According to Rafael Fajardo, absolutely. In the midst of last Wednesday's snowstorm, Fajardo spoke to a half-filled auditorium at OCAD as part of the Faculty of Design's speaker series. He is currently the Director of Digital Media Studies and Electronic Media Arts Design at Denver University, as well as the Director of SWEAT, a collaborative of video game designers who strive to push gaming beyond the realm of entertainment. Fajardo sees video game design......

Though there are only three new films on release this week, it would be unfair to bemoan the shortage when one film, Persepolis, is of a high enough quality that it might as well be the only film released. During TIFF 2007 Christopher Bird handed it a 5/5 and called it "a masterwork in every way that matters." Much like in our praise of There Will Be Blood, we do have to hesitate with......

Blade Runner is no longer showing at the Regent, which in many ways is lucky, as otherwise it was going to turn into a weekly, Rocky Horror Picture Show-style event for us—well, without all of that tedious audience interaction, which now we think about it, would make it not very like the Rocky Horror Picture Show at all. If you’re still hungry for more vintage Harrison Ford, though, they are showing Raiders of the......

Before all the fuss over Halo 3 there was the video game greatness of Pong. And before that, there was good ol' fashioned ping pong. Since 2000, The Dedicated Association of Ping Pong Players has been keeping the table tennis dream alive with bi-annual tournaments, the next of which is taking place on Saturday. Up to 500 people are expected to attend the event at the Steam Whistle Brewery ,which will feature drinking and......

Fan Expo is awesome. As awesome as anticipated by Torontoist late last week. Sure, the food is expensive, a bunch of the guests cancelled last minute, and Hobby Star is a huge corporate bully, but that doesn’t change the fact that Torontoist came within spitting distance of Adam West this weekend. In this three-day celebration of all things geeky, the biggest winner in the comics vs. sci-fi vs. horror vs. anime vs. video games......

You still have a few hours left, but Torontoist's Poetry Contest closes tonight! At the beginning of the new year, Torontoist launched a poetry contest to encourage the penning of new poems about our fair city. After judges Carly Beath, Stephen Cain, and Jay MillAr deliberate, we'll announce the winner plus five honourable mentions on April 10. We hope you've enjoyed our series of previously published Toronto poems, and look forward to presenting the winning......

Hey fan boys and girls! Are you still gushing over comic book legend Stan Lee’s cameo on last Monday's episode of Heroes (pictured left)? Well get ready to get giddy again. Lee will be appearing at an autograph session this afternoon at HMV (5:30 – 6:30 at 272 Queen St. W.). The 85-year-old Lee is in town to promote the launch of his new DVD, Stan Lee Presents Mosaic. As perhaps the world's most widely......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur, the......

The Toronto Indie Game Development Jam, a competition to create a video game in three days (!) was held across May 5th-7th, and the results of the competition are now online for your downloading pleasure. Our favorite is definitely the simple but addictive gameplay of Jonathan Mak’s Bubble Thing, easily comparable to a classic like Asteroids, but the deranged gun heavy Super Hamster Air Combat by Zi-Xiao Liang is good for those looking for......

So, for cinema goers who aren’t moved by the idea of Sprockets as described below (perhaps you don’t have children, perhaps you hate children, perhaps you hate children when they’re in cinemas, which Torontoist can understand), what is on offer for you loves? What about… Silent Hill? It’s not really the most high profile film out this week, but Torontoist has a bit of a soft spot for video game adaptations from, you know, actually......

There is a beautiful quote about Myfawny Ashmore's art installation, Mario Battle No. 1. You may or may not be familiar with the piece. The first level of Super Mario Brothers is hacked to remove all game objects other than Mario, leaving nothing but the ground he walks on. You, as the player, are left to interact with his almost completely featureless world and take Mario for a walk. The beauty lies here -......

Well, we’ve already mentioned the Australian Film Festival today, but, of course, there’s still space for our little round up of cinema’s new releases and indie and rep film for the week. Not only are our friends with the babies that have been eaten by dingos holding their own festival, but the University of Toronto Film Festival starts this Valentine's Day (Tuesday, for all you bad husbands out there) at Innes Town Hall, 2 Sussex.......

We here at Torontoist thought we’d try out a new weekly feature listing the best (and worst) films to be hitting Toronto’s screens in the following week, as a city which features both multiplexes, second run theatres and blessed with several vintage single screen movie houses, there’s a lot that can be missed. Released yesterday, Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha has received a cinema adaptation universally derided by reviewers. Golden’s novel is, much......

The Getting Up Festival really got up. On August 13-14, the hip hop music festival brings in Nas, Kanye West, Ciara, Mos Def, Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, Ludacris, Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz, Keshia Chante, Brooke Valentine, Rascalz, Kardinal Offishal and mo'. Though not entirely clear, the music has something to do with an Atari video game of the same name. The event will be directed by Toronto-bred director, Lil X. The festival will......

For your linking pleasure... - Chili dogs, chili fingers, whatever. A woman found a one inch human finger tip in her bowl of Wendy's chili. Find a picture and you can actually see the bite marks in the finger... - Block the hand that feeds you. Buy Fox Blocker, and just stick to the National Post for right wing bias. - You can play some cheesy Daft Punk video game, but it doesn't help the......

Tommy Douglas may be CBC's Greatest Canadian but he wouldn't make the top three in his own province. Heck, with the popularity of Canadian Idol runner-up, Theresa Sokyrka , he might be bumped another spot. At No. 3 would be a certain folk singer who attended Aden Bowman high school and whose paintings have been exhibited in Saskatoon's Mendel Art Gallery. At No. 2, Floral, SK's Mr. Hockey. And topping the list would be the......