The price of oil scaled new heights yesterday, climbing up over $80 US for the first time ever. That's good news if you're an oil company, but bad news if you're a regular folk who likes to go places, or do things, or eat stuff. McDonald's Canada is going upscale. Influenced by popular chains such as Starbucks, the fast-food giant will renovate its restaurants to make them more "comfortable," creating cosiness with leather chairs,......

Warren Kinsella has a diatribe in today’s Post (that’s National, not Midtown) about trashy celeb magazines. Their circulation is up, Time’s circulation is down, more people care about P. Diddy than national politics, yada yada yada. At the end he encourages us to "pick up quite a few more copies of The Economist and U.S. News and World Report. And the National Post, naturally." Right. So since Kinsella seems to consider the Post totally......

So apparently there's this film coming out tomorrow about some family called "The Sampsons" or "The Simpsons" or something. You probably haven't heard much about it, as the company producing the film (they're named after an animal, it's like WOLF or FOX) doesn't have very much money for promotion, certainly not enough to renovate entire convenience stores across the United States to look like convenience stores in the film or to renovate a downtown......

When Torontoist was a wee tyke, we used to hate gym class. It made us feel flabby, unloved, and a little tired. Recess, on the other hand, was the greatest thing ever—every day! The jungle gym! Tag! Imaginary battles! Recess had it all. As we’ve gotten older and indulge ourselves in eating street meat and the like, we are slowly beginning to realize that perhaps we should have paid a little bit more attention......

Special guest Victoria Kent sent us this article, and, since it's about Final Fantasy and "This Lamb Sells Condos," we're pretty much obliged to post, especially now that we've interviewed Brad J. Lamb, whose advertising slogan inspired Owen Pallett to write the song. Thanks Victoria! Toronto-based artists Stephanie Comilang and Jamie Shannon have created an enchanting music video for the Final Fantasy song "This Lamb Sells Condos" -- that required no editing whatsoever. In the......

Leeds, UK's ¡Forward, Russia! got The Horseshoe jumping on Friday night, with their "post-punk" numbered songs (all of their song titles are numbers), and a lead singer who would not stay still for a single second. Supporting their debut album 'Give Me A Wall', Tom Woodhead (singer) and company brought a bundle of energy to a venue that usually doesn't see much dancing, and kept the momentum going for the entirety of their short......

If you'd like to take thoroughly reading NOW Magazine's live show listings one step further, cautiously enter the Toronto section of Stillepost. The message board is frequented by musicians, promoters, and the like, so a head's up on upcoming shows can often be found. (Info on the Wolf Parade show on Aug. 5, for example, would've helped this person.) But the insider's scoop comes with its share of behind-the-scenes drama. The most recent is......

We're still recovering from the sugar crash, but our Halloween spirit lingers in these links. Strong Bad and the gang always have the greatest costumes (we still think about Marzipan's Log Lady outfit from two years ago with the greatest of admiration), and this year is no exception. But then, we're easily won over by Peewee's Playhouse references. Looks like our New York sister had a fabulous Halloween. They have links to all kinds of......

So there we were, in the middle of our annual shareholders meeting, when SPLAT! This bird flies into the window. So I turn to Jeff from Mergers, and I say, "You know, that wouldn't be the only bird-brain around here!" Can you believe it? No, not really. But apparently it's true: Lots of birds are flying into office windows. But not necessarily during corporate board room shananagans, as suggested, but moreso at night. Birds are......

It must be tough having famous parents, especially if you choose to follow in their footsteps, professionally. Consider a case like Los Angeles' The Like, three girls in a rock band whose fathers include Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, highly-regarded producer Mitchell Froom and producer/exec Tony Berg. While inheriting ridiculously musical genes can only be considered a plus, you can bet that critics will be watching extra-carefully, ready to trot out the n-word (that's "nepotism", folks)......