Results tagged “london”

Though he wasn't exactly born and raised in West Philly (try Kenya and London, Ontario respectively), Toronto-based and Polaris-nominated emcee Shad has dropped this unstoppable shot-by-shot send-up of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air title sequence as the video for his latest single, "The Old Prince Still Lives At Home." With London valiantly subbing in for Bel-Air and just the right amount of neon, all he's really missing is a hi-top fade.

Whether we like it or not, some of us will be in Toronto all summer, with nary a trip or vacation elsewhere in sight. As a remedy, we've created Tourist. Every weekend morning, bright and early, of the summer we're featuring a photo (or two) from a globe-trotting photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

As the R Month Rule suggests, July is a bad month for at least one type of oyster.

Torontoist has considered numerous ways in which London's transport system is leaps and bounds ahead of ours, including coloured bus and bike lanes, a $1.6 billion high-speed rail terminus, and an extensively renovated transport museum. While straight-up comparisons aren't entirely fair to Toronto—London is bigger and denser, and the political culture is much more amenable to public spending on transport projects—some measures are so simple and affordable that they could easily be imported here.

It's Canadian Music Week and that means there's an unusually large number of hip hop shows going on. KRS-One will be teachin' at The Opera House on Saturday as he continues his Stop the Violence movement. RZA dons his Bobby Digital mask on Sunday at the Phoenix. There's also grimy New York hip-hop (M.O.P. on Friday), French rap (DJ Orgasmic and Cuizinier on Thursday), and a strong showcase of local talent (Friday's Exclaim! event).

Premier Dalton McGuinty has fired off a whiny letter to the PM complaining about Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's public criticism of Ontario and its tax laws. Flaherty, who apparently counts all time lost when he's not psychologically bitch-slapping his governmental inferiors, responded by calling McGuinty a "big stupid crybaby."

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

Toronto, we are told, is a world-class city. But Toronto is noticeably absent from the list of major urban centres famous for graffiti and street art: New York, Barcelona, San Francisco, Berlin, LA, Melbourne, and London. Even within Canada, smaller cities like Montreal and Vancouver hold a better reputation for graffiti than Toronto.

Photo by Jeff Croft.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

When Austrian company Wiener Stadtwerke approached Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy about using the song "This Is The Dream of Win & Regine" in a commercial, Pallett declined (probably nicely). So, naturally, Wiener Stadtwerke used the song in a commercial in June of this year anyway––or, at least, the most similar re-recorded version of Final Fantasy's song possible, changing a few notes in the violin part, adding some guy awkwardly singing "can you feel it?" and crediting...

In a strange moment of synchronicity, there are currently two musicals on the Toronto stage about a man who kills people and disposes of their bodies by feeding them to someone/something. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been playing at the Princess of Wales since early November, and closes on December 9. Sweeney tells the story (which we are all likely to become more familiar with after Tim Burton's film adaptation...

London's transport museum, located smack dab in Covent Garden in central London, reopened last Thursday after a two-year, $44 million redesign. This weekend saw lineups (queues?) of two hours long, filled with people who weren't just your stereotypical transit aficionados––those nervous-looking sweaty men who curl up in bed reading train timetables from the summer of 1973––but rather families, young couples on dates, professional types, and tourists. If you can't make it to London, you...

London's transit story of the week—if not the year—was Tuesday's re-opening of St. Pancras rail station after £800 million (that's $1.6 billion) of renovations. Not only does the station provide London with a new terminus for a high-speed 300km/h rail link to Paris and Brussels (with a planned stop at the 2012 Olympics site in east London along the way), but it also upgrades the city's regional and suburban rail connections and improves access...

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday.

Passe Muraille has been pushing its remount of the hugely popular Michael Healey hit The Drawer Boy with considerable fanfare, including leaving giant, inflatable barnyard animals outside the theatre for a few days last week. And why not? It's the most successful play to ever come out of that theatre this side of The Drowsy Chaperone, which has definitely grown a bit too gigantic for a return trip. But The Drawer Boy, with its Farm Show-inspired plot and its allusions to Rochdale College, remains a perfect fit at Passe Muraille, even if its last major appearance in Toronto was at the considerably swankier Elgin. It could be just the hit the place needs.

More than a week of protests in Toronto against the violence in Burma culminated last night with the Global March for the People of Burma. The demonstration began at 6:00 p.m. in front of the Chinese consulate on St. George Street before making its way to Queen's Park, where a vigil was led by monks from the city's Buddhist temples. According to the Toronto Star, hundreds heeded the call from Amnesty International and other human rights groups to rally in support of the monks in Burma, many of whom have been detained, murdered, or forced into hiding since the junta's crackdown began late last month.

You may have heard The Saint Alvia Cartel’s "Don’t Wanna Wait Forever" on 102.1 The Edge this summer. Like, two blagillion times. If you happen to like the song, you should probably go check the band out this Thursday, October 4, at the Reverb, as part of the Union Label Group’s annual Union Tour. If you don’t like the song, you should probably still give the band a shot; “Don’t Wanna” is easily the weakest track on their fantastic self-titled debut, which mixes reggae, punk, pop, and rock ‘n’ roll the way The Clash did so perfectly on London Calling. Saint Alvia may not be the only band that matters yet, but they’re still one helluva solid act, a fact that anyone who’s taken enough time to absorb their record in its entirety can attest to. Composed of current and former members of 905 punk rock royalty (Grade! Jersey! Boys Night Out! Video Dead!), the band may hail from just outside Toronto city limits, but they possess an urban grittiness in their sound that simultaneously recalls the Hammersmith Palais and the end of East Bay.

Today’s Contest:

Torontonians aren’t that cold, even if we have to be given a reason before hugging a stranger. If you’re tired of handing over cash every time you simply want someone to gather you in a warm embrace, or you’ve collected so much money from selling hugs that you want to do some charity work, then luckily for you the Free Hugs Campaign has unofficially deemed September 10 International Free Hugs Day (one of many). It’s the one day across the world when hugging passersby without charging a fee will not be ridiculed. Paris. London. Seoul. Copenhagen. Hong Kong. Come on, Toronto, everybody’s doing it—join the global cuddle movement!

If you're not already exhausted on September 7 after trying to check out M.I.A., Stars, The Hidden Cameras, k-os, and You Say Party! We Say Die! playing for free for U of T and Ryerson's frosh, why not throw in a little free Yeah Yeah Yeahs for good measure?

Toronto came in 5th in the livability survey of the Economist Intelligence Unit, behind Vancouver, Melbourne, Vienna and Perth. While we can rightfully be proud of our score, it's kind of like being one of the kids who sits in the front of the room near the teacher while all the cool kids like New York and London are having a lot more fun down in the 40s and 50s.

When the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario published its guidelines for the use of video surveillance cameras in public places back in October 2001 [.PDF], it summarized that institutions considering their use "must balance the benefits of video surveillance to the public against an individual’s right to be free of unwarranted intrusion into his or her life. Pervasive, routine and random surveillance of ordinary, lawful public activities interferes with an individual’s privacy."

In a recent jaunt to London (England), Torontoist saw colours on the road. No, these weren't hallucinations brought on by too much ale at the local pub. The colours were those of lanes on the street: red for public transit vehicles and green for bikes. (And in case you're wondering, bikes can use the public transit lanes.) The message? If you're in a car, stay out of them.

The city of Paris has recently been courting tourists from London, England with a new series of ads that look like this:

Signs telling people not to feed birds in Nathan Phillips Square were suddenly installed and just as suddenly removed over the past week, reports the Toronto Star.

The Toronto International Film Festival madness began today with this year’s Canadian press conference—whereas last year we were unprepared for the experience, this year we were ready. We didn’t eat lunch, instead eating our fill of the finger food on offer. Result!

Can a transit system foster love for a city? Torontonians may scoff, but Londoners will nod. The underground—better known as the Tube—is often cited as a reason why so many Londoners take pride in their city.