The post-holiday cleanup slowly continues across the city. Tree collection winds down this week, decorated lightposts grow patchier, and leftover sugar cookies are available for deep discounts alongside remaining Halloween candy. Religious displays are not immune from the slow pace of cleaning, though we suspect that this nativity scene at St. Francis of Assisi Church at Grace and Mansfield also depicts an event that the Bible overlooked. Religious scholars debate if burlap, hemp, or......

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. Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without......

It has been exactly one year since our last subway party, which means this one is long overdue! Dress in your spookiest, scariest, funniest, or furriest costume and meet us by the last car at Kipling station at 11:13 p.m. Don't worry, no commuters will be harmed in the production of this event! Please find a list of guidelines to help the ride go smoothly and to prevent any disruptions to TTC service on......

Rosie DiManno sucks. Every day, poor Toronto Star readers are subjected to another over-the-top, awkwardly-written, occasionally-insulting column about the day's top depressing story from the purple-streaked purveyor of pulp. Torontoist, for one, can't take it anymore. The Evidence From today's "'Not even close' to fair trial: Wills," another story where DiManno gets to stretch her oh-so-weak writing muscles about Richard Wills:One hundred and sixty-nine days, since jury selection began in the first-degree murder trial of......

Are you concerned that the magic's gone out of City Hall? If so, then this Saturday, November 3 might be your perfect opportunity to make a little magic happen over at Nathan Phillips Square, as a multidimensional mystery unfolds between the hours of 2:20 and 3:20 p.m. Intrigued? So is Torontoist. Here's what we know so far: a "giant jigsaw puzzle based on a leaked character from an unreleased book" will be taking place......

With Halloween almost upon us, the mind turns to the dark side. Though today's ad seems innocent enough on the surface, its evil intentions are evident from its most prominently displayed sale price. While humans usually sell their soul to demons for wealth, power or self-sacrifice, all your eternal fate will earn you at Towers is a pair of cheap polyester pants. Halloween items were likely among the products on sale when Towers opened......

'Tis the season for costumes, and this year, the boxy look is in. The inventive modus operandi of the recently arrested "Cardboard Box" Gang has given Torontoist this last-minute costume idea. Thief-In-The-Box is perfect for Halloween, or it will make a truly unique gift for the upcoming holiday season. Don’t hesitate, call and order your Thief-In-The-Box today! Operators are standing by to take your call. If cardboard isn't your style, try this vending machine......

There's an old cliché that says everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day. It follows, then, that everyone is goth on Halloween . If you’re going to be exploring your inner goth anyway, you may as well go hog wild and get your little black-clad tuchus down to the fourth edition of EBM Fest at The Reverb (651 Queen Street West) on October 28, where the folks who live Halloween every day will be......

On Sunday afternoon, over 150 independent publishers, writers, artists and bloggers from across the continent will pack Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel for Canzine, Canada’s largest celebration of small press publishing and alternative culture. The affair is organized by Broken Pencil, a quarterly magazine devoted to mobilizing the scattered community of small-circulation art. This year, to coincide with the release of its Horror Issue and, well, Halloween in general, the theme is Indie Horror. That means the......

Last year, 26-year-old Ines Markeljevic had an idea. Why not try and set a Guinness World Record for the most people doing the Thriller dance? "I'd been doing the Thriller dance for nine years. It was my own sort of Halloween tradition," she says. She had learned the dance as a teenager, and had performed it not only at Halloween, but also for charity events and dance competitions. "For my tenth year, I wanted......

New laws will officially criminalize identity theft by making it illegal to gather personal information which can be used for criminal purposes. Fun fact: if your identity is stolen online, the chances of the crime ever being investigated or prosecuted are practically zero. Surf safe, kids! Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton did a little preaching to the choir yesterday when he told a crowd of supporters that Canada's banks should "stop whining and start paying......

We’ve heard of skeletons in the closet before, but skeletons at Toronto’s Old Don Jail? Recent excavations uncovered three skeletons, likely former prisoners buried in the prison cemetery. Before the 1976 abolition of the death penalty in Canada, seventy executions by hanging took place at the jail. Please remind us not to go trick or treating at the Don Jail this Halloween, as we have an acute case of phasmophobia. Illustration by Kevin McBride.......

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......

It's almost time to say goodbye to North By Northeast for yet another year. Two longs nights have past, leaving tonight as the last chance to get out an enjoy some of the best new music from around the world. Seeing as it is Saturday, expect a lot of the shows to be really busy so going earlier is always better than later. All the cool kids are doing it! But before we get back......

"Hey kids, let's dig out that cowboy gear we bought for Halloween last year and hum the theme to Bonanza on the way to the Western Days hoe-down in Don Mills! Don't forget the toy gun, pardner!" Suburban shopping centres used plenty of gimmicks in the early days to get consumers to hop in the car and drive out to stores where they didn't have to worry about paying for parking or carrying their goods......

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. For those who don’t delight in Japanese pop culture, “cosplay” is short for costume play. It started with kids getting dressed up as their favourite anime characters, which, if you’ve ever been......

¡Prospero año! Perhaps the only party "weekend" that Torontonians take more seriously than Halloween weekend, New Year's starts days before the calendar ends and terminates in a hangover, often in strange settings. We have rounded up what this Torontoist considers the best parties at which to get your groove on and completely forget the year 2006. When the glitter settles, the real question will be, "Where's the afterparty?" Goodfellaz and Nocturnal Commissions present Kenya......

Torontoist has noticed an abundance of lost pet notices downtown this month, and what could be sadder, really? We don't know if it's a time of year when pets go missing more often, but we do know it's unlikely to be a result of a Halloween ritual blood sacrifice. Many shelters south of the border report that most of their missing animal calls come on the heels of July 4th fireworks, which often scare a......

Apologies for the lack of listings last week. The combination of the previous night’s Halloween party and an encroaching deadline on another project left little time for me to gather all the literary happenings in the city. Monday This Is Not A Reading Series presents Ben Schott (pictured), author of Schott’s Almanac. There will be a trivia pop quiz, surprise guests, and more – it’s a TINARS event, so you know it won’t be your......

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a double-ticket),......

As the pre-holiday hype begins to encroach our surroundings, we bid adieu to our dear friend, Halloween.......

Looking for a place to take the kids tonight after trick or treating? Well, if you agree with Torontoist that zombies, hideously disfigured freaks, and dismembered bodies are just the thing for young children, the Keewatin Horror is the place for you and your emotionally scarred offspring. Begun in 1997 as a one-time event for local kids in North Toronto, the Keewatin Horror has become an annual happening eagerly awaited by Halloween buffs from......

After being hotly anticipated for months- at least by stores- All Hallows' Eve is finally here. If you're at all concerned, the so-called North American Halloween Prevention Inc. has released a charity single, "Do They Know It's Halloween?" (It's really a spoof of the well-intended-but-slightly-patronizing "Do They Know It's Christmas?") It features a slew of Canadian musicians, including Arcade Fire, Buck 65, Sloan, Feist, and Wolf Parade; even better, all proceed go to UNICEF.......

Busy, busy week here in Toronto. There are so many good shows to go to, that it's quite possible to be out almost every night. For example, tonight is so chock full of great shows that it's a shame they weren't spread out better over the week...we'd love to see most of these acts! Death Cab For Cutie are in town tonight and tomorrow, and according to the Toronto Sun they will be doing......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

So, late tomorrow afternoon when you wake up all hungover from Halloween partying in the apartments directly above beside and across from Torontoist's (or perhaps as early as noon if you have small children or are that one guy who didn't see the flyers) please try to remember that the weekend is not over yet. Why? 'Cause after tomorrow, Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington will be. (Over, that is.) That's right. Not only are the clocks......

If you listen closely -- really listen -- you'll realize there's something you're not hearing: excited children, tired parents, the clink of cash registers, and the constant upbeat hum of Christmas muzak. That's right -- only a few days of reprieve remain before the orgy of Christmas capitalism descends on our city. The moment shopping centres close on Halloween night, tiny elves (called retail employees) are out hanging lights and cueing up copies of "O......

Nope, Torontoist isn't referring to the classic movie series. With Halloween just around the corner, it's a different goalie mask creating this sequence of horrors. Although it may be Friday the 27th, the number 13 represents the total amount of goals Toronto Maple Leaf netminders - mainly Andrew Raycroft - have allowed to Ottawa Senator shooters this week. Even by factoring in his day off in between, Raycroft's goals against average over those 3 days......

Halloween weekend in Toronto is always a long, long night. We mean it. With myriad options, many Torontonians choose several events, a bedtime sometime on Sunday or Monday, and make it to about 2/3 of what they intended. Not bad, Toronto! We don't know about you, readers, but we are heading to at least two quite wild, but quite different parties on Saturday. Knightflight's Halloween Party promises beats, beer, pole-dancing gymnasts and an unusually......

It looks like this Halloween is going to be very zombie-filled in Toronto. On Sunday, we had Toronto's Annual Zombie Walk. And this Sunday, October 29th, at the Harbourfront Community Centre, a group of some 200 Torontonians will be setting the Guiness World Record for the Largest Performance of "Thriller" - in full zombie ensemble. And they want you to participate. Here's the rundown: Everyone welcome! We'll teach you the dance! Sunday, October 29,......