Results tagged “hongkong”

The latest census stats show conclusively that the poor are either getting poorer, or that they're not. The Star toes the OCAP line, rambling about free trade and crappy jobs, while the Post weighs in for the plutocrats by observing that family incomes have actually grown across the board, and that the income stats are misleading anyway. As Torontoist likes to say, you load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

Torontonians aren’t that cold, even if we have to be given a reason before hugging a stranger. If you’re tired of handing over cash every time you simply want someone to gather you in a warm embrace, or you’ve collected so much money from selling hugs that you want to do some charity work, then luckily for you the Free Hugs Campaign has unofficially deemed September 10 International Free Hugs Day (one of many). It’s the one day across the world when hugging passersby without charging a fee will not be ridiculed. Paris. London. Seoul. Copenhagen. Hong Kong. Come on, Toronto, everybody’s doing it—join the global cuddle movement!

If today’s column title gets Rachel Sweet’s Hairspray stuck in your head for the rest of the day, good! Because then we’ll have made our point that the version of Hairspray hitting this weekend isn’t as good as the John Waters original. Though the music not being as good is only part of it. There’s also the inherent irony about making a musical in which one of the central themes is integration through a shared love of largely-African American music that features only music written by a couple of white dudes. Hell, the irony of just making a musical about that. Musicals are basically the whitest form of entertainment we can imagine.

Look out! Here comes David Lynch, man!

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.

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place.

When it comes down to it, we should all be glad Niagara Falls exists. Yes, it’s a gash in the landscape surrounded by tack, but on the other hand, it’s a guaranteed day you don’t have to look after your friends or relatives when they come to visit. Just put them on a bus and forget about them. The George F. Walker penned film, Niagara Motel could probably do some damage to this tourist trafficking, featuring Glaswegian (and Drew Carey renegade) Craig Ferguson as a drunken janitor, lamenting the death of his wife, who fell off the Maid in the Mist. Intriguingly, the film faces direct competition from Escape from Happiness, the George F. Walker penned play starting on Saturday at the Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst) that has far better reviews.

Kung Fu Fridays starts again tonight after a hiatus for the Toronto Film Festival, with a blistering October Schedule and a new location. Due to the (recently) traditional Royal Cinema being hired out regularly for festivals and so on this month, tonight the biweekly dose of Kung Fu action is being shown at the Revue Cinema at 400 Roncesvalles Ave (that’s 3 blocks south of Dundas West Station, for anyone unfamiliar with it). And tonight’s dose of Kung Fu action is a big draw for any of the crowd who caught the legendary Sammo Hung in SPL during the Toronto Film Festival – Kung Fu Master, directed by Wong Jing and with martial arts direction from Hung himself (also in a starring role, along with Jet freakin’ Li). The story is naturally going to be a pile of nonsense, but who cares when you can watch some of the legends of Hong Kong cinema kick seven bells out of each other with the raucous Kung Fu Friday audience? If you’ve never been to a show before tonight is the time to start.

The film will be a co-production between CTV and Slanted Wheel Entertainment. And air as part of CTV's Signature Series. We'll be washing our hair that night.

At left, and for your consideration, is the Octopus Card Torontoist uses during trips to visit mother in Hong Kong. It's a stored-value dealy, meaning that you stop by the train station or corner store on your way to wherever, put like $500 on the card, and whizz around on public transit all day without actually handling any change. And while it's increasingly easy to use Octopus at convenience stores and fast food outlets across the Special Administrative Region, it's not like one of those stupid Dexit things they're trying so desperately to flog in subway stations. First of all: it's free to use; no fees for filling the damned thing up. Secondly, and most importantly: its main use is for transit.

Much has been made of the fact that lazy Scorcese has already snapped up the rights for an anglo remake starring DiCaprio and Damon. Like Shall We Dance, which went from slight beauty of a film to Gere Grotesque, and Fever Pitch, which Travis1051am points out looks to be the most fatuous of all the remakes, Torontoist fears that DiCaprio and Damon won't quite be able to pull off the Lau and Leungish brooding. And if these Infernal Affairs prove fiery, the lag time means no waiting for a sequel. There are two of them already made.

Next week we'll return to your regularly scheduled programming - cookies, cakes and confections.