Entries from Torontoist tagged with 'metro'
May 6, 2008
No, it's not a printing error—all 815,000 copies of Metro across the country really are pink today. The stunt is in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, and the ad-supported free daily is donating 5% of today's national advertising revenue to the CBCF (what that amount actually is remains undisclosed, but editions of Metro are also published in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Montréal, and Halifax). Corporate sponsors are crucial to the Canadian Breast......
Continue Reading "Metro Inks On Pink"February 15, 2008
Many years ago, the TTC launched the smart "Ride The Rocket" ad campaign, of which only the slogan and typewriter-like font still exist. The fast-paced and effective television commercials featured a quirky spokesperson chattering rapidly into a wide-angle lens about the pros of public transit, and the slick spots made the Commission look modern, exciting, and cool. To a tourist or GTA resident, the subway looked like the backbone of any big city experience.......
Continue Reading "A View From Madrid's Transparent Underground"February 8, 2008
Hello, and welcome to another installment of everyone’s favourite film column in which the writer makes up their opinions on the weeks films largely based on what trailers they’ve seen on TV. This week we didn’t watch much (busy watching our IT Crowd Series 2 and Metalocalypse DVDs) so the only one which managed to break our consciousness was the three seconds or so we caught of a trailer for In Bruges, a Belgium-set......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Malcolm Jamal-Warner's Rastafarian Rap Battle"February 1, 2008
It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about Strange Wilderness first, for some reason. It surprises us that the last Happy Madison film that we saw was (the quite sweet, really) 50 First Dates. Strange Wilderness is only of interest to us because it has quite possibly the worst trailer we’ve ever seen on TV. It’s absolutely meaningless. It explains nothing about the (surely) threadbare plot of......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: The Future Is Unwritten"January 28, 2008
What kind of people don't like riding their bikes in a Toronto winter? People who have never tried it, that's who. Even as more and more people choose not to get off their bikes when November comes around, many non-cyclists still view winter cycling as unwise, dangerous, or impossible. So as part of its first Bike Winter campaign to raise awareness of cycling as year-round transportation, the City of Toronto is hosting the Coldest......
Continue Reading "Coldest Day of the Year Ride"January 25, 2008
So, who else remembers that Rambo III was about Rambo going to Afghanistan to help the Taliban, huh? We do (and apparently the Sun’s Jim Slotek does too). It’s rather a shame that Sylvester Stallone hasn’t seen fit to continue from that point and deal with the consequences of the conflict, instead jumping straight to Burma/Myanmar for, as far as the reviews tell us, an absolute ton of incredibly graphic (and meaningless) violence. Eye’s......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: We Liked His Son Better, Really"January 18, 2008
Moving insect legs! A dazzling shimmer wall! Faux beach, part deux! Waterfront Toronto has selected three proposals for the redevelopment of the Jarvis Street slip area, which currently features a dumpy, underutilized parking lot and not much else. Already part of the greater Waterfront Revitalization Plan, Lower Jarvis and Queen's Quay will soon be home to some new architecture (namely First Waterfront Place, the headquarters and studios of Corus Entertainment) and will be the......
Continue Reading "Our Jarvis Slip Is Showing"January 18, 2008
Films! Films films films films. Sometimes it’s hard to get this column started, so we just sit in front of a blank word document and type the word "films" until it doesn’t make any sense to us any more. But by then, we’ve got started typing, at least, and so we continue. Cloverfield! Also, we just type the names of the films that are out that week with exclamation marks! In an attempt to......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Films!"January 6, 2008
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. LAist listed a top ten list of sorts: things they hope not to see in Los Angeles in 2008. (One example, pictured above). Shanghaiist was surprised to learn that "godless," "atheist," and "commie" China is soon going......
Continue Reading "Elsewhere in the Ist-A-Verse"January 4, 2008
Hello readers! If you were lucky enough to win tickets to the screening of There Will Be Blood last night you will have already made your mind up about the film (well, we hope), but we’re going to subject you to our opinion of it anyway. Quite good, wasn’t it? Contrary to a lot of things we’ve heard, it did seem to be identifiably a Paul Thomas Anderson film (strong performances, non-traditional story arc,......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: There Will Be Hype"January 1, 2008
Photo by matthewfromtoronto from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Ten years ago today, Premier Harris forced us all to play. On January 1, 1998, Metropolitan Toronto's six constituent municipalities were merged into one, creating Canada's largest city and a strangely powerless political behemoth. The popular view at the time was that the so-called Megacity was born largely of political vengeance. It's conveniently forgotten that many advocated for amalgamation before the fact, only to predict death, destruction,......
Continue Reading "Happy Birthday Megacity"November 23, 2007
Blade Runner is no longer showing at the Regent, which in many ways is lucky, as otherwise it was going to turn into a weekly, Rocky Horror Picture Show-style event for us—well, without all of that tedious audience interaction, which now we think about it, would make it not very like the Rocky Horror Picture Show at all. If you’re still hungry for more vintage Harrison Ford, though, they are showing Raiders of the......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Meerkat at the Wedding"November 12, 2007
The Toronto Argonauts can turn this Sunday’s Eastern Final into the perfect kickoff for the upcoming Grey Cup festival. If the Argos beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to reach the championship game, it'll give a huge boost to the week-long party, also known as “Canada’s national drunk.” Brad Watters, general manager of this year's Grey Cup, says that the team winning the 95th Grey Cup at home "would really turn the town on its......
Continue Reading "Fans, Fanfare, and Football"November 11, 2007
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. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of......
Continue Reading "Elsewhere in the Ist-A-Verse"November 2, 2007
If there’s one thing Torontoist likes to do, it’s moan about stuff, but on the face of it, that Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days receiving a theatrical release here is something that should be received without complaint. After all, journalists have praised the film, including Norm Wilner at Metro, who calls the film "marvellous filmmaking." But really, it just gives us a chance to moan about the lack of......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Reassemble The Tracey Fragments"October 23, 2007
At Torontoist, we're so used to writing about certain niche genres of art—graffiti art, video art, comic art, participatory art, billboard liberation art, performance art, outdoor art, nocturnal art, transit art—that we tend to forget about the encompassing category of "fine art for the commercial market." Canadian and international contemporary art enthusiasts will descend upon the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (255 Front Street West) this weekend from October 25–29 for the Toronto International Art......
Continue Reading "TIAF: International Art, Locally"October 19, 2007
The After Dark Film Festival! Happening all week! The only film festival where Uwe bloody Boll could have his film accepted! We talked about it here! Check it out! Another crowded week for festivals, though, and sometimes we have to wonder how even Toronto can support this many in a week. We’ve got the ImagiNATIVE Film Festival and Toronto Latin Film Festivals finishing up, the Student Shorts Film Festival and the Estonian Documentary Film......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Ben Affleck Apparently Not Useless After All"October 9, 2007
If you’re one of the unfortunate souls who missed out on Helvetica way back in April—it was one of the big buzz films at Hot Docs this year—then mark October 16 on your calendar…maybe with a clean sans serif, in bold. Even italicized, depending on your level of excitement. Er, anyway, on October 16, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario (that’s RGD Ontario to their friends) will be hosting a screening of......
Continue Reading "A Helvetica Good Time "October 1, 2007
Sure, the Toronto FC may have lost Saturday's game 4-1––hell, they may have lost 75% of this season's games––but this clip of the soccer team's fans on the Washington DC Metro (which we discovered thanks to DCist) is kind of sweet in a "loud sports fans yelling French" way. Plus, Toronto fans are totally "the gem of the league"! If only subway enthusiasm could be somehow be harnessed and channeled into on-field talent, then......
Continue Reading "Washington FC"September 28, 2007
The Revue cinema is due to reopen its doors on October 4th, and if you’ve been waiting for the chance to buy tickets for the opening night, they’re now on sale at She Said Boom (393 Roncesvalles Avenue) at $20 for the film and the after-party or $10 for just the party at the Lithuanian Hall (1573 Bloor Street West). The opening night film is secret, but it was selected by an online poll,......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: No End In Sight For Rep Cinema"August 31, 2007
It’s always strange to write a Film Friday column in the week before the Toronto International Film Festival, since by this point it’s hard to think about anything else. We’ll be previewing the festival on Monday, so be sure to check back if you can’t think of anything else, either. In the meantime, have you had a chance to enter our Canadian Retrospective contest? You could win one Canadian Retrospective ticket package containing tickets......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Pumpkins of Fury"August 23, 2007
Nerds rejoice! It’s here! Well, it will be! Soon! Fan Expo Canada sets down at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Friday, August 24, opening at 4 p.m. and running until 6 p.m. on Sunday (regrettably not straight). Hosted by the sometimes questionable Hobby Star Marketing, the three-day event is home to a series of mini-expos relating to comics, science fiction, horror, anime, and gaming, and features enough guest appearances to keep the World of......
Continue Reading "Like The CNE, But With More D&D!"August 10, 2007
Last week, because we were completely distracted by Dock in a Box, we didn’t mention our sadness at the loss of both Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. We also couldn’t think of a Director bad enough to lament the continued existence of in the same breath. Thanks to a viewing of Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 3, we have that man! We really think that Lars von Trier missed a trick in his recent satire......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Ratnervision"August 2, 2007
In the summer heat, Toronto’s downtown can seem like a sun-baked, arid domain of asphalt and glass. Scattered throughout the concrete desert, however, are a few oases of green. The Downtown Discovery Walk links the squares, parks and parkettes that can be found in the city’s busy core. And don't worry too much about the heat; there are plenty of places to duck into for shade, refreshments, and air-conditioned comfort along this route. One......
Continue Reading "Walk and Discover Downtown's Hidden Green Spaces"July 21, 2007
The Toronto Star recently started wrapping its front section in ads, à la Metro (except the fold only extends halfway across the front page). Today's was a stark entreaty: "Don't buy an SUV." Okay, an environmental message, huh? We can live with our paper being wrapped in dispatches from the Suzuki Foundation. Then we unfolded it: "(Until you've seen the [brand and model].)" Beyond that, it's a pretty standard SUV ad, except one and......
Continue Reading "Voice Of The SUV"July 18, 2007
Toronto has an unusual problem: too many mayors' offices. After the dying years of the last century saw Metro's five cities and one borough reduced into a single bureaucratic mess, the city was left with the prickly issue of what to do with the palatial digs of Alan Tonks and six mayors left sitting barren in the far-flung civic centres and City Halls throughout the megacity (which, when pronounced with the proper cynical inflection, rhymes......
Continue Reading "Retooth, Reuse, Recycle"June 29, 2007
Yesterday, the Lakeview Generating Station in Port Credit was demolished as crowds looked on. Toronto usually gets weepy over the destruction of buildings, but the station was a pretty ugly example of Soviet-era industrial architecture and it was powered by coal. Are you going to miss it? Andy Barrie, host of CBC Radio One's Metro Morning, has early-stage Parkinson's. Three men have been charged with pimping out a 17-year-old girl at strip clubs and......
Continue Reading "See You Later Lakeview, Andy Barrie Diagnosed With Parkinsons, Big Pimpin'"June 8, 2007
Recently, Torontoist has probably been playing too many videogames. Not that that’s a problem, per se, but when you’ve become such an adrenaline junkie that you’re absent-mindedly tapping a non-existent "A" button to get past this bothersomely long “cut-scene” you’ve been watching only to remember that you’re actually watching The Omen, you have to admit that you’ve probably got a problem, and should probably cool off with some of Pedro Costa's longest films, showing at......
Continue Reading "Film Friday: Colossal Shorts"May 29, 2007
Spring launch season slows this week, but finishes strongly with new poetry collections by national treasures bill bissett and David McFadden. Tomorrow night, help David celebrate his Selected Poems: Why Are You So Sad?, edited and introduced by Stuart Ross. Here’s Stuart, from the intro: "David's poetry, like David, is social. It's interested in people, and in trees, squirrels, dogs, and oceans. It's also social in that it wants to be read, and it......
Continue Reading "LitTO: May 29–June 4"May 8, 2007
Earlier this evening, at around 6:15 p.m., a big crowd was gathered on the west side of Parliament St., just above Shuter St. An ambulance was being loaded up on the east side. At Shuter, Metro's finest were cordoning off the block with police tape. Just inside the tape, a man in a gray t-shirt sat on the curb, crying and shaking. A woman, dressed in white, was explaining to a friend what had......
Continue Reading "Why Helicopters Are Hovering Over Parliament Street"