City council voted 31-4 on Thursday afternoon to reverse a ban recently placed on EDM events at the Exhibition grounds. The ban, which was initially voted in by the Ex board, drew controversy in the wake of reports that it was less about protecting young ravers from their own drug-fuelled partying than about helping out Muzik Nightclub, which also operates on CNE grounds.
Muzik, you will recall, has also placed host to some of Rob Ford's more legendary party nights, and the speculation is that mayor and the club's owner, Zlatko Starkovski, are friendly. Councillor Mike Layton, who was responsible for getting a possible reversal of the ban on council's agenda, noted that the decision was a rash one. Judging by the strong oppositional vote -- only Councillors Crawford, Grimes, Pasternak and Robinson voted to keep the ban in place) -- this view was widely held by his fellow councillors.
"All the evidence I have seen says that holding these events at Exhibition Place is safer," Councillor Gord Perks said after council vote. Perks, a member of the Ex board and opponent of the ban from the get go, has a point. EDM events on city property have additional security and safety measures not required of private venues. With Ford in rehab (maybe, probably) and sensibility restored on this issue, perhaps now I won't have write the word Muzik for a while. One can only hope.
When The Guvernment / Kool Haus complex 
Where in the world is Rob Ford? We 
Rumours 
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Ever since the TTC added GPS technology to its surface vehicles, commuter life has gotten considerably better. Most transit apps will provide both an up to the second ETA on your next bus or streetcar as well as an animated map that plots out the location of these vehicles. No more waiting at the bus stop in vain for 20 minutes. That said, mobile apps don't do much when you want to get a sense of the big picture (because why would they?). That's what 
The best sandwiches in Toronto will make your brown bag lunch jealous. This catch-all category doesn't discriminate between Banh Mi and BLTs, chicken parm or panini - so long as it's supremely delicious and assembled on fresh bread. These are the city's best handheld meals, regardless of origin or style.
Weekend events in Toronto is our guide to events happening this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here's what's happening in Toronto this May 9-11, 2014.
Rob Ford spent an alcohol-fuelled March night driving impaired, making racist remarks, fighting, and making frightening sexist remarks, according to fresh allegations from the Toronto Star. The news comes as a doctor at an unnamed rehab facility 
It might seem like an odd choice to profile 
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I've always loved Concorde. I had a poster of the jet with its paper-thin wings plastered above my bed when I was five years old, and I was obsessed with trying to catch a glimpse of its swan-like body in flight from the window of my parents' car (I grew up near Heathrow Airport in London, so it actually happened once or twice.)
Concorde first came to Toronto and the CNE three years after the plane first entered commercial service. It was the first time one of the jets, the product of a joint venture between the British and French governments several decades and billions of dollars in the making, had put on a display outside of a trade show.
Even by today's standards, Concorde was unbelievably fast. Over the open ocean, where it was permitted to accelerate to full speed, the plane could reach 2,140 km/h, more than twice the speed of sound. Modern airliners travel at less than half that. A trip from New York's John F. Kennedy to London Heathrow took about 3.5 hours.
A regular scheduled service never fully materialized, however. At its peak, Concorde charter flights were operated out of Toronto once a week by luxury Canadian tour agents Blyth & Co. and later Nordic Tours. It took about 4.5 hours to make the trip to London, less with a tailwind. On several occasions, Toronto's airport was the start and finish for sight-seeing tours over the Arctic Circle.
Cookbooks from Toronto restaurants and chefs save us the trouble of traveling around town to sample the creations of local culinary legends - it brings those dishes right into the kitchen. Thankfully, we have chefs and culinary masterminds throughout the city who don't mind sharing their mastery with the food-obsessed in the form of the written word.
Mythical Toronto sculptor 
E.B himself is weaved through the fabric of our Canadiana art tradition - he was close friends with 
From small animal carvings made in wood (he is often credited with starting the boon in coffee table art) to limestone behemoths in public places, E.B had an almost supernatural ability to capture the essence of a subject in his sculptures. Described by art historian Gary Dault as "The Mark Twain of contemporary art," he famously never took a penny in government grants for his artistry, nor did he suffer elitist, effete art snobs. He was a man of the people, and interaction between the public and his statues was of paramount interest to him.
The 20 pieces in his masterful Greek Gods series (Hercules, Mermaid, Cyclops, Boy on a Dolphin, Pan, Aphrodite, The Three Graces, The Harpies, Cerberus, The Hydra, The Typhon, Medusa, Orpheus, The Minotaur, Centaur, The Phoenix, Sea Horse, The Sphinx, The Triton and Narcissus) were originally sculpted in the 1960s for a resort in the hills at 
Over the last 30 years, the statues in the Garden of the Greeks Gods have entertained anyone who travelled through this part of the CNE grounds. "What I am happiest about is that my statues will be available to the public, and to kids especially," E.B told the Toronto Star at the ground breaking ceremony for the Garden in 1979. "They're not dainty things - all limestone - and kids can climb on them all they want".
What does it say about our culture that these magnificent pieces are allowed to languish, some completely out of sight, seen only by the likes of Muzik owner 
As tempting as it to wish the statues might come alive, Golem-style, and extract bloody vengeance on those who see fit to disgrace them as glorified ashtrays, it's also reassuring to remember that the Greek God statues will outlive the current occupant of the space they pre-date. E.B used to joke that his stone work will still be there long after Rembrandts' paintings had crumbled. 
Of Toronto's many arts festivals, Contact is one of the biggest, occupying major institutional venues and offering up big names in photography and photo-inspired work. But where does one turn when looking for exhibitions that are non-traditional, down-home, or up-and-coming? Maybe, like, not at the AGO? Here's a roundup of the shows that you won't find on Contact's "feature" page, so you can have a more, ahem, authentic festival experience this May.
Persian rugs may not be as in vogue as they used to be but they' re still a good bet to add a timeless touch to your home. Although you can find a selection of rugs in pretty much any home decor store, there are select stores around Toronto that specialize in rugs of the Persian variety. In fact, many of the shops below won't just sell you a great rug; they also offer carpet restoration and hand-cleaning. Be sure to ask about those services too - you'll need them down the road.
Now that the weather's finally allowing it, a whole slew of temporary and semi-permanent stores have popped up along Queen St. - with a couple of outliers, like one menswear spot at King and Spadina). Each clothing retailer brings something new to the area, already crawling with garments. Though these short-lived shops are open for business for just a little while, many will be easy to track post-summertime - they're just getting the ball rolling.
It was only a matter of time before innovative Toronto artists sought new and exciting venues -- outside of churches, heritage spaces, and parks -- to present the best of independent theatre. Abandoned stores throughout the city have been taken over by theatre makers seeking a home to call their own. These spaces operate as pop-up shops, not for clothes or the latest food trend, but for the presentation of cultural enrichment.
Red One plans to present three to four productions at Storefront each year. Past plays include After Miss Julie, SHREW, and Wait Until Dark. Throughout the rest of the year, the venue plays host to a collection of independent theatre companies, including Kat Sandler's 
Free events in Toronto this week let the poorest of us go to a castle (okay, the castle) for a night, as well as a special exhibit at the AGO and a huge host of music events, from space-is-the-place soundscapes to rock-a-billy throw downs. Need more? There's also the 
Canadian Music Week continued into day four with Friday's hot ticket 
The neon lights lit up, and the sisters took their places on opposite sides of the the giant stage. To the untrained eye they may have been hard to tell apart, sporting similar outfits of skinny jeans and leather jackets. Here's an insider tip: Tegan's hair is slightly longer and more unruly, (obviously to represent how she can't be tamed). The duo was backed up by a fleet of boys in black t-shirts who didn't miss a beat. They kicked off with two songs from 
After a short trip to the The Con era (also known as the style mullet era), they took us into Heartthob, and played straight through four tracks from their newest pop-infused album. Once the booming electronic goodness of "
The set was mostly comprised of their new head-boppy pop songs, but they did take us back to classic T&S a few times. Tegan picked up a hand-shaker and they launched into "
What felt to be all too early, the set came to an end with the smash radio single "
Would Toronto still love its major league ball club if they were the Blue Sox, or the Towers? Probably, but somehow the Blue Jays name just feels right. Unlike the Raptors, the team seems comfortable with its avian moniker, which was selected by a panel of judges and met with something approaching condemnation in the late 1970s.
Long before the naming of a sports team involved legions of PR and professional agencies, the Toronto St. Patricks 
In 1987, Toronto was asked to "Name the Dome." 12,879 people entered an Ontario-wide contest to give 
