Going to a coffee shop for wireless internet has just become a battle royale á la the Jets and the Sharks. Last week, Starbucks announced it would offer two hours of free Wi-Fi to its Canadian customers—a feature the Americans have had since a new incentive program Starbucks Rewards was offered in April 2008. Bell will also offer unlimited service to its high-speed and WiMAX customers—and in a cruel move, not Bell dial-up customers.......

Last week, Torontoist reported that the Alliance Atlantis–owned Cumberland Cinemas were going to be demolished to make room for a condo development, based on information from the Greater Yorkville Residents' Association (GYRA). In an effort to get some sort of initial confirmation before publishing last Tuesday's article, we tried to call Alliance Atlantis, but had no luck and decided to run the piece with the one source we had. Doing so was an error......

The Cumberland Cinema is being demolished to make room for another towering condo development. We don't know yet when it is going to happen, but we do know that this is a terrible shame: while the loss of the theatre isn’t significant from an architectural or stylistic standpoint, it’s a saddening blow to independent movie fare in the downtown core. The Cumberland is one of the only cinemas in the city to get films that......

Sarah Lazarovic—curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada—is painting a portrait of a Torontonian every day. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. Suggestions for subjects welcome. Igor Kenk's mug shot revealed him to be an intense and sullen figure. No surprise there. In an Old City Hall courtroom on Friday "the accused face of bicycle theft in Toronto" appeared, weeks after he'd revealed his code to documentarian Lewis Farrell: "The......

Dr. Steve Brule. Now, that name either fills you with joy, and probably running straight to YouTube, or it rings absolutely no bells at all. We mention him—John C. Reilly's character from Tim & Eric Awesome Show Good Job!—because he's pretty much the reason we rate Reilly so highly. Initially he was lumped in with the list of "people who have been in Paul Thomas Anderson films that we are ambivalent about," but Dr.......

WORDS: Dr. Steven B. Shubert is an Egyptologist. At U of T tonight, he will be giving a lecture called "The Greeks Rule! How the Greeks Shaped Our Perception of Ancient Egypt." The lecture is presented by The Society For the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, and explores the study of ancient Egypt as provided by Greek sources such as Herotodus, Diodorus, and Manetho. 323-4 Bancroft Avenue, 7:00 p.m., FREE for members of the SSEA,......

Imagine that you're an advertising representative assigned to handle a spot for Eaton's in a magazine distributed to audience members enjoying classical music at Roy Thomson Hall in 1982. The department store giant wants to spotlight their fine collection of pianos. As you struggle for ideas, you flip on the radio and hear Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder join forces to sing about the joys of piano duets and racial harmony. A light bulb......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. The Boondock Saints is a perfect example of the post-Tarantino school of filmmaking. It's got killing, cussing, and style to spare.......

When Antonin Artaud wrote Theatre and Its Double, the manifesto for his so-called Theatre of Cruelty, he called for the actors to bleed on the audience as well as a bunch of other things that are probably best left interpreted metaphorically. Surely, Glen Callendar's Transcendental Masturbation, now playing at the Fringe, was not exactly what he had in mind? During last night's performance, during a "peeling" joke gone awry, Callendar wound up removing not......

Dr. Henry Morgentaler, renowned doctor and abortion rights activist, is now a Member of the Order of Canada. Morgentaler spent two decades in and out of court fighting to give women the right to choose, and finally won R. v. Morgentaler in 1988, a decision that made abortion legal across Canada. Morgentaler's appointment to the Order was immediately met with vitriol after it was announced on Tuesday by noted female, Governor General Michaëlle Jean.......

The second-generation iPhone was unveiled today, and it is (officially, legally, and dear God finally) coming to Canada on July 11 this year. Just over a month ago, with rumours abounding about the new release, Rogers announced that they would be the phone's exclusive carrier here, but provided no further details as to how they would figure out a way to suck all the awesome out of it. The most notable thing about the......

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Photo of Sunnyside Beach in 1924 from Wikimedia Commons. When Sunnyside Amusement Park officially opened on June 28, 1922, it was grandly proclaimed to be ushering in a new era for the city. Addressing a crowd of thousands, R. Home Smith, chairman of the Toronto Harbour Commission, said that "Toronto is upon......

Street artist and former Torontoist contributor Fauxreel (which, contrary to what The Globe and Mail says, is not his real name; it's Dan Bergeron) received both a considerable amount of disdain and a considerable amount of cash recently (as well as some praise), when he designed and helped execute a nationwide corporate vandalism campaign on behalf of a well-known motorized vehicle brand. At the time, Torontoist attempted to contact "Mr. Reel" (as the Globe......

Pack up your poetry chapbooks and start flirting with your local copy shop boy/girl—the Toronto Small Press Book Fair is upon us once again. The spring fair will be held at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, 750 Spadina Avenue on Saturday June 7 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. In this time of scant profits for major newspapers and magazines, getting a small magazine off the ground is a challenging enterprise. The phrase......

What's better than sex? Maybe writing about sex. Sex and Our City is a special week-long series that looks for questions and answers about love and sex in our city. Photo by Just-Us-3. In Toronto, a birthday celebration often isn’t complete without hearing the drunken whines of "I’m so old" (as the table scrambles to find their IDs to order beer). However, we’re taking longer to do the things that are associated with getting older:......

Remember last week, when Marc Lostracco took a look at Astral's final street furniture prototypes and promised that "Torontoist's Jonathan Goldsbie will have a more in-depth analysis of the new street furniture next week"? Well, there's been a slight problem. On Wednesday night, Astral Media invited BIAs (Business Improvement Areas) to a sneak preview of the new furniture. Goldsbie—Street Furniture Campaign Coordinator of the Toronto Public Space Committee, and an open critic of Astral......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. When New York club king (read: mafioso) Peter Gatien got banned from his city, he decided to come to......