CBC News' Stephanie Matteis reports on the employees of beleaguered Toronto music venue Hugh's Room, upset that while their employers will benefit from a fundraiser their back wages are likely to be left unpaid. Surely they, too, deserve something from the music community?

The fanfare about a potential reopening of Hugh's pub and entertainment ( Read more... )

The Toronto Star's Ben Rayner describes how city regulations and neighbourhood opposition may end plans to reopen the Matador Club, a renowned old Toronto music venue. I'm not surprised, sadly: College and Dovercourt is a perfect neighbourhood for condos.

The fabled Matador Club at the corner of College St. and Dovercourt Rd. has stood empty for ( Read more... )

blogTO's Amy Grief makes the case that Toronto's deeply interested in the universe of Harry Potter. (I think it would be too much to argue that Toronto is uniquely interested, mind.)

Toronto might not be part of the Harry Potter universe, but the city is feeling awfully magical nonetheless ( Read more... )

• Beyond the Beyond links to a US military science fiction contest.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly notes that journalism is meant to offer criticisms of the president.
• Crooked Timber has an open forum about the inauguration.
• Dangerous Minds shares photos from seminal 1980-era London club Billy's.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper reporting on a ( Read more... )

Brad Wheeler's feature in The Globe and Mail about the fate of Hugh's Room reads like an elegy to this much-appreciated venue.

Richard Carson stands outside Hugh’s Room, having a smoke and talking about the specialness of his west-end music venue that now is in limbo because of financial problems ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that a Vancouver nerd bar is opening up shop in Toronto.
• Dangerous Minds provides its readers with a take on an upcoming Tom of Finland biopic.
• The Dragon's Tales notes that Enceladus seems altogether too hot and notes that dwarf planet Makemake seems to have a surprisingly uniform surface.
• Far Outliers looks at Afghanistan and Poland at ( Read more... )

blogTO's Phil Villeneuve writes about the future of the warehouse party in Toronto, in the wake of the Oakland Ghost Ship catastrophe. Is Toronto in line for a similar disaster?

Mario Angelucci, Acting Chief Building Official for the city of Toronto says warehouse parties in the city are mostly legal, as long as they adhere to Ontario Fire Codes ( Read more... )

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• Beyond the Beyond links to an interview with Darran Anderson, a writer of cartographic fiction.
• Centauri Dreams notes that 2028 will be a time when microlensing can b used to study the area of Alpha Centauri A.
• The Crux engages with the question of whether or not an astronaut's corpse could seed life on another planet.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a ( Read more... )

Daily Xtra's Aeryn Pfaff writes about Striker Sports Bar, a new gay bar in Church and Wellesley oriented towards a sports-loving demographic.

When Aaron Hewitt walked into Striker Sports Bar as a first-time customer, the first thing he noticed was that the washrooms were gender-neutral. The second was that he had just stumbled upon a place to ( Read more... )