hundreds of people celebrating the moves of the late King of Pop in the Moonwalk for Michael Jackson flashmob organized by the Urban Recreation Association Facebook group.

As the current municipal strike nears the end of its first week, garbage remains the talk of the town. As Torontonians break through the plastic wrap placed around bins and protest sites chosen as temporary trash depots, letter pages and website comment sections fill with gripes and suggestions on how to handle those responsible for ensuring our garbage is taken care of. Since the first container of local refuse was carted away, city residents have publicly aired in the press their praise and scorn for those collecting our trash.

WHERE: Neil McLellan Park (Runnymede Street and Bloor Street West).

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

What an incredible week for cinema it is if you've got a genuine interest in the representation of women in film. It's the kind of week you could write an entire research paper on. First of all we've got Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which uses Michael Bay's ever-so-male gaze to stare at Megan Fox with the same kind of lust with which it stares at the vehicles the Transformers turn into—an empty collection of moving parts that are probably good for a ride. It's worth noting that Revenge of the Fallen appears to have been treated as a writing task by the majority of movie critics, taking extreme pleasure in kicking it apart in more and more imaginative ways. Roger Ebert reminds us all why he's still unmissable with his review, but I especially like his later blog post—"The movie is pretty much all climax. The Autobots and Decepticons must not have read the warning label on their Viagra. At last we see what a four-hour erection looks like."

WHERE: Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue.

Sandwiched between Dufflet Pastries and Quasi Modo Modern Furniture on Queen Street West sits an art gallery in a sliver of a window. At nineteen inches wide, two feet deep, and more than eight feet high, it is the site of what may be Toronto’s smallest public art space. Called *QueenSpecific, this window gallery is programmed by Joy Walker and hosts a new installation every month or so.

We've (mercifully) not covered Perez Hilton since Monday morning, after he accused Will.I.Am of assaulting him following the Much Music Video Awards (which he would later explain was not Will.I.Am but the Black Eyed Peas' manager, Polo Molina). But in case you haven't been following along since, go go Gawker copter: Molina was charged with assault. Video surfaced of Hilton calling Will.I.Am "a fucking faggot" that night before he was punched (a photo, of course, later surfaced of the punch itself). The slur led the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to demand an apology from Hilton. Hilton didn't offer one at first, but then did, saying that he would donate all money from a pending lawsuit against Molina to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Because of Hilton's actions, though, the Matthew Shepard Foundation declined to accept Hilton's money should the lawsuit be successful. Then, last night on his website, Hilton initially accused Michael Jackson of faking the cardiac arrest that would lead to the superstar's death.

After the Osler Playground (and Trinity-Bellwoods, and Dufferin Grove) garbage bins all got unexpectedly emptied yesterday, we're changing how Strike Watch is going to work a bit: instead of just tracking the change at one location, as we started to earlier this week, for the rest of the strike we're going to be hopping around the city, snapping different garbage and recycling bins each day. Our Miles Storey took the photo above of the bin at Queen Street West and Markham Street at 12:30 p.m.; like most other bins throughout the city, it was initially sealed shut with plastic wrap, but that's since been pulled off.

There are times when the Major League Baseball season is an interminable slog. This is one of those times.

The Toronto Star is repenting. On Tuesday, they published "Toronto making me mad as hell" by Vinay Menon, one of the most head-shakingly bad excuses for an article we've ever read in a major daily. To wit:

On-road bike lanes have been in the news quite a bit recently: the battle over Jarvis Street, the ongoing crawl toward lanes along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, and a patchwork of lanes approved earlier this month all have cyclists applauding. But Toronto's plans for the Bikeway Network consist of more than just bike lanes on roads: off-road routes form about a quarter of the proposed network [PDF]. A significant portion of those off-road paths won't pass through traditional parks, but will follow rail and hydro corridors.

We're not sure what the City's nineteen new waste drop-off sites'll be when they're announced today, but our money's on at least these three parking lots: the set around Ellis just south of Lakeshore Boulevard West, George Bell Arena's, and Étienne Brûlé Park's. The group—tracked down and captured for Torontoist yesterday and today by photographer Christopher Drost—have all sprouted bright blue fences around them, and as of this morning, one, Étienne Brûlé Park, is already accepting solid waste (securely wrapped) and organic waste (emptied into a bin on-site), but no recycling.

Their large rallies have come and gone, but Toronto’s Tamils have yet to vacate the downtown core. Permanently located on the corner across from the U.S. Consulate, they continue to protest for all but fifteen minutes each day. During their only break at 9:30 every evening, they stand with candles along the east side of University Avenue to reflect on the lives lost during the decades-long Sri Lankan civil war.

Same-sex marriages have been valid in Ontario since 2003, but not many people know that it had already been legal for a few years to adopt children together as a gay couple. Following a series of court decisions, Paul Farrell and David Smagata became the first same-sex couple in Canada to jointly adopt a child in 2000, via the Children's Aid Society of Toronto. Since then, more than a hundred LGBT Toronto couples have welcomed children into their homes via adoption—a dream that some had grown up believing would never be realized in their lifetimes.

Well, this'll probably force a slight change of plans. As you can see, what once was full now is empty: there's distinctly less garbage in the bin outside of Osler Playground today than there was yesterday, and that's because—surprise!—the City is actively directing non-union employees to empty garbage bins from inside some parks.

In the shadow of the Dufferin Mall and No Frills, FoodShare is planting the seeds of a radical food system. They’ve dug up the lawn of their new location in a public school on Croatia Street to plant rows of vegetables, nourished with compost made from the waste of their busy kitchen. Staff members are cooking meals to be delivered to the homeless and underhoused, and youth in the Focus on Food program (geared to those facing barriers to employment) are cooking to learn life and job skills. On Saturday, the twenty-five-year-old organization hosted an open house, welcoming the public to become a part of their vision for good, healthy food for all.

Eugene Levy? Comedy genius—love him.

              

Even though he denies it, Jeff Low is providing Toronto with a valuable service. In his spare time, Low (or "Mustapha" as he's better known online) recreates vintage photos from the Toronto Archives and then posts the then and now photos at Urban Toronto (a popular Toronto design and architecture forum). Low isn’t the first to recreate Toronto’s vintage photos, or even the best, but his collection is the city’s largest, and since starting in April 2008, he estimates that he’s recreated more than a thousand photos. "Urban Toronto inspired me," Low told Torontoist. "There was already some of that going on on a spotty basis—I decided to make a regularity of it."

We're going in another direction. Toronto's experiencing something of a regeneration, what with bold, new architectural shoots and plans for greener streetscapes threatening to upend our reputed preference for a staid, vanilla aesthetic. But these are stationary propositions—they will be built, rooted as a reef, and we will come. But what about the art of serendipity? Why not an accidental encounter with the sublime? Art on the Move is "a mobile community arts project," the purpose of which is to add a few drops of public, urban design into a street—into a life—near you.

They were greeted with less fanfare than the initial four, but nevertheless almost all of the remaining Toronto a la Cart street food vendors are now open for business—just in time for summer (and, sadly, the garbage strike). Torontoist hunted high and low, tracking down the new proprietors—and reconnecting with some old ones—to see how everyone is faring one month into the pilot project. What some of these business owners had to tell us about the program turned out to be slightly more bitter than sweet.

When Three Gut Records ceased operations in 2005, it left a gaping hole in the larger Toronto-area music community. The Guelph-originated label was short lived but prolific and hugely significant, not unlike one of its primary acts and raisons d’être, Royal City. The promise of a once-planned posthumous Royal City rarities compilation has been lingering unfulfilled since the Three Gut demise, but earlier this year Sufjan Stevens' (a long-time friend and supporter) Asthmatic Kitty Records picked it up for release, and today is the day we can hold it in our eager little hands (it's distributed in Canada by Outside Music). A wise woman once said that you don't know what you've got till it's gone; awful clichés and Counting Crows covers aside, in the case of Royal City, she couldn't be more right.

It's not enough to have Toronto amass into a literal garbage dump or to bar kids from City-run pools and daycares—now they've stolen the rainbow from the sky.

You’re flipping through the entertainment options for a night on the town in 1980s Toronto. Let’s see...a cabaret musical about sex that employs a double-entendre for its title...and it has nudity...and it features tunes like "Fellatio 101" and "I'm Gay"...and it hasn’t been shut down by the morality squad yet.

Caught at 8:45 a.m. this morning, the accumulation of garbage outside of Osler Playground is, somewhat miraculously, mostly confined to where garbage is supposed to go; unlike some of the more dramatic messes in more heavily trafficked locations downtown, the garbage bin is full rather than overflowing. Of course, it can only get steadily worse: the neighborhood's scheduled garbage pick-up is tomorrow, and people like the Star's Royson James are saying that we should "expect the...strike to last well into next month and beyond." Which means that it may not be long before we need to switch to a wider-angle lens.

Just weeks after City Hall's executive committee approved yet another lengthy analysis of the future of the Gardiner Expressway, a notable design firm has introduced a fresh concept into the twenty-plus-year-old debate. At last week's tenth annual ideaCity, Les Klein, founding partner of Quadrangle Architects, called for building a green roof on top of the roadway, complete with parkland, cafés, and bike paths stretching from Dufferin Street to the Don Valley Parkway. His proposal for the Gardiner, which was met with a standing ovation, demonstrated that thinking way outside the box might be the best way to move forward from this highly cyclical discussion.

Ed McMahon passed away earlier today; an article about his life, by Lynn Elber of the Associated Press, opens by describing McMahon as "the loyal Tonight Show sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding 'H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny' for 30 years," and currently stands as the most-viewed new article on the Globe and Mail's website. The third most-viewed item? The Globe's obituary for Johnny Carson, written by their own John Doyle, published this morning and dated Tuesday, June 23, 2009, 09:03AM EDT—even though Johnny Carson died four and a half years ago.

             

Well, it's over. We came, we saw, we didn't wait in line once (thanks, priority pass). But before we throw up our tattered white flags and rejoin society, it’s nigh time for some sort of festival wrap-up to prove we were actually there and weren't just telling you what to do. So here is a smattering of reviews and photos from our handsome reporters who we set loose into the night every night for however many nights it's been. Marvel as we run down our most memorable shows (thankfully limited to maybe one-quarter of what we saw) in hopes of helping you relive the magic. Or at least helping you fake like you were there if any of your cooler friends ask.

The city workers' strike, effective as of midnight last night, likely won't be a pretty one. With broad and wide "service adjustments" to garbage collection, child care, and, perhaps worst of all, our ability to ride ferries to the Island; with massive Pride festivities near; and with stories trickling in of picket-line confrontations, there's word of talks between unions and the City but not much word of progress.

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.

"I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke."

On Friday, the City of Toronto announced the ten finalists for their anniversary song contest. The winning entry, to be announced on August 21 at the CNE, will get five thousand bucks and, the City's press release gushes, "bragging rights as the songwriter of Toronto’s 175th anniversary song."

Well guys, we've almost made it. Tonight is already the last night of NXNE and it features a significantly scaled-back number of options compared to previous nights. For those of you who opt not to mingle anywhere near some other big party happening tonight for a glimpse at those Jonas Brothers, here are some great last-minute chances to take advantage of your festival wristband (or, for you at-the-door types, throw some extra gas money into the touring bands' pockets).

In its early years, the Queen's Plate was a rather raucous and unpredictable annual event. Because the world's oldest thoroughbred race was nomadic for its first twenty years, moving from the Carleton racetrack at Dundas and Keele, to London, Ottawa, St. Catharines, and elsewhere according to the lobbying efforts of politicians, its organization was loose. Rules and the course length differed from year to year. The Plate, intended by Queen Victoria to encourage colonial breeders to strive to develop quality horses, was sometimes little more than a sideshow at county fairs. Names of horses were changed from one year to the next, and the colour of a horse's silks often differed from the description in the official program. There was hardly a running of the Queen's Plate that didn't provoke charges of fixed races, ineligible "ringer" horses, or illegal riding tactics. Confusion reigned. One classic example came in 1865, when the winning and second place horses were both disqualified. Nora Criena was reported to have won the run-off heat, but, months later and without explanation, Lady Norfolk was instead announced as the official Queen's Plate winner.

Is this festival still going? Because the party force within us is weakening. Between having out-of-town bands crash on our floors day-round and bars taunting us until 4 a.m. (oh, and that music stuff too), we are just about ready for bed and it's only Saturday. But alas we must rally, coffee in one fist and—for a limited time only—computer in the other. Preview post go!

It isn't every day that you go out in search of a story and come back wearing another person's shoes. This, however, is the fate that befell Torontoist photographer Andrew Louis yesterday, in the halls of the newly renovated Royal Conservatory. Torontoist was there to preview the refurbished and expanded centre of all things musical, and since parts of it are still under construction, at a certain point we were required to trade in our kicks for steel-toed boots. (And also to don construction hats. Conservatory staff in attendance were even trained in adjusting the hats to fit our heads, which we found a remarkably deft touch.) And upon our return...lo! Missing shoes!

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Weirdest news of the week? That Lars Von Trier's much-talked-about-at-Cannes horror film Antichrist is receiving a video-game adaptation. How utterly bizarre.

A new farmers’ market has cropped up in the King and Spadina neighbourhood. Launched just two weeks ago, the St. Andrew’s MyMarket will run on Saturday mornings next to St. Andrew’s Park at Adelaide Street West and Maud Street, atop a piece of Toronto history. In the mid-1800s, the block was home to one of Toronto’s three major markets, alongside St. Lawrence and St. Patrick’s. It’s now come full circle—good news for local residents who lack sufficient grocery stores and have been bruising their Ontario strawberries en route home from the farmers’ markets farther afield at City Hall and Liberty Village (the first strawberries of the season are ready and they’re sweet).

Clubland crawlers will notice a new visual distraction while wandering the east end of the Entertainment District this weekend. Where partiers once stopped into the northwest corner of Richmond and Duncan to dance to 1980s tunes at Whiskey Saigon, they will now be urged by a refurbished classic neon sign to dial up 1050 AM or 104.5 FM.

Sleep and morale are still intact as we start the third day of NXNE, but things are just getting started. Friday's finest include two L.A. noise-pop bands you wish you started, the best of the new East Coast herd, and the surprise reunion of a Toronto-grown and nationally treasured indie institution. No time for chit chat; here are your plans for this evening. You can thank us later.

Gaze! Gaze upon the titillating young bodies above. Are you not outraged at their thousand-mile stares and disregard for shirts?

"The way I've approached it, to make it right in my head, is you start a series off at 2nd-and-10," Bart Andrus, the former NFL assistant hired in January to coach the Toronto Argonauts, told the National Post. "That's my thought process." It might just be a throwaway comment, but it might reveal deeper implications that the fifty-one-year-old California native is approaching the season with assumptions that are fundamentally at odds with the Canadian game. Argos fans have heard it before.

Hey, what do you know—it's Google's Street View car, stuck in traffic! (Lesson learnt, we suppose.) The above photos, captured recently by Torontoist's Nick Kozak, provide a rare close-up of the roof-mounted device used to capture Street View's 360-degree shots, which looks unnervingly like the love-child of Bentham's panopticon and WALL-E.

Today's the day our not-so-humble music festival kicks into high gear and wouldn't you know it from the increased presence of beater tour vans confusedly driving past all your favourite patios. But when it's raining, as it's apt to do tonight, it's a billion per cent less fun to show-hop if you have a pass (and are a wuss). So here are some stacked bills that you can plunk yourself down at all evening and remain stoked (and dry) amongst fellow stoked (and dry) people.

Yup, it's that time again. With sun umbrellas spread wide open, customers in shorts and shades, and pitchers of the finest local brews waiting to be poured, Toronto's patio season is back in full swing―at least for most bars. But unfortunately for a few, and a few very near and dear to our hearts (and livers), some outdoor havens are left stuck in limbo.

Jaded queers will complain that Pride has become little more than a SKYY Vodka ad come to life, a commercial, de-politicized faux-hedonistic throw-back that gives people an excuse to have sex with strangers and pretend they're still teenagers. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But for those of you who are over the parade and think Church Street is a snore, but still want to celebrate Pride, there are a few cool events, hidden away in the festival's abysmal website. And yes, Drama Clubbers, there is theatre to see!

Renting in Toronto is already a trying experience, what with landlords charging outrageous rents for their "bright, sunny" basement apartments. But renters with furry companions face another hassle: apartment ads that boldly state "No pets," and landlords who won't rent to someone with a pet.

The Victorian Era, when the city gained its nickname Toronto the Good, is usually thought of as a time of staid social order upheld by unwritten laws of morality. In the name of propriety, boarding houses had a strict ten o'clock curfew. And keeping up public appearances was paramount. There was, however, another side of the city beneath this prim and proper surface, as journalist C.S. Clark describes in Of Toronto the Good (1898)—which despite its name is actually an excursion into the bars, brothels, and gambling dens to uncover the city's underbelly of vice.

Dreaming up ways to improve the TTC is a popular pastime in Toronto. And while most of us just daydream about additional stations and routes, Dieter Janssen, a professor of architecture at the University of Toronto, is turning ideas into possible blueprints for the future. Janssen hopes that his fantasy map (above), which he developed while doing research for the urban infrastructure and design class that he teaches, will invite debate over the future of Toronto's transit system. "It’s painfully obvious that infrastructure, at least in the GTA, has to be much more developed than anything that they’re proposing," Janssen told Torontoist. "The TTC needs to properly address its future…people actually rely on the system and that needs to be properly respected."

You know the drill: starting today, and every day until Sunday, a dizzying array of local and international music, film, and industry events take over the city courtesy of NXNE, and Torontoist will of course be squeezing our way into as many as we can. But no one likes to show up to the party alone, so we want to make sure you're hip to our tips too. Tonight's scaled-back festivities are a perfect, polite introduction to what is sure to be an exhausting, but exciting weekend. Ready?

Yesterday, there was no mistaking Councillor Adam Vaughan's undertone for anything but indignant pride. He couldn't quite manage to mask it, if indeed he was even trying; it was of the sort a proud uncle might exude when reintroducing to society a formerly wayward nephew who, with uncle's guidance, has finally managed to shake the old seedy dress and manners.

So, we know we were all abuzz about summer festivals just this morning, but time is tickin' along, and everyone's just so busy that we thought we'd skip right ahead to autumn. This morning organizers unveiled Nuit Blanche 2009, at a suit- and camera-happy press conference at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

A new release from mega indie(ish) entity Arts & Crafts can either elicit a dedicated excitement or a slightly more jaded (and healthy) skepticism. On one hand, there is an undisputed affinity for the little homegrown label that could—and did, and still is—and, on the other, there's the poisonous burn-out factor, the feeling that our reigning DIY community kings have grown too comfortable, too inclusive, too safe.

Given the attitudes, health concerns, and advertising restrictions regarding tobacco products, Toronto newspaper readers won't be seeing appeals to send smokes to Canada's overseas forces in their morning read anytime soon—a general appeal for morale boosting/easy to barter items would be more likely.

Pity the poor gossip blogger! That is what Zack Taylor would have us all know. Canada turns upon its gossip bloggers like it does its homegrown celebrities.

Another year's Luminato has come and now gone, raising the question of just how brightly this new(ish) festival's star is shining.

                     

On Sunday evening, more than thirty of Toronto's most celebrated chefs congregated in the open air of Yorkville Park for Toronto Taste, Second Harvest's biggest and most lavish fundraiser. Honouring its nineteenth year, the event raised $250,000 in just one night—enough to provide 500,000 meals for people in need. Torontoist was lucky to snag a couple of these hot tickets and chat with some of our city's food glitterati who—despite the challenges of running restaurants in this economy—are continuing to do their part to fight hunger.

Unlike the divisive world of politics, the arts community embraces collaboration. Here in Toronto, it has inspired campaigns like ART ON THE MOVE, and has more recently brought downtown-based Art Metropole and the South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC) together to create REPLYall, an online visual dialogue.