At first we assumed it was Scientology. After all, who else has the money to produce and purchase space for such glossy anti-pharmaceutical ads, which have been popping up all over transit shelters and buses in Ontario and Montreal? Google wasn't much help, and their Blog Search just pointed us to other people as perplexed as we were. And poor spellers with domination fantasies. Searches of domain registrations weren't particularly fruitful, especially after the......

According to Doug Flavelle, "there are a lot of women with guitars in their closets." His studio, Guitar Girl, aims to get them out. The studio, which opened its doors in a loft-like space at Queen and Greenwood in September 2006, offers guitar lessons solely for girls and women. The focus is on six-week group courses, though they do some private lessons and have held Rock 'n' Roll camps during March Break and summer......

Photo of Griffin Nominees by Poetography.ca. Please forgive! The listings are a day later than scheduled. Blame it on the rain or blame it on The Griffin Poetry Prize. Last night, six of seven poets nominated for The 2007 Griffins—and one actor—read to a sold-out house at the Macmillan Theatre. Imagine: 800+ people clapping ecstatically for poetry, and a standing ovation for lifetime achievement winner Tomas Tranströmer (people wept). Nominee Ken Babstock, who has......

Toronto’s Small Press Book Fair runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Trinity St. Paul Centre, 427 Bloor Street West (just west of Spadina on the south side). Now in its twentieth year, the fair presents about 70 micro to medium-sized publishers and magazines. An archive of some of the fair's past and present exhibitors links to many of Toronto's small presses. You'll find comics, fiction, zines, word sculptures, artist's books,......

Each weekday morning, we pick a recent 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! Signs like the one above, captured by Torontoist Flickr pool member bitefight, are disappearing all over the city, which is sad. Who doesn't love them? There's something about the proportional imperfections in the hand-painted letters that coverys far more......

A seven (!!) alarm fire destroyed a building at Queen and Sherbourne. The building was occupied by a paint store which had been there since 1913. Firefighters rushed to the scene to stop the fire from spreading. King Jong Il is "very sorry" about the nuclear test. Also, the leader of Korea expressed sentiments such as "it would totally be cool" if he could have "an awesome sleepover party" sometime in the near future......

As everyone’s favourite girl-about-town Tyler Clark Burke says, “This is really complicated.” Here goes. That sensation we all know and love as Santa Cruz returns this weekend, with not one, but two (count ‘em two) days of fun and adventure. This Saturday at 10pm at the Gladstone Hotel, TCB will host Eagle Eyes: The Party. There will be DJs, games, and “music to make you dance your head off.” Here’s where things get interesting. Those......

This year’s Short Cuts Canada selection was given a rather short shrift by Now magazine, but having seen a selection of the shorts, we consider their opinion rather short-sighted (“cut that short right now”– Ed.). A word to the wise: Much like the Wavelengths programme, we've seen several of the films but not all of them, so there may be many gems still hidden. After all, part of the fun of a programme like Short......

Fairly big news in the world of TIFF today with the announcement of a new programme, Vanguard. The first word of the press release is "edgy" which we kind of wish they’d spelt with a 3, considering the new programme is "fearless" and features "a raw, pulsating aesthetic that speaks to sexual, cultural and cinematic freedoms". Whoa! If I want sexual freedom in the cinema I’ll go to the Metro! To be honest, we’re not......

30-something woman to friend in American Apparel: It's a good thing I only own cats! If I owned a dog, I'd spend all of my money buying it outfits. This streeter was brought to you by blogger and all around fabulous person Sofi.......

- Rogers, having bought Fido, is now buying Sprint's parent company as well. Rogers calls the deal "another logical and healthy step in the natural consolidation of the Canadian communications market." TOist calls it a bummer. - Monte Solberg blackberries to his blog from the floor of Parliament. A play by play of those exciting non-confidence events: "They can't believe that their iron-grip on power and pocketnooks might be loosed. Kilgour just voted with the......

Between the screaming thirteen year olds and the creepy older men, Torontoist somehow managed to grab a front row ticket to the Live at Much House of Wax "special red carpet edition." Sure, watching from the comfort of your own couch and television is fun, but it's much more satisfying to be part of the live action. After all, where else can you be shoved by a Chanel-wearing fifteen-year-old because she needs to get her......

TOist likes ironic tees as much as the next website, but something about an ironic tee based on exchange rates doesn't add up. This tee, courtesy of toothpaste for dinner, is kinda funny, but it should really say 'If I had 72 cents everytime I had 60 cents, I would be Canada.' In fact, the loonie rose 7.9% this year, and now hovers in the low eighties most of the time. Apparently, this three-year loonie......