Tickets are already sold out, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on seeing Bon Iver tonight (August 8 @ Sound Academy). Prices on Craigslist are, as usual, double to triple market value ($80 to $150), but even if scalpers were demanding your firstborn child, the offer would deserve serious consideration.
Paul Bosc has been making this red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc since 1998 but only in fine vintages. It sounds pricey at $40 a bottle, but it has the quality and flavour of a French wine at twice the price. If you like red Bordeaux, this is the wine for you. Floral and spicy on the nose, it’s rich on the palate with cassis and dark chocolate flavours that finish dry and savoury. Food match: rack of lamb, filet mignon. Available at winery or winerytohome.com.
Last month, the Toronto International Film Festival proved it could still shock and awe its faithful festival-goers when it announced that a documentary — on rock gods U2, no less — would open its 36th edition for the first time. With the festival filling out the rest of its slate this week and the opening night only a month away, the intense process of picking your 2011 TIFF flicks has officially begun. Here’s what has us buzzing so far.
Nothing tastes more like summer then shucked corn cooked over an open flame. This weekend, the St. Lawrence Market is hoping that charred kernels dipped in melted butter are enough to lure Torontonians away from their air conditioning and down to its farmer’s market, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Professional tennis returns to the city this weekend as the Rogers Cup takes over the Rexall Centre at York University from Aug. 6 to 14. In addition to the world’s top women holding court, the event marks the inaugural Rogers Legends Cup, featuring top legendary players Michael Chang, Jim Courier, John McEnroe and recent International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Andre Agassi.
With the last month of summer in full swing, we’re feeling pretty adventurous lately. Thanks to the beautiful warm weather, we’re apt to try anything that gets us outside (even if we do lack any sort of physical prowess). Whether you’re cycling around the city, hitting the trails or trying kayaking for the first time, this week’s sales roundup blends the sporty with the stylish.
Random Family want to be your favourite band. It’s music by way of collage: pop meets post-rock meets indie, before a delay pedal devours the whole thing and regurgitates it in a glittery shower of sound. You can catch Marcus Retterath, Aaron Lyons and Alec Forbes filling Lee’s Palace with sonic dreamscapes tonight at 9:30 p.m. Try them on for size, wear them like a coat.
The Shops at Don Mills has been growing rapidly over the past couple years, and Robert Medal has been keeping watch. The general manager of Toronto’s Bier Markt — currently with one location on King Street West and another on The Esplanade — knew that the evolving outdoor shopping center was the perfect spot for a third Bier Markt location.
The SummerWorks Festival kicks off today. This indie theatre fest has been around since ’91, and has grown from its fringe-like beginnings to the respectable breeding ground for local artists it’s known for today (over 20 of this year’s Dora nominations came from past SummerWorks productions). But with such great responsibility also comes great controversy. We caught up with the fest’s artistic director, Michael Rubenfeld, to chat about theatre and the festival’s future.
Concertgoers at the Phoenix Concert Theatre received an eclectic, intoxicating one-two punch on Tuesday night, courtesy of Beirut and Owen Pallett. If you’re not much for reading concert reviews, then I humbly suggest you do yourself the favor of clicking those links, listening to the music, falling in love and clearing your evening schedule, because history is going to repeat itself tonight — same time, same venue.
When people ask you where to find the best shopping in Toronto, what do you say? Most likely you name somewhere or something on the Queen West strip between University and Ossington. But awesome boutiques are popping up all over the city, especially off the ol’ beaten track of Queen West, and they’re worth the trek. Here’s our list of the top five boutiques to check out and why they love where they are.
It seems so obvious: queers and beers go together like, um, how they rhyme together. But it took Les Murray, the president of Toronto’s Festival of Beer — plus a Cyndi Lauper concert at last year’s Dyke Day festival — to make it happen. Sitting at the Queen’s Park event, Murray thought to himself, “This would be an unbelievable audience to do a festival with.”
