Two big name/big chain clothing lines landed in Toronto this week—one at Holt Renfrew on Tuesday, the other at H&M this morning. To determine which "limited edition" collection is for you, dear fast-fashionista, here's a little quiz: 1. Who's your personal style icon? A) Kate Moss B) Jennifer Lopez 2. Favourite fashion model? A) Kate Moss B) Jessica Stam 3. Most influential figure in pop culture this decade? A) Kate Moss B) Beyoncé Results......

Hip-hop blues music maker Buck 65 drops his new album Situation at the end of the month. The release is an ode to 1957, a time period the man born Richard Terfry considers world-changing in terms of pop culture (or, as he says in a video on his website, "the year all hell broke loose") thanks to events like Bettie Page going into self-imposed exile, those iconic plastic pink flamingoes appearing on lawns everywhere, and......

If there's anything Jesus loves more than flattery, it's porn stars. Well, technically, Jesus loves everyone—even those little teenage tramps and their HPV vaccines—but now, ol' JHC is adding some marketing pizzazz to that affection. Since deities also love acting all obscure and ambiguous, the Michigan-based XXX Church (savvy!) has taken it upon themselves to declare that Jesus wants you to stop looking at porn and instead find titillation in scripture. And they've set their......

Pandas is an odd name for anything, and more than a little disconcerting if you're a fan of large, bamboo-eating quadripeds who don't like to breed. Luckily for pandas and those who love them, the No Pandas gallery isn't a radical anti-panda group dedicated to the final destruction of that most endangered of species. It's an art show at Xpace, dedicated to exposing North Americans to China's up-and-coming young artists. Curator Siya Chen, who......

If you are of blog-reading age there is a good chance you either didn't see Star Wars in its initial theatrical release or were taken by your parents not too long after kicking that whole toilet-training thing. At the time George Lucas wasn't even sure he had anything good on his hands but, of course, it has since turned into a cultural touchstone and a source of even more money than Han Solo could imagine......

Toronto-based Oli Goldsmith has embarked on a project both daunting and bizarre, but surely to the delight of pop culture afficionados: he's creating a thousand portraits of...Borat? Yep, Borat. A senior designer at the CBC, former Artist in Residence at the Drake Hotel and creator of Our Lady Peace's Spritual Machines album art, Goldsmith has now set his sights on the infamous character created by Sacha Baron Cohen. The artist spoke with Torontoist about......

David Altmejd’s art looks good on paper. First off, it’s about werewolves, and who can resist the cuddly therianthropes? From folklore to B-movies, the werewolf maintains a lasting hold on the popular imagination. However, Altmejd’s work is neither folksy nor campy. In the Montreal-born, New York-based sculptor’s elaborate installations, he starts off with the (usually fragmented, decaying) figure of the werewolf, and embellishes it with everything from crystals and jewellery, to S&M paraphernalia, to......

Hey fan boys and girls! Are you still gushing over comic book legend Stan Lee’s cameo on last Monday's episode of Heroes (pictured left)? Well get ready to get giddy again. Lee will be appearing at an autograph session this afternoon at HMV (5:30 – 6:30 at 272 Queen St. W.). The 85-year-old Lee is in town to promote the launch of his new DVD, Stan Lee Presents Mosaic. As perhaps the world's most widely......

We're just going to put this out there: if you're generally unaware of what it is these "Academy Awards" and "Oscars" are all about, go here. With that out of the way, we're excited to be liveblogging tonight's show. Yes, Citizen Kane lost eight of its nine nominations back in 1941, and similarly debatable decisions occur every year. But no one can argue the Academy Awards' hold on pop culture, and in the spirit......

Call it cultural tourism, voyeurism, a geek fest, call it what you will. But when we heard that I Maid Cafe—a Cosplay restaurant—had opened up in Scarborough last December, we knew we would be taking the trip to Kennedy and Finch very soon. For those who don’t delight in Japanese pop culture, “cosplay” is short for costume play. It started with kids getting dressed up as their favourite anime characters, which, if you’ve ever been......

Do visions of quality seasonal live pop culture for the whole family dance in your head? The National Ballet of Canada's The Nutcracker and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring The Rockettes look all cheery and innocent, but Torontoist knows that behind all the tinsel, sugar plums, long legs and rosy cheeks lurk two fearsome competitors. How far will they go to win your holiday dollar? Only one thing is certain: when Torontoist pits......

OK, d'accord, comme promis, without compromise, we have right here your revue franglais de Bon Cop Bad Cop. Compris? Le film commence avec le discovery d'un body sprawled across la frontière du Québec and l'Ontario like a grim metaphor for the last 10 years de Torontoist(e)'s life. Say ce qu'tu veux du film, but we may never look at that sign on la 401 the same way again. L'offering s'agit d'un 'cop movie' cliché......

This is the first of an on-going series of posts covering the cultural zeitgeist that is Snakes on a Plane and its impact on the GTA. Anyone who hasn't heard of this film- nay, pop culture phenomenon- has surely been living under a rock. (Pun intended!) ...But Torontoist is never one to shy away from gratuitous external links. Today not only marks the opening of the film, but in turn, the end of the most......

2006 is clearly the Year of the Pirate, with this limey pop culture meme invading everything in Toronto from DJ Lazarus fetish parties to festivals at Fort York. This Friday's Pirates of the Streetcarrr Parrrty by Newmindspace is no exception to the swashbuckling madness. Attendees are promised "Pirates and mermaids from the briney deep," bottles of rum, old maritime songs and a surprise event in the middle. Let's hope it's not walking the plank.......

Now, Torontoist has absolutely no intention of getting into the whole Sienna-Miller-playing Edie Sedgwick debacle, because well, we have more important things to do with our time then to babble about celebrity fodder. Yet, Edie was a pretty fascinating mix of American socialite, debutante, heiress and lest we forget, Andy Warhol's muse. Their relationship did not last through an entire calendar year, yet Edie's inspiration on pop culture has lasted longer than anyone would've......

For those interested in 'it'-specific events, this Tall Poppy is for you. The Boat, the venerable 'It' club in Kensington Market, is the site of an increasingly popular monthly dance party called Zoi Zoi, the venerable 'It' DJ night in Toronto. If that wasn't enough 'It's, resident DJ Mimi plays what has become the 'It' music of the day - French language pop. We're using the 'It' phrase so much because we've never actually been......

Eye contributor Liisa Ladouceur helps run the Royal Sarcophagus Society a neo-gothic collective that makes and sells crafts, organizes readings and more. The group's latest event is Wanderlust,an evening of raunchy road-trip tales, provocative poetry and more tonight at the Gladstone art bar. The RSS will be joined by it-girl of the month Sarah Slean (her Victorian inspired art show with Louise Upperton is still on at Spin Gallery, just down the street), poet and......

With all your usual movie news outlets having gone crazy for Sundance, here at Torontoist we’ve gone crazy for C.R.A.Z.Y, Jean-Marc Vallee’s coming-of-age-when-you’re-gay- and-you-think-your-dad-is awesome-but- won’t-be-down-with-that flick, being shown tonight as part of Cinematheque Ontario’s Canada’s Top Ten programme (8:45pm, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas West). The showing is preceded at 6:30pm by a fascinating panel – Pop Culture as History/History as Pop Culture, featuring Atom Egoyan (of Canada’s Top Ten......

- The Ceeb employee who wears the studded belt will soon be hosting a news and pop culture radio show on Toronto's Newstalk 1010 CFRB and Montreal's CJAD, according to the Globe. Apparently, this doesn't mean his hour is up, it just means he wants to bring more people to his time. - Take the Great Canadian Blog Survey so we can all figure out the point of these silly things. - The Star......

New contributor Mathew will be posting regular on all things TIFF. Here goes: With only a few days to go until individual tickets go on sale for the Toronto Film Festival (7am on September 7th) and tickets hitting the heights of $20 when you factor in GST (over $35 for Gala tickets, which should be sold out by now, actually) it's definitely time for film lovers to begin their research into which films to......

There is just so much good music to be found online and much of it as free and legal downloads. That's what Torontoist wants to share with you in these Le Mercredi Mixtapes and that's what *sixeyes share as well. So many artists, bands, and indie music labels offer mp3s that you could live in front of your monitor searching for new music. And Torontoist does.... here's what we've been living on lately. 1.......

Tall Poppy Interview: Chuck Klosterman ...

Kitsch Them If You Can Who: Pop culture darlings Barbie’s Basement Jewellery, creator of glittery semi-precious charms, belt buckles and pins of pop culture icons like Pac-Man, Betty Page and James Dean What: Opening their studio to the public Where: 401 Logan Ave. (at Dundas), Unit 220 (416-466-3759) When: Today only, from 2pm to 9pm Why: Crazy deals on firsts, seconds, a preview of fall pieces, and you can even design your own ‘fancy deluxe’......

For Torontoist, the best part about getting home from work last summer was sitting down to stalk watch Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings. Perhaps it was his beady Mormon eyes, or the way he correctly answered all the questions about Canada: we couldn't get enough of pre-hype Ken Jen. Then the media frenzy started and Torontoist lost interest. But now it seems Ken Jennings is becoming rather unpublicized again. Did you know he is in Toronto......

- A Daily Showesque pop culture news show produced by the Comedy Network and starring the frighteningly-named Elvira Kurt has apparently been on the air for a few weeks. But if you don't have a television you can just go watch a nightly taping at the Toronto Film Studios. - Dopefiend.ca is a new TO site that promises to be "your style joint." Nice design, an inaugural interview with magic pony, and more on the......

January 26th is an important day in pop culture history. Today marks the births of Hockey Legend Wayne Gretzky, Academy Award winner Paul Newman and Outspoken Comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. However on a day so cherished, it is desperately unfortunate that we must include ex-Raptor Vince Carter, who will be blowing out twenty-eight candles today. With all the life-threatening injuries he has sustained during his illustrious career, we must congratulate him on making it this far.......