[PHOTO] Inside the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres

I've been saving these photos of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, a pair of stacked theatres dating from the early 20th century on Yonge north of Queen visited on the occasion of Doors Open, for posting on the first day of the Toronto Fringe Festival.

The Elgin Theatre is a conventional enough lower theatre, designed for movies and vaudeville. The Winter Garden, located above, was designed as an atmospheric "country garden under the stars", and was abandoned for most of the 20th century.

The Winter Garden in particular was dark, making photography difficult. I only hope I responded adequately to the task.



Inside the Elgin Theatre, all seemed golden.









Inside the Winter Garden Theatre, all was twilight.









The golden facades still shine under the flash.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Discover's Collideascape notes that, even as agricultural land is falling worldwide, the productivity of this land is increasing even more sharply.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to one paper examining the extent to which saline water might make cooler planets better for live, and to another paper suggesting that planetary magnetic fields are so importance for life (and oxygen levels) that brief reversals in the history of Earth have led to mass extinctions.


• The Dragon's Tales notes a Ukrainian report that the country's military has captured a Russian tank.


• Joe. My. God. notes that vehemently anti-gay Minnesota archbishop John Nienstadt is being investigated for allegedly having sexual relationships with men.


• Marginal Revolution notes that, despite economic collapse, there are some jobs (like low-paying fieldwork) that Portuguese just won't do.


• The New APPS Blog's Gordon Hull notes the gender inequity involved in the recent Hobby Lobby ruling in the United States.


• pollotenchegg maps the slow decline of Ukraine's Jewish population in the post-1945 era.


• Speed River Journal's Van Waffle writes eloquently about his connections to and love of Lake Erie.


• Strange Maps' Frank Jacobs links to a cartographic examination of the time spent by French television news examining different areas of the world.


• Towleroad notes a faux apology made by the Israeli education minister after attacking gay families.


• The Volokh Conspiracy's Jonathan Adler notes the future of contraception coverage under Obamacare.


• Window on Eurasia reports on fears that Crimean Tatar organizations will soon suffer a Russian crackdown, and suggests that the West should reconsider its policies on Belarus to encourage that country to diversify beyond Russia.

[URBAN NOTE] On the closure of Toronto weekly The Grid

I was alerted by Torontoist to the news that The Grid, the free Torstar weekly that succeeded Eye Weekly in 2011, will be closing down effective immediately. Tomorrow's publication of the 3rd of July will be the final one.

The Toronto Star hosts the Torstar press release.

The award-winning weekly newspaper, aimed at Toronto’s young and vibrant downtown core, was unable to generate sufficient revenue despite a strong and loyal following, the publication’s owner said in a statement.

“It is with considerable regret that I am announcing today the closure of The Grid,” John Cruickshank, president of Star Media Group said in a statement.

[. . .]

Launched in May 2011, The Grid quickly earned a solid reputation as a top-quality, innovative city magazine for the downtown Toronto core, the company said in a statement.

Year after year, The Grid has won national and global awards, ranging from National Magazine Awards to Canadian Online Publishing Awards and awards from the Society for News Design. It is truly a world-leading publication from both a design and content perspective, in digital and in print.

Regretfully, despite a strong and loyal following, we have been unable to generate sufficient revenue from marketers and other sources to fund The Grid’s great journalism.

I will also note that Torstar also owns a 90% share in English Canada's free morning Metro editions. Will Torstar migrate some of its content from The Grid to the Toronto Metro, I wonder?

[NEWS] Some Wednesday links

• Al Jazeera shares Sarah Kendzior's argument that the disappearance of shopping malls will not mean the automatic return of downtowns in many cities, and notes the migration of many young Americans--including Vietnamese-Americans--to a booming Vietnam.


• Business Week observes that in higher education, China wants more people with vocational degrees and fewer academics, while comments that the use of Minnan dialect by China's spokesperson to Taiwan isn't doing much to encourage reunification.


• The CBC shares the request of American retailer target to its customers to please leave their guns home, and notes a finding in Québec that penalized Wal-Mart for closing down a store there after its workforce became unionized.


• National Geographic notes evidence from an Archaeopreryx fossil that feathers evolved before flight, and comments on the cultural and other issues that make fighting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa so difficult.


• Universe Today notes there are no lunar seas on the far side of the Moon because of the heat of the Earth in the Moon's early days reached only the near side, and comments on the evidence of asteroid impacts on the surface of Vesta.

[LINK] "What Is a Fringe Festival Anyway?"

Mooney on Theatre editor Wayne Leung reshared today, on the first day of the Toronto Fringe Festival, a a Huffington Post article he wrote last year explaining just what it is about.

I'll be covering some Fringe shows this year for this publication again, starting tonight in fact. I quite look forward to the experience again.

It costs a lot of money to produce and promote a show and because making theatre is so cost-prohibitive only a handful of professional and established not-for-profit theatre companies can afford to mount shows.

Fringe festivals are all about providing an accessible avenue for independent theatre artists to produce and perform their work in front of an audience. The Fringe is really the essence of theatre; virtually anybody can submit a show to the Fringe and the festivals place no limits on content so shows can be bold, raw and uncensored.

While the Fringe theatre movement started in 1947 in Edinburgh, Scotland, still home to the world's largest fringe festival, the first Canadian fringe festival was founded in Edmonton in 1982. Since then the movement has spread across the continent and the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals currently boasts 23 member festivals across Canada and the United States.