You’ve probably seen the food trucks parked around the city.  Been invited to one of the El Carnita taco & art events or Toronto Underground Market events on Facebook.  Or if you’re an experienced and curious foodie, you’ve probably tasted some of the food from Toasted Tangerine, El Gastronomo Vagabundo or Gorilla Cheese.  There is a huge movement hitting Toronto right now (for those in the know) and it’s the Food Truck movement.

While Toronto isn’t the original city of the Food Truck movement (one foodie I spoke with told me that Toronto is about 3 years behind the ‘movement’), cities like New York, Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles trail-blazed a path for how Toronto could operate and set up shop.  Shows like Food Network’s “Eat Street” put a glaring spotlight on the industry and people were becoming more and more interested in these bite-sized eats that you could grab street side that weren’t just hot dogs and french fries.

The Toronto Inside Out LGBT film Festival officially starts May 17th and goes to May 27th. Everything from screenings, artist talks, panel discussions, installations and parties. So many events for everyone to check out. This LINK gives you a tease to movie trailers for the films this year. You can follow them on Twitter @InsideOutTO

The Festival started in 1991 out from “a small community of people who yearned to see film and video created by and about lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people.” It is now Canada’s largest festival of it’s kind and in the top five world wide. Over 200 films and videos from Canada and around the world will be welcome to the over 35,000 who attend. In short, The Toronto Inside Out LGBT Film Festival has a reputation “as an international leader in the presentation of queer film.” This year, the Festival celebrates their theme of “Fearless, Shameless, Timeless” with films that have come from international film makers. There is so much to see, and do this year. My blog is merely the surface of what is available this year at the Festival.

We’ve been raving about her, and for a damn good reason, Santigold will be performing on Tuesday, May 15th @ Kool Haus.

Now it’s #HumpdayHandout so you know that means we’ve got something special for you. We’re giving away three pairs of tickets to the Santigold show next week in appreciation of good music and great readers.

Membership to an exclusive club is all about cashing in on the perks. And this week for #HumpDayHandout, we’re dishing out two tickets to Young Lions Music Club’s upcoming monthly event ‘Songs: A Dance Party.

With a back pocket of featured artists from ‘Songs’ like The Drums, Young Empires, and Rural Alberta Advantage, this YLMC #HumpDayHandout is a party you won’t want to miss. A true double header, ‘Songs’ will have you bending the boards at Sneaky Dee’s with Holy Fuck’s Brian Borcherdt on the decks, all the whilst raising a toast in the name of Cousin’s brand new EP.

No Brainer, kitty cat in a cowboy hat! Bypass that line on College Street and get in to this sucker absolutely free.

How to Enter:

1) Follow @YoungLionsClub and @PinkMafia4life on Twitter. 2) AND Post a tweet that reads, “I want to get down with Holy Fuck and @YoungLionsClub  from #HumpDayHandout.”

OR, if you’re of the Facebook lurking persuasion…

1) Like PinkMafia and Young Lions Music Club Facebook pages. 2) AND Tag PinkMafia & Young Lions Music Club in a status update with the name of an artist you’d like to see featured at an upcoming Songs: A Dance Party. 

Haven’t you always wanted to be a Virgin again? Well now you can. It’s simple.

When Vancouver cannabis activist and Cannabis Culture Magazine creator Marc Emery started 4/20, did he know the event would become an annual, global tradition? Today, Emery is serving the better part of a five year sentence for  illegal possession and trafficking of marijuana seeds. He was extradited to the United States in 2010. Emery being behind bars hasn’t stopped his  fellow activists from demanding reforms of current North American legislation on Marijuana possession. Political activists and casual smokers have been gathering on April 20 to defiantly smoke up since the early nineties when the tradition began.

4/20 is recognized as a global day of celebration by dozens of cities in North America, The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and New Zealand. Today, a high profile, free event gives a global population of activists, pot smokers and music lovers a chance to do something special.  Toronto is one of many locations around the world to hold a memorial for musician Bob Marley. At 4:20 p.m. today, people will gather at Younge and Dundas Square to sing “One Love” and celebrate Marley’s contribution to activism and music. Marley’s name is almost synonymous with  reggae, guitars and activism. The event, hosted by Universal Music in Canada, is meant to celebrate his life work as well as new documentary “Marley“, directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play).

Canada is only part of the global activist movement to stop the criminalization of pot. While still incarcerated, Emery writes the aptly named Mark Emery Prison Blog for Cannabis Culture. In a recent post he brags about the enormity of this year’s celebration, noting that certain schools closed down for the day, predicting 4/20 absences. Some people may not know how to feel about education giving way to kids getting stoned. Its no mystery that opinions on this subject are as numerous as genetic stains of the plant in question. Yet,  4/20 celebrations have become engrained in the culture of Canadian cities and this year’s global, spring  celebrations are not limited to the usual rallies and marches.

That being said, Friday13 dates back to the execution of the Knights Templar for “witchcraft” in the fourteenth  century. This date has been the topic of superstition, religious beliefs and urban legends woven into western culture for centuries.

Lioness will be releasing their full-length debut, The Golden Killer, on April 17, and to celebrate we’ve taken the time to get Vanessa Fischer, lead vocalist of the band, to pump out some answers to our 20 questions. The album promises to provide a broad spectrum and is being described as Daft Punk meets Sabbath with an array of dance beats mixed with some heavy metal that is sure to get your pulse pumping.

Celebrating the new album, Lioness choose the perfect day, Friday, April 13, 2012, to throw a release party. They’re ready to put you under their spell at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.

Allyson Baker has ‘figuratively’ been around the rock and roll block.  Having been a part of the punk and blues-rock scene since the early 90s (once a guitarist for Parchman Farm), this Toronto native decided to break free from the pack and develop her own musical project entitled Dirty Ghosts.

For those who have been tracking Baker’s career, it might have been eyebrow-raising, as Dirty Ghosts and the album ‘Metal Moon’ was a completely different musical direction than she had ever taken.  Her husband (Aesop Rock helped out on the production side of things) and other collaborators supported her on the journey as Allyson who spoke to me from her tour in Portland told me, “I made Metal Moon spread out over many years.  Originally, this wasn’t made as an album to be released but more as a way for me to try different things and experiment.” Allyson explained to me on the phone that after several years living the ‘rock and roll’ lifestyle in bands, she was starting to feel a bit of a burn out and feel the pressure.  She needed a creative outlet and her Dirty Ghosts project was giving her just that. “When I started Dirty Ghosts, it was more about writing the music.  I didn’t even have a band, so it was really about how I felt the songs out.”

This Saturday at Wrongbar get your fix of turntablist DJ Craze. A legendary performer, producer, entertainer, and everything in between, Craze toured as Kanye West’s DJ and has most recently started his own label Slow Roast Records.

Multi-DMC Champion and airtight industry influence, checkout DJ Craze’s 20 Questions below and don’t miss what he’ll be throwing down this weekend in Toronto along side SLOWED, TORRO TORRO, & LUCIE TIC. Buy Tickets.

Join the Facebook event here, follow DJ Craze on Twitter, and share this post to win tickets to the show!

Diamond Rings, aka John O’Regan, has been adding some fierce androgyny to the electro-pop scene for some time now and only now has the Juno Awards stood up and taken notice of him.  With the masculine baritone coming out of the mouth of a lip-glossed, eye-shadowed skinny hipster, O’Regan has captured the hearts & nominations of the Juno Committee, having been nominated for a New Artist of the Year award.

I had the chance to speak to Diamond Rings regarding his nomination, his new album and the evolution of Diamond Rings, the fashion forward artist.

March 21 was the first night of many in the amazing showcase of raw talent that is Canadian Music Week and I hit up the Piston to see the Ottawa based band Zoo Legacy who opened the show for a long list of talented bands like Sound of Lions(another Ottawa based band representing up in Tdot) and Dream Jefferson, all of which rocked the house like no other. I could not have been more moved by the emotion and true untamed talent that performed.

Nick Pouponneau, lead vocals, a rapper by trade, started the show by forcing the crowd to move forward.

“We don’t bite” he said, as people moved up.

This was just the beginning of the engagement that Nick solicits from his audience. As the show continued, he constantly made reference to the crowd and had people making as much noise as he possibly could.