After reading today's ad, Torontoist is certain of one thing—modesty was not a key element of the "Yorkville style," especially when it came to attracting dancing queens and boogie kings looking for a place to strut their stuff. The neighbourhood had a cluster of disco floors waiting for John Travolta wannabes to demonstrate their dance skills and soak in the attitude. One might have been lucky enough to see celebrities like Sonny Bono indulge......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. From price hikes to bomb hoaxes, the ROM has been a constant news item this year. But while Thorarinn......

While the word "nutcracker" might evoke some painful mental images in some, for many it's a familiar part of the holiday season. The original ballet was composed in Russia by one Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1892, and The National Ballet of Canada has been performing The Nutcracker since 1964. James Kudelka did a revamp of the choreography in 1995, and since then The National Ballet's Nutcracker has become what The Globe and Mail has......

Urbanist is a photo series that will look at developments, architecture, trends and activities happening in various cities––including our own––to inspire the urbane urbanist at home to make Toronto a better place. While Toronto has been making headlines in recent years for its investment in artistic institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Ottawa has been in the spotlight of late because......

Martin Knelman, writing in the Star, once apologized for the lacklustre exterior of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts by describing it as a building that "has to be experienced from the inside out rather than the other way around." What better way to reinforce the impression that the performances showcased inside are principally targeted at an elite class than by plopping down a building that offers little to those standing on......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of......

Monday morning, amidst a first-rate buffet of coffee, chocolate chip cookies, and fresh orange juice at the Four Seasons Hotel, a disheveled group of journalists and bankers gathered to hear the shortlist announced for the 14th annual Scotiabank Giller Prize. Only the second year that the final contenders were culled from an initial longlist of 15 books, this annum the task fell to the jury of staunch decipherers David Bergen, Camilla Gibb and Lorna......

With this year's Toronto International Film Festival kicking into high gear, it seems appropriate to look back to the advertising for its tenth edition, back in the days when it was known as the Festival of Festivals. Besides today's ad, Toronto Life also featured an article on the festival, highlighting its first decade and offering a preview of that year's fare. The "Tribute to" event was scratched for 1985, after the debacle surrounding the......

All the city deserves is another high-end hotel? Continuing Torontoist's periodic look at downtown's early 1970s hotel boom, it's time to turn north to Yorkville. During the latter half of the previous decade, developments such as the Hyatt Regency and Hazelton Lanes, along with a growing number of high-end boutiques, began to erase the neighbourhood's image as the home of coffeehouses and bohemians. One might not have been able to catch as many musical......

Vancouver Central Public Library photo by lindn. Bad Buildings has always looked around this town of ours and bemoaned its lack of architectural cojones. For the most part, our buildings are safe, functional and dull (Four Seasons Centre, we're looking at you). Now and again, though, we've been graced (or cursed) with real bursts of boldness—risky designs that challenge the monotone drabness that pervades our built environment. The question is, though, is it enough......

Every weekday, we pick an 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! The miniaturized effect created with a tilt-shift technique can pull a photo out of the ordinary by adding a touch of whimsy. As demonstrated before, the results it has on glass is very convincing as the sharp sheen is dulled and......

Beginning Friday and running until July 1st, the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival is smoothly bringing over 60 swingin' musicians to play in venues all across town in what apparently is Canada's best jazz festival. Take that, Montreal! So, catch up on some free music downtown at Nathan Phillips Square, or go chill at joints like The Rex and Lolita's Lust, open with an extended liquor license until 4 a.m. (which Torontoist thinks......

The National Ballet of Canada kicked off its summer season last week with an impressive triple-bill performance at the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. First came James Kudelka's acclaimed The Four Seasons, set to Antonio Vivaldi's set of four violin concertos. Kudelka is notorious for his very animated choreography, and he certainly did not disappoint. The Four Seasons follows the character known only as "everyman" through the cycles of life, as represented......

A museum of ceramics may not be everyone's cup of tea [rimshot], but the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art is one of Toronto's favourite buildings. Garnering an unprecedented positive rating of 81.5%, the structure took top honours in the third annual Pug Awards, which were announced today. The Pug Awards, despite their frustrating website, had Torontonians vote on 22 new buildings with a simple thumbs-up, thumbs-down rating. 40,000 votes later, the brilliant Gardiner came......

Ever wanted to know what goes on in the kitchens at the Royal York Hotel? Or see if the interior of the Gooderham Flatiron Building is as cool as its exterior? Or finally know what’s in that loft above the Pure Spirits building at the Distillery District? Doors Open Toronto 2007 will allow you to do all that—for free! 150 buildings across the city will allow you free access on May 26 and 27 in......

FYI: the cherry blossoms in High Park are finally bloomin'. Toronto-resident Matthew Vienneau is using the powers of the internet to help find his sister Nicole, who has been missing in Syria for the last 37 days. Matthew is calling upon anyone with friends or family in Syria to help him find her whereabouts, and has a blog dedicated to the mission. Talk about paranoid: army contractors from the U.S. Department of Defense filed......

If you’d like weekly emails full of Toronto literary listings, sign up at Patchy Squirrel, a new offering from Stuart Ross and Dani Couture. Stuart launches a new collection of poetry, I Cut My Finger (Anvil Press) with Kate Sutherland's All In Together Girls (fiction from Thistledown Press) Sunday, April 22, 8 p.m. at Clintons Tavern (back room), 693 Bloor West. For a monthly overview of the Toronto scene and beyond, Word: Canada’s Magazine for......

Almost 200 men auditioned to be the new faces of Harlequin romance novels at a Toronto casting house on Saturday. Studies showed that Harlequin's main readership (female in their mid-40's) were "upset when slight, young cover models clashed with the brawny, mature heroes described within [the books themselves]." Canada's Next Top Harlequin Cover Model, anyone? Hosted by Fabio? Quebec began its provincial elections this morning. Who's gonna win? Nobody knows! CSIS has decreed that "Islamic"......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

The tiny island nation of Grenada, one more piece of paradise in the Caribbean, is probably best known as the site of one of the more absurd military interventions in U.S. history (itself subsequently dramatized in an equally ludicrous film starring Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge). Grenada’s new claim to fame might be equally ignoble. A number of interested parties including the Grenadian government, a Barbados-based developer, and the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts Limited,......

You'd never notice from its squat, generic appearance, but just north of Eglinton on Leslie Street sits the headquarters of one of the world's most luxurious hotel chains. Started in 1960 by Ryerson architecture grad Isadore "Issy" Sharp, Four Seasons Hotels now operates 73 hotels in 31 countries. With more than 25 other properties currently being developed, the Toronto-based chain has attracted the eye of two of the world's richest men. This week, the......

Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann courtesy of the TSO. If you’re turned off at the idea of classical music concerts because they seem like an activity for the high society rich, think again. There are plenty of ways to enjoy Toronto’s healthy classical music scene on the cheap or for free. Toronto Symphony Orchestra In an effort to infuse some young blood into its increasingly grey-haired audience demographic, the TSO offers $12 concert tickets to......

You can play for Toronto FC next year. They are holding open tryouts at the end of December as long as you're willing to pony up $115. And if you don't make it, you also get a T-shirt and two free tickets to a game in their first season. "I'm sorry," apologized Jim Flaherty with nice, cheap words yesterday. He was apologizing to the Canadians who collectively lost $25 billion when he announced the surprise......

While braving the rain at Queen and University this afternoon, a rainbow appeared. No, it wasn’t one of those magic water-and-light rainbows, but a gigantic sign proclaiming free concerts at the Four Seasons Centre. If you work or live in the area, bring some lunch and catch a noon-hour concert (but don’t spill crumbs on the new carpet!). Otherwise, pack a bag of snacks and travel on down to see one of the early......

There's a lot of Henry Moore in the city of Toronto. After so many years of public school trips to the AGO, it took a fine art education to convince this writer that Moore wasn't a Canadian sculptor. In the late 1950's, British sculptor Henry Moore was at the height of his artistic powers and world-class cities were being defined by their Henry Moore sculptures. New York got a Moore. So did London. And......

Yesterday, the wrecking ball had its way with the last vestiges of the landmark Inn On The Park. Once run as an upscale Four Seasons hotel, then as a Holiday Inn, and finally as the bland Don Mills Hotel, the demolition was viewed by many as another of Toronto's development tragedies despite having fallen into disrepair. The renowned modernist architect behind the Inn On The Park is familiar for his buildings but less so......

This is the inside of the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, well you won't be seeing it tonight. Not unless you have a ticket to the fancy-pants opening night gala ,which apparently is sold out. Don't fret opera lover. You can join the rest of us plebs outside at Nathan Phillips Square where they'll be simulcasting the concert which will feature Canada's greatest living working tenor Ben Heppner. Just before the......

Last week, we had a sneak preview of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. It's the new home for the Canadian Opera Company and The National Ballet. Yesterday marked the official ribbon cutting ceremonies.......

Torontoist was recently invited to take a peek inside at the soon-to-be-opened Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, better known as Toronto's opera house. Being one of the most highly anticipated buildings in Toronto history, we have to say we were more than a little curious to a look inside. The "city room space", or lobby, is well named. The open concept interior has the feeling of transparency, made mostly of steel, wood......

If you haven't seen the commercial where Paris promises it's gonna be HOTT in Toronto tonight....heads up on Queen Street tonight boys, cause Paris Hilton and Elisha Cuthbert are in town to promote their highly anticipated screaming-chick-horror-flick House of Wax. John Street's already blocked off, apparently they're expeciting a bit of a crowd? Yep, that's two "it" girls on one crowded little red carpet, for a "special" live event at 7pm on Much Music. Torontoist......