Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but......

Every day this week, Torontoist is exploring the future of repertory cinema in Toronto. We spoke to the theatre managers of four major rep cinemas to hear if rep cinema is dying, what it's like to exist in a YouTube society, and what original programming has them most excited. Today, we look at the fall of Festival Cinemas, which sparked fears that rep cinema would disappear from the city. In 2006, the future of repertory......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse. SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens' celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist found out what......

It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about Strange Wilderness first, for some reason. It surprises us that the last Happy Madison film that we saw was (the quite sweet, really) 50 First Dates. Strange Wilderness is only of interest to us because it has quite possibly the worst trailer we’ve ever seen on TV. It’s absolutely meaningless. It explains nothing about the (surely) threadbare plot of......

Have you ever wondered what you could learn from a computer pioneer? You'll have your chance to find out when Michael Dell rolls into town for a free speaking engagement at Convocation Hall later this month. Okay, so Dell isn't exactly a pioneer: he's famous not for inventing anything, but merely for improving the process of assembling a bunch of parts into a serviceable computer, shipping it somewhere, and making a boatload of money while......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Michael Redhill’s had a big year. His novel Consolation, in addition to being nominated for the Man Booker Prize......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. When the Festival Cinemas chain was shut down last year by supervillains The McQuillain Kids (after inheriting the business......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. As the tenants who inhabited the warehouses of the Queen West Triangle were evicted to make way for demolition......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Although the developers currently building in the Queen West Triangle have collectively incited outrage with their controversial plans for......

Queen Elizabeth II––who you will recall is our Head of State and yet still won't pony up to fix the TTC ––- has had her annual Christmas address posted on YouTube this year. The 81-year-old monarch gives a dignified formal message about her thoughts on the past year and hopes for the future before stripping to bra and panties and lip-syncing to Nellie Furtado's "Promiscuous." Stephen Harper made a perplexing statement on immigration, suggesting......

The Toronto International Film Festival Group announced their top ten Canadian features for 2007 last night, along with (for the first time) their top ten list of Canadian short films. The top ten Canadian features were: L’âge Des Ténèbres (Denys Arcand), Amal (Richie Mehta), Continental, Un Film Sans Fusil (Stéphane Lafleur), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), Fugitive Pieces (Jeremy Podeswa) , My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin), A Promise To The Dead: The Exile Journey Of Ariel......

Near Manulife Financial: Bloor East citizens would like less poo in their public spaces. With condo fever gripping the still-shabby southeast corner of Bloor and Yonge due to the future One Bloor 80-storey tower, the Bloor East Neighbourhood Association (BENA) met Wednesday night at the Rogers Centre (333 Bloor Street East) to discuss how their little stretch of street could be transformed to rival the world-class reputation of Bloor West. BENA, representing ratepayers along......

Today at 2:00 a.m., University of Toronto law graduates received an email from their alma mater, stating that an "unprecedented announcement" would be made at 1:00 p.m. today and inviting them to join the law school "for this special moment" via webcast. Breathless even by U of T law standards, the email left alumni everywhere in suspense. Would it be the launch of a new global declaration on human rights? An announcement that justice had......

The Scarborough Arts Council and The Centre for Creative Communications at Centennial College are doing something neat—they're recording podcasts about technology in front of a live studio audience. The lecture series being recorded is called OPEN SPACE, and the upcoming two-part event, entitled The Future is Now, features two smart and interesting people talking about digital culture, technology and society, and the effects of combing these things. On October 16 (that's tomorrow!) from noon until......

Anyone who grew up in Toronto has been on at least one school field trip to historic Fort York. You've smelled the horseshit, eaten the biscuits, and probably watched some corny performance by someone in a costume telling you how things used to be in the olden days. So it might be tempting to dismiss Crate Productions' new play The Fort at York as an educational play, or worse, historical reenactment. This would be......

Ontario Conservative leader John "The Tory" Tory has promised that if elected a Conservative government would allocate $800 million to public transit in the province. Tory also confessed that it has been a long-time dream of his to one day ride on a streetcar, but that his chauffeur wasn't yet licensed to drive one. David Crombie has been named "community liaison official' in the sometimes violent land claim dispute between the First Nations and......

Reader Cy Goldsbie (yes, relation) sent us the above photos of a box that popped up in St. Clair station over the weekend. Marked "DEPOSIT PUBLIC CONSULTATION SURVEY HERE," the box is at the "end of the southbound platform tucked into the alcove of the non-working elevator." (In other words, they're about as conspicuous as what Joe Clark calls the TTC's "intentionally hidden online complaints form.") So what's the deal? At the TTC's emergency......

The Canadian National Exhibition opens this week, bringing with it nearly 130 years of tradition, from its beginnings as an industrial showcase to its current role as a signal that summer is drawing to a close. Today's pair of ads provide a glimpse of what the Ex was like on the cusp of World War II, before it was closed for wartime activities. The "new amusement area" touted in 1937 proved significant, as it......

Readers in their thirties may remember Going Great: the Toronto-produced CBC/Cineworld newsmagazine targeted to kids. The series eventually folded after a few seasons wrestling the challenges of presenting newsy human-interest stories to kids, but it won a 1983 Children's Broadcast Institute Award for Best Network Television Program. What Going Great was most known for in later years, however, was its hosts. The entire run was helmed by Chris Makepeace, 1980s Meatballs and My Bodyguard teen......

It's been said that the geeks shall inherit the Earth, and a pair of Ontario high school students are doing it with zero emissions. Behold the Tango—a compact, electric motorcycle that could be the future of motorized solo transportation. Introduced at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (IISEF) in Albuquerque, Oakville's Ben Gulak and Hamilton's Jason Morrow based their invention on the science behind the Segway. The bike features two wheels mounted......

A survey by British research firm Skytrax has named Air Canada the best airline in North America. Travelers who have endured experienced the Air Canada business model of surly staff, vanishing meals, and rising fares will marvel at how low the bar for airline excellence on this continent has now been set. BabyFirst TV is coming to Canada. The first television channel aimed at babies will soon be offered on cable and satellite systems......

If you're interested in learning more about what the future holds for you, but feel that clairvoyance is not something to be attempted on an empty stomach, Psychic Brunch may be just what you’ve been looking for. Psychic Brunch first took place in 2003. Since then, it's become a twice monthly event where what the Psychic Brunch MySpace calls "a small but seasoned, dedicated team of psychics and healers" gather to help clients "mold happier......

Photo of a locked-out Keele Station during last year's strike by David Topping. Yesterday's announcement of budget cuts to the TTC garnered a visceral reaction from just about everyone (and not just angry Globe & Mail readers): a normally cool-headed Adam Giambrone proclaimed that "this is a horrible day...This is going to have a dramatic effect on Torontonians, not just TTC riders." Transit advocate Steve Munro weighed in, too, in a piece detailing what......

Photo of CP-7069 from Railroadfan.com On the weekend when we celebrate our nation's history, we seem on the verge of destroying some of it. Sitting in its home at the CPR John Street Roundhouse, a 1948 CP Rail locomotive engine known as the Hauling Fool is about to be scrapped to make way for a Leon's furniture store, and there is little its owners can do about it. Located just outside Bay 14 at......

Today is the First Nations National Day of Action. According to organizers The Assembly of First Nations (AFN), the event is a chance for all Canadians to call for "immediate action to improve [aboriginal peoples'] quality of life." Basically, bands from across the country are demanding the government work with First Nations to gain control of the programs, services and decisions that affect their lives. At noon, there will be a peaceful demonstration supporting......

The TTC spent today showing off their preferred model for the future of public transit in Toronto in the middle of Dundas Square: a light rail vehicle or, more accurately, half of a full light rail vehicle that Bombardier is showing off around North America—most recently in Milwaukee, where the paint scheme seen here is used for public transit. (Apparently, in Milwaukee, they like their transit to be ugly yellow.)......

As any hockey fan in Toronto already knows, the NHL draft took place this weekend and featured John Ferguson Jr. trading for a veteran goalie for the second straight year. The newly acquired Vesa Toskala, traded from San Jose, should provide a more stable presence in the net than Andrew Raycroft, and is projected to become the starting netminder. While a quality goalie was obviously a necessity for the Leafs, the fact that they gave......

It's almost time to say goodbye to North By Northeast for yet another year. Two longs nights have past, leaving tonight as the last chance to get out an enjoy some of the best new music from around the world. Seeing as it is Saturday, expect a lot of the shows to be really busy so going earlier is always better than later. All the cool kids are doing it! But before we get back......

Once one of the tallest buildings in Toronto, the most marked characteristic of the Canada Life building today is the weather beacon with its cryptic code of flashing lights and colours. We were surprised to find, however, that the beacon feature located 100 metres from the ground was only added in 1951, and it had been originally built as a mooring point for airships—once viewed as the future of luxurious air travel until the......

Each weekday morning, we pick an image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve! TORONTO (1963): With Toronto's population now at a staggering 1.8 million, the businessman is finding it difficult to get to his down-town office on time. Above is an image predicted by Mr. N. Bytepusher of what Metro Chair Frederick Gardiner......