Results tagged “words”

The end of an era. It's a cliché, an easy writer's trick whose use far exceeds its real application. We stand by it in this case, however. After thirty years curating the indie set's reading list and nurturing Toronto's newest and freshest literary voices, Pages Books and Magazines will be shutting its doors for good in August. As reported in this week's issue of NOW, and confirmed privately to Torontoist, in the end there simply wasn't a choice. Rent is growing faster than sales, and for all that Pages is deeply loved (the Save Pages Books! Facebook group has upwards of 2,300 members), the cash crunch got to be too much.

As boys traded in their winter breeches for shorts at the end of the school term, the city became an enormous, open-air playground. Freed from the observant eye of parents and teachers, boyhood summers in the early twentieth century offered opportunities for exploring neighbourhoods until the streetlights came on. Streets, alleyways, and parks hosted games of marbles, hide-and-seek, and baseball. Summer days were anything but idle, and perusing a couple autobiographies offers insight into the many ways boys filled their times.

Last February, when three of the four major publishers in Canada pulled out of Toronto's annual book industry trade show, BookExpo sadly bit the dust. The collective feeling, particularly amongst small press publishers and indie booksellers, was “where do we meet now?” The book industry is in trouble, and even major publishers are scared stiff by spiralling sales and the rise of ebooks. And so, with a need for real discussion, BookCamp was born.

It turns out that if you want to be a successful poet and $50,000 richer, you better consider going by your initials. The ninth annual Griffin Poetry Prize winners were announced last night at the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District, with A.F. Moritz winning the Canadian award for his book of poetry The Sentinal and American poet C.D. Wright winning the International prize for her book, Rising, Falling, Hovering.

There were no direct comparisons drawn between architects John M. Lyle and Jack Diamond by Ryerson architecture prof Marco Polo, who moderated last evening's readings and discussion at Harbourfront Centre. As part of the fifth annual Festival of Architecture and Design, Diamond read two chapters from Insight and On Site: The Architecture of Diamond and Schmitt (Douglas & McIntyre, 2008)—written with his long-time design partner, Donald Schmitt, and Don Gillmor. And Lyle was discussed by Glenn McArthur, whose recent A Progressive Traditionalist (Coach House Books, 2009) charts Lyle's life and work as one of the twentieth century's foremost architects.

Can a commercial printer invoke religion in order to refuse services?

Between the 1950s and 1990s, the urbanized area of the GTA more than tripled from 193 square miles to 656. Yet, in the same time period, the population only doubled. Toronto became, former mayor John Sewell writes, "a city that resembled Vienna surrounded by Los Angeles." In The Shape of the Suburbs (UTP, 2009), Sewell sets out to investigate how low-density sprawl became the predominant urban form in the suburbs beyond Metro Toronto, what is now the 905 region.

The Watchmen movie has been released to moderate success and every other person on the street has a copy of the graphic novel in their low-slung messenger bag. Michael Cera, the quirky playboy of lady hipster hearts, is in town filming the Scott Pilgrim movie. Now is a better time than ever to come out and let your comic flag fly. Side-by-side with a documentary festival, book festival, and photography festival, the fourth Toronto Comic Arts Festival (or TCAF) animates the city this week.

If Michael Ignatieff is to be believed, there is no motive behind his latest book beyond that of providing a Canadian companion to his 1987 book, The Russian Album.

See? See what we did there? We wrote a haiku in lieu of providing you with a proper headline. And did you see what else we did? We stuck in a jaunty "Tra la la la la" because we still had five syllables to use, and we couldn’t think of anything else we wanted to write. Now, before the mud slinging begins, let’s consider why we wrote such a terrible poem. Was it because the last time we attempted such a feat, we were in grade six, and our English teacher informed us that our poem—which saw the words "Jonathan," "Taylor," and "Thomas" arranged in three different ways on three different lines—was "abysmal," and our haiku-writing confidence was shaken? Yes! Was it also, in (most) part, because we wanted you to know about CBC Radio One’s Toronto-themed haiku-writing contest, and actually spent an hour trying to write a half-decent poem, but ultimately failed and decided to leave the "good" writing to you? Yes!

Pape Avenue's most intriguing poet (or non-poet, as the case may be) is back at it, recently adding the above cardboard sign to his collection of handwritten glory.

Because in time for the Canadian edition of his book Who's Your City, the Toronto-based Florida ranked the best places in the country to live for certain demographics: singles (aged 20–29), mid-career professionals (29–44), "empty-nesters" (45–64), and families with children. The ten cities leading the way for "singles"? Calgary, Iqaluit, Ottawa-Gatineau, Victoria, Yellowknife, Edmonton, Guelph, Canmore, Whitehorse, and Montreal. Toronto finds itself at the top of the list for "empty-nesters" and right by the top for "families with children"; According to Florida's rankings, you're seemingly best off living in Calgary after you graduate from university, marrying, moving to Ottawa-Gatineau, having kids there, moving to Toronto when the kids leave for university, and then moving on back to Ottawa-Gatineau once your career ends. Sounds great.

The question of whether Paul G. Russell's career is more transom than mullion, more bridge than pillar, is a tough one. His achievements span virtually every artistic medium—from writing to television to film to stage to art—yet each are significant contributions atop which Canadian culture continues to build.

It was as if the crowd were gathering for the show of a famous stand-up comedian. Featured up at the mike, however, were the dramatic realizations, the rampant hormones, the missteps, triumphs, and wounds of childhood preserved fresh in writing.

The finalists for the Griffin Poetry Prize were announced earlier today, and Torontoist was happily in attendance.

Several questions come to mind upon reading the above poem found taped to the window of an east-end home. First, what happened between the author and his wife to solicit this rage-filled verse? Second, are "water skin" and "green head" meant to be insults? And lastly, what do donuts and a family of pigeons have to do with anything?

Christopher Sheedy, owner of the used bookstore Re: Reading, opening tomorrow on the Danforth, describes the excitement exhibited by many locals as he's been bringing his spacious shop together during the last six weeks. "The other night I was standing outside taking a break, a car pulled up and two little girls got out of the back seat, probably ages five and seven, turned to their mother and said, 'Look, Mom, the store's almost done!'"

Local gadfly Joe Clark is well known for his thoroughly biting analyses of typography, the idiosyncrasies of Canadian spelling, and the TTC. But while we at Torontoist are more than happy with his generally curmudgeonly demeanour, Clark has decided to shake things up a bit and, in his own words, "work on a positive and uplifting project for a while." So with that aim in mind, Clark last week launched a new blog that zones in on another of his municipal loves, simply titled Fans of Toronto Public Library (a.k.a. TPLFans).

Toronto celebrates its 175th birthday today, which provides an opportunity to look back at its accomplishments, determine what makes it work in the present, assess why we like living here, and ponder where its future lies. Past anniversaries have combined these elements in commemorative books, with two standing out from the pack (advance apologies to those who produced the 150th anniversary book—our blue-ribbon book selection committee couldn't get past the sax-playing clown balanced on a unicycle in front of Union Station).

Apart from a few gentlemen captured in mid-conversation, or the occasional horse-cart, the streets are curiously empty in the earliest known photographs of Toronto. Taken by the firm of Armstrong, Beere & Hime from the rooftop of the Rossin Hotel in 1856–1857, these photos provide an almost 360 degree panorama of a colonial town that is at once familiar but unrecognizable. All twenty-five of these photographs, which served as inspiration for Michael Redhill's Consolation (2006), have been reproduced in Toronto's Visual Legacy: Official City Photography from 1856 to the Present (James Lorimer & Company, 2009), which is being launched tomorrow as part of the city's 175th birthday festivities. Put together by Steve MacKinnon, Karen Teeple, and Michele Dale of the City of Toronto Archives, the book beautifully reproduces over a hundred photographs to offer readers fascinating insight into the Toronto's transformation from the fledgling city recorded by Armstrong, Beere & Hime into the contemporary metropolis.

"Feminist." "Ex-neo-Nazi." "Teenager."

Flattery will get you pretty far, and in Toronto—perhaps because of our terminal insecurity—it will get you even farther. Richard Florida has built a career on this. Now The Atlantic is hoping to cash in, too.

KIDS: Script Superheroes, a six-week writing workshop for seven- to ten-year-olds, starts today at the Comedy Bar. The afternoon workshops will teach your child how to write a powerful script, and how to impress an audience. At the end of the program, professional actors will step in to present a live reading of all the kids' plays. Script Superheroes is taught by character comedian Kristen McGregor and artist/writer/former Torontoist editor Alison Broverman. The Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), 2:30–3:45 p.m., $100/6 sessions.

ART: Torontonian innovator Moses Znaimer is curating a new exhibit, "Im/AGE: From 'Bust' to 'Boom' to 'Zoom,'" launching today at the Propeller Centre For The Visual Arts. The exhibit is inspired by Znaimer's New Vision Of Aging for Canada. It aims to idealize his theory of the "zoomer," which is not actually slang for magic mushrooms, but rather a term describing a baby boomer with "zip,"...so, "zoomer." Sixteen artists will explore the question, "What does it mean to be one of the 14.5 million 45+ Canadians in Canada?" Among works from Jim Bourke, Joan Kaufman, and Joseph Muscat, Znaimer's exhibit will feature an installation from performance artist Faye Mullen entitled "here I lay," in which Mullen is naked the entire time, hell yeah appears nude, buried and planted in a shipping crate filled with peat moss, paying tribute to that decades-old theme of decay. If Moses Znaimer ever wanted to change his last name, it would be funny if he changed it to Zoomer. Propeller Centre For The Visual Arts (984 Queen Street West), 7–10 p.m., FREE.

David Mirvish Books, one of Toronto's most venerable bookshops since its opening in 1974, will close for business effective February 28, according to the Post. While the events that led up to the decision to shut down are still unclear, what is certain is that DM Books will be sorely missed. Focusing on books on art, the store offers an unparalleled choice of books in its areas of specialization, and has no ready replacement among the city's other independent bookstores. In addition to its extensive book selection, DM Books will be remembered for the iconic fifty foot Frank Stella painting in its double-height main room, its numerous temporary art exhibits, and the frequent book signings and launches it hosted.

In 2007, Open Book Toronto produced its Words With series that featured interviews with twenty creative Canadians. Because these videos were so well received, the literary website has now come back with a new set of conversations that they’ve titled Type—only this time there’s a slight twist in the format. Unlike Words With’s straight-forward interviews, Type features artists from different fields (e.g. culinary arts, music, TV) interviewing each other. A writer may interview a dancer; a dancer may interview a chef. There are no scripted questions and the conversation can flow in any direction. This format was selected in order to break down the walls that separate the different spheres of talent in Toronto, and Open Book hopes this simple gesture will foster cross-communication between both the interviewees and their respective communities.

After months of worrying that their time on Queen Street West would soon be up, Pages Books and Magazines has been granted a six-month extension on their lease by owners Pinedale Properties, to August of 2009. The store announced the change early this morning in a press release, in which proprietor Marc Glassman cited "grassroots initiatives such as the 'Save Pages Books!' facebook group as well as support on the part of City Hall." ("Adam Vaughan's terrific team," in particular, gets a nod.) According to Glassman, "We'll continue to work with Pinedale in hopes of securing a longer lease....[but] realistically, Pages will be looking for other locations as well."

Joseph Boyden has won the Giller Prize—you know, "Canada's Premier Prize for Fiction"!—for Through Black Spruce, a novel that this year's jury of Margaret Atwood, Bob Rae, and Colm Toibin praised for "show[ing] us unforgettable characters and a northern landscape in a way we have never seen them before." (It's a bit of a surprise pick: Mary Swan’s The Boys in the Trees was the "overwhelming" winner of the Guess The Giller contest, according to their press release earlier in the day.) The Globe, Post, Star, and CTV all have more details from the gala.

Just when you really thought you'd seen it all, Keep Six Contemporary curator Rafi Ghanaghounian brings us Explicit Fantastic. The brand new author series (accompanied by a recently opened art show) brings some A-list writers out of the bars and Brigantine Room and into the—wait for it—laundromat. Tonight, Hollywood Coin Lounge (180 Ossington Avenue) will play host to some scribes aiming to unload some dirty words. The idea behind the ongoing series is to bring NSFW literature into functioning laundries, creating an ongoing forum for Toronto talent to share "their most explicit sexual ink" and "pleasuring word efforts" with you. There's no cover, but you are asked to bring a couple of loads of dirty laundry to do while you enjoy the reading. Tonight's event starts at 7 p.m. and offers Greg Kearney, Tamai Kobayashi, Dwayne Morgan, Angela Rawlings, Steve Venright, and Zoe Whittall. Explicit Fantastic the reading is also accompanied by Explicit Fantastic the exhibition, housed at Keep Six Contemporary (938 Bathurst Street). The show, which runs until November 30, also explores sex and sexuality in contemporary culture with works by a variety of practicing contemporary artists, including Bruce La Bruce, Shary Boyle, Thrush Holmes, Kelsey Brookes, Richard Kern, CUM, Dan Witz, TILT, Junko Mizuno, Rikki Kasso, Allyson Mitchell, and Tomori Nagamoto.

Every Tuesday afternoon, Torontoist rounds up the city's literary news, including book deals, events, local sales, author happenings, and insider information from the book industry.