Star Wars fans everywhere know the name C-3PO, the loyal golden robot with no sense of humor. The name that may be a little less familiar however, is Anthony Daniels, the man behind the droid. For those who question if there is actually a man behind the robot, head to this year’s Fan Expo, where Daniels will be making a guest appearance in his human form. We caught up with him to get the pre-show low down.
From style blogs across the globe to the streets of Toronto, the latest in handbag trends has been identified. No, it is not the newest Louis Vuitton print or Céline shape: it is the backpack. But we’re not talking Mountain Equipment Co-Op or Euro trip-ready backpacks here.
Toronto’s landscape is synonymous with ravines and sky-grasping condo towers juxtaposed against Victorian red-brick townhouses. Over the past two decades, Toronto artist John McEwen’s outdoor commissions — steel pieces inspired by nature and local lore — have become intrinsic to the city’s scenery. McEwen has brought a bear to life above Spadina; he’s pulled the lake further into the city by erecting a canoe on the Queensway and he’s filled a Rosedale park with northern Ontario wildlife. We caught up with him before his biennial Olga Korper Gallery show. Here’s what we learned.
It’s no surprise that women seem to be less into beer than men. While ads rife with midriff-bearing women are appealing to some, they can make it seem like beer is exclusively a man’s drink. “They’ve got to go,” says Toronto beer specialist Mirella Amato. As organizer of Toronto’s chapter of Barley’s Angels, a girls-only beer club, she knows that women can appreciate the beverage just as much as men if given a chance. So, how can breweries get women more into beer?
The beauty of certain bands stems from their ability to eschew what many would consider to be the trappings of their chosen genre (insofar as a band like Beams actually chooses a genre). Sure, Beams have banjos, acoustic guitars and mandolins, but the addition of the musical saw and lap steel — coupled with lead vocalist, banjo player and principal songwriter Anna Mérnieks’ often playful delivery — will cause you to throw away any notion you had of calling them a “folk” band.
Fresh off last week’s maple-syrup-flavoured film announcement, TIFF unveiled the final portion of its 2011 film slate this morning, including eight galas and 18 special presentations. Oh, yeah — don’t forget the stars, because there’s going to be a lot of them (think Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Hudson, to name a few). Here’s our latest rundown of the flicks you don’t want to miss.
There’s a new rollerblading store in town, and it aims to be the rollerblading store in town. Vancouver’s Shop Task, the largest aggressive rollerblading store in Canada, has opened an outpost at Queen and Coxwell, taking over long time sex shop Naughty by Night’s old space.
It’s difficult to fathom how a low-profile spirit like pisco could spawn an enduring rift between continental neighbours: it’s nearly odourless, with an unremarkably anemic hue. But the strong and stealthy South American grape brandy has been the viciously sought-after prize in an ongoing cultural tug-of-war between Chile and Peru for centuries.
This week’s roundup required me to listen to a bunch of new music in order to figure out what the hell was going on. First among the gems was Toronto’s own The Wilderness (August 19 @ Lee’s Palace). Their press material namedrops indie-cum-mainstream juggernauts Interpol, and with good reason: their debut e.p., .272, mines the same danceable post-punk rhythms and minimalist/maximalist dichotomies that made Turn on the Bright Lights so great.
When R Squared Café opened up in the Trinity Bellwoods area earlier this month, we couldn’t help but be curious about the name. Turns out that the shop is simply named after the two Rezas — Sheikh and Yazdjerdi — who own it. Nothing more complicated than that.
It seems Toronto female athletes are showing more skin than ever these days. First, the Lingerie Football League announced its inaugural Canadian franchise, the Toronto Triumph, earlier this year. Now comes Bikini Basketball Entertainment, set to debut on pay-per-view on August 17. With the Triumph’s first game scheduled for September, Toronto will soon be inundated with ladies in their skivvies playing sports, which has left some with their undies in a bunch.
Here’s a wine that can stand up to just about anything you throw at it. I took it to an Indian restaurant and had it with curry. Bommarito is the second label of Whitehall Lane and remembers one of the founding fathers of the Napa Valley industry, Dominic Bommarito, who moved to the Valley in 1929. The wine is juicy blackcurrant and blackberry with notes of dark chocolate. Ready to drink. Food match: BBQ meats, aged cheddar. (Vintages #213918)
