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Getting my design fix on Dundas West

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:15:00 -0500

Anchored by a vintage printing press -- which is still used to teach the craft of movable type -- Bookhou captures that delicate balance between newness and nostalgia. Offering everything from chairs and benches to bags to cozies, the designs at this Dundas West gem are both crafty and worldly all at once.

Read my profile of Bookhou in the design stores section.

Toronto through the eyes of Carl Allen

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0500

Jamaican-born Carl Allen has traveled the globe as a DJ, but prefers the city of Toronto to all others. Since the 90's, Allen has became a restaurateur and purveyor of soul food alongside business partner Carl Cassell. Currently Allen runs Harlem Restaurant on Richmond as well as its new sister spot, Harlem Underground on Queen West. Both exist to provide a sense of community, a performance space, and that rare Toronto offering that is a soul food menu. As Allen and I talked about restaurants, soul food and the city, the smell of freshly made corn bread wafted up to us, making me more than a little hungry.

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Shrouded sunrise

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:36:00 -0500

Photo by louise@toronto, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

The signifier plays the signified at 52 McCaul's Creative Type II

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:03:00 -0500

Whether it's stitched into our sneakers, bombarding us via enormous billboards, or providing the elegant medium for our favourite author's new novel, type -- and the hard work done by typographers -- can be seen just about everywhere, particularly in urban environments. Despite its ubiquity, however, typography is an art form routinely taken for granted (or simply overlooked) in our day to day hustle.

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Opening Soon: Frankly Eatery, Delight Chocolate on Queen, Hoops Sports Bar, Goodnight, Alimento Fine Food Emporium, Kimberley Jackson, Cafe Florentin, Grinder on Gerrard

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:06:00 -0500

Something strange is happening on Gerrard between Marjory and Jones. This derelict part of the street near Gerrard Square Mall was best known for not having anything worth visiting with plenty of vacant storefronts and the shuttered Gerrard Cinema among its non-existent tenants. But now the whiff of gentrification is in the air with Great Burger Kitchen scheduled to open this week and a sign in the old cybercafe announcing that Grinder Cafe won't just be on Main anymore.

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NADA in 3-D: fashion on the big screen

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:13:00 -0500

NADA designer Nada Shepherd grew bored with runway shows, so she decided to go bigger.

Way bigger.

For her fall/winter 2010 presentation, Shepherd commissioned a seven-minute 3D film to showcase her clothing. The fashion media filed into the Scotiabank Theatre this week and donned their 3D glasses to get a peek at this fashion first.

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Phase one of Regent Park revitalization nears completion

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:46:00 -0500

Regent Park is Canada's oldest and largest social housing project. The former slum of Cabbagetown was razed in the 1950s to create what its creators hoped would be a more modern and livable neighbourhood for low-income families. However, as with much much modernist social housing built during the period -- like the Cabrini-Green project in Chicago -- such housing projects have witnessed escalating crime and vandalism ever since.

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Filmmaker Profile: Matt Austin Sadowski

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:20:00 -0500

The choreography might have been a bit awkward, but the bit at this year's Academy Awards paying tribute to the late director John Hughes was for many one of the show's more memorable moments. Which leads us to Matt Austin Sadowski, the director behind last year's breakout John Hughes doc Don't You Forget About Me.

Read our profle of Matt Austin Sadowski in our special Toronto Filmmakers section.

Morning Brew: Adam Giambrone's fun continues, TPL wants people to "lose" books, family friendly condos, the tenants from hell, and GTA mover scams

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:00:00 -0500

It sure isn't fun to be Adam Giambrone these days. How well would anyone's record hold up under such scrutiny? Although the TTC is not looking for him to step down, the latest controversy involves a $10 cab ride he took on January 4, 2009 -- the day he had his first date with Kristen Lucas. Marked as a "ward visit," Giambrone has apologized for the error and donated the amount in question to the city. Hasn't everybody abused a taxi chit at least once?

The Toronto Public Library will start an intriguing program on Monday that encourages participants to "lose" books. For this year's Keep Toronto Reading Festival, the TPL has created 99 journals in which readers are asked to write about the books they love. Scattered across the city, the idea is that they will be passed randomly from person to person, eventually acquiring diverse insights and anecdotes from a variety of Torontonians. At the end of the festival, they'll try to track down the journals and display the reader interaction contained within their pages. Mayor Miller has already got the ball rolling with an entry in one of the journals. His choice? -- Minnow on the Say by Philippa Pearce.

Although condo units are still being snatched up like crazy, the City would like to see more families taking up residence in the downtown core. As Councillor Adam Vaughan explains, "You can't sustain a city with a monoculture; you can't segregate singles from families and seniors from young people. What we need when we build these buildings is to build vertical neighbourhoods, and that means we need to sustain economic diversity and social diversity." It will, however, be an uphill battle, as developers tend to shy away from the minimum three-bedroom requirement believed necessary to lure potential home-buying families into condos.

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Untitled (IMG_0210)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:30:00 -0500

Photo by trebbble, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Evan Biddell opens Oz on Ossington

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:51:00 -0500

Beloved enfant terrible Evan Biddell opened Oz, his very own storefront this week, setting up shop in a coveted Ossington space where Cindiloowho used to be.

The local fashion crowd piled into the beautiful space (the renovation was done by Biddell's business partner in the venture, photographer Joe Fuda) to sip cider and check out Biddell's latest.

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TTC Busker Profile: Mike Green

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:49:00 -0500

Self-taught guitarist Mike Green loved Led Zeppelin as a kid growing up in Saint John, New Brunswick, and he'll still occasionally break out one of their songs as a TTC busker. I watched Mike perform at Union station as a stream of commuters poured and separated around us, like a river passing around rocks. Everyone was headed somewhere.

The constant flow of people was in stark contrast to the story he would tell me about his most amazing experience as a busker. Sometimes, according to Mike, it only takes one girl and a bit of music to bring a whole station to a standstill.

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33 years of never frozen, delicious fried chicken

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:48:00 -0500

The chains don't hold a candle to Leslieville's Chick-N-Joy, who make what many believe is the most delicious but not particularly healthy-lifestyle-driven fried chicken in Toronto. It's all fresh, never frozen bird here - and it has been for 33 years. The taste is great, but bring a wet-nap or two, and get your running shoes ready as you'll need to sweat off some serious calories after indulging in this heavenly but greasy treat.

See my review of Chick-N-Joy in the restaurant section.

Oh What a Lovely War a delightful and touching satire

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:47:00 -0500

Oh What a Lovely War, given the Soulpepper Theatre treatment, is a delightful, touching production.

It's a bold anti-war musical by Joan Littlewood, Theatre Workshop and Charles Chilton, and directed by Albert Schultz. It's rife with catchy songs that satirize the military's role in what amounted to 10 million lives lost during World War I. The story is chiefly about Britain's role in the war, but there are enough subtle hints of Canada's involvement scattered throughout this show to make it particularly relevant to audiences here.

This production of Oh What a Lovely War opened on Thursday night at Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District. It features an outstanding cast of actors and musicians -- almost always both simultaneously -- as in last autumn's awesome e.e. cummings in song from the CanWest Cabaret Festival, which really ought to get a reprise of its own.

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Morning Brew: Arrest in hospital jewelry theft, Ryerson University faces class-action lawsuit, TTC shooter gets nine years, Rubick's Cube master, art versus garbage debate

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:41:00 -0500

There's been an arrest made and one man is still at large in the hospital robbery case that saw a woman in her death bed robbed of jewelry. Police are hailing surveillance video footage as key to identifying the suspects.

Ryerson University is facing the threat of a $10-million class-action lawsuit, launched by Chris Avenir, a student who ran a controversial Facebook "study group" that almost got him expelled. He claims that the university's current academic misconduct policy deprives students of a fair defence and resulted in "significant emotional and/or mental stress."

Nine years in prison, likely followed by deportation is what Richard Haynes faces. Last February, Haynes took a gun onto an Oakwood Avenue TTC bus, seeking revenge on a 17-year old who'd allegedly stabbed him earlier that day. Unable to get the teen off the bus, he opened fire in the vehicle.

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