The City of Toronto launched a design competition yesterday for the St. Lawrence Market fallout shelter, er, I mean, North Building. The competition brief calls for architectural teams to design plans that will replace the ugly and underused brown box of a building currently standing at Jarvis and Front with a new four-storey, multi purpose facility. It's about time.

Canzine returned at the Gladstone Hotel.

Brought to you by your friendly quarterly magazine Broken Pencil, Canzine is Canada's largest celebration of small press publishing and "alternative culture." Five bucks got me access to an all-day gigantic zine fair, interactive art installations, and a bunch of awesome activities, including a screen printing workshop... plus a free copy of BP's latest Olympics issue. Not bad for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I maneuvered the Melody Bar of The Gladstone in a daze (not sure if that was due to my previous night's festivities or because it was so packed with people). Over 150 kooky and creative zines were on display, from small press zines and comics to arts and crafts.

Writers from around the world have swung into town for the return of The International Festival of Authors, which once again brings an impressive array of all things literary to Toronto. This year's festival -- which started yesterday and runs until November 3rd -- jumps on the rebrand-wagon with a new sobriquet in celebration of its 30th anniversary: "IFOA XXX."

...Um, I'd be careful when you google that. Pretty sure it's NSFW.

On Wednesday, I headed to The Tranzac to watch Japanese/Canadian hybrid The Moist Towelettes play an adorable set of j-pop that was so bubblegum sweet it practically gave me a tooth ache.

After an hour and a half of choreographed dance numbers, costume changes and catchy songs that sounded like they belong on Sesame Street, you could say I was smitten with this campy but cute quartet.