Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie. According to a December 2004 article in the Globe, Mike Harris is (or at least was at the time) the chairman of video advertising company Onestop; he got on board "in return for an equity stake" in the business. Presuming that he still has that stake (and why wouldn't he? he may be evil, but he's not stupid), Harris became a richer man two weeks ago, when the Toronto Transit......

With Rogers' plan to move Citytv, OMNI Television, and the Fan 590 to the southeast corner of Dundas Square, those familiar with the current streetfront studios on Queen Street have wondered if the former Olympic Spirit building will be opened up in a similar way. Though merely an preliminary concept rendering, Rogers and Quadrangle Architects seem to have grand designs for the space, currently dubbed Rogers Television City, as evident in this image supplementing......

When first we came across this graffiti on the wall of a U of T bathroom, it was merely a staredown: "Zombie Winston Churchill vs. Robot Hitler." When next we returned, they had obtained allies: "Vampire Stalin" and "Werewolf Mussolini," respectively. The sudden late addition of wild card "Ninja FDR," however, tipped the balance of power, but the "Ref: Mummy Castro" stepped in to keep him in check. Who next will join in on......

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, we look at the renovated Fox Theatre and its battle! against! the! killer! dvds! Photos by Jonathan Goldsbie. When Festival Cinemas flopped in 2006, the......

These pictures were not taken mid-transition. Photos by Jonathan Goldsbie.......

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......

"This advertising space and/or building for lease" Photo of the west side of Yonge, at Gould, by Jonathan Goldsbie.......

This is probably not the issue these signs are trying to address. Photos taken by Jonathan Goldsbie at Innis College's men's washroom.......

On Friday night at 10:30, the Toronto Public Space Committee's Art Attack will "descend on the streets to re-imagine bus shelters as sensational structures of snow," converting the two ad-adorned boxes at Queen and Jones into something a little more whimsical. Transit shelters, like garbage bins, are giant heaps of private property littered throughout the sidewalks and roads of our city. And, most of the time, they serve a purpose. But every now and......

Selected quotes from "Toronto's Type and Tile Heritage" by Edward Keenan, from the November 14th issue of Eye Weekly: Joe Clark: "The trick is trying to prevent the destruction of the subway system as we know it. What are these [TTC] commissioners doing, exactly? Through malign neglect, they are beginning a 35-year process of destruction. Because if they make over Pape station so that it doesn’t match any of the other stations, if they......

"Read a Book" The words, it should be noted, were not written on the outer glass, but rather on the interior panel of the ad caisson. Photo of the shelter on the south side of Queen at Ossington taken by Jonathan Goldsbie.......

"Upper Canada Lower Bowel Clinic Inc." Greatest thing ever? Photo taken by Jonathan Goldsbie at U of T's Jackman Humanities Building (formerly the Medical Arts Building). Thanks to J.D. McGregor of the English Department for the tip.......

Many of you may remember 25-year old Jason Jones, who was on the front page of the Toronto Star last February as a graphic indictment against "the miserable state of dental care for our working poor." The resulting outcry led to demands that the indigent and working poor have better access to dental care. Jones' story had a happy ending: offers poured in from readers to help pay for the dental work he desperately needed,......

TTC EMPLOYEES WANTED PAY: 26.58/hr JOB REQUIREMENTS: • Able to be rude and unhelpful • Must be constantly late • Willing to waste tax payer moneyTTC service, union wages, and graffiti. If this post gets fewer than thirty comments, we'll be very sad. Thanks to Corinne Alstrom for the tip! And thanks to the people who helped decipher the hard-to-read middle bullet point. Photo taken by Jonathan Goldsbie, at the southwest street-level entrance to......

Poor OCAP. They can't even complain about the police watching them without the police watching them. At noon on Wednesday, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a press conference (not a rally or an action or a march but a press conference) at the northeast corner of Dundas and Sherbourne, and there was about one police officer for each person in attendance (around twenty). As eight or so cops casually observed the conference from......

The Toronto Star. July 18, 2007. Joe Fiorito column: The other day I noticed a Red Rocket, defaced from stem to stern with a depiction of a bottle of vodka and the comely legs of a party girl whose dress was hiked up around her thighs. Let me count the ways this is wrong. But first, my bona fides. I grew up during the sexual revolution. I also learned a variety of useful lessons......

Sunday afternoon is the Toronto Public Space Committee's third annual Human River Walk, a trek along the course of the buried Garrison Creek, from Christie Pits to Fort York in a parade of blue, symbolically bringing the river back above ground for one beautiful afternoon. Along the route, there will be music, performances, and stories about the history of the creek, the neighbourhoods, the trees, and Toronto's stormy relationship with its water. But, above......

Tomorrow night, scores of arts collectives and community groups will be putting on impressive exhibits, performances, and workshops as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. The Toronto Public Space Committee thought it would be neat to do something, too, but guess which word in the event title made the TPSC uncomfortable. So instead they bring you noncorporatized Not Blanche, "a pwyc all-night public-space thing," straight outta the Brunswick Theatre from 11:00 p.m. Saturday through 3:00......

Photos of signage on yet another recycled hoarding at York Mills station taken by Jonathan Goldsbie.......

When Monkey Warfare premiered at TIFF last year, Torontoist's Mathew Kumar gave it a less-than-positive review. (Its director and star were none too pleased.) When it opened at the Royal in December, however, I commented, "I personally love Monkey Warfare....I've been urging everyone I know to see it; the film fills me with a glee that makes me want to shout its title from the rooftops....On a number of levels, the film is an......

Right now, if you turn on your TV to channels 2, 3, 6, 8, 15, 24, 62, or 104 (presuming you have cable), you will see the leaders of the provincial political parties having at each other. Or, more accurately, you will see Dalton McGuinty, John Tory, and Howard Hampton having at each other. You will not see Green Party of Ontario leader Frank de Jong having at anyone. As they like to do,......

It’s the final day of the festival, which is always rather maudlin one—although for those of us who try to cover it, the festival is largely a far too hectic, busy period of time, once things start to slow down the sudden lack of pressure is terribly deflating. Never mind—we’ll have some wrap up coverage for you next week. Tonight’s closing gala is Emotional Arithmetic, reviewed by Jonathan Goldsbie at the very beginning of......

Well, this is it. The Toronto International Film Festival begins tomorrow, and this is the last of our previews, with coverage of Vanguard films Boy A (pictured above) and Help Me Eros from Jonathan Goldsbie and Mathew Kumar, and reviews of a selection of Short Cuts Canada shorts from Mathew Kumar (in which he has the audacity to hand out a 0/5). Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to preview the Wavelengths or Midnight Madness......

Our Toronto International Film Festival preview coverage is a little different this year. While last year, our reviews came from our film editor, this year we were lucky enough to have our reviews come from many of our Torontoist writers. Today we have our Gala Presentation and Contemporary World Cinema preview, with reviews of Emotional Arithmetic, Jane Austen Book Club, Sleuth, The Band’s Visit, Breakfast With Scot, The Counterfeiters and Jar City from Christopher......

On Monday, the TTC unveiled a survey that, in lieu of other public consultation, would be used to help the organization determine what cuts it may need to make this year. (For more on the TTC's potential budget shortfall, see our interview with Adam Giambrone, the TTC's documentation included with the survey, and Steve Munro's excellent summary of the situation.) The problem is, the survey really isn't that great: it's too vague, too incomplete,......

When the TTC started mapping out its new future under Adam Giambrone, this probably wasn't what it had in mind. A few hours ago, Ian Trider left a comment on Jonathan Goldsbie's post about the TTC's survey, with a link to a TTC map that reflects the potential cutbacks. We've seen a fair share of TTC maps, from a superb Google Maps mashup to a glorious anagrammed subway line. Trider's map is simple, effective,......

When it premiered at TIFF last year, Radiant City, ostensibly a documentary about urban sprawl, stirred up a bit of controversy. Its portrayal of the soul-rotting effects of the suburban environment on one aggressively average family was met with a variety of bemused reactions, some positive, others less so. (End of Suburbia this wasn't.) Torontoist's Mathew Kumar, for example, savaged it in his spoiler-happy review. But three months later a panel of "filmmakers, festival......

While researching the proper name for the device shown above, we stumbled across this page on the City of Toronto's website. (It's a "pushbutton," "push-button," or "push button," depending on which paragraph you believe.) And, what do you know, the more mundane elements of transportation infrastructure are fascinating stuff. If you agree, you might want to apply for a position on the Toronto Pedestrian Committee. As reported by TPC co-chair Dylan Reid on the......

"Oh my God, my blow-up doll has been brutally murdered!" shrieked the young woman from the southeast corner of John and Richmond as she clutched her fake-blood-soaked inflatable companion. "My only friend, and someone brutally shot her! The horror! Why hasn't the police security camera done anything about it?!" Early Saturday afternoon, the Toronto Public Space Committee's Cameras in Public Spaces campaign performed this bit of street theatre in the Entertainment District. It was......

They’re trying to hypnotise us, people. They’re trying to brainwash us and subdue us by bombarding the television with adverts and by using the media to confuse us, and they’ll never stop… Until Superbad is the number one movie this weekend. Stupid movie executives. We were totally stoked for Superbad until they started a non-stop marketing frenzy that made us completely bored and, frankly, offended. John Harkness at Now is similarly unimpressed: “The weirdest......