Results tagged “queensquay”

Whatever else you may have thought of former mayor Barbara Hall, she will forever be a champion for besting Boston, whose Brahmins looked down their noses at what would eventually become the award-winning Toronto Music Garden. After much bureaucratic red tape, landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy and collaborator cellist Yo-Yo Ma gave up on trying to build a music garden in New England’s famed city by the sea. Instead, they headed north to Toronto where they were warmly welcomed by Mayor Barbara Hall, Director of Parks Susan Richardson, and financial backer Jim Fleck. Starting with a windy plot at the western reaches of Harbourfront near the foot of Spadina Avenue, Messervy and Ma began to transform the lakeside property into the Toronto Music Garden.

According to Environment Canada, this winter will be the coldest in fifteen years. That news should send us all running for the comforts of indoors, but once again Harbourfront Centre provides the perfect reason to play outside. DJ Skating Nights return for a third year, providing those who brave the cold to skate under the glittering skyline with a soundtrack from local DJs. The five Friday nights of the series will feature five different...

A large part of the downtown core from College to Queens Quay and York to Bayview, was blacked-out for about 2 ½ hours yesterday. In response, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said that Toronto has the ability to generate all the power it needs and certainly wasn't getting any more from the Province, while Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty agreed, adding that Torontonians should stop whining and being all dependent on electricity.

Photo by EIFF.

Photo by matthewpiers from the Torontoist Flickr pool.

The International Readings at Harbourfront Centre unveiled the line-up for their 2007 winter season yesterday. A horde of authors, journalists and poets – some established and some intriguing young talent – will be coming to Toronto over the next few weeks. Book nerds, grab your pens and mark these dates down on your calendars.

For those who have enjoyed a Sunday at Cherry Beach, dancing to chill beats or relaxing in the shade of the grove, the question among your friends all week has simply been, "Skating?" Tonight from 8 - 11 PM, Promise, known to many as simply "David and Irving", will be hosting this week's installation of DJ Skating Nights at the Harbourfront Centre. Skate to an eclectic mix of reggae, disco, house and techno by your selectors Violet, Benjamin Boles and Jonny White.

Then you'll love Lake Ontario Park! At least, that would seem to be a reasonable assumption. However, if you're looking for more reassurance (recommended), the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (or, NAMBLA) is hosting a public forum on their plans for "Lake Ontario Park," which is to be "one of Toronto's great new park spaces and a defining destination for the city," running from the Portlands (Cherry St. south of the Distillery District) in the west to the RC Harris Treatment Plant at the foot of Victoria Park Ave in the east.

Everyone sufficiently recovered from Word on the Street? Over 200,000 people braved the wind and rain and descended upon Queen’s Park for a celebration of books. I have a book hangover, thus the lateness of this week’s listings.

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.

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???

Well, not even a week until the Film Festival is left, and frankly, Torontoist is ever so slightly… No, scratch that, we’re utterly crapping our pants over the enormity of trying to cover the world’s largest film festival. We’re only little!

David Soknacki, the right-winger picked by David Miller to be his budget chief, has announced that he is retiring from politics and will not be running for re-election in Ward 43 - Scarborough East this fall.

This week Torontoist presents extended literary event listings – you get till Sunday the 27th at no additional cost – as I’m out of town until the end of August.

Ahem. Yes, this week there are other films out than that film that we refuse to name in this post because we’re covering it enough already. There are plenty of other options, folks.

The Diamond Cherry Reading Series – run by local poets and small-press publishers Devon Gallant and Julie Cameron Gray – kicks-off the week with performances by audio poet Hilary Peach (Poems Only Dogs Can Hear) and singer/songwriter/poet Nik Beat. The series takes place each month at the Zemra Lounge – 778 St. Clair West – and starts at 8pm. It’s free, too, so you have no excuse not to go.

Torontoist isn’t paid by the word, which is why we can allow ourselves long, rambling posts where we complain about the things that annoy us. Sorry, did we say “allow ourselves?” We meant “subject you to”. And here we go again.

We’re all still busy basking in the warm glow of the revelation that the Royal, at least, will live again, and we know we mentioned it last week, but Superman Returns has been getting good enough word of mouth it might actually be worth checking out. Eye’s Jason Anderson claims “it's the rare blockbuster that lives up to advance hype”, but thankfully, good old trustworthy John Harkness of NOW gives it a kicking because the cast are too young and “here's still the big problem with all Superman stories, which is that he's kind of dull”.

Move over Trevor Coleman your claim on the maritime themed music scene is being challenged by none other than Santa Cruz organizer/DJ/ Tyler Clark Burke.

There were four shootings this weekend including a fatal one near Don Mills and Eglinton. Police say they're also encountering resistance from witnesses and victims which is making their investigation much harder.

Haircuts By Children gives a couple of Parkdale elementary school children some shears and an opportunity to go at the hair of strangers at various salons around Toronto during the month of May.

. The featured performers for the evening are Alexander Toradze on piano and Andrew McCandless on trumpet. If you happen to be between the ages of 15 and 29, you can purchase a ticket for TSO performances (including this evening’s 8pm event) for the meager sum of $12 from the tsoundcheck website. If you are under 15 or over 29, tickets range from moderately expensive to more expensive. Tomorrow evening’s performance will be slightly altered as the TSO will play Shostakovich’s second piano concerto followed by the eighth symphony.

Get ready to watch the skies tonight as the Moon crosses through the Earth's outer perimeter shadow (penumbra). The Moon will appear to be dimmed during this penumbral lunar eclipse, which is only one of five such cases happening during the 21st Century. In honour of this event, the Toronto School of Creativity & Inquiry is inviting you to celebrate on Ward's Island Beach.

Sometimes, on Torontoist’s laziest days, it will drag itself out of bed just long enough to flick on the BBC’s 6 music internet radio service, the BBC’s gift to the world’s fans of British indie music, to listen to the 6 music breakfast show, which for ages was almost always preceded by a Don Letts introduction, (if it wasn’t someone doing a bad impression of David Bowie doing the intro.) Which, to be honest, is probably the most exposure Torontoist has had to Don Letts.

is marketed as Adams return to his roots, but could be just another case of musical masturbation.