Results tagged “churchstreet”

Enza Anderson waits at a bus stop on the west side of Bay Street by City Hall with a tall shovel in her hand. The bus to Queen's Quay pulls up and all eyes fixate on her as she boards. Walking towards the back, an elderly passenger comments, "A bit early for shovelling the snow off your driveway, isn't it?"

                                   

Sure, there were bound to be a zillion Lady Gagas—and there were—but Halloween exhibitionism on Church Street is still one of the city's most enjoyable annual events. Here are some of our favourite costumes from 2009, featuring loads of blood, pop culture, and plenty of ghoul-on-ghoul action. We should note that a couple of these photos may be NSFW (if you work in a convent).

Photo by Bytepusher from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Image: Cicada Design/Diamond + Schmitt Architects

Torontoist Environment Editor Chris Tindal is currently engaged in a federal by-election campaign. This weekly column is an attempt to offer a behind the scenes glimpse into what it's like to be that mysterious Other: a politician.

Renda Abdo knew that she'd have some explaining to do about calling her boutique nightclub, located in the north end of the Village, "Straight." The name was ambiguous. Was Straight exclusive to straights? (Imagine if "Gay" opened in the middle of club district.) Or did it mock them? Straight was a response, Abdo explains, to the attitude that the Village had become irrelevant, a view laid out in a front page Star article with a bold headline: "Goodbye Gaytown?"

The AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) holds condom stuffing parties every first and third Wednesday of the month to make packages of condoms, lube, and info on ACT and safer sex. ACT delivers the packages to clubs and venues in the Church and Wellesley area as part of its community outreach program to reduce the risk of transmission of sexually transmitted infections. In 2007, volunteers helped ACT create over 120,000 condom packs.

Toronto has been called a city of neighbourhoods: The Beach, Yorkville, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown, The Annex; all have their defining characteristics that make them appealing to locals as well as visitors. And when it comes down to it, most of these areas are well-defined by the intersection of two major streets. Photo by gbalogh from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Previously on A City Intersected, we visited Front Street East & Jarvis Street, one of...

Lit lovers should head over to Church Street today for the Writing Outside The Margins festival of queer literature, the first of its kind in Toronto. The Gay Village stretch of Church Street will be closed from 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate stands selling everything from children's books, fiction and poetry to sci-fi, erotica and comic arts. There will also be two stages for readings and performances, where you'll get to participate in an open mic or sign up for a poetry slam competition.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams addressed an enthusiastic crowd last night at the Hot House Cafe on Church Street, as part of what organizers billed as a "Summer Celebration" of the Irish peace process. Adams is on a speaking tour of North America to thank supporters of Friends of Sinn Fein, a non-profit fundraising group whose Canadian chapter, located in Toronto, was launched by Adams in 2001. Adams was one of the principle negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement, which saw the beginning of stabilized relations among Northern Ireland, Britain and the Irish Republic.

bill bissett is Canada's world champion hippy poet freak. Best known for his phonetic (funetik) spelling, it's fair to say that bissett's poetry anticipated the text messaging age by several decades. What once seemed like an avante garde approach to language now seems like the inevitable evolution of communication. He's the poet laureate of SMS.

Shameless, the Toronto-based publication "for girls who get it," has made a name for itself as an inclusive, progressive alternative to mainstream girls’ publications, where the dominant message is one of surface over depth. Staffed by volunteers, Shameless’ mandate is to give voice to a diverse group otherwise characterized as singularly boy and diet-crazy.

March 8th marks International Women's Day each year, though it's sadly not yet a national holiday in Canada, as it is in a few countries. But official holiday or not, there are still a tonne of events happening in Toronto to mark the occasion. Here are some of Torontoist's best bets for celebrating feminism this week:

One of Canada's last World War One veterans dies at age 107. This leaves only two remaining Great War veterans, the last of whom to pass on is eligible for a state funeral, but neither are interested. Torontoist applauds their humility, because come on—we would totally be about a state funeral. With Gord Downie singing soulful hymns in the background! And Wayne Gretzky would give a tearful speech about what we meant to hockey! And Rick Mercer would—actually we're not sure what Rick Mercer would do, but we're sure it would be respectfully entertaining.

Toronto native Jeremy Podeswa has directed for both television and cinema. His previous films include Eclipse and The Five Senses, and he’s directed such shows as Six Feet Under, Rome, Queer as Folk, Nip/Tuck, and Carnivale.

...a TTC bus was hijacked earlier this afternoon, and the details as of right now are sketchy at best. According to City, a man boarded a bus at 12:30pm at around Bay and Wellesley, rode it down to Front and Bay, and then -- and this is particularly significant -- only when the bus was empty except for himself and the driver did he pull a gun. "From Bay the vehicle went eastbound to Cherry St., north on Cherry to Queen St., and east from there to Church St" (City's final directions are wrong, however, since Cherry is east of Church, not west). The suspect got off the bus and "took off" on foot. The man is a white male, in his 40s, 6'1", and was wearing a black suede jacket, jeans and a red hat.

Continue reading "Bus Hijacking That Sounded Fishy (Probably) Was"

Torontonians are, to say the least, an opinionated bunch. So instead of a simple "Best Of" list to cap 2006 off, the Torontoist staffers have racked their brains about everything (books, songs, restaurants, people, places, stores, newspapers, politicians, musicians, and a lot more) to bring you their choices for the very best and the very worst of our city this past year. It's Torontoist Love/Hate 2006, and you can find a new one every day at noon from December 26th until January 1st.

We rarely do an Extra, Extra, but tonight's an exception for two reasons: first, two major crime events -- a bus hijacking and a shooting -- happened in downtown Toronto over the past twenty-four hours that merit mentioning; and second, in each story the facts are getting lost along the way and, as usual, the media is muddling the details of what actually (seems to have) happened. It's our goal in this recap to try to synthesize and clarify all the information coming in, as well as point out some holes in the coverage that's out there so far. If you spot a mistake that we make, please let us know in the comments with a link to whatever source you're getting your info from, and we'll correct ourselves.

Happy December Torontoist readers!

The Tories are taking a chainsaw to Status of Women Canada, closing three-quarters of the organization's regional offices, including Toronto's. Heritage Minister Bev Oda insisted that the budget cuts and office closings will streamline the department and make it more efficient. Just like a business! Because government should be run like a business!

Since 2004, signs have hung on the southeast corner of Maple Leaf Gardens promising an historic Loblaws Real Canadian Superstore. "Soon you'll discover a store filled with fresh flavours, shops and services," the billboards cheerily stated, but the Gardens at Church and Carlton has loomed a decrepit shell since it went dark in 2001, despite some minor action hosting the filming of Cinderella Man. The last Leafs game was on February 13, 1999, where they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks just as they did on opening day.

No time…Must get back down to Harbourfront…IFOA in full swing…Here are some other literary events taking place this week….

This Torontoist was walking down Church Street and passed by The Stag Shoppe, the gay village's latest sex paraphernalia shoppe. Outside, huddled in the corner of the doorway is Bob, a husband of an old co-worker back from our bar-working days. He's all of 5 foot nuthin', 100lbs wet with overgrown My Name is Earl facial hair styling. If you passed him on the street, you'd think him a pocket biker, not someone who sells lube and lacey black panties.

The week starts off with another instalment of Pussy Pen, an evening of readings and performance focusing on women, trans, and queer perspectives. It takes place at Tango and Crews, 508 Church St, beginning at 8pm. Free.

...They want you. They want you as a new recruit!

A couple of Sunday night events to kick-off or end your week, depending on how you see it. Gypsy Eyes, who is all over the place this week, hosts Last Call Poets at the Cadillac Lounge – 1296 Queen W. – tonight at 8pm. Admission is $7.