Kensington Market Winter Solstice Parade is a unique hand-made, non-profit, commercial-free event that takes place on Saturday December 21, 2019. It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season.
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Author Archives: Schuster Gindin
On Being a Raptors Fan
A city often divided between the urban centre and the GTA feels cohesive. People in the gym. And outside the gym. The diversity of Toronto reflected in the arena, in the bars, in Jurassic Park. The Raptors bringing Toronto together. Continue reading
Bacchanal: food, film and Fellini
The Joseph D. Carrier Gallery at the Columbus Centre is currently hosting a unique opportunity to view “Food in Federico Fellini’s Drawings”. The exhibit provides a true feast for film, food and Fellini fanciers. Continue reading
The Joy of Hags Singing!
Kensington Market’s annual Winter Solstice Festival features a Befana chorus. La Befana, as described by Mary Li is hopelessly in love with the sun and sings time-honoured love songs to it, with the confidence of a lover that knows the sun loves her, and only her. Continue reading
Toronto’s Urban Forest
Our ravines and parks provide wonderful recreation places for city-dwellers while at the same time cleaning our atmosphere and combatting global warming. A historical, geographical and a literary appreciation. Continue reading
On Being and Emptiness or There’s a Recipe in Here Somewhere
Of food photos, bok choy kimchi, the Japanese filmmaker Ozu, Count Basie and, oh yeah, a couple of recipes. Continue reading
York University: from brutalism to beauty
From its origins as a suburban, brutalist response to the need for more universities in Toronto and Canada, York University has transformed into a vibrant, lively campus of beautiful new buildings and world class academic programs. Continue reading
Community bench invites neighbours
What do you do when a tree on your property has to come down? Use the wood to create a resting and chatting place for passers-by. Continue reading
“Jazz at Massey Hall” Day
On May 15, 1953, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Charles Mingus and Bud Powell played together at Massey Hall in Toronto in a recorded concert that became “Jazz at Massey Hall: The Quintet”. To Ambrose Roche and jazz lovers everywhere, the sounds were revolutionary. Continue reading
Beginnings and Endings: Toronto’s Streetcar Loops
Toronto streetcars are iconic and the city is investing more in its streetcar infrastructure. As these increasingly longer vehicles glide by, do you ever wonder how they turn around? Where they start out and where they end up? Here’s as close to an answer as you’ll get. Continue reading
Presto Isn’t Magic – Yet
Presto is a plastic card that will replace cash, Metropasses, tickets and eventually tokens on the TTC. Sounds good but implementation troubles have meant delaying its launch. We look at the promise and problems of Presto. Continue reading
Transit Geek in the City
Councillor Joe Mihevc’s dedication to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is unwavering. Like a proud father, the self-described transit geek dotes over this growing colossal public service, which in 2021 will celebrate its 100th anniversary. His own father was a TTC mechanic. Continue reading
Trinity-Bellwoods: reshaping an urban landscape
Trinity-Bellwoods Park is a hub of urban activity in downtown Toronto. It was not always so. It used to be a 50-acre field with a small river famous for its salmon fishing. Our resident historian Robert Fisher traces the history of the park from its bucolic days to its bohemian times to its current artists’ oasis. Continue reading
Gardiner of Earthly Delights
Returning home to Toronto recently, Ambrose Roche found comfort, excitement and inspiration in the fascinating and varied gardens of the Gardiner Museum. Continue reading
India’s Great Diversity Lives in Toronto
India is a kaleidoscope of a country with 14 official languages and four major religions. Luckily, this dizzying diversity has been transplanted to thriving neighbourhoods in Toronto. Continue reading
The Morning Star Who Knows No Setting
Resurrection is a wish, a religious belief, a myth as old as recorded history and as current as the latest sci-fi movie. Apropos of the vernal equinox and its attendant holidays, Robert Fisher recounts many versions of the concept. Continue reading
From Troubadours to Haiku: nine voices of spring
To celebrate the arrival of spring (it IS coming) our erudite contributor, Robert Fisher, has chosen nine poems from the ages: classical, Chinese, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Japanese, and some more recent – as in the 19th century. Read, enjoy, think warm thoughts. Continue reading
BREAKING DORMANCY
Idiosyncratic gardens, structures or street configurations are our home touchstones, our local weird or unusual expressions of untrendy taste and individual vision that exemplify the diversity and variety of our city neighbourhoods. Continue reading
Jonathan Dixit: an appreciation and an anticipation
First-time Toronto novelist Jonathan Martin Dixit used to be proprietor and ringmaster of the diamond in the rough Duke of Gloucester, a pub that could be called, ‘the philosophy store’. Now Jon has published the futuristic tale BabyWorld. Continue reading
Cries Like Dead Letters Sent
Perhaps you have had this experience: quite by chance in an attic or neglected corner of a walk-in closet you come across, likely in a shoebox, a bundle of old letters, possibly secured with ribbon or rubber bands, bearing your handwriting and the distinctive red stripes of airmail envelopes. Continue reading
Flying Blind
Jason Fayre has been totally blind since birth. He recently took his second flight in a glider. Here’s his amazing experience on video. Continue reading
Bitter Almond Cake
Robert Lackie delves into a legacy of memories and recipes and makes use of the dregs of a prolific apricot harvest to produce this aromatic treat. Continue reading
GLIMPSES OF PARADISE: the gardens at the Aga Khan Museum and the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre
Just as the eyes are the windows of the soul, so are gardens windows of the world’s cultures. Gardens reflect in their design how we see the world, most movingly our dreams of paradise. This is evident at Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum and the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Centre. Continue reading
Mother’s Day Blues
“Parenting, I’m told, is agony and ecstasy. Problem is, we’re steeped in the agony, relieved only rarely by fleeting moments of hope or happiness.” Continue reading
Lemon Tarts
Feel like something tangy, lemony when the weather heats up? Try these yummy tarts. Also available gluten-free! Continue reading
COULD BE A SIGN: Ways of Communicating
Everything and everybody is trying to tell us something. And so are we all, no matter what we’re doing. We communicate with imagery and built form, in gesture and physicality, in language both oral and textual. What are we all trying to get across? Continue reading
ISOLATION
OCAD University graduating student Shubo Yang creates haunting images that express her relationship to her Canadian environment. Continue reading
BODY LANGUAGE FROM A TRANS PERSPECTIVE
Stop what you’re doing and take a quick look at the positioning of your body. Is your body language appropriate for your gender presentation? Continue reading
MURAL TORONTO
Murals are everywhere in Toronto. They appear under bridges, the sides of buildings, on garage doors and in other unexpected locations. Continue reading
Two Tales of Adoption
‘Not Exactly as Planned’ and ‘Make Me a Mother’ are two very different stories of adoption including the extreme challenges and remarkable rewards. Continue reading
LIVING TORONTO 