Toronto Life articles from September 2000

Toronto Life archives from September 2000

Homecoming: head of the class: University of Toronto's new president, Robert Birgeneau.
September 1, 2000... We spot each other at the same moment, Robert Birgeneau and I. He is standing on the steps of Simcoe Hall, surveying his new domain as president of the University of Toronto, and I am doing an execrable job of parking my car on the curve of...

Inside (home of UUNet, the biggest commercial Internet access provider in Canada).
September 1, 2000... Smooth operator If you've ever logged on, chances are your computer signals have zipped through this high-security room at 60 Adelaide Street East--home of UUNet, the biggest commercial Internet access provider in Canada. Invisible and...

This issue (Toronto life covers shopping).
September 1, 2000... THE SAYING "THERE ARE NO NEW IDEAS" HAS A RESONANCE in this business. I'll admit that over the years I've "borrowed" the odd idea from one magazine or another, although I should add in my defence that I pilfer only good ideas and take some...

Ideal guest.
September 1, 2000... In a perfect world, the dictionary definition of "mockumentary" would include a picture of Christopher Guest's bewildered mug. The Saturday Night Live alumnus has made his career mining the genre, which assumes a faux-verite style to satirize...

Rhythm method (artists of the Montreal Collective exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art).
September 1, 2000... A groove beat, gyrating bodies in a crowded club, a DJ flitting beneath flickering videos. In the midst of it all, three artists are at work, two at any given time, on a six-foot-square canvas. "Visual freestylin'" is what curator David Liss...

Perfect score (the Toronto Symphony plays Sergei Prokofiev's score to Eisenstein's film Alexander Nevsky).
September 1, 2000... Bleak steppes littered with human bones, a decapitated skeleton, gaping skulls: the opening images of Eisenstein's film classic Alexander Nevsky (1938) are mercilessly grisly. Nothing moves, other than feathered grass--and the sound of Sergei...

Quilt trip.
September 1, 2000... The cobbling together of tattered scraps is a tradition born from thrift. But for Mennonite quilter Elsie McDowell, it is also a social ritual, a way to gab with the girls. For 35 years, she has been meeting regularly with her church group to...

Between the stillness and the grove.
September 1, 2000... SOUL SURVIVORS "There are moments in your life that are so profound they transform you," says Erika de Vasconcelos, brown eyes flashing, hands moving in quiet, emphatic circles. "They don't happen very often. I had a moment that was so powerful...

Gotcha! Journalists have never been subjected to so much scrutiny ... on Undercurrents ... it's all about looking for bad guys.
September 1, 2000... SOMETIMES YOU GET THE IDEA THAT EVERYbody yearns to be on television, but it turns out that many people don't want to be on Undercurrents, the quirky and highly attractive show about media and technology that runs on the CBC television network...

Money well spent: he has showered millions of dollars on the National Ballet, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Shaw Festival and the United Way, among other beneficiaries.
September 1, 2000... He has showered millions of dollars on the National Ballet, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Shaw Festival and the United Way, among other beneficiaries. And they didn't even have to ask. Meet Walter Carsen, the man who can't stop giving ...

City that really works: we've been comparing ourselves to the wrong city. Toronto has much more in common with Chicago ...
September 1, 2000... THIS IS A TALE OF SISTER CITIES that sprang up at those topographic singularities where inland rivers meet great lakes. Toronto and Chicago began as military outposts, from which grew gritty, provincial towns processing raw goods--cattle,...

Dope and glory.
September 1, 2000... By 9:15 on this clear August morning, the shadows have shortened enough for our purposes, and our helicopter takes off from its little fenced area at Buttonville airport. We fly east, at 1,000 feet, roughly along 16th Avenue in Markham. To the...

Big bang: it happened 25 years ago at a Yorkville restaurant. Two guys sat down to lunch and before the cheque arrived, a film festival was born.
September 1, 2000... Stars of all stripes: 1. The Big Chill's Glenn Close, William Hurt, Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum, 1983 2. Jeanne Moreau, Lumiere, 1976 3. Kiss of the Spider Woman gala at the University Theatre, 1985 4. Kevin Spacey at the American Beauty...

Harley boys.
September 1, 2000... One thing is clear from the facade of the Para-Dice Riders Motorcycle Club on Eastern Avenue, just west of Carlaw: low-key is not the intent. The club's Web site address appears on the building in bold white letters, above which blazes a neon...

Rake's progress: since Richard Addis took over as editor of The Globe and Mail, the chattering classes ave been abuzz about his promiscuous ways.
September 1, 2000... Since Richard Addis took over as editor of The Globe and Mail, the chattering classes have been abuzz about his promiscuous ways. How did a man who had every intention of becoming a saint acquire the reputation of a rogue? HE TRIED TO FLY...

Tailor made: asked to create a modern retail space in Yorkville, Ralph Giannone turned out a bijou of cool on Cumberland - and architectural version of a made-to-order suit.
September 1, 2000... WHEN RALPH GIANNONE WAS ASKED TO meet Stavros Theodoropoulos, he dressed in his best suit, an $800 number from Queen Street. Giannone knew that Stavros was a high-end tailor contemplating a renovation of part of his shop. The 30ish architect...

Winning streak.
September 1, 2000... The last thing Avery Hames wants to do think about outfits. When she's not reporting or hosting the news for Citytv, it's all about "jeans and a T-shirt, planting tomatoes in the garden with my four-and-a-half-year-old, Riley." Still, says the...

Darts and laurels: the meat loaf at the Rebel House, burgers at Allen's, fish 'n' chips at the Belfast Lounge: here's to good, honest pub grub.
September 1, 2000... AND THE BEER AND THE BLOOD AND THE poetry roar in your ears as the hard wooden bar comes up to kiss your cheek then reels away again, and your glass is a slippery rock to cling to while the voices flatter and laugh up their sleeves and...

Tasting notes.
September 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 bought by the case from the agent. Rating is on a five-star system that...

Child's play (school boards demolish unsafe playgrounds).
September 1, 2000... Farewell to the high-flying swings, to the see-saws, to the metal slides that flash in sunlight and the fat old tires that fill with rain. No more rusty monkey bars--"I betcha can't hang one-handed." Not to mention stepping stones and fences,...