Results tagged “austin”

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

Dundas Square gets a lot of flak for being a cold and soulless expanse of commercial neon and grey granite, and in a new music video for local singer-songwriter-producer Colin Munroe, it still is! But in this case, it's appropriate for his fantastic cover of Kanye West's mediocre "Flashing Lights" track.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

Think you can write, draw and finish a 24-page comic book in 24 hours?

Will Sheff's voice sounds something like Imogen Heap's (you know, the woman who sings "Hide and Seek") stripped of every bit of sheen. Sheff jumps octaves as often and with as much animation, though the results are rougher, darker, uglier––more appropriate to sing about, say, killing people, or to take the character of a man about to commit suicide or the ashamed father of a porn star. Throw in a trumpet, guitar or two, organ, piano, and drums, and you've got the makings of Austin's Okkervil River, a band so filled with joyous hate that it's impossible for their music not to constantly verge on catharsis. And you've got the reason why the band easily sold out Lee's Palace on Friday night.

Songs about zombies, drive-by shootings, Obi-Wan Kenobi, pirates, monsters, punching people in the face, pregnancy, "reeking and seeking," families, obesity, virginity—all of them catchy, all of them disconcertingly happy-sounding, and all of them sing-and-clap-along-able. That is what Austin's Oh No! Oh My! is made of, and their albums—their self-titled full-length; their new EP, Between The Devil and The Sea; and their Jolly Rogers demo that the songs from the new EP are culled from—are the best pieces of pop to come along in a very, very long time. No kidding.

Recently, Torontoist went canoeing in Algonquin Park (we got 34 mosquito bites). However, arguably the most amusing thing to happen during our entire trip was passing a billboard on our way into the park advertising a "Dock in a Box." We instantly became distracted by a lengthy fantasy that the company knew exactly what it was doing and included a YouTube video on its website about how it created the Dock in a Box (you know—"One, we cut a hole in the box; two, we put our tech in the box!"), but were recently disappointed to find that there’s nothing funny at all on the company website.

OMG! This week sees the release of Kickin' It Old Skool, a Jamie Kennedy vehicle. He plays a breakdancer who awakes from a 20-year coma and something that Jamie Kennedy probably considers hilarity ensues. We here at Torontoist Towers are astounded at the idea that somebody greenlighted a film with Jamie Kennedy in it. Absoultely gob-smacked.

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs.

There are quite a few bands in town tomorrow evening and we happen to have tickets to two of the shows, courtesy of Against The Grain.

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyway, onto the -ists.

We here at Torontoist are always fans of new campaigns to boost our fair city's reputation, but the problem is that most of these campaigns are, shall we say, kind of pathetic. No, actually -- not "kind of." They're just pathetic. Almost universally they cast Toronto as a handy convenient replacement for some other city you'd like to go to. "Toronto! It's almost like Paris, and you don't have to spend money on a transoceanic flight!" "A trip to Toronto is like a trip to New York, but on a Buffalo budget!" "Toronto: the Sydney of the northern hemisphere, with less ocean!" And of course we were quite disparaging regarding the city's most recent attempt in this area.

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to...

Tonight marks the first installment of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School at the Cameron House. The event provides a night of drawing from the live model with a series of cheeky twists. Firstly, the model is not some random naked person, but rather a cabaret star dressed in appropriately Vaudevillian costume. And at this life drawing session, the art-making is accompanied by alcoholic beverages and groovy tunes, not to mention kooky contests (best incorporation of a woodland animal, anyone?) and flashy prizes.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing.

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to.

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year!

If you could make just one wish for the entire world, what would it be? Austin Hill wants to add your wishes to his collection and hopefully raise some money for charity along the way.

Jagshemash!

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa...

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder?

As we sat down to write this week's Best of the -ists post, a car blaring "21 Questions'" passed by our house. And that started us thinking about how some of the best -ist posts out there have at their hearts questions, some of which are answered, and some of which are left open. Check out the Best of the -ists from this week, and see if you agree.

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week.

Hey, have y'all been using our new "Recommend this" feature at the bottom of each post? This week we're bringing you the "Most Recommended" posts from across the -ist world, as well as recommending some of our own.

We -ists are an eclectic bunch, but there's a couple of things we all love: famous people, social causes, and wacky local facts. Join us as we starf**k, get virtuous, and learn across the -ist network!

If nothing else, we like two things at Torontoist: the TTC, and bands about spoons. But before there was Spoon, one of the best bands currently making music (and certainly the best one out of Austin, Texas) there was The Spoons, a new-wave band coming straight from the hip and edgy streets of...Burlington. The band enjoyed some short-lived success in the 1980s, especially on the college circuit, and fizzled out as the decade came to an end.

Green blog TreeHugger wants to hear about environmentalism in Toronto. They've already asked Portland and Austin and both posts were enlightening. As far as we can tell Portland is a bike mecca with bad pizza and Mexican food and Austin has lots of people using windpower but wicked bad sprawl.