Sorry Spice Girls: R.E.M. just one-upped you in the "most exciting concert of 2008" department. The band, which famously played a free concert for 20,000 fans here in May 2001, announced Monday afternoon that their new tour (in support of their new album Accelerate) will feature both The National and Modest Mouse. All three bands are indisputable headliners, and it's a fantastic combination: R.E.M. are old and established, with something to prove after 2004's pretty-good-but-not-great......

When New York City billionaire Leona Helmsley died in 2007, who inherited her $12-million trust fund? If you said a white Maltese terrier named Trouble, you may want to tune in to CBC television at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 20th for Test the Nation: Trivia. The quiz show, now in its third edition, pits in-audience teams against each other while viewers at home can play along via the interweb. Later, the national quiz......

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. "Take that word 'homeless' out, and use the word 'Jewish.' Would we be studying whether Jewish people could come......

While the word "nutcracker" might evoke some painful mental images in some, for many it's a familiar part of the holiday season. The original ballet was composed in Russia by one Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1892, and The National Ballet of Canada has been performing The Nutcracker since 1964. James Kudelka did a revamp of the choreography in 1995, and since then The National Ballet's Nutcracker has become what The Globe and Mail has......

There were 4 more murders in Toronto on the weekend, meaning we only need 11 more to tie the all-time record of 89 set back in 1991. A spokesman for City Hall said that sure, the numbers look bad now, but crime would drop once all the thugs had killed each other. Not only more violent, but poorer too––a United Way report says that the median family income in Toronto is $10,000 lower than......

The National Post is reporting today that Coyote Ugly––the raunchy, almost-a-strip-club-bar that inspired a Jerry Bruckheimer movie that everyone, including Piper Perabo, forgot about five years ago––will open up its first Canadian "saloon" next year at 220 Adelaide Street West. Coyote Ugly is upfront about its intentions: on their website, the bar explains the "business plan" of its first owner, Lil' Lovell, was "beautiful girls + booze = money." The organization's slogan is "Don't Just......

Bad news if you're a lacrosse fan: the 2008 National Lacrosse League season has been cancelled. Pick your joke: 1) "I'm sure all three of you are very disappointed"; 2) "Players are refusing to play until they get reimbursed for their bus tickets"; 3) "My God, this is the national sport we're talking about here! Why isn't Stephen Harper doing something, for the love of God?"; 4) "So, why are the Toronto Rock still......

Right now, if you turn on your TV to channels 2, 3, 6, 8, 15, 24, 62, or 104 (presuming you have cable), you will see the leaders of the provincial political parties having at each other. Or, more accurately, you will see Dalton McGuinty, John Tory, and Howard Hampton having at each other. You will not see Green Party of Ontario leader Frank de Jong having at anyone. As they like to do,......

Finally, another excuse to write about La Blogothèque's Take-Away Shows. The last time we covered the France-based music filmmakers, they were psyching us up for the Arcade Fire's May concert with the best concert footage we've ever seen of the band. Before that, they won us over with The Hidden Cameras parading along boardwalks. Now they've given us Owen Pallett plucking away at two songs––"Your Light Is Spent" (above) and "Horsetail Feathers"––in Paris. If......

So much for Brampton. Back in July, Zanta (a.k.a. David Zancai) told The National Post that he was done with Toronto, leaving for Brampton to be with two of his three sons. At the time, Zancai told the Post, "I can’t be me, I can’t be free, and the city of Toronto is to blame....I’m totally a prisoner in my own city. I have to get out of here." To teach the cops who he......

God bless our sister site LAist for discovering The Canadian Cafe (no, there's no acute accent), a small restaurant 4,000 kilometres away, in Montrovia, L.A., where (their website claims beside a clip art picture of a moose dressed as a mountie) "You'll Find Family Dining With A Taste Of The North." What, exactly, is Canadian cuisine, beyond poutine and Canadian bacon? Well, they have a "selection of Maple Syrup products" (!!!!), a "British Columbia Burger"......

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......

Overhead just north of Queen Street East, after The National's show on Tuesday night. A very drunk woman and her two male companions are walking into the parking lot. Woman: I'll drive, I'll drive! I'm a good drunk driver! Guy #2, briefly considering her demand: You mean, like, relative to regular driving? Or relative to drunk driving? Woman, hesitating: No...Yeah! I'm good at both kinds. Guy #1: Yeah, I think I'll just drive.......

One of the things that makes The National's music so brilliant—and what might make the band's latest album, Boxer, the best release of 2007—is its ambiguity. Boxer may or may not be about war (the song "Start A War" is one hint, lines like "Invite me to the war every night of the summer / and we’ll play G.I. blood, G.I. blood" in "Gospel" are another), national pride ("Fake Empire"), media control ("Apartment Story,"......

This summer, Toronto will attempt "to probe the causes of panhandling and seek solutions" after business owners launched a complaint at City Hall yesterday. A Tim Hortons owner alleges that one beggar slapped her hard enough to draw blood after she asked him to leave her store. Restaurant owners complain that the homeless steal money and food off of patios and harass the patrons. Is it time Toronto did something about the panhandlers that......

This was Toronto’s downtown at 10:30 a.m. yesterday, as seen from Lakeshore Boulevard near the Canadian Exhibition Grounds. Air Quality Ontario’s Air Quality Index measured a daytime high of 54, which put Toronto’s air well into the “Poor” category. The day before, the AQI hit 59. What to do? I ran errands on my bike yesterday, passing bumper-to-bumper car traffic everywhere I cycled. When I started cycling Toronto’s streets fifteen years ago, I didn’t......

Meteorologists predict that this summer will be a scorcher, with temperatures in the 30-degree range for most of August. Don't worry, it won't be as hot as the summer of 2005. And sadly, it won't be as groovy as the summer of 1967. Toronto Police have made an arrest in the case of the Parkdale "neck licker." There are dozens of gunmen on the loose, but at least we got that pesky neck licker,......

If you were one of the many Arcade Fire fans not lucky enough to grab tickets to one of the band's Massey Hall shows on May 15 and 16, we can but offer two paltry consolation prizes. The first, above, is a brilliant video by La Blogotheque/Take Away Shows, of the band at their March 19 show in Paris. It is, far and away, the best concert footage that we've ever seen of the......

Lots going on around town over the next little while. One of the city's biggest music festivals, NXNE, held their press conference this week announcing the 2007 lineup (warning, the list is tough to read), hosted by Dave Foley. Many show dates and venues were announced, including the addition of the Dinosaur Jr., Voxtrot and The National shows as officially being part of the festival. Limited wristbands will be accepted at each show, so......

When people first hear the words "Professional Pillow Fight League," they often conjure images of jello-wrestling and hair pulling. However, if you've ever been to a Pillow Fight League event, you know that the fights are real, they're violent, and they're bloody entertaining. The Pillow Fight League, also known as the PFL, has been performing around Toronto since last year. They gained international attention in January when they fought for two nights in New York......

This year, Hot Docs honours Toronto-based film maker Kevin McMahon with its Focus On retrospective. McMahon, whose films are noted for being playfully intellectual, accepts the accolade in that same spirit. "Geoff Pevere said to me, 'a retrospective—now you have to die.'" says the director, "So I'm focusing on the mid-career part." McMahon first came to prominence in 1991 with the The Falls—which wove Niagara Fall's kitsch history with the reality that the river had......

There are two big things going on in the world of education this week. The first is The National Inner City Conference 2007. Sponsored by the Toronto School District Board and the Ontario Institute of Education Centre for Urban Schooling, the focus is on helping city kids get learned. One of the major criticisms of the contemporary curriculum is that it is more concerned about training kids for jobs instead of teaching them how to......

How is National Poetry Month treating you? On the second week of celebration, Torontoist is beginning to buckle a little under the strain of too much fun, but it warms our hearts to witness the large number of bookish events offered this April. We are happy to announce the winners of our poetry contest as part of the nationwide festivities. Back in January, Torontoist launched a Toronto poetry contest to encourage the writing of......

Celia Franca, Photo: Janine; Karen Kain, Celia Franca and Veronica Tennant, Photo: Bruce Zinger; Celia Franca in Lilac Garden, Photo: Ken Bell Celia Franca, companion of the order of Canada, founder of The National Ballet of Canada, and Artistic Director for 24 years, died at the age of 85 today in The Ottawa Hospital. Says current National Ballet artistic director, Karen Kain, "[Franca] inspired generations of dancers by her example and her devotion to......

At Bathurst and St. Clair West, the abandoned Wychwood TTC streetcar repair barns are soon to be revitalized, and the provincial government is investing $3 million in the project. The Green Art Barns will be a community arts and environmental centre with studios, a gallery, a greenhouse and workspace for local not-for-profit groups. Go take a look at the old carhouse before it's all fixed up, as it is highly photogenic. The new archbishop......

Whether you're Scottish or not, it's always fun to celebrate Robbie Burns Day on January 25th. The day is to celebrate the life and death of Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland who wrote such ditties as Auld Lang Syne and Comin' Thro' the Rye, the poem which is said to have inspired J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. He is also known for drinking a lot and womanizing even more, and......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Do visions of quality seasonal live pop culture for the whole family dance in your head? The National Ballet of Canada's The Nutcracker and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring The Rockettes look all cheery and innocent, but Torontoist knows that behind all the tinsel, sugar plums, long legs and rosy cheeks lurk two fearsome competitors. How far will they go to win your holiday dollar? Only one thing is certain: when Torontoist pits......

As David Miller heads for a “well, there’s no one else to vote for” style victory for his second term as mayor of Toronto, it’s easy to forget that only three years ago he was a virtual unknown who surprised everyone by becoming mayor of Canada’s largest city. During that campaign, filmmaker Andrew Munger had unprecedented access to the candidate, his family and campaign team. Mungers' film Campaign: The Making of a Candidate is......

David Soknacki, the right-winger picked by David Miller to be his budget chief, has announced that he is retiring from politics and will not be running for re-election in Ward 43 - Scarborough East this fall. Some councillors see this as another sign that Miller can't work with others who don't see his viewpoint. In the past, Soknacki has openly criticized the Mayor and his allies. Nonetheless he's earned the respect of many from Miller's......