Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but......

It’s a strange, perhaps undesirable, thing to admit to, but Torontoist spends a lot of time thinking about R. Kelly. Generally it comes down to one core question that we just can’t answer (nor do we think we ever will): Is R. Kelly a genius or a lunatic? Here is a man who has produced some of the most pitch-perfect songs in the sickeningly syrupy ballad category (including possibly the pinnacle, Michael Jackson’s "You are......

Sales of hybrid cars like the Prius are booming not only because drivers wish to spend less on gas and reduce their emissions, but because they want everyone to know they're driving a hybrid. Today the Ontario government proposed a plan that might add an additional layer of smugness to your vehicle: a conspicuous green license plate. If a vehicle met certain specifications of a to-be-determined rating system, the Province would issue the special......

Hanging out in the city with Torontoist's Summer Reads. LitTO continues this week with a few summer reading picks. These are literally reading choices for the season, as we haven’t read them yet, but plan to take them to the cottage. Films and Poems by John Barlow, LyricalMyrical. John Barlow’s poems have a habit of looking at this crazy world, not agreeing with it, and finding their own peace and happiness. He has a......

Toronto legend Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish has died. He was 92. The philanthropic businessman was a crucial part of Toronto's reputation as a world-renowned theatre centre, and had been mostly out of the public eye after contracting a severe case of pneumonia in 2003 and experiencing deteriorating health ever since. Mirvish died at St. Michael's Hospital at 1:30 a.m. Mirvish was born in Virginia on July 25, 1914 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. His introduction to......

American playwright Tony Kushner is one of the most important playwrights of contemporary theatre. He also remains conspicuously under-produced in our fair city. His landmark play Angels in America (since adapted into a popular HBO miniseries) has received only one Toronto production in CanStage's 1996 season, noticeably absent from any season at Buddies. It's unsurprising then, in a way, that Mercury Stage's production of Homebody/Kabul at the Berkeley Street Theatre, a play that caused......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay tribute......

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......

Toronto student Soohyun Park took top prize at the CanSpell Cup nashional spelling bee. Her corect spelling of 'hypobulia' trumped 'cerumen' and 'moiety'. A Virginia Tech student gunned down 33 of his classmates yesterday, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Shortly after 3:00 a.m., a three alarm fire gutted a house at Spadina and Baldwin, between College and Dundas. One southbound lane on Spadina is closed to traffic, but the streetcar is running......

It seems that Bob Rae is the Liberal candidate most likely to get Ontarians to vote for him. However, he is also the Liberal candidate most likely to get Ontarians to vote against him. Thus, Bob Rae is the Canadian version of Hillary Clinton. You heard it here first, people! New measures being taken to prevent lottery fraud. So now you can be sure when you throw your money away on a lottery ticket,......

If you don’t bring home the love tonight, you are so screwed. Here’s Torontoist’s romance Rolodex. Downtowners, head straight to chocolatier JS Bonbons, either the midtown or downtown location. Get the Big Box of Love (about $35) and fill it with handmade chocolates and truffles in unusual flavour pairings –like ginger cardamom caramel or tarragon and black pepper. Cheaper still, a chunk of square Callebaut dark chocolate embossed with -aaaw- a big heart (about......