Results tagged “dvds”

Attention residents of the tri-city area: much of the cast of SCTV is reuniting for a single live performance in Toronto on Monday, May 5 at 8 p.m. The occasion is a benefit for the Alumni Fund for Second City cast and crew facing financial or health difficulties.

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, to conclude our series, we look at the next immediate steps for rep cinema.

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, we look at the fall of Festival Cinemas, which sparked fears that rep cinema would disappear from the city.

Hello, and welcome to another installment of everyone’s favourite film column in which the writer makes up their opinions on the weeks films largely based on what trailers they’ve seen on TV.

Torontoist is sad to report that the Annex's doc-driven underdog moviehouse, the Brunswick Theatre, is closing up shop (tonight!) before even being able to celebrate its first birthday.

The arrival of Toronto Life in the mailbox each month is something to look forward to, except for one thing: the ridiculous payload of advertising that comes with it. Now, we understand that magazines generally lose money on subscriptions, and Toronto Life's $24 annual fee is worth every penny, but we think that Toronto Life is starting to look more like Toronto Life Square. Subscription card "blow-ins" and heavy-stock ad inserts are extremely unpopular...

Last Wednesday, legendary Canadian music retailer Pindoff Record Sales sold off their 72-store Music World chain. Two days later, the new owners filed for bankruptcy protection and and will likely lay off 648 employees by the end of January. And so it goes. According to court documents, Music World plans an "orderly wind down," including closing stores and liquidating inventory. The retailer has been in dire straits for years, propped up by the Toronto-based...

Scandinavian Airlines says that they will permanently ground their fleet of Canadian-made Bombardier Q400 turboprops following three accidents involving problems with landing gear. In response, Bombardier will no longer market the plane as the Q400 Skid.

Canadians can no longer access Demonoid.com, the world's second-most popular BitTorrent tracker. According to a statement on Demonoid's website, legal action treatened by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) has forced them to block connections from Canada. This can only be seen as a major victory for the CRIA. Thanks to them, it is no longer possible to download pirated music off the internet...unless, of course, you happen to live outside of Canada, or you can figure out how to type "thepiratebay.org" or "torrentbox.com" into your web browser. Congratulations, CRIA, that's some lawyering money well-spent. Good on ya.

The Toronto Star recently started wrapping its front section in ads, à la Metro (except the fold only extends halfway across the front page). Today's was a stark entreaty: "Don't buy an SUV." Okay, an environmental message, huh? We can live with our paper being wrapped in dispatches from the Suzuki Foundation. Then we unfolded it: "(Until you've seen the [brand and model].)" Beyond that, it's a pretty standard SUV ad, except one and a half times as wide as the paper itself.

Unfortunately, Brunswick Theatre cancelled its weeklong screening of Barbara Hammer films and accompanying art exhibit due to lack of attendance. (Only one person attended last Saturday evening. How disappointing.) So in its place, the cinema will show free films for the rest of the week!

“Use more…waste less!” That’s the motto of the new barter-community web site known as SwitchPlanet.

Hey fan boys and girls! Are you still gushing over comic book legend Stan Lee’s cameo on last Monday's episode of Heroes (pictured left)? Well get ready to get giddy again. Lee will be appearing at an autograph session this afternoon at HMV (5:30 – 6:30 at 272 Queen St. W.).

Call it cultural tourism, voyeurism, a geek fest, call it what you will. But when we heard that I Maid Cafe—a Cosplay restaurant—had opened up in Scarborough last December, we knew we would be taking the trip to Kennedy and Finch very soon.

Microsoft put up an ice house in Dundas Square yesterday to promote the launch of Windows Vista. WARNING: Only click through to the article if you have never read a "tee hee I don't know shit about computers but I sure like to play Minesweeper, does Windows Vista have Minesweeper on it?" type of article and are interested in a fresh experience, complete with - yes - a reference to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Because when I think timely and topical allegories, I think of a movie from 1968. What, was referring to Deep Blue too edgy or something?

We're experimenting with a new daily photo posting. Each weekday morning, we'll pick a recent image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve!

Everyone's reporting on the explosion of a house in Mississauga. The owner of the house somehow escaped injury and the other person who was hurt was a neighbour out for a jog. The house was up for sale. Police and firefighters are investigating the explosion.

. That’s right: nothing at any Indigo, Chapters, Coles, or World’s Biggest Book Store. What’s odder than the fact that a book translated into 20 different languages isn’t readily available at any of the chain's stores within the GTA is that this exactly what happened roughly a year ago when I tried to buy another book that gives an insightful look at another not-discussed-important-issue: And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts. That book provided a thorough history of the AIDS crisis, tracing it as far back as what was believed to be "Patient Zero"; it sold and inspired a movie. But good luck finding a copy at Indigo. Or in Toronto for that matter. My search in 2005 took me as far as Yonge-Eglinton, where I eventually found a copy at the reliable BMV Books.

Now that we're in the final days of the Festival Cinemas remaining open, the Bloor Cinema took the opportunity to offer some interesting programming: the 1965 cult-classic "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" and Michael Winterbottom’s “9 Songs”. Their scheduling was a welcome change from the second-run films that have characterized the Festival chain for some time.

Torontoist heard through the grapevine that three Festival Cinemas were going to be closing down. The rumour was confirmed by the Star this morning. The Fox, the Royal and the Revue will be closed by June according to their story. With the Uptown being torn down and the fate of the Metro up in the air Toronto's old-time movie houses are more threatened than a baby seal in Newfoundland. (too soon?)

Torontoist thinks love letters are a little too schmaltzy and saccharine for our taste, give us a good breakup letter any day of the week. So we were thrilled when someone tipped us off to e-closure. These local boys solicited a bunch of breakup letters last summer and have added 48 different breakups on their site. They're always looking for more and will keep things anonymous if you're worried about any future partners finding out just how big of a jerk you were the last time you dumped someone. Torontoist had an entertaining e-mail interview with Dwayne and Charles about their site, relationships and world domination.

It's been nearly a week since the Oscars, so the question is, have ? Yes, you'd be a right idiot to watch films on anything but the big screen. Which might beg the question why they now rush DVDs out about two weeks after a film's release with a whole bunch of extras, eh?

Saturday gave us two questions. What is bylaw enforcement? And why does it wear jeans and drive a pick-up? While other cops get fancy uniforms, bylaw officers dress in a style that can at best be deemed rent-a-cop chic. Certain numbers of them began Saturday in a pick-up truck at the top of Spadina, and spent the afternoon proceeding in a southerly fashion, upturning tables of bootlegged DVDs and tossing the pirated wares into their truck at regular interval. Each confiscation drew a little crowd of perplexed onlookers, and much argument, as many of the card table proprietors didn’t seem to know that selling Hitch on the street is illegal. The no frills bylaw enforcement team didn't seem to be arresting, just confiscating. And Toist enjoyed keeping pace with the raids. We walked leisurely, only to see the men jump out in front of a bootlegger as soon as we got to each table. It all seemed a bit silly, but we'll thank them for one thing - a few less copies of Hitch on the streets.

Forget no-assembly-required toy whistles and Dinky cars: classic cereals don’t want to have fun anymore. Currently enjoying prime placement in the local Canadian grocery aisle, boxes of Special K include not only cereal from the eccentric Dr. Kellogg (whose sanitarium in Michigan made for a tepid film), but also one of three 30-minute instructional Stott Pilates DVDs by Toronto’s own stretch and tone guru Moira Merrithew (née Stott). The promotional blitz is an endless loop of TV commercials starring cerealspokesmodel Cindy Crawford, buying groceries (just like regular mortals!) and officially anointing Canada as the new Japan of foreign celebrity commercials. Can Adam Brody expounding the glories of the Royal Canadian Mint be far off?

We can’t all be humanitarian celebs, donating US$1M to the Red Cross’s good work (Sandra Bullock) or warbling on a fundraising single (Boy George, Cliff Richard et al.). Enter Nathalie-Roze Fischer, go-getting local columnist (and chief glamazon of her accessories fempire).