Results tagged “spadinaavenue”

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

This morning, at a press conference at the RBC branch at King Street West and Spadina Avenue, Heritage Toronto announced the release of its first iTour: a historic tour of Spadina Avenue. Funded in part by RBC, the iTours program provides free downloadable audio and visual walking tours that are designed to help people explore Toronto’s rich history in areas that are often too difficult to navigate with a tour group.

     

Three weeks ago, Now Magazine published a first-person account of the forcible confinement and assault of regular contributor (and Pedestrian Committee member) Roger Brook. On an unspecified part of Dufferin, Brook stopped to take down one of those junk signs illegally attached to utility poles throughout the city—the kind of advertising that even right-wing city councillors get pissy about [PDF]. Despite the fact that he (and the sign) were fully within the public space, Brook was threatened and attacked by a private security guard who wrestled him to the ground, handcuffed him to a fence, and radioed the police. Private security of course has no such authority in the public space—nor had Brook done anything illegal—but silly things like laws aren't really of much interest to someone whose behaviour would warrant a feature-length investigation even if he were a cop. Brook's article gave us difficulty sleeping; we have no idea how we would handle the situation he found himself in.

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

At just about noon today, Jesse Ship was walking along Spadina on his way to lunch with a friend when he spotted something slightly less appetizing in the window of Happy Seven restaurant, at 358 Spadina: a rat. He snapped the photo above, of the rat conspicuously beside a Toronto Public Health DineSafe Pass, and sent it to us and to BlogTO immediately, and recorded the video above on his cellphone. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one to see something: CityNews got footage of not one but three rats roaming the store, presumably taking a break from teaching fine cooking to the clumsy but ultimately endearing cooks.

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

Two weeks ago, on the fifth anniversary of the blackout, we reclaimed the streets. At 9 p.m., three parades became one and marched into the intersection of Bloor and Spadina. And took it over. For five minutes. Or maybe it was ten. Chris Bilton says it was fifteen. There were jugglers and fire dancers and trombones and drums and trees and a picnic table on which sat a kiddie pool in which there was standing a "human statue" spraying water with a hose. For one tiny fraction of one day of the year, the intersection did not belong to cars, although they could turn right if they wished. It was ours. Not "ours" as in pedestrians or cyclists or hipsters or activists or whatever. Just ours. Public. Space.

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We should have known! The culprits responsible for the Pac-Man recreation on a streetcar shelter outside Kensington Market have stepped forward, and they're neither advertisers nor immoralists: they're Teeth (responsible for this charming bear-woman) and our very own Posterchild (who is something of a fan of video games).

On Friday, reader Russ Morgan spotted Pac-Man on Spadina. Someone had converted one of the panels of the streetcar shelters between Baldwin and Nassau to depict a stand-off straight out of the classic video game: to the south, a big pixelated Pac-Man; to the north, Pokey, a big pixelated orange ghost; and, between them, a big pixelated cherry power-up. The yellow dots that always line the streetcar shelters, untouched by the artist, magically became pac-dots.

What to do if you are alone tomorrow, either because you don't celebrate Christmas, or because there's no one around to celebrate with:

Toronto has been called a city of neighbourhoods: The Beach, Yorkville, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown, The Annex; all have their defining characteristics that make them appealing to locals as well as visitors. And when it comes down to it, most of these areas are well-defined by the intersection of two major streets.

Mid-1970s diners expected a certain level of ostentation when eating at finer Chinese cuisine establishments. Decor was touted as much, if not more, than what went into one's mouth. The atmosphere diners were promised at today's featured restaurant hints at a feast for the senses.

Ask Torontonians for an example of Toronto food and you will have an array of different answers. One astute response may be that Toronto specializes in having everything and having it available at your doorstep.

When searching for a suitable title for the sequel to last year's massive street parade/subway party , we needed only to consult a thesaurus. Not only a 2000-era epic trance track by Ian Van Dahl, Castles in the Sky are also seemingly impossible tasks. Some people call them "pipe dreams." We call it the next Newmindspace event this Saturday.

Photo by matthewpiers from the Torontoist Flickr pool.

Torontoist Flickr Pool member snapparker has posted this shot of the aftermath of Tuesday morning's three-alarm fire at the corner of Baldwin and Spadina, right where Kensington Market meets Chinatown. The conflagration started in a rooming house above stores at 368 Spadina Ave. Flames quickly spread to neighbouring businesses. In all, over 100 firefighters and 30 trucks were called in to battle the blaze.

Now in its 7th year, the ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival opens tonight at the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor W.) with the international premiere of the Kanakan Balintagos drama, Tuli. “The directors show a solid command of composition, lighting and pace”, commented Andrew Dowler in his review in last week’s NOW magazine.

Jam packed day today!

Wednesday, March 15th brings the launch of [murmur] at Hart House. [murmur] currently exists in several places, including Toronto's Kensington Market and along Spadina Avenue. It is an audio archival project made up of signs of big green ears. You call the number on the ear with your cell phone to hear a story that took place in the exact spot you're standing.

As for Dundas Square, we'd rather it didn't go all Times Square on us. But if we can concentrate all the tackiness in one small arena, well, we'll give up the square for the sake of the greater good.