False Positives

 The Toronto Ukrainian Festival (formerly the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival) is comming back to Bloor West Village (it was “away” last year at Toronto’s waterfront Harbourfront Centre) and will be on September 12 - 14, 2008.

This is the 12th year of the Largest Ukrainian festival in North America.

Rock musician (and Winnipeger) Randy Bachman (of Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive fame) has been appointed the 2008 Festival Parade Marshal.

Come and join the fun, bring the family (take the TTC), check out the music, dancing, and food (you don’t have to be Ukrainian), but save some peroigies for me.

Here’s a set of photo’s of 2006 Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, or enjoy the slide show below :

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via the Toronto Star (  Toronto rated as powerhouse: City rubs elbows with likes of New York and Tokyo on Forbes list of urban economic giants comes news of Forbes crunching the numbers from PricewaterhouseCoopers “GDP urban economies”, MasterCard’s “centers of commerce” index, and an UBS “estimate of living expenses and earnings” to produce : World’s Most Economically Powerful Cities.

In summary : 1. London; 2. Hong Kong; 3. New York 4; Tokyo; 5. Chicago; 6. Seoul; 7. Paris; 8. Los Angeles; 9. Shanghai; 10. Toronto

The Details for Toronto (the GTA) read : GDP (2005): $209 billion; GDP (2020): $327 billion; Growth rate: 3%; MasterCard ranking: 13; Population (2007): 5,213,000; Purchasing power (NYC=100): 113.8%

Forbes also had this to say :

Toronto only narrowly edged out Madrid, Spain; Philadelphia and Mexico City, Mexico, to hang on at No. 10. Toronto is still the economic heart of one of the world’s wealthiest countries, and it’s projected to keep humming through 2020. Along with London, Toronto is the fastest growing G7 financial center.

The other interesting comment from Forbes is :

For sovereign nations, it’s easy to find measures of almost every variable imaginable–gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, money flows and other metrics. After all, the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund all deal with governments at the national level. But for corporations, cities and their economies matter most, since picking the right city will be the key to prosperity in the future.

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The West Toronto Junction Historical Society, celebrating the Junction’s Centennial of becoming a city in 1908, has a serires of (well 2 so far) YouTube video’s of Historical Walking Tour in the Junction.

Junction Mayor G.W. Clendenan (Gib Goodfellow) and journalist A.B. Rice (Neil Ross) come back to life to share fascinating tidbits from the Junction’s exciting past.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/JunctionWalk for more.This is a great use of the Technology (video cameras, and the Web / YouTube) to educate, document, promote and distribute.  Good for the Historical Society!

Also worth mentioning is the upcoming (and 16th annual) Junction Arts Festival September 3 - 7, 2008, which includes a performance by (5 time Juno winning) David Usher on the Saturday.

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 Roncesvalles Village is a wonderful neighbourhood in Toronto’s west end, south of Bloor and East of High Park, sometimes known as “Little Poland” (there is a Roncesvalles Polish Festival this September 13th and 14th).

Not to be out done by the fancy pants events prompted by the city like Summerlicious and Winterlicious,the village is throwing a month long food festival to celebrate the areas restaurants.

The Roncylicious web site has all the details.

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This weekend starting on Friday (May 30) at 6-9pm, then Saturday 11am-5pm until Sunday (June 1) from 11am-5pm, it will be time to enjoy the 11th Eleventh Annual BLOOR WEST VILLAGE ART TOUR SHOW & SALE some of the best art in Toronto’s West End, at 19 locations from Swansea to The Junction.

The http://www.arttour.info/website has a list of the 19 sites to get you started, all location and many fine shops in the area will all have the Art Tour pamphlet with a guide map. Enjoy!

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New to Toronto’s Juction Junction area is SMASH (http://www.smash.to, 2880 Dundas Street West,Toronto, Ontario, M6P 1Y8 , Phone 416-762-3113) a gallery of Art, Photography, Architecture and Residential / Industrial Salvaged Objects, and visual inspiration. It also includes a satellite location for design and architecture bookstore Function 13.

Currently in per opening mode, to take advantage of the CONTACT Annual Toronto Photography Festival (May 1-31 showing all over the city), it shows much promise in it’s visually stimulating and gloriously raw space.

SMASH is, at on the north side of Dundas and east of Keele Street, a happy addition to the Junction’s art scene. The Junction (also called Junction City) is the west end Toronto neighborhood centered on Keele and Dundas, just north of the better known High Park and Bloor West Village areas.

Update : SMASH is having it’s offical grand opening June 10, 2008, as “Toronto’s largest and best source of quality salvage materials, vintage fixtures and character architectural pieces”. Congradulation to SMASH partners Jose Nieves and Jose Ortega! Also showing is photography work by  Jerome Jenner , “Tattooed Pin-Up”.

Update : June 13th, Smash in Blog TO.

Update : on June 14, The Toronto Star reviewed SMASH in Smash offers eccentric mix of salvage.

And June 21 the Globe and Mail notices SMASH in Toronto’s bohemian Junction, but has not put the review on line.

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Lou’s Coffee Bar (as in Cindy Lou) @ (514 Annette :north east side side of Annette and Runnymede Road, in the west end of Toronto i.e. Bloor West Village, High Park, Malta Village, and The Junction ) is the friendly neighborhood bean shop (and my preferred “Third Place”). Friendly to dogs and new Mom’s as well.

Come on in Junction City, for the organic fair trade brew from micro-roaster Toi, Moi & Café (tea is served too!); and stay for the yummy baked goods (inculding absolute best New Moon vegan cookies)  , open WiFi, and atmosphere.

Lou’s Coffee Bar :

514 Annette Street, Toronto, Ontario, CA

Update : Now Open, minus the sidewalk sign, Sunday Morning’s from 9 to Noon to wild enthusiasm.

On May 6 the Bloor West Villager published the story Shop owners lose sidewalk signs to city about the loss of the side walk sign visible in the first photo. I was there and saw the theft.

Update  June 6th:  For their first year anniversary they held a special event “Gems of Dzherelo : a Benefit Art Show & Sale for the Dzherelo Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Lviv, Ukraine.” It was a great success!! here are some Flirk Photos :The crowd outsite; The Joint is Jumping; The Chris & Danica Show : Signing for the Cause

Update July 11th : The Official Lou’s Coffee Bar web site is up! and they are on Twitter (come follow allow!)

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as we hit another Lunar New Year, in this case Year of the Rat/Mouse. (where’s my cheese?  Probably somewhere under this 30 cm of snow!)

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After the Storm

Originally uploaded by False Positives while enjoying a nice groundhog (day) stew.

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• What’s Special About This Number? - distinctive facts about a lot of numbers

- Math education fun

• Toronto’s startup Whiz Kid Albert Lai is on the next (second) episode (next saturday) of the new CBC show on biz trends : Fortune Hunters some of which is up on YouTube

Toronto

• And Toronto Tech Goddess : via BlogTo Amber MacArthur is gone from Citytv - (Rogers has blown it big time!) Good Luck Amber! Based on her blog post it sounds more like she jumped as much as was pushed. I hope for some news, post MacWorld.Update : read the comments from the original BlogTO post, then watch the follow up interview of (the now Burnett) Amber on Digital Journal. Go Amber!! (AmberMac will also be on the CBC’s Test the Nation: Trivia on Sunday, January 20th as part of Team Blogger).- Toronto ambermac
• Vancouver Tech Women to Watch in 2008 | Raincity Studios - Go VanCity Ladies! (now if someone would put together a list for TO? AmberMac would be on that List.)

- vancouver Canada demoCamp technology

• The Post-Apocalyptic Workout You know, just in case of Zombies……. or xmas turkeys
• and there is the Dalek Workout: Exterminate the Flab - (video)
  

  Put all your energy in to it. Obey. Obey. Feel the stretch in your Plunger. Some of you older model may want to skip the Stair Aerobics….

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