Toronto Life articles from March 2001

Toronto Life archives from March 2001

Just married (two couples who exchanged vows mid-January at the Metropolitan community church still don't have what they deserve: full marital status in the eyes of the law).
March 1, 2001... "The lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others." That's how the feds stubbornly continue to define marriage. So despite the flowers, the organ music, the rings and the psalms; despite the widespread approval of the...

Smart cookie (Cooking for Love's Thea Andrews).
March 1, 2001... She suggests we meet at Julie's Cuban Restaurant on Dovercourt. She doesn't say it's a cool restaurant, but I know it is a cool restaurant because I've never heard of it and, even better for its coolness quotient, I get lost trying to find it....

Mau wow: Ahhh (the joys of working for Bruce Mau).
March 1, 2001... Ahhh, the joys of working for Bruce Mau. To be at the centre of major international design projects, to have an uberfunky office at Queen and Spadina, to see your work in art magazines from Amsterdam to Tokyo. And now there's yet another reason...

Author, author (poet Esta Spalding and her writer mom, Linda Spalding, have a history of professional tag teaming).
March 1, 2001... Few grown-up daughters could survive a three-hour road trip with their mothers, let alone a three-year artistic collaboration. But then again, poet Esta Spalding and her writer mom, Linda Spalding, have a history of professional tag teaming:...

Fungi jumping (at CTV's headquarters staffers are paying the price of synergy).
March 1, 2001... Corporate mergers always sound much better in theory. But up at the 401 and McCowan, at CTV's headquarters, staffers are paying the price of synergy. Just a few months ago, Ivan Fecan was all psyched about the BCE acquisition. He assured...

Just what the doctor ordered (playwright Adam Pettle).
March 1, 2001... Heard the one about the girl who found love at the gynecologist? The story has been making the rounds all winter. The girl in question is 20-something Adina Goldman, who works for the software company OpenCola. The gynecologist is Dr. Alvin...

Snake bites (Dragon ball in late January swiftly degenerated into an informal roast of the federal health minister).
March 1, 2001... Poor Allan Rock. It was billed as a fundraiser for the Yee Hong Centre for Gerlatric Care, but the Dragon Ball in late January swiftly degenerated into an informal roast of the federal health minister. Emcees Tony Wong of the Star and Suhana...

City state: west vs. east: the best places to --.
March 1, 2001... Taking sides You know your city has arrived when people cease to venture outside their chosen 'hoods. New York is notorious for district loyalty, where an affair between an Upper West Sider and an East Villager constitutes a long-distance...

This issue (torontolife.com can make your life a lot easier).
March 1, 2001... IN THE EARLY 1980s, A CEO OF MY ACQUAINTANCE TOLD HIS senior executives to buy a home computer at the company's expense, adding that he'd fire the first person who asked what kind. He understood that what mattered was not the machine but...

Good morning Juliet.
March 1, 2001... RUNAWAY SCRIBE How's this for plot summary: a mousy academic, Constance Ledbelly, gets sucked into a Shakespearean vortex, where she crosses paths (and swords) with an Amazonian Desdemona and a foxy Juliet. Ann-Marie MacDonald's G-G...

Light fantastic.
March 1, 2001... LIGHT FANTASTIC A natural aptitude, years of training, four hours of rehearsal a day--Chan Hon Goh's success was born of these elements. But she never thought her greatest teacher would be her miniature poodle. "I've learned a lot from Daly; we...

Letter perfect.
March 1, 2001... LETTER PERFECT Best known for his sunny watercolours of bicycles, the late, great Greg Curnoe (he died in a cycling accident in 1992) was a connoisseur of the everyday. But the London, Ontario, artist's most compelling paintings forgo images in...

It spot (the new Una Mas).
March 1, 2001... Where: The shiny new Una Mas (422 Adelaide St. W., 416-703-486Z). Two floors of smooth, sleek lines bask under warm lighting--giant glowing seashells and clusters of red orbs. What: DJs Kola, Serious, J. Kumahara and Mike K. spin an...

Persistence of memory.
March 1, 2001... PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY Raul Ruiz's Time Regained (1999), starring Catherine Deneuve and a French-speaking, John Melkovich, unveils a fresco of Parisian noblesse during the First World War that is both sumptuous and scornful. The three-hour tour...

Playmaking: audiences at David Young's play Clout will see the latest work to emerge from one of Canada's most fertile literary minds.
March 1, 2001... Audiences at David Young's play TINY STARS IN THE CEILING AND DEAD MEN hanging on beige walls: the Latvian Hall on College Street. It is mid-April, gypsy weather. The cast of Clout, a play-in-progress, will spend the day preparing for...

Driven to disruption: Toronto used to be famous for its progressive transportation policies - a model for North American cities.
March 1, 2001... Toronto used to be famous for its progressive transportation policies--a model for North American cities. Now Vancouver's the trailblazer, while we're inching our way toward total gridlock IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, PUBLIC transit briefly...

Still at the party: ... meet Gino Empry, publicist and celebrity minder extraordinaire.
March 1, 2001... GINO'S VOICE MAIL No hello. No hi. He starts with your name, expressed sharply, as if he's Seated across from you and suddenly wants your attention. He's almost always on the speakerphone. And you know it's him. Not because he tells you...

Rituals: shave and a haircut.
March 1, 2001... Nothing distinguishes a man like his relationship to his facial hair. Some men are religious about it--a haircut and a shave written into their daily, weekly or monthly schedule. For me, a visit to the barber is something to be endured. Like a...

Family man: his Woodbridge neighbors had no idea that, as head of a notorious Sicilian mafia family, Alfonso Caruana was running a billion-dollar drug-trafficking empire.
March 1, 2001... From the outside, he seemed to be living a normal suburban life, driving his Cadillac to work on Dufferin each day, playing the proud father at his daughter's Sutton Place wedding. His Woodbridge neighbors had no idea that, as head of a...

Holding court: it's a testament to our yearning for the familiar that the Arcadian Court is still around.
March 1, 2001... There's something to be said for sameness: it adds a note of sanity to hectic lives in a raging metropolis. And it's a testament to our yearning for the familiar that the Arcadian Court is still around. While our fickle palates may rove, the...

Last gold mine: a journey 7,000 feet down into Macassa mine, to the drifts and stopes, to a rich past and a bleak future, to the heart of Kirkland lake.
March 1, 2001... YOU ARE DRIVING ALONG A ROAD IN NORTHERN ONTARIO, a gravel road, possibly, in the bush. To the right, there is an outcrop of red granite, a stern lesson in the turmoil of geological and glacial uprisings that made this landscape. In a gully to...

Super shopper: sun goddess and a style temple.
March 1, 2001... Comic book We fell hard for American satirist David Sedaris when he released his dark, biting essay compilation, Naked. So when his latest collection, Me Talk Pretty One Day, hit the stands, we were among the first at the till. A gay...

Spare change: on the outskirts of Miami's south beach, Glenn Pushelberg found an alternative to the Muskokas. Only three hours away.
March 1, 2001... On the outskirts of Miami's South Beach, Glenn Pushelberg found an alternative to the Muskokas. Only three hours away--no traffic, no blackflies, no winter YABU PUSHELBERG'S DESIGNS HAVE AN unavoidable presence--even attitude. The tour de...

Sharp shooter: Barbara Cole.
March 1, 2001... She's a woman who knows the power of a dress, especially when it's on its way off the body. In photographer Barbara Cole's dreamy wash-of-colour Polaroids, many of her models are draped in delicate bias-cut chiffon gowns that don't so much...

Matchmakers: as restaurant-goers become more wine savvy, even small bistros are hiring sommeliers to minister to their needs. How well they succeed is open to debate.
March 1, 2001... THE SOMMELIER COMETH, GLIDING UP TO the table, nostrils akimbo and one eyebrow arched, toting a wine list the size of a family Bible. The anxious young couple steel themselves for the confrontation, like joyriding teens pulled over by a cop,...

Tasting notes (wine ratings).
March 1, 2001... 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 bought by the case from the agent. Rating is on a five-star system that...

Bar-hopping: Rain, 19 Mercer St.
March 1, 2001... BAR-HOPPING Rain, 19 Mercer St 416-599-7246 Early in the evening, those slipping into Rain from wind-snapped Mercer Street may hear the faint trickle of water seeping over the pebble-flecked wall. Indeed, the soothe of the falls, spare...

Dosas.
March 1, 2001... DOSAS A feathery, billowing, tangy rice-and-lentil crepe--one Madras cook turns them out a metre long, imagine--the dosa carries the banner for the racy Tamil cooking of South Indian and Sri Lankan Toronto eateries. Often a breakfast dish on...

Tip top tailor building: 1929-2001.
March 1, 2001... In a city thick with arriviste brands, it bears few rivals. For 70 years, Tip Top Tailors has owned the skyline where Bathurst meets Lakeshore, announcing itself in 12-foot-high cherry red letters. It is, in essence, what a brand should be: an...