At first we assumed it was Scientology. After all, who else has the money to produce and purchase space for such glossy anti-pharmaceutical ads, which have been popping up all over transit shelters and buses in Ontario and Montreal? Google wasn't much help, and their Blog Search just pointed us to other people as perplexed as we were. And poor spellers with domination fantasies. Searches of domain registrations weren't particularly fruitful, especially after the......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Now in its fourth season, Food Network Canada's Restaurant Makeover—wherein both established and struggling restaurants are overhauled with a......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Snowy Day at the Office BY REY__ .......

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......

Poor OCAP. They can't even complain about the police watching them without the police watching them. At noon on Wednesday, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a press conference (not a rally or an action or a march but a press conference) at the northeast corner of Dundas and Sherbourne, and there was about one police officer for each person in attendance (around twenty). As eight or so cops casually observed the conference from......

Photo by EIFF. Next week on October 17th, the International Festival of Authors will kick off its 28th year since its inception in 1980 at the Premiere Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay West). Incorporating some of the best contemporary world literature, the festival is comprised of eleven days and nights of readings, interviews, round-table discussions, lectures, and book signings—not to mention special event readings by Scotiabank Giller Prize and Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists.......

Sure, The Office's season premiere is on next Thursday night, and it's a pretty great show and all, but if there's any one thing wrong with the NBC-hosted comedy, it's that there's never enough office-related hip-hop dancing. (Well, aside from this.) Enter Thrive! Entertainment, whose show Tha Office is playing for the two nights after the aforementioned premiere––Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th––at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show is about "office workers......

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. Man In OfficeBY PDPHOTOGRAPHY Straining to SeeBY TAYLOR ZHOU Line Of DutyBY SPOTMATICFANATIC KidsBY RIDE MY PONY Canadian National ExhibitionBY TYSONWILLIAMS.COM UntitledBY RYAN COLEMAN......

If you missed it, yesterday our Toronto International Film Festival preview began with a look at the Gala and Contemporary World Cinema programmes, and if you didn’t know, tickets go on sale tomorrow morning online, at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM and at the TIFFG Box Office at the Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street—so after you’ve read this, you might want to start queuing. Today we have our preview of the Special Presentations, Real To Reel......

Much like the budding romance between Hero and Claudio in the play itself, Wednesday night's open-air premiere of William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing was threatened by the malevolent influence of outside elements, in this case a light drizzle that foreshadowed an impending downpour. As the skies darkened, it seemed likely that this year's Canopy Theatre premiere in Philosopher's Walk would be postponed for a day. But the actors seemed impervious to the rain......

The first time Torontoist encountered Dave Meslin was at the August 2004 Trampoline Hall at the AGO's Walker Court. Ostensibly speaking about "Drinking Games," Mez instead develivered a speech about his first experiences with alcohol, the hegemony of mixed drinks, and the backwardness of the cup half-empty, half-full metaphor. It was one of the most spectacular things we have ever heard. This Monday, July 9, Mez makes his return to Trampoline Hall, this time......

From pristine wetland to industrial transportation hub and the confluence of major urban expressways, the Lower Don Lands area has gone through many changes throughout Toronto’s history. The mouth of the Don River is about to change again. Back in February, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation announced a competition to redesign a 40-hectare area located at the mouth of the river and the entrance to the Port Lands (pictured right). The teams invited to......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

The elite of the documentary film world gathered this morning at Revival for a press conference announcing the lineup of this year's Hot Docs festival. It's a powerhouse program, which TVO's Rudy Buttingnol attributes to the filmmakers and the growing importance of the medium. "Documentaries are helping change the way people think," says Buttingnol, who will also receive the inaugural Outstanding Industry Achievement Award. "Just look at how governments around the world are now trying......

Toronto's overwhelming reception of Al Gore yesterday prompted David Miller to toughen his stance on climate change. Mayor Miller promised an aggressive change in policy on pollution, transit and construction, which will be formally proposed in late March. The Ontario government may have come up with a way around the new U.S.-Canada passport rules. A new super-secure driver's license is in talks, which would feature "laser engraving, holograms, currency-like print quality and other security measures......

Each weekday morning, we pick a recent image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve! Here lie the abandoned frozen remains of the Microsoft's promotional Vista and Office ice house. Where, you ask? That's right -- dumped under Toronto's very own Gardiner Expressway. Toronto photographer Cliph discovered the cast-off remains by accident while out......

So, about that giant ice house that Microsoft put up in Dundas Square: apparently 270,000 pounds of ice went into the construction of the 1,800 square foot structure, which includes a fully sculpted kitchen, dining room, study, living room, two bedrooms and bathroom all wired-up with televisions and computers (real, as opposed to of the ice variety) running demos of Vista and Office 2007. It's lucky that the weather has finally decided to act......

Can you believe that Unaccompanied Minors features three out of five Kids in the Hall? Neither can we! Or that the film is directed by Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig and features lots of other excellent folks such as The Office’s BJ Novak. We can still believe it sucks, though. Which, apparently, it does. Called “a generally lousy movie” by Now’s Deirdre Swain, she notes, oddly, that Tyler James Williams is a “particular standout,......

Officials desperately arguing over who's responsible for potential financial shortfall for Expo 2015. If the answer is "somebody other than Toronto," we'll get to bid! If that is not the answer, however, things will be slightly more problematic. (That's the Perisphere and Trylon on the left there, by the way. From the New York World's Fair. They're famous, you know.) David Miller and Jane Pitfield come together to agree that the provincial and federal......

The City of Toronto will be holding a Public Auction sale tomorrow at Queen Elizabeth Exhibit Hall, Exhibition Place, with the preview beginning at 7am. There are 3 auction rings and the auctions begin at 9:30am (“SHARP!!” cries the website), with “Police Cars, Trucks & Trailers, Office Furniture & Bicycles, Lawn, Construction & Garage Equipment and Much More!” on offer, including this handy Zamboni (pictured). With no reserves, we’ve heard this is a likely place......

Brown leaves outside and it's suddenly colder than a witch's tit. Hello, fall! But besides meaning a death to sun and happiness, the fall brings in the new season of independant theatre! Yay! Tarragon has just opened its season with Generous, a new play by Michael Healey. Generous is a strikingly different play from his more naturalistic works like The Drawer Boy and Rune Arlidge. Generous is actually four two-act plays with inter-twining plots and......

26 Grenville Street is a large, ugly monolith with worn floors, recycled furniture and not much natural light. It's typical of government buildings built decades ago, but despite its dismal brown tiles and threadbare carpets, it houses one of Toronto's most interesting places: the city morgue. Here, up to a hundred bodies temporarily reside while the Office of the Chief Coroner studies the details behind their deaths to better serve the living. The Coroners Building......

It seems like that the TIFF has raised more questions than it answers. The most pressing one is just how do you pronounce the titles of two much talked about films Volver and Babel. Vickie at Moviepie Musings chimes in: If, like I did, you’re wondering how to properly pronounce Volver, allow me to tell you: it’s pronounced vol-VEHR. Preferably with a rolling R. A plea: if anyone went to see Babel, please feel free......

Value Village is one of the unsung heroes of Toronto's indie arts scene. Now that the Buy the Pound is located in the middle of nowhere, VV is easily one of the best places for penny-saving artists to find vintage clothing. Also, we're pretty sure that a good percentage of independent theatre in the city would be without props if it weren't for VV. So it was only a matter of time that someone decided......

Everyone's been reporting on the Tim Horton's explosion/fire but the Sun gets at the most important question, just what will this do to Tim Horton's stockholders? The answer, probably not much. We're getting smacked around with another mild dose of winter weather. Don't take Torontoist's word for it, take the Weather Office's. The city is staging a five day blitz on idling drivers. They're targetting the busiest part of Front St. right around Union Station.......

There are several concerts taking place this week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Tonight at Roy Thomson Hall, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) led by debuting conductor Stefan Sanderling will perform Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 followed by Symphony No. 8 as part of the Shostakovich Remembered Festival. The featured performers for the evening are Alexander Toradze on piano and Andrew McCandless on trumpet. If you......

From where Torontoist is sitting it looks quite lovely outside but don't be fooled. It's cold outside and we just want to remind you to please bundle up, maybe even wearing a jester cap, before going out to do whatever it is you'll be doing this Friday evening. The Weather Office has the windchill at around -25 tonight and sadly it'll stay like this for most of the weekend. *Also, if you skate and can't......

After meeting up with Ukrainian president Vik Yushchenko, Mayor David Miller might be seen downtown tomorrow scoping out various items for sale at the 2005 Spring Public Auction. (Word out of city hall is that Dave is in the market for a used EMS crime fighting vehicle.) At the auction - obviously the best sale of the weekend - a person can go pick up any of the following at a discounted rate: Office Equipment......

Royson James reports that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and a coterie of staff will be visiting Toronto to swap notes with Mayor Miller. There's plenty that Chicago's mayor can teach us: how to develop a working, people-focused waterfront, how to get money from higher levels of government and more. We here at Torontoist thinks Mayor Miller should also meet up with a few other mayors from around the world:......

Author William "Upski" Wimsatt lectures tonight at Harbourfront. Between his job as Director of the League of Independent Voters, Wimsatt has found time to write Bomb The Suburbs, the hip hop theory classic, No More Prisons, an examination of the American penal system, and How To Get Stupid White Men Out of Office - a Michael Moore-inspired treatise on marginalized voters. He's been touted by both Tupac and the Utne Reader too. Not a lightweight.......