This Saturday, June 14th, as part of Luminat'eau, join those crazy kids and Newmindspace for their annual bubble battle. The event is loosely based on the Dr. Seuss classic The Butter Battle Book, where each warring faction (butter side up and butter side down) brings larger and crazier contraptions to the wall that divides their nations until their mutual destruction is assured. Bring your nuttiest bubble guns, bubble generators, massive wands, bubble solution, and... [continue]

A few months ago, over thirty cities participated in the inaugural International Pillow Fight Day, the first coordinated event by the decentralized network known as "the urban playground movement." The March 22 date, however, left out some of the world's colder cities. Now that it is warmer, this Saturday, May 31 will see Toronto's third massive pillow fight organized by Newmindspace! Like last year's, the 2008 edition will take place in Nathan Phillips Square.... [continue]

Photo of Amsterdam's Red Light District by Stuck in Customs. With all this talk about promoting tourism, all kinds of ideas have been proposed, from improving our toilets to depicting the city as a tattoo. These suggestions are a good start, but it is also important to look at one of the biggest attractions that brings people to cities: entertainment. With all the focus on making Toronto better, maybe some of our efforts ought... [continue]

Image of DEXTRE courtesy of NASA. Several months ago, a group of young NASA employees set out to redefine what space exploration means for their generation, Generation Y. Unlike the Baby Boomers' mission to the Moon, our generation's experience of space has been shaped by things like the International Space Station and the horrific Columbia disaster. It is no wonder, then, that Gen Y'ers are not all that interested in space. To get them... [continue]

Fool’s Gold Records, known for their dirty, cut-up, fidgety electro artists, recently signed Atlanta-based Treasure Fingers. Tomorrow, May 15th, Treasure Fingers teams up with rising bloghouse master Kill The Noise for the "School's Out Forever Tour" at Wrongbar, courtesy of the boys at Dopplehertz. Plus there is the added treat of a DJ set from local favourite Vaneska. Which reminds us, somebody really needs to make some clearer subgenres for electro. From the gritty,... [continue]

Forgive us if we're breaking rules 1 and 2, but it didn't take us long to figure out that this fake Wii Battletoads website (site has changed, see Google cache for original) was a viral marketing campaign against the Church of Scientology's "Fair Game" policy. This past Saturday marked the latest "in real life raid" against the Church. This wave of protests focused on a memo issued by L. Ron Hubbard in 1965, which... [continue]

Former Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier lives on as a program in the 1982 Disney film Tron. Torontoist reader Brent created these "enhanced" bank notes. Contrary to popular belief, defacing currency is not illegal in Canada. For defaced currency from elsewhere in the world, check out the defaced presidents Flickr pool. Via Laughing Squid.... [continue]

It was a depressing weekend for hundreds of kids who were eagerly awaiting SMILE, the first of the final three events from the famous all-ages event promotion crew Goodfellaz. The five were forced to cancel an hour before the event because the venue—BLAK (formerly Crosstown)—was not only deemed unsafe for occupancy by the fire marshal, but had its liquor license suspended by the AGCO. Sources within the club tell Torontoist that there is virtually... [continue]

Last we checked on a group who have now been dubbed the "Fight Fees 14," they were loudly chanting "Shame on you!" to police officers because they were slightly annoyed over increasing residence fees at New College. According to an online petition and press release, fourteen of the students are now facing criminal charges. After turning themselves in, the students were released under strict bail conditions that prevent them from associating, except in class... [continue]

Photo by ariehsinger from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Strike days like this make us wonder how difficult it'd be to run our own transportation service in Toronto. Of course, you couldn't actually open your own transit company—the City of Toronto Act says the only people who can run public transit are the TTC—but there are currently hundreds of kilometres of vacant rail on the street and underground, just waiting to carry millions of people... [continue]

Allison "BabyG" Greenbaum's Little Green Book of Big Savings has come a long way in four short months, and this Thursday, April 17th, it's about to go a little further at an educational green event based on the book. The event's Facebook page says that "If you want to learn new ways of incorporating green living into your life or want to spread the word about a green initiative you're involved with, then come... [continue]

This weekend, Toronto was impossible to miss at Miami's Winter Music Conference and Ultra Music Festival. Currently, five Torontonians occupy the number one and two and slots on the electro house chart on Beatport, which has become the de facto standard website for legally downloading electronic music, and a major player in the Winter Music Conference. Additionally, an Ontarian holds the number two spot on Beatport's tech house chart—Londoner John Acquaviva with "Sofa King."... [continue]

In 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to visit space in his ship Vostok 1. Flying high above our blue planet, he remarked, "Circling the earth in my orbital spaceship I marvelled at its beauty. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty, not destroy it!" Forty years later, two space enthusiasts from California, Loretta Hidalgo and George Whitesides, realized that this occasion was not being fully celebrated by... [continue]

Award-winning Canadian comedy troupe The Imponderables are at it again. In this spoof of the movie The Bourne Ultimatum, the famous red-and-white striped bespectacled Waldo must piece together clues of his half-remembered past. Bourne Parody on FunnyOrDie.com Just like one of the classic children's books, see how many familiar Toronto landmarks you can spot in the video. You can catch The Imponderables live at the Rivoli this Tuesday, March 11th, at 9 p.m. Also make... [continue]

Rabbit in the Moon, the legendary Los Angeles-based funky techno crew best known for their insane, pyrotechnic, costumed stage performances and dark, live beats, is headlining the last ever all-ages party at The Sound Academy, a.k.a. The Docks, this Saturday at Destiny's Together As One. This will be the first time Rabbit in the Moon has performed within city limits since 1999, which should prove to be a frenetic, immersive performance with wearable lasers,... [continue]

If anybody remembers last year's Snow Day, an ill-fated attempt to make snow in Trinity-Bellwoods Park with a defective snowmaker that lead to a giant snowball fight, you may be pleased to learn that exactly one year later, there is actually a bunch of snow on the ground, and the plan is the same. It seems the lesson about controlling Mother Nature has been learned, and our collective prayers have been answered. Tomorrow, join... [continue]

It seems there is a sort of subtle resentment for pants growing in popular culture. Although Improv Everywhere has been organizing their annual No Pants Subway Ride in New York for seven years, only recently has the tradition really taken hold in cities around the world. This past weekend, Toronto, along with Adelaide, Australia, New York, San Francisco, and a bunch of American cities you probably aren't interested in hearing about, joined Improv Everywhere... [continue]

Sometimes we find ourselves wondering, "Where do I put these lead acid batteries now that they've started to leak corrosive fluid all over the place," or, "How can I save money while being green in 2008?" A new Greentree book by Allison Greenbaum gives us the answers. "The Little Green Book of Big Savings" is an indispensable tool for being green and thrifty in Toronto in the new year, featuring over $4,000 in savings... [continue]

While Newmindspace have organized subway parties in Toronto, SkyTrain parties in Vancouver, and métro parties in Montréal, sometimes nothing beats an old-fashioned streetcar party for a beat-bumping, track-turning, three hour party tour of the city. The TTC will rent a streetcar (PCC, CLRV or ALRV) for a minimum of three hours for a pretty steep fee to just about anybody. The customer can request a custom route, like Newmindspace has, that takes advantage of...... [continue]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last time we checked on 178 Bathurst Street, it was just beginning to relive its Bassmint-era techno days with Derrick May at Crosstown, now closed. Since then, things underneath the Queen Street West and Bathurst Street Pizza Pizza have come full circle. Until 1999, Christian "DJ Unabomber" Poulson operated Bassmint, a famous party spot and afterhours that still conjures memories of sleepless nights for...... [continue]