Photo by David Spigolon. Just over a decade ago in the basement of a SoHo café, playwright Eve Ensler began performing a series of moving and celebratory monologues dealing with the shame many women have over their physiology and sexuality. Since then, The Vagina Monologues has evolved to legendary fame, so far staged in 120 countries and translated into 45 languages. Ensler's success also inspired her to create V-Day, a non-profit, worldwide movement opposing......

According to the Inside the CBC blog and the National Post, Toronto's favourite boyish-looking provocateur, Avi Lewis, is back on the airwaves with his newest show, Frontline: USA. The show promises to "strip away the spin and highlight real issues such as poverty, violence, race, health, and immigration" in America. Considering that Lewis is involved and that the show airs on Al Jazeera English, chances are that Frontline: USA won't be a Dobbsian exercise......

Today’s Reviews: You, The Living One of the most critically acclaimed films of the festival so far, You, The Living (pictured above), is a very warm look at the hopes and dreams of the misfit inhabitants of a Swedish apartment complex, told through a series of vignettes. From Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor), the warmth isn’t just towards the characters—it coats each shot like a fog. The film unfortunately places its funniest......

When Larry LeBlanc of Billboard sent us a letter written by Canadian music megaproducer Bob Ezrin, we were intrigued. With the possible exception of new superpower Steve Jobs, the music industry has been circling the drain in recent years, temporarily jamming the flow with the barely-explored careers of too many worthy artists. Bob Ezrin has been there and seen it all, and he's got something to say about it. Behind the console since the 1970s,......

Sad news from New Orleans, where during a recent spate of violence one of the victims was Helen Hill, filmmaker and animation teacher who worked for many years in the Halifax scene and the Atlantic co-op, and friend of many in Toronto's indie film. Helen was affiliated with the Super 8 festival in Toronto and numerous other activities, so this should come as a horrible shock to the local filmmaking and animation communities. Her husband......

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made......

We love Word on the Street but we always find there's way too much to do. So we've scoured the WOTS program and picked out the three things that you should try to hit up this Sunday at Queen's Park. Best of all, the whole event is free. 1) Margaret Atwood and the Long Pen (The Long Pen Tent, reading at 11am, signing all-day) Hear the grand dame of CanLit read from her new book.......

Unlike usual, this isn't a post about a single programme at TIFF, but we’re going to let this one slip by as it used to be the Planet Africa programme, and the selection is really, really good this year. There’s the world premiere of Kevin MacDonald’s The Last King of Scotland, the adaptation of Giles Foden’s celebrated book about a Scottish doctor that accidentally becomes friends with Idi Amin while on a medical mission to......

Katrina Onstad and Leah McLaren aren't the only female Toronto journalists penning autobiographically inspired works of literature. The insightful Lynn Crosbie is releasing her much anticipated new book Liar. Excerpts that Torontoist has read left us thinking about our own failed relationships, on the nature of love, betrayal and the cruelties that men and women inflict on each other. Perfect when you're sick and tired of watching cheesy rom-coms. The inspiration for this heavy new......

Queen or Leah McLaren? Tonight, McLaren will be sharing the stage at the Gladstone with Katrina Onstad. Canada AM's Seamus O'Regan might want to wear a black and white ref's jersey just in case a fight breaks out between the two of them, seeing how Onstad makes not so veiled insults at McLaren in her new book. That being said bashing McLaren and Rebecca Eckler is a popular media past-time more popular than drinking at......

Admittedly, the story of an urban columnist who drinks crantini's sets off alarm bells. It sounds well-traveled because it is well-traveled; the ghost of a horrible TV show that we will not mention still haunts us years after the fact. But the story of Maxine, an urban columnist who drinks crantini's in How Happy To Be, has very little syrup for the pancakes, so to speak. Maxime is presumably the alter-ego of former (and best)......

Number of people shouting 'Do It' at the Leafs, as the Sens beat the Leafs on Wednesday, at the Monarch Pub: 36 Amount by which the cost of a chicken burrito at Bar Burrito exceeds that of a chicken burrito at Taco El Asador (with $1.00 factored in for extra guacamole): $0.11 Approximate percentage by which size of a a Bar Burrito chicken burrito exceeds that of Taco El Asador chicken burrito: 22.63% Number......

Funny how quickly a show can go from pariah to the hot ticket in town. Sunday's New Pornographers show created a dilemma for fans who didn't want to miss seeing the full-roster band including Destroyer's Dan Bejar (also opening the show) and Neko Case (whose own skyrocketing fame all but ensures this is the last time she'll be able to tour with the band), but on the other hand, didn't want to make the trek......

Tall Poppy Interview - Davy Rothbart...

- Adam Nayman slaughters Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown on the Eyeblog. It's a rough cut, but the trailers (and Kirsten Dunst in a beret) have been scary enough. - Pop Wherry reports that Thursday's Hard Rock Cafe Tribute Bands Katrina concert may or may not include New Orleans is Sinking. - How close have you ever gotten to Bono's right hand? - A bummer: Zoilus will be retiring his Overtones column. Can Gary Michael Dault......

Toronto photographer Yuri Dojc is among handfuls of TO Flickr members putting up photos for auction. Sales of these photos will go towards relief efforts in full. TOist contributor Photojunkie is making likewise efforts, as are hundreds of other Flickr photogs. For those of us who can't spring for a $1000 print, however great the cause, Dojc will be selling $25 posters, with 100% of profits going towards Katrina victims. Good to see everyone......

Like anyone else, Torontoist can't help but be occasionally overwhelmed by the traumatic events in other areas of the world. This week is obviously one of those occasions. Our thoughts are in Louisiana. DCist has copious links and information on Katrina relief efforts. We'll post a comprehensive list of Ist posts and information shortly. In Canada, efforts are underway across the country to send relief to New Orleans. Celine has donated $1 million to the......

After the chaos caused by last week's storm (like flooding on the DVP and this doozy on Finch Ave.) maybe we might want to pay attention to the fact that the remnants of Huricanne Katrina might be hitting Toronto later this week. While Katrina probably won't be anything like Hazel she'll still pack a punch. Those helpful people at the city have given us a few tips on avoiding nasty flooding and other storm related......

A lot happened at last night's ceremonies, and, for the most part, Torontoist couldn't care less. Make note, that's "couldn't care less" not "could care less." Links include: - Canadian wins big at that awards show. Frulla must be so happy. - CBC Watch: Katrina Onstad has a very funny blog-type thing going on about last night. - Hold up! There's a new blog in town. The Toronto Sledding Society brings the joys of tobogganing......

It's finally here. The revamped national arts and culture multimedia portal we've been waiting for...CBC Arts. While TOist hasn't actually been losing sleep anticipating the debut of the revamped site, we have been eagerly awaiting its unveiling. We had an inkling of what it might look like, because our own debut interview, Antony Hare, had some CBC arts portal designs up on his site. But we quickly brushed what we'd seen from our mind, wanting......