Everyone you pass seems to wanna say hello: brand new all purpose all season TORONTO thread

break out the deck chairs it's -3

I wore a dress to work today to celebrate.

Will be visiting in June.

good stuff, Ned.

think i might go to the new AGO this weekend...

...i haven't been.

other important topics:

subway gunman still on the loose!
do you know of any impressive lobbies? i need to take pictures of them.
good shows coming up: what? where!?
favorite unfinished condos
huevos rancheros at insomnia on bloor: how good?
diversity?

How was the AGO? I still haven't been.

didn't go! ended up getting v v drunk both fri & sat and was really only fit to nod in and out of "scenes from a marriage" during daylight hours.

i was thinking maybe id take a day off work and check it out when it's not as crowded. i'll report back if i do.

AGO is OK. I like the big gallery behind the new glass front. That's cool. Rooms and rooms of GroupOfSeven, and about 4 roooms of David Milne both seem a bit much, although I like both. A good but small section of Inuit art. On the down side, some poor or even non-existant labelling. And miles and miles of European ceramics on the ground floor? why? I know they were donated by a major supporter of the gallery, but still...

I liek the crazy stairwell at the back, and the view over the Grange.

re: AGO when i was home over xmas i went with my mom and we took a really cool tour of an archaeological dig currently underway in the grange. we got to see a bunch of usually closed parts of the old house and the tour was structured as a guide to the dig: why it was started, how the artifacts are dug up and analysed, you even got to take a look at the tour director's office.

it was pretty neat to got a sort of "process" look at a real archaeological dig. i don't think they're offering the tour much longer so i'd go as soon as u can.

Ned Raggett has continually been on vacation since 1997, except for two nonconsecutive weeks spent working in late 2004.

Sounds about right.

Toronto has been too damn cold lately, I feel like I live in a freezer

xxxpost....unfinished condos = the best kind of condos! How about the crazy looking NBlox thing: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080207.re-mays-0208/BNStory/RealEstate which has now been redesigned as something more dull, http://torontoloftsforsale.jeffreyteam.com/torontolofts/cubelofts.htm, which still is completely incongruous at College and Ossington? Hopefully never gets built. Just north of there on Shaw is the remains of a church, which has had hoardings up around it advertising some snazzy condo for the last 5 years, as well.

impressive lobbies, though...TD Centre? CBC building? the ROM (sort of)? Jeez, there must be some, but I can't think of any offhand.

good shows: Neko Case at the Trinity St Pauls church in April, for one.

Insomnia on Bloor for huevos, I can't help you there. Musa down on Dundas does good brunch, with grilled fruits with their eggs.

ha the insomnia thing was rhetorical really -- they're very good!

here are some impressive lobbies (ive just been doing this this week as a way to pass time at lunch + just got a new camera). fun times.

http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk105/kdfo/lobbies-1.jpg?t=1233022541

i actually work in td at the moment and the longer im there the more i appreciate the simple lines and big spaces and neutral grounds and the way everything fits together from every angle you look at it. i took some pictures there tonight and it looked lovely.

also nblox is rad! but looks like you might kind of have had the whole street looking in your living room?

oh, I thought Nblox looked like it would have been kinda cool, but the new design looks boringsville.

Will have to try Insomnia...been living merely a few blocks away for several yrs now.

Nice lobbies!

In spite of my animosity towards the AGO in general, its new manifestation is a zillion times better than what it was before it went under the superstar-architect knife, if only for the collection on display (much of which I have still have to see, but still: Enclaves dedicated to Robert Smithson! Most of the big Minimalists, all that stuff I love, etc.).

20-FEB-09 WITCH (J Mascis) HORSESHOE 19+ $10.50
21-FEB-09 BLITZEN TRAPPER HORSESHOE 19+ $10.50
24-FEB-09 K'NAAN MOD CLUB 19+ $16.00
20-MAR-09 CUT COPY CIRCA 19+ $15.00
16-MAY-09 ANIMAL COLLECTIVE SOUND ACADEMY $23.00

so nice today

wish i was there x

almost made it to the AGO but :\ accidentally got drunk at the village idiot across the street w/ gf and didnt make it. instead bought a giant fern at canadian tire and carried it home about 7 blocks and wrecked it in the process. updates re: future failed ago attempts to be forthcoming, im sure. u are a torontonian abroad, jed?

garbage strike day 2 and people are already dumping their garbage in parks.. Wtf?? LCBO stands to be on strike tomorrow but thankfully the Beer Store will still be open :D

Joey Pants says the garbage in Christie Pits was actually left over from Sunday night: http://torontoist.com/2009/06/a_city_within_a_garbage_dump.php

so far, not many overflowing streetcorner garbage cans, though!

Hooker Harvey's is going to have less business:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontarios-top-court-legalizes-brothels-in-bid-to-protect-prostitutes/article2381372/

I actually thought this was going to be about that Harvey's...which I always associate with the Edge or Larry's Hideaway (can't remember which).

Heh, no. Hooker Harvey's is just fresh on my mind since I was on Jarvis the other day.

Not working, I hope. (Sorry, that was uncalled for.)

Hah! No. But as a Pulp fan, I did make a reference to how fun it would be to see my husband on Jarvis.. there's a 12 year old inside me.

u are a torontonian abroad, jed?

no, i'm a scotsman who often visits toronto. i'll be there this summer to visit my best friend, sarah. if any of you go drinking and dancing out west and know a crazy scottish lassie it's probably her.

bump 'cuz we might have a new resident by the name of ljubljana!!

ooh thanks FFM! Yes, should be arriving in September for grad school for (deep breath) 4 years, and I was wondering whether anyone had any advice about how early to look for an apartment for early September?

you can starting looking in june but july is yr best bet for sept. 1st

Thanks - I'll probably go for v early July then. Should endear me to the city, it'll be a blessed escape from DC weather by then.

:/ haha well

Is that a warning about winter? Or another kind of :/?

Not winter, summer. Toronto gets hot. Hope you find a place!

Ah, ok. As long as it's even a little bit less humid that here, all will be ok...

FWIW the last time I found an apartment in the city it was through Craiglist, but you may also try kijiji.ca, viewit.ca

main free weeklies are thegridto.com nowtoronto.com - don't think the first has apartment listings but the latter might

also handy: http://bedbugregistry.com

you could also modify this IFTTT use to send you apartment listings?
http://lifehacker.com/5875340/automate-your-job-search-with-the-webapp+supercharging-ifttt

Thanks, I will delve into all of those and I'll definitely come back with annoying questions re: specific areas to live in. Also been thinking about the grad accommodation option, if only to meet people, but it's relatively expensive and the people will all be 25, waaahhhh....

Hah! Yeah, I could see that being a biiiiiiiiit annoying. Rent here in general is on the higher side, sadly. I've got a steal of an apartment in the 'downtown suburbs' and I'm not leaving til we have our house down payment.

its obv too early to use but padmapper collects all the major online rental listings and tranports them into google maps. its a p handy way of searching for an apt

toronto landlords are subhuman monsters so the u of t grad school housing is probably less (relatively) expensive than youd think

Noted, thanks!

haha that post was... perhaps... excessive i have just not had a lot of apt hunting luck in this city :/

np, I am steeled for probs. I applied to the grad housing so that I have the option, though it may already be full. A room in a 3/4 bed apartment is $864 per month (or about 100 more for a slightly bigger room). That does cover utilities including internet.

yah thats probably slightly above market but if its really close to u of t its not terrible. most roomshares in the westend are either 700+ or total shitholes unless you luck into something where the ppl have had the place for a long time or s.thing

Yeah my friends recently upped their limit for a 2br to $1400 to find something good... Under $1k solo is almost always a basement sadly

Tbh although it'll be a wrench in some ways to share again, I'm not sure that living alone is the best way to face the massive lifestyle change from long working days filled with people and immediate work stuff to relative loner life at grad school.

Oh and obv let me know if your nicest, friendliest and yet most understanding-of-space-needs friends and acquaintances are looking for a roommate.

Good point! I'm not sure I'd want to live alone either. Will think on roommate possibilities for you!

Thanks! (NB I am 40 which might render me undesirable to many potential roommates). How was the bus to NY?

I will be passing through the TOR airport in early May as I make a connection to Paris. I must say I'm looking forward to everyone I pass saying hello. (thinks) Well, I guess it could get old in a hurry.

The bus was.. Okay :) Waiting for E right now, exciting!! I don't think 40 is a problem - more me trying to think of friends who might move! Most of my friends are mid 30s but all partnered up and condoed down.

I realize now that my natural state for walking around streets IS to smile, trying to keep a game face on haha. Aimless I will beam in the airport's general direction!

Thanks! And good luck with finding a great apartment situation within your budget, ffm.

I think the big thing about cities that erodes friendliness is just the sheer number of people you have to deal with on a casual nod and smile basis. At a certain point, it becomes trying and tiresome and beyond that point it advances past frantic to plain impossible. It's not really that big city people are less capable of friendly smiles; it just gets squeezed out of them by circumstances.

oh it's me looking for a great apartment situation (upcoming move), ffm already has one!

wishes for apt. luck duly transferred

Thank you, they are warmly accepted

I will only leave my current apartment for a house! I'll squat if I must. Heh.

Will be dropping into TO at the end of May/start of June for a conference (an I'm-gonna-study-this-stuff one, not a current-work one)... too early to look for a place, but in any case just found out I won't hear about the grad school housing I applied to till the end of June.

so it figures! Sister needs a roommate for July 1. But she's looking for someone student age/you would probably be driven nuts living with her anyway (I love her.. but yeah. Little sisters.)

but I did share it on FB just now if you want to take a look ;)

Thanks! I can't see it on FB for some reason? I think I may drive a young and fun person crazy though :-(

You could level each other out ;) Maybe on my profile you can see it? (on phone rn, on streetcar!)

No I don't see it - but don't worry - I honestly think I'm probably best enjoyed by the late 20s and up crowd :-) I really appreciate you thinking of it though!

:D only listing I've seen, so thought I'd mention it. Completely understood though!

I am here, at a conference that is blowing my mind with the enormity of the decision to back to school... Heading back home tomorrow night. Wasn't organised enough to even ask about FAP but if anyone is interested my megabus isn't till 11.30pm.... but plan A is to hit a movie - any recommendations for good downtown theaters not a million miles from the Coach Terminal?

Moving up this coming Thursday from Mtl. Anxious!

The Carlton is close to the terminal.

thanks - might see Monsieur Lazhar.

Wish I could but I'm running around all day tomorrow! Have fun. :)

I like your city! (Which is a huge relief).

Glad you liked it!

Toronto is a good place to be!

I guess I may as well ask here: best cheap eats in Koreatown and/or the Annex? That's where I'm headed.

There are millions of restaurants around there, I'm not very sure.. I tend to get pizza or pub hamburgers ;)

Buk Chang Dong for Korean, A+. I eat there once a week.

I was passing through the Toronto airport just last Monday, but most of the eating establishments I saw there were either Tim Hortons and Coyote Jacks. (frowny face)

I've never heard of CJ... There's a Wolfgang Puck's & Starbucks in t1 for future reference :)

Head on out to Pearson airport and buy a ticket for somewhere so you can pass through security. Once inside you may experience the wonder that is Coyote Jack... if you dare!

Or you could just go to Facebook and check it out.

[impassioned defence of Tim Horton's]

Pearson is soo far.. I'll stick to the crappy fast food I know and love. (And I do love me some Timmie's!)

I had my first Tim H's this morning! Breakfast sandwich with egg and ham on the English muffin. When I arrive for real maybe I'll branch out to the biscuit.

On the overnight bus back from Toronto to DC the only people talking were immediately behind me, and I was riveted. Two kids, a girl and a guy, who didn't know each other, introducing themselves to one another - it was a great refresher on the Things on the Minds of Today's Yoof. Lots lots of awkward stuff where I could tell what one of them was thinking about what the other one just said even though I couldn't see either of them. She wouldn't stop interrogating him - there would be a silence during which she was clearly thinking of something else to say and then she'd go for it ('what is your favourite drink?') She also started talking on the phone to her friend in a British accent and asked her new companion how good this sounded, and I just had to turn around and say it was pretty good (it was). She nearly lost her mind with excitement at discovering my Britisherness and it turns out that imitating British accents and trying to get really good at it is A Thing amongst 21-year olds in Denver. Anyway, she was lovely really (even if she then wouldn't stop making me say things) and I was glad I sat near them.

Awww! Rest assured I will make you say things over our inevitable future pint. And perhaps you will find the way I pronounce things as charming as ENBB did. I think I had her say 'wicked smaht' for me.

My Timmie's sandwich of choice is the sausage and egg one, on the English muffin. The biscuit is delicious but you can just about feel your arteries harden, it's so greasy.

Don't worry, you'll learn how putrid Tim Horton's is in time enough.

(You'll learn to dodge these types quickly. Everyone's over everything in Toronto.)

Tim Horton's Camp Day! This day is special to me because my underpriveleged sister got sent to camp about 12 years ago on this organization's dime. If you're around, it's worth donating!

Everything is over anyways, but that's no excuse for ubiquitous low quality cafe chains and kitsch-laden symbols of Canadian nationalism.

I like cheap coffee. And camp day. What do you recommend? I brew coffee at home, but have Second Cup, Starbucks, Timothy's & Druxy's around the office for when the thermos isn't enough. I default to Druxy's when I don't want to walk in the rain/snow to Tim's.

Well, I wouldn't recommend a chain, is the thing.

So I should ride the subway & hop a streetcar down to Kensington? :)

Maybe the Mom and Pop Korean place makes coffee.

I'm not even thinking of it in a corporate sense, but in a strictly quality sense.

Everyone hesitates before confessing their favourite coffee

Hah! I don't, even when it opens me to ridicule. But my palette is not sophisticated enough to distinguish between the lovingly brewed grounds of Noir or the Only cafe.. so I just stick with what's easy, nearby and doesn't cost me more than (ideally) $1.50.

Ha, it wasn't meant to be a personal accusation! Typical of Toronto is when people put down a coffee shop b/c of its scene rather than its product. Thus, hesitation, like, "what does my coffee shop say about me?" Even now I hesitate to confess that I'll bike 3km up to Sam James on a weekend.

I had heard a couple of times that Tim Horton's offered a very generous employment scheme, with stock options for their floor workers and so forth, but hadn't done any investigation... does anybody know about this?

I've heard that in Alberta they get paid like $15/hr, but Alberta is a different story...

From what I know they do get medical and dental, and there may be some sort of education/trainingopportunities people can take advantage. And like I said upthread, my sister was one of the disadvantaged kids selected to go to camp in Alberta and that was so very A++ in my eyes.

Never been to Sam James. I rarely drink coffee beyond 10AM and I'm rarely anywhere but at home, work or brunch before 10AM. However I do appreciate a good cappucino.. there's a place on College near Grace which my husband took me to on our first date & many times after until we moved in together (& up to St Clair.) I'd like to go there again, actually..

Lit. It was recommended to me as "a place filled with the hottest boys" and I rolled my eyes at the time

Not Lit.. although that's a pretty funny selling point for coffee.. :) I was thinking of this place: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/riviera-bakery-toronto-2

I might just have to try and drag my husband down there tomorrow afternoon, actually.

Oh, I always get Grace and Shaw reversed.

And I said I rolled my eyes "at the time" but then went and the coffee was tasty and sure I guess the boys were cute

Good enough for me! ;) I guess technically it's a little closer to Manning but I'm not great with that neighbourhood either.

i'm a big fan of Little Nicky's by Peter and Queen (for both the interior decor, coffee and mini-donuts)!

Me too, nice staff to boot

ugh this galloway shooting

my grandma's house (just off golf club rd) got broken into in the middle of the afternoon a week or so ago, while she was out front

Scarborough is my motherland (really: my parents/family grew up & met there!) but I am losing faith :(

I'll be around 8th-12th, looking for a place. Considering this co-op but apparently they only have a very small room left in their 'graduate' house... http://www.campus.coop/guest_apply

Let me know if anyone's at a loose end one of those evenings...

I could meet you on the Thursday of that week! :)

$1200 a month, if I did the math right? would probably get you at least a decent basement within a 30 minute commute though, I'm sure? My friends who were looking recently got a 2br apartment for ~$1400..

(basing this on a recollection you'll be working not far from the annex / Bathurst & Bloor..)

FFM, I'd love to meet you on Thursday! I'll webmail you with my contact details (does your webmail work? I know we did this before but I've forgotten).

Yeah, I'll be studying at OISE so I'm ideally looking around the Annex, but totally happy to commute if I can find a nice place. I really wanted to get into the graduate housing, which looks pretty nice and consists of shared apartments, but there's a long waiting list and I'm hardly moving up it. On the one hand, I've lived alone for 10 years and it'd be great to be able to keep doing that (and it looks like I could do it cheaper than$1200, but I haven't seen the places on my list yet - they might be pretty bad....) On the other I'm moving to a new city from a busy, social job to a PhD and will want company! Hence looking at the co-op, and I just emailed a ton of people who have advertised for shares on the U of T housing site. Not sure how many of them will want to share with someone lol old though...

Ah, I hadn't thought of the social benefit. I am a hermit, so I wanted you to get a private space, naturally. ;) please do web mail, I'd be happy to give address feedback for other places you might come across - I know the city pretty well! Also we can figure out what to do on Thursday!

Sent!

I did a search on the name Kilodney, and he's never been mentioned even once on ILX. If your time in Toronto goes back to the '80s (or even as late as 1995), you should remember him. I don't know if I ever had nerve enough to make eye contact with him.

http://vimeo.com/35903183

Huh! I was wandering Toronto of my own accord in the early 90s but I don't remember him.

First I've heard of him but I love the last line in that video

Was surprised how much his books go for on abe now: there are four pages of them for sale, from a high of $60 down to $7.50. I've got a friend who was a fan and bought most if not all of them, so I e-mailed him to let him know he was sitting on some money there. He gave me one as a gift once, forget which one, and it was pretty good. But I think you can see in the video clip that his unrelenting negativity could become tiresome at times, not to mention kind of obvious. Quite a character, though--must have passed him dozens and dozens of times on Yonge St.

One more thing. His masterstroke was this (from his Wikipedia page): In 1988, as a prank, Kilodney submitted a number of stories by famous writers to the CBC Radio literary competition, many under absurd names. All of the stories were screened out by the jury. My understanding is that they were rejected for not being good enough, not because they recognized the stories.

Valuable FB community (may post a bit too frequently for my liking) is the Vintage Toronto one:
https://www.facebook.com/sandoz1057

also

Ah, ok. As long as it's even a little bit less humid that here, all will be ok...

― ljubljana, Tuesday, April 3, 2012 10:40 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

famous last words!

also, reminder: https://www.padmapper.com/search/apartments/Ontario/toronto/

I get feeds for Vintage Toronto through other people, and one day I noticed a photo I'd taken myself (of the old Vortex location on Dundas St.). I immediately printed up a thousand business cards with "Semi-professional photographer" attached to my name...It is a great page, though.

Hah, clemenza! How funny. AFAIK the site is open for anyone to submit their own photos, so one of your friends must have sent it in. I've seen about 300 pictures of A&A records on that feed. ;)

Apartment-share hunting not going so well. Worrying drawbacks to every place I've seen, and tons of unanswered emails. I'm now 17th on the Graduate House list, and they say I've got a good chance of getting a place before semester starts or within the first couple of months - but the short-term renting options are few and far between. Going to check one out tomorrow...

Guy at Rogers looked sadly at me and explained that I must sign up with them, as the cheaper providers have crap reception, especially outside TO (but also in TO). True/false? (I've got an ancient iphone so will probably do voice + data).

I think Rogers has a stranglehold on the city--once you're sufficiently outside, it's Cogeco.

Thanks. Then I will bow to the inevitable.

Well, I guess that is sort of true - ok on Rogers bc they had exclusivity on the iPhone but fido is very popular among my friends, bell is respectable..my sister has been on wind & virgin and both of those were bad outside the GTA.

Ok should be I'm - autocorrect :P

Fwiw though my bill is high, I got a rarely advertised 6gb for $25 promo instead of the often advertised 2gb for $30

Cogeco is only Internet, yeah? We have bell Internet and Rogers cells.

Telus is good, use Telus. Rogers is just as bad, reception-wise, outside of GTA, actually bad.

Nah I'm in north bay often and have no problems with Rogers, but it's expensive and I dislike that the man essentially lied to her. I may not travel as much as you of course but I have no actual complaints with the 3G.

Probably disregard what I said about Rogers being the only choice. I don't have a cell phone, so I'm looking at it purely from a cable TV standpoint. (My internet's Rogers, too.)

It varies city to city (i.e. not Toronto). Brantford, London and Kingston will have bad Rogers coverage, and Peterborough, North Bay and Waterloo will have bad Telus coverage. I don't know anybody on Virgin but their ad campaigns are gross

Ah, I gotcha. I feel like my sister was on virgin for a while and had no service in Oshawa - very annoying! There could be less choices for Ljub with an iPhone but I definitely know Fido ppl with iPhones - unsure about telus.

I'm actually looking for a roomate, albeit for when I move in in mid September (although It's technically vacant now). bathurst and dupont, you can walk to uoft. It probably doesn't hurt that mature graduate students are my ideal roomate type.

Shoot me a webmail! I'm around till Sunday. I'm wavering whether to take short-term accommodation because I'm now high (? - 17th) on the Graduate House waiting list, but either way would be good to meet, EDB!

And thanks everyone for all the phone info. I'll see what I can find out about Telus and fido.

Yeah, i'll send you more info sometime today, though it's not incredibly likely someone can show you the place (it's a family managed property, hence why I'm moving in despite being on another continent until sept 10), but it's not impossible. Also Rogers is straight up EVIL, but I can't proffer any good communications advice since I'd probably say the same about Bell or any other company, really.

Thanks. I have to move in somewhere Sept 2...

I may post some naive questions about leases and stuff later.

FFM - thanks so much for the FB post! And don't worry, I won't be homeless no matter what - just found a short term place that would probably work if I decide to stay on the Grad House waiting list. Seems somehow too good to be true, though ($50 deposit holds till move-in date; then $980/month; just visited it and it was clean, friendly, lots of students. Wish Housing Services at U or T was open so that I could ask if they know it).

What's your grad degree, ljubljana, if you don't mind me asking?

to the phone question: i have telus and it's usually pretty good. in and outside of the city.

Ówen - it'll be a PhD in developmental psychology and education, at OISE. (This does not feel at all real btw).

Cursed Return, thanks for the Telus rec!

Not a problem! I figured it wouldn't hurt to see what my friends had to offer - seems like D is quite in-the-know at the moment! However I also love the idea of ILXors living together, especially one major street south of me! You may have just enough pull to get us in on a Toronto FAP - perhaps next time Rrrobyn visits we will be unstoppable! :)

use mobilicity - theres a store on dundas near spadina - theyre like half the price of rogers and have equivalent service across the gta.

late-October Toronto FAP perhaps!
i'm on Telus with my iphone and it has always seemed to work a-ok in TO and surrounding area (that bus/train goes through to Mtl anyway...)

Lengthy webmail sent!

Cool, ljubljana, congratulations!

Sorry EDB, my webmail seems to have stopped working. It was an old email that was forwarding to me. I've webmailed you a different email address - could you forward your email? Thanks.

Lamp - mobilicity seems to have roaming service only as soon as you're not in a major city... but must admit that they're far cheaper by the looks of things. Will check out the roaming costs...

yes yes, late-October FAP! God, late October feels like about 2019 at the moment - so much to sort out before then.

SUCCESS!!! Seems great - I shouldn't jinx it, but really really hope it works out well. A share of 4 people (will be 5 for a while) - huge, lovely well-kept house half way between Ossington and Dufferin stations, with a big, light room for me. Guest room. Big kitchen. Storage. Should be a nice and easy walk, bike or subway to U of T. Huge friendly old dog, small cat. Seems like a nice neighbourhood? - I'm about to explore it. Some housemates around my age, including the couple on the main lease, and some younger. Good price. I paid the deposit, now I'm finding it hard to relax and believe nothing will go wrong!

EdB, I don't have your webmail yet because of idiotic British Telecom helpline fail (think they've just closed down my old address without warning me) but apologies in advance for pouncing on something without even reading about your place. I think you're currently in my homeland - hope all's well for you there and hope I can interrogate you for U of T wisdom some time over a drink in any case when you're back.

and thanks for the congrats Ówen! - I will congratulate myself only when I have convinced myself that I'm not going to flunk out on the stats courses....

Great neighbourhood! Post office, Holy Oak, Vena's roti, Korean food. Go west of Dufferin to The Nuthouse for adult candy

Adult candy doesn't mean erotic marshmallows, it means dried fruit, chocolate, raw almonds

I was gonna say, these Canadians, they try to corrupt you early

strictly bulk > the nuthouse imo! although that stretch of bloor btw dufferin and ossington is super rad i used to work at a place along there and theres a bunch of cool stuff, mostly decent prices. the gray owl or w/e near dovercourt is p good coffee place since holy oak is a little far

Congrats! and be sure to get the best, cheapest, and biggest portions of Ethiopian food at Nazaret!

I am going back to explore tomorrow and will basically go on an ILX tour of all these coffees, candies and other foodings.

I am drinking an *avocado coconut tea latte*, good God, in the Rustic Owl. Could have been a disaster but isn't. So many cafes here, and so many nice-looking bakeries. I had one of those Portuguese egg tarts that I don't know the name of.

nata - they are *so good* omg i love them

toronto has a lot of good food going on

Sounds like an ideal Sunday!

Living in Toronto vs. living in Montreal. We're having 'that discussion' this morning, any thoughts on this board?

Aren't you a Toronto darling? Everyone leaves us :( Also I heard their winters are worse (but they *do* have Bonhomme..)

Nah Bonhomme is QC I think. I love a fierce winter though.

oh, right. Been a while since French class. Montreal did nothing for me, but I am capable of walking around any city and finding it lacking in comparison to Toronto. I'm a big asshole. Rrobyn to thread?

Our 'discussion' has more to do with social considerations (our friends here, our friends there) to be honest. Other than that it's Toronto for smart, good dance parties and the best food ever. It's Montreal for everybody getting their exercise on and living in big houses inexpensively.

Lucky me for considering a move based on what I want to eat and who I want to hang out with / there's more at play (but not much more)

yeah, that makes sense. And you are lucky to have those considerations! Their bike lanes are amazing and the housing market here is criminal.

Yeah the housing market is a big, big problem, fuck a condo boom, ruining everything for everybody

I'm hopefully going to this city for New Order! Also for Wonderland in, uh... 3 days.

wooo, Wonderland! I haven't been in a few years, almost made it this year but opted for the CNE instead.

The housing market.. these fucking condos.. I will probably never be able to buy anything south of St Clair. Husband occasionally starts talking about how we could buy a condo "for a few years" but I can't help but think we'd get stuck with it. Considering trying to find a house near Eglinton since the LRT will make it a lot more accessible in a few years' time, assuming it doesn't get messed up again (construction has started.)

Wish I could speak to it but as a poor renter, boy howdy I love these Montreal prices. I imagine the buying market is still kinda rough here, though.

Montreal is fun, you know it, everyone knows it, and yes, has serious winter (though not so bad these last couple of years. but still winter enough for me to dread it just a little bit like i dread it every year), and it's not as big-city feeling as TO, but you know that too (sometimes it even feels provincial, but hey...). wherever you live, i agree it really is all about friends, family and lifestyle desires, whether that latter part is about buying a house or having a well-paying job or being surrounded by a creative community. i also think Montreal is a great hub to return to if you're going to be traveling a fair amount.

oh and obv also anglophones are a minority here and even though when visiting it's not always that noticeable, it can feel weird sometimes as a resident and srsly language/culture issues are a regular conversation topic at parties or wherev even among people who've lived here for 20+ years or all their lives. of course, some people really don't care about it. French, good to know at any rate.

I know French OK, like 3.5/10, but I have Francophone sisters living there, we'd fall in line pretty quick I think

oh that is cool!

i would move to mtl but i am p over this city rn

the thing about moving to mtl though it is like why not just move to france then

they wont give me a visa no matter how nicely i ask is the reason

Are decent-sized cities in France cheap like Montreal?

A real cursory glance makes it look like you can rent a room in Marseille for about the same as I rent a room in MTL. I can't imagine the grocery infrastructure is significantly more expensive, and it's probably better for biking than the avg NA city, so let's say it's comparable?

Tbf I did *almost* no research.

But yeah I think I've gotten into my MTL v TOR stuff before but I find TOR is just exhaustingly spread out, density seems all fucked up, everywhere I want to go is far from everywhere else I want to go etc. In MTL pretty much everywhere I want to go is clustered pretty tightly in my new hood, my old hood & where my job is. I almost never go other places but I suppose some of that too is living here long enough to have kinda "scoped" those areas already. I guess when you're a tourist you wanna see a lot more stuff so of course it's going to feel like a bit more of a pain to schlep all over the city. But yeah nowadays I am so so so so so happy to pretty much only ever leave my hood for work or the occasional party or whatever.

As mentioned above tho community has a big part to do w/ that and it just so happens that like a boatload of my friends all live w/i about 75m of my house

Toronto... Montreal... both awesome.

also, i love the summary Owen gave for Montreal: "living in big houses inexpensively". so true!

everything but rent is cheaper in paris than in mtl/to and rent in paris isnt that much more expensive than it is in to

"Why not just move to France" is... strange! It implies that Quebec is like France Jr. but tbh in pretty much any regard I'd take MTL and QC over any city in France save Paris (and those too-expensive pretty ones in the south) (and maybe some of those beautiful tiny towns that didn't get bombed i.e. Vendôme)

Also: French =/= Canadian

yeah, haha, i thought the same thing - France is very different from Montreal/Quebec! I mean, French is the main language, and there are some cultural similarities and ties, but, i mean... also, for instance, I've met plenty of French people who've found ways to move to Montreal because they wanted to escape the culture and politics of France. And yeah, for Canadians, making a move to Montreal is still making a move within Canada, whereas moving to Europe is a much more massive cultural (and bureaucratic) change imo.

i have never lived in a massive and inexpensive Montreal house :/
but i do have cheap rent in the hip(ster) part of town

i assumed lamp was trolling.

they obv arent the same but moving there from to is essentially the same to me

I kinda get it insofr that it's saying "well if I am going to move away, I might as well move way away"

"and if it's going be with the french talking - why not Belgium, or the Congo?"

Does Toronto have a neighbourhood where French-speaking people congregate?

None that I can think of.. government buildings? :)

not that i'm aware of.

My two cents re Mtl vs TO. I lived in Montreal for 8 years, been living in Toronto for 2.

Toronto has better food but I feel like it's more 'difficult'. It takes time, patience and work to explore it and it doesn't appear as inviting as Montreal. Montreal feels like they're constantly promoting cultural things/activities to do for people and actually making the city more liveable. It feels more proud of itself as a city, if that makes any sense. And the Montreal summer is unbeatable IMO.

The winters aren't really that different in terms of temperature (~5 deg C difference) but Montreal has CONSIDERABLY more snow and to someone who, like me, grew up in a very mild weather it makes a big difference, so Toronto wins there.

xxpost - I know tons of French people in Toronto but I don't know if there is a place where they congregate except for my friend's house parties.

is the food really that much better in toronto? food is pretty great here

i trust the people who say so, but i kinda love all food ever so i am never ever disappointed in mtl. i also like our bagels and hot dogs better. but like... yeah we don't have a killer burrito or banh mi or 100 other things but we got a good hot dog, and a good poutine, and a good bagel, and i'm a simple guy.

there is killer corean food here

any recommendations for good korean there? i will be in TO in 36 hours :D

saki sushi on bloor near manning is a total spot imo - the food is good if not outstanding but they have some nuts drinks specials that make it really worthwhile. srsly one of my fave spots in the city

what kind of drink specials? cheaper than 10 mile aroma? seriously that place is bonkers cheap

ive never heard of 10 mile aroma! the cheapest place for drinks that ive found is a dim sum place on dundas just west of huron on the north side that has like $5 pitchers and $3 doubles but its p shitty. the saki combos arent quite that cheap but the food is actually good. you also get to match your drink special w/a menu item from a set list so the price can vary depending on how much food you want but the cheapest is one menu item + 5 domestic bottles for $21 which works out to be around two a bottle

10 mile aroma is on dundas just EAST of huron i think. don't know if they do dim sum but they do do 5 dollar pitchers. and who cares if the foods bad because that is like cheaper than the lcbo and NOBODY GOES THERE. at least not at like pre-drink hours. you can get pretty cheap beer in mtl (cheapest I can think of is like $15 for a 4L pitcher) but that aplace kills it price wise. and the beer isn't even that bad.

still gonna check this other joint, tonight even i think.

btw when i read your post to my gf on the phone she got completely hung up on how awesome "total spot imo" is as a turn of phrase

man you guys with your $5 pitchers, you are drinking recycled beer or something. I always used to get THE WORST hangovers from Sneaky Dee's and we figured out it was a mixture of dirty taps and pouring half-full pitchers back into the supply (at least, so said a friend who knew an employee, the hangovers were bad enough I just decided to switch to bottled full time when there)

now I'm old lady and everyone would just scream 'suit!!' when I walked in there anyway, last time I went was.. sister's 19th birthday, haha

i've felt a lot worse drinking cheapo beer in other places, it is a little suspect that this place sells some brand of beer made in mississauga or scarborough or something that i have NEVER heard of anywhere else, it's clearly junk but i dunno about recycled. dunno if they sell enough to even recycle it.

i just contribute to the anti-recycling movement by finishing every beer i buy (to paraphrase something my mom said: drink your beer, there are sober children in africa)

hahaha, yes: I too think of those poor sober children!
I think I read an article about this place last week actually, wish I could remember where! The 'weird unknown brewery from Mississauga' aspect was intriguing.

some insane, insane hyperbole on the internet about this place. liek people wanna turn it into their own personal hunter s. bukowski "my like is CRAZY AND REAL" joint. it's just a shitty restaurant with five dollar pitchers. THAT'S IT. six dollar pitchers if you get the dark beer last time i was there, which i bought, because six bucks is still great, and it tastes a fair bit better. apparently the brewery is "amber brewery" and the beers are "(chicago) dark" and "sun draught." they taste... fine. better than canadian or old milwaukee. and it's cold enough. and every time i've gone (albeit not at like 1am on a saturday, more like 7pm on a thursday or sunday) it's been more or less empty and they didn't bother us and we just bought beers and chatted quietly and paid and left.

Checked out the sake sushi place, great pick thanks!

in Maine we do not have such a suck-suck winter. But still though, it is cold

How the hell am I moving here in less than two weeks?

Any roommate luck?

I love that everyone in Toronto knows each other. Just saw high school best friend's sister tweet at our boy O. Nowadays I add new people in Toronto on FB just to see what random 3 people we'll have in common. Rather disappointed that latest add (girl from sewing class) has her friends list hidden.

xpost: yes! Luckily I was able to take pick of the litter.

I'm looking forward to settling back in this old burg; I'm just shocked because, wow, a year on another continent goes long and fast.

El Cafecito (Bloorcourt, on Westmoreland) is lovely. I am in it.

Argos win the (100th) Grey Cup. Probably moderately crazy downtown right now; in the southwest end, where I am, not even a car horn.

Nope, it's not, it's quiet

Whoop whoop there's a horn.

Surprised...I still remember driving home from a friend's after the '93 World Series win; complete bedlam in the middle of nowhere, up in Richmond Hill. I remember there was craziness when the Argos won in '90 or thereabouts. Maybe people save all that for Facebook now.

Soooo how about this ex-mayor?

Has a decision been made already? The CBC page doesn't say so yet.

The whole issue seems a bit small-potatoes as political corruption goes tbh?

Hey, they took Capone down due to tax evasion.

Reports coming in confirming the seat is vacant.

Sund4r for mayor.

I'm hardly a Ford fan, but is this legitimate? If you can't stand somebody, just let the person have his/her term and vote them out next time.

Living halfway across the country, I can be trusted to refrain from corruption or nepotism in Toronto.:P

V striking to contrast this issue with the reports that are coming in from the corruption inquiry in Quebec.

Living halfway across the country, I can be trusted to refrain from corruption or nepotism in Toronto.:P

EXACTLY why you qualify.

Anyway from the judgment:

http://images.scribblelive.com/2012/11/26/00c780e0-ba04-4793-b46f-702bb11b75f1_500.jpg

I'm very impressed by how on top of Toronto municipal politics you are, Ned!

When you have a slew of online friends in the city talking about him on a regular basis it's hard not to miss the news!

Or rather, hard TO miss. Anyway.

Stepping back, then, Sund4r for TTC head.

@ clemenza, the fact that he got caught up in a not-so-big technicality is kind of the beauty of it, it was a tiny stupid thing that he could've prevented if not for his hubristic, willful ignorance

Also iirc it's impossible to "impeach" or kick the bum out in municipal politics so Ford's occupancy was guaranteed unless, well, he broke the law, which he did and brazenly so

I am so happy right now that guy totally sucks

But do you think this is enough to justify removing someone from office who was elected fairly and democratically? What if it was a politician you ilked?

liked

If the politician did something equally stupid then hey.

My grandpa was a politician, an MP for Dixie, a Conservative. He was super popular! He was facing a possible conflict-of-interest trial when it came to light that he'd hired a friend's firm to build YYZ. He admitted guilt, apologized, and resigned.

I read the clippings and shit and was like "huh but it seems so SMALL, like such a small issue!" but even my grandma was like "yeah well he broke the law". In general I feel that Canadian politics runs on technicalities, though, like what was the $ amount on the Sponsorship Scandal? 2 Million Dollars? Holy god

. In the end the Commission concluded that $2 million was awarded in contracts without a proper bidding process, $250,000 was added to one contract price for no additional work, and $1.5 million was awarded for work that was never done, of which $1 million had to be repaid

I'm not completely sure why I'm defending him tbh, since I'm generally a stickler for rules, procedure, and technicalities. Did he use city staff for to solicit donations too? I would actually feel worse about that than about the letterhead. And he should have paid back the money when he was ordered to, esp since it is a relatively small amount and he can afford it. OK.

small potatoes yes, but here's how it reasoned out:

• minimum punishment, if found guilty, is removal from office (max, being an additional ban on running for office for seven years)
• he was clearly guilty, like, not even a shadow of a sliver of a doubt
• so long, asshole!

xpost - also that: he could have avoided this easily... council gave him several outs but he was too arrogant/dumb to take it

If it was serious, by all means, impeach. I'm just thinking of American politics, where it's just standard now to try to destroy whoever's in office regardless. I don't know enough about the details here to say any more, though.

I guess there'll be two parades tomorrow.

i don't even live in toronto and i am ecstatic about this, congradulations u guys!

otm

ha ha, thanks!

haha in my myopia i had totally forgotten about that this thread wld get bumped for this...

but: if anyone in toronto has a decent set of speakers they could lend me on wed. it would really, really help a dude out - would obv be willing to give you some $$ but just kindof fucked atm

Good song for today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtOWjvTQQUM

So, the appeals process could stretch on until next election, meaning: no by-election.

Who should be mayor of this city? Olivia would win it in a second she's got those suburbs.

I like Kristyn, my housemate says she's too new and he's probably right

I was looking for an article that would be an effective Ford Legacy highlight reel for non-Toronto people and despite many well-researched and well-written things by Enzo I am guiltily submitting this one http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/toronto-fired-the-greatest-mayor-of-all-time

this development makes me want to visit toronto again. it's been a while!

very appropriate song, Clems!

I know everyone hates the Post but this actually made a pretty strong case for the mandatory minimum punishment in this situation: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/11/27/bob-tarantino-fords-punishment-demonstrates-value-of-mandatory-minimums/

Bye bye, Toronto, I'm leaving you today. Ten things I will miss:

1. Getting a huge plate of deliciousness for cheap at Akram's
2. Sneaking into the back door of the Beaver and/or working the back door of the Beaver
3. The ubiquitous presence of Ryan Driver and Alex Lukashevsky
4. Arriving home via Gardiner Expressway
5. Biking along Harbord in the summertime
6. [An excellent Chinese restaurant]
7. The overheated freshly-baked embrace of Double Double Land
8. Going to Trinity-Bellwoods Park with my parent friends and their children
9. The walk home from the Tranzac
10. An intense and beautiful circle of friends

you don;t have to go

;_; your 'don't' looks like it's crying

I do have to go, mostly for work and $ reasons, but also because my fifteen years here have put me into a place of stagnation, where every street and every building has intense anecdotal memories from multiple ages. Every time I leave the house there's a monologue of nostalgia, and it's turning me into an emotional cripple.

Also I don't know if it's just "you old", or if the scene has changed, or if it was because Will died, or many other close friends have left, but my social existence in Toronto feels like a faded photocopy of what it was ten years ago. My friends are all individually in disparate places, financially, artistically, occupationally.

Also I hate seeing J1an Gh0meshi everywhere so that'll be a nice change

As comical as the trillion-dollar-coin story:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1310460--jose-canseco-considers-run-against-rob-ford-to-be-toronto-mayor

And I was counting on Jose to rat out all the PED users on council.

I know there are a couple of American posters with a passing interest in this story--Rob Ford's dismissal was overruled last week:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/cityhallpolitics/article/1320214--mayor-rob-ford-and-toronto-get-a-second-chance

Torontonians have not, for some reason, been jumping on here to share the news.

just waiting to see if he gets re-removed from office next week over the campaign financing audit.

Top picks for Hot Docs?

Not quite the same epic scale, but we've really got our own Nixon psychodrama playing out here with Ford vs. the media/Toronto Star:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/03/26/toronto-ford-gala.html

I'm no fan of Ford's, and don't discount the possibility that every single charge leveled at him the past year or two is 100% true. At the same time, a part of me wonders if there is an orchestrated effort to destroy him. Chances are, the truth lay somewhere in between. Or that if there is an orchestrated effort, he helps it along but stepping into it every time.

"by stepping"

What is the deal with Canadian international parcel costs?! I just sent something by surface for the first time ever because the cost by airmail would have been insane.

I want to buy a DVD for a 7-year-old who has a ridiculous number of languages, one of which is French (his French is apparently pretty good even though it's not his first language - his Dad is French). I'd like to get him a Canadian kids' DVD - movie or TV series. No idea where to start, but wanna be a cool quasi-auntie, so it should skew older rather than younger. Any ideas?

Hmm, good question! I'm not up on current French programming but I can't pass up the opportunity to namecheck Telefrancais, which they used to teach us French in high school (it was neither cool nor older, even then): http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téléfrançais

Ananas!!

My nearly 6 year old loves the Octonauts, but that's British and probably skews younger because it's on the same channel as shows for preschoolers like Cailllou. There must some CanCon on YTV but I don't know what's popular, and that's all anglo. The older brothers of the kids he plays with are mostly into franchises like Pokemon, Doraemon and Star Wars.

If you don't mind stuff from when I was that age, La Guerre des Tuques is a Quebecois movie about an awesome snowball fight with a tearjerking anti war message. I remember liking it (and trying to recreate the snowball war) but have no idea if it holds up. There's an English dubbed version too iirc.

Oooh, a✧@z✧✧.f✧ has a copy of that (this kid is in Belgium). Thanks, that's a contender. His mum is my age, early 40s, so she'll probably appreciate some old-skool stuff as well. Might snap that up.

Les Mystérieuses Cités d'or is one of the best kids shows ever made but I think it's France French (vs Canada French), if the differentiation matters to you...

I think he has that, but will check. I thought I'd go for Canada French just to remind him I'm here in Canada and thinking of him (awwww)

You should also send him a link to the National Film Board's Hockey Sweater, there's a French version but I can't tell on mobile if this is it: http://www.nfb.ca/film/sweater/

That looks great, FFM, I'll send that too. I ordered La Guerre des Tuques - thanks Plasmon.

Wild 12 hours here.

http://www.canada.com/cms/binary/8632251.jpg

I got caught in some scary driving on the Lakeshore around 6:00--I was heading downtown for a movie, before any of it really started, and ended up turning back--and was without power for eight hours, but mostly got off lucky. No flooding, always my worst fear--I'm seeing some friends on FB who had some. Hope the other Toronto regulars on this thread made out okay.

Lab ceiling leaked, but no leaks or power losses at home. I think FFM might have lost power for a bit?

I have a bunch of stuff in basement storage and I'm worried it's underwater. On my way to the city to check it on out. Glad you're OK clemenza

Third floor living on a hill isn't a bad place to be in a flood! We lost power and Internet for a couple hours, the only casualty a chicken breast that was only half cooked. Played some Scrabble by the remaining sunlight in the house and power came back just as the sun set.

Happily, I got through this without reawakening my Scrabble addiction...Hope your basement is okay, FGTI. I dread that, and I'm sure I'll have to face it some day. I've got a lifetime worth of books down there, magazines, etc. I was just driving around Etobicoke, and everything above the Queensway (I'm below) is still without power.

tk care, y'all

This is nuts. Geez, hope your stuff is OK, fgti. That would be a nightmare for me. Hope remaining ilxors (Thermo?) are all right.

Thanks--125 mm, more than Hurricane Hazel in 1954. I think the mayor's about to get through a press conference without a single crack-related question. Don't forget to say a prayer for FFM's chicken breast.

http://i.stack.imgur.com/VaeUo.jpg

I was looking forward to eating that chicken breast.. Made a cheese & cold cuts platter in the absence of cooking power though. Hope all basement storage makes it through dry and without damage!

Dry! Dry!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ijpQvIGk50o/USvFOqFgC5I/AAAAAAAADEc/G8826lnyxHE/s200/dry+idea.jpg

I am so relieved. Instruments. I almost barfed I was so nervous

Yay!!

Just heard that a friend's going to have to junk about 400 albums and lots of old music magazines. I think I'm going to contact my insurer this week and find out exactly what I have coverage for--I gather it really matters how the water gets in.

Lucky to be out of town for the week & doubly lucky I live on the 2nd floor so everything'll be dry when I get back

Too bad abt your friend, there. I remember being really irritated 25 years ago when a basement window leaked and damaged my copies of On The Beach and Lumpy Gravy and Tall Cool One, and that was just the covers.

Good to hear, fgti. Along with my laptop, my nice guitar is easily the thing I'd worry the most about.

Two longtime Toronto bookstores closing next month: World's Biggest and the Book City on Bloor St. The disappearance of bookstores here has been going on at least as long as the record-store equivalent. The first wave probably dates back to the launch of Chapters and Indigo in the mid-'90s. I think Edward's, Britnell's, all the W.H. Smith mall stores, and some others bailed around then. Some, like the Village Bookstore on Queen, went online. The last few years it's been Mirvish, the Book City on Bloor St., the store that was across from the Royal rep cinema (they still have a small space somewhere a little east, and mostly do business online, I believe), the well-known one by the Kingsway cinema (forget the name), that huge store at Eglington and Mount Pleasant (ditto), others. It's pretty much down to BMV, a few collector's shops (maybe--never used them, they may be gone too), and the getting-worse-all-the-time Chapters and Indigo stores. I made it to Book City on the weekend to buy one last book (the Nixon-Eisenhower from last year; 30% off). Will try to get to World's Biggest too.

Forgot--Chapters was originally a merger of Coles and W.H. Smith.

I worked at Chapters and Coles in my university days.

Coles at least tried to maintain a 'neighbourhood bookstore' feel. I really liked working there and my supervisor was one of the best I've ever had.

The Chapters I worked at was horrible. They had a high turnover rate and most supervisors were no smarter than the employees working the floors, who sometimes were people with PhD's and specialised knowledge.

The sad thing is, in Canada, there isn't a lot of options. Either you go to a specialty bookstore (rare) or buy from Amazon.

Chapters's selection is awful, as well.

I thought Chapters was a good store for the first few years. Lots of great remainders, huge baseball and movie sections. When they merged with Indigo, and started to dump all their music, I was running all over the city buying CDs. The stuff I got for $2 and $3 was incredible--to a large degree, that was when my CD collection really started (this was the mid-late '90s, but I'd owned very few CDs up till that point).

The last two or three years it's really deteriorated. There's all that space taken up by all the gift items--does anybody ever buy any of that stuff?--and the ever-growing kid section takes up more space (they seem to want to turn the store into Toys 'R Us). The remainders are nothing special anymore, and yes, the number of books they keep in stock is shrinking all the time.

A lot of great photos from the '70s (a few are postcard images):

http://www.blogto.com/city/2014/03/a_1970s_toronto_photo_extravaganza/?fb_action_ids=10202431008550316&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[472793086181336]&action_type_map=[%22og.likes%22]&action_ref_map=[]

I grew up about 30 miles outside of the city, so Toronto had a kind of mythological Oz aura about it; in high school, in the late '70s, we'd take the bus in to see concerts, buy records, get drunk, etc. That was Yonge Street's Taxi Driver/Times Square era, culminating in the sordid Emanuel Jaques story, after which slow transformation set in.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/a-murder-that-changed-toronto/article14850993/

You catch a little bit of that in these photos.

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2014/03/201188-yonge1ED.jpg

I dragged myself down to the World's Biggest closing sale this morning, expecting it to be a waste of time. Wasn't at all, as long as you don't mind buying full-price stuff. Nothing as cheap as when Chapters and Indigo merged, but everything's 50% and--the key--the shelves still have lots. So I bought some relatively new hardcovers: the Newtown shooting, Tom Seaver and the Mets, a biography of William F. Buckley, the early-'70s New York Knicks (probably most anxious to read that), and something on the World's Fair and 1964/65. Also one softcover, another oral history of baseball in the '70s (not Phil Pepe's). Altogether, about $80. I also had a box of Vanity Fair postcards I was going to set aside as a gift for a friend's wife, but the cashier slit it open with an x-acto knife so she could mark the bar-code for non-return. Why would anyone go to a closing sale with less than two weeks to go with the intention of returning anything? Told her I didn't want it anymore--that put a bit of a damper on everything.

There was a Facebook post this morning saying Crad Kilodney died yesterday. Can't find an obituary, but his Wikipedia page notes the death too, so I'll assume it's true. (I started to wonder if it was all an elaborate joke by Kilodney himself, but I just checked his own Facebook page, and someone named Lorette has been posting health updates the last while, ending with a death notice.)

I posted a video of him somewhere on ILX. If you lived in Toronto through the '80s, unforgettable. I was the recipient of his glare countless times. After constantly getting rejected by various publishers, he once submitted some famous stories to a short-story contest--O. Henry, etc.--just so he could have the satisfaction of seeing them rejected too.

http://data2.archives.ca/e/e333/e008303035-v6.jpg

Something's come up, and I have a Hot Doc ticket for Thursday night I can't use. It's for Happy Valley, about the Sandusky/Paterno case. Looks good:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2171902/

If you can figure out a way to pick it up from me in the west end either tonight or tomorrow, you can gladly have it--hate to waste it.

Watching Angel Eyes with Jennifer Lopez--I live for junk--and this shot sent me scurrying to the computer for confirmation of what I was thinking:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9244cUP1P2c/TNik8uJxnKI/AAAAAAAAB0Y/vivjPSHTwyE/s1600/ANGEL_EYES-2.jpg

Sam the Record Man.

Love this photo:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/yongest_zpsde956e15.jpg

Is that Jeanne Bekker? I recognize the dude but can't place him.. /Tuomas

That's Beker, yes, with J.D. Roberts, also Much. Couldn't stand him back then--he went on to CBS, pretty high up the ladder (I think at one time we was a potential successor to Rather), which was amazing if you remembered him at Much. I think he's at Fox now, which is seems fitting.

http://tools.foxnews.com/sites/tools.foxnews.com/files/204_john_roberts.jpg

He lost the J.D. years ago, of course. He's John Roberts now, respected journalist.

Typos, typos, typos--frightening.

Having thought about it, they're actually both more associated with The NewMusic, the show that was a precursor to MuchMusic (even they had a hand in that too). I had no idea The NewMusic continued on until 2008--I assumed it was gone by the mid-'80s.

Carry on, non-Toronto world.

Does anyone know whether, flying from Pearson into La Guardia, you go through US immigration in Toronto rather than in NY?

That's right. Adds about 20 minutes all told

Thanks!

Going to have to move soon, out of what has been a pretty ideal house share :( The landlord is selling up, and my housemates, who have the lease, are moving from this huge, under-maintained and therefore very cheap rented house in Bloorcourt to a small apartment near Wellesley & Church. I have to decide whether to go with them - there's a spare bedroom - or try to find a tiny, cheap bachelor somewhere. There may be no such thing as a bachelor decent yet cheap enough for me. But sharing an apartment with people is not the same thing at all as sharing a house with them.

The apartment has lots of bells and whistles - that would be fun for a while, I've never lived in one of those buildings with a pool, gym, 'library' (!), movie room and all that. But it's pretty small...

Is it worth visiting Toronto Islands if you don't have a bike?

You can rent bikes there; we just walk around

Oh great, I'm a low budget so I doubt i'll be able to afford the bike but walking around would be perfect. Thanks!

The ferry costs money, $5 maybe? You can bring food, drink to save $$ but careful if it's booze of course. Lots of nice boardwalks to walk along!

$7 return, $4.50 for students :)

You're my fact checking cuz!
Did you end up moving with the roommates or striking out on your own?

Moved in with the roommates. I've felt a bit claustrophobic sometimes but basically it's working out ok...

Going from a house to an apartment will do that! I'm sorry. Nice area though! Toronto proper seems so remote from up here on St Clair.

Yeah I like it! It makes me feel a bit boring on Saturday nights, but it's nice to see everyone out having a good time!

Argument with roommate over pedestrian crossing rules. She claims that the red hand appears when cars can move. I say the red hand means don't start crossing, and that until it appears, even with 1 second left, you can start crossing and you have the right of way while in the intersection.

Sadly, argument was occasioned by this, which happened right next to where I used to live: http://www.cp24.com/news/woman-dead-after-bloor-street-hit-and-run-1.2400141

Eep, I definitely think of the red hand as the warning sign that the direction is about to change, "so hurry up"

Red hand (flashing) definitely appears before the cars can move.

oh yeah, sorry, I should have said that I thought the *static* red hand, not flashing, is the signal not to start crossing. But now I think perhaps my roommate is right: you're not supposed to step out once the hand starts flashing. Sometimes it gives you 20 seconds of flashing hand on a not-wide street, though! No way I'd stand there for those 20 seconds and not cross...

BTW, FFM, spotted you way ahead of me on Queen's Park the other day. Guess how I knew it was you :D

Aww! I hope if you passed me, you'd want to say hello :)

the ambiguity in the street signs is the stupidest & most dangerous thing, i think. i can't answer which of the above it is; a friend told me that pedestrians are allowed to cross in each circumstance, but that the difference relates to whether cars either a) ~cannot pass~ b) can pass if no pedestrians are crossing. idk.

That makes sense, schlump (or rather, puts the non-answer more clearly).

FFM, try and stop me saying hello if I passed you! I considered running to catch up with you but realized you were headed in a different direction and I was already late. Made me happy though.

Aww! I work there for the summer so if you are around at noon any day and feel like picnicking, let me know! :)

I'll even try not to say "Aww!"

ooh, maybe next week? I'll send you an email after the weekend, this week is a bit bananas but a picnic soon would be fab.

haha i've been taking work out to the lawn north of queen's park and sitting in the sun for the last couple of weeks

its pretty glorious

Look for the giant redhead, Lamp!

And that would be nice, R - June 14-28 I'm out of town but before or after is good :)

Let's do after - this week is a washout!

Sounds good, this is NOT picnic weather :) Message me!

Heard a brief interview with Tory at the Little Italy street festival today. Usual stuff, but he didn't sound to be under the influence of beer, crack, or anything. Very different approach to these gatherings.

what up Toronto. I'm in town (from Australia) and signally failed to find this thread in advance to ask if anyone would fancy a pint this week. But! if anyone would fancy a daylight pint between Saturday and Saturday, express polite Canadian interest and I will check this thread, especially if I can get a sim with data.

(Or if yr going to FFS on Wednesday, or have JFL passes, we can wave in crowds.)

after three days Rogers are unable to activate the sim they sold me ftr, what is wrong with your country

same thing happened to my parents a couple of months ago.

I am in this city til Monday afternoon, anyone FAP?

This is still the Toronto thread, right?

I mentioned this video store closing down last year--someone made a short film about it. I still haven't watched more than half the 20-some films I bought at the closing sale.

Never got a haircut there.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/08/02/after-51-years-house-of-lords-hair-salon-on-yonge-st-set-to-close.html

I've got until October 1--will need to find some more hair first.

Toronto thread very active...The last Queen Video, the one on Bloor, is closing.

http://www.blogto.com/film/2019/03/queen-video-closing/

This was really useful if I wanted to re-watch something like Olivier Assayas's Cold Water. The Queen St. sale was great, so I'll be there on the weekend for sure. I think Bay St. Video is all that's left now.

Might be time to do the Eric Allen Hatch thing

There's a different poster for this concert saved where I saved photos, so I must have posted that on ILX somewhere--not on this thread, evidently.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/varsity-2.jpg

bummed that Soundscapes is closing, i work like a block from that place so i was looking forward to popping in there during work breaks once *gestures around* all this is over

I wasn't a regular customer, but I was in there 10 days ago to meet a friend--bought Yo La Tengo's There's a Riot Goin' On. No indication that I could see that they were about to close, unless I missed it.

Bummer! Used to go often when i lived there and would visit on my marathon shopping walks when visiting town. Still shopping at Sonic Boom online. They seem to have adapted well?

I've bought a lot of stuff from Soundscapes over the years, it was my favourite "new record" store after Sam's closed. A few years ago, they reduced their stock by about 75%, and I wondered if a closure was eventually inevitable.

Yeah it was a great spot for CD's and then became this hybrid CD/vinyl shop with a large book and magazine section and some videos too?

I used to pick up my concert tickets there too.. if that was any % of their business it is a brutal time now.

A piece on the closing:

https://www.blogto.com/music/2021/04/toronto-record-store-permanently-closing-people-city-heartbroken/

The owner seemed like a good guy--he remembered Nerve, and he put a book of mine in there on consignment. (He also lost it, but never mind.) I don't feel this like most of you do, though. The record stores that meant the most to me--the original Vortex, Driftwood, Cheapies, Records on Wheels, Sam's--are long gone.

An venerable old Toronto club is reopening:

https://nowtoronto.com/music/a-first-look-inside-the-rebuilt-silver-dollar-room

There was a night, probably '87, where they had Schoolly D playing one room and Pussy Galore the other. (I opted for Schoolly.) A friend reminded me of something Chuck Eddy said at the time: "That's a lot of swear words in one building."

The only kind of thing that makes me really miss Toronto: earlier this week, they screened a bunch of Michael Snow films on 16mm at Jackman Hall, which is where the Cinematheque had been located before the Lightbox opened. (I liked it better when it was in Jackman Hall.)

https://nowtoronto.com/news/canadian-retailer-bad-boy-furniture-is-officially-bankrupt-heres-what-that-means-for-customers-who-made-a-deposit/

Who'll be getting their deposit back? Write your own joke. Famous Toronto furniture chain founded by Mel Lastman, who was a one-man circus during his term as mayor.

(This is the first time I've looked at Now in at least three years--a print issue, longer than that. Unrecognizable. Do they still have a print version?)

no print version, digital-only, they were bought out by a media influencer type who refuses to pay the former staffers who were running the previous iteration without pay for at least months if not longer, of course he has no obligation to do so but still, fuck Brandon Gonez

Ah...Starting poking around, and they have the Bad Boy story up, but when you click on movie reviews, three of their seven "Latest in Movies and TV Reviews" are dated September 2023, one is January 2023, and the other three are September 2022. Bizarre.

Not in mourning.

(I mean, I don't like seeing people not getting paid, just a general comment on how much I disliked them through the '80s, '90s, and beyond.)

Blaine Lastman (Bad Boy Jr.) was a student at my dad's school; he forbade him from calling a limousine to bring him fresh clothes when his got dirty. Now there'd probably be a lawsuit about it.

The last Now I read was the week of the pandemic shutdown; I saw another current issue in the gutter some months later. If anything, I miss the upcoming event pages, they were basically my entire connection to events in the city by 2020. If some online source exists with the same scope and ease of browsing, I'd love to know about it.

Sorry, Blayne Lastman.

Right, said the same thing in some other thread: disliked the writing (especially the music coverage--got to like John Harkness over time), used the listings religiously for keeping track of screenings around town.

if you disliked Now's writing, wait until you read The Grind (free newspaper that you can find in some downtown subway stations), I appreciate them in theory bc they're lefties, but god the prose in those pages is dogshit

Lucked into a $3 copy of The Flyer Vault yesterday, Daniel Tate and Rob Bowman's book of music posters for live shows around town through the '60s/'70s/'80s (and few later than that). Just skimming, but I can only find one I was there for: Black Flag at Klub Domino, June 16/1982, $10. I posted this a few years ago, but it's been taken down so I'll repost it myself (quality very poor). When the two people separate at 1:37, you can catch a brief glimpse of me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TU3tw7pgZU

There are flyers for famous shows friends still talk about: the New York Dolls at the Victory Burlesque Theatre, October 27/1973 ($4, Rush opening), the Ramones at the New Yorker, September 24-25/1976 ($5) and the Talking Heads at OCA, January 28/1977 ($3, the Diodes opening).

Seven years ago, after I moved back to Toronto (four years in Montreal, one year in L.A.), I did a typical normal Toronto thing when I had to walk from A to B, I grabbed a NOW and read as I walked, and I was struck by the fact that I was, for the first time in five years, "reading about local politics", "reading about recent art openings", "reading about the latest in theatre and dance", "reading local book reviews", and so on. However you feel about NOW in particular, having a non-curated but mostly-locally-focused content rag was invaluable and it sucks that it's gone.

If some online source exists with the same scope and ease of browsing, I'd love to know about it.

For music listings, I'd recommend subscribing to Michael Barclay's "Airplane on the Highway" substack (title subject to change). He posts well-curated local listings once a week and generally great pieces every other day. I just finished reading a compelling interview he did with Patti Schmidt (late of Brave New Waves)

Where I did approximately 40% of my university drinking in the early '80s:

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/09/30/toronto-imperial-pub-closing-november/

They had a pool table and a jukebox with Peggy Lee's "Fever" (which everybody played and I got throughly sick of). And a waitress named Tina I had a crush on.

(Upstairs, I should clarify for any Toronto people who know it--only ventured into the downstairs bar a handful of times.)

That's a shame. Imperial was always the go-to "let's meet there" spot, good sweaty food and good beers

i went to school right by there and remember the upstairs being a little rough / worn down... and don't think i ever hung out on the main floor!

When anyone asks, my standard answer about leaving Toronto six years ago is that the only thing I miss outside of friends are the rep houses and the Lightbox. I was looking up something in my email archive and found this from 2007--three years before the Lightbox opened, when it was still the Cinematheque up the street (housed in AGO):

I just finished ordering a bunch of stuff for the summer, so hopefully we can meet up at some point.

Duel in the Sun 06/19/2007
Killer of Sheep 06/23/2007
Jules and Jim 06/29/2007
The River 07/10/2007
Spirit of the Beehive 07/13/2007
The Lady Vanishes 07/20/2007
The 400 Blows 07/26/2007
Late Spring 07/27/2007
Tabu 07/31/2007
The Leopard 08/13/2007
Ordet 08/17/2007
Pierrot Le Fou 07/28/2007

I definitely miss that. (Actually, that was even better than what the Lightbox turned out to be.)