RSS - This Just In

The T.O. Do List: July 4 & 5, 2009

2009/07/04

This weekend: Femi Kuti breaks his seven-year silence. Plus: this weekend's top Fringe pick, Candida; The Lemonheads; Rock the Bells; and HBO's new hit Hung.

DIY Fridays: a green clean

2009/07/03

Isn’t buying cleaning products the biggest drag? Shouldn’t you be getting paid to do chores? Never mind the price of having an eco conscience — most planet-happy products come at a premium. Forget it. Here’s my kind of green washing: self-making a few frugal, super-easy cleaners (and then being all like, “Here you go, honey”).

Of the Fields, Lately

2009/07/03

Soulpepper plus David French adds up to yet another great evening of theatre. For Of the Fields, Lately (1973), French’s sequel to his breakthrough play Leaving Home (1972), Soulpepper has brought back Jeff Lillico, Kenneth Welsh and Diane D’Aquila to play the same roles of Ben Mercer and his parents Jacob and Mary that they did for Soulppeper’s superb staging of Leaving Home in 2007. Adding to the realism, the action of Fields takes place two years after that of Home, so we and the actors have aged exactly as much as the characters.

Fringe: Day 3 review round-up

2009/07/03

Rave reviews for Moving Along, The Sicilian, Lysistrata, As You Puppet and more. Check www.eyeweekly.com/fringe every day throughout the festival for more reviews.

The T.O. Do List: July 3 2009

2009/07/03

Today: Rodriguez — a.k.a. the Latino Bob Dylan — is back from the dead. Plus: Cinematheque Ontario salutes the French New Wave; Dave Holland performs with his classic Quintet; and today's Fringe Festival Pick: The King's Conscience.

The Offspring & Pennywise @ Molson Amphitheatre, July 2

2009/07/03

Last night's trip to Toronto's concrete musical fixture involved stocky blond men, lots of f-words and a certain amount of emotive anger. No, this wasn't some reenactment of the time a bird smashed into Fabio's nose — it was the return of Pennywise and The Offspring, two bands who rank shortly behind Green Day in helping make something resembling SoCal pop-punk bigger than a few religions.

Daily Horoscope: July 3

2009/07/03

The American writer Dale Carnegie said, "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." And you don't want to be happy, my dear Taurus. Make others want what you want and you'll be well on your way.

The little hub that could

2009/07/02

If Woody Allen set movies in Toronto they would be shot at Yonge and Eglinton. It’s vertical, the sidewalks are full of people wearing lululemon — Toronto’s equivalent of Allen’s tennis racquet conversation prop — and it’s upwardly mobile. It both functions and is known as the city’s uptown even though North York denizens might disagree, since megacity amalgamation rendered Yonge and Eglinton Toronto’s midtown.

Tattoo you

2009/07/02

When it comes to tattoos, it’s better to save your skin than your money. I mean, if you’re haggling over the longest-term purchase there is, maybe you’re not ready to buy. But the new tattoo sale at friendly Kensington parlour Reactive Ink is pretty great, and so’s their reputation.

The T.O. Do List: July 2 2009

2009/07/02

Today: Derek McCormack and Tony Burgess launch the Scream Festival with dancing and rampant spirit fingers. Plus: DJ Heidi furthers the Windsor techno tradition; and Aurora Stewart De Peña presents an existential opus on femininity, without the vagina monologues.

Daily Horoscope: July 2

2009/07/02

Aries: When taking stock of the jumbled heap that is your finances right now, remember that it could be worse.

Sonic Youth @ Massey Hall, June 30

2009/07/02

There are Sonic Youth guitars that sound like airplanes about to jet off into the sky. There are Sonic Youth guitars that sound like choir bells, chiming on the offbeat. There are lunar mission-control guitars and underwater-sea anemone guitars and rootsy Neil-Young-solos guitars and static-clinged-hump-the-amplifier-crescendo guitars that make your heart race. Any Sonic Youth concert is more about ideas than feeling — and the band is very much constructed that way.

Let's get high

2009/06/30

You swore you’d leave the city if this bloody garbage strike dragged on one more day. Today’s that day — and, conveniently, the last of Porter Air’s summer seat sale. Book by July 1 (as in, tomorrow) and make good on that promise to yourself with 15 per cent off any flight.

Gruesome Twosome

2009/06/30

Derek McCormack and Tony Burgess launch the Scream Festival with dancing and rampant spirit fingers

This hour has two comedians

2009/06/30

Mashing up comedy with issues of the day, the monthly Panel Show puts two straight guests in the punditry ring with a pair of improv-ers, in character as recent newsmakers. Thursday saw Coyne and Montgomery, a writer for CBC's The Hour, book-ended by Sam Kalilieh as alleged Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and fellow Bad Dog regular Jan Caruana as Frau Barbel Schreiber, the high-rent wife of Karlheinz.

Rodriguez

2009/06/30

A Mexican-American labourer from the heart of Detroit, 67-year old folk-funk singer Sixto Rodriguez is the most recent legend to be rescued from the dusty basement of obscurity by Seattle reissue label Light in the Attic.

Images in vague

2009/06/30

Cinematheque’s retro sees the French New Wave as a history in progress

Terms of Endowment

2009/06/30

There’s more to Hung than meets the eye

Black Skirt

2009/06/30

Once 3 Charles East oozed elegance — Black Skirt changes all that

The right to rule

2009/06/30

It’s been a long road for Femi Kuti, but the crown prince of Afrobeat is taking things one day at a time

Forever Young

2009/06/30

Existentialist stylings for hot summer nights

Gary Burton & Pat Metheny @ Four Seasons Centre, June 29

2009/06/30

Appropriately, jazz-guitar deity Metheny is again playing with the band that introduced him to the world as 20-year old prodigy back in 1974: the Gary Burton Quartet. What began as a one-off reunion gig has turned into a three-year outing for Burton’s band; last night's Toronto date marked the end of their current tour. Consequently, everybody seemed eager to exhaust all the ideas in their respective arsenals.

The T.O. Do List: June 30 2009

2009/06/30

Today: Meet Alice Russell — Britian's real new queen of soul. Plus: black-metal masters Behemoth get sacreligious at the Opera House; and Sonic Youth finally get a venue upgrade.

The Boss is the new King of England

2009/06/30

This week: how Bruce Springsteen ruled the roost last weekend at Glastonbury. Plus: Spoon triple your pleasure on their new EP; and MGMT meet McCartney.

The Daily Distraction: June 30

2009/06/30

In honour of Canada's 142nd birthday, not only did we spell honour the Canadian way, we're going to shower her in an all-Canuck marathon of tunes. Not bad, eh?