This one is pretty self-explanatory. With the tagline “fuck bands, let’s spell,” Whippersnapper is holding Toronto’s first “Adult” Spelling Bee this Thursday, with all door proceeds (plus half the cash bar) going toward Parkdale Project Read. So if you're into contributing to a good cause by watching red-faced ego-crushery with a drink in hand, get involved. With over a dozen challengers, 250 words you probably won't find in your Merriam-Webster's (including lots of Toronto-centric... [continue]

Beginning Wednesday, the newest "librarians-in-residence" at the Toronto Free Library will be the conceptual comedy duo Life of a Craphead (Amy Lam and Jon McCurley). These are the guys responsible for installing the most remote Queen Video location ever at the Leslie Spit (near the lighthouse, where someone actually went to rent Y Tu Mama Tambien). They've also erected a giant exploding paper-mache volcano at Trinity Bellwoods and carved out rumble strips on Yonge... [continue]

Torontoist favourites Emily Schultz and Brian Joseph Davis have launched a new web portal for original short fiction, hoping to thwart the idea that short stories are a dead scene by giving them a new venue for distribution. Dubbed Joyland, after Schultz's 2006 novel of the same name (but mostly because she already owned the sweet domain name and decided to double-dip), the site combines "a strict mandate (only short stories) to some principles... [continue]

It's always nice when the place where students unload most of their OSAP money gives something back. Canada's Firkin Group of Pubs has started a clever-ish “Un-scholarship” fund/contest thinger that'll give away $25,000 annually to current post-secondary students and recent grads who have the best sob stories about their debt situation. The most pitiable schmucks will be voted on by the general public and sent on to final round judging! Weeeee. We're probably blowing... [continue]

If you notice a more concentrated prevalence of Wayfarers and Vans around the College/Spadina area over the next month, it's because that's where Manhattan skate photographer/documentarian Patrick O'Dell is plunking down his first solo photo exhibit starting tomorrow. O’Dell has essentially built a career around having more fun than you do. He’s been called “the most important person in skateboarding who doesn’t skateboard” because he has a good camera and travels around taking good... [continue]

Either sleepy-eyed Christopher Gilliland here has the absolute baddest, most enviable title on his airline (why even open his eyes? He's the Airport Dude) or the CBC is getting lazy with its captions. To be fair, most of what gets typed into the lower third of a news report tends to be a peering-up-the-ladder intern's job. So while this is obviously the result of an ill-conceived stand-in title being forgotten about while some keener... [continue]

A group of Ryerson Radio and Television Arts students have turned what was supposed to be a by-the-numbers school project into a charitable event supporting the Regent Park School of Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching music to kids in the area. Fourth-year students Aaron Zorgel and Jeremy Mersereau (of Great Lenin's Ghost fame) took their project idea, a collaborative ten-song album called Student Lounge, and decided to donate the proceeds. Though most... [continue]

Nominations are in for CBC Radio 3's #1 Independent Record Store in Canada. Of the 47 stores repping St. John's to Victoria, Toronto holds a tidy seven spots. Best city odds of the competition. Drumroll: Penguin Music, Criminal Records, Monster Records, Slinky Music, Rotate This, Sonic Boom, and Soundscapes. Sounds about right. First round voting kicks off today and goes until next Wednesday, when the list is whittled to 20, and so forth for... [continue]

The first edition of CBC Radio 3's new series, Searchlight, is forcing the Canadian Record Buying Public to throw down over the #1 Independent Record Store In Canada. "In this digital era of music, it is a very real possibility that the indie record store may go the way of the dodo," says CBC Radio 3 host Grant Lawrence in a press release. "We want to shine a light on all the great stores... [continue]

Dan Misener's unstoppably rad reading series, Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, is moving to new digs for its fourth installation next Monday. The little event that could—wherein grownups read their grade school stories, diaries, and poems to a bunch of people they've never met before—is picking up from its former home at the Victory Cafe and bopping over to the Gladstone to accommodate its ever-increasing audience of believers. Even with the bigger venue,... [continue]

After last month’s inaugural open-mic-esque short film program at the Revue was so chock-a-block full of awesome, Tim Bourgette and co. wasted no time looking ahead to a sequel. Thus, Drop Your Shorts 2 (electric boogaloo) opens for submissions this Sunday. Toronto filmmakers, no matter their level of radness/awfulness/professionalism/lack thereof, are invited to throw down whatever artsy weirdness they have on back catalog for a public screening/execution on March 6. Films can be any genre... [continue]

If you’re into bad classroom reels, found footage, grainy home movies, and low- to no-budget outsider flicks, then it might suit you to head over to Stacey Case’s Trash Palace this weekend for the 8 fest. This small-format film festival is new to Toronto and will exclusively feature films shot on Super 8, 8mm and 9.5mm, as well as loops and zoetropes. Zoetropes! Please let there actually be zoetropes. The programming begins tomorrow at... [continue]

In the music industry's latest attempt to lazily claw itself out of the grave, the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) is proposing a $5.00 per month licence fee on Canadian Internet accounts that would legalize music downloads. They're calling it the Right to Equitable Remuneration for Music File Sharing, a "reasonable and unobtrusive system of compensation" that will allow consumers to fill their bellies full of all the music they can handle from any... [continue]

For some magically ridiculous reason, CBC Radio 3's weekly countdown, the R3-30, is broadcasting from a skating rink this week in a move that's heavily dividing the hipster set after the announcement of another free—and markedly less active—event that same night: Tokyo Police Club at Nathan Phillips Square. But host Craig Norris offers this pitch in their favour: "If you've ever listened to The R3-30 in the comfort of your warm, cozy home and... [continue]

As part of the always interesting (and now delicious) This Is Not A Reading Series, U of T history professor Steve Penfold and noted food writer Christine Sismondo are joining forces this week to discuss snack food patriotism and Canada’s unofficial deep-fried culinary icon, the donut. All this in celebration of Penfold’s new book, The Donut: A Canadian History. The 256-page hardcover study “examines the history of the donut in light of broader social,... [continue]

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Now in its fourth season, Food Network Canada's Restaurant Makeover—wherein both established and struggling restaurants are overhauled with a... [continue]

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. When the Festival Cinemas chain was shut down last year by supervillains The McQuillain Kids (after inheriting the business... [continue]

Toronto seems to get its annual dose of legendary outsider filmmaker John Waters around this time. A couple of years back he was hosting the TIFF gala of his latest film, A Dirty Shame, then in late 2006, he could be found gallivanting around Roncesvalles overseeing the transformation—for good or ill—of his 1988 comedy, Hairspray, into this year's hit family-friendly musical starring John Travolta (based more on the 2002 Broadway remake than on its original... [continue]

Torontoist has already done a pretty good job of letting you know how rad Posterchild is. In fact, the extent to which Torontoist writes about Posterchild could be seen as the textual equivalent of a marriage proposal. So without rehashing what has already been said about our favourite local street artist/public space crusader, just know that his radness is still on the upswing with new and improved versions of what he’s known best for:...... [continue]

Torontoist is sad to report that the Annex's doc-driven underdog moviehouse, the Brunswick Theatre, is closing up shop (tonight!) before even being able to celebrate its first birthday. Among the reasons for the closure, as given by owners Scott Gilbert and Bre Walt, were the high overhead costs, a lack of private rentals in the coming months, and the recent postering crackdown that stuck them with a $1500 fine. Not fun times for a... [continue]