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

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.

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.)