Sarah Lazarovic––curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada––is painting a portrait of a Torontonian (be they grannies or gardeners or Gord Perks) every day for one hundred days. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Stephen Lewis talks heritage and democracy tonight, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Ontario Heritage Trust. Dessert is also involved.......

"It's hard to beat the system / when we're standing at a distance / so we keep waiting / waiting on the world to change." - JOHN MAYER How Do You Get To Massey Hall? I don't know, I only came close. I can at least tell you that practice has nothing to do with it. I'd practiced my speech a lot. Last night I was invited to represent my party (the Green Party of......

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......

Photos of trey anthony, Dawn Whitwell, and Gein Fence courtesy of Get Your Lit Out. Dear readers: please help give an author a chance to get married on the midway at this year’s Calgary Stampede. Really! While living in Toronto, Scarborough-raised Natalee Caple wrote many fine books, among them The Plight of Happy People in an Ordinary World (Anansi), and Mackerel Sky (Thomas Allen). We are sad we’ve lost her to Calgary, but thrilled......

The atmosphere outside of the (Elgin and) Winter Garden Theatre last night was similar -- not quite the same, but similar -- to that of a rock concert. Various people stood in the cold, holding signs that said "Need One Ticket, PLEASE," while the large crowd jostled around three or four groups handing out flyers and pimping petitions. "Mary," yelled one woman, excitedly. "There's a petition to ban Styrofoam!" Inside, there was a much......

Torontonians are, to say the least, an opinionated bunch. So instead of a simple "Best Of" list to cap 2006 off, the Torontoist staffers have racked their brains about everything (books, songs, restaurants, people, places, stores, newspapers, politicians, musicians, and a lot more) to bring you their choices for the very best and the very worst of our city this past year. It's Torontoist Love/Hate 2006, and you can find a new one every......

Not that any of you would care, but Stephen Lewis is the key note speaker at University of Toronto's Natural City Symposium tonight. Okay, maybe you do care, but you can't go because it's almost definitely sold out. Stephen Lewis, of course, is the U.N.'s departing Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He'll be teaching at Mac sometime soon, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the man was a Special Envoy ("I......

Canada's hardest working diplomat doesn't work for Foreign Affairs and he's never been thought of as a possible Liberal leadership candidate. Torontoist argues that that man is Stephen Lewis, former Ontario NDP leader and current UN envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. And lucky for you he's speaking for free at Ryerson (Jorgenson Hall, POD 250) tonight 6:00pm. Lewis has been in Canada a lot over the last year due to his delivering the Massey Lecture,......

A good night for the socially-conscious, as both Stephen Lewis and Ralph Nader will be rocking out at seperate-but-equal venues. Lewis is talking tonight at Massey Hall and Nader is at the Ryerson Theatre. Anyone lucky enough to go to these events is encouraged to write a review. Anyone lucky enough to see these gentlemen out and about in Toronto is doubly encouraged.......

Although alcohol is most certainly the linchpin of a Queen's Players stage production, there's always a certain intrigue as to which direction the performance could take: There's the expletive heavy, smutastic performance where everyone onstage has a that warm liquored-up glow, or there's the embarrassing, you-should-go-home drunkies on stage. Either way, it's always been entertaining. Starting this weekend, the production of The Apprentice Bride looks to impress the less forgiving yet still adoring Toronto audience.......

Toronto hip-hop hunk K-Os plays a blockbuster concert for UrbanAIDS tonight at the famed Ricoh Stadium. The event is in preparation for World AIDS Day on December 1, 2004. K-Os will be joined by Alicia Keys, Keshia Chanté, Swollen Members and Nelly Furtado. The charity show is expected to draw upwards of 10,000 fans, though less than 10 ticket holders admit to liking the Swollen Members. All proceeds go to HIV/AIDS charities such as The......