Results tagged “thistorontoist”

The Gladstone Variations is taking the Fringe by storm. And with good reason. The 90-minute piece is by Convergence Theatre, who were the team behind last year's fantastic Autoshow, which was actually a collection of 7 ten-minute plays by different playwrights performed in and around the parking lot at Royal St. George's. The Gladstone Variations is actually more ambitious and, amazingly, even more successful. The piece is made up of four short plays by different writers and, as the title would suggest, takes place entirely in and around the historic Gladstone Hotel. The 60 audience members are broken into groups of 15 and each is made to follow the actors of one of the plays around the hotel while they perform their show. Each group sees two of the four plays in one performance, constituting one "variation." And that's the brilliant marketing strategy of the show: to be able to see the entire thing, you have to go to it twice.

This Torontoist was at a very busy house party last weekend and discovered that there were roughly only four topics of conversation anyone would discuss: God of War II, Facebook, 300, and the Nintendo Wii. Particularly the Nintendo Wii. Does this mean Torontoist only goes to dorky parties? Not really; it was a fairly even cross section of Torontonians (we promise!).

This Torontoist loves seeing this building every time she rides her bike down Huron street. It must be the best place to live in the city, after all, it's the epitome of apartment!

This Torontoist was walking down Church Street and passed by The Stag Shoppe, the gay village's latest sex paraphernalia shoppe. Outside, huddled in the corner of the doorway is Bob, a husband of an old co-worker back from our bar-working days. He's all of 5 foot nuthin', 100lbs wet with overgrown My Name is Earl facial hair styling. If you passed him on the street, you'd think him a pocket biker, not someone who sells lube and lacey black panties.

This Torontoist works from home but we have sympathy for our readers who commute long distances and often go without sleep. So what can you do? Get to bed earlier? That's for pansies. Sleep on the subway? But what if you miss your stop? Well London commuters can solve their problems with these stickers which you can place on yourself and hope that your fellow commuters are diligent enough to wake you up.

Even though tomorrow is World Car Free Day, Torontoist wants to warn those TTC virgins that sometimes the Better Way is not always the Better Smelling Way. Gawker just released a NYC Transit - Google map mash up of what each station smells like for their glorious Gotham. We suspect that if this kind of map were to be created for Toronto, the TTC would send out legal notices like it did poor local blogger Robot Johnny.

...They want you. They want you as a new recruit!

This Torontoist was pouting last week when she couldn't find out how to get tickets to the Phoenix show Friday night at Mod Club. After futile searches and thankless queries to Ticketmaster all hope was gone. But at the eleventh hour everything changed: an email-invite from Arts & Crafts suddenly arose from the ashes.

True Love: The latest film from the superb Adam Brodie and Dave Derewlany, it is, like so many of their works, a little hard to distinguish from a comedy sketch, unless you remember just how bad sketch shows currently are. This goes a little farther than most though by taking its flight of fancy to wonderful extremes, keeping the joke going well into the credits. Completely brilliant. 4.5/5

This Torontoist is slowly becoming a sports fan (as if.) After watching 1.5 Stanley Cup games, (my first hockey games ever,) and with plans to go to a baseball game, I'm a changed man. The plans are to see at least one game of each sport... Yes, even the CFL.

Nonono, Canadian Idull Kalan Porter did not strike it big, but expect to see his name strewn across airplanes this year. (unaffiliated) Porter airlines is slated to begin operations on Toronto's City Centre Airport. Their first destination will be Ottawa, with Montreal, NYC and Chicago coming later.

Last night the Pride Toronto Gala and Awards benefit went down at the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District. At $250 a plate, this was a major event and fund-raising effort that attempted to honour "community members who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement to queer life."

This week, the United Nations World Urban Forum is being held in Vancouver. The conference is a place where NGOs, urban designers and planners, as well as other special interest groups discuss the growing population of major cities, and how to deal with the problems that causes.

This Torontoist has been to prides in three cities. My first began with a serendipitous walk on 5th Avenue in New York City four years ago. With nearly 300 groups represented in their Pride March, it was quite the introduction to the celebration of queerocity. Only after did I go to my own city's Pride: Divers/Cite. With a strong community focus, the Montreal Parade tears through downtown... or at least used to... But the Gay Men's Village has always left much to be desired (unless you desire overpriced trendy shops, cookie cutter gays... and a whole lot of saunas...)

If you're like Torontoist, you like to have a good time. You also like to save your money to be able to afford those aforementioned good times.

Apparently there was some draft picking going on this afternoon. The only draft I know about is the kind that gives me a belly.

Apparently, the INFOTOGO pillars that are strewn across our city are getting a lot of... positive... attention. The 'first-ever interactive, stylized street-level furniture' has won a prestigious international award from The Society for Environmental Graphic Design. the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers.

Antifiti* rebel Xoro* was out in full force in the West end last week, marking any sign that might be interpreted as commercial advertising with an easily removable green painter's tape X. Many locals have expressed appreciation of the universal appeal of the X as well as the general sentiment of sticking it to outdoor ads. This Torontoist has also been noticing a side-effect of the gesture: most of these ads are so predictably located, we don't even notice them anymore, but Now With Green Xes!, we've actually been reading the ads. Reverse psychology or unintended consequence? Only the X knows.

This Torontoist couldn’t make a flower grow on the sunniest and wettest day of the year, in a jungle. Does that even make sense? While we don’t know anything about gardening, a lot of other people do, like the people running this year’s Canada Blooms, the Toronto Flower & Garden Show.

Canadian clothing company Reitmans had an excellent year. Revenues were up 5%, share prices increased, and a whole bunch of other important numbers looked good in 2004. This Torontoist believes Reitmans success can be attributed to their cute/funny/not crappy ad campaign. You’ve seen it all over town and on TV. If you haven’t, you probably don’t take the subway or walk outside much. In case you've somehow missed it, their ads are the ones that star normal looking women doing normal everyday things, while incorporating a model attitude (see picture). Simple but funny. Take note other retailers, if you stop making crappy ads, people will buy your stuff.

The reviews haven’t been very kind to the show about the misfortunate MacDonald clan of Cape Breton. "No great truth or inspiration" went the headline in The Globe and Mail, which pretty much sums up the overall critical reaction. This Torontoist theatregoer (TTT), however, thinks that it’s the best play to grace a Toronto stage so far this season, full of joyous soaring musical moments and soul-scritch-scratching quiet ones. R.H. Thompson is particularly fine as Alexander MacDonald, the play’s narrator-dentist. There’s also not one, but two fabulous performances by an actor named Jody Richardson as Alexander’s grandfather and California cousin. If the Torontoist were on the Dora jury, we’d be pushing for a nomination for this Richardson fellah who is making his Tarragon debut.

Meanwhile, Torontoist's favourite new author, David Bezmozgis, was denied the Giller, but shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Another G, and a prize total of around the same G's, so Bezmozgis shouldn't be too displeased. When we heard him read at the Ashkenaz festival a few weeks back, he seemed an entirely affable fellow (not at all like that Jonathan Goldstein, whose profanity-laced reading caused two long in the tooth and short in the hearing bubbes to run for the exits). And Natasha and Other Stories was one of the best books of recent vintage. So Torontoist is going to support D-Bez in this upcoming election.