Over the past little while, Torontoist has been quietly absorbed in The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol reader. Edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson, The Alphabet Game is an essential anthology for any reader of bpNichol, and is a great starting point for those who have yet to discover his work. Nichol, who is probably most well-known for his concrete and visual poetry, had achieved many things before dying at the age of 44. He......

Last night at the beautiful Winter Garden Theatre, the winners of the 28th Annual Dora Awards were announced in a ceremony hosted by the hilarious Rick Miller (of MacHomer and Bigger Than Jesus fame). The Doras are basically Canada's version of the Tonies, except you can't watch them on TV and see Molly Ringwald and John Stamos jazz-hand their way through a radical new interpretation of Hello, Dolly! As one might expect, the whole......

The National Ballet of Canada kicked off its summer season last week with an impressive triple-bill performance at the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. First came James Kudelka's acclaimed The Four Seasons, set to Antonio Vivaldi's set of four violin concertos. Kudelka is notorious for his very animated choreography, and he certainly did not disappoint. The Four Seasons follows the character known only as "everyman" through the cycles of life, as represented......

Almost 200 men auditioned to be the new faces of Harlequin romance novels at a Toronto casting house on Saturday. Studies showed that Harlequin's main readership (female in their mid-40's) were "upset when slight, young cover models clashed with the brawny, mature heroes described within [the books themselves]." Canada's Next Top Harlequin Cover Model, anyone? Hosted by Fabio? Quebec began its provincial elections this morning. Who's gonna win? Nobody knows! CSIS has decreed that "Islamic"......

Sound poetry is not really cool. Oh sure, maybe it was cool. In the Da-Da salons of Paris, it was avant-garde. And in a bedroom at bpNicol's cottage, spouting out sound poems between long drags on the hookah was probably genuinely far-out, man. But somewhere along the way, sound poetry became hokey. As much a hippy-relic as Patchouli and beaded vests. And then, The Four Horsemen Project happened. Now, sound poetry is not only......