Photo of Owen Pallett by Heidi Slimane from his MySpace. News of Owen Pallett's OHIP being revoked has been quickly met with a reaction: an open letter sent today to George Smitherman, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, from France Gélinas and Rosario Marchese, NDP MPPs who insist that Pallett is "an award winning artist who deserves our support" but who has instead been "unfairly treated." The letter takes issue both with the......

Vintage postcard of the Toronto General Hospital (1913) from Mars Discovery District. Encounters with government bureaucracy can be stressful ordeals at the best of times; at the worst, when things don’t go your way, they can be incredibly frustrating. Apparently, this is true even if you’re a Polaris Music Prize–winning musician. Former Torontoist contributor Carly Beath pointed us toward Owen Pallett recounting his recent travails with the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care......

Rejoice! Final Fantasy finally has a new version of his website! The site now has a full list of accomplishments that you can memorize and quiz your friends on, including a list of upcoming projects: upcoming album Heartland, two E.P.'s (Spectrum and Plays To Please), and arrangements for Alex Turner (of the Arctic Monkeys) and plenty of others. Better, there are some videos that have been kicking around on YouTube, like a live action version......

Photo by Stig Nygaard. The Art Bar returns tonight with its annual Audience Appreciation Night with readings by the Art Bards, live music, and free poetry chapbooks for all audience members by the Art Bar Team. Also returning for the new year is This Is Not A Reading Series. For the first event of the year, join Carl Wilson and Mark Kingwell for an on-stage discussion where they will be talking about love and......

When local promoter Dan Burke so unabashedly declared “less drugs, more shows” as what he looks forward to for this calendar year, no one believed the drugs portion of that resolution—but Friday is reason to start believing the show portion. Friday night will gather many to the Silver Dollar to celebrate the CD release of local experimental composer Katie Stelmanis. Widely recognized for her contributions to all-female baroque rockers Galaxy (R.I.P.) and alt-gospel howlers Bruce......

As the subject for a serious music book, Céline Dion––amazing or not––seems like an odd choice. In the latest book in the 33⅓ series, however––a series which typically looks at albums like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds or Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures or the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St.––Carl Wilson, probably Toronto's pre-eminent music critic, takes it upon himself to "[strive] to understand Céline's global popularity," in the process "fac[ing] the question of what......

Kincardine-born, Mississauga-bred, Toronto-based, and Berlin-bound, Joel Gibb is the musical and managerial head of The Hidden Cameras, the fantastic and always well-populated music collective whose members have included Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), Reg Vermue (Gentlemen Reg), Laura Barrett, Maggie MacDonald (Republic of Safety), Dave Meslin (founder of the Toronto Public Space Committee), Bob Wiseman, Steve Kado (founder of Blocks Recording Club, member of Barcelona Pavilion and Ninja High School), Ohad Benchetrit (Do Make Say......

When Austrian company Wiener Stadtwerke approached Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy about using the song "This Is The Dream of Win & Regine" in a commercial, Pallett declined (probably nicely). So, naturally, Wiener Stadtwerke used the song in a commercial in June of this year anyway––or, at least, the most similar re-recorded version of Final Fantasy's song possible, changing a few notes in the violin part, adding some guy awkwardly singing "can you feel it?" and crediting......

An excuse to post Feist's "1234"? Yes, please. In October, i (heart) music asked 30 music bloggers across the country––Torontoist included––to rank the 10 hottest Canadian bands in 2007. What defined "hottest" was up to each panelist to decide; we figured it meant "rank good bands by their popularity," and voted accordingly. One month later, with 150 bands receiving nominations, i (heart) music announced the top 33, with Feist edging out the Arcade Fire......

Finally, another excuse to write about La Blogothèque's Take-Away Shows. The last time we covered the France-based music filmmakers, they were psyching us up for the Arcade Fire's May concert with the best concert footage we've ever seen of the band. Before that, they won us over with The Hidden Cameras parading along boardwalks. Now they've given us Owen Pallett plucking away at two songs––"Your Light Is Spent" (above) and "Horsetail Feathers"––in Paris. If......

While Hilary Clinton was content to let her supporters choose her theme song, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party has asked Dalton McGuinty's detractors to pick one for him. "What tune best represents Dalton McGuinty's campaign?" asks their website, accompanied by a Say Anything–inspired pic of the premier (pictured at right). "Which lyrics do you think of when you see Liberal red? Their election campaign needs a theme song and here's your chance to play political......

A lot happens in and around Toronto, but we can only write about so much in a week. Here's the best of the rest, in a new weekly feature we're calling Superfluist. Superfluist will appear every Friday night. First a monkey escaped. Then, elephants did. And now, a bear has! Animals are apparently not big fans of being captive. Weird, right?The semi-famous Enrique Inglesias was at MuchMusic.This weekend (starting tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.) is......

Photo of Cadence Weapon by David Topping. Earlier this afternoon in the Drake Sky Yard, the shortlist for this year's Polaris Prize was announced. Established by Steve Jordan last year, the $20,000 prize "annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics......

Weekly indie institution Wavelength started in 1999, setting up shop at Ted's Wrecking Yard, then bouncing between venues until landing at its current home, Sneaky Dee's, in 2002. Past performers read like a who's-who of home grown indie music: Great Lake Swimmers, The Bicycles, Cadence Weapon, Julie Doiron, Peaches, Final Fantasy, Feist—and the list goes on. After a Canada Day hiatus, the Sunday night series is back with a stellar July lineup for its live......

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 by Carrie Musgrave. After a brief hiatus due to NxNE and Bonnaroo, Live Baby Live is back! You're excited, aren't you? Don't deny it. As always, lots of recently announced shows. Interestingly, you'll notice that all of the horse bands will be through town over the next few months. We wonder what animal trend will be next? Not only that, but The Black Lips and Bloc Party must really love Toronto, since both......

"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 &......

Final Fantasy alert! Over the past week, the always-lovely Good Hodgkins has twice graced us with new Owen Pallett tracks. First came a grand total of six tracks from Owen Pallett and rapper Cadence Weapons's CBC Radio session in mid-April. Pallett is featured on three of Cadence's tracks (check out "Sharks," in which Pallett incorporates some sweet Andrew Bird into the mix) and then has three of his own songs: "What Do You Think......

Doctors urged to use tape measure to see if medical advice is necessary due to excess abdominal fat. I'm all for anti-obesity measures, but surely this is counterproductive? Did we really need another reason to dislike going to the doctor for a checkup? Toronto Star employee buys old laptop on eBay, gets relatively recent Canadian Alliance mailing information. Amusingly, they repeat the figure of $6.48 that Kevin Omura paid as many times as humanly possible.......

It just never ends. Never. Ends. The stream of tour announcements is still going strong, and we're now at the point where there are 3-4 shows to choose from on some dates -- our calendar is starting to look as busy as a CEO's! As suspected last week, The Police added a second Toronto date to their tour schedule, on July 23 (tickets on sale now)...good thing Sting practices tantric sex so he'll have......

Part Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys, part Animal Collective, part something else completely, Grizzly Bear have a unique sound that's tricky to categorize. This is not music you will necessarily dance to, but you will be moved. The Brooklyn-based band hits Toronto on Tuesday at Lee's Palace with Dirty Projectors to promote their newest (and critically acclaimed) record Yellow House. Despite ranking their last show in Toronto in support of TV on the Radio their......

Photo of Owen Pallett by chichibebelolo on Flickr. Photo of Steve Kado by Shakeer on Flickr. The Harbourfront Centre presented the first edition of “Inside the Musician’s Studio” as part of its View Points series on Thursday evening. Modeled after “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” the event was hosted by Carl Wilson (The Globe and Mail, Zoilus). Guests were Blocks Recording Club founder Steve Kado and Polaris Prize winner (and Blocks artist) Owen Pallett, aka......

Tonight is the debut of a new super-secret short film directed by Toronto indie-filmaker Sara St. Onge (who, by the way, has the absolute best URL -- "awesomology.com"). It's her first flick, and so secret that they're not even telling us the title -- but since she's been responsible for videos by Final Fantasy, The Diableros, and Gentleman Reg, we know it will be good. (BTW, you can see those videos on her web site.)......

The slow move from Torontoist to FinalFantasyist is nearly complete. Owen Pallett is pretty great and all, but to date we've talked about his song "This Lamb Sells Condos"; the video for that song; the inspiration for that song; the prize that Pallett won for the album that the song appears on; the love that Canadian bloggers have for him; the love that we, specifically, have for him; previewed and reviewed his library show......

Special guest Victoria Kent sent us this article, and, since it's about Final Fantasy and "This Lamb Sells Condos," we're pretty much obliged to post, especially now that we've interviewed Brad J. Lamb, whose advertising slogan inspired Owen Pallett to write the song. Thanks Victoria! Toronto-based artists Stephanie Comilang and Jamie Shannon have created an enchanting music video for the Final Fantasy song "This Lamb Sells Condos" -- that required no editing whatsoever. In the......

Once a month Torontoist would like to encourage you to drag yourself off the couch and across the room to that nice, comfy swivel chair in front of your computer, to experience something from the wonderful world of streaming. Anyone who's visited YouTube or eBaum's World knows how gratifying watching two Asian kids lipsynch to Jessica Simpson can be! So in the interest of expanding your horizons (or at least giving you some way to......

Brad J. Lamb is not, to put it gently, universally loved. As head of his eponymous Brad J. Lamb Realty, he is a titan of Toronto's condo industry, the closest thing we have to a Trump -- right down to his new TV show that airs in February, Big City Broker. And, as titans tend to be, Lamb is a polarizing character; indeed, it seems that the only thing Lamb has in common with......

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......

Toro Magazine, free to Globe and Mail subscribers, released its Men of the Year issue yesterday. Featured honourees include Steve Nash, Brian Mulroney, Paul Haggis, The Trailer Park Boys, Kiefer Sutherland, William Shatner and sweet, hot luscious Ryan Gosling. Torontoist favourites like Final Fantasy and Lukas Rossi were runners up in the music category, but how do you compete against Neil Young? Evangeline Lilly was named Woman of the Year, because she runs around the......

We realize that we probably talk about Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, way too much. So we're not going to talk about his free show on Saturday night at North York Central Library, also featuring The Creeping Nobodies, Hank, Ninja High School, and Bob Wiseman. Nope, not a word. Instead, what we do want to tell you about is the Toronto Public Library's stellar new local CD selection - the whole reason that the......