From humour to horror, this week’s 3rd annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival brings entertainment from every angle by the best of Japan’s independent filmmakers. You don’t need to know anything about Japan to enjoy these subtitled films. We caught up with festival Co-Programmer/Co-Artistic Director Chris MaGee and asked him about the festival, Japan’s film scene and what makes Hollywood so predictable anyway.
Trust me, this wine is really worth searching out. You can only get it from Magnotta stores around the city. You don’t find many varietal Semillons in Ontario, and this one had the distinction of winning a regional trophy at the Decanter World Wine Awards in London in April. Golden straw in colour with a waxy, honey and peach bouquet, it’s medium-bodied on the palate, offering spicy peach and Bartlett pear flavours riding on lively acidity. Great value here.
A hot, used shipping-container-turned-street-food-stall at the corner of Bathurst and Dundas might not be where one would expect to find Tony Sabherwal, owner of the successful Magic Oven organic pizza chain. And yet, there he is, selling street food on a completely pizza-free menu at Scadding Court Community Centre’s Live Local Marketplace.
The Live Green Toronto Festival at Yonge-Dundas Square this weekend will welcome all the peace, love and environmental friendliness you’d expect, but with an uncharacteristically stacked roster of musical talent. On July 16, both advice and entertainment will be doled out to Toronto residents looking to lead an environmentally compatible lifestyle.
Everyone wants to give off a flawless natural look — even if it means not going au natural — and Toronto’s Melanie Cruickshank wants to help you do that with DaLish Cosmetics. Her animal-friendly brand started out as a kitchen-sink experiment and has since grown into a product that’s sold across North America. Yesterday, Cruickshank kicked off a DaLish pop-up shop at the Jessica Jensen studio in the Burroughes Building to test the waters for a potential standalone location.
With yesterday’s celebration of Bastille Day and the Tour de France still going strong, we’re feeling pretty French lately. For this week’s sales roundup, we’ve selected classic pieces that will immediately inject some joie de vivre into your wardrobe. Because, if there’s anything the French can do amazingly well (besides produce awesome wines and cheese), it’s looking trés chic in a very effortless way.
As one of the world’s most expensive cities (59th, apparently, according to a Mercer survey), Toronto has surpassed Vancouver as Canada’s priciest place to live. One of the key indicators used in the survey: the cost of movie tickets. We did the math, and a date night at the movies —including popcorn and soda — runs close to $50.00. Yikes! With that kind of expense, films might as well be showing on a fancy yacht. Enter the Toronto Port Authority.
It may be unusual for someone to credit a guy by the name of Dr. Demento for launching his career, but then again, “Weird Al” Yankovic isn’t just a regular guy. As an awkward teenager in California, he would do parodies of pop songs for the amusement of his friends. On a whim, he sent in a very amateur recording to the Dr. Demento radio show. Dr. Demento liked it, and that was all the nudge Yankovic needed.
Toronto artists of the 80s are getting their time to shine once again. “Paradise Now,” a series of events and exhibitions along the once-underground cultural hub of Queen West, is honouring them as well as young up-and-coming artists. The first installment of the 80s expo is “This Is Paradise,” an art exhibit at the MOCCA gallery, which runs until August 21.
Budget-conscious fashionistas take note: three Joe Fresh stores are coming soon to Toronto. The best part? They’ll be standalone, meaning no grocery store multitasking while scouting for T-shirts. The stores are pure Joe — clothes only.
Winnie Yip is attempting to give street food a makeunder. Tired of forking over five (or even ten) dollars for streetside nosh, Yip banded together a group of rogue street food enthusiasts (conveniently, her friends) — and started making, and selling, toast. Yes, toast.
After being punched in the face by my first whiff of Brazil’s national dram, cachaca, I was mystified as to why anyone would want to ingest something that bore such an intense olfactory parallel to rubbing alcohol; something that once, according to legend, powered up an automobile (a Ford Fairlane, to be exact). Then, I was taught how to make a caipirinha — a strong and simple mixture of muddled limes, sugar and cachaca — and everything started to make sense.
