Torontoist is ahead of the game for previewing some of the best music choices this week (Queen West fire benefit, Forest City Lovers' CD release) but Musicologist will give you one more recommendation—just for kicks. When UK’s Field Music announced a (begrudged) break last year, who knew David Brewis would be in Toronto playing a show under a different name and clean ethos so quickly? School of Language and their debut LP Sea From Shore......

Today’s release on Xbox Live Arcade is Trigger Heart Exelica, an originally Japan-only Dreamcast "bullet hell" vertically scrolling shooter, and if that sentence doesn’t make any sense to you whatsoever, that’s totally fine. You see, we’re actually here to mention last week’s Xbox Live Arcade release, N+. It's based on N, the freeware game sensation developed by Toronto independent game developers Metanet Software, but the main difference is that you have to own a......

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times for the Toronto Maple Leafs; in fact, the past couple weeks have been nothing short of surreal. First, the best of times: wins against the high-flying Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, followed by a thoroughly unexpected Hockey Day in Canada victory over the league-leading Detroit Red Wings, have given the team a boost. Injured players are getting healthy. The return of the......

After the Toronto Blue Jays acquired a gimpy Scott Rolen in exchange for a gimpy Troy Glaus, the general consensus was that the two players cancelled each other out. One point, however, hasn't been discussed—possibly because it's utterly irrelevant to the game of baseball. Still, we feel it's worth mentioning that we'll no longer have to wince as Troy Glaus limps up to bat with "Crazy Train" blasting through the speakers. Instead, we'll apparently......

In the battle of who owns the roads, cyclists and motorists are frequently at each others' throats. Over the last few years we've seen a heated altercation in Kensington Market and another that resulted in a motorist being stabbed with a screwdriver. It seems that the threat of a streetside melee is always looming. At Yonge and Bloor on Monday afternoon, a motorist attempted to make an illegal right turn and nearly knocked a......

After reading today's ad, Torontoist is certain of one thing—modesty was not a key element of the "Yorkville style," especially when it came to attracting dancing queens and boogie kings looking for a place to strut their stuff. The neighbourhood had a cluster of disco floors waiting for John Travolta wannabes to demonstrate their dance skills and soak in the attitude. One might have been lucky enough to see celebrities like Sonny Bono indulge......

In the best campaign commercial since HuckChuckFacts, Chris Bosh has assumed the identity of a Texas used car salesman in order to try to drum up votes to make it to this year's NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. Bosh has appeared in the All-Star game for the last two years. Last season he was voted into the starting lineup for the first time, but achieving that feat again became nearly impossible when Kevin Garnett......

Once upon a time, we would hear the word "dodgeball" and be swept back to a simpler time, when colours were flourescent, New Kids on the Block were popular and dodgeball was little more than an excuse to work up an adolescent sweat. It certainly wasn't a sport. Redass was a sport; dodgeball was really just a way of scoring easy marks in gym class. Then in 2004, the Ben Stiller movie Dodgeball came out,......

A new study says that diseases and parasites from farmed fish are having devastating effects on wild salmon stocks in parts of B.C. Skyrocketing global demand for seafood means fish farming can be very profitable, even when the cost of frequent tractor replacements is taken into account. Brian Mulroney continues to be the centre of the most-covered and least-followed story in the Canadian media. Basically he says he's not guilty of anything except taking......

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......

We don’t tend to post too often about video games here at Torontoist, what with basically the entire rest of the internet being devoted to it (well, that and anthropomorphic Star Trek slash fiction), but we do like to make special note when some pleasant news of local interest comes up, such as Toronto as a Half Life mod or the Toronto Indie Game Jam (Which we, er, forgot to mention this year. Our......

Five days of Pan-Asian cinema in the city kicks off tomorrow night, as the Reel Asian International Film Festival celebrates its eleventh annual incarnation. Bloor Cinema will present the Opening Night Gala film, Finishing the Game, at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A session with lead actor Roger Fan and producer Julie Asato. Added bonus: local comedy troupe Asiansploitation will perform beforehand on the red carpet. This year's festival is poised to impress. And......

Toronto FC sells out of season tickets for 2008. In response, the club promised they will try "really, really hard" to win at least one more game this season. The team's lawyers then pointed out that this was in no way a guarantee and that season ticket holders should feel privileged to be allowed to watch the game. Brian Mulroney wants a public inquiry into his scandal rather than an independent review. The last act......

The Toronto Argonauts can turn this Sunday’s Eastern Final into the perfect kickoff for the upcoming Grey Cup festival. If the Argos beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to reach the championship game, it'll give a huge boost to the week-long party, also known as “Canada’s national drunk.” Brad Watters, general manager of this year's Grey Cup, says that the team winning the 95th Grey Cup at home "would really turn the town on its......

November 14 to 18 marks the return of the Reel Asian International Film Festival. Last night, the Japan Foundation played host as filmmakers and media types gathered at a press conference to kick off the 11th annual incarnation of the fest. And with more than 70 independent works from all over the world, this year’s Reel Asian Festival will be worth cracking open that golden piggy bank for. Showcasing work from 13 different countries,......

It's been a strange week for Leaf Nation. On Tuesday, Toronto was embarrassed 7-1 (on home ice, no less) by the Carolina Hurricanes—and by Wednesday, the media was gleefully sounding the death knell for this year's edition of the Maple Leafs. On Wednesday night's edition of Off the Record, the panel spent ten minutes analyzing what was going wrong with the Leafs' year, which by then was exactly four games old. The team had......

With a little over twelve hours to go until this year's Capture the Flag, Lori and I are feeling anxious and excited. Not entirely sure the 3,000 glowsticks we've purchased will be enough, not confident that we will be able to handle the crowd, and not certain that the game will go smoothly at all, there are a lot of things to worry about. We've spent the week calling up wholesale companies in the......

This weekend, Toronto will be a rockin' city, as the 2007 World Rock Paper Scissors Championships cut into town. The game of Rock Paper Scissors has been settling scores on playgrounds since long before little brothers came into existence. In fact, some say it originates back to the year 200 BC in Japan, where it was referred to as "Jan-Ken." Others say it started as an early Scandinavian pastime, while others trace it back......

The Revue cinema is due to reopen its doors on October 4th, and if you’ve been waiting for the chance to buy tickets for the opening night, they’re now on sale at She Said Boom (393 Roncesvalles Avenue) at $20 for the film and the after-party or $10 for just the party at the Lithuanian Hall (1573 Bloor Street West). The opening night film is secret, but it was selected by an online poll,......

Marcel Marceau dead at 84. Torontoist hadn't heard anything. (Rimshot!) John Tory wants to let corner stores sell booze. He says local brewers and vintners are getting a raw deal, and he's got a point. After all, when you go into your local corner store, think of the wealth of independent chocolatiers you have to pick from when you want a candy bar! George W. Bush shuns global warming summit. In other news, sky still......

Torontoist was at last night's Under-20 World Cup semi-final between Argentina and Chile at BMO Field and left wondering: "How did a riot not break out?" Well, as it turns out, a riot of sorts did break out after the game, when members of the Chilean team confronted a group of policemen. Reports of taser guns being used have yet to be confirmed, although eyewitnesses swear it happened. How did it all go so......

Every weekday, 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! Who says soccer—er, football—isn't a contact sport? Behold this moment frozen in time by Flickr pool contributor sthursby, taken last Wednesday during the U-20 FIFA World Cup at the National Soccer Stadium here in Toronto. The action finds Gambia's Ousman Jallow......

We’ve been looking for a way to talk about King Kong again for a while now. It’s unlikely you’ll remember, but Torontoist’s first Film Friday column was actually published in the week Peter Jackson’s remake hit cinema screens, yet that’s not (specifically) the reason we’ve been in the mood to mention it again. It just happens to be that a few weeks ago, with an evening to kill, we picked up Peter Jackson’s King......

They're beautiful women, no arguments there, but when push comes to shove, Toronto's Roller Derby girls get ugly. And we love every minute of it. If you've never been to a Roller Derby match, then you are missing out. Think of the game Red Rover, and put it on wheels. Bouts, as they are called, are made up of three 20-minute periods. Essentially, teams are made up of five members: a jammer, three blockers, and......

Those fans who are lucky enough to be attending the first two Raptors playoff games will be happy to learn that the team is giving away red T-shirts for fans to wear during the game. The official shirts will supposedly read "Let’s Go Red. Let’s Go Raptors." However, a few entrepreneurial fans think that they have a better idea for a T-shirt. These FUVC shirts are just one example of the anti-Vince Carter sentiment that......

Toronto student Soohyun Park took top prize at the CanSpell Cup nashional spelling bee. Her corect spelling of 'hypobulia' trumped 'cerumen' and 'moiety'. A Virginia Tech student gunned down 33 of his classmates yesterday, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Shortly after 3:00 a.m., a three alarm fire gutted a house at Spadina and Baldwin, between College and Dundas. One southbound lane on Spadina is closed to traffic, but the streetcar is running......

As a public service to fans planning to catch the Blue Jays' home opener on Monday night, we offer a prescription for enjoying the game from the team's debut season. Given the current weather, will the 30th anniversary opener be as snowy as the first? You can debate whether Canada was still a child when Gordon Tamblyn purchased a drug store at Queen St. E. and Lee Ave in 1904. By the early 1930s,......

Now boarding at Platform 1: The Toronto Raptors Bandwagon. Please form a line to the right, and have your tickets ready. Prepare for a bumpy ride, this trip is standing room only. For the first time in five years, the Toronto Raptors are going to the NBA playoffs. And if making the playoffs wasn't enough for Chris Bosh, on Monday he was also named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Despite the loss......

Each weekday morning, we pick a recent 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! This photo reminds us of some ultra-realistic version of arcade hit "Breakout," which we can occasionally be found playing on our iPod on the streetcar. At first, we weren't sure exactly how we felt about this rather graphic image......

Going to see all three films in Nicolas Winding Refn's Pusher Trilogy, one after another in one night, is one of this Torontoist’s most treasured cinema memories, and although we did it at 2005’s Toronto International Film Festival, anyone who missed that chance can now do it at the Brunswick Theatre (296 Brunswick Avenue) tonight and tomorrow night starting 7 p.m. It’s $10 for one film or $15 for the lot, so obviously you......