Ambiance

From the TD Jazz festival website:
"For the past 20 years, Toronto Downtown Jazz has produced the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival as well as many other events and programs to further develop jazz talent and audience appreciation. Toronto Downtown Jazz is a registered charity (No. 12969 0269 RR0001) and over the years has come to be recognized as one of North America's premier jazz festival producers, while the organization itself has been used by other arts organizations and festivals as a model for community involvement, artistic excellence and outstanding production standards." The festival runs from June 20-29th across various venues in Toronto.

From the Art of Jazz Website: http://www.artofjazz.org/performance_home.cfm
"From June 4- June 8, 2008, the 3nd Annual Art of Jazz Celebration will transform the Distillery Historic District in Toronto into a hotbed of rhythm, improvisation, harmony and sophistication. Art of Jazz Celebration offers 5 days of major concerts, themed programs, workshops, jam sessions, photo exhibits, author readings and more.

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America's largest documentary festival. Each year, the festival presents a selection of more than 100 cutting-edge documentaries from Canada and around the globe. Through its industry programmes, the Festival also provides a full range of professional development, marketing, and networking opportunities for documentary professionals. Below are the remaining (April 23-27)show times and locations for documentaries related to love and relationships. Happy viewing!

by Mary Ann Wilson

What’s more romantic than a candlelit evening? A candlelit evening inspired by a shared environmental conscience, that’s what.

Last year, millions of Australians participated in the first annual Earth Hour to raise awareness about, and to actively combat, climate change caused by global warming (if you still think that global warming “isn’t real,” better pull your head out of the increasingly hot sand real quick, and hope that right-wing of yours can fly you and your descendants to another planet). This year, at 8 p.m. next Saturday, March 29, 2008, millions of people worldwide will accept the Earth Hour “challenge.”

I put the word “challenge” in quotation marks (twice, even) because the concept could not be simpler or easier: shut off your lights for one hour. That’s it. Such a small gesture can be all it takes to really get you thinking about your personal environmental impact and responsibility, but Earth Hour is far from a gesture alone. According to its website (www.earthhour.org), “[i]f the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour [2007] was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.” Small effort, big results.

Tom, whom we met just last week (see the behind the scenes at the Superior Restaurant), took us around his restaurant, which is located right across from the Dundas Square and other excellent downtown Toronto venues. The Superior Restaurant is known for its excellent wine selection and its authentic regional ingredients, served up fresh.

In general, filming a cafe is a pretty monotonous task- unless you're talking about a cafe and art gallery in one!  Welcome to the Art Square Café, located just outside of China town, near the University of Toronto. 

“The older I get, the more I want to do things that make me happy,” Kathryn Peterson, Registered Massage Therapist and Certified Yoga Meets Dance™ Instructor, told me over breakfast at the By the Way Café on Bloor. Kathryn was brimming with excitement about her new Yoga Meets Dance™ series. Engaging this desire that Kathryn expressed, the desire to “do things that make you happy”, is one of the best ways to indulge your healthy pleasures. It encourages a state of mind that makes you open to possibilities, and dance is one of many ways through which to explore this openness.

Kathryn looks at dance and movement not only as an expression of joy, but also as a healing tool and extension of her practice. Like many people her age, including myself, Kathryn fondly recalls a time in her life when she used to go to clubs and dance all night. Designed by Beth Rigby (www.yogameetsdance.com), Yoga Meets Dance™ is a fantastic, healthy way to reconnect with that kind of energizing experience. Kathryn completed her program training in Sedona, Arizona, where she learned to facilitate this combined yoga, movement, and meditation course that can be readily modified for anyone.

Staff filmographer Tuna met up with Mary, a Fox and the Fiddle bartender, to ask some questions about picking up women at the bar...  We think he's a bit clueless when it comes to these things, so it’s a good thing Mary's here to set him straight!