When it comes to cheap eats, it seems the past 12 months in Toronto were all about three things - burritos, burgers and poutine. Yup, this was the year that burgers went gourmet. We had hints of this in 2007 with the emergence of The Burger Shoppe in Riverside; but since then it seems that almost every downtown 'hood has claimed a Mcburger alternative of its own, from the bison variety in Parkdale to organic on King West to an Australian pineapple concoction in Cabbagetown.

And what better to pair with burgers than poutine! Was it me or did half the restaurants in the city scramble to add some variation of La Belle Province's gravy and curds staple to their menu? But none went as far as a new spot at Adelaide and Simcoe that features 15 different varieties including the gut busting butter chicken poutine.

Toronto event listings for Thursday, January 8, 2009:

1. METHUSALEM or the eternal bourgeois
Watch a self-indulgent, self-centred bourgeois family face the demands of a worker's revolution. (And then point and laugh at the audience members not wearing a Che shirt.) Opens tonight and runs to January 17.
Whippersnapper Gallery. 587A College Street.
STAGE / 730pm / $15 / website

Photo: "Honest Ed's" by byronjyu, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

The Bloor-Yorkville Cartier boutique was held up by unsophisticated gunmen yesterday. Apparently the burglars went after the lower end goods in the store. I'm not so sure that's a bad idea, though. I'm no expert on crime and dealing stolen goods, but I'm thinking it may be easier to quietly peddle "lower-end" Cartier. Besides, the return on investment will be impressive no matter what when you acquire goods for free.

A somewhat more sophisticated criminal had his west-end grow-op busted yesterday. The unnamed suspect had expertly dug a tunnel between two neighbouring houses, which he owned, and he could shuffle plants back and forth between the basements, which were closed off from the tenants occupying the rest of the houses. The seized plants were worth $385,000 so I get that this business is lucrative, but somebody with that much ambition and know-how could probably go far in the world. Legally.

From the public service department, Statistics Canada is warning that a fraudulent agency is calling people and requesting personal information under the guise of StatsCan. As much as you may be tempted, don't be giving out your credit card, bank account or other personal numbers over the phone (unless you know for sure it's legit).

Sara St. Onge. New City Hall.

Music videos will never be the same as they were in the 90's. Opulent sets, armies of extras...that era is over, about as dead as the compact disc.

Lower budgets have brought at least one advantage to the medium; more artistic freedom. Young directors like Sara St. Onge have been remaking the music video industry in their own image, cutting back the corporate slop of the gay 90's and substituting cleverness for cash.

TIM #90 is proudly sponsored by Zune by Microsoft.

First podcast of 2009! Let's celebrate that... by listening to an interview with Ben and Branko from Dinosaur Bones!

Featuring:

We Were All Invincible by Arietta
No Memory by The Hey Now
When All My Days Are Through by Jenny Omnichord
NYE by Dinosaur Bones
Love Is On Your Side by The Love Machine
Reach Out by Noah's Arkweld



Other ways to get the podcast:

Listen | Download the podcast
iTunes | Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes
RSS | Add the TIM Podcast feed to your RSS Reader
Search | Search the audio on Podzinger

Submit your music to the Toronto Independent Music podcast.

From rice bowls and onigiri to amazing blooming tea, Bloom Cafe on Baldwin offers lots of healthy lunch and breakfast options - plus a chill out space and warm drinks to get us through this snowy winter.

Get all the details and photos in my profile of Bloom Cafe in the cafe section.