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 perspective, explaining in her victory speech on Saturday (yes, the Junos, like all Canadian awards shows, stretch things out......

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 of her ashes will be held in the Spring. Please watch for further notice. A utility pole seems like......

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 Obama is black just like Jesse Jackson? (Also black: Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and that R&B star that had......

According to their online mission statement, the Fuck Death Foundation is "an organization dedicated to the elimination of death through the generation and distribution of funds to strategically selected causes and initiatives worldwide." Co-founders and directors Dugald Stewart and Simon Murphy also plan to target "the most ruthlessly indiscriminate killer of all—oldness." Yes, they're serious...we think. Watch their interview on The Hour, or call the toll-free infoline at 1-877-DIE-DON'T, and decide for yourself. Unfortunately, Fuck......

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 news, everybody! Dalton McGuinty has announced that there will be no recession, in spite of deepening pessimism on the......

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 the Russians, and for being quite possibly fairly insane, which inspired the nifty little film Searching For Bobby Fischer.......

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 Reel Asian Festival will be worth cracking open that golden piggy bank for. Showcasing work from 13 different countries,......

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 Film Festival (it’s a busy week for festivals!), and the ImagiNATIVE Film Festival, which continues to win us over......

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......

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 the way back to 1851. The rest of the internet has already been having some fun uncovering the gems......

Today Apple offered us a refresh of their entire iPod line, making us want to blindly toss our money at the company once again. One Torontonian, however, is getting some coin thrown her way—big time. Indie darling Leslie Feist has found her track "1234" at the core of the new worldwide iPod nano television spot. Even better, Apple is touting the device's new ability to play video, and prominently features the "1234" clip, directed......

It’s always strange to write a Film Friday column in the week before the Toronto International Film Festival, since by this point it’s hard to think about anything else. We’ll be previewing the festival on Monday, so be sure to check back if you can’t think of anything else, either. In the meantime, have you had a chance to enter our Canadian Retrospective contest? You could win one Canadian Retrospective ticket package containing tickets......

With the Rebel Alliance continually blowing up all the swanky Death Stars, what's an Imperial warrior to do when in the mood for a little R&R? If you're married stormtroopers Red and Jonny, you end up far, far away in the little town of Caledonia, Ontario, Earth. Normally, servants of the Galactic Empire might stand out like a bantha at the Mos Eisley spaceport, but distracted with an ongoing First Nations protest, the sleepy......

This Saturday, July 28, the Toronto Roller Derby League, the largest flat-track derby league in North America, presents "Derby: Dead or Alive" at the George Bell Arena. For a measly $10 bucks advance ($15 at the door) you can bring the whole damn family to watch Smoke City Betties versus Death Track Dolls. See short skirted chickas smash the hell out of each other while shredding the arena on their quad wheeled roller skates.......

Who's up for a trip through time? While an H.G. Wells-style contraption or fourth dimension-smashing telephone box are not available in the consumer market, there are simpler methods of going back through time. All that's required are a date and the arcane knowledge of knowing how to load a microfilm reader. Toronto has a rich newspaper history, with no fewer than three dailies at a time battling for the city's readers. This series of......

Michael Moore’s much anticipated Sicko hits, and having seen it, we can say it’s not particularly essential for Canadian viewers to watch, unless you want to feel smug about our lovely health care system, or slightly surprised that it only takes an hour or so in London (Ontario) to be seen in an emergency room. Yes, the film is chock-a-block with anecdotal evidence, and it’s probably to the film’s fault that, as usual, Moore......

Photo by Sylvain Dumais from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Old people, prepare to get pissed off. SoundProof Magazine asked a whole bunch of Toronto bloggers—Torontoist's staff included—and asked them to make a list of their favourite Toronto albums ever. The results are in, and though 158 albums got votes (!!), the list is very recent-album heavy: Broken Social Scene's You Forgot it in People shoves some old dude named Neil Young out of the......

Photo of Post Porn Modernists Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens by Julian Cash. It must be nice to write a column for The Globe: you can pass judgment on artists’ work without attending to pesky trivialities like seeing their shows, and project your own insecurities and feelings of lack onto people who are actually changing the world. Herein is a review of a recent show by Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens at Buddies in......

Sex-positive feminists are all atwitter! Annie Sprinkle Ph.D., prostitute/porn star turned sexologist/performance artist, is coming to our great city for a run of her her newest show, Exposed: Experiments in Love, Sex, Death and Art at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. While in town, Dr. Sprinkle will also be hosting two workshops at Come As You Are on ecstasy breathing and energy orgasms. Each workshop will also feature a screening of her upcoming documentary, Annie......

They're beautiful women, no arguments there, but when push comes to shove, Toronto's Roller Derby girls get ugly. And we love every minute of it. If you've never been to a Roller Derby match, then you are missing out. Think of the game Red Rover, and put it on wheels. Bouts, as they are called, are made up of three 20-minute periods. Essentially, teams are made up of five members: a jammer, three blockers, and......

"Do you trust your friends? Would you let them redecorate your apartment, or do your homework for you? Would you let them buy your groceries? Would you leave them in charge of your kids? And if you did, what would they change?" So reads the beginning of the liner notes from Do You Trust Your Friends?, the album of remixes and reimaginings of songs from Stars' Set Yourself On Fire, now out on Arts &......

Remember Makeout!? You can see what happened with the roomful of 200 people smooching at the Ryerson University Film Festival. This weekend RUFF will showcase films by about 40 graduating Image Arts students from May 10-12 at Royal Cinema. Eat popcorn to Billy Bites People, in which, well, Billy bites people, claymation in Happy Endings Sanatorium, and Jesus’ second coming in Zombie Jesus!. A man steals sounds from existence and catalogues them in Even With......

Going to see all three films in Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher Trilogy, one after another in one night, is one of this Torontoist’s most treasured cinema memories, and although we did it at 2005’s Toronto International Film Festival, anyone who missed that chance can now do it at the Brunswick Theatre (296 Brunswick Avenue) tonight and tomorrow night starting 7 p.m. It’s $10 for one film or $15 for the lot, so obviously you......

Jim Jones was not your typical self-proclaimed messiah. The man preached love for all races and classes, freedom of speech and socialism through Christianity. In 1978, Jones and more than 900 followers, known as Peoples Temple, moved from California to Guyana. They were going to build the ideal society. Dubbed Jonestown, after Jones himself, it was to be a utopia for the disenfranchised; a place where believers of all races and classes could lead self-sufficient......

This week our attention is almost completely owned by Cinematheque Ontario’s offerings, even with the thought of Christina Ricci chained to a radiator in Black Snake Moan grasping at us. Not only are Cinematheque Ontario hosting the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, they’re also showing From the Tsars to the Stars, a series of Russian sci-fi. How awesome is that? (There’s more to Russian sci-fi than just Solaris, doubters.) Maybe they’ll do a season......

Earlier this week, we told you how you can be a part of a Ryerson student's short film of a hundred couples making out. Today we bring you news of how you can contribute to another Ryerson student's short film, also concerning making out—as well as singing and dancing and going on a killing spree. Tonight at the El Mocambo, filmmaker Claire Callway is holding I Love You To Death!, a fundraiser for her......

It was curtains in Orange County last night as FOX’s golden child threw its final punch. After four years in The O.C., creator Josh Schwartz has taught us that money can’t buy happiness, but it sure does buy a Range Rover full of jaw-dropping plot twists. At a time when television was dominated by Who Wants to Survive My Geek Super Nanny and other such reality gems, those lovable but not infallible kids from Newport......

Development of Maple Leaf Gardens has been in limbo for several years, but it finally looks like things are about to get moving. The 75-year old building, having been vacated by the friendly neighbourhood hockey club in 1999, was purchased by Loblaws in 2004. According to a report in yesterday’s Star, the company is ready to begin a cleanup of the Gardens starting this summer, after which they will begin transforming the interior into......

It’s the International Year of Polytheism! At least it is according to the Austrian artists collective, monochrom. And to kick off the occasion, the self-proclaimed "art-philosophy-technology group" wants to bury you alive. On February 7 at the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga, participants will have the chance to be laid to rest – in a wooden coffin, dirt and all – for up to fifteen minutes. Titled Premature Burial as a Field Trial......

At approximately 8:38 am yesterday, Toronto-based director Deepa Mehta (above) and producer David Hamilton learned that they were Academy Award nominees for Best Foreign Language Film for their work on Water. They learned of their nomination like most of us did, watching Salma Hayek announcing a list of names live on CNN. “They announce the nominees in alphabetical order, and when they got to the fifth name without announcing Volver, we thought we were......