Ever marvel at the architecture of Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall and the Ontario Legislature in Queen's Park? Those lovely red-brick buildings, dear friends, are the legacy of Toronto's vernacular building material—sweet slabs formed from the banks of the Don herself. From 1889 to 1980, the Don Valley Brick Works made some of the highest quality brick in the land. Why, in 1893, the Don Valley brick was crowned Best Brick at the Chicago World's......

Photo of Architecture in Helsinki by Zach Klein. There are lots of great shows in Toronto this week—including a bunch of free ones. On Tuesday, Musicologist recommends checking out Sarah Melody at the Mod Club (where Snow of "Informer" fame will be making an on-stage appearance—YES!) and then running to the Horseshoe to see Wintersleep and A Northern Chorus. Spiral Beach, who also put on a great live show, have a free concert on......

It's been a strange week for Leaf Nation. On Tuesday, Toronto was embarrassed 7-1 (on home ice, no less) by the Carolina Hurricanes—and by Wednesday, the media was gleefully sounding the death knell for this year's edition of the Maple Leafs. On Wednesday night's edition of Off the Record, the panel spent ten minutes analyzing what was going wrong with the Leafs' year, which by then was exactly four games old. The team had......

What if suburbanites could commute to downtown Toronto on the H20 highway? TTC chair Adam Giambrone says high-speed ferries could ease road traffic and cut commute times in half. David Miller thinks the idea has merit, but is concerned the $25 million price tag on boats and docking facilities may be too high. The Star is skeptical, but Torontoist rarely turns down a nice boat cruise. On Tuesday we mentioned that music critics have......

Each week, Torontoist chooses the most interesting cases from the Toronto Police Service crime blotter. All charges are alleged until proven under law. • The big story this week was the arrest of six kids for the murder of a 17-year-old boy in the Flemingdon Park area. On July 15, 2006, the victim was stripped and assaulted over several hours by a group of people outside a housing complex on Grenoble Drive, finally succumbing to......

On Tuesday, the second-place New Jersey Devils came to play their road game at the Air Canada Centre, clogging up the neutral zone and waiting for the Maple Leafs to make a mistake. Which might have worked, had they been able to take the lead. But the Leafs played patient, capitalized on the power play, and held on for a 2-1 win. It was only after the oft-maligned Nik Antropov scored the Leafs’ second......

On Tuesday, 15-year-old skateboarder Ben Davis and friends were hanging around at Adrift Skate Shop in Kensington Market, when they decided to take advantage of the nice weather and hit the streets. Davis was at the end of a line of skaters and didn't notice that a blue Chevy Impala was driving straight toward him. And apparently the driver of the Chevy didn't see Davis either because it drove right into him, sending him flying......

Each week, Torontoist chooses the most interesting cases from the Toronto Police Service crime blotter. All charges are alleged until proven under law. When the police weren't busy trying to manage opening and closing the Gardiner a bunch of times after the Great CN Tower Ice Incident of 2007, they had their hands full with some skeezy characters this week. • The Fraud Squad is in full-effect these days with yet another charity fraud arrest.......

On Tuesday, Wireless Toronto (everybody's favourite community wireless group) held its very first Hacknight. In this new year, Wireless Toronto will be doing more than just setting up free wifi in public places; they're starting a series of group tech-project hacknight get-togethers. Beer, wires, routers, cordless drills...you get the idea. Tuesday was the first part of a grander project to build a wifi backpack: "We’re building a wifi backpack, which we’ve affectionately called the WiFi......

Photo of Wellesley station by David Topping from the 69 Stations project. On Tuesday afternoon rush hour, as I emerged from the stairs linking the southbound subway platform of Wellesley station to its fare and bus area on the street-adjoining ground level. A man with long-ish ponytail walked by, and then another man shuffled up to him. His friend catching up, I supposed. But then the second man took out a wallet-like case and......

Apologies for the lack of listings last week. The combination of the previous night’s Halloween party and an encroaching deadline on another project left little time for me to gather all the literary happenings in the city. Monday This Is Not A Reading Series presents Ben Schott (pictured), author of Schott’s Almanac. There will be a trivia pop quiz, surprise guests, and more – it’s a TINARS event, so you know it won’t be your......

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a double-ticket),......

Let’s start with the film festivals for a change, huh? Most intriguing has to be the Toronto International Latin Film Festival, because it’s… on at the Royal Cinema? Que El? It’s interesting to see the old girl is in use again; until now we haven’t heard anything about it, and don’t even know if it’s been renovated yet. Maybe? The film festival starts tonight at 7pm with the Chilean film For Rent, and runs until......

The last 10 days have been a great time to be a film nut, but now Christmas comes early for book nerds as over the next few weeks two of the biggest events of the year take place, starting with next Sunday’s Word on the Street, which will be followed by the start of the International Festival of Authors in mid-October. A few events taking place today. Poet Lorette C. Luzajic launches her first book,......

Ok, so the city is in the grip of full-blown festival mania. Red carpets, Gala screenings, and celebrity sightings are all great, but so are poetry readings, right? Right? Anyone??? Tonight at 8pm, head north to Zemra Lounge – 778 St. Clair W. – for this month’s installment of the Diamond Cherry reading series. Stephen Humphries and former director of the Art Bar, Allan Briesmster (The Other Seasons), will be reading. It’s free, and you......

Put Up Your Dukes Before I get to this week’s listings, here’s an upcoming event that might interest some of you. First it was German director Uwe Boll challenging movie critics to fight him in Vancouver, now author Craig Davidson (author of last year’s criminally underrated collection, Rust and Bone) will fight willing pugilists at the Toronto launch of his forthcoming novel, The Fighter. The date of the bout is yet to be determined,......

Torontoist has been busy as a beaver (we wish we could think of a more literary allusion than that, but we're a little exhausted) at the IFOA this week. Monday night found us at a rollicking party full of the week's literary stars. Amazonian Zadie Smith held court in one corner of the room, while we demonstrated why handshaking should be outlawed at cocktail parties in front of our crush-of-the-week Charles Montgomery. Beer in one......

The folks at newmindspace have been busy. In the last couple of months they've turned Toronto's streets into a giant playground with their games of capture the flag, manhunt and picnics. Tonight they're taking it underground with a subway party. Here's the description straight from the source: Deep below the streets of Toronto on Planet Earth, subterranean bliss erupts before your eyes. You step onto a subway car, hear three chimes and suddenly you are......