Toronto Zoo to go green. The Zoo will now focus on biodiversity and sustainability while presenting animals from around the world in small, depressing, joke-like habitats that offer a crude mockery of how the animals would prefer to live, focusing on the fact that while their lives in the zoo might suck, at least nobody is killing these animals for fun, as would frequently happen in the wild. Prince Harry being withdrawn from Afghanistan. It......

That’s right! Ontario Power Generation, that ever-so-lovable corporation owned by the Government of Ontario (responsible, according to their Wikipedia page, for 70% of Ontario’s electricity) are being forced to change their name by Prince, after he noticed that “Ontario Power Generation” (founded in 1999) is suspiciously close to the name of his backing band, the New Power Generation Or! We’re lying, and it’s in fact Ontario Power Generation, the local band (unrelated to Prince or......

Photo by Jeremy Farmer from Flickr. It’s an end of an era as the popular indie night Easy Tiger shuts it down on Friday after a 14 month-run. A hipster haven, Easy Tiger is responsible for introducing hundreds of people to the booze can downstairs of College Street Diner that is Tiger Bar. Midland’s finest, Born Ruffians (pictured), will take the stage and the Easy Tiger DJs will spin the tunes. Expect plenty of......

As the 20th Century dawned, Danforth Avenue was a muddy road that served as the northern boundary for the eastern portions of the city of Toronto. Between 1909, when the city made its first major annexation on the north side of Danforth, and the appearance of today's ads in 1921, the area we now know as "The Danforth" rapidly changed from a semi-isolated mix of farmland, villages and church reserves to a series of......

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got. TreaTzBY STILLSINFLUX Cream Fog SkylineBY + PHOTENDO + Morning SunriseBY NEWS46 Pump House ReflectedBY MICGORMIT dooby doooBY HARALD BENZ AbyssBY DIPP Be SilentBY MICGORMIT......

Why Not Theatre's production of Hamlet, currently playing at the Winchester Street Theatre, bills itself as an interpretation of everyone's favourite tragedy so new and different that it has taken an alternate title: The Prince Hamlet. But rather than some from-Mars production full of black leather and dance-breaks you might expect to find at the Fringe, The Prince Hamlet is a relatively straight-forward adaptation of the original work, yet staged interestingly enough to keep......

I love the smell of police raid in the morning. Toronto Vice arrested 60 people in the Jane and Finch area this morning in a raid called Project Kryptic. They seized "30 kilos of cocaine, hash oil and marijuana with an estimated street value of $1 million" from the Driftwood Crips. That's actually pretty badass. Hey, buddy...we're not mad that you stole the Hershey bars, we're just concerned that they may be contaminated with......

Now that the weather is heating up, it's the time of the year when our music tastes start turning towards those short, infectious pop songs that encapsulate the spirit of the season. On his latest release, If We're Not Talking, Vivek Shraya has created a sexy ode to electropop that's loaded with catchy choruses that will make your hips shake. Running at just over twenty-five minutes, the nine-song album has no extra frills or padding.......

While our experience Over The Top experience from Thursday was full of guitar driven pop-rock, Friday night was all about pianos, keyboards and synthesizers. We're still all smiles from it, it was that freakin' good. Here's why. It's hard to find a more energetic, loveable duo than Matt & Kim, who started the night at the Mod Club. With Matt on keys/synth and Kim on drums, the Brooklyn pair smiled and headbanged their way......

We here at Torontoist are always fans of new campaigns to boost our fair city's reputation, but the problem is that most of these campaigns are, shall we say, kind of pathetic. No, actually -- not "kind of." They're just pathetic. Almost universally they cast Toronto as a handy convenient replacement for some other city you'd like to go to. "Toronto! It's almost like Paris, and you don't have to spend money on a transoceanic......

Former Alliance president Robert Lantos and former president of CBS/Tri-Star Pictures/Sony Pictures Jeff Sagansky have invested millions in TV production company Blueprint Entertainment in order to create better Canadian television. Lantos explains, "The strategy is simple: to design TV shows that from the ground floor are genuinely Canadian...[and] whose first sale is to a network in the U.S. In the States, they perceive these shows as being domestic, so they are able to be......

Toronto's overwhelming reception of Al Gore yesterday prompted David Miller to toughen his stance on climate change. Mayor Miller promised an aggressive change in policy on pollution, transit and construction, which will be formally proposed in late March. The Ontario government may have come up with a way around the new U.S.-Canada passport rules. A new super-secure driver's license is in talks, which would feature "laser engraving, holograms, currency-like print quality and other security measures......

You'd never notice from its squat, generic appearance, but just north of Eglinton on Leslie Street sits the headquarters of one of the world's most luxurious hotel chains. Started in 1960 by Ryerson architecture grad Isadore "Issy" Sharp, Four Seasons Hotels now operates 73 hotels in 31 countries. With more than 25 other properties currently being developed, the Toronto-based chain has attracted the eye of two of the world's richest men. This week, the......

Thousands of college and university students rally across Canada for lower tuition fees and greater education funding. FUN FACT:This is approximately the 17th or so national day of rallies for lower tuition fees and greater education that I have seen, and interestingly, tuition fees have never actually gone down during that time, but instead gone up steadily! A Toronto man who slapped and allowed his elderly mother to lie in filth and squalor for......

Are you a fan of municipal development and urban planning? Do you read Spacing (or at least say you do)? Then you should endeavor to visit A Visual Legacy: The City of Toronto’s Use of Photography, 1856-1997, an exhibition of images from the City of Toronto Archives. The exhibit holds appeal to planners and history geeks alike simply because all images were taken specifically for administrative purposes, meaning that these shots aren’t pretty enough......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not just......

As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans for......

Once a month Torontoist would like to encourage you to drag yourself off the couch and across the room to that nice, comfy swivel chair in front of your computer, to experience something from the wonderful world of streaming. Anyone who's visited YouTube or eBaum's World knows how gratifying watching two Asian kids lipsynch to Jessica Simpson can be! So in the interest of expanding your horizons (or at least giving you some way to......

Look out for women in hoop skirts and men in stovepipe hats strolling down Bloor St. West tomorrow. It’s not the cast of A Christmas Carol doing a sidewalk performance (unfortunately) but the Kingsway holiday carolers. It’s your last chance to catch them on Bloor St. West, between Prince Edward Dr. and Montgomery Rd., for a few hours starting at 12 p.m. Yes, yes, we can’t stand yet another rendition of "Baby, it’s Cold......

Today's cover story in the Star reminded Torontonians of something that is easy to forget: many of us are subjects of the Queen and even certain modern, western democracies like Canada still have a monarchy to gossip about. With all the obsessive speculation and rumour-milling of a British tabloid, the Star reports on what has been considered "old news" in The Capital for a while now: the probable engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton.......

You can play for Toronto FC next year. They are holding open tryouts at the end of December as long as you're willing to pony up $115. And if you don't make it, you also get a T-shirt and two free tickets to a game in their first season. "I'm sorry," apologized Jim Flaherty with nice, cheap words yesterday. He was apologizing to the Canadians who collectively lost $25 billion when he announced the surprise......

Hey there George Stroupo... George Stoppogrop... George Stroumboulopoulos (lordy, there's a candidate for taking your partner's name in marriage), in shocking us with your return to the Ceeb, you also proudly imply that you took out your nose ring and forced the damn thing through your... uh... Little George. What, The L.A. producers didn't think you were edgy enough? We here at Torontoist feel that getting your body modification was most likely paid for by......

A day late this week, but when you see the crazy number of new shows recently announced, you’ll understand why. With so much variety, there should be something for everyone coming up in the next month or so. Due to the large number of show listings, there will be no links this week (hey, it takes a LONG time to link up this stuff, my friends). As always, if there’s something we’ve missed and......

After a day wherein people arriving at Pearson International Airport had to throw away their bottled water and coffee before being allowed on their flights because of an alleged British-born bomb plot, this incredibly crucial update was released just before midnight, and flashed on Pulse24's screen throughout the day: Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Will Smith's preppy cousin Carlton on TV's 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' is splitting from his wife of four years. Our prayers......

Purplelectricity the only recurring Prince tribute night in Canada is taking over the Drake this Saturday to celebrate the release of Prince's new album 3121. In true Prince fashion there were issues with the release of 3121, including a fight with Warner who wanted to release a best-of-double disc just a couple of weeks before 3121 was supposed to hit stores. Prince is also pulling a Willy Wonka and putting a few purple tickets to......

We posted earlier on Stuart Hughes' charged turn as a cowboy in Soulpepper's Fool for Love. In that production, he looked tall, lanky and all at once the rugged cowboy Mr. Jessica Lange had likely envisioned him to be. So imagine our surprise when we took in Ferenc Molnár's Olympia, and saw a Stuart Hughes that looked almost half the size of his previous self. His hair looked a good deal longer too. "It's called......

Not all Irish, but serving green beer: The James Joyce (386 Bloor St. W.) Grossman's Tavern (379 Spadina Ave.) Revival (783 College St.) Warning: Crazy green hat celebration Hugh's Room (2261 Dundas St. W.) Ein-stein's (229 College St.) C'est What? (67 Front St. E.) Duke of York (39 Prince Arthur Ave.) Duke of Gloucester (649 Yonge St.) Paupers (539 Bloor Street W.) Shamrock Shake (McDonald's?) But for the love of all things green, don't drive!......

This February 14th is in the running for the most depressing day of the year. The gloomy weather, the TTC fair hike, U2's performance at the Grammys and the fact that it's a Monday all add up to one sad day. So to get you and yours in the mood, Torontoist has come up with this cute little playlist...(Sorry, no downloads) VD CD 1. Notorious B.I.G. - "Me and My Bitch" 2. RZA - "My......

Given the relatively short existence of rap music, tracing its lineage appears fairly simple. The advances in the genre are well-documented: Kool Herc started turntablism, Kurtis Blow first brought rap to the mainstream, Prince Paul popularized skits, Afrika Bambaataa rocked the sample, and so forth and so on. Then there is Dr Dre's classic 1992 album The Chronic, which represents perhaps the most perplexing turn in hip hop history. The album essentially brought West Coast......