Toronto Life articles from April 2004

Toronto Life archives from April 2004

The million-dollar man.(This City)
April 1, 2004... By the time Conan O'Brien arrived in town, the hype had already reached hysterical proportions. From photo ops to press conferences to cocktail parties, local promoters paraded him about like some prize pony, while fans and media greeted him...

Guardian angel.(Profile)
April 1, 2004... Funny thing is, she has that girlie nurse voice. You know--that professionally happy cadence that's all lilt and chirp. Combined with her pert, blond, pixie-esque demeanour, that voice makes you wonder whether she might not suddenly bustle up...

Idol chatter.(Telling Tales)
April 1, 2004... Among the myriad events planned to celebrate Conan O'Brien's Toronto tour was a cocktail do at C-Lounge, organized by the party wonks at city hall. For this, the swank club had been transformed into a frozen palace, with the works of ice...

Vegas vacation.(Telling Tales)
April 1, 2004... What was Senator restaurant owner and son of Sam (the Record Man) Bobby Sniderman doing in the capital of kitsch this winter? Apparently walking the strip and not sleeping for three days. But before you think bar Heatherington, it turns out...

The Drake's progress.(Telling Tales)
April 1, 2004... The newly renovated and much anticipated Drake Hotel--brainchild of dot-com millionaire Jeff Stober--launched and launched and then launched again mid-February with a series of parties. Assorted media, musicians and ever-cool Queen Streeters...

Village people.(Telling Tales)
April 1, 2004... If a certain gazillionaire's new-found passion for politics reminds you of recent celebrity running south of the border, you're not alone. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Belinda Stronach have much in common. Besides the obvious-that they came into...

Hellfire.(Found)
April 1, 2004... It started on the north side of Wellington Street, not far from where the TD Centre now stands, on the bitterly cold night of April 19, 1904. T. H. Johnson, a watchman fresh on his beat, was rounding the corner at Bay and Wellington when he...

Camera.(This City)
April 1, 2004... There's something about Harry It all began with a 500-square-foot shop on Parliament Street, opened in 1954 by brothers Harry and Lou Rosen. Rack then, the average suit cost $60 and was sometimes sold on a handshake. Half a century later, the...

This issue.
April 1, 2004... IF YOU READ THE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THIS MONTH, you'll notice that our February cover story on SARS, entitled "Coming Soon," caused something of an uproar in the hospitality industry. We received more complaints-accusing us of insensitivity,...

Sick and tired.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... Ever since I moved to the GTA seven years ago, I have been telling people how wonderful Toronto is, with its great shows, restaurants and hotels. But after the media's mishandling of the SARS crisis, convincing people to visit this city has...

Designer genes.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... Since I don't pay much attention to celebrities or TV talent contests, I was unaware of Ben Mulroney until last spring, when I read that he was in Hollywood covering the Academy Awards. Around that time, I learned that Sacha Trudeau was in...

Prints of darkness.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... It is a shame that today's standard four-colour printing process can't present images the way Edward Burtynsky's camera can. To see his prints in person reveals a much richer story. A magazine version of a Burtynsky ["The Eyes of Ed Burtynsky,"...

Oops.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
April 1, 2004... Apologies to Monica Hellstrom, who illustrated "An Agoraphobic's Guide to Toronto" in the March issue. Her name was misspelled in the credit. Apologies also to Joso's restaurant, whose phone number was incorrectly printed in the March...

April at a glance.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Caption: Deborah Dunn's Black-mail sets three hapless dancers in the thick of a detective story. Dishing up gems from his back catalogue, Burt Bacharach promises not to walk on by. Planist Louis Lortie...

Theatre.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... OPENINGS Beaux Gestes and Beautiful Deeds. The musical's bilingual moniker signals this drama's at tempt to conjure up the two solitudes. Written by singer-songwriter Marie Lynn Hammond, who plays herself, it focuses on her...

Anger management.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... Since their Influential 1983 debut, Kill 'Em All, Metallica's thrash anthems have provided a refuge for diffident suburban boys. In high school, wearing a Metallica T-shirt was a badge of empowerment: with long hair and an even longer list of...

It's my party.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... Pre-soiree melancholy, with its attendant worries about social gaffes, potential snubs and foolish behaviour, is at the heart of Sean Yelland's angst-ridden The Isolationist, part of a themed show called Life of the Party. Yelland's reluctant...

Classical music.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... ORCHESTRAL Esprit Orchestra, As part of their Now Wave Festival--four days showcasing rising-star per formers--two Esprit favourites, Rose Bolton and Andre Ristic, present new commissioned works. As well, Christien Ledroit's Streamlined, a...

Dance.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... Collaborations: A Chamber Arts Experience. Deeply moved by the impact of SARS, artistic director Valerie Kuinka has built this program of dance, music and art around the themes of suffering, fear and the struggle for renewal. The two big draws...

Industrial revolution.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... A contender for the most influential band of our time, Kraftwerk laid down the blueprint for the techno-rave explosion, inspiring everyone from David Bowie to Radiohead. Such is the group's all-encompassing originality that the records it made...

Art.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... FREE Dana Velan. Her mural-size drawings feature dramatic hailstorms of earthy oil marks so thick that they partially emboss the expanses of frosted Mylar on which they are drawn. Velan's poetic renderings of mounds of ashes or roses, hardened...

Nightlife.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... CONCERTS Burt Bacharach. The reigning king of "that which seemed kitsch is art again," Bacharach has an extraordinary body of work. Selections from his canon (for starters, "Walk on By," "I Say a Little Prayer" and "Raindrops Keep Falling...

The chameleon.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... When Miles Davis joined the great big band in the sky in 1991, only one musician was fit to take up his multicoloured mantle. Davis's former keyboardist, Herbie Hancock, is as mercurial as his mentor. Who else could have recorded soundtracks to...

Jazz and standards.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... CONCERTS Herbie Hancock Trio. Pianist Hancock has had a rare impact on jazz, whether maintaining modernist traditions or extending himself into the parallel realms of R&B and hip hop. His influence on the repertoire has been tremendous,...

Kids' events.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... Caillou's Big Party. Hosting a do is a major undertaking, but Caillou is up to the challenge. After all, a party promises plenty of opportunity for adventure, especially for a wide-eyed four-year-old and pals like sister Rosie, Gilbert the cat...

Diversions.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... Cinefranco boasts the best of contemporary French-language cinema with new films from such name directors as Tonie Marshall, Claude Miller, Patrice Chereau, Pierre Jolivet and Raoul Ruiz. Marshall, who won a Cesar for Venus Beaute in 2000,...

The it spot.(This Month)
April 1, 2004... Cocktail Molotov, 928 Dundas St. W., 416-603-6691 WHERE: In place of a recherche lamp shop (but under the same name), this slender taproom keeps to the New Dundas Rule: quiet signage, stripped-down decor, zero DJ worship. WHAT: If the...

Mature subject matter.(Politics)
April 1, 2004... What's a left-leaning mayor doing with a right-wing budget chief? Despite their political differences--where they stand on the fixed link, to name a biggie--David Miller and David Soknacki seem thoroughly compatible. Even in the midst of a...

Boy meets Globe.(Memoir)
April 1, 2004... A few weeks before Christmas, I got fired. There wasn't enough space for my column, said the editor. It was but one episode in a long and tortuous relationship with The Globe and Mail, starting with my first job, a paper route, in the spring of...

Calendar.(Advertising & Promotion Events & Opportunities)(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... Get the inside scoop on this month's hottest events and promotions from the following advertisers: CANADA LIFE CN TOWER CLIMB Step up to help save the world's wildlife and be part of Canada's conservation solution! Join our annual...

Bar mitzvah king.(Society)
April 1, 2004... He runs a successful event-planning company, two swank party venues and a popular downtown bar. But in Forest Hill, North York and the rest of ,Jewish Toronto, Corey Mandell is better known as the DJ who makes a fortune driving 13-year-olds...

The player: after two decades hustling in municipal politics, he has finally made it to center stage. Jack Layton--media magnet, rabble-rouser and the prickliest thorn in the prime minister's side.
April 1, 2004... DURING THE MOST IMPORTANT HOUR of any day in the pageant of Canadian federal politics, Jack Layton sits in a long stone room watching television. Without a seat in Parliament--until and unless he manages to unseat Liberal Dennis Mills in the...

Needle junkies.(Rituals)
April 1, 2004... It's approaching 7:30 on a wind-gulped evening, the sort when scarves fly wildly in damp gusts--ideal knitting conditions. Clutches of giggling women dash into the Metro Central Y, their tidy hairdos poking out from woollen tuques. Clipping...

Triumph of the meal: the top 10 restaurants, plus dozens of close contenders.
April 1, 2004... Those who judge ice skating have recently changed their methods, ignoring past glories and hard-earned reputation, rewarding only the merit of the moment. Everybody applauded. Oddly enough, that has always been the system behind choosing my...

Chop shop.(Icons)
April 1, 2004... I didn't even know we were neighbours until that warm March day when I rushed out of my new condo at King and Bathurst to inhale the spring bouquet. It hit me like a board in the face, a stench so pervasive (north to College, east to Spadina,...

The killer next door.
April 1, 2004... HIS FRIENDS KNEW HIM AS A DEVOTED HUSBAND AND FATHER. BUT AT NIGHT, AFTER PUTTING HIS THREE YOUNG KIDS TO BED, HE'D ROAM THE SLEEPY STREETS OF NORTH YORK, PEERING INTO HOUSES UNTIL HE SPOTTED A WOMAN ALONE. THEN HE'D DO THE UNTHINKABLE....

Ticket to ride.(Urban legends and a big dipper)
April 1, 2004... Just as Lonely Planet guides are essential to the Birkenstock-sporting hostel hopper, these Nora Bene books target globetrotters who gawk at landmarks through Gucci shades. The upmarket British volumes--produced by an anonymous cast of...

Mellow yellow.(Urban legends and a big dipper)
April 1, 2004... Most makers of citrus-flavoured oils acid the fruit as an afterthought. The creators of O Olive Oil, however; crush ripe California mission olives together with sweet, orangey meyer lemons, resulting in a taste that is as fresh and sun splashed...

Glow job.(Urban legends and a big dipper)
April 1, 2004... When designer Alex Ogus moved into his downtown loft, he couldn't find alight fixture he admired enough to brighten his suave digs, so he engineered one. Uplit like the Empire State Building to cast a flattering glow, the Oqus Table Lamp is as...

Sweat equity.(Urban legends and a big dipper)
April 1, 2004... Fans of Space FB, the creation of Montreal designer Francois Beauregard, used to drive to Boulevard Saint Laurent for their sassy loungewear fix. Now there's a luminous Toronto outpost, which beckons with more sugary colour than a gelato...

This old thing?(Urban legends and a big dipper)
April 1, 2004... Every Hermes sack is a potential family heirloom--the kind of thing you will to your favourite child, causing sibling discord. This edition, from the 1837 royal harness maker, is no exception. Dubbed the Picotin (French for "horse's oats") and...

The party line: Shawn Hewson and Ruth Promislow have translated their fast and fabulous lifestyle into a clothing label. Bustle, heading into its third season, is dead serious about whimsy.(Fashion)
April 1, 2004... FABULOUS PEOPLE. PERHAPS YOU KNOW some. Perhaps you are one. Or maybe once or twice you flitted into their scene and picked up a trick or two. They're that striking crowd who show up in all the right places wearing all the right things, as much...

Tasting notes.(Drink)
April 1, 2004... Bay watch Value isn't the first word to spring to mind when discussing California wines. Prices are finally starting to soften, thanks to a rallying Canadian dollar and a production glut. Indeed, industry sources are predicting a 10 to 15 per...

Nicholas Goldschmidt: December 6, 1908-February 9, 2004.(The End)
April 1, 2004... I thought of Niki recently when I took my kids to the Hockey Hail of Fame. The players, I told them, are important, but it was the early coaches who found the raw recruits and nurtured their talents. With financial backers, they took the game...