smg2_entertainment

These 20 books will keep you reading all summer long

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These 20 books will keep you reading all summer long

Summertime and the reading is plentiful — as is, hopefully, the time you have to put your feet up and relax into a good book. From beach reads to biographies, memoirs to short stories, we’ve chosen a stack of new and upcoming releases to get you through the summer. We get you started with ones … Read more

Amid Toronto band MANifesto’s camp and conviviality there’s a message of empowerment

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Amid Toronto band MANifesto’s camp and conviviality there’s a message of empowerment

Of course MANifesto has a manifesto. It’s right there in the freakin’ name. No rush on thinking it all through, though. Catch up with the Toronto “Man Band” — a self-described “gaggle of grown-up gays covering songs originated by girl groups” — belatedly via last summer’s entirely lovable mid-pandemic debut “Pinky Swear” and its accompanying … Read more

Occhipinti brothers bring their range of eclectic influences to Toronto Jazz Festival stage

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Occhipinti brothers bring their range of eclectic influences to Toronto Jazz Festival stage

Sunday isn’t officially “Occhipinti Day” at the 35th annual Toronto Jazz Festival, but it should be. The Toronto brothers own the late afternoon slots of the TD Main Stage: standup bassist Roberto Occhipinti performs with pianist Adrean Farrugia and drummer Larnell Lewis to showcase his latest project, “The Next Step,” before joining guitarist Michael Occhipinti … Read more

Born & Raised: The mighty return of Niagara’s Alexisonfire

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Born & Raised: The mighty return of Niagara’s Alexisonfire

For Dallas Green, it’s no mere homecoming. It’s a celebration 20 years in the making. It was 2002 when Alexisonfire emerged from the pubs and festivals of St. Catharines to become one of Canada’s seminal hard rock bands. Next week, Green and his reunited band mark the occasion with a four-day festival called Born & … Read more

Music teacher found out about McGill school closure on Facebook

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Music teacher found out about McGill school closure on Facebook

After more than a century of serving the Montreal music community, the McGill Conservatory of Music is closing its doors — a decision one stunned staffer says she found out about on Facebook. The McGill Conservatory of Music announced on Monday that operations will cease at the end of the summer. The Conservatory is a … Read more

The bestselling books in Canada for the week ending June 22, 2022

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The bestselling books in Canada for the week ending June 22, 2022

There’s a raft of interesting new fiction and non-fiction on this week’s Bestseller lists. Notable new fiction includes “The Hotel Nantucket,” this year’s entry in Elin Hilderbrand’s reliably immersive summer series. It arrives on the list at No. 2. The other big debut this week is “Long Gone Missing,” a new thriller from Fiona Barton … Read more

8 books for kids to read for fun this summer

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8 books for kids to read for fun this summer

With dream-like enchantment, the wordless, immersive “The Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky,” by Kim Jihyun (Floris, $25.50, 32 pages, ages 4-7), draws kids into the leafy tracery of trees and a lake’s silent fishes and frondy undergrowth. A curious city boy explores his grandparents’ country home, venturing through the woods … Read more

Toronto writer Ann Shin wins $20,000 Trillium Prize for North Korean novel ‘The Last Exiles’

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Toronto writer Ann Shin wins ,000 Trillium Prize for North Korean novel ‘The Last Exiles’

Debut Toronto novelist Ann Shin has won the Trillium Book Award for her first novel, “The Last Exiles,” at the 35th anniversary edition of the prize geared to honouring Ontario writers. Four awards in French- and English-language categories were handed out: English book, French book and one in each language in poetry. The winners of … Read more

Experts Mindbender and DJ DirtyHappy on concert etiquette

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Experts Mindbender and DJ DirtyHappy on concert etiquette

After two years of being in live music precarity concerts are back in full force and some big players are lined up for Toronto this summer. The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Harry Styles, Charlotte Day Wilson, Joey Bada$$ are all on the docket, along with OVO Fest, Manifesto and Toronto’s first ever Rolling Loud festival. So … Read more

Penny’s ‘dragon’ flies! Picked up on first try

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Penny’s ‘dragon’ flies! Picked up on first try

Penny Mitton would show you her file of rejection letters — you know how authors preserve these reminders of disappointment, these vetoed hopes, as stinging goads to keep motivated and sharp, to prove naysayers wrong? She would, but she doesn’t have a rejection file. She doesn’t even have a rejection letter. She scored on her … Read more