In The News

It's August and Toronto's in the international news—it must be about TIFF. But not always. Sometimes we get small-screen coverage since TV gets made here as well as movie deals.  The new BBC America series Copper, set in 1860s New York City, is being shot here.
 
"From outside, a war-torn looking warehouse located on the outskirts of Toronto hardly looks special at all," writes Bryan Cairns in the Huffington Post. "But once you step inside, you can see that BBC America has obviously gone to great lengths to recreate 1860s New York City for its period drama, Copper. The hard cement floors have been transformed into a dirty cobblestone road. A hardware store, a tavern with a freestanding bar and the 6th Precinct Metropolitan Police Station are just a few of the buildings that crowd the street. Make a sharp right and you're into a more affluent district of large houses and mansions."
 
In the New York Times, Sam Roberts compares the production to the filming of Martin Scorceses' film Gangs of New York.
 
"Copper begins a year after the 1863 Draft Riots in New York, where Gangs left off. Even before a single line is spoken, the contrast between the television series and the film is striking."
 
"There is no sky in the Five Points of Copper. If the cramped images are an imperative of lower-budget television (a more modest indoor set was built in a 212,500-square-foot former auto parts plant in Toronto), they also infuse the series with an unsettling sepia claustrophobia or, as Tom Fontana, one of its creators, prefers, 'intimacy.'"
 
Despite the effectiveness of the Toronto set, Tom Fontana was obviously not thrilled about trading in New York for Toronto.
 
"Listen, I wish we could have shot in New York," he tells Randee Dawn in Variety, "but we had 12 budgets—one for Dublin, one for Detroit, one for New York. The studio we're doing it with is a Canadian company (Cineflix Prods.) and they wanted to shoot it in Toronto. There was space there to build the entire Five Points, and that became the reality of the situation. Would I have preferred to shoot it around or in New York City? Yes. But what are you going to do?"
 
Read the full stories here and here and here
Original sources: Huffington Post, New York Times & Variety

One of Toronto's most famous citizens talks about mentoring a British author in the UK's Telegraph newspaper this week.
 
"The award-winning novelists Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman are sitting at a table in a busy Toronto café, talking about newts, trilobites and dirndls," writes Jane Shilling. "Atwood is explaining that she used to make her own clothes and once block-printed some skirt lengths with newts and trilobites before making them into dirndls."
 
"'I still have the blocks,' she says. 'I could run up a couple for you girls.'"
 
We are gathered in this café to talk about writing: specifically the new literary relationship between Atwood and Alderman, who have just embarked on a year-long collaboration as mentor and protégée."
…
"The Rolex mentorship programme, which was launched in June 2002, aims to bring together rising stars with distinguished artists already established in their fields of dance, film, music, theatre, the visual arts and literature."
 
"'They jumped me in a bar at BookExpo America,' says Atwood, on how she was persuaded to take part.' I said, "Oh no, I don't think so." But they laid out what an excellent thing this was, and didn't quite say, "Don't you want to pass something on before you croak?" but almost made you feel that if you didn't do it, these young people would be deprived.'"
 
Read the full story here
Original source: The Telegraph

Writing in the Melbourne Herald Sun, Mercedes Maguire seems all agog at the glamour of Yorkville—and TIFF wasn't even happening during her visit.

"The Park Hyatt Hotel is in the heart of Yorkville, Toronto's answer to Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive. Nearby, a sign out the front of the Church of the Redeemer reads: 'Happy are those who see beauty in modest spots.' There are few places less modest than Yorkville, where you see Maseratis pulled up alongside stretch limos and well-heeled women walking their pampered pooches along the footpath."
 
"If there was a Real Housewives franchise made in Toronto, these are the streets where it would be filmed."
 
"You can stand on the corner of Bloor and Yonge streets and catch a dozen top-end shopfronts with a quick turn of the head—Max Mara, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Hermes, Gucci—the list goes on. embracing my new persona, I meet my guide Elaine for a tour of this Toronto top end. Elaine is a native Torontonian and lives in Yorkville—and she's no imposter. She's dressed in chic black from head to toe and the retailers of this square mile know her by name and welcome her warmly into their stores."
 
Read the full story here
Original source: Herald Sun

Around the world, Canada is known for its size, its relatively unspoiled nature, its mining companies, its people's obsession with hockey and, increasingly, its powerful pension funds.
 
In a recent piece in the UK's The Telegraph newspaper, business editor Richard Blackden looks at how much of the UK's infrastructure is owned by Canadian pension plans.
 
"In less than ten years, a handful of the country's biggest funds have bought outright or own stakes in some of the UK's most prized infrastructure. That includes High Speed One, the railway line that connects London to the Channel Tunnel; Scotia, Scotland's biggest gas network; the ports of Southampton and Grimsby; Birmingham and Bristol airports and Camelot, the operator of the national lottery."
 
Blackden characterizes the growth of the funds as a sign of Canada's economic strength through the global financial crises.
 
"Having begun investing in infrastructure, property and private equity before the crash, their willingness to invest over a horizon measured in decades, rather than years, has now left them sought after by governments looking to overhaul decaying infrastructure and private equity companies hunting partners for deals."
 
"'The Canadian phenomema is something that has been underway for quite a while,' says Michael Latimer, chief investment officer at OMERS, which invests 35bn pounds [CDN$54.5 billion] of assets on behalf of pensioners in Ontario. 'But now that the quantum of investments have built up, that creates a level of recognition.'"
 
"The confidence that brings is evident on a visit to some of their offices in Toronto from where they size up potential opportunities. Britain was the first country most of them bought into outside North America, and most of the funds have more money invested there than anywhere else other than Canada and the US. Four years on from the financial crisis, it remains attractive."
 
Read the full story here
Original source: The Telegraph

As Holmes himself said: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

And the truth of the matter is, that East York's Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore has made it onto a list of top niche bookstores around the world.
 
"This North Toronto bookshop—named, of course, for everyone’s favorite mastermind, Sherlock Holmes—is a haven for mystery lovers of all kinds," writes Flavorwire.com "Often patrolled by animals (that's Sir Percival above), the shop is cozy and the proprietors are welcoming and extremely knowledgable. They even have a brick from the original 221B Baker Street!"
 
The store is in good company. Also on the list are Bookmarks, a radical socialist bookshop in London, Librairie des Femmes in Paris and Libreria il Mare, dedicated to books about water, in Rome.
 
Read the full story here
Original source: Flavorwire.com

Lindsay Zier-Vogel's Love Lettering Project, dedicated to showing Toronto some love, has been getting some love of its own lately.

Coverage in The Star, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Life and various arms of the CBC have celebrated the project's whimsical positivity.
 
"Under the cloak of anonymity, local artist and writer Lindsay Zier-Vogel has thought about small things she loves about Toronto, written them down on paper, put the notes in air mail envelopes and distributed them throughout the city for strangers for the past eight years," writes Victoria DiPlacido in Toronto Life. "The much-loved Love Lettering Project has expanded to Halifax, New York and several other metropolises, but in Toronto, it has mostly been a one-woman show—until this summer."
 
Over at The Star, writer Laura Kane introduces us to one of the newly recruited scribes.
 
"Susan Wright pauses outside the Love Lettering booth at the Junction Flea Market, pen in hand."
 
"The last time she wrote a love letter, she never sent it."
 
"'It was five years ago, to a boy I was absolutely crazy about,' she says. After pouring her heart out, she lost her nerve—but still has it tucked away in a drawer somewhere."
 
"This time, her letter is addressed to Toronto, not to a lover."
 
Read the full stories here and here
Original sources: Toronto Life & The Toronto Star

Toronto-born King City resident Rosie MacLennan was the first Canadian to win gold at the 2012 Olympics in London. Her sport? The trampoline.
 
"Ranked fourth heading into the finals, the 23-year-old Torontonian had delivered a flawless routine, twisting and tumbling through the humid air on her way to a score of 57.305, the highest of her career," writes Jonathon Gatehouse on the Maclean's website. "The six combined elements were more difficult than anything attempted by her competitors, but she knew the real difference would be the kind of execution marks the judges awarded the three women still to perform."
….
"MacLennan, who had eight family members in the audience—her parents Jane and John, brothers Mike and Matt, sister Kate, two aunts, and a sister-in-law—plus a couple of friends, all of them packed into a single flat, this week, sleeping on the floor, was hoping for a family celebration. And finally free of years of preparation, maybe some chocolate."
 
"'It hasn't quite hit me yet,' she said glancing down and laying her fingers on the glittering gold. 'I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.'"
 
Read the full story here
Original source: Maclean's

In a story reported in the Chinese- and English language version of the China Daily news service, the work-in-progress Rouge Valley Urban Park gets some kudos, as does the rest of Canada's national park system. The $143.7-million Rouge Valley project will create Canada's first urban park over the next decade.
 
"Ed Jager, director of visitor experience of Parks Canada, said land acquisition was just a start of the project and once completed, it would be 15 times larger than New York City's Central Park."
 
"Rouge Park borders cities of Toronto and Markham to the west and Pickering to the east and will extend as far south as the Lake Ontario shoreline."
 
"'That's just an incredible opportunity for people in Toronto, as about 20 per cent of Canada's population will now live within a bus or train ride of a national park,' said Jager."
 
"Rouge Park will be one of the smallest in Parks Canada that covers about 300,000 square kilometres of land, and an additional 14,856 square kilometers of marine conservation areas on Canada's three coasts. While Ontario's Georgian Bay Islands National Park is the smallest in the system at 14 square kilometres, the largest, Wood Buffalo, straddles northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, over 40,000 square kilometres in all, which is bigger than Switzerland."
 
Read the full story here
Original source: China Daily
 

A reporter for the Times of Malta (we couldn't find her name on the webpage) takes her kids to Toronto for a very different visit than the one she had when she first came to the city at age 18.
 
"Needless to say, much of the trip was spent admiring the inside of bars and clubs with hungover afternoons reserved for the city's more cerebral museums or quirky flea markets. That trip, I'm afraid, is another story and possibly not one for a family newspaper."
 
"Fast forward a substantial number of years and I land in a rather chilly Toronto to visit my husband's relatives with my husband and a severely jetlagged toddler in tow…. It was time to explore the city with the fresh (or is that bloodshot and bleary) eyes of a parent."
 
"First stop was the streetcar. Yes, to an under-five, humble public transport can be a source of much wonder. These trams are not museum pieces, but form the backbone of the downtown transport system. Their novelty value was not lost on our offspring, who pressed his nose to the window and watched the inner city go by as we tried to get our bearings."
 
Visits to the Ontario Science Centre and the Toronto Zoo were followed by a walk in Tommy Thompson Park.
 
"The park had a fairly inauspicious start, beginning as a breakwater and becoming a dumping ground for building rubble, but various action groups have managed to utterly transform it into a fabulous wilderness…. As soon as we left the car and walked the long gravel track into the forest, the traffic, sidewalks, shops and restaurants of the inner city faded gently to background noise."
 
Read the full story here 
Original source: The Times of Malta

In a summer of flattering travel articles about Toronto, the New York Times offers up perhaps the most blush-inducing one yet in a "36 Hours In Toronto" feature.
 
"While so many cities lament the global economic crisis and the dulling effects of globalization, boutiques and restaurants seem to open every week in Toronto, and immigrant neighborhoods still feel linguistically, gastronomically, gloriously, distinct. The cultural diversity and urbanity seem limitless. But it's hardly an urban jungle. Toronto is filled with lush, insistent greenery and an abundance of parks."
 
Recommendations focus on Kensington, Queen West, Dundas West—and especially Ossington.
 
"Ossington Street and its environs offer amazing trawling. I Miss You (63 Ossington Avenue; 416-916-7021) has 1980s Chanel gowns (tags on!) for 800 dollars, Peggy Olson-esque late-1950s smart-silk dresses (85 dollars), bags of all shapes and prices, and more."
 
Read the full story here
Original source: New York Times

The 2012 lineup for the Toronto International Film Festival has set off the buzz heard 'round the world. The film world, at least.
 
Opening film Looper, a time-travel action film directed by Rian Johnson and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, got the most coverage, but there's something for everybody.
 
"Eleven world premieres in the gala section include those for Ben Affleck's highly anticipated Iran hostage crisis drama Argo, starring the director himself alongside Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Kyle Chandler," writes the UK's Guardian newspaper, "and Mike Newell's take on Great Expectations, starring Jeremy Irvine, Holliday Granger, Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham. Oscar-nominated Canadian film-maker Deepa Mehta adapts Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, while David O Russell presents the fractured family story Silver Linings Playbook, starring Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto will show the Sarajevo-set drama Twice Born, starring Penelope Cruz and Emile Hirsch.
 
In India, the talk is of the comeback of famed actress Sridevi in English Vinglish, which has its gala opening in Toronto. Sridevi stopped making films in the 1990s.
 
"The film also marks the directorial debut of Gauri Shinde, filmmaker R. Balki's wife," writes The Times of India. "The film is going to be premiered on September 14. The entire team will be traveling for the premiere including Gauri, Balki, Sridevi, actor Adil Hussain and French actor Mahdi Nebbou who plays an important part in the film."
 
"This is a great achievement for English Vinglish as the organizing committee of Toronto International Film Festival had taken a stand on never premiering a Bollywood movie again following their miffed experience with the Mausam debacle. English Vinglish, however, has managed to make this special exception as the organizing members saw portions of the film and were really impressed with the content and decided to change their mind."
 
Read the full stories here and here and here and here
Original sources: The Guardian, The Times of India, Wall Street Journal & Entertainment Weekly

Also in The Guardian last week is a spotlight on co-operatives in Canada, coming out of a June conference in Montreal.
 
"Canada's lively co-operative sector, brought together at a conference held at the end of last month in Montreal, is coming to terms with both bad news and good."
 
"As in the UK, however, the co-operative movement is a broad one. Walkers, climbers and other lovers of the outdoors have their own consumer-owned retail supplier in the very successful Mountain Equipment Co-operative. Worker-owned co-operatives in Canada include a familiar mix, including graphic designers, organic food shops, bicycle co-operatives and the fair trade importer La Siembra, as well as the rather less familiar: another member of the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation is (in their own words) 'the planet's only co-operative sex store,' Toronto-based Come as You Are. This business is currently advertising a somewhat unlikely tie-up with a local organic vegetable co-op."
 
Read the full story here
 Original source: The Guardian

The latest online issue of Retail Week takes a peek inside the Maple Leaf Gardens Loblaws, which opened late last year.
 
"Housed on the ground floor of a former ice hockey stadium in a commercial district of Canada's business capital, this is a supermarket that is an experience in its own right. Whether it's the brightly coloured floors, the outsize departmental graphics that take up whole walls, or the decision to light specific areas but keep ambient light levels low, this is a store that has little truck with supermarket norms and is about far more than the mundane acquisition of comestibles."
 
"With departments that are signposted with retro, stencil-like fonts and a real emphasis on abundance and freshness, this Loblaws is about the spectacle of food and is the sort of place you'd probably take a wander around just to admire the way in which things have been organised."
 
Read the full story here
Original source: Retail Week

In a roundup by Huffington Post blogger Susanna Murley of impressive urban green initiatives, Toronto's deep lake water cooling system made the list of admirable if unglamorous projects.
 
"This system is able to take drinking water from Lake Ontario and cool office towers, replacing conventional air conditioning. According to Toronto's website, the system reduced one building's energy use by 3 million kwh per year," writes Murley.
 
Other projects included in her list were the Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas; Onondaga Lake Cleanup in Syracuse, New York; Rainwater Collection Systems in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Mariner's Safeco Stadium in Seattle, Washington.
 
Read the full story here
Original source: Huffington Post

Although Sugar Beach has become Toronto's flashiest downtown beach, it was the slightly older HTO, between Lower Spadina and Rees Street, that caught the attention of Atlantic Cities writer Henry Grabar this month. Looking at urban beaches around the world—places where you can party like Copacabana even if there's no swimmable water in sight—Grabar cited Toronto's HT0, opened in 2007, as noteworthy.
 
"Toronto's urban beach is daringly open year-round; the design, with its trademark yellow parasols, was inspired by the Georges Seurat painting  'Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte.' Its success inspired a sister urban beach to the east, Sugar Beach, completed in 2010. But sandwiched between an expressway, an airport and a ferry line, HTO puts the urban in urban beach. And there's no swimming allowed."
 
Read the full story here
Original source: The Atlantic Cities