Starting today and going until Sunday November 11 is the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at The Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place. Tickets are $18, but $14 for seniors and youth (5-17) and free for kids under 5. It's a great place to take your kids to see horses and cows, and they can learn all about corporate sponsorship—I mean, agriculture!—with activities including the Toyota Dealers Royal Rodeo, the Toronto Star horse demonstrations, and the......

After MasterCard agreed to ante up $160k to keep city skating rinks open this December, local newspapers spoke with one voice in reporting the story. The Star offered the headline "Private bailout of city rinks...priceless," the Post weighed in with "Skating in December...priceless," and the Sun daringly dropped the ellipsis with "Donation: Priceless." The Globe alone experienced a spasm of originality, settling for a subheading of "Skating still in the cards." Stéphane Dion, content......

Photos by mishkaoutofcontrol from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Except to its frequent clientele, Toronto's legendary Matador Club is best known as the setting to Leonard Cohen's "Closing Time," which laments a place that "got wrecked by the winds of change." The Matador's been around since 1914. Built as a dance hall for WWI soldiers, it then became home to a bowling alley, and finally ended up as a quirky, late-night hangout with strong country......

The Ontario Coalition For Social Justice and Make Poverty History believe there need not always be dissonance when electioneering and rock n' roll meet. This Monday's Vote Out Poverty gala at Massey Hall promises to be a "coming together of people from all walks of life and political allegiances gathering for an evening of entertainment united by a desire to reduce poverty in Ontario, Canada and the world," and will feature a multi-partisan mashup......

As you may have read, Blue Rodeo played a series of free concerts around the city yesterday. As you also may have read, there's a provincial election going on. Reader Matt Kim sent us the following story of a rather odd intersection of the two: Me and some of my co-workers left early today to see Blue Rodeo, who were playing various spots around Toronto, promoting their new album. By the time we'd arrived,......

On occasion, Daniel Johnston has shed his cult status and entered the public spotlight: it happened when Kurt Cobain promoted him and again with the release of The Devil and Daniel Johnston. And as a recent compilation confirmed, his influence can be felt throughout modern music, including Tom Waits, Beck, and The Flaming Lips. So it was a surreal experience to see Johnston close the Over The Top Festival this past Sunday. On one......

Torontoist enjoyed Stuart Berman's interview in this week's eye, pitting Max McCabe-Lokos (the Deadly Snakes) and Bry Webb (the Constantines).We're not taking sides in this little "tiff" but we'll gladly go and watch either band this weekend at the Horseshoe. But enough of the friendliness of Canada's indie scene, we think that underneath all this collegiality and 'pat-on-the back' we're all in this together joviality there's some real rage. 1) Sarah Slean vs. Sarah......

So apparently there's some sort of thing going on up in Barrie at (Molson) Park Place this Saturday. A whole bunch of bands, raising awareness, blah blah blah. The bill looks something like this - African Guitar Summit, Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, Bruce Cockburn, Bryan Adams, The Bachman Cummings Band, Deep Purple, DobaCaracol featuring Kna'an, Gordon Lightfoot, Great Big Sea, Jann Arden, Jet, Les Trois Accords, Motley Crue, Our Lady Peace, Sam Roberts, Simple Plan,......

Hailing from Nova Scotia, Matt Mays & El Torpedo play the kind of music that simply sounds "Canadian", for all the positive and negative connotations that may come with the tag. We're talking big, rootsy rock in the grand tradition of Neil Young & Crazy Horse - thundering guitars, raw vocals, a healthy dose of twang - nothing groundbreaking, but when it's done right it's a marvelous thing. And Matt Mays does it pretty damn......