Photo of Forest City Lovers by Joe Fuda Torontoist is gearing up for the annual Canadian Music Week this week. CMWist's complete coverage of show listings and a constant outpour of recommendations and reviews throughout the week will keep you all focused with that overwhelming 500+ band schedule. But CMW aside, Soundscapes will be hosting a handful of free (yes, free) in-store performances throughout the week running parallel to CMW, and supporting the new......

Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty emphasized that today's budget will be "frugal" in anticipation of an economic slowdown in the coming year. To demonstrate the concept in symbolic terms, Flaherty had an old pair of shoes resoled instead of buying the pair of new shoes traditionally associated with budgets. Flaherty also announced that he's saving money on undergarments by going "commando," although to be fair that gesture is more about sexiness than symbolism. A......

The Spice Girls are done––Geri Halliwell stuck the final nail in their room-for-five coffin last week when she told reporters that a tour like the one they're on now "probably won't happen ever again." Which means that the concert on February 26 in Toronto will be the band's last ever, maybe! While Baby and Sporty and Scary and Ginger will probably all continue on with their half-successful solo careers, Victoria Beckham––Posh––will continue doing what......

The winter sport of slush puddle vaulting is a game we’ve all played before. As an alternative to leaping over the slush filled gutters at Queen and Victoria last week, some inventive soul placed two shipping skids to bridge the puddle. Thank you mystery innovator, as many soakers were certainly avoided. Illustration by Kevin McBride.......

The Falconer report on violence in Toronto schools talks of a "culture of fear," saying that many students bring weapons to school, and many crimes go unreported. Some of the basic recommendations to fix things include more social workers and after-school basketball, fewer suspensions, more diverse teaching staff, and gun-sniffing springer spaniels to roam the halls. Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander who was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest,......

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. Walnut Hall was 2007's victim of demolition by neglect. The noble Georgian townhomes stood for over 150 years at......

What to do if you are alone tomorrow, either because you don't celebrate Christmas, or because there's no one around to celebrate with: Spend your day curled up with the almost-human warmth of your laptop, watching the WPIX Yule Log and listening to "Blue Christmas" (the Bright Eyes version), both on endless loops that resemble depression spirals more and more with each whiskey-and-tears cocktail that passes down your throat, which, come to think of......

Gate House goes coed. After a series of puerile, childish, vaguely misogynistic stunts, the infamous all-male U of T residence has been come down upon by that stuffy old dean. Of note is Gate House's claim to be an inspiration for the movie Animal House, just like every other "look at us we're so wild" frat house on every college campus ever, despite the fact that Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis went to McMaster.......

A few months ago, Torontoist wrote about the practice of façadism in the downtown core. Façadism—which refers to the practice of retaining the front face, or "skin," of an old building and affixing it to a newer, usually larger structure—has become increasingly popular in recent years as the city continues to grow up and out at its breakneck pace. Façadism began to be seen in Ontario after the 1975 Heritage Act, which gave municipalities......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without......

If you really like typography, signage, and the TTC––like, really really like it––maybe you'll want to join Joe Clark this Sunday, October 28, at 2:00 p.m. at Scarborough Centre Victoria Park Station for the TTC Type & Tile Tour (or TTTT), a guided excursion through some of the Transit Commission's successes and failures with signage. (Mostly failures.) The itinerary includes trips to choice vacation spots like Victoria Park's bus bays and Spadina's Walmer Road......

After decades of being situated as an icon of Queen Street West, it has been revealed that Citytv will be moving to a new high-profile location: Dundas Square. Since Rogers Communications announced plans to acquire Citytv, there has been much speculation about what would happen to the legendary Queen Street studios. The solution became the former Olympic Spirit complex at the south-east corner of Dundas Square. Built for $42 million in 2004, the building......

October 16 is the day that the Walt Disney Company was founded (1923), the day that Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act in response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping (1970), and the day that President Bush signed into law the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution (2002). It is also, though you may not know it, World Food Day, as deemed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United......

Transformation AGO will soon be entering the final stages of its expansion project, estimated to finish sometime in mid-2008. But before the AGO closes its doors in order to begin reinstalling over 5,000 pieces of art into 110 galleries, they will be offering free admission to the public for its closing weekend this October 6 and 7. This will be your final opportunity to view the four exhibitions that have been on display since......

"Skeletons Out for a Walk" by emcnamee. There is a lot of madness to look forward to this week. Nuit Blanche madness (covered very soon by Torontoist), book sale madness, and literary events madness spread throughout the city. Torontoist will give you the lowdown on everything we can this week so you can sort it all out in your head. To settle down pre-Nuit Blanche jitters, you can check out the Art Aloud: Scotiabank......

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,......

Tired of being bombarded with the bitter bits of business? Want to hear about commerce that strives for a sweet deal for everyone involved? On September 19, Alternative Grounds, one of Toronto's leading purveyors of liquid energy and social justice, will host an awesome event put on by Coburg-based human rights organization Horizons Of Friendship. Three speakers from organizations in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Ecuador will come together to discuss how cooperatives and micro-enterprise are......

Photo by Nora Vass. Habitat 67 is one of the few structures remaining from Expo 67, the most successful World's Fair in the twentieth century and arguably one of Canada's finest cultural achievements. It's a teetering jumble of blocks, catwalks, and gardens designed to reflect the celebration of diversity that the event represented. It is from this structure, and Expo 67, that the Vulcan Dub Squad draws inspiration for its new album, The New Designers.......

Can a transit system foster love for a city? Torontonians may scoff, but Londoners will nod. The underground—better known as the Tube—is often cited as a reason why so many Londoners take pride in their city. One trait of the Tube—and possibly something that Toronto can learn from—is the way in which stations are named after the city’s neighbourhoods and landmarks. A journey where you board at Notting Hill, travel past Marble Arch and St.......

The bus platform of Pape station was engulfed in a whirlwind of mops and microphones early yesterday afternoon as workers scrubbed the walls and windows till they sparkled and the media mingled with curious commuters, all of them eager for TTC chair Adam Giambrone to arrive and kick off the Station Modernization Program. This whammy of a project, which will include the restructuring and redesign of nine subway stations, was set into motion at......

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! Frequent riders of le Rocket Rouge are well aware of the often charming quirks that streetcars encounter, from the driver having to hop out and switch tracks to "surfing the accordion" of the articulated vehicles. This image, by Flickr pool contributor......

The World Naked Bike Ride wants to make a point that there are many things more offensive than a bare bum. The indecent exposure is not to some guy's twig n' berries, but to our polluted environment. On Saturday, Toronto was among 70 cities around the world that took a spin au naturel as a celebration of cycling, a protest against car culture, a comment on pollution, or just to express some exhibitionist tendencies.......

The trash can pictured is not a City-approved waste receptacle. It was an advertising tool for ck IN2U, Calvin Klein’s newest fragrance, and its stay at the corner of Dundas and Victoria Streets long outlasted its welcome. Branded with the catchphrase "what are u in 2?" with no mention of the fragrance itself or of Calvin Klein, eighty faux trash cans were distributed across Montreal and Toronto as part of the ck IN2U teaser......

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,"......

Have you checked out the officially unveiled ROM Crystal yet? Some cool dudes like David Foster, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, K'naan, Natalie McMaster, David Suzuki and Governor General Michaëlle Jean [AND CLAY AIKEN!!!—Ed.] were on scene for the dedication. A 18-month-old boy is dead after falling off of a 28th-floor balcony of an apartment building near Victoria Park and Danforth Avenue yesterday. Stephane Dion to One Cent Now: No. The Buffalo News on Toronto:......

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! Really, how could we resist a long-exposure fireworks shot following Victoria Day weekend? This explosive soirée was captured last night by Flickr pool contributor bigdaddyhame on Perth Avenue. We love the razor sharp quality and almost daytime-like lighting effect against a......

On Monday and Tuesday nights, the Toronto Public Space Committee will be holding its third Art Attack event. The first, in 2002, had people meet up at the Tranzac to make art and then tape it over outdoor advertisements in the Annex. Last summer, the art-making took place at the Gladstone Hotel and the ad-jamming occurred mostly in the West Queen West area (with one excursion to King and Strachan to hit the Monster......

We're not saying it's because May 21 marks the season finale of Heroes, but organizers of the Victoria Day fireworks display at Canada's Wonderland have shifted the annual event from Monday to Sunday night at 10 p.m. The big blow up at Ontario Place is also taking place on Sunday as well as Monday. Both shows start at 9:30. Meanwhile, over at Ashbridge's Bay, planners are sticking with tradition and blowing things up on......

This Victoria Day weekend, two things will be on the minds of many Torontonians—beer and BBQ. The weather is good, you’re hanging with your friends, and you just want to kick back and chill with a cold one and a burger. You may have heard about what BBQing can do to your health and the environment, but let’s face it, it’s hard to resist the smoky aroma wafting from your neighbour’s backyard. Don't stress yourself......

The good news: tonight, there are three great literary events happening in our fair city. The bad news: you’re going to have to choose. Mark Truscott’s Test Reading Series presents Reg Johanson and Jordan Scott at Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art (37 Lisgar Street) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Reg Johanson has traveled from East Vancouver for tonight’s performance. His first book, Courage, My Love was published by Line Books last year. Reg’s critical......