Results tagged “lights”

Do you think you can turn your lights off for an hour? The WWF is challenging people around the world to do just that at 8 p.m. local time on March 29. The global event is called Earth Hour, and the goal is to raise awareness of global warming. Last year's inaugural event took place in Sydney, Australia, where more than 2 million people and 2100 businesses turned off their lights. The result was a 10% reduction in the demand for electricity during the hour-long action.

Dundas Square gets a lot of flak for being a cold and soulless expanse of commercial neon and grey granite, and in a new music video for local singer-songwriter-producer Colin Munroe, it still is! But in this case, it's appropriate for his fantastic cover of Kanye West's mediocre "Flashing Lights" track.

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.

In every neighbourhood there is one dude who goes a bit overboard with the Christmas lights. It's the stuff of bad Christmas movies. But few go quite as far as the Lindsay family, who seem to be trying their best to outdo the ZooTV tour.

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.

Last week, we were told off a bit in the comments for being "down" on everything. We thought we’d do our best to be really positive this week, and then we realised how lame it is to force it, you know? The great news is we don’t actually have to force it, as this week sees the release of spins a massively interesting narrative: the tale of Steve Wiebe trying to be recognized as the world champion at classic 80s arcade title Donkey Kong.

Torontoist remembers Lite-Brite like we were playing with it only yesterday. This year’s Cavalcade of Lights brings to mind pointillist masterpieces from the plastic peg-and-lightbox genre. This here’s a Lite-Brite-esque interpretation of the festivities––or what you may have seen if you forgot your glasses! Illustration by Kevin McBride....

It's time to sharpen your skates, start bubbling up the hot chocolate, and get out your kneepads (and asspads and helmet, if you're like us), because today kicks off the skating season at Nathan Phillips Square. If skating isn't your bag, then you can still come down tonight to check out the Cavalcade of Lights kickoff. The events include performances by Jully Black, Sarah Slean, and Kim Stockwood, as well as a performance by...

Last night, entertainment upstart CiRCA faced one of its toughest challenges yet: how can a club, especially one of its size, impress or even satisfy a massive crowd of rockers in Toronto? Well, Torontoist reader skeptical, it is our pleasure to report to you that it passed with flying colours.

CityPulse. The New Music. Baby Blue Movies. City Lights. Fashion Television. Speaker's Corner. These programs are among the innovative shows that have aired on CityTV since it officially launched way up the dial 35 years ago this evening.

Daniel Handler! In Toronto! You may know him better as children’s writer Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events fame, but he has written three books for adults not as Snicket's "Handler," but quite wonderfully as himself. He'll be talking to charming local writer Jason McBride (who Torontoist may have seen in The Annex last week--belated hullo, Jason! If you weren’t Jason, greetings to the gent who is passing himself off as Jason quite successfully).

Aaaand, we're back! Live Baby Live had a false start a few weeks ago, but we're officially back in action now and have changed things up a bit. The listings will now appear on the site mid-week and run from Thursday to Wednesday.

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed.

A happy National Poetry Month to you!

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico.

Tomorrow night promises to be a great time for book lovers in Toronto. This Is Not A Reading Series presents what is perhaps their most anticipated event of the season as author Vendela Vida comes to town.

Not everyone's December 25th consists of bulging stockings hanging from a mantel, unwrapping presents in the reflection of Christmas tree ornaments, and a grandmother in her pearls and green and red apron carving a turkey at the family dinner. For those not living in a movie, who are boycotting the holidays, or who forgot about Santa’s birthday, Torontoist has the guide to an alternative Christmas.

Not only is this Friday the first official day of winter (so even though it hasn’t snowed yet, maybe there’s still hope for a white Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/ Boxing Day), it’s also the winter solstice. Around 12:20 a.m. Universal Time on December 22nd, or for Torontonians, 7:20 p.m. Eastern Time on December 21st, the Earth's northern hemisphere is farthest away from the sun. The winter solstice marks the 24 hours of the least daylight, thus the shortest day on the Gregorian calendar.

The year is winding down and so is the music, which is kind of nice, actually, because there seem to be a lot of tours already gearing up for 2007. Hopefully Alexisonfire isn't one of them...we have no idea how they can manage to go onstage and scream for 7 solid days (they have a few more shows this week). Insanity.

This year's Santarchy brought inebriated joy to Queen West, hitting Parkdale bars, renovated hotels, streetcars and even the Cavalcade of Lights. Unsurprisingly hosted by a group of naughty Burning Man attendees, the night was characterized by bewildered passersby, uproarious shouting of "Ho Ho Ho!" and many, many litres of "Santa Juice".

This Is Not A Reading Series wraps up 2006 with its final two events of the year. With the temperature dropping every day and water soon turning into ice, what better topic than hockey?

Energy efficient LED lights in the sky are as enchanting and romantic as the starry nights of the countryside. Perhaps that’s a lie. Regardless, LED lighting displays have been set up in 19 neighbourhoods across the city for the 40th annual Cavalcade of Lights. Even in the less than attractive Bloordale Village, “blue and white illuminated festoons [are] suspended on light poles lining Bloor St from Lansdowne to Dufferin.” Festoons, eh?

If you have lived in a metropolitan area all your life, you may not have known that in some parts of the world, one can see little points of light in the night sky. These are called stars.

, this new policy will protect birds by controlling light from buildings as well as improving bird rescue missions. Thankfully, FLAP has chosen to feature the birds at the ROM rather than in the freezer section at your local grocery store.

Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, the Samba Squad and many collaborators reunite to ignite...their legendary lantern-lit celestial carnival in the narrow, culturally rich streets of historic Kensington Market. Join in Toronto’s soulful, handmade alternative holiday celebration. Accompany a cavalcade of musicians, giant puppets, stiltwalkers, firebreathers and revelers to beckon the return of the sun, honoring pan-cultural solstice traditions.

Torontoist was walking past This Ain't The Rosedale Library (obviously not pictured here) and noticed that it had been tapped by Canadian ex-pat Jeremy Mercer in the Guardian (the best paper in the English speaking world, sorry NYT) as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world. TATRL clocked in at eighth place and had some truly mindboggling competition.

On the eighth extreme heat warning, the city offers these cool* hangouts: