Results tagged “kids”

There’s a little white logo riding on the back of a pair of black, size four yoga pants striding purposefully just ahead. You recognize the ubiquitous emblem without having to squint inappropriately: Lululemon. It’s fitting. Torontoist is on foot following a small pack of sleeksters headed south on Spadina, crossing the bridge that links a small grove of new high-rises with the city proper north of the GO/VIA/CN rail tracks. They’re heading home to the same de rigueur condominium of structured glass, steel, brick, and marble where our interviewee resides.

                     

Toronto's Caribana parade is known the world over, drawing more than one million revellers every year for its bumper crop of imagination; it is spectacle after sparkling spectacle, accompanied by joy-inducing, waist-winding, and inhibition-loosening calypso/soca music. Of lesser fame is the Junior Carnival parade—which this year was held in the under-celebrated Jane-Finch area—but it remains fertile ground for future generations of mas masters.

Same-sex marriages have been valid in Ontario since 2003, but not many people know that it had already been legal for a few years to adopt children together as a gay couple. Following a series of court decisions, Paul Farrell and David Smagata became the first same-sex couple in Canada to jointly adopt a child in 2000, via the Children's Aid Society of Toronto. Since then, more than a hundred LGBT Toronto couples have welcomed children into their homes via adoption—a dream that some had grown up believing would never be realized in their lifetimes.

Subway six-inch Cold Cut Combo: $3.29, 460 calories; Pizza Hut 1/2 Pepperoni P-Zone: $4.50, 710 calories; Swiss Chalet Garlic Cheese Loaf: $7.99, 860 calories.

What do you like about Toronto?

You know, for all the talk of the wonderful and awful things that Toronto has planned and is planning for its future, it's easy to forget that far too often one group's ideas are neglected from that dialogue altogether, shamefully excluded or pushed to the margins of any discussion, dismissed as idealistic, puerile, or childish. That group? Kids. Really awesome kids.

       

Families at Saturday's Right to Play fundraiser took in a star-studded roster of musicians including Ron Sexsmith and the Violet Archers featuring Tim Vesely. Most attendees blissfully ice skated and drank hot chocolate while big-name stars played in the background, but all eyes were glued to the stage for I Eat Kids, a band comprised of actual children. From oldest to youngest, they are Zoe, 10; Sadie, 10; Georgia, 9; Edi, 8; Oliver, 6; and Jessa, 6. Okay, awww.

Outside: driving wind, plummeting temperatures, mermaid-chasing sea monsters on stilts. Inside: googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and that heady mix of scissors, glue, and lip-biting concentration known to craft-making kindergarteners the world over.

KIDS: Script Superheroes, a six-week writing workshop for seven- to ten-year-olds, starts today at the Comedy Bar. The afternoon workshops will teach your child how to write a powerful script, and how to impress an audience. At the end of the program, professional actors will step in to present a live reading of all the kids' plays. Script Superheroes is taught by character comedian Kristen McGregor and artist/writer/former Torontoist editor Alison Broverman. The Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), 2:30–3:45 p.m., $100/6 sessions.

The Toronto International Film Festival Group's "other" film festival, Sprockets—an international film festival for children—has put out a call for young cinephiles and filmmakers to get involved in the twelfth annual film festival (which is to run from April 18th to 24th) with submissions for the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase and applications to join the Sprockets Young People's Juries now being accepted. Jump Cuts offers Ontario filmmakers in grades three through twelve the opportunity to have their films shown on the big screen, and the Young People's Juries choose the festival award winners, so if you know a young film fan who'd be interested in either, head along to the Sprockets website for full details.

It's not surprising that artist Charles Pachter's quirky take on iconic Canadian imagery has found its way into a children's book. It's more surprising that it's taken this long for his fun and seemingly kid-friendly artwork to make its way there. M is for Moose (Cormorant Books, 2008) takes a trip through the alphabet accompanied by some of the most famous images from the Toronto artist's portfolio—including the Hockey Knights in Canada that adorns College Station—as well as some specially created images. The moose is a recurring character—what else would be expected from an artist who named his Toronto workspace Moose Factory?—as are butter tarts, the Queen, and writers such as Margaret Laurence and Margaret Atwood.

Overheard by reader Kate Bowen on the 501 Queen streetcar.

MUSIC: British remix artist and musician Joseph Mount plays the Social with his band, Metronomy. They are joined by Toronto electro trio Modele. Treat yourself to a few $2 drinks before 11 p.m., and stay for the show. The Social (1100 Queen Street West), 10 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m., $10 after.

MUSIC: It is highly recommended that you check out tonight's EP release party for Toronto band We Take Lovers. The show is at Sneaky Dee's, and features performances from friends and local favourites The Guest Bedroom and Femme Generation, as well as We Take Lovers themselves. DJ Rob spins in between sets. Sneaky Dee's (451 College Street), doors at 9:00 p.m., $10 includes a copy of the EP, $6 does not.

Somehow, "Sesame Street" is about to begin its thirty-ninth season, and they're pulling out all the stops for their premiere on August 11. Among the whack of celebrity guests slated for the first show of the new season is the omnipresent Leslie Feist; she'll debut a new song with Elmo and perform "1234." Judging by a clip of the latter performance that was uploaded to YouTube this morning, the whole thing is looking pretty damned adorable.

Comic book panels bursting with rippling muscles and bulging breasts, a guaranteed sight at this weekend's Toronto Comicon (at the Holiday Inn, 377 King Street West), might be more than a Captain Underpants–obsessed kid normally sees. In an attempt to cater to older fans with children—and nurture a new generation of DC-obsessives—this year’s Comicon will feature a Comics for Kids area for children under 12 (who, consequently, can attend free with an adult). The annual event, taking place today and tomorrow at the Holiday Inn On King, is a hub for the city's comic book and graphic novel enthusiasts.

The circuses of today feature less slapstick and more spectacle (think: Cirque), taking audiences from peanut-strewn mall parking lots to cushy Vegas theatres. But this weekend’s Toronto International Circus Festival, which kicks off Harbourfront Centre’s annual roster of awesome summer fun, is the best of both worlds: accessible (it’s free) and theatrical.

Photo by wili_hybrid.

Initially our headline here probably makes absolutely no sense, because the Sprockets Film Festival is the Toronto International Film Festival for Children. In general, "movie theatres filled with children" aren’t anywhere you could take refuge from anything (other than possibly peace and quiet) but we’d like to spotlight some of the films that Sprockets is showing this year that deal with the refugee experience.

For family fun, you can't beat the sheer adorableness of kids wise-cracking from an open mic. That'll be just one of the activities happening this weekend for kids in the latest edition of the always amazing Bunch Family Salon. Adam Growe, a headlining comedian and father of three, will be on hand to mentor the aspiring comics, in keeping with the annual event's goal of bringing major players from the local arts community—last year's special guests included Broken Social Scene's Jason Collett and Kevin Drew among others—together with the city's kidtelligentsia (and their parents) for tons of eclectic and creative fun.

It’s almost time for the Toronto International Film Festival for Children, Sprockets (it runs this year from April 12th to 18th) and the complete line-up of films has been announced. Once again this year all film journalists will find it impossible to mention the festival without bringing up Mike Myers (after all, it’s was one of the best SNL sketches ever, really) but far more relevantly, this year Sprockets features 68 films from 26 countries in 15 languages, maintaining its position as one of the most amazing opportunities for children from ages as young as three to connect with the visual language of other cultures.

Dan Misener's unstoppably rad reading series, Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, is moving to new digs for its fourth installation next Monday.

Good newspaper headlines are concise, descriptive, clear, and––occasionally, just occasionally––nothing short of genius. And then there's "Man who stole car with baby faces more charges."

If you're a tree hugger who takes the GO bus instead of driving like a regular person, you might want to limber up that hippy hitchhikin' thumb. GO bus drivers are leaning towards a strike sometime in the next few days, although they've agreed to give 48 hours notice before any walkout. A strike wouldn't stop GO train service, although pickets could slow them down.

Gate House goes coed. After a series of puerile, childish, vaguely misogynistic stunts, the infamous all-male U of T residence has been come down upon by that stuffy old dean. Of note is Gate House's claim to be an inspiration for the movie , just like every other "look at us we're so wild" frat house on every college campus ever, despite the fact that Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis went to McMaster.

Toronto seems to get its annual dose of legendary outsider filmmaker John Waters around this time.

Andy Warhol's Factory parties were the ultimate hot spot for an elite cabal of celebrities, radicals, drag queens and porn stars. There has never been a better place to rock out while on an amphetamine high amid mass-produced silkscreen paintings and a fleet of floating silver balloons.

As the unofficial fansite of Roncesvalles' favourite success story (and one of the oldest operating movie theatres in this country), Torontoist is pleased to tell you about another exciting event being staged by the good folks at the Revue Film Society. This time, money will be going towards brand-new educational initiatives the theatre aims to have up and running in early 2008, including a film school for neighborhood kids. This particular event, starting at...