Hi everyone,

Local artist Paul Brandejs is holding a showing at Gallery 1313 from February 6 to 11.

Doors open at 7pm until 9pm. Opening night is Thursday, February 8 if you want to meet Paul in person.

Gallery 1313 is located at 1313a Queen Street West, between Dufferin and Lansdowne. Tel: 416-536-6778

Thanks,
Kereena

So things have been very quiet around here lately. Mostly my own fault for being busy this past year.

I am planning to revamp the entire site shortly.

This is simply a head up.

Cheers
Rannie

Hello to whoever still reads this site. I announced this on the GTA bloggers mailing list, which is probably more effective, but I thought I'd blog it somewhere as well.

Where?
Tuesday, October 31st
8:00 PM - ??
Rivoli, upstairs at the pool hall
(Rivoli is on Queen Street, just east of Spadina, north side of the street.)

What?
GTAB Halloween pool!!

How?
In your Halloween costume, duh!

Who?
YOU!! But please RSVP (eva at easternblot dot net) because at a certain number of people I'd feel obliged to call the Riv ahead of time. We're at 4 people right now, which won't yet scare them. I will be there, and Maria, and the Ice Queen, so you know it will be fun!

Why?
Because it's Halloween, and because the only other thing to do that night is lure children to your house with candy, or dress your own kids up funny and teach them to take sweets from strangers. You don't want that - you want to play pool, in costume, with bloggers!!

The Stone's Place show was really great. We had a lot of fun playing with our friends. MJ Cyr put on a killer opening set. And Code Revivial kept the place rocking until close. Great show. And if you missed it don't sweat it. You can catch The Apollo Effect at Club 279 above The Hard Rock Cafe at 279 Yonge Street on Friday, October 13th. If you're coming up drop us a note and make sure you say hi. We love hanging out with everyone at the shows. More details on the website. Hope to see you there.

The Apollo Effect will be at Stone's Place on Thursday, September 28th saying so long to summer with their friends MJ Cyr and Code Revival. If you haven't been to Stone's Place before it's this cool little retrofitted house way over on Queen West that's got a super cool vibe to it. Very relaxed. Come out. Have some drinks with us and enjoy the show. MJ starts the night around 9:00 pm and cover is only $5 at the door.

Toronto based indie rock band, The Apollo Effect, will be playing Lee's Palace tonight. Show starts at 9:00 pm sharp. Cover is a measly $5 at the door. You can check out their new album here.

Oh, GTABloggers, we have got to be all over this one. Waking City is a live action puzzle solving alternate reality game that is taking place over two weeks from September 16-28. It will be played evenings and weekends in teams of 4-7 players, and the cost is $27.60 per person. Sounds intriguing to me!

Claim it - Read it - Blog it.

Coming out of BookExpo Canada this year, I got a number of titles which I probably won't read. So, since the purpose of the free books at BookExpo is to get some Word of Mouth going, I have decided to give these books to bloggers who will read and comment on them.

The list of available books is at www.unsweetened.ca. If you see one you want, leave a comment and I'll get it sent to you.

So back in April, I was approached by this marketing firm who specializes in seeding products into the marketplace for word of mouth reviews. They called me and asked several question about my technology buying, especially smaller gadgets like cellphones. I know that they also called several other bloggers in the GTA as well. The other day, I was finally contacted again as they are one step closer in their search for bloggers.

Basically they want to give out cellphones to a number of bloggers in both Toronto and Vancouver. The phones are equipped with a camera and video capturing capabilities. And all they expect is that you actually use their product to create content for your site.

They are currently looking for candidates and thought I would help out the process, by passing along the info to the community at large.

This is their basic criteria list. If your site fits and you are interested in the program, drop me a line at photojunkieATgmailDOTcom. I will then pass your info to the company in question. Please note that fitting the criteria doesn't automatically get you the phone, there will still be more screening invloved to see if you are the right fit. That being said, I know that they have shipped a phone to an eligible blogger and it was received yesterday.

- Lives in Toronto or Vancouver
- Hosts a popular blog with 400+ hits a day
- A current Rogers cell phone subscriber
- Between the ages of 22-35
- Keeps his/ her blog updated on a regular basis with pictures and video
- Very socially active

On Saturday July 8th 2006, music fans from all walks of life will gather at the Kool Haus, 132 Queen’s Quay East, to experience one of the greatest crooners of our time…

Your Outlet To Entertainment (Y.O.T.E) Inc., proudly presents the internationally renowned, reggae, super-star, MAXI PRIEST - live in concert (with his band) for one night only!

Maxi’s sound has been described as “rooted in island rhythms, but laden with pop, soul, rap, disco and DJ sounds interwoven into a clever mélange of aural pleasure”.

Simply put, his music is universal and crosses every ‘genre’ and boundary from rock to country, jazz to reggae and everything in-between. With a career spanning over two decades, countless live performances world-wide, and 11 albums, Maxi Priest has unleashed a one-world music that heals, rejuvenates and uplifts.

Reportedly, he is one of the most successful solo-reggae artist in the world. Hear Maxi Priest’s mellifluous sounds on Saturday, July 8th @ the Kool Haus, 132 Queen’s Quay East. Also performing will be two-time JUNO award winner, Blessed alongside veteran Anthony Malvo.

Show time is 10PM, Door open at 9:00. Tickets are $35 in advance and on sale now through ticketmaster - 416.870.8000 or www.ticketmaster.ca and leading Caribbean outlets.

For more information call 416.316.8370

Doors Open Toronto will take place the weekend of May 27 and 28 all around town. I will be volunteering on Sunday be at One King West, The Dominion Bank Building, from 1 to 4 PM.
Some people have been asking me what buildings may be worth visiting and what route to plan for their tours. Based on nothing but my downtown experience and the proximity of these buildings, I have designed a route of interesting buildings to be visited:
Start at the corner of Yonge and College for The Carlu (444 Yonge St., not open on Saturday).
Walk east and turn north on Jarvis for Gooderham House (504 Jarvis)
Walk south to the National Ballet School (400 Jarvis)
Walk one block west to Church, between Shuter and Queen for the JAZZ residences on Church (167 Church St.)
Walk further west and south to Mackenzie House (82 Bond St.) and then continue on Bond St. to St. Michael's Cathedral (65 Bond St., not open on Saturday). Then, to complete your Church viewing you can go to the Cathedral Church of St. James (65 Church St.).
If you keep walking down Church, you'll come to my favourite place in the whole world, the Flatiron Building (49 Wellington St. East, not open on Sunday).
You can walk a bit more to the west and north and say hi to me at One King West, the Dominion Bank Building (I'll be there Sunday from 1 to 4).

Take a break, because this is just half of the route I'm proposing (you can probably go to one of my favourite Starbucks in town, I call it "the Starbucks with the good looking guys", it's on the northwest corner of King and Yonge).

Walk west on King to Commerce Court North (25 King St. west) and then turn south on Bay to the Design Exchange (234 Bay St), then back north on Bay to the Canada Permanent Building (320 Bay St). If you keep walking north on Bay, you'll run into Old City Hall (60 Queen St. West) and then City Hall (northwest corner of Queen and Bay across the street from Old City Hall).
Next door just west on Queen you'll find Osgoode Hall (130 Queen St west), this is the very first building I went to for Doors Open Toronto four years ago. It is beautiful and really interesting (did you know that the gate doors are that shape so that they would prevent cows (yes, cows!) for coming close to the building?). Across University Avenue, still on Queen St., you can go to Campbell House (150 Queen St. west). Then a bit north on University Avenue you can find the Canada Life building (330 University Av.), famous for its weather telling needle on the top.
Then walk back to Queen St. and turn right on Mc Caul for the Ontario College of Art and Design (100 McCaul St). Finally, walk west and south to the southeast corner of Richmond and Spadina on 401 Richmond Street West, this is where I take my flamenco class every Tuesday!

Have a great weekend and enjoys the fabulous free buildings to see for Doors Open Toronto weekend!

Miserable long weekend weather forecast got you down? Tired of huddling out of the rain in a leaky cottage? No need to worry! The Apollo Effect is here to brighten your weekend. The band is hosting a huge long weekend party at Crowbar in Toronto on Saturday, May 20 2006.

The night will kick off around 9:00 pm with DJ Kati spinning her amazing mix of international dub and house. At 10:00 pm Eighty Eight will take the stage to move you with their focused, groove-driven rock. And at 11:00 pm The Apollo Effect will step up and keep the party going well into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

What's the best part about a long weekend? You can party 'til the sun comes up on Sunday morning!

For more information and directions to Crowbar check out the Live section of the website. See you there!

In the number of years I have run this site, I have only had to remove one other post, because it was too personal and had no relavance to the local blogging community. I have nothing against freedom of speech, but this site was never meant to be a political podium for people to rant about the achievements or failings of the government especially when based on opinion.

I know I may get some slack on this issue, but if you want to write about politics or other personal issues, please use your own blog as your forum.

Cheers
Rannie

Above photo provided by Matt O'Sullivan

TO photobloggers seem to be very busy this month. Tomorrow night, four high profiled photobloggers will be presenting their images at Harbourfront centre in a show called Photogrammetry. The ever changing show was produced in association with Spacing magazine and is also a part of Digifest 2006.

Participating in the exhibition are
Davin Risk > lowresolution.com
Gayla Trail > makinghappy.com
Matt O'Sullivan > thenarrative.net
Sam Javanrouh > dailydoseofimagery.com

When: May 13-July 9 (Opening May 12, 7-9pm)
Where: Service Canada building at Harbourfront Centre.

Hey everyone! I've just launced a new site called Machine Gum that features a series of silly comics by yours truly! It'll be updated semi-regularly, and even has an RSS feed so you'll have to excuse not stay up-to-date! Cheers!

TORONTO SQUARED
Photography by RANNIE TURINGAN
Le Petit Déjeuner
191 King Street East.
April 29th - June 6th

OPENING Saturday April 29, 2006
4:30 - 7:30PM

Part of the CONTACT Photography Festival

Got a decent video camera and know how to use it? Do you support the CBC and want to give it a bit of a prodding to do better? Well, I want to shoot an under-five-minute video in furtherance of improved and consistent captioning on CBC networks, and I need help from – what is the word? – a local GTAVlogger. Full credit given, of course.

The tenth annual Contact Photo Festival is just around the corner and I thought I would take a minute to invite any and all Toronto bloggers/photobloggers to come down and meet the DK Photogroup at our opening May 3rd at Steamwhistle Brewery.

For more info, click here. Hope to see you all there!

O.K., so he was annoying...all the more reason to join The Canadian Tire Guy Fan Club!

Why start a fan club for TCTG? Because I was bored...and he needs the love. Not only was he voted The Most Annoying Canadian, he's been fired. You have to admit, he's going to need a bit of cheering up...more than that wife of his will give him. "Lost your job? You should try this checkout-clerk job application that I picked up at Canadian Tire."

This is just a heads up, next week my friend Matt Mullenweg the founder of WordPress will be in Toronto for the iSummit conference.

I'll be throwing a GTAbloggers get together in his honour on Thursday, March 30th at 7PM. Location is still being confirmed, but mark it down in your calendar.

UPDATE: The meetup will be at the second floor of Pauper Pub on Bloor, just East of Bathurst. ( 539 Bloor W.)


Please comment below if you think you can make it.