Fleet-footed Toronto ladies will want to mark their calendars now: Nike has announced their globe-spanning run series is set to touch down in Toronto for a pretty intriguing-sounding race this coming summer. Nike Women's 15K Toronto - one of 20 similar events scattered around the globe - is set to go down on the Toronto Islands on June 14.

As Nike Canada's Claire Rankine explains it, the events are meant to act as "a celebration of women in sport." The 15K distance was chosen to give beginning runners something attainable to aspire to while still spurring experienced racers to train harder. To sweeten the deal for participants, they'll be throwing events over the entire race weekend (June 12-14).

Though it's the first time this race series has hit Toronto, the island run is a return to form for Nike; the company mounted a massive "Nike RunTO" campaign in the early 2000s that featured a series of huge running events, including a 10K event on the Islands in 2003. (At the time, it was touted as the largest running event in Toronto history, with over 8,000 participants.)

The 15K course will reportedly wind once around Centre Island, with gravel, grass and concrete throwing runners a few curveballs. It's not the only running event to take place on the Island, mind you - Longboat Toronto Island Run (a 5K and 10K) and the Island Girl half-marathon are both set for later in the 2015 season - but hey, any chance to run past that skyline view, I'll take. In the meantime, if you're eager to start on race prep, check out their neighbourhood running clubs.

Photo via Nike.

Today in Toronto the massive Interior Design Show opens at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Then Wavelength Fest isn't until February, but their pop up gallery and photo show at Huntclub is set to open up with a free party featuring Petra Glynt and Zoo Owl. Art, talks, parties, and shows will continue until February 15. At the Gladstone's Come Up To My Room exhibit, Weird Canada and Debaser present live music from Castle If, Bobby Peru, Wolfcow, DJ Garbage Body.

In advance of the huge ROM/MOCCA show, Daniel Faria Gallery will open Douglas Coupland: Our Modern World. Good Enough's live karaoke band will be at the Garrison every Thursday this month, and admission to sing your heart out with a live, Buck-65-approved backup band is free. For more events, click on over to our events section.

• Design: Interior Design Show (Metro Toronto Convention Centre)
• Art/Music: Wavelength Pop-Up Gallery (Huntclub)
• Art: Douglas Coupland: Our Modern World (Daniel Faria Gallery)
• Music: CUTMR 2015: Weird Canada & Debaser Showcase (The Gladstone)
• Music: Zola Jesus (Drake Hotel)
• Art: Draw Nudes with Local Dudes (Double Double Land)
• Film: Haphead Premiere Screening (Royal Cinema)
• Film: The Triplets of Belleville (AFT Campus de Spadina)
• Music: Good Enough Live Karaoke (Thursdays in January, The Garrison)
• Art: Anders Oinonen + Jennie Jieun Lee (Cooper Cole)

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

Photo of IDS 2014 by Andrew Williamson

Toronto Restaurant Openings highlights the latest restaurant openings and closings in Toronto and also gives a preview of what's coming soon. Find us here every Thursday morning.

OPEN NOW

• Honest Weight, a new fish shop and lunch counter at 2766 Dundas St. West, is open for business.
• The Four Seven, a new destination for late-night eats, is now open in place of Ortolan at 1211 Bloor St. West.
• Woodbridge restaurant That's Italian has opened a quick service spin-off in Richmond Hill. Owned by the same family that original founded Regina Pizzeria Trattoria, the new spot, That's Italian Express (10447 Yonge St.), is open for take-out and delivery.
• Chubby's Sub has been in business since 1973, and now the old-school sandwich shop has relocated to 1265 Morningside in Scarborough.

RECENTLY REVIEWED

• Citta
• Paoletti's
• Levetto
• Wilbur Mexicana

OPENING SOON

• Junked Food Co. at 1256 Dundas St. West opens next week, but you can stop in for a one-night only preview this Saturday, January 25 from 8pm to 4am.

Have you seen restaurants opening or closing in your neighbourhood? Email tips to liora@blogto.com.

Photo via That's Italian on Instagram.

Chinese restaurants in Toronto are a dime a dozen, with countless restaurants featuring top-notch cuisine from all regions of the country. But many of the best places for Chinese are overshadowed by their more popular counterparts. In the spirit of rooting for the underdogs, next time you're in the mood for Chinese food, try one of these restaurants you might not already know about.

Here are my picks for under the radar Chinese restaurants in Toronto.

See also:The best Chinese restaurants in Toronto.

Ka Ka Lucky Seafood
Despite its rather unfortunate-sounding name, this Riverdale restaurant serves up delicious portions of pork. You read that right. While the seafood here isn't bad, you get the best bang for your buck from the BBQ pork or crispy roast pork lunch specials, which go for about $5 each.

Yueh Tung Restaurant
With its mouth watering chilli chicken and awesome lunch specials, Yueh Tung is an extremely popular lunch spot for the Dundas and University crowd. But despite the consistent lineups, the restaurant is little known to other Torontonians. If you haven't been here already, check it out - I promise you'll be super stuffed with their generous portions.

Lee Chen Asian Diner
This Asian bistro remains an undiscovered gem, despite its Yorkville location. The cute décor, friendly service, and dumpling soup, which is one of the best I've tasted south of the 401, make this place a winner in my books.

Xam Yu Seafood Restaurant
This restaurant in the heart of Chinatown is a destination spot for fresh seafood. The deep fried crab is wonderful, although a bit greasy, while the steamed snapper is flavourful without being doused in soy sauce. They even serve up some non-seafood dishes - their crispy beef in orange sauce is a crowd favourite.

Cynthia's Chinese
This restaurant is popular enough to have three constantly busy locations around the GTA, yet it's still relatively unknown. The obscurity of Cynthia's probably has something to do with its locations. All three are in the outskirts of the GTA in Thornhill, Oakville, and Newmarket. Cynthia's specializes in old-school Chinese-Canadian food, which is becoming increasingly harder to find with the influx of authentic Chinese restaurants.

Greens Vegetarian
A fantastic place to sample excellent vegetarian Chinese cuisine in downtown Chinatown. The Greens menu is peppered with inventive meat-substitute dishes like mock duck curry and sweet and sour mock chicken. This place will dispel any notion that vegetarian food is boring.

Moondoo Chinese Garden
Located in a nondescript industrial-looking complex on Weston Rd., it's no wonder that Moondoo is under most people's radar. This cozy restaurant offers a plethora of delicious Asian dishes, as well as a very satisfying all-you-can-eat brunch. Their crispy OK beef is more than OK, and the kung pao chicken hits the spot.

Szechuan Gourmet
Szechuan Gourmet is tucked in a plaza at Bathurst and Steeles, not exactly a location known for good Chinese food. The crispy ginger chicken is an excellent take on what is normally a beef-only dish, while the yummy orange beef will take you back to a time when these dishes were a staple at Chinese restaurants. The house special - Hakka fried noodles - is also a winner.

Lotuspond Vegetarian Restaurant
Another good example of Chinese vegetarian cuisine done right. The dishes at Lotuspond fill you up without breaking the bank. While the food is generally good, it lacks in intensity of flavours. Still, it's a great place to sample food that's not too heavy.Try their popular spicy eggplant with a side of mock chicken fried rice.

Paradise Fine Chinese Dining
This newcomers to the Finch and Leslie plaza, can be overlooked because of the more established restaurants in the complex. But if you make the walk to the back of the building you'll be rewarded with their popular dim sum menu. Just one note, the parking situation is insane in the plaza, particularly on the weekends.

What did I miss? Add your suggestions for under the radar Chinese restaurants in Toronto in the comments.

Writing by Darren "DKLo" Susilo. He hangs out on the twitter and his own mansion.

If you've been green with envy over New York's upcoming Bjork dates, here's a pick me up: Talking Heads-er and all-around new wave legend David Byrne has put aside writing feisty internet diatribes to debut his newest endeavor Contemporary Color here in Toronto. The "mind-blowing meld of original music and routine" will incorporate the overlooked art of flag twirling with Byrne's music and performances by the likes of St. Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, How to Dress Well, Kelis, Nelly Furtardo, and more.

Byrne was inspired after watching a tape of a highschool colourguard team choreographing a routine to his music: "I was stunned at what I was seeing, and being a musician I naturally wondered to myself, "What if these performances had live music? Really great live music! Wouldn't that be amazing? And wouldn't that lift it to another level?"

The kitschy polychromatic concert arrives at the ACC June 22-23 for Luminato, before moving on to dates in New York. Fingers crossed that Bjork decides to come up for the big premiere.

Photo via Luminato

American burger chains are often looked towards as the height of this fast food genre, and so expectations were high going into this Thornhill establishment. Sadly, the burger, touted as thick and juicy turned out to be a big fat disappointment.

Read my profile of Fatburger in the restaurant section.

Once a stately Victorian mansion, this massive space is now home to six pubs' worth of cheap drinks and bad decisions. Fried snacks, loud music, rail specials, beer taps and shenanigans abound -- and the students that pack this place year after year wouldn't have it any other way.

Read my profile of the Madison Avenue Pub in the bars section.

Last week I showed you what $1,000/month rents you in six Toronto neighbourhoods. Unsurprisingly, a grand doesn't go so far in a competitive rental market like Toronto where rents are sky high and apartments are small. Finding an apartment in this city can be a major challenge, one that sucks the very life out of you.

Let's delve even deeper into the rental bones of our city to see what type of hidden gems are available. Is it possible to find a place that's decent for less than $700? Basement apartments, bachelors, studios, shared toilets -- how far will your dollar stretch? Today's price: $650/month.

$650 at Keele and LawrenceAccording to the ad, it's a very tiny but renovated basement apartment with a lot of natural light and private entrance. It's a bachelor but feels much larger at only 250 square feet. There's a Walmart around the corner (if you like Walmart, that is) and more transit coming to the area with a new LRT stop at Eglinton and Keele.

$630 at Dufferin and College Single Short Female wanted for a bachelor apartment near Dufferin Mall. The space has very low ceilings but claims to be large and bright. For nearby groceries, there's a No Frills inside the mall and an outdoor ice rink at Dufferin Grove Park.

$650 at Bathurst and Bloor This party townhouse in the Annex is seeking a fifth roommate (six, if you include the cat). The place might be messy but your retro roomies are willing to share their extensive VHS and Nintendo collection. Score. The neighbourhood is filled with other young professionals and money-strapped students with the University of Toronto nearby. Most restaurants along Bloor offer cheap eats and discounts for students. Check out the longtime Future's Bakery at Bloor and Brunswick and El Furniture Warehouse, where everything on the menu is only $5.00.

$650 at Danforth and Pape In the city's east end, $650 rents you a furnished room with shared accommodations. A seemingly clean space if the idea of sharing a toilet doesn't repulse you. There's a lot to do in the area with good restaurants (beyond Greek food) and entertainment. Check out Allen's and Dora Keogh for Irish pub grub, the Big Carrot for vegetarian and organic meals, and the Danforth Music Hall for live concerts. Here are more restaurants in Greektown.

$650 at Victoria Park Near Vic Park, $650 rents you a one bedroom basement apartment. It's 350 square feet with a shared washer/dryer. It's not the most desirable area but the apartment is close to transit, shops and a bankrupt Target that could turn into a GoodLife Fitness.

$650 at Spadina and Front These two roommates are seeking a third, attempting to maximize the space by turning the den into another bedroom (the den has a door or possibly a shower curtain). At least the condo amenities are included in the fee--there's an indoor swimming pool, home theatre and fitness studio.

Are any of these places worth the rent?

Toronto Blue Jay prospect Daniel Norris is getting a lot of attention leading up to spring training, though not on account of his arm. The aspiring pitcher has attracted a lot of attention for his off-season lifestyle, which consists of living in a 1978 Volkswagen van and surfing as often as he can. Norris is, for lack of a better word, a modern vagabond.

"Through backpacking, you really learn to be self-sustainable, and not only through backpacking but also living out of the van and even hiking," he explains to MiLB.com. "That's a really important thing and it feels really good to be able to take care of yourself... As a pitcher, you're the guy making the pitches. You're the one the whole team's depending on. Living by yourself in a van, you've got to tend to yourself, cook for yourself, and if anything goes wrong, just deal with it. It teaches me a lot about adversity."

Norris has only pitched six and half innings in the big leagues, but he's one of the top ranked left-handers in baseball. This will be a big year for him career-wise, but he's bound to become a fan favourite if he makes good on his potential. Perhaps his off-season explorations will help him to navigate the season ahead.

Photo via the Fouled Anchor

Over the 25 years, Jeff Mills has done just about everything possible to defy easy categorization: spreading sorcery throughout Detroit airwaves as The Wizard, serving as a foundational member of Underground Resistance, building monumental techno label Axis Records from the ground up, scoring movies, doing residencies from New York to Tokyo, collaborations with French filmmaker Claire Denis, Kubrick-inspired sculpture installations, and finding time to clock over a hundred DJ sets a year.

Now, as he descends from the cosmos to grace us with a three hour set at the inaugral edition of Mansion's Off Foundry series this Saturday, I spoke to Jeff about techno, his new film collaboration with French filmmaker Jacqueline Caux, and about what happens inside a club space.

With the amount of projects you're balancing, I'm guessing touring doesn't really disrupt your workflow?

Not at all, it's actually factored in. I'm constantly working on projects and albums, I actually have the opportunity to be able to put them into action - I can see what an audience responds to, and I bring those ideas back into the studio... it's actually a large part of the process.

For your upcoming film, Man From Tomorrow, when director Jacqueline Caux talks about it, she mentions a series of conceptual conversations that kicked things off. How does one begin such a conversation?

It started with me explaining from my impression, what I do for a career and then moving onto how I think I do it differently from anyone else - what my approach is, and what my beliefs are regarding the best way to mover forward. In time, we realized that we were narrowing down common links between both our lives, and it was from those common points that we began to agree and disagree about what the film should be.

For instance, I believe neither of us are really into a certain type of technology - I still don't use a computer to sequence music, I would prefer to plug one machine into the next... and she also does that in the way she shoots film. So we both understood that it's not about technology, but skill, and that skill comes from experience, and experience comes from doing things and getting older and that comes from travelling, and you just create these chains and links of how we can kind of see the screen together, from two different perspectives, and then work towards the same thing. cinema-wise and sound-wise.

Tracing back to common reference points and branching out from there?

Right.

Working in film before, your relationship has usually been scoring a finished work, like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", but when did the music integrate itself into the film in "Man From Tomorrow"?

Actually, the music was made long before the film, because the music was the result of what I was thinking many years before, a large collection of things I made mainly for myself based on time and space and space travel, reality, memory, all just sitting around and not really being used. So when we discussed how to score it, I gave her maybe a hundred tracks, and she collected the ones that she thought were most appropriate.

Despite the fact that your identity is mostly obscured in Man From Tomorrow, whenever you're touring, I hear a lot of the discourse around you referencing you as an "originator" or "forefather." For someone who's so interested in what tomorrow holds, how do you process this kind of praise?

I mean, I don't. I don't visit the past so often. It's something that I did, y'know, all those years in Detroit, and Underground Resistance - but not something that I use directly in what I'm doing now. My objective when I'm recording music or coming up with ideas is to totally start from zero. And after years, well, decades, I'm getting better at cleaning the slate.

What's done is done, I can't change it, I can't make it better - it's like a step on a ladder - it was necessary to do those things to get me to this point. But then these things I'm doing now are also necessary to get me to where I want to go in thirty, forty, fifty years. So I'm very active in doing many different types of projects - contemporary dance, classical, contemporary art, because I know that I'm going to need the knowledge later.

I need to experience them to know how they're all linked together, to know which is most important in the whole creative process. So I'm more interested in forward than back.

When you talk about moving forward, I think how in a lot of circles of young folks nowadays, there's been a renewed interest in science fiction and futurism as a response to all the inequalities in the world now - authors like Octavia Butler who touch on race and gender as issues that we have to think about when we think about the future. When you're thinking about the push towards the future, are there politics tied to those ideas?

I'm definitely looking at the news constantly, actually, more than constantly. I'm looking at things trying to imagine where they lead to, and how we may be living in the future, in a world that's the result of what we're watching on TV today.

Which is kinda terrifying...

Yeah, and it's just everything - from weather to nature to conflicts to religion. That's part of the process in between making the music and playing the music - watching the news, reading the newspaper, reading books, looking at films, everything. I wouldn't say that there's a political aspect to what I'm doing but for sure it's the result of what I'm seeing, what's happening today, and an idea of where I think we may be headed - the consequences of where we're at.

I have a sense that this music I'm trying to make today may be even more useful in those circumstances - understanding other places other than earth could be the result of nature becoming so extreme that maybe, one day in this century, we decide that the surface of this planet is too difficult to be on. So we have to stay near Earth, but we can't stay on the surface because it's just too volatile.

So being in space may be the next step for us. So it's not so much about now, actually. I don't spend much time thinking about the past or now, actually - only using now in order to be able to make an equation for later, for tomorrow.

One last thing - there's a photo set of you at this recent set you've played where you're wearing a sweater with sort of large circular arm holes at the shoulder, and it creates this visual illusion that you're armless - it looks like it came from another time or place.

I dunno, maybe it's just the way that the image was captured. But I mean, these spaces aren't just the music... it's the atmosphere and everything in between. For me, it's not just a techno party. I know that's what we think we've been doing for the last twenty five years or so, but for me it's not just a social event. It's not just a party.

My view of it is really multidimensional, something really interesting is being created through the energy of all the people in the audience and the sound and this conversation that's happening between the audience, and how they're reacting - something very unique is happening, and I think that most of us don't even realize that it's happening.

There are many other factors to this whole atmosphere, this experience, that I think in time we're going to understand more... how to make these happenings more believable, and more interesting and more meaningful - and this may have to do with what's happening in the world as well. Of course, dance music is an escape, but an escape to what?

So I think that there are a lot of things at play - a lot of people in our industry believe that this isn't going to be the next rock'n'roll, but it's going to be the next... something. But we don't really know what. I kind of sense that it's something that we've never experienced before. I do hundreds of parties a year, everywhere, so I have a pretty good gauge of how people are thinking and seeing what this music really represents - and it's nothing I can really trace.

I can't trace it back to jazz, I can't trace it back to rock, I can't trace it back to anything I can remember in my lifetime. So I think we're headed towards something new, and all of use, DJs, promoters, everybody should consider every aspect of the atmosphere - what people see, what they don't see, what they think they see - everything should be taken into consideration now.

Jeff Mills plays Off Foundry on Saturday, January 24 at 99 Sudbury.

Photos via Facebook

When the Metrick family moved their Elte furniture business just north of Eglinton and Dufferin 25 years ago, "there wasn't really a lot around," Andrew Metrick says.

Today, the Castlefield Design District is a bona fide shopping destination for everything from kitchen and bath fixtures to floors to furniture. So, naturally, when it came time for Metrick and his brother Jamie to launch their new condo-furniture concept store, Elte Market, they opted to set up shop just around the corner from the original store.

"For the most part, we've been a destination store in Toronto for a large number of years, but in the past few years, it's been really great to see," says Metrick. "We've been encouraging people to come up here - great for this part of the city, great for us."

As Castlefield mainstays like Ginger's continue to thrive, a crop of new stores have popped up in the area. In addition to the cheap-and-cheerful Elte Market, the Art Shoppe recently moved in from Yonge and Eglinton, GE is setting up a showroom for their Monogram line, and Miami-based Modani chose the area as the first spot for their Canadian expansion.

Bonus proof that the area's on the rise: a Starbucks just popped up at Dufferin and Castlefield. "That's what happened in the Junction. We had a Starbucks show up, and it was like, we made it! We made it!" jokes Phil Freire of Metropolis Living, a recent transplant into the neighbourhood.

Freire chose the Castlefield after their former Junction home went up for sale last fall; he'd spent some time in the area at the now-shuttered HorseFeathers Home, and was attracted by the recent burst in development.

"Everything in this area is kind of riding the coattails from Elte," he says, adding the store served as an anchoring draw for shoppers to the neighbourhood. "They put a lot of marketing money out there. So the smaller guys like me - when I was in Junction, no one advertised down there.

"So it's a really hard push down there, where up here there's a lot of money being spent. It's a true destination."

It may go without saying that the northern area is a draw for businesses looking to escape downtown rents - an especially appealing factor for furniture and home renovation businesses, who require spacious showrooms.

Modani representative Monica Diaz says the company targets shopping-friendly locations when scouting out new cities. While Diaz acknowledges that their location on Castlefield is far from downtown and subject to competition from the other stores in the area, the access to space was key.

"In order for them to have the inventory available for the people that they're (selling) to, they really focus on having inventory where it's really available. You can't get that in downtown Toronto." She adds the company is looking at expanding into smaller pop-up spaces downtown as they get established in Canada.

Others don't see the plethora of stores in the area as competition - since a trip to the Castlefield generally calls for a car (to zip between stores and lug home purchases) and a full day's worth of browsing, both Metrick and Freire say additional stores make the area a more worthwhile trip for shoppers.

The move has been a boon for Freire, whose occasionally-kitschy, industrial-chic vintage pieces are unique within the generally contemporary Castlefield area. "I'm getting a lot of 'wow, this is the best store I've ever seen'," he says. "I look at myself as bringing downtown uptown."

Though it's not the city's most accessible shopping destination for the vehicle-free, Metrick points out that the Castlefield area is pretty close to smack-dab in the centre of what makes up the city of Toronto.

"It's important to remember, Toronto is a unique city," he says. "It's not New York, it's not Chicago. It's a driving city. It's got these different pockets and areas, whether (they're filled with) restaurants or clothing stores. This area is a place you come to not just to pick up something and go. It's a place where you can really spend a day."

Photos of Elte Market (1, 2), Metropolis Living (3) and Modani (4) by Jesse Milns.

Weekend events in Toronto will close one chapter in Toronto's dance and live music history (but it's not all bad news). Art and design events dot the city, from a new exhibit opening at Power Plant to a bouncy castle (really) at MOCCA to Wavelength's music-themed photo show.

Here are my picks for the top events happening in Toronto January 16-18, 2015.

Guvernment Closing Weekend (Guvernment, January 23-25)
The Guvernment's closing party is going to be big, and it makes sense that Canadian EDM superstar Deadmau5 is headlining, seeing as he played many pre-stardom gigs at the sprawling mega-club. Still, we hope the DJ keeps his promise to let longtime mainroom resident Mark Oliver play the final hour. The weekend also includes Armin van Buuren and Knife Party. Celebrate (or lament?) the news that it looks like Sound Academy will take the club's place. BB

FOOD

Eat and Greet with the Band (Starts January 24)
Dinner and a show? Collective Concerts and Rose & Son's is kicking off a series of pre-show dinners where fans will have the chance to mingle and munch with their favourite musical acts. The first event happening Saturday January 24 at the Phoenix will feature a menu from Big Crow tailored to the tastes of Canadian alt-country trio, Elliott Brood. LI

Robbie Burns Day (January 25)
Robbie Burns day in Toronto is as fine an occasion to have a few drinks as one could imagine. Among Burns' achievements are the fact that he penned some of Scotland's most famous and memorable poems, became a cultural icon and a beacon to liberalism, and was even recently chosen by his people as The Greatest Scot of all time. Check out our guide to events around Toronto here. BJ

SHOPPING & LIFESTYLE

Interior Design Show (Jan 22-25, Metro Toronto Convention Centre)
The 17th annual Interior Design Show is a massive affair, and a little bit of drool is easily disguised by anyone with a little design flair of their own. Canadian and international firms will be set up all weekend, plus you can catch talks, pop up shops, and more.

Toronto Design Offsite Festival (January 19-25)
Each winter, design installations and unusual prototypes get rolled into public spaces for Design Offsite. This year's fest features screenings, panels, window installations, and more, and a highlight each year is the Gladstone's Come Up to My Room exhibit, which gives designers free rein on the hotel's rooms. Don't miss their Love Design Party on Saturday. DF

First Midnight MRKT of 2015 (January 23, 2nd Floor)
The market/party is back. Shop local goods and munch on street food (indoors) as DJs spin. See the vendor line up for the first edition of 2015 here.

MUSIC

Wavelength Pop-Up Gallery (Jan 22-Feb 15, Huntclub)
Wavelength Fest isn't until February, but their pop up gallery show at Huntclub opens up this weekend. Art, talks, dance parties, and live concerts will continue under February 15. the free Toronto Music Moment panel will be hosted on Sunday (full disclosure, I'll be on that causing trouble).

Class of 2015 (Silver Dollar)
No need to mope around after the NYE fuss is over - live music fans will have more fun launching 2015 with the New Year's Indie Music Honour Roll series at Silver Dollar. On weekends from January 1 - 30 catch seven different line ups including New Fries, Nancy Pants, BB Guns and Bile Sister, and more. Check out our preview here.

Lido Pimienta (January 23, Smiling Buddha)
I'm guessing that soon, catching Tanya Tagaq collaborator Lido Pimienta's explosion of energy, positivity, and capital-L Love at a venue this intimate is going to get harder. If you haven't seen her, do not miss this Buddha show. Ken Park and Carl Didur are also on the bill.

ART

The Unfinished Conversation: Encoding/Decoding (January 24 - May 17, Power Plant)
Power Plant at the Harbourfront comes through with the winter's highbrow exhibition. Best to book solid time with this ultra contemporary show featuring Terry Adkins, John Akomfrah, Sven Augustijnen, Steve McQueen, Shelagh Keeley, and Zineb Sedira, as you likely won't get much out of a pit stop.

Villa Toronto (January 16-23, Union Station)
19 contemporary art galleries have set up ay Union Station for Villa Toronto, a contemporary art festival that's previously been held in Tokyo and Reykjavik. Concerts and other events will run in conjunction with the fest, including "Bouncy Highrise: A performance by Jon Sasaki" at MOCCA. This is your last weekend to check it out. Read more about on and offsite events here, and find our review here.

FILM

Censured in Canada Film Festival (January 24-25, Cinecycle)
Cinecycle is hosting a two-day film festival for works that you likely can't catch any place else: "Canadian-based artists and work marginalized by Canadian festivals and institutions - whether it was due to a lack of "right" credentials / connections; or the work challenges aesthetic / cultural / social norms." See the program for Saturday here and Sunday here.

Video Vengeance (January 25, KITCH Bar)
This free VHS cult screening series is back with Slumber Party Massacre, Rita Mae Brown's feminist spoof on slasher flix. Wear your coat over your PJs ps you'll regret it.

PARTY & DANCE

Art Department (January 23, Coda)
It's not surprising that Art Department are headlining Coda's first anniversary party, especially considering that the duo's Jonny White is also a partner in the club. The last year has seen some of the best DJs in the world rock the venue's powerful sound system, making it a second home for many Toronto dance music fanatics. 10 pm, $30. BB

Off Foundry (Jan 24, 99 Sudbury)
DJ, musician, and film maker Jeff Mills descends from the cosmos to grace us with a three hour set at the inaugral edition of Mansion's Off Foundry series this Saturday. Read our interview with Jeff Mills here. BA

Motown Party on Ice (January 24, Harbourfront Centre)
Toronto's soul party has traveled around the world, and it's back home at the Harbourfront. Sean Caff Steve Rock and DJ Misty will play your favourite motown tracks at the dancefloor / rink.

For more events this weekend click on over to our Events section. Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit it for free using this form.

Contributions by Liora Ipsum, Ben Boles, Derek Flack, Ben Johnson, Brendan Arnott

Photo by Connie Chan in the blogto flickr pool

Things are pretty desperate in Leaf Land right now. The team has lost its last six games, fans have been charged for tossing jerseys on the ice, and Peter Horachek looks like he's aged 10 years since taking over as interim head coach just a few weeks ago. Not to fear, however, because some caring fan has taken the initiative to solicit help for the team on Kijiji.

The following job call appeared on the site yesterday: "We have been shut out in 3 of the past 5 games and have scored only 2 goals in the 5 games total! We are currently looking for anyone who can physically put the puck in the net for us because our players aren't capable of doing that. FYI: you might get struck by a jersey during a game -- Sincerely, The Toronto Maple Leafs."

I've seen funnier spoof ads, but this one sure does capture the exasperation that's so quickly hit Leafs Nation. But, hey, let's look at the bright side: every game lost, we inch closer to the possibility of drafting Connor McDavid.

Iconic Toronto rockers Rush have announced dates for a 2015 tour, which is reported to be the last major live performances the group will play. In honour of the band's 40th anniversary and as a way of saying goodbye (at least to the touring life), Rush will play 34 North American cities this spring and summer, with back to back dates scheduled for June 17 and 19 at the Air Canada Centre.

"These not-to-be-missed concerts will highlight four decades of the band's music," reads a press release from the band, quelling any worries that the shows will focus on more recent releases. "It will most likely be their last major tour of this magnitude."

That leaves the door open for more live performances from Rush, but one suspects that hardcore fans will not want to miss what could be the last chance to see the band in a stadium setting.

Photo from the Rush Facebook page

Photo by Lori Whelan in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Toronto Food Events rounds up the most delicious events, festivals, pop-ups, winemaker dinners, supper clubs and other food related happenings in Toronto this week and next. You can find us here every Friday morning.

THIS WEEK

• The first Chefs for Change Midwinter Feast takes place tonight at Propeller Coffee Roaster (50 Wade Ave.). For those missing out this week, the dinner series curated by chef Chris Brown, returns on Friday, January 30 with chefs Nick Liu (Dailo) and Matty Matheson (Parts & Labour) among the new roster of participating chefs.
• Pay tribute to Robbie Burns on his birthday this Sunday, January 25. See our top 10 picks on where to celebrate over haggis and whisky.

UPCOMING

• Skin + Bones (980 Queen St. East) hosts their own anti-'Licious prix fixe promotion from January 30 to February 12.
• Chef Luca Gatti has put together a prix fixe menu featuring Perigord Truffles for $55 per person.
• First, Anthony Rose wanted y'all to take in dinner and a show, now he wants you to take a day trip. Join Big Crow for its first Full Moon Dinner series at Grange Winery in Prince Edward County. A dinner on Tuesday, February 3 is priced at $60 per person or $90 with cocktail and wine pairings.
• The Forth (629 Danforth Ave.) presents the World of Whisky Lounge on Thursday, February 5. Sample whiskies from around the globe with guided tasting notes and food pairings. General admission is $25 including two food/drink tickets, while additional tickets cost $5 each.
• Due the overwhelming response from itamaes across the city, the Toronto Sushi Festival is upgrading to bigger venue. Taking place from 5pm to 10 on March 5 and 6, at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center (6 Garamond Ct.), expect celebrity chefs Susur Lee and Dennis Tay of Top Chef Canada to be among the participants, as well as live demos, open mic karaoke, door prizes and a full service VIP lounge. Tickets are available now for $32.79 (general admission.

Photo of Skin + Bones by Morris Lum.

Like all good savvy older brothers and sisters, Muchmusic VJs introduced us to bands and artists we had never heard of. We hung out after school, late at night, or on weekends when their on-air revelry and crazed antics made us feel like we were actually a part of something happening. They were our connection to showbiz, proof that meek Canadian kids could crack the big time; rolling with marquee bands in downtown Toronto, living the dream, sorting the wheat from the chaff at a time when 1 album cost about $25. Legends!

Of course, now there are no more VJs on Muchmusic, only reruns of The Cleveland Show and a meaningless brand blander than Pablum. Thank god for YouTube, then, to house warm memories of when Muchmusic was the best ticket in town, a unique and punky Canadian media circus which helped us navigate the '80s, '90s and early 00's.

Muchmusic meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but here are my picks for their top 10 VJs of all time:

J.D Roberts
Patient zero. Along with Jeanne Becker, Roberts carved out what became the template for Much with the incendiary 1970s Citytv series The New Music. When Much launched in 1984, Roberts was there with fantastic 80s Metal glam hair, equally adept at swapping small talk with Billy Joel, playing Metallica videos or jamming on stage with Blues legends like Solomon Burke.

Dan Gallagher
R.I.P. The closest thing Much had to a resident John Belushi, the party never stopped if ardent gooner Gallagher was in the vicinity. Notable for a John Candy like exuberance, anarchical spirit and contagious belly laugh, Gallagher also anchored the station's cult game show Test Pattern, which celebrated its scotch tape and rubber band budget with great aplomb.

Angela Dohrmann
Sultry Angela could always be found stone cold charming in the studio, toying with morons like Vanilla Ice, or dancing up a storm in sweaty night clubs when Much took her out on the Spring Break road tour. Also, the only Much VJ to really graduate to Hollywood, chalking up parts in big '90s shows like Seinfeld (as Donna Chang, naturally) and Star Trek: Voyager.

Michael Williams
Mike Williams was the original eclectic Don, a breezy Metal head (hosting Pepsi Power Hour), soul brother (Soul in the City) and Hip-Hop bona fide (Rap City) with a velvet voice and laid back persona. Dutifully credited as one of the handful of seismic forces that helped Hip-Hop and rap crossover into the mainstream in Canada, Williams was also much more than that. Truth be told, the station was never really the same after he left in 1993.

Simon Evans
The original, and still best, host of The Wedge. Cranky Brit Evans had filled in as host of City Limits after fellow Brit Kim Clark Champniss left, and while his on-air demeanor was at times intense, it suited the genres and bands covered. Evans had an encyclopedic knowledge of music which paired with his moody Northern accent made for great TV. Followed by Sook-Yin Lee, who gently raised the profile of the show.

Erica Ehm
Erica was espousing poppy Girl Power long before the Spice Girls were a glint in some accountant's eye. Her steely confidence, big eyes and anime-ish voice broke a million hearts and helped a generation of Canadian boys through puberty, plus she was never afraid to throw down at the first sign of dick-head diva behaviour on screen.

Hannah Sung
Like a post-modern pop culture maven, Hannah was maybe the best interviewer Much had in their later years. Never patronizing, always fun and perhaps the last VJ who seemed to actually be a huge fan of music rather than some bean counter's idea of what a "quirky" host should be.

George Stroumboulopoulos
What more can be said? Stombo's Much era was a mere dress rehearsal for the epic-ness to follow.

Ed the Sock
Long before Jesse Brown became a fly in the old guard Canadian media's ointment, Ed the Sock was fighting the good fight (the two have in fact become natural allies it seems). Ed's subversive shtick is still misunderstood - often accused of being the very thing it is railing against - but his Titanic eviscerations of fools and bull-shitters were always masterpieces to behold. A true VJ super-star!

Tony "Master T" Young
Master T epitomizes the old-school Much ethos, so much so that his departure from the station in 2001 really was the end of an era. Last summer when the massive round of lay-offs were announced, and the media began to pen Muchmusic's blood and tear stained obituary, it was Master T who emerged with the best suggestion - #GivethembacktoMoses.

Can the last person out there still watching MuchMusic please remember to turn off the TV when they are done.

Who did I miss? Please add your suggestions for the best Muchmusic VJs in the comments section.

Main image George Stroumboulopoulos

Retrontario plumbs the seedy depths of Toronto flea markets, flooded basements, thrift shops and garage sales, mining old VHS and Betamax tapes that less than often contain incredible moments of history that were accidentally recorded but somehow survived the ravages of time. You can find more amazing discoveries at www.retrontario.com.

Everybody loves Kyle Lowry, or at least so it seems after the Toronto Raptors point guard made a late surge in NBA All Star voting to make the starting squad. The last Raptor to be an All Star-starter was Chris Bosh back in 2008. In a sports town that's short on true superstars, it's exciting to see the 28 year old get this level of recognition, even if social media popularity played a role in his selection.

Lowry received Twitter votes from personalities as diverse as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justin Bieber. Too bad the latter botched his endorsement, and ultimately didn't help Lowry at all. Oh, Biebs. That might be a good thing, though -- it's clear that Lowry's vote total of 805,290 has as much to do with his talent and leadership as it does with social media campaigns to get him on the team.

The Leafs might be depressing as hell right now, but the Raptors are playing exciting basketball, led by Kyle Lowry, the fifth member of the team in franchise history to be selected to the All Star team.

Photo via dimemag

Sushi restaurants in Toronto generally shutter no later than 10:30pm, eliminating the opportunity to stuff your face with fresh fish late into the night. Luckily if you know where to look, there's still some decent nigiri to be had after hours, as this list spotlighting places that close no earlier than midnight will prove.

Here are my picks for the top 10 late night sushi restaurants in Toronto.

Nolbu Sushi
Specializing in sushi and Korean food with the odd Chinese dish listed too, the signage outside this Yonge and Sheppard restaurant suggests it's a 24-hour joint, though you'll find that 3am or 4am is usually the last call.

New Generation
A trusty source to get a late night sushi fix, this sushi bar in the Annex is reliably open between noon and 2am daily.

Tsuki Izakaya
Boasting locations in North York and Markham, this pair of sushi establishments are both open week-round until 2am. The menu offers everything you'd expect of a Japanese pub; there's grilled items and fried snacks, along with hearty soups and of course selections from the sushi bar.

Sushi Bar Sushiya and Zakkushi
Sushi Bar Sushiya on Carlton is open until midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 1am Fridays and Saturdays, but operating an hour later still, upstairs neighbour Zakkushi offers some sashimi options until 2am on weekends.

Sushi Moto
This North York sushi spot is open until at least midnight during the week while operating hours extend until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. Find the menu boasting playful maki like The Cowboy featuring sweet potato wrapped in sirloin beef.

Sake Bar Kushi
Find this sake bar on Eglinton Ave. West open on Fridays and Saturdays from 5pm to 1am serving up uni shooters and assorted sushi and sashimi sets.

Sushi on Bloor
Open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, this source for sushi in the Annex offers an extensive menu highlighting sushi pizzas and house specialties like the Saba Roll with marinated mackerel and Japanese basil.

Sushi Xtra
The sushi bar on Queen is home to cheap kimchi salmon rolls and and California rolls topped with smoked salmon, unagi and avocado, all of which is available until midnight on Friday Saturday nights.

Wabora
Located in the Thompson Hotel, this upmarket Japanese restaurant is open until midnight from Thursday to Saturday and the sushi bar will happily oblige orders for sushi boats and specialty rolls until 11:45pm.

Noka
Also located in the Annex, Noka is open until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights though the last call at the sushi bar is 11:30pm.

What did I miss? Let us know your favourite spots for late night sushi in the comments.

Photo of Sushi Moto

Since we're spending half our paycheques on rent, Toronto renters will interested to learn there's a site launching soon that will allow renters to rate their landlords in a way similar to existing sites like couchsurfing.com and Airbnb.

Landlords, the real victims of the landlord/tenant system (if you ask a, uh, landlord about it), can also utilize the site to check up on tenants' histories and dig for dirt. The startup is called R3NTR, and interested parties can sign up now as beta testers before the site's official launch.

While it would take some time, say at least a month, for the shit to pile up high enough to rival the entertainment / nightmare fodder that is Bedbug Registry (from which this Tumblr collects a precious few of the weirdest pages), the claims left on R3NTR may quickly end up in the territory of spiteful libel, and it's hard to say how the site will sift through the real villains from the falsely accused. When the issue is as big as someone's home or property, tensions can bubble over as mortally scalding torrents quickly.

Would you use R3NTR to rate landlords/tenants or look for non-sketch roomies? Will this result in Jerry Springer levels drama for Toronto? Let us know in the comments.