WORDS: Chris Carlsson, one of the founders of Critical Mass and the author of 2008's Nowtopia, is speaking this evening at CineCycle as part of Pages' This Is Not A Reading Series. He'll be discussing Nowtopia, which researches social challenges faced by outlaw bicyclists and others looking to get away from urban consumer lifestyles. Spacing's publisher and creative director Matthew Blackett will be interviewing Carlsson, and there will be an audience Q&A following the......

DANCE: German electrohouse duo Booka Shade returns to Toronto for what will undoubtedly be a sweaty, sweaty dance party at CiRCA tonight. Hey, remember when CiRCA first opened and everyone was being all “Yeah right, I'm never going to CiRCA!"? Looks like the joke is on you, if you're a Booka Shade fan. CiRCA (126 John Street), 10 p.m., $18.50. SHOPPING: Although it's not technically a real IKEA, products from the 2009 IKEA catalogue are......

The organizers of Nuit Blanche held a launch event at OCAD this morning to announce this year’s curators—Wayne Baerwaldt, Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta College of Art and Design; Dave Dyment, Director of Programming at Mercer Union, Toronto; Gordon Hatt, a writer and curator who lives in Kitchener; and Haema Sivanesan, Executive Director of Toronto’s South Asian Visual Arts Centre—and allow them to outline their individual......

Have you ever wondered what you could learn from a computer pioneer? You'll have your chance to find out when Michael Dell rolls into town for a free speaking engagement at Convocation Hall later this month. Okay, so Dell isn't exactly a pioneer: he's famous not for inventing anything, but merely for improving the process of assembling a bunch of parts into a serviceable computer, shipping it somewhere, and making a boatload of money while......

If you're up for a little subversion on Thursday night from 5–7 p.m., check out our old pal Fauxreel's talk, Resistance in the City, at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at U of T (7 Hart House Circle). Done in association with Signals in the Dark: Art in Shadow of War, an exhibition opening that evening, Fauxreel will "talk about his work as a street artist and give a mini-demo/workshop on techniques and tactics......

The Hidden Cameras are back home, and we are all better off for it. As we mentioned in this week's music listings, the Cameras––they of the Mississauga-bred now world-famous exuberant gay pop fame––are playing an AIDS benefit concert this Thursday night at the Great Hall in Hart House (7 Hart House Circle), with proceeds going to Toronto People With AIDS Foundation and AVERT International. The show, with Montreal's Sister Suvi and Toronto's Allie Hughes, will......

Photo by afiler. "What are you doing tonight?" asked a friend of ours Monday afternoon. "Well," we said, "we're going to an event called 'Caribou Country: Our Shield Against Global Warming.'" "You lost me at Caribou," our friend replied. We're told that environmental issues are at the top of everyone's mind, but anecdotal evidence suggests that that attention may be narrowly focused. This new environmentalism, it seems, is all about carbon: emissions, taxes, and......

Photo of Ani DiFranco by Maria Bree. This week, our must-see show is Ani DiFranco at Music Hall Theatre. Having seen her in concert multiple times, Musicologist can vouch for the fact that the Righteous Babe is an amazing live musician. There seems to be some stigma about liking Ani, but don't fall victim to that or you'll be missing out. If you're looking for something free, Ottawa's Melissa Laveaux plays Hart House's Arbor......

Photo of Architecture in Helsinki by Zach Klein. There are lots of great shows in Toronto this week—including a bunch of free ones. On Tuesday, Musicologist recommends checking out Sarah Melody at the Mod Club (where Snow of "Informer" fame will be making an on-stage appearance—YES!) and then running to the Horseshoe to see Wintersleep and A Northern Chorus. Spiral Beach, who also put on a great live show, have a free concert on......

The bands for both the University of Toronto and Ryerson's frosh week concerts are all confirmed and good to go, and they're all extraordinarily excellent. At about 4:30 p.m. next Friday, September 7, the Hidden Cameras and Stars will play a free concert on U of T's Back Campus (north of University College, at Devonshire Place and Hoskin Avenue) which is restricted to current students. While last year's U of T frosh week saw......

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! What can change a photo from moderately interesting to entirely striking is how a photographer creatively interprets and frames the subject. This is the case in this shot of Hart House by Flickr pool contributor tom_frog, which has been flipped upside......

A survey by British research firm Skytrax has named Air Canada the best airline in North America. Travelers who have endured experienced the Air Canada business model of surly staff, vanishing meals, and rising fares will marvel at how low the bar for airline excellence on this continent has now been set. BabyFirst TV is coming to Canada. The first television channel aimed at babies will soon be offered on cable and satellite systems......

Much like the budding romance between Hero and Claudio in the play itself, Wednesday night's open-air premiere of William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing was threatened by the malevolent influence of outside elements, in this case a light drizzle that foreshadowed an impending downpour. As the skies darkened, it seemed likely that this year's Canopy Theatre premiere in Philosopher's Walk would be postponed for a day. But the actors seemed impervious to the rain......

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! For some students, attending a University can feel like living in a bubble and Toronto can be no exception. This fantastic panorama of King's College Circle at the University of Toronto by wvs (otherwise known as Sam of Daily Dose of......

It's likely that Google knows a fair bit about you. After all, they know where you live and where you want to go, help you find what you're searching for, read your email and your IMs, know what's on your calendar, moderate your discussion groups, and even scan your essays and spreadsheets. Most of the time, this seems totally normal, but once in a while we ought to ask questions about what this all......

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......

It’s fitting that Maggie MacDonald is one of four self-appointed prime ministers of the Republic of Safety. She’s a political and creative force, using art as her weapon of choice. Her current bands, The Hidden Cameras and the aforementioned Republic of Safety, are musical meeting points for sex and politics. She’s exhibited her visual art and had her comics published in The Globe and Mail and Lola magazine. When she was just 20, MacDonald ran......

Fourteen women engineering students were killed because they were just that - women studying engineering. On December 6, 1989, an anti-feminist gunman entered l'École Polytechnique de Montréal and murdered them. Tomorrow Toronto will remember the Montreal Massacre as part of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, otherwise known as "December 6th." You can attend the YWCA Toronto daytime candlelight vigil at 1 p.m. at the organization's headquarters, or visit the......

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......

Another day, another mayoral debate, and Torontoist was liveblogging it from University of Toronto's Hart House (See the Star's non-liveblogging take, as well). Kevin Clark crashed the debate, Pitfield wants to drop the voting age to 16, and all of the candidates debating agreed that landed immigrants should be allowed to vote in municipal elections. Porter Airlines had an uneventful first day of business. According to various reports, the flights had lots of room available,......

Update 1: This evening's mayoral debates at Hart House began with a loud tirade by Parkdale's perpetually-running mayoral candidate, Kevin Clarke (above), which resulted in two 15-minute recesses. University of Toronto policy mandates that an event be cancelled before an attendee be forcibly removed, a rule put in place by SAC, the student government [thanks Jen!]. As of 7:27PM, the lights have just been turned on again in the Great Hall as we wait......

In case you missed last night's candidates debate, then come to tonight's debate at Hart House on U of T campus at 6:30 pm. The listing on the Hart House website calls it a "Mayoral Debate with David Miller" but we're sure that Pitfield and LeDrew will be there, too. The debate will focus on youth issues. We're sure that LeDrew will be wearing a bowtie, Pitfield will be reminded that it's a monday and......

No time…Must get back down to Harbourfront…IFOA in full swing…Here are some other literary events taking place this week…. Monday The Test Reading Series returns on Monday night, 7:30pm, with readings from Rob Read (that could be the best name for a writer I’ve ever heard) and Souvankham Thammavongsa. This night is also doubling for the launch of the new issue of Carousel, one of the best lit mags in the country – Mark Laliberte......

Here we go. The biggest week of the year for book lovers, the International Festival of Authors, is upon us. Torontoist will have extensive coverage of this year’s IFOA. For now, here are a few non-IFOA events taking place this week. Monday Tonight, you have the choice of heading over to the Smiling Buddha Bar – 961 College – for this week’s Freedom Readings, starting at 6pm (and free) or checking out Margaret MacMillan......

Before embarking on your Nuit Blanche evening, take a few minutes to load up your iPod. Artist Lewis Kaye has put together a series of MP3s intended to act as your audio companion for the night. Each track is tailored to a specific Nuit Blanche event. Download the audio files here. Below, we've picked five "must see" events from Nuit Blanche's Zone A -- art events happening in and around Yorkville. All of the events......

Copyright isn't exactly a sexy topic, there's no blood, no one dies, there are no burnt out houses or flooded streets to get people riled up. Or is it? Bloggers were able to get a lot of people angry over Sam Bulte when she apparently cozied up to record industry bigwigs at a Drake Hotel fundraiser. And with the Junos (or the Canadian Idol reunion) coming up and the RIAA going crazy down south there's......

Wednesday, March 15th brings the launch of [murmur] at Hart House. [murmur] currently exists in several places, including Toronto's Kensington Market and along Spadina Avenue. It is an audio archival project made up of signs of big green ears. You call the number on the ear with your cell phone to hear a story that took place in the exact spot you're standing. Details: [murmur] at Hart House Launch March 15, 2006 at 6pm Debates......

Photoblogging lectures are a strange fruit. A photoblogger lecture is not as organic as an art show, nor as experiential as going to a movie theatre, but it has elements of both. In some ways, it's like a competition between the anti-society behaviour that is blogging and the open-forum idea exchange that are lectures; we can sit around looking and discussing pictures from our computers, but we choose to go to a common room to......

At left: We know we just used this image last week, but Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots are definitely awesome enough to stand up to repeat postings. Are we remiss in thinking that none of the local candidates debates have been well enough publicized during this campaign? We didn't find out about either of the debates between our riding (Trinity-Spadina)'s candidates until after they had occured. Have we just not been paying close enough attention?......

Look a panel/debate that's not about the election. With all the talk about 2005-06 being Toronto's year of culture Hart House's Creative City panel discussion is still very timely. The Hart House Art Committee has got two Toronto visual arts heavyweights with art empress of Queen West Katherine Mulherin and AGO director Matthew Teitebaum on the panel and maintains street cred by asking Murmur's man about town Shawn Micallef to also throw his two cents......