Author Archives: Parkdale Village BIA

Fireside Culture Week 2012!

Posted on by

The Parkdale Village Business Improvement Area is thrilled to present Fireside Culture Week from March 12-17, 2012.  Fireside is a week filled with art and performance along Queen Street West from Dufferin Street to Roncesvalles Avenue.

Fireside will kick off on Monday, March 12 with our Opening Night Launch Party at Goodfellas Gallery located at 1266 Queen West from 7:00pm-11:00pm. Refreshments are courtesy of Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company, Red Bull and Cobs Bakery. Other sponsors include HomEquity Bank and Dressed To Kill Magazine. Entertainment for the evening will be Jeff Quick and Shuggie & The Bandits.

Tuesday, March 13 is Fireside’s “Funny For Money” competition at The Sister, 1554 Queen West from 7:00pm-10:00pm where stand up comics, duos and troupes are invited to compete for cash prizes. Featuring sketch duo Ladystache and improv troupe POMP.

On Wednesday, March 14, Fireside will celebrate theatre at Big Guy’s Coffee Shop, 1718 Queen West from 7:00pm-10:00pm. The evening will include readings, wine tastings and a specially crafted Fireside ale.

On Friday, March 16, Parkdale presents Fireside’s official gay bash – Queer Parking at location TBC, from 10:00pm – 2:00am. Featuring DJs Max Mohenu and performances by Miss Fluffy Souffle, Regina of Light Fires, and Philip Cairns.

Saturday, March 17 is the Fireside Community Day, where talented performers will be entertaining Parkdale in various locations throughout the day!

Updates and further information regarding specific events are available at www.parkdalevillagebia.com

For more information please contact Heather Douglas at director@parkdalevillagebia.com

Fireside auditions featured in the Parkdale Villager!

Posted on by

Thank you to Erin Hatfield and the Parkdale Villager for including a story about the Fireside Auditions in their February 21st issue!

Check out this picture of us judges being blown away by Parkdale’s talent!

Toronto’s talented blow away BIA judges

Performers will take part in annual Fireside Culture Week

Like a scene from a television talent show, Marcus McLean, Heather Douglas and Ellie Anglin from the Parkdale Village Business Improvement Area (BIA) sat facing the stage at an open call audition, ready to be blown away.

And they were.

“I was really happy to see all the talent that came out and was hugely impressed by the talent Toronto has. It makes me proud of my city,” said Douglas, the coordinator of the Parkdale Village BIA.

The trio were at a local pub Wednesday, Feb. 8 to audition possible performers, musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, poets, performance artists, magicians, clowns and more for the BIA’s Fireside Culture Week IV, which takes place on Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Avenue March 12 to 17.

There were more than a dozen performers who auditioned including a storyteller that Douglas said kept the judges captivated with her tales.

“If the auditions we saw were any indication, I think it will be our best year yet,” Douglas said. Everyone should definitely come out and check it out.”

From those auditions, the judges will choose the performers for the week-long event.

Fireside Culture Week offers residents and visitors experience food, music, art, theatre, comedy and more about 40 venues in the area.

Now in its fourth year, Fireside Culture Week was started by the Parkdale Village BIA as a means to draw people out of their homes and into the establishments along Queen Street West between Dufferin Street to Roncesvalles Avenue in what can sometimes be a bleak and boring time of year.

REMINDER: Parkdale Connected this Wednesday!

Posted on by

Don’t forget to join us at The Rhino this Wednesday (Feb 15th) from 7 – 10pm to learn some expert tips on how you can use Social Media to market your business!  Featuring an interactive workshop by Social Media Maven Sue Edworthy.  Grab one of the Rhino’s million kinds of delicious beers and follow along with Sue on your wireless devices.

Presented by the Parkdale Village BIA as part of Social Media Week Toronto.

Can’t wait to see you there!

Date Change for Fireside Auditions!

Posted on by

Call for Performers to Audition for Fireside Culture Week

Fireside Culture Week IV presents FIRESIDE: “The Auditions” on Wednesday, February 8th from 1-8 pm at The Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen West). We invite performers of all kinds to audition to be in Fireside IV in Parkdale from March 12th to the 17th.  We are seeking musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, poets, performance artists, magicians, clowns, and more! We want to see your talent, and please pass this along to your talented friends.

Please contact Ellie at info@parkdalevillagebia.com to schedule an audition.

We are specifically seeking headliners for our main stage, LGBT performers and artists for our queer party, and stand-ups and sketch troupes for our comedy night; but we have a whole week and a long street to fill full of talent, so come one and come all to audition for a spot!

What: Fireside: The Auditions

When: February 8th, 2012, 1pm – 8pm

Where: The Cadillac Lounge, 1296 Queen West

Please contact festival@parkdalevillagebia.com or call 416.536.6918 for more information about Fireside.

FIRESIDE: The Auditions

Posted on by

Call for Performers to Audition for Fireside Culture Week

Fireside Culture Week IV presents FIRESIDE: “The Auditions” on Wednesday, February 1st from 1-8 pm at The Cadillac Lounge (1296 Queen West). We invite performers of all kinds to audition to be in Fireside IV in Parkdale from March 12th to the 17th.  We are seeking musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, poets, performance artists, magicians, clowns, and more! We want to see your talent, and please pass this along to your talented friends.

Please contact Ellie at info@parkdalevillagebia.com to schedule an audition.

We are specifically seeking headliners for our main stage, LGBT performers and artists for our queer party, and stand-ups and sketch troupes for our comedy night; but we have a whole week and a long street to fill full of talent, so come one and come all to audition for a spot!

What: Fireside: The Auditions

When: February 8th, 2012, 1pm – 8pm

Where: The Cadillac Lounge, 1296 Queen West

Please contact festival@parkdalevillagebia.com or call 416.536.6918 for more information about Fireside.

Imagining Toronto’s Better Future – Tuesday February 7th

Posted on by

Join the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre
and Small Wooden Shoe in
Imagining Toronto’s better future.

What kind of city would you want to live in, if we could make a city from scratch?

Upper Toronto starts with a terrible idea. We want to build a new city in the sky above the current Toronto.

It’s a terrible idea that allows us to ask what would happen if, knowing what we now know, we could start fresh.

We are meeting with people from all across Toronto to ask them about the city that they live in now. What do you love about it? What do you hate about it? What would you change?

Spend an evening with other people from your community and help us dream of a better city for everyone.

Tuesday, February 7 at 7PM at the
Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre
1499 Queen Street West
Free (with snacks)

WHAT TO EXPECT
Expect a quick introduction to the ideas that drive Upper Toronto. Expect guided brainstorming and playful design work. Expect time to think about city planning with a freedom and depth rarely permitted to even the experts. Expect to laugh. Expect to examine your own ideas about what’s most important in city life.
By opening this process to people across Toronto we hope to learn about your civic dreams and imaginations while giving you an experience of civic engagement and the challenges of planning.

WHO WE ARE
Small Wooden Shoe is an award winning arts company that uses current and effective consultation practices, mixed with our own innovative and idiosyncratic performance style. We bring experience with conferences, unconferences, keynote presentations, debating workshops, online collaboration, and 10 years of events in which groups come together to make the world a more interesting and engaged place. We are bent on proving that good ideas are entertaining and that pleasure and thinking require each other.

—
Michael Burtt
Artistic Director
Making Room
416-876-5951
http://making-room.org

Parkdale Connected – February 15th, 2012.

Posted on by

The BIA presents Parkdale Connected on February 15th, 2012 as part of Social Media Week Toronto. This event aims to assist Parkdale business owners in the use of Social Media marketing, and will also serve as a general meeting for our membership. Parkdale Connected features Social Media Expert and Parkdale resident Sue Edworthy at 7pm in the upstairs meeting room at The Rhino (1249 Queen West).

Attendees are encouraged to bring their wireless devices to follow along as Sue facilitates an interactive workshop on the use of Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools to establish and maintain Parkdale BIA members’ small business online presence. At the end of the evening, participants will have learned what they need to create their own accounts and pages, types of campaigns they can use to increase business and profile, and worked with fellow BIA members to gain the perspective of both an “outside eye” coupled with the understanding of fellow small business owners.

Please take some time to complete this short survey on your businesses’ Social Media Usage by January 31st to help us serve you better.

Facebook Event Page

Twitter Hashtag: #SMWTOParkdale

Social Media Week Toronto Event Page

Parkdale Picks

Posted on by

Parkdale Picks for Friday December 29, 2011 – Thursday January 5th, 2012!

Parkdale has all sorts of events this week to help you to say goodbye to 2011 and ring in the New Year!

December 30th
  • Philistine, 1394 Queen West, 11am – 7pm. Boxing Day Sale Continues! 
  • The Shop Under Parts & Labour, 1566 Queen West, 10pm – 2:30am. New Year’s Eve Eve Bash! HotKid w/ Spitfist, Hate Gang & Pkew Pkew Pkew (Gunshots). $5.
December 31st 

  • Keriwa Café, 1690 Queen West. Five-course prix-fixe New Year’s eve tasting menu, with seatings at 5:30, 7, 8:30 and 10pm. $125 per person (add $50 for wine pairings). 416-533-2552, keriwacafe.ca.
  • Cadillac Lounge, 1296 Queen West, New Year’s Eve party with Johnny Z Karaoke and 70s dance party.
  • Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen West. 10pm – 4am. Love Triangle party with three events in one venue features Jokers of the Scene w/the Soul Proprietor of Bedouin Sound Clash, iDRUM, and Runway Renee in the Ballroom, second floor Champagne Gallery and the Melody Bar.  $40 all parties, $50 dinner.  Tickets at Gladstone, Rotate This, Soundscapes.
  • Parts & Labour, 1566 Queen West. 9pm. White Girl NYE party with DJs Patrick McGuire, Josh McIntyre & Ghetto Gold Matt spinning hip-hop.  DJ Scott Wade (Smithfits) on the main floor after midnight playing new wave, Britpop and punk. $10.
  • Pia Bouman School for Ballet, 6 Noble, AlienInFlux + Promise Warehouse New Year’s Eve party with Jake Fairley, Jeremy P Caulfield, Kevan Fraser, Ali Black and DBoom spinning house and techno. In the Bass Lounge Djunya, the Lemon Bucket Orchestra, Friendlyness & Isax, Spyne and Violet perform. 10:30 pm till 5:30 am. $40 online. 416-533-3706, www.ilovepromise.com.
  • The Sister, 1554 Queen West.  9pm.  Ready Steady Ring: A Mod New Year with Modraphelia fashion show, DJ Bobbi Guy and music of The Jam. $20, adv $15 (Rotate This, Soundscapes and Good Catch General Store).
  • Wrongbar, 1279 Queen West. 9pm. DJ Sneak and special guests.  Advance $30 (Rotate This, Soundscapes, online at wrongbar.eventbrite.com)
January 1st, 2012:
  • Gladstone Hotel, Melody Bar, 1214 Queen West. Family Acoustic Brunch – Bluegrass

January 3rd, 2012:

  • Chartreuse Style, 1692 Queen West. Pop-Up Trunk Sale. 11-5pm until January 15th.  Up to 75% off at Parkdale’s Eco-Boutique.

January 4th, 2012

  • Cadillac Lounge, 1296 Queen West. The Neil Young’uns. 

January 5th, 2012

  • Gladstone Hotel, Melody Bar, 1214 Queen West.  Bradleyboy Mac Arthur.  
  • Parts & Labour, 1566 Queen West.  Rust Belt Lights, Thirtyseven, Bathurst. $10.

 

 

Graphic Designer Needed!

Posted on by

If you are a graphic designer we would love to get in touch with you.

The Parkdale Village BIA is hosting Parkdale Connected as part of Social Media Week Toronto, and we are looking for a fun, bright, eye-catching poster and flier to help get the word out about it.

If you are interested please drop me a line with samples of your previous work to info@parkdalevillagebia.com

Thanks!

 

Illuminating the Parkdale Street Writers

Posted on by

When I first came across the name “Parkdale Street Writers” I just about flipped.  Writing, Parkdale and “tha street” are essentially my three favorite things.  What the heck is this triumvirate of awesomness, I asked myself?  Admittedly, I wasn’t particularly active in my research, but I struggled to understand the what when where why and how of this super cool sounding group.  I did track down the “who” piece of the puzzle though: I have been aware of the name Emily Pohl Weary for while a through the Toronto literary scene and my stint at Broken Pencil Magazine.

Today, I’m happy to share with you an article that makes the history of the Parkdale Street Writers and the future of The Academy of the Impossible (somewhat) clearer.

One thing is crystal clear though – Emily Pohl Weary is a superstar.

http://www.blogto.com/arts/2011/12/inside_the_academy_of_the_impossible/

Ellie Anglin.