Torontoist » Cadbury

KAMP: Horrors at the Hands of Humans

Carly Maga — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:30:28 +0000

Three puppet masters portray a day in the life of Auschwitz through a detailed miniature construction of the grounds and thousands of tiny handmade puppets.

When telling the story of the Holocaust, one effective way to overcome our sheer inability to comprehend the scope and scale of such atrocities is to zoom in on one or two stories: share one particular experience, in all its brutal specificity, and we have at least a small way into the event—the small details illuminate the larger whole.

One theatre company from the Netherlands, Hotel Modern, takes a related approach in KAMP (CAMP). The production depicts a typical day at the Auschwitz concentration camp, but instead of zooming in into a closeup, it shrinks everything down, literally, into miniature. It’s the accumulation of thousands of small details that has the impact in this case.

Ontario Bike Summit Aims to Change the Conversation on Cycling

Chris Dart — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Bike Summit organizers say that drivers and cyclists are often the same people.

Eleanor McMahon thinks it’s time to change the conversation around cycling in Ontario.

McMahon is the founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, who will be hosting the fifth annual Ontario Bike Summit this week in Toronto. She says that we need to stop talking about things like bike lanes and other bicycle infrastructure as a zero sum game between cars and bikes.

“We do polling, and our polling tells us that 89 per cent of Ontarians are both drivers and cyclists,” she says. “The notion that it’s cars versus bikes is overblown, and it’s really not working anymore. Deciding to change the conversation means going out of our way to poke holes in that idea and say from the get go ‘We don’t buy into that philosophy, and just because you say it, doesn’t make it true.’ ”

Off Key Comedy Aims to Fuse Stand-Up and Song

Chris Dart — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:15:44 +0000

A musical-comedy showcase tries to shake the genre's lame reputation.

Even with the success of acts like Lonely Island and Flight of the Conchords, people still tend to view musical comedy with some suspicion, and not without reason. Those high-profile success stories aside, at the club level, musical comedy is too often the province of people who aren’t quite good enough to make it as musicians, but not quite funny enough to make it as comedians.

Two local comics, Robert Keller and Rush Zilla, are out to change that perception with their show, Off Key Comedy, which features a wide variety of acts whose only commonality is that they combine music and comedy in one form or another. The third edition of the monthly show will take place on May 23, at Comedy Bar.

Weekend Planner: October 31–November 1, 2009

Vicky Peters — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.

Photo by Paula Wilson courtesy of FLIP Publicity.

THEATRE: What would a Halloween weekend be without the Canadian premiere of The Toxic Avenger Musical? New Jersey vat-of-radioactive-waste survivor the Toxic Avenger battles for both the heart of his blind librarian love-interest and the environment while expressing himself through the magic of live rock ballads. The only thing missing might be a GTA context—the debate’s open as to Toronto’s New Jersey equivalent. The Music Hall (147 Danforth Avenue), Saturday 9 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., $15–$69.
CYCLING: Dandyhorse, Spacing, and Now magazines present the first ever Hallowheelin’—a cycling challenge with five secret checkpoints, costumed riders, and prize giveaways! Participants are strongly encouraged to ride in costume and must have a working light on their bike as well as a bag or carrier. Helmets are highly recommended, of course. The list of prize donors seems to include more coffee houses than bike stores, but Great Lakes Brewery is also in the mix. Competing riders get free admission to the after party at CineCycle (401 Richmond Street West, in rear)—otherwise the cover is only $2. All proceeds from the event go to Foodshare. Manic Coffee (426 College Street), Saturday 5:30 p.m. (registration) and 7 p.m. (ride), $8 to compete.
TREATS: This makes us want to borrow our nephew for the night: the Cadbury Chocolate Factory on Gladstone not only turns itself into a haunted house but gives away free candy to everyone. The annual community fear factor(y) funhouse is approaching its twentieth anniversary. Be warned that because the event is being held in a working chocolate factory, space is limited. The Cadbury Chocolate Factory (277 Gladstone Avenue), Saturday 5:30 p.m., FREE.
FAMILY: Those living with kids on the east side of town may want to check out one neighbourhood’s giant home-stage review, the Seventh Annual Langley Collective Halloween. The Collective is made up of about fifty performers of all ages from families in the neighbourhood. The stage show this year features Monster Movie Fest, Thriller!, and Monsters, Inc., the Musical. Corner of Howland Road and Langley Avenue, Saturday 7–9 p.m. (three repeat performances of thirty minutes each), FREE.
MUSIC: Former Urban Planner Robin Hatch plays with Sports: the Band at record label Optical Sounds‘ Attack of the Killer Bands bash. Live music is brought to you from Mother Murder, Vicious Delicious, Sports: the Band, Action Makes, and the Hoa Hoa’s. DJs spinning between sets include Richie Volume & Laundry (of the Hoa Hoa’s), Gardian (one of Optical Sound’s security staff), and Cool Ranch (of The Disraelis). Costume dress code in effect. 69 Vintage Outlet (1234 Bloor Street West), Saturday 8 p.m., $10.
MARKET: The Drake establishes its first ever outdoor market event. Those who haven’t managed to put together a Halloween costume yet might want to take a boo at the vintage clothing vendors. If you‘re covered on the costume front, Coffee Stained Cards is selling last year’s Christmas cards at a big discount. The Drake’s kitchen will be selling baked goods of the pumpkin variety. We’re not yet convinced about the market’s re-gifting table idea where a leave-one/take-one policy is in effect, but you never know. Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West), Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.–4 p.m., FREE.
ART: The incredible Leona Drive Project ends this weekend, so if you haven’t made the trek via art bus up to North York, this is your last chance to experience the site-specific installation in six Willowdale bungalows slated for demolition. A collective of artists have used all types of media to explore the nature of modernist residential architecture and typical post-war Canadian dwellings. Stay tuned to Torontoist for more from the project’s final weekend. 17 Leona Drive, Saturday 1–4 p.m. and 6–9 p.m., FREE.
COMICS: This year’s Canzine theme is “Olympics,” and in true Canzine fashion, local art makers will be competing for the gold (actually $100 and a full-page profile in Broken Pencil) in events such as “The ‘Zine Lift” and the “Word Relay Race.” Upstairs the hotel room installations this year include “ArtCade 2009”—the best in indie video gaming, the comic jam room, a found-photo exhibit called “The Lost Window: Toronto Mannequin Window Displays 1930–1950,” and the Home Alone–inspired “Spelunkin’ fer Culkin.” Michael Morton of Crime League holds a hands-on screen printing workshop, the “One-Two Punch Book Pitch” repeats this year, and Broken Pencil has added readings from its recent Can’tLit publication. Oh, ya—and there’s the actual ‘zine fair with more than a hundred and fifty print and on-line publications from across Canada. Whew! The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West), Sunday 1–7 p.m., $5 (includes new “Olympics” issue of Broken Pencil).
TIME: The time has come to fall back to Standard time. That’s right—the dreaded loss of afternoon daylight so weakly compensated by an extra hour of sleep is here. Positive thinkers will embrace the extra hour of Halloween horrors, while those of us with no Sunday appointments will wait until Monday morning to turn back the clock when the alarm goes off. Province-wide, Sunday 2 a.m., FREE.

Goomageddon!

Alex Nino Gheciu — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Photo courtesy of Cadbury Adams Canada Inc.

So, remember that strange-looking billboard at Dundas Square? You know, the one that commanded you to relieve a glutinous discharge? Well, it just got stranger. On Tuesday, Cadbury attached a teeter-totter-like lever to the billboard, with a large box on one end and a hulking one-and-a-half-metre Creme Egg on the other. According to the company, as snow, rain, and other precipitation accumulates inside the box, the Creme Egg will slowly rise towards an oversized fan that will eventually crack it open, unleashing its mucilaginous filling everywhere!
You can get updates on the chocolate embryo’s status via a live web feed at http://www.cadburycremeegg.ca.
“It’s really up to Mother Nature to decide when this larger-than-life Cadbury Creme Egg will de-goo,” says spokesperson Michelle Lefler, who predicts it might go kablooey just in time for Easter. “Given the upcoming weather, we could see some movement next week, and it might be a matter of several weeks before we see it really come close to sharing the gooey filling!”
You heard her, Toronto. Goomageddon is approaching.

Goo Grief!

Alex Nino Gheciu — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Photo by Alex Nino Gheciu/Torontoist

If you’re passing by Yonge & Dundas Square anytime soon, you may need to do a double take. A curious billboard erected above the Hard Rock Café building reads: “Release the Goo.” No, it’s not a call to arms from Dimitri the Lover to his pervy protégés. It’s actually a bizarre new ad campaign for Cadbury Creme Eggs. If you think the billboard’s scandalous, check out the website’s tag line: “Cadbury Creme Eggs really want to get their goo out. And if you don’t do it for them, they will.” Yeesh.
Thanks to reader Andy Caron for the tip.

Bullfrog Extends Reach To Condos And Apartments

Marc Lostracco — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Photo by Marc Lostracco.
In upcoming months, Toronto’s summer temperatures will once again strain the power grid, and the demand for more power means more power generation—and consequently, more pollution. For Ontario customers wishing to utilize renewable energy sources, there are currently only two options: expensively retrofit your property to generate some of its own electricity, or sign up with Bullfrog Power. For many condo owners and apartment dwellers, neither of those options have been viable.

Bullfrog is currently Ontario’s only “green” energy retailer, providing electricity sourced locally from renewable and emissions-free techniques, like low-impact water generation (80%), and wind turbines (20%). They don’t actually deliver this clean power directly to your home, but inject it into the existing grid proportionate to each customer’s use. Customers continue to draw from the grid as usual, and Bullfrog’s billing system piggybacks on the existing utility provider.
This has been the problem for many potential high-rise customers—either utilities are included in rent, or existing bulk metering contracts weren’t compatible with Bullfrog, and residents don’t often have a choice in electricity retailers. As of the end of April, Bullfrog has finally been offering service to all Ontarians via a credit system, where those who can’t be directly metered by Bullfrog can estimate their usage, and be invoiced accordingly in addition to their existing electrical bill. Consumers can also adjust this amount online for each billing period to more accurately reflect their actual usage.
Switching to green power isn’t cheap, however, and price is undoubtedly the most significant barrier to adoption. For those signing up on this system (which can be done immediately and online), Bullfrog provides estimates based on square footage (screenshot, right). The EcoLogo-certified electricity is priced at a 3.5¢ premium per kilowatt hour (kWh), which means that a switch to Bullfrog will add about 20%–30% to your bill. For comparison, a one-bedroom apartment using about 375 kWh monthly will add about $13 to the traditional cost, but a detached home (using 1,500 kWh/month) would get dinged about $50 more.
Much of the premium comes from the higher costs of green power generation, as well as the investment in new renewable power technologies. Bullfrog is actually a reseller—it buys and invests in renewable energy from multiple sources—and while the higher cost is undoubtedly a turn-off to some, the company has managed to persuade 600 businesses and 6,000 homeowners in Ontario to make the switch. Bullfrog is a for-profit company, obviously, but eco-conscious consumers seem to be responding positively, based on principle alone.
Still, 6,000 residential customers in a province of 4.5 million households is only a drop in the bucket, and less than 3% of power flowing into the power grid is from clean, renewable sources. 39% of the power we use now comes from nuclear plants, and 37% is derived from coal, oil, and gas generation. Most of the energy in Bullfrog’s mix is from low-impact hydro, which are usually smallish dam facilities operating with minimal environmental impact. Other sources of renewable energy, like solar and biofuel, are currently too expensive to offer without large government subsidies.
Some of the most significant impact comes from the potential corporate market, which can also help drive the need to commission new wind turbines in the Bruce Peninsula, for example. Wal-Mart, RBC, BMO, Cadbury, and Lululemon are some of the companies that are offsetting some of their electricity-related emissions with Bullfrog, and the Toronto-based company boasts high-profile residential customers like Margaret Atwood, Jamie Kennedy, Bob Rae, Gord Downie, and Mark Cullen.
With condo and apartment residents finally covered, and 60% of Canadians saying they’d prefer to use electricity from renewable sources, accessing green power for the home doesn’t seem as difficult anymore. Without the subsidies and infrastructure enjoyed by nuclear, coal, and high-volume hydro plants, renewable energy remains significantly more costly, but it’s tough to argue against an extra fifteen bucks when many of us spend more than $50 each month on our morning coffee.