Discussed: Downtown Toronto's new IKEA; Darren O'Donnell in the dark; crap tourism.
SOMEWHERE TO REPLACE THOSE BROKEN MARTINI GLASSES
For the first time in its miserable little existence, Toronto Notes is happy to break a story that might genuinely (if facilitated by the correct amount of chemical mood adjusters) be described as "news": the opening of a new
Ikea store — downtown's first! — at the corner of King and Church. Although you probably heard about it before us. We’re way behind.
Still, being cheap whores for affordably-priced bookshelving, Toronto Notes is quite excited about the news. (If you want snark, try visiting
here or here instead.) According to one of our spies, there are Ikea signs on display outside the store at 143 King Street East (where the old Saatchi & Saatchi offices
used to be), although so far there’s very little information about what’s actually going to be
inside the showroom. Scheduled to open on July 31, it’s clearly going to be a lot cosier than the three labyrinthine behemoths the company owns outside of downtown (perhaps it’ll be something like
this branch in New York City) — although there appears to be some construction taking place on the second floor, so it’s not going to be
that small.
What’s most surprising to us, however, isn’t the appearance of the store – a downtown Ikea sounds like a pretty obvious idea, given the city’s economic and residential makeup – but just how quiet they’ve been about it. No fanfare — not a single mention on Lexis-Nexis – just a small amount of nerdy speculation at the
Urban Toronto forum. Score one for Scandinavian understatement, we suppose.
Bonus article: "The miracle of Älmhult": A terrific
critical profile of Ikea from the UK
Guardian.
SOMEWHERE TO READ IN THE DARK
As a salute to his “hours spent reading under blankets with a flashlight in direct disobedience of our mothers,” local playwright/provocateur/sexy slaphead
Darren O’Donnell is launching a
new reading series tonight (until July 26), “Accepting The Possibility That I May Ruin My Eyes: Reading In Darkness.” We’re not quite sure what the event involves — according to O’Donnell’s typically elliptical press release, “a lone beam of a flashlight cutting through the haze will be your only guide as you wind your way through the Maze of Knowledge” — but given his track record, no doubt it’ll be worth checking out. The readings (if that's what they are) will take place at the
Toronto Free Gallery at 1277 Bloor Street West by the corner of Bloor and Landsdowne. Cover is a measly five cents.
SOME ADVICE ABOUT HOW NOT TO SPEND AN AFTERNOON IN TORONTO
Toronto Notes had some British relatives visiting this week, with whom we spent a remarkably productive Tuesday afternoon. First, we went for brunch at beloved Queen St diner The Stem (which was
closed for renovations). Then we tried to book some tickets for the IMAX presentation of
The Dark Knight (which were entirely sold out, except for some idiotic timeslots at 1:30am on Saturday morning). To rally from the disappointments, we thought we’d buy some sushi from Little Tokyo on Augusta in Kensington Market (which turned out to have
shut down a few weeks ago). Later in the evening, we went to check out the
much-ballyhooed dim sum at Lai Wah Heen at the Metropolitan Hotel (only to find out that the dim sum were only available at lunch).
Gold stars all around.