BY: P.u.A. LOCATION: Unknown PHOTO BY: Scott Snider FIELD NOTES: Nothing beats the summer heat like a cool, refreshing glass of water. As you head to the kitchen to quench your thirst, do you open the fridge to grab a bottle of water or do you grab a cup and fill it with water right [...]

Last night the Gladstone Hotel hosted a packed house of book lovers and other ghoulish types who came out to watch Books@Torontoist’s James Grainger interview Tom Jokinen, author of Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker in Training, the story of Jokinen’s eight-month apprenticeship in a Winnipeg funeral home. As Jokinen points out in his book, death is one of the few taboo topics left in our youth-obsessed, full-disclosure culture, but you wouldn’t have known it by the size of the crowd or the enthusiasm displayed for Jokinen’s verbal snapshots of the funeral industry. Who knew that morticians use a type of face paint when preparing bodies for viewing because the adhesiveness of regular cosmetics is generated by body heat, a commodity sorely lacking in corpses? Who knew that savvy companies, to cash in on the consumer shift to cremation, have created a line of urns that include a cuddly teddy bear that discreetly houses the ashes of the departed? Jokinen also spoke eloquently of the challenges facing the funeral industry and the daily regimen of respect, care, and hard work his employers brought to the handling of the dead and the bereaved.

Waterfront Toronto considers corporate naming scheme. On the one hand, yes, it’s a travesty. On the other hand, does anybody call the Skydome anything other than the Skydome, regardless of what Rogers wants us to call it? Feist sweeps the Junos, winning all five awards for which she was nominated. Feist wisely kept everything in [...]

Riverdale has long been known for its innovative use of utility poles. Continuing the tradition near Broadview and Danforth, this notice appeared last weekend alongside more typical community posters advertising lost cats and student painters: Sylvia Herman has passed away a former resident of the Chester Village old age home March 10, 2008 A scattering [...]

Barack Obama lays down the smack in South Carolina’s presidential primary. Obama won by an enormous 28-point margin, prompting Bill Clinton to afterwards comment that this was no big deal because Jesse Jackson, who is a black man, like Barack Obama, won South Carolina when he ran for President, and did he mention that Barack [...]

Unless you’re just coming off a three-day bender, you already know that Australian actor Heath Ledger died in New York yesterday, an event covered by the media with the familiar dead celebrity combination of prurience and gravitas. Still, he was good at what he did and he had a little girl and it’s sad. Good [...]

Ottawa to introduce new fuel economy standards. They will be “at least” as stringent as American fuel economy standards. In response, David Suzuki blew upon a party horn sarcastically and waved a tiny flag, his derision apparent to all and sundry. Bobby Fischer dies at 64. The former world chess champion was famous for beating [...]

November 14 to 18 marks the return of the Reel Asian International Film Festival. Last night, the Japan Foundation played host as filmmakers and media types gathered at a press conference to kick off the 11th annual incarnation of the fest. And with more than 70 independent works from all over the world, this year’s [...]

Darryl’s Hard Liquor and Porn Film Festival (covered by Amanda Buckiewicz earlier this week) is at the Bloor Cinema this Saturday, October 13 at 8 p.m, but if you’re a person of milder tastes (soft liquor and corn?) this week’s festivals of interest include the Toronto Latin Film Festival, the Macedonian Film Festival, the DNA [...]

The Baldwin Steps, the set of stairs at Davenport and Spadina Roads that leads up to Casa Loma, are so recognizable that they’ve warranted their own Wikipedia article and feature as a battle backdrop in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Depending on the time of day and season, the Baldwin Steps––also called the Casa Loma [...]

Earlier this week, The New York Times ditched their Times Select subscription thing, a move that saw content previously available for about $8 a month––like some well-liked columnists, for instance––unlocked and made free for everyone. Best of all, though, was the huge amount of material from the newspaper’s archives that was set free, dating all [...]