For every prestigious award shows there will be people who complain that the prize is rigged. The Gillers, Canada's most prestigious literary award, is no stranger to this. In its 13 year history the prize has been criticized for its bias towards larger publishers, to Ontario authors and any number of other shortcomings. Geist magazine columnist Stephen Henighan throws another log angrily onto that fire with his latest missive that accuses the prize of a... [continue]

Judging from our traffic statistics many of you read TOist at work. Tsk tsk. It's workers like you who are dragging the productivity of our great nation down. Oh who am I kidding. Still, we here at TOist don't want any of you to get into trouble and lose your job, how else will you read Torontoist? Tod Maffin over at Inside the CBC pointed us to workFRIENDLY, a useful little site that transforms... [continue]

Sadly the quillblog is not about porcupines. However, it is the blog of Quill and Quire, Canada's magazine about the book trade. Recent posts have touched on everything from which books authors really like, Starbucks playing Oprah to the latte-sipping set and the continuing car wreck that is the OJ Simpson book. The Quillblog has also been recently renovated, a move that we hope gets them some more traffic. The fixups include getting blog... [continue]

2006 has been a great year for Torontoist and I've been fortunate to work with a team of great photographers and writers who put in countless hours to make this site something special. So it's with some sadness that I step down as one of the editors of Torontoist.com. I will remain on Torontoist as a contributor and writer but I felt that it was time that I pursued other opportunities. Editing this site and... [continue]

Everyone is talking about Christmas this and Yuletide that, but let's not forget that the festival of light (Hanukkah) is upon us. What better way to celebrate that holiday than with latkes. Katherine Mulherin is kind of enough to let a few artists use her Queen St. W. space to deep fry some potatoes. For all the goys she's also got her annual eggnog party and sale. Both events are tonight 7-10 pm at... [continue]

A body that was discovered in 1968 north of Toronto has been identified as a 17-year-old New Brunswick teen. Richard Hovey moved here to take part in Toronto's thriving counterculture scene but sadly met a tragic end. Shaun Bruce, the 22-year-old that ran against David Miller, is back at this old job as a zamboni driver. No word on where Jane Pitfield and Stephen LeDrew are now, and do we really care? There's an old... [continue]

Photo by dzgnboy from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. If you need a gift for the Toronto lover on your list, look no further than our handy list of Toronto-inspired gifts. We wouldn't be unhappy if any of these ended up under our virtual Christmas tree this year. Also, accept no imitators -- you know those north pole elves have never been to Toronto, right? We give you these ten gifts. One for each shopping... [continue]

Chart Attack and CBC Radio 3 reported that hackers have gotten in and deleted the MySpace account of local indie rockers Magneta Lane. The popular band lost over two years worth of fan comments and 7,000 friends. The ladies are getting back on their feet though. As of the writing of this post Magneta Lane has a functional page again, with videos and music and 372 friends. As for those alleged Turkish hackers that did... [continue]

Sheila Heti (pictured here hiding behind this chair) is one of the many artists invited by the Music Gallery for its fundraiser "Compose Yourself." Heti, along with filmmaker Atom Egoyan, philosopher Mark Kingwell, minor media mogul Moses Znaimer, and haircut facilitator Darren O'Donnell will come with compositions or ideas for compositions that will be played by an improvisational supergroup. The concert starts at 8pm and is $25.... [continue]

The answer to that groan-inducing question is the Latvian House (491 College St.) where the Downtown Urban Design Event (DUDE) show starts tonight at 6pm and runs through the weekend. Exhibitors include: socially responsible fashions from Passenger Pigeon (all their clothing is made with organically grown and ethically produced materials), our friends from the Monster Factory, pottery, jewelry, pins and more. For all of you who missed the one-of-a-kind show or found that event... [continue]

With winter knocking on our doorsteps, it's time that many of us put away our bikes (those who ride through sleet and snow, we salute you). The organizers of Community Bicycle Network's BikeShare program are putting away their bikes for the season too and want you to join them at the Canadian Corps Building at 201 Niagara. We've been to this building and it's one of the coziest places to drink and dance in... [continue]

These seats are empty now, but they won't be after today, as Mayor Miller and the 44 other city councillors take office. We found out recently that councillors are seated randomly, which explains why during the last council term loyal lefty Adam Giambrone sat right next to dogged mayoral critic Denzil Minnan-Wong. We're curious where Adam Vaughan will be sitting; we hope it's right next to tree advocate and Front Street Extension booster Joe... [continue]

We're not quite sure what's going on in this video shot last week on Duncan St. Is it a drug deal gone bad like the title of the video claims? Is it an argument over a delivery or unpaid bills? We can't really say but it does make for some entertaining viewing. The payoff is at about the 1:00 mark when the white cube van tries to drive away. We won't give it away.... [continue]

Dear Drivers, We know that the weather is totally crappy outside, visibility is low, your brakes don't work as well and you're annoyed about your shiny car getting all wet. But please, drive carefully out there. This list compiled by Joe over at Biking Toronto tells me that many of you aren't thinking straight when you're operating heavy machinery, and that's not a good thing. How else can we explain two hit-and-runs on the... [continue]

Despite the fact that we run a website and we're all forward-thinking technology-loving folks, we have a soft spot for book art. There's something refreshing about hand-made, tactile two-dimensional objects that no online experience can replicate, yet. It also helps that some of us are huge typography geeks. Well, type geeks and book-art lovers rejoice. The OCAD Book Arts Fair is this Sunday. Dozens of printers, designers and artisans will be selling their work... [continue]

Argos fans be very very scared. It seems that Toronto is on a shortlist of five cities that will get a regular-season NFL game next year. The game's success would be a good indicator of whether these cities would be suitable for future NFL expansion. The NFL has some big fans here in Toronto, most notably media magnate Ted Rogers and Larry Tannenbaum (minority share holder of the Leafs) and Jays CEO Paul Godfrey. But... [continue]

Where there's smoke there's nothing. Really, nothing at all. If you're passing by Dundas West and Keele station tomorrow and see smoke it's just the TTC conducting a drill at the train yards there between 9:30 am and noon. The exercise trains firefighters how to deal with an emergency inside the city's subway tunnels. Photo by Spirited Away from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.... [continue]

Earlier this year Hannah Sung left a 'dream job' at MuchMusic to travel. But Sung wasn't merely backpacking around the world, like so many 20-somethings. She was working with CARE Canada shooting a documentary on the NGO's efforts in Indonesia and East Timor. Upon her return to Canada she also started touring high schools. Both experiences changed Sung's life and urged her to do more, particularly for the people of East Timor, a country... [continue]

D.B. Scott over at the Canadian Magazines blog has noticed that The Star's Antonia Zerbisias has stopped blogging. Zerbisias was an absolute blog trooper, posting frequently on this country's often hilarious media scene. Unlike other prominent bloggers, Zerbisias left comments back to her readers, and for that she must be commended. We're well aware of just how tiresome sifting through angry, illiterate sometimes even hateful comments can be. We're also well aware that despite... [continue]

When Coach House Books launched uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto last year we were absolutely, positively thrilled. The book brought together a group of people in love with the city and its potential. A year later, we're just days away from the launch of the State of the Arts, the sequel to that fine volume. With many of the same contributors as the first volume, we know that Coach House will pull off a fine... [continue]