Results tagged “stars”

Lady singer-songwriters get an historically raw deal (thanks for nothing, Lilith Fair). But when you're lumped in, first and foremost, with company as incestuous—and hugely successful—as the Arts&Crafts crew, you've got not only the means but the insular support to create and release, unafraid. Amy Millan, luckily, has nothing to be afraid of anyway. The Toronto-born-and-raised, now-Montreal-moonlighting chanteuse released her sophomore solo album, Masters of the Burial, earlier this month, and through laments of her own and some choice covers, she paints another dusty, unabashedly pained-artiste portrait of romantic solitariness.

The artists hate Stephen Harper. And it's not hard to understand why. His recent cuts to important arts funding have shocked and frightened the arts community (if you were fooled by his claims made at the Leadership Debate and elsewhere that his government actually spent more on the arts than the Liberals, check out former Torontoist Arts and Culture editor Karen Whaley's excellent explanation of how that is a big lie).

One day Pamela Anderson stood in the centre turn lane of a highway, clad only in a Canadian flag...picturing it? Welcome to the lead photo for the "Best of Canada" edition of SNAP!. Now in its seventh year, SNAP! combines a juried competition for established and emerging photographers with a gala fundraiser on March 2 at the National Ballet School. Organizers predict that the works offered in live and silent auctions will raise $140,000 for the AIDS Committee of Toronto.

A brief stint of Radiohead concert rumours spread like wildfires last week. Ticketmaster had announced that the band would play two shows on May 26 and 27 at the Air Canada Centre, but mentioned neither the date for the tickets to go on sale nor the price of the tickets themselves—the announcement was quickly removed from the site. This is not the first time Ticketmaster has announced a Radiohead show that did not exist, and most knew the ticket-selling mongrels were wrong, as both Greenplastic and W.A.S.T.E. (the two most reliable Radiohead news sources) announced a small batch of US dates to come in May with the remainder of (unannounced) North American dates to follow Radiohead’s summer tour of the UK and Europe. With accurate Canadian dates sure to be released any day now, Musicologist recommends relying on both Greenplastic and W.A.S.T.E. for pre-sale opportunities.

Photo by Daniel Kahn.

The Raptors have reached the halfway point of the season, and almost every news outlet in town has been engaged in the mid-season ritual of handing out report cards.

Oh, how this time of the year can be so unexciting. Holidays are done, the New Year has come, and there is not much to look forward to until, well, the new statutory holiday. Until then, Musicologist recommends indulging in the odd show that surfaces from the woodwork and makes trekking through 20-below weather worthwhile. This Friday, for example, is worth that trek: Metal Kites and Great Bloomers are playing the Rivoli for a mere 5 bucks.

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got.

After ten years of making wonderfully chaotic post-hardcore, Denver's Planes Mistaken For Stars called it a day in July of this year. They promised one final tour, and made good at the end of November, making their way across the U.S. and Canada before planning to jump across the pond to Europe. A family emergency early this month forced the band to cancel all of their overseas dates and several U.S. ones; in Toronto on November 21, though, they were still in high spirits. In the name of giving fans the final word, Exclaim!TV asked those in attendance at the Reverb that night what they would like to ask the soon-to-be-departed band.

In what simultaneously has to be one of the most hilariously inspired and gut-wrenching punishments in the history of parental discipline, a local GTA father has set a new standard for puffing penalization. The man—an elementary school teacher known by the screen name "k_lid"—decided to sell his son’s Christmas present on eBay (a notoriously hard-to-find copy of the best-selling Guitar Hero 3 game) when he returned home from work early to find 15-year-old Isaac...

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got. ElliBY URTICADIOICA Toronto, Canada, 2007BY .JL. Urban MiniatureBY DENMAR yonge queenBY TORONTOGAL PHOTOS FILL 'ER UPBY TREFORLUTIONS Time Of ReckoningBY DZGNBOY Everywhere-A-SignBY DZGNBOY UntitledBY...

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.

Festival fever is sweeping the city—after all, it’s that time of year. But, perhaps incredibly, there are people for whom Brad Pitt sightings and red carpet galas just aren’t worth the Ben Mulroney-sized hype. What, for example, is the ardent audiophile to do in this landscape of visual media tyranny?

Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras (top) and Torquil Campbell of Stars (bottom). Photos by David Topping.

If you're not already exhausted on September 7 after trying to check out M.I.A., Stars, The Hidden Cameras, k-os, and You Say Party! We Say Die! playing for free for U of T and Ryerson's frosh, why not throw in a little free Yeah Yeah Yeahs for good measure?

The bands for both the University of Toronto and Ryerson's frosh week concerts are all confirmed and good to go, and they're all extraordinarily excellent.

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.

Indie popsters Stars will be shooting a new video in Toronto tomorrow and Thursday and they want you to be in it. If you missed the Joel Plaskett shoot we told you about earlier this year, you've got another shot at your 15 minutes of fame (or at least becoming known among your acquaintances as "the one who was in a music video"). Aspiring extras should send photos and contact info to extras@blinkpictures.com for their chance to hobnob with Stars.

For the time, it seems, side-projects are here to stay. If you take a look at any of the large indie bands from Canada (Broken Social Scene, Stars, New Pornographers, The Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, off the top of our head), they've got at least one offshoot, whether active or not. The surprising thing is that, for the most part, these side-projects have done a decent job of living up to the hype brought upon them from their larger, more successful bands. With the Handsome Furs' debut Plague Park (Sub Pop), Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner joins the long list of artists who have spawned another band while in the downtime from their main gig.

"Do you trust your friends? Would you let them redecorate your apartment, or do your homework for you? Would you let them buy your groceries? Would you leave them in charge of your kids? And if you did, what would they change?"

On Monday, we sent Torontoist reader Roger Cullman (a.k.a. Wordfreak on Flickr) on special assignment for us to Scrabble With the Stars 2007. He kindly sends us a quick write-up, and his terrific photos, both after the fold.

The Conservative government is expected to announce their new budget today, emphasizing both tax cuts and new additional spending. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wasn't even particularly coy about the Conservatives' budget being a major attempt to disincentivise (Torontoist thinks that's a word) an election, claiming that Canadian families will like it and "vote for it." He then double-dog-dared the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois to vote against the budget. He then triple-dog-dared them. When he got to quadruple-dog-dares, the reporters all got up and left.

This week our attention is almost completely owned by Cinematheque Ontario’s offerings, even with the thought of Christina Ricci chained to a radiator in Black Snake Moan grasping at us.

The Diesel Playhouse is currently playing host to Cabaret U-Mano, a puppet-based theatre troupe. But their show has more in common with Meet the Feebles than Lambchop's Play-Along. True to its name, the show is set up cabaret-style, with different puppet characters coming onstage (alongside their various puppeteers, decked out in adorable lululemon blacks) and performing songs one after another. For the songs, the puppets lip synch to various popular songs - everything from Nina Simone to the Stars on 54 version of "If You Could Read My Mind". But the gender-bending puppets tend to give balls-to-the-wall performances, often attempting to undress their puppeteers, or themselves. The result is something between The Muppet Show and a drag show.

Dust off your party shoes and break out your Canada-themed beer (no endorsements here), because Team Canada just beat the Russians 4-2 in the gold medal game at Leksand-Mora, Sweden to win the 2007 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship!

, the Henry Moore sculpture that was at the corner of Dundas and McCaul, has been temporarily removed due to the AGO Transformation, the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre remains intact throughout the construction. Unfortunately, the room with the Moore pieces has undergone its own transformation as part of Wallworks, which features artists’ work on the surface of walls throughout the gallery.

He was known for his tales of Old Hollywood as much as his ever-present hairpiece, and Toronto just became way more boring without him.