Bay n’ Gable
When he visited Toronto to shoot an episode of The Layover, the late Anthony Bourdain, with characteristic bluntness, kicked things off by bemoaning the state of the downtown core. “It’s not a good-looking city,” he said. He went on to amplify his reservations, declaring (I’m paraphrasing here) that the city had fallen victim to the…
Found in: Issue 1: Fall 2022The Indignity
It was on a Sunday that we first noticed the smell. We lived in an apartment on the third floor of a low-rise in Parkdale, right off Queen. It was one of the few affordable rental buildings left, constructed sometime in the seventies. No one built these anymore – now only condo towers time-lapsed into…
Found in: Issue 1: Fall 2022One Night at the Celestial Bar
The celestial bar was busy when Gabriel arrived. Puriel and Dokiel were slumped at the corner table, weary heads resting on their palms, sipping their drinks and not saying much. Raziel was at the end of the bar, shuffling papers in and out of his black briefcase, glancing around every time the golden locks clicked…
Found in: Issue 1: Fall 2022We Had Hummingbirds
The basement in our little house served the functions of an attic and a storage space for beer cartons. “I’ll be so glad to have this cleaned up,” my mother said, digging her nail underneath the pull tab of a Coors Light. A pop, a hiss, and immediately after, a long, needy guzzling. “Oh, Sam,…
Found in: Issue 1: Fall 2022Three Movements
She’d developed a stubborn habit of forgetting at least one of those three vital accessories which a person ought never leave the house without – her phone, her purse, her keys. She had always been absent-minded, but this went beyond absent-mindedness: it was too regular to be absent-mindedness. It was as though she scheduled these…
Found in: Issue 1: Fall 2022The Gerrard Street Mystery
with an introduction by Bridget Fairfax. It is a well-known fact that Torontonians through the decades have shared a common unfavourable trait – they have always discarded their history. Take Fort York, which arguably marks the beginning of the metropolis we know today. It had to ward off no less than three destructive attempts: 1)…
Found in: Issue 1: Fall 2022
