Jeff Healey, legendary Torontonian musician and owner of Jeff Healey's Roundhouse on Blue Jays Way (and Healey's at Queen and Bathurst prior to that), has died of cancer at only 41. The news, posted to his website earlier tonight, comes just under two months before the domestic release of Healey's new album, Mess of Blues, recorded with what Healey called "the best damned bar band in Canada." His website has plenty more information about......

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got. Ray of LightBY DOSHA UntitledBY SHUTTERNEWBIE  Toronto Eaton CentreBY UNDOMESTIC Toronto at 7amBY DUCKTROLL Workingman's BluesBY MOVEMENT ON THE WIRE InspectingBY INVENTOR_77 Waiting......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. Toronto is cheaper to film in than Boston. How do you like them apples? Good Will Hunting does it right. See,......

If you're like us, and you attended a Canadian university, you probably watch U.S. college football with a mixture of bemusement and envy—bemusement because you can’t quite fathom how a hundred thousand people could turn up to watch collegiate athletes, envy because you wish you could’ve had that experience at your school. This past Friday, for instance, over 90,000 fans packed Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to watch the Arkansas Razorbacks knock off......

They’ve got Hank’s seal of approval, so you know they’re at least half-way decent. Since receiving some "big-ups" on Henry Rollins’ show on L.A.’s Indie 103.1, The Harold Wartooth’s grunge-y star has been rising, with support coming in from the likes of CBC’s seminal Definitely Not the Opera and UK-based Catacomb Records. With a solitary self-titled EP under their belts, the band have demonstrated a propensity for writing Fun House-era Stooges-style riffs and burying them......

Reel Toronto is a look at Toronto's illustrious film history, during which our fair city has represented just about everywhere on earth. Yes, we're proud of our chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow––heck, Toronto even plays itself, every now and then. Even the legendary Elwood Blues cannot distract from the glaring sight of CBC Headquarters. There are a zillion reasons why Blues Brothers 2000 is not as good a......

After MasterCard agreed to ante up $160k to keep city skating rinks open this December, local newspapers spoke with one voice in reporting the story. The Star offered the headline "Private bailout of city rinks...priceless," the Post weighed in with "Skating in December...priceless," and the Sun daringly dropped the ellipsis with "Donation: Priceless." The Globe alone experienced a spasm of originality, settling for a subheading of "Skating still in the cards." Stéphane Dion, content......

Amidst the swirl of sensationalism surrounding the death of a "caretaker" at the Brentwood home of actor Ving Rhames last week, many Torontonians were unaware that the victim, 40-year-old Jacob Adams, was a local actor and screenwriter. "If hard work was enough to make it in Hollywood, then Jacob should have been a superstar," says friend and acting colleague Janice Edwards. "My last Jacob sighting was just outside Albert's on St. Clair West. He was......

Cat Power hit the stage at the Phoenix last night for her third Toronto show in less than a year. It was Torontoist’s first time seeing her live and after having waited a few years for the privilege, and hearing wonderful things about her shows of late, we were slightly let down. But only slightly, and mostly for reasons beyond Chan Marshall’s control. With the Dirty Delta Blues Band, featuring Judah Bauer of Blues......

Lots going on around town over the next little while. One of the city's biggest music festivals, NXNE, held their press conference this week announcing the 2007 lineup (warning, the list is tough to read), hosted by Dave Foley. Many show dates and venues were announced, including the addition of the Dinosaur Jr., Voxtrot and The National shows as officially being part of the festival. Limited wristbands will be accepted at each show, so......

Past Griffin Award recipient Christian Bök once stated, "The Griffin is the poetry award that can drastically change a poet’s life." Christian isn't exaggerating: the $100,000 prize, shared by two winners, is one of the largest poetry awards in the world. In a 2000 speech, Scott Griffin, founder of The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry, explained, "the poetry prize had to be of sufficient size to make a statement that declared that poets......

At the end of the second verse of one of Bright Eyes' new songs, "Reinvent The Wheel"—a eulogy for a dead musical idol, possibly Elliott Smith—lead singer Conor Oberst laments to his fallen hero that "you never understood what we loved you for." Coming as the line does in the song, with guitar chords and drums emphatically struck together to highlight Oberst's voice and the backing vocals, the moment is both uplifting and tragic, a......

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes" Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that......

The last 10 days have been a great time to be a film nut, but now Christmas comes early for book nerds as over the next few weeks two of the biggest events of the year take place, starting with next Sunday’s Word on the Street, which will be followed by the start of the International Festival of Authors in mid-October. A few events taking place today. Poet Lorette C. Luzajic launches her first book,......

As if there wasn't enough going on, the Distillery Blues Festival rolls out this weekend for three days of pentatonic pleasure. With three outdoor stages, and the mainly sunny forecast, what more can you ask for? Oh yea... it's free! On top of all this, the Festival is running two contests: one in which you can win a number of Blues CD, and the other prize... a Metallic Blue 56 Pro Danelectro guitar. So......

Toronto synth-punk band Pony Da Look starts up this Thursday Music Roundup. PDL, which up until recently had been on a break, are back in force. They're doing two shows, one tonight with Kiss Me Deadly and Pyramid Culture at Sneaky Dee's ($8 bucks) and tommorow as part of Lederhosen Lucil's EP and Zine launch (pictured here). Also tommorow is Blues/Folk legend Odetta which everyone from Zoilus to Now seems to be into. 32......

Ed Blefour's play in the Maple Leaf goal this season has for the most part been the calibre of play his team has relied on from the Ottawa Senators in four of the past five playoffs. He has yet to record a shoutout in 24 games this season - a stat that illuminates when you realize that the St.Louis Blues' Curtis Sanford already has a pair. When the Eagle takes the ice in Ottawa this......

Tall Poppy Interview - Adi Braun, Jazz Vocalist ...

Making the Deadly Snakes new record Porcella a back-to-school headphone record of choice is like starring in a Wes Anderson movie. "Gore Veil," maybe the poppiest song in the Snakes repertoire, is when we all meet at Max Fischer's production of Heaven and Hell, and "Sissy Blues" is when we find Herman Blume in the hospital, and "By Morning I'm Gone" is for when Dirk throws rocks at us. Today at 4:30 in the......

3. Northern Secondary School Bleachers (791 Mt Pleasant Rd.) Torontoist certainly didn't take enough advantage of this one back in the days of gym classes and lunch periods. Bleachers make for the perfect cutesy make-out session, because they are the clichéd site of all fantasy high school hook-ups. Our high school never had cheerleaders, and watching a football game meant sitting on a hill- so the perfect Varsity Blues look of Northern SS evokes a......

The Al Green Theatre, a nice film space located in the Miles Nadal JCC (at Bloor and Spadina) will soon see greater usage as regular theatre. It's now going to be operated by Capri Releasing (or Capri Films), who say they will "program first-run, specialized films from leading distributors, and will also present special cinema programs with leading filmmakers and panels that feature experts on a wide range of cinematic subjects." The whole thing will......

Local musician and twangster Brian Connelly, formerly a shadowy man from Shadowy Men On a Shadowy Planet (you know, the theme from The Kids in the Hall), has a newish band, called Atomic 7. But the side project TOist loves best is his instrumental trio Ancient Chinese Secret, covering old country songs by Connie Smith, Lefty Frizzell and Charlie Rich. It's where mellow surf guitar (a Gretsch, actually) meets mournful hillbilly twang --but not in......

Good news for Canadian hockey fans - and it doesn't even involve our self-important, hockey-hating buddies, Gary B. or Bob G. (Although Gretz recently sounded off on the fortunes of the NHL, read here if you still care.) No, this hockey news is that the Canadian World Junior Hockey Team reached the Gold Medal game with a 3-1 win over the Czech Republic in Sunday’s semi-final. Canada is now set to face a familiar enemy......

Ce samedi le 27 novembre, c'est à Massey Hall (178, rue Victoria, Toronto) que la 18ème édition du Women’s Blues Revue s’emparera d’une « chaude » nuit torontoise. Comme le blues a souvent été perçu comme un monde dominé presque exclusivement par les hommes, en 1986, les organisateurs de l’évènement ont décidé d’inviter deux artistes connues et bien établies au sein de la communauté du blues et d’autres qualifiées comme faisant parties de la......

So there we were, sitting at Phil's Original BBQ on College. There was a chill in the air, and the place was near empty. But we were warm. Plates of generously portioned pulled pork and barbecued chicken swarmed our table. And just as we set into our food, the management put on Paul Reddick and the Sidemen's 'Rattlebag,' a CD that has dazzled Torontoist since we got it for free while working the student reporter......