Toronto Life articles from July 2000

Toronto Life archives from July 2000

Ruff's stuff.
July 1, 2000... If Stevie Nicks had you over for herbal tea, her living room would look like this: candles twinkling, red velvet chaise longue cushions plumped and butt-ready, throw rugs thrown just so. Alas, the bewitching lair is merely a sound stage in the...

Stocked market.
July 1, 2000... From four in the morning until early afternoon, in a 42-acre U-shaped stretch of Tarmac off the 0ueensway called the Ontario Food Terminal, denim-draped men with sun-crinkled skin and whiskered faces backslap each other, yell, whistle and cuss....

This issue (the judges and winners of the National Magazine Awards Foundation).
July 1, 2000... ONE OF THE TASKS PERFORMED BY THE VOLUNTEERS WHO run the National Magazine Awards Foundation is recruiting judges. It isn't easy. You're asking someone to do a lot of work without remuneration, and the someone in question is usually a busy...

Unlazy Susan (Coyne - co-founder of the Soulpepper Theatre Company, actor and writer).
July 1, 2000... Spending any time at all with Susan Coyne--co-founder of the Soulpepper Theatre Company, actor, writer and aspiring TV auteur--is enough to make anyone who's supposed to be in the same business feel grossly inadequate. Coyne, along with her...

Matrix, the prequel (Carl Beam's screen print Temporal adjustment).
July 1, 2000... From the margins of Carl Beam's screen print Beam's print is featured in

Pop tart.
July 1, 2000... There's a touch of Barbie in every pop diva, a fact that becomes more pronounced with each new video by Toni, Mariah or Whitney. In striving for chart-topping success, a firm stomach, curve-hugging garments and a ready supply of lip gloss have...

Sci-fi guy.
July 1, 2000... I don't need to interview Robert J. Sawyer. In fact, I don't have to move anything other than my wrist and index finger to learn more about him than I ever thought possible. Including--but not limited to--the "Top 10 things" one ought to know...

On the waterfront: burying part of the Gardiner is only the beginning. If Robert Fung gets his way - and that's a big if - in a decade or two we won't recognize the lakeshore. The public price tag: $5.2 billion.
July 1, 2000... IF YOU RAZE IT, THEY WILL COME. THAT'S the bold planning idea embedded in Robert Fung's waterfront revitalization report. The "it," of course, is the Gardiner. "They" refers to the consulting engineers, demolition crews, soil remediation firms,...

Unpraised critic: a TV guide is only a TV guide, even when it's published by The Globe and Mail. Which is why Broadcast Week's irascible John Doyle, who thinks television matters, can't get no respect.
July 1, 2000... THE STAFF OF EVERY NEWSPAPER patronizes the TV critic as the one person who can't possibly be taken seriously. That's the conclusion of John Doyle, a writer who this year celebrates the 10th anniversary of his first appearance in Broadcast...

Mike (Harris)'s home town: ... seven days and seven nights in North Bay.
July 1, 2000... The town that nourished and exploited the Dionne quintuplets. That birthed the man who invented Pablum. That exported the likes of Jaymz Bee, singer, entertainer, party animal in a grey bouffant. Danny Cockerline, porn boy, hustler, activist,...

Wild things (feeding Toronto's wild cats).
July 1, 2000... It's a weeknight after dark, and the hubbub of rush hour traffic from Chinatown has diminished. In an alley behind the restaurants and dollar stores, the stench of rotting fish and produce competes with the smell rising from bowls of Whiskas....

Stress and the city: had it up to here with the pollution, the plumbing, the potholes, the pervs? ... consult our A to Z directory of urban tips and tactics.
July 1, 2000... Had it up to here with the pollution, the plumbing, the potholes, the pervs? (And that's just the Ps.) Relax. Resist the urge to move to Tobermory. And consult our A to Z directory of urban tips and tactics THE AIR Ah, Toronto air in...

Boy story.
July 1, 2000... Yonge and Davenport: it's where uptown meets downtown, where Masonic Temple ghosts mingle with Mike Bullard, and where I disappeared with my dad on Saturday mornings for much of the 1970s. As certain as our eight o'clock dates with Dave Hodge...

Sold out: ... you can't argue with the Stratford Festival's success ... scenes from the life and times of Richard Monette.
July 1, 2000... Record attendance. A $4-million surplus. A $50-million endowment campaign. You can't argue with the Stratford Festival's success. And that's the tragedy. Why would a man who once treated the theatre as a temple allow it to become a tourist...

Garden parties: the story of the Plantsman, the Master, his Wife and their Architects, who combine - not without some mudslinging - to create a thin slice of green at Massey College.
July 1, 2000... THE TRAFFIC ON HOSKIN AVENUE RARELY lets up. Cutting through the University of Toronto from Queen's Park to St. George, cars whiz past Wycliffe College, Trinity College, a playing field, the new Munk Centre for International Studies. At the...

Hot wheeler.
July 1, 2000... In a moment of pure impulse-buying elation, 34-year-old attorney Paolo Boni rewarded himself recently with a gleaming black Boxter. "It was my pre-midlife midlife-crisis purchase," he says. A few months later, he'd leave his Bay Street firm to...

Shaw business: in Niagara-on-the-Lake, everything the traffic will allow ranges from actor-friendly hangs like the Stagecoach to Si Wai Lai's luxurious new Escabeche.
July 1, 2000... MR. SHAW LEADS US INTO FAMILIAR TERRItory with his latest long-running drama, currently unfolding in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The scene is a pretty rural town with a historic past and a cultural presence provided by a seasonal theatrical festival,...

Tasting notes.
July 1, 2000... These notes list producer-shipper, agent (and telephone), CSPC number (V indicates a Vintages bottle), price per 750 mL and region. Consignment bottles are generally brought in by the case from the agent. Rating is on a five-star system that...

Seahorse Inn: August 1958 - April 2000.
July 1, 2000... Most summer nights during the '40s and '50s, red neon glowed NO VACANCY on their marquees. The Silver Moon, the Shore Breeze, the Cruise--the names sound like they should be attached to Kon-Tiki drinks or songs by Sinatra rather than tumbledown...

Reality check: ... the recent arrival of condominiums boasting Big Apple names.
July 1, 2000... The little apple The cliche about Torontians, that we aspire to be as cosmopolitan as out big-city neighbours to the south, is not something we tend to brag about. "It's so New York," we whisper when we find a restaurant, shop or club we...

Bullfight: ... TV needs an amusing moose, we thought ... until finally it dawned on us: we've already got one (Mike Bullard).
July 1, 2000... Blame baby-boom nostalgia, or chalk it up to animanla. Cold War cartoon heroes Rocky and Bullwinkle hit the big screen this month in a Roger Rabbit--style flick starring Rene Russo, Jason Alexander and the raging bull himself, Robert De Niro....

Drink list: Spiral.
July 1, 2000... The place Half of a smart Victorian house, built in the late 1800s for the Simpson family. Not one but two patios: a small one out front, a spacious one out back (seating 60 or so), with trees and greenery creating a pretty downtown oasis....

Chicken wings.
July 1, 2000... In 1964, Buffalo's Anchor Bar set the Platonic ideal to which all subsequent deep-fried chicken wings aspire. Neither batter nor crumb to coat--just a quick twirl in butter and a bath in homemade sauce. Served with the classic side of celery...