citylifeTV.ca: Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto transformed into Hollywood this past September as hundreds of celebrities filled the streets of the largest city in Canada during the 35th annual movie movement Toronto International Film Festival. For 10 star-studded days, Yorkville, King Street West and the downtown core of Toronto exploded with action as enthusiastic crowds gathered around the legendary actors and filmmakers that revealed their latest projects.

At sundown, A-list celebrities scoured the city’s hot spots to celebrate their films and mingle with fans. The Roosevelt Room Supper Club was a staple stop for famous film stars like Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Hayden Christensen, David Schwimmer, Milla Jovovich and a bevy of others who were seen socializing at the sophisticated site.

To kick off the 10 days of TIFF, web portal citylifeTV Read more

Toronto’s Bedbug Crisis

“It was a really stressful, stressful time. I couldn’t sleep at night,” says Caryn Solly, who was covered in itchy red bumps when bedbugs infested her apartment building in 2004. “I was sleeping with long-sleeved shirts tucked into my pants and those pants tucked into socks with the AC cranked super-high. I had to do lots of laundry and had several exterminator treatments to get rid of them.” Despite short-term relief, the bloodsucking bugs crept back into her Brooklyn, New York complex three years later.

Stories like Solly’s are being broadcasted across North America, including the GTA, a region that’s seen a troubling hike in bedbug reports. On September 29, Toronto MPP Mike Colle held a summit at Queen’s Park to address an issue that’s been irking communities of every class. Read more

Neil Pasricha and The Book of Awesome

A marriage on the brink and a best friend battling severe depression gave a Toronto man two good reasons to start reminding himself of the simple things in life. “I was in what I guess you could call a bit of a doom-and- gloom phase,” says 30-year-old Neil Pasricha, who is now a best-selling, award-winning author. While he admits that starting a blog wasn’t the most innovative idea he’s ever had, it turned out to be one of his most rewarding. Over the next year, Pasricha used his site, www.1000awesomethings.com, as a global platform to list life’s little wonders, adding colourful and often comical commentary to joys that almost everyone can relate to. Finding money in your coat pocket, watching The Price is Right when you’re home sick, popping bubble wrap, fixing electronics by smacking them and the smell of new books all made the page. “It was really fulfilling and really fun but the other parts of my life started getting worse,” says Pasricha, who earned his MBA from Harvard. Read more

Canaroma Grand Reopening in Vaughan

On July 7, 2010, one of Canada’s leading tile and bath importers hosted an extravagant party that rivalled its dazzling products. Hundreds of guests joined Canaroma’s massive celebration of its substantial showroom expansion and brand new kitchen and tile lines at its flagship location in Vaughan. “We’ve been around for many, many years and the name has been very successful and I think our customers deserve this as an appreciation event,” says Anthony Piacentini, Canaroma’s sales and design consultant.

Guests clinked glasses after Mayor Linda Jackson cut the ribbon to commemorate the grand reopening of Canaroma’s 19,000 sq. ft. centre. Several bars were stationed throughout the mammoth showroom, serving delicious drinks and graciously sized appetizers to the guests and industry professionals in attendance. Entertainment was abundant with live shower demonstrations, Read more

Workplace Safety: Better Safe than Sorry

A man working on the rooftop of a building is performing a site inspection. Since the procedure is routine and brief, he decides to bypass the safety harness. One misstep later and he becomes the middleman between a 25ft. rooftop and the ground. The man is no longer able to work – but that’s the happy version of a story that could have had a fatal ending.

This is just one of the unfortunate real-life scenarios that Roberto Desai, owner of Advance Safety World Limited, has the displeasure of hearing on a daily basis. “There are a lot of workplace injuries that take place every single day that can be avoided; you just have to know what could happen to a person and try to prevent it,” says Desai. Read more

Remo Ferri — The Remo Ferri Group of Automobiles

Remo Ferri has every boy’s dream job. Personifying unyielding passion, Ferri’s fierce drive to end up in the automobile business gave him enough momentum to become owner of one of North America’s leading Ferrari and Maserati dealerships. “We don’t sell cars, we sell a dream; we sell excitement; we sell a moment. I love that I get to do that every single day,” says Ferri, founder of The Remo Ferri Group of Automobiles.

Though he admits that the road to success has its bumps, Ferri chooses to embrace all challenges, as they are essential facets for progress. Catering to a wide range of clientele in Toronto, Vaughan and even Alberta, Ferri’s group furthered its time-honoured reputation by adding BMW, Mini, and most recently, Ford and Lincoln to its distinguished roster of dealerships. “You need to be able to service your customers, not just with one brand, but Read more

Pedestrian Deaths in the GTA

Thousands of thoughts scatter through our minds as we scurry from one place to the next – from the bank to the bus stop, from the parking meter to a meeting, from the curb to the cab across the street. We carelessly cascade from work to play with a ticking clock beating in the back of our heads, perhaps forgetting to remember that one tiny slip in a driver’s judgement or a pedestrian’s alertness can lead to a catastrophe. We jeer at the concept of a nine-to-five life, wishing that minimalist expression actually rang some slight tone of truth. Wondering where the time went, the pedestrian puts an extra hop in her step as the driver gently steps on the gas. What’s an extra 10 kilometres, anyway? With every motion that we make, we guide our own fate. It takes just one second for lives to be turned upside down. Does the thought of safely crossing the street even cross your mind? What role does right-of-way really play? Read more

Night at the Movies

1. Get Him to the Greek | June 4th, 2010, Director: Nicholas Stoller
The director of the hilarious Forgetting Sarah Marshall joins forces again with Russell Brand and Jonah Hill for another highly anticipated comedic sensation. When an established record company executive (Sean Combs) gives 24-year-old newbie Aaron Green (Hill) 72 hours to escort unruly British rock icon Aldous Snow (Brand) to Hollywood for a career contingent comeback concert, he embarks on a wild ride. The success or failure of Snow and Green now rests in each other’s hands. Green’s duty to get the rampant rocker to the historic Greek Theatre in time becomes a taxing task. Watch their thrilling three-day journey unfold in theatres this spring. Read more

Mary Aitken’s Verity Club — A Social Revolution

Within the raw brick walls of a historic Queen Street East building exists a colourful collage of refined women who are laying the foundations for the future. Verity Club is the realization of one business veteran’s vision of a forward-thinking female community. With a direct aim of addressing the dismally small number of women in senior management positions, Mary Aitken founded a social environment that forges female friendships and business relationships.

Aitken’s storied past helped pave the way for Verity. As a former top-tier investment analyst and successful entrepreneur, Aitken often found herself at all-male roundtables. “Most of the industries that I’d been involved in were male-dominated, especially at the senior level, and I thought ‘this is just wrong,’” she says. Aitken was aware that companies in which women held senior positions Read more

Jason Meyers Wows Fashion Week

Some of the fashion industry’s top designers flocked to Toronto for LG Fashion Week last fall to showcase their Spring 2010 collections. Among them was Project Runway Canada’s season two finalist Jason Meyers, who wowed a fashion-infatuated audience with fresh colours and cutting-edge designs. “I really try to design with the aspects of timeless and edgy,” says the Hamilton born designer, who had his own tailor as a teenager.

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