National Network for Equitable Library Service

City Hall proclaimed 2006 the Year of Creativity. 'Live With Culture' banners flap over the city. And across the city, donors are ponying up millions for the ROM and the AGO. Culture's never had it so good. Right' The State of the Arts explores the Toronto arts scene from every angle, applauding, assailing and arguing about art in our fair burg. The essays consider the big-ticket and the ticket-free, from the Opera House and the CNE to the subconscious art of graffiti eradication and underground hip-hop.

'The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.' - Man Ray What if there were movies made the same way as suits, custom fitted, each one tailored for one person' Not broadcast, but narrowcast' Not theatres around the world showing the same globalized pictures, but instead a local circumstance, a movie so particular, so peculiar, it could cure night blindness or vertigo' Welcome to the world of fringe movies, where artists have been busy putting queer shoulders to the wheels, or bending light to talk about First Nations rights (and making it funny at the same tim

More trees. Hydrogen-fuelled cabs. Urbiology. A new model of taxation. Solar panels on big-box stores. The art of salvage. Composters for dog poo in city parks. Retrofitting our urban slabs. Gardening the Gardiner. Ravine City. What would make Toronto a greener place' In the third volume of the uTOpia series, dozens of imaginative Torontonians think big and small about sustainability.

The craft of craft, the art of craft - here in Canada we're just starting to really talk about these things. In March 1999, Jean Johnson, who runs Toronto's Craft Studio at Harbourfront Centre, organized a wildly successful symposium on the state of craft in Canada. Curators, writers, critics, academics and craftspeople spoke about all aspects of craft: history, practice, theory, criticism. Taken together, these papers create a clear picture of the vibrant crafts scene in Canada.

East/West is a guided tour of old stories and fresh perspectives on the architecture and planning of housing and urban development in central Toronto - including both success stories and perennial problems. Specially prepared maps, over 120 photos, and scores of essays cover more than a hundred sites, neighbourhoods and current issues. The editors are practising professionals in architecture, planning, and historic preservation in Canada.

Paris and London have long held a mutual fascination, and never more so than in the period 1750-1914, when they vied to be the world's greatest city. Each city has been the focus of many books, yet Jonathan Conlin here explores the complex relationship between them for the first time. The reach and influence of both cities was such that the story of their rivalry has global implications. By borrowing, imitating and learning from each other Paris and London invented the true metropolis.

The Bowery Boys' official companion to their wildly popular, award-winning podcast It was 2007. Sitting at a kitchen table and speaking into an old karaoke microphone, Greg Young and Tom Meyers recorded their first podcast. They weren't history professors or voice actors. They were just two guys living in the Bowery and possessing an unquenchable thirst for the fascinating stories from New York City's past. Nearly 200 episodes later, The Bowery Boys podcast is a phenomenon, thrilling audiences each month with one amazing story after the next.

ATTAIN FOCUS, CLARITY AND PEACE WHILE ADDING BRIGHT AND INSPIRING COLORS TO THESE UNIQUE PATTERNS IN THIS ADULT COLORING BOOK Relax, focus, reach a higher state of mindfulness and simply enjoy yourself as you transform the intricate shapes in this book into stunning works of art. Coloring Animal Mandalas offers you a menagerie of inspiring creatures, including: -Butterflies -Swans -Peacocks -Tigers -Foxes -Unicorns -Seahorses -Snakes -Lions -Dragons

Pretentiousness is for anyone who has braved being different, whether that's making a stand against artistic consensus or running the gauntlet of the last bus home dressed differently from everyone else. It's an essential ingredient in pop music and high art.

"Coffee House Press, a major nonprofit publisher, recently launched a Kickstarter for a book examining the Internet's cat video fetish. The book, if the Kickstarter campaign reaches its $25,000 goal, will be titled Cat is Art Spelled Wrong, and examine themes like what makes something art, whether art is good or bad, and how taste develops. In other words, cat videos can actually be...