Gas prices in Toronto are at $1.09 or more a litre today, reflecting all-time record oil prices of over US$108 per barrel. For all our driving readers, it might cheer you up to consider that it's still cheaper to fill up your car with gas than say, orange juice or Diet Pepsi. By the way, if you do decide to go with orange juice, remember that the pulp-free kind is less likely to gum up......

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Leonard Cohen thinks Mike's serves up the best hot dogs in town (we thought he'd be all about Buddha Dog!). He's known to take friends and fans down to the John Street doggery for a bite. On a recent snack-finding mission, Mike's friendly man at the grill was......

Toronto has been called a city of neighbourhoods: The Beach, Yorkville, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown, The Annex; all have their defining characteristics that make them appealing to locals as well as visitors. And when it comes down to it, most of these areas are well-defined by the intersection of two major streets. Photo by David Urbonas from Flickr. Since the inaugural Yonge & Bloor installment of A City Intersected, Torontoist has made every attempt at......

Photos by mishkaoutofcontrol from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Except to its frequent clientele, Toronto's legendary Matador Club is best known as the setting to Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time," which laments a place that "got wrecked by the winds of change." The Matador's been around since 1914. Built as a dance hall for WWI soldiers, it then became home to a bowling alley, and finally ended up as a quirky, late-night hangout with strong country......

Running from June 1–10, Luminato takes over our fair city, with over 100 events spanning just about everything arts-and-culture-related. As they boast on their website, "Luminato was created to bring Toronto's best to the world, and the world's best to Toronto." A noble goal, and one they seem to have accomplished: Leonard Cohen! Philip Glass! Uh...Stephen King! Dancers! Artists! An Art Boat! Many things! Luckily, Torontoist (in the form of contributors Sharon Harris, Stephanie......

Welcome to Torontoist's new weekly Lit. Listings of all things bookish, wordy, and between the covers. We want to highlight the "lit" in Toronto's literary scene: as you, dear reader, may have noticed, a lot of writing about writing is dull, and could be improved with a bit of light. We are living in a time when major newspapers are folding their books sections, and even alternative weeklies forget their literary pages once in......

The Art of Time Ensemble played their final shows of the 2006/2007 season this past Thursday and Friday at the Harbourfront Centre. The group's aim is to bring chamber music to new ears by blending it with other genres and new ideas, while retaining its elegance and intelligence. Andrew Burashko created The Art of Time as a way to "test my assumption that we could present chamber music in an accessible way." Judging by......

Sarah Slean is one of Toronto’s most enchanting musicians, winning over audiences with her whimsical songs and charismatic shows—to see her play live is to almost assuredly fall in love with her. This week at the Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre, Slean will put aside her own lovely songs to tackle some covers, at which she’s equally adept (this Torontoist once witnessed her cast a spell over a cozy audience with her moving version of......

Google image search: "Torontoist" Runner-up: a classic photo of Leonard Cohen......

The street was closed yesterday on Bay, just south of Bloor, to let the thousands of Leonard Cohen fans enjoy the outdoor performance at Indigo Books. And what a treat! Leonard was supposed to only introduce his partner, Anjani, who released a CD of music written by Cohen, and possibly sing a song or two, but the crowd got about 4 songs in total, including an unplanned jam session with Ron Sexsmith and the......

Only someone of Leonard Cohen's stature could stop traffic on Bay St. It also helps when you're one of Canada's most esteemed poets and just released a book after 22 years. The "silent one" (apparently that's his Zen name) will be at the Bay and Bloor Indigo tomorrow at 4:00pm. They're closing Bay St. from Bloor to Charles to accommodate the mad throngs of Cohen devotees that'll show up. It's not a book signing......

Irving Layton, one of Canada's greatest poets, and mentor to the likes of Leonard Cohen and Al Purdy, passed away yesterday at the age of 93. There is a blog to share various Layton memories on. Photo from Irving Layton.com.......

It's rare that we anticipate an issue of Maclean's with baited breath. Heck, it's rare that we anticipate an issue of Maclean's at all. But the magazine will offer up a nutty examination of the impending bankruptcy of dear Leonard Cohen, and TOist is all at once baffled and dismayed. From the release: Canadian Musician Leonard Cohen is broke and the lawsuits are flying. Mired in a legal battle with his money managers, short of......

Talk about sevotion! The man formerly known as (smog), now known as Smog, has quite a group of devotees. Though his two-part set at last night’s Lee’s Palace triumph was largely filled with dongs from his new album, A River Ain’t Too Much To Love, there were few complaints rendered from the adoring masses. Mr Smog proved not only that a river ain’t too much, but interest in the Drag City hero’s new album ain’t......

Toronto writer Sheila Heti waxes romantic about The Arcade Fire in the new issue of Walrus magazine. Her contribution to the summer "Love Letters" feature is addressed to Régine and makes reference to digging tunnels, naming babies and other activities held sacred by Montreal’s finest. The note, affectionately signed ‘W’, could or could not be inspired by the Fire’s spring show at the Danforth Music Hall. The magazine is on newsstands now and also features......

The ads have been running in NOW for over a month, and yet every time we see them we can't help but chuckle aloud while pointing to the goofy cartoon of Mr. Olivia Chow. Why a turtleneck and beret? Is there some band of evil conservatives trying to paint Layton as a baguette drinking, wine eating John Kerry type? Layton, who may or mayn't have invented the municipal bike lock, has invented the party chairman......

The NY Post's sole point of interest with regard to last week's Juno awards: 'Canada's most famous lesbian' k.d. lang's especially portly appearance of late. TOist is unimpressed. Richard, Paula, Chris, et al: Leave your catty fat-jokes to your own Britneys and Tobeys: K.D. is an artist, and totally above caring about the South Beach or Hamptons diet or whatever other excuse for narcissism you're employing these days. She wears black capes. She does......

Was there ever a more perfect Canada Reads match than Rufus Wainwright and Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers? No. Sadly, a breaking bulletin from CBC headquarters informs us that Rufus has bailed, due to a 'scheduling conflict,' leaving jazzy Molly Johnson to defend the title. Can she do it? According to the release: "It's a good match, given that I almost named my band, Infidels, Beautiful Losers!" We're rooting for you Molly. Of course, Rufus had......

It happened again, folks. Leonard Cohen came down from the mountain and made a new album of synthesized easy listening. But while his last album merely sucked, Dear Heather is actually quite decent, with a few songs falling squarely into the beautiful camp, like the title track. With Lenny's latest coming fresh on the heels of another McGill grad's latest CD effort, it's hard not to compare these men of similar age and girth. Yes,......