If you're like us, you've been waiting to put that old shopping cart you lugged home from the grocery store one day to good use. Well, what if we told you that you could participate in an event that allowed—nay, encouraged—you to dress up in a silly outfit while pushing said cart in a death fun race? Enter the Idiotarod Toronto 2008. Based very loosely on the famous (mostly for icicle-encrusted beards) Iditarod Trail......

Fish Shak isn't what it used to be. Literally. Last fall, that place in Kensington that always advertised enigmatic "fish tea" turned itself into Bread & Circus Theatre Bar, one of the tiniest places in the city to catch a show and drink a beer. And Fish Shak Co-op is the name of the company whose production of Morris Panych's two-hander Lawrence and Holloman is currently enjoying its second run inside the former seafood......

Photo by Caesar Sebastian. Justice brings their gigantic glowing cross and their hot electro-house beats to the city on Monday. While the Sound Academy (ex-The Docks) is usually an awkward place to see music, it's well suited for this show. There will be plenty of space for people to "D.A.N.C.E." and the duo has a sound large enough to match the venue. They'll be joined by fellow Parisian Busy P and Fancy at the......

Mark Oliver Tessaro just sent us a link to the video above, of an unbelievably fun-looking do-it-yourself ski-hill that he and his roommates built in mid-February on their Kensington Market deck. Says Mark of the hill: I live with 3 other guys above a used clothing store in Kensington Market and we have a ridiculously large deck. A few weeks ago this meant that we also had a ridiculously large amount of snow on......

Miss the fourth installation of YO! Remember the 90's?? As if! Unless you're totally clueless when it comes to comebacks, you know the nineties are the dopest thing since, like, the eighties. And if you don't, you oughta know. No, we're not talking overplayed nu-rave, just good old-fashioned dance mixes: hip-hop, pop and rock, plus all the one-hit wonders it's cool to like now that there's a decade of ironic distance between you and your......

Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com. Dear Snappy Answers, I moved here from the U.S. a little while ago. Down there, I would hear these stories about the lax marijuana laws here and the more lax enforcement of those laws. When I got here, I thought I would have an easy time getting my smoke on. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. I’ve posted......

Kensington Market's Left Feet and Heart On Your Sleeve will be hosting its first annual vegan chili cook-off this Saturday, January 26 in support of homeless outreach. Amateur foodies, in addition to local restaurants Urban Herbivore, Sadie's Diner, and the Magic Oven will compete to find who's got the best vegan chili in Toronto. The cook-off will be held from 2–6 p.m. (with ballots counted and prizes awarded at 5:30 p.m.) at 88 Nassau......

What Honest Ed’s lacks in architectural artistry compared to more high-brow institutions, it makes up for in self-promotional bombast. From its "quirky hand-painted signage" to the low-price Toronto souvenirs, badly painted Elvis busts, and abandoned theatre props, Honest Ed’s is a museum of kitsch. Now a local illustrator, Christopher Hutsul, has designed a stationery set paying tribute his neighbourhood’s "foremost local architectural landmark." "When Ed Mirvish died the building took on greater historical significance,”......

In the battle of who owns the roads, cyclists and motorists are frequently at each others' throats. Over the last few years we've seen a heated altercation in Kensington Market and another that resulted in a motorist being stabbed with a screwdriver. It seems that the threat of a streetside melee is always looming. At Yonge and Bloor on Monday afternoon, a motorist attempted to make an illegal right turn and nearly knocked a......

Calling all local dance floor heroes and heroines! Hearts are ga-gunking to the clocks, which countdown to a night of pure electro-bliss. This Saturday night, Kensington Market’s Teranga (159 Augusta Avenue) will play host to Woodhands, Bocce, Opopo, and Green Go for what will undoubtedly be the sweatiest night of your lives. Too generous? No! With a lineup like Saturday’s, you'll definitely need to bring a second set of clothes. Woodhands is fronted by keytar......

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got. BenchesBY DOSHA UntitledBY BENTHAM Friday (Feels Like Monday)BY LEPAGEJP Balloon BunkerBY COLOUR VOID ObliviousBY DENMAR 7evenBY SIRCHARLIE Just Walking #2BY LEPAGEJP untitledBY TORONTOGAL PHOTOS......

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got. UntitledBY SQUEAKYRAT Ring Of FireBY DOSHA City Hall at NightBY ARIEHSINGER FrostyBY SWILTON 50%BY REBOOTYOURCOMPUTER hibernateBY jasfitz Harbord St., snowBY ANDYSCAMERA miniBY JORDANBOWER Creepy......

That headline is only slightly misleading in order to alert you to Kensington's annual Festival of Lights, celebrating the winter Solstice tomorrow night. But we can assure you that there will be giant puppets and there will be fire, if not necessarily at the same time. Starting at 6:00 p.m, revelers will gather at the corner of Augusta and College and begin a procession down Augusta, east onto Baldwin, down Kensington Avenue, west on......

Torontoist has already done a pretty good job of letting you know how rad Posterchild is. In fact, the extent to which Torontoist writes about Posterchild could be seen as the textual equivalent of a marriage proposal. So without rehashing what has already been said about our favourite local street artist/public space crusader, just know that his radness is still on the upswing with new and improved versions of what he’s known best for:......

Showdown's hot picks for cold season include cropped leather jackets and cute jumper dresses. Photos courtesy of Showdown Vintage. Why Showdown Vintage isn't like Toronto's 1348 other vintage stores: 1. It's not really a store. Staysail Shedd, Mick Jackson and Andrew Pepall launched Showdown as an eBay retailer in April 2006, using their combined years of vintage-picking expertise to sell the coolest of Toronto's castoffs to customers all over the globe. But with a......

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, the fourth volume in the popular comic book series by Brian Lee O'Malley, hits stores across the city today. We feel confident in saying that there has never been a person in the history of time who hasn't liked this series. The fact that Scott Pilgrim is set entirely in Toronto only makes it more appealing: live vicariously through the characters as they eat dynamite rolls at New Generation......

Nicole Stamp's absolutely charming one-woman show BETTER PARTS plays tonight and for tonight only at the brand-new Bread and Circus Theatre Bar in Kensington Market at the corner of Baldwin and Augusta (we hadn't heard of it either!). You might recognize Stamp as the host of totally amazing kid quiz show Reach For The Top, but she's also an accomplished theatre artist who has been working BETTER PARTS for a few years now. The......

Got an idea for a flag to represent Kensington? There's just one week left to submit designs for the Flags For All Neighbourhood Flags Contest, and you don't need to be a designer or even a particularly creative type to win—or a Kensington resident, for that matter! Submissions can be sent to torontoflags@gmail.com, and the winner will receive a handmade pennant of their design courtesy of The Flag Shop, some National Post swag, and......

Election day is tomorrow, which provides a good opportunity to look back at how election ads were handled in the past. Today's selections come from the 1955 campaign, which Premier Leslie Frost's Progressive Conservatives won in a landslide on June 9th (83 PC, 11 Liberal, 3 CCF, 1 "PC Independent"). The "Big Blue Machine" was firmly entrenched, remaining in power for the next 30 years. York Centre was a new riding for the 1955......

Torontonians aren't known for pomp and circumstance, but if the Spacing buttons were any indication, we like to represent our 'hoods. Jane and Finch may want to rebrand itself as University Heights and Beach(es) residents can't agree on the name, but for Toronto, our neighbourhoods often define us. Other than demarcated street signs alluding to mysterious Discovery Districts and International Villages, there aren't many emblematic civic icons that Torontonians can use to show their......

Spacing did it, now CTV is doing it: CTV wants you to make a video about our city using the prefix phrase "My Toronto is…". Interview a kid smoking in line at Funhaus, a smiling, round-faced butcher at St. Lawrence Market, and a Bloor station musician. Ya know, the usual. Then pepper the vid with shots of the skyline, Kensington, and a passing streetcar. Or you can do something interesting. The contest runs until......

There are a shitload of pedestrian- and public space-themed events going on Sunday afternoon: P.S. Kensington, Word on the Street, the below-mentioned Not Blanche, and the "Our Streets – inserting oneself into the municipal process" pre-Walk21 workshop. But for raw pedestrianism, nothing is going to beat the Great Queen Street Psychogeographic Walk, organized by Spacing and the Toronto Psychogeography Society. Essentially, it's a walk. A big walk. Along Queen Street. All of Queen Street.......

GTA "bubble boy" has new hope after new experimental gene therapy. The donor: a very surprised Jerry Seinfeld. Dalton McGuinty challenges John Tory to explain where Tory will find $1.5 billion in budget cuts. Which is a good point, and begs the question why he didn't ask that, you know, at the debate. Shocking: Stephen Harper promises tax cuts. The government has a nearly $14 billion surplus this year, but it looks like Toronto......

If you dig free stuff and you happen to be walking through Kensington Market or Queen West this week, local band The Craft Economy have burned a hundred copies of their debut EP All On C and stapled them to hydro poles as a way of promoting their upcoming show. All On C is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. That means whether you rip it off the Internet, or a pole,......

Toronto is a city of trees. From centuries-old native oaks in our parks to imported Norway maples planted on lawns, Toronto’s greenery may not always be evident, but it is an integral part of the city’s life and history. Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF) and the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) have come together to create a series of tree tours that explore the urban canopy. Toronto Tree Tours offers guided walks......

Photo by Jon . Torontoist loves a good stroll. In these late summer days, one of the more favourable strolling options is Pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market. Provided you bring an ability to control your breathing against many an olfactory assault and sport a well-prepared munching arm, Kensington has also been deemed the prime venue to get your snack-on in Toronto. And so, with our noses prepared, a spring in our step, and a......

Do you wistfully dream of having a little corner of the city to call your own, but balk at the "Homes" section of the classifieds with its hyperbole-strewn ads and dead-eyed realtors? A new Google Maps-based website, housing123.com, tries to make things a little easier for potential home buyers across the GTA. The Canadian Real Estate Agency (CREA) operates a database known as the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which allows realtors to view virtually......

On Sunday night, the mostly Torontonian electropop extravaganza Dragonette took to the stage at the Social. Martina Sorbara, the group's lead singer, stood up front in green stilettos and grabbed her glowstick necklace, proclaiming, "I feel so New Wave!" The group then proceeded to throb and pound out song after sweet, sensuous song from the tiny stage, while densely-packed fans, resigning themselves to the lack of horizontal dancing space, jumped straight up and down and......

Embracing the new black each season can sometimes be a difficult task—especially considering fashion’s maniacally unpredictable cycles. And with this year’s new black—green—being a complete lifestyle makeover, things may seem just a little bit overwhelming. Fortunately, Heart On Your Sleeve, an ethical, earth friendly boutique, makes its debut later tomorrow evening at 61A Bellevue Avenue (the corner of Bellevue Avenue and Nassau Street) in Kensington Market, and will cater to all of your fashion-green desires.......

Those Pedestrian Sundays folk are back this weekend (July 15), and this time they're taking over Baldwin Village. Nestled on the edge of Chinatown, the area was once the home of Jewish immigrants, American draft dodgers and a myriad of other international settlers to Toronto. It is now well known for its diverse restaurants—especially to the U of T students who live in inexpensive apartments nearby. Baldwin Street will be shut down from Henry......