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. The two great Canadian heroes prep for an adventure, Shakespeare-style. Strange Brew is not a great film, but it sure is......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Day 46 - Casa Loma BY DAIFUKU SENSEI......

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. Logan and Professor X take a stroll around Casa Loma. Ultimately, the mutants would betray us and decamp for Lotusland. But......

Ever marvel at the architecture of Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall and the Ontario Legislature in Queen's Park? Those lovely red-brick buildings, dear friends, are the legacy of Toronto's vernacular building material—sweet slabs formed from the banks of the Don herself. From 1889 to 1980, the Don Valley Brick Works made some of the highest quality brick in the land. Why, in 1893, the Don Valley brick was crowned Best Brick at the Chicago World's......

Eat Me is a regular feature about the nooks and crannies of Toronto's restaurant scene, about the amazing restaurants that are––for some reason––criminally underpatronized. It's pretty easy to find sushi places in this city. From the Bloor Street strip to North York, sushi places range from suspiciously cheap to ridiculously expensive, from having incredibly creative culinary creations to the same old rolls. Quietly tucked on the east edge of Little Italy is Jun Jun Sushi......

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 Steps, or The Death Climb At The End of Spadina––can be romantic, creepy, trying, or picturesque. Now a group of......

The Canadian National Exhibition opens this week, bringing with it nearly 130 years of tradition, from its beginnings as an industrial showcase to its current role as a signal that summer is drawing to a close. Today's pair of ads provide a glimpse of what the Ex was like on the cusp of World War II, before it was closed for wartime activities. The "new amusement area" touted in 1937 proved significant, as it......

Actually, it was more like 12,000 years ago this area was the shoreline of what has come to be called Lake Iroquois, but what's a few thousand years among friends? Really? Formed during the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age, Lake Iroquois covered areas of the city south of Davenport Rd, with lagoons stretching as far north as Leaside. Its traces can be found in the ravines, with the most visible......

TO. Hogtown. The Queen City of Canada. The Centre of the Universe. Centennial City. All names applied to Toronto over the years. Centennial city? That was the nickname tossed around when Toronto celebrated its 100th birthday in 1934. To commemorate the event, a Centennial Committee was put together by city council, whose lasting work was Jesse Edgar Middleton’s book Toronto’s 100 Years. The book includes a variety of sketches of the city’s first century, as......

If you’ve ever lived in one of Toronto’s older homes (like Casa Loma, pictured left) or apartments, you have probably wondered this: Why do the city's otherwise charming Victorian houses lack closets? The most frequently given "explanation" is that in olden times, homes were taxed by the room, and that closets were included in this count. Another legend offered up by amateur historians is that, back in the day, people only had a couple of......

Reading Toronto states "the city is a book with 100,000 million poems." Torontoist is aware of many poems that have been written by Toronto poets, but thinks there is ample room in the GTA for a few more (maybe a million-or-two would improve the present un-poetic monstrosity that is Dundas Square). We're also curious to know where new poems are being written: During TTC commutes? On the picturesque grounds of Casa Loma? Under the......

For those of you who didn’t attend on Wednesday night, the news coming out of the Pontiac Quarterly is that founder Damian Rogers is leaving the poetry/prose/arts/music night. Liz Clayton is taking over organizing and hosting duties, with her first edition slated for October. Watch for falling haikus: As Ron posted about on Friday, 50 poets, including George Elliot Clarke and Stuart Ross, will be invading Dundas Square today from noon until midnight. If you......

TTC Chair Howard Moscoe and injured TTC driver Bobby Lowe had a nice chat yesterday and cleared up a few things. Lowe actually said that his beef wasn't with the TTC but with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. They held up his cheque for five months and Lowe lost his apartment and had to break up his family because of that. Howard Moscoe also apologized for calling Lowe a liar on a radio show......

Ed. Note: Torontoist wants to welcome Rob to the Torontoist team. Rob has lived in NYC and Montreal (lucky him) and is currently at U of T studying architecture so it's appropriate that his first post is on Doors Open Toronto. If you're like Torontoist, you've spent this grey winter staring out from streetcar windows contemplating the city's facades as you zip by. But while they may look amazing on the outside, it's time for......

Torontoist has been a big fan of the Murmur project since it started. We're even bigger fans of the silky voice that we get when we call the number (it's the voice of James Roussel, the third and often forgotten member of Murmur). The idea behind Murmur is elegant and simple, using your cellphone you can listen to site-specific stories recorded by ordinary and not so ordinary Torontonians. The project has gotten the Murmur......

According to the CBC, the Casa Loma is the only historical attraction in Canada that actually makes money - approximately $1 million per year, which its caretakers, the Kiwanis Club, hand over to the city for exterior renovations. But a great grand-niece of the builder of Casa Loma thinks that the Kiwanis Club has been doing a poor job of maintaining the crumbly castle, and wants a review of the TO attraction's management. Trelawny......

You might remember a few weeks ago when Torontoist posted a Bell Canada Amazing Race-type event in Toronto this summer. Well, there have since been some revisions. Torontoist regrets the error. The post should have read: Rob and Amber types take note: Navigate the Streets runs its annual Amazing Race-style contest on August 13 in Toronto. NTS will provide the opportunity to run around the city like a you-know-what. It's just like on the show,......

Rob and Amber types take note: Bell Canada runs it's annual Amazing Race-style contest on June 25 in Toronto. CityChase provides the opportunity to run around the city like a you-know-what, just like on the show. Listen: A unique urban adventure that requires participants to exhibit teamwork, resourcefulness, determination and the ability to make decisions on the fly as they search for ChasePoints scattered in unknown locations throughout the city. At this point, everyone......