Results tagged “spacing”

PARTY: In Spacing magazine’s newest issue, “Grey Spaces//Where the City Blurs,” contributors examine spaces like libraries, airports, community centres, and shopping malls: publicly accessible places with a set of societal or legal rules that apply upon entry. The release party takes place tonight at the Canadian Corps Hall, where games and door prizes await. DJ trio Track Meet—comprised of Eye editors and writers Ed Keenan, Dave Morris, and Paul Issacs—will spin the tunes. Canadian Corps Hall (201 Niagara Street), 7:30 p.m.–1 a.m., $10 with a copy of the magazine, $5 for subscribers.

Every single one of the 107,000 copies of Now Magazine published each week is read by (on average) three different people. Sure, PMB, whatever you say. Perhaps that's not surprising when your annual studies—used to determine readership numbers and thus a year's worth of ad rates—are based largely on how recognizable a publication's logo is [PDF].

ART: Tonight, the Liberty Grand hosts the opening night preview for Artist Project Toronto. In addition to bringing together works by close to one-hundred-and-fifty artists, this year's exhibition also features a series of enlightening seminars, a contest for up-and-coming artists, and a chocolate competition (in which artists create works based on the theme of, you guessed it, chocolate!). A portion of the opening-night proceeds will go to charity, and an after party is slated for the Drake Hotel. The show runs to March 8, with various hours and ticket prices; see their website for full details. The Liberty Grand (25 British Columbia Road), 7–10 p.m., $25.

THEATRE: Back by popular demand, Monty Python's Spamalot is having a month-long return engagement at the Canon Theatre. The Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Spamalot follows King Arthur (played by the hilarious Gary Beach) and his knights on their quest for the Holy Grail. The show is a must-see for Monty Python fans, but will still be lots of fun for everyone else, even if they don't grasp the multitude of subtle Python references. Canon Theatre (244 Victoria Street), 8 p.m., $69–$175.

WORDS: Chris Carlsson, one of the founders of Critical Mass and the author of 2008's Nowtopia, is speaking this evening at CineCycle as part of Pages' This Is Not A Reading Series. He'll be discussing Nowtopia, which researches social challenges faced by outlaw bicyclists and others looking to get away from urban consumer lifestyles. Spacing's publisher and creative director Matthew Blackett will be interviewing Carlsson, and there will be an audience Q&A following the interview. CineCycle (in the alley behind 129 Spadina Avenue), 7:30 p.m., FREE.

Spacing reports on the fate of the Hug Me tree at Queen Street West and Peter Street after it was found knocked down yesterday. After narrowly avoiding being hacked up by the City's Forestry department, the tree is back—intact—in the hands of Elicser, the artist who had been painting it for the past few years, thanks in part to a woman whose husband proposed to her in front of the tree six years ago.

On May 17th, 2005, ERA Architects held a fundraiser for Spacing Magazine and [murmur] in the Fermenting Cellar of the Distillery District. It was called Toronto the Good. Admission was on a $10-20 sliding scale, the bar was open, and the buffet was impressive. Will Munro and Christopher Thinn DJed. Torontoist did not attend but trusts the many accounts of others that it was a very good time.

The idea of a TTC riders' union is nothing particularly new, but after what happened this weekend, it's quickly—and deservedly—picking up steam.

Photo by wvs from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Spacing contributor Jessica Duffin Wolfe (aka vforvandal) captured the above video at Ossington station during a late-night mid-December snowstorm. It's difficult to think of a better possible respite from the sleet; every station should have one of these.

It's a gloomy time of year to be a cyclist, but Dave Meslin and the Toronto Cyclists Union are still finding time for projects in between their slushy commutes. The group is about to launch its own magazine, and they're looking for a name.

A couple weeks back, Spacing Wire posted this brilliant old TTC ad that made us hungry for more forgotten gems of Toronto advertising. The video in question was uploaded by a user calling themselves WNED 17, and their entire archive is made up of similar videos. In fact, their profile page provides a mission statement: "Youtube user WNED17 is proud to present repeat portions of broadcast captured in the 1980s and early 1990s via...

The ever-excellent Spacing is celebrating the launch of their latest issue––an "eco-friendly" one, pictured above––next Monday, December 3rd.

Some Canadian cattle will now be allowed into the United States following a 4-year ban in the wake of several cases of "mad cow" disease. American Homeland Security regulations will still require that any bovines wishing to cross the border carry a valid passport.

NOW's yearly Best of Toronto issue is out, and amidst a slew of other winners (Cherry DiNovo is the Best MPP! CiRCA sweeps "Best Dance Club" and "Best club for an impromptu orgy"!), the alt weekly has named Spacing Toronto as the city's best blog. We're a bit jealous––we were Best Blog in 2005, and we'd definitely be up for winning again––but Spacing has been pretty awesome, consistently, since its formation. If anything, the award is long overdue. Congrats!

Pearson Airport reduces landing fees. The move was cheered by airlines, who can now drop their prices accordingly. Oh, wait, they won't do that, they'll only drop their prices by maybe about ten percent of what they could with the savings, and pocket the rest. Capitalism works!

Spacing did it, now CTV is doing it: CTV wants you to make a video about our city using the prefix phrase "My Toronto is…". Interview a kid smoking in line at Funhaus, a smiling, round-faced butcher at St. Lawrence Market, and a Bloor station musician. Ya know, the usual. Then pepper the vid with shots of the skyline, Kensington, and a passing streetcar. Or you can do something interesting.

There are a shitload of pedestrian- and public space-themed events going on Sunday afternoon: P.S. Kensington, Word on the Street, the below-mentioned Not Blanche, and the "Our Streets – inserting oneself into the municipal process" pre-Walk21 workshop. But for raw pedestrianism, nothing is going to beat the Great Queen Street Psychogeographic Walk, organized by Spacing and the Toronto Psychogeography Society.

Our friends over at Spacing Magazine have officially launched their foray into a whole new blogging environment, Spacing Montréal. Covering the urban environment five hours down the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, Spacing's new blog looks at many of the same public space issues in Montreal (in a refreshing mix of both official languages) that the newly-rebranded Spacing Toronto examines here.

While researching the proper name for the device shown above, we stumbled across this page on the City of Toronto's website. (It's a "pushbutton," "push-button," or "push button," depending on which paragraph you believe.) And, what do you know, the more mundane elements of transportation infrastructure are fascinating stuff.

Eight months after Torontoist, Reading Toronto, Spacing, and BlogTO all banded together to solicit reader comments to improve the TTC's website and after Adam Giambrone agreed to re-open the Request for Proposal (RFP) to allow for "a more ambitious and exciting project," there has finally been some news to report of late. Last week, Adam Giambrone told Torontoist that the website would launch sometime in the fall, and would definitely feature everyone's top request––a trip planner. Yesterday, in the process of a godammed-extensive breakdown of his grievances, transit nut Joe Clark synthesized some details about the way that the TTC wants its new website to run. Plausibility aside, the TTC's wishlist for it's site designer gives us a look––albeit a very incomplete one––into the general idea of what we'll get come fall when the TTC's website fills our hearts with joy and delight.

A lot happens in and around Toronto, but we can only write about so much in a week. Here's the best of the rest, in a new weekly feature we're calling Superfluist. Superfluist will appear every Friday night.

The Toronto Star published a good article Sunday revealing that "the city's Waterfront Secretariat is now reviewing the recommendations and cost estimates of recent waterfront task forces on the fate of the Gardiner." Torontoist hears you asking, wasn't this the whole point of the Gardiner Report released last September? Now that the city has all but canned plans to tear down the elevated highway due to lack of funds, however, discussions are focussing on how to make the best of what we're stuck with.

Do you have a better vision of Toronto? Our friends over at Spacing are betting that you do, and would like fellow citizens to ante up their experiences and enthusiasms for our fair city in their My Toronto video contest; they’re asking the common people to create a commercial better than those offered up by the budget gluttons of Big Media.

Reader Amanda Happé came across this sight yesterday morning: city employees carving up and taking away Trinity-Bellwoods' much-loved painted blue and white tree trunk (also known as the Universal Love Machine).

"Water," Spacing's summer issue, is finally out, available at your favourite bookstores throughout the city. Devoted to "Toronto’s ravines, rivers, water towers, sewers, and waterfront," "Water" is intended to be "a snapshot of Toronto’s relationship with water and how it shapes our everyday lives." The sneak peeks inside the magazine (featuring some photography by the ever-awesome Miles Storey) look as gorgeous as ever, and we're itching to get our hands on a copy.

You want a greener city? Prepare to pay $4 million per year in taxes to plant and maintain trees. Alternatively, you could covertly plant them yourself with your own funds. We hear that chicks dig tree planters.