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    Richard Trapunski

    Richard has been covering Toronto’s music scene for over a decade – first at NOW as a young, relatively unjaded freelancer, then as the editor-in-chief of Chart Attack, and now back home at NOW. He’s served on the jury for both the Polaris Music Prize and the JUNOs and has been nominated twice for best music journalist at the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards. (He lost both times to Alan Cross.) Richard was born in Toronto and came of age in the beer-soaked rock clubs that are now sadly endangered. He’s an over-thinker when it comes to music, but generally likes any genre you can throw the word “weird” in front of. He was once called a “mush-brained millennial blogger” by a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter and “actually a pretty good guy” by a Juno-nominated director.

  • Boosie Fade nearly ended, but Toronto’s favourite hip-hop party is being reborn

    Boosie Fade never got to throw its final party. Toronto’s favourite hip-hop party was counting down to that blowout final event in May of 2020,...
    James Rathbone (left) and Jordan Sowunmi of Boosie Fade
    CultureMusic
  • Tame Impala, HAIM and Olivia Rodrigo all announce concerts in Toronto

    Concerts are running at 100 per cent capacity in Toronto again, and the live music announcement schedule has caught up in a big way. With...
    Olivia Rodrigo in the video for Good 4 U
    Music
  • As Rehearsal Factory closes buildings, Toronto faces a practice space crisis

    Toronto is rapidly losing music rehearsal spaces. As they’re forced to vacate spaces they’re renting, the city’s musicians are getting increasingly anxious about where to...
    A screenshot from C3 Toronto's YouTube sermon announcing they've bought the Rehearsal Factory buildings on Geary.
    CultureMusic
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  • Review: Mustafa’s Massey Hall concert was a beautiful moment

    MUSTAFA at Massey Hall, Wednesday, December 1. Rating: NNNNN Not many Toronto artists get to play their first hometown headlining concert at Massey Hall.  For...
    Mustafa performs at Massey Hall with BadBadNotGood as his backing band.
    CultureMusic
  • The 25 best TV shows of 2021

    TV stayed winning in 2021, benefiting from streamers investing more in long-form content while even more audiences stayed home binging. Most of the shows on...
    The best 25 shows of 2021
    Movies & TVNews & Features
  • Review: Massey Hall reopens with a celebratory Gordon Lightfoot concert

    GORDON LIGHTFOOT with TOM RUSH at Massey Hall, Thursday, November 25. Rating: NNNN Gordon Lightfoot has played Massey Hall 171 times, but few as momentous as last night. It...
    Gordon Lightfoot reopens Massey Hall, November 26, 2021.
    Music
  • 77 things to do in Toronto during the holidays

    Nick Lachance Kids & Families Walk the cobblestone streets of Distillery Winter Village Formerly known as the Toronto Christmas Market, the Distillery Winter Village is...
    The inside of a fish sculpture at Snow Magic
    Culture
  • Toronto Pillars: The Rex Hotel has a long legacy in the Toronto jazz scene

    The Rex Hotel is once again one of the busiest music venues in Toronto.  While many spots have come back to life in fits and...
    The Rex on Queen
    CultureMusic
  • Restaurant culture in Toronto is due for a reckoning

    Restaurants sell food, but they also sell fantasy. For the length of one meal, you don't have to think about groceries or dishes or, depending...
    Food & Drink
  • Ramy Youssef is coming to Toronto in December

    Good news for those who are eagerly awaiting the third season of the Hulu/Crave show Ramy: the show's creator, Ramy Youssef, is coming to Toronto...
    Ramy Youssef
    ComedyCulture
  • What Travis Scott’s Astroworld can learn from the Toronto Radiohead stage collapse

    On November 5, Travis Scott's Houston Astroworld turned tragic. Eight people were killed and hundreds were injured, including two teenagers. In the week that's followed,...
    Travis Scott
    CultureMusic
  • Readers’ Choice 2021: Toronto’s best stores and services

    It's been another tough year for small business owners in Toronto, with many stores still operating under pandemic restrictions. There are many reasons to be...
    Come As Your Are
    Lifestyle
  • Readers’ Choice 2021: Toronto’s best activists, politicians and public spaces

    For the "Cityscape" category in our annual best-of-Toronto Readers' Choice poll, NOW readers name the people, activist groups and politicians making a mark on the...
    Desmond Cole at a press conference for encampment residents in summer 2021
    News
  • Readers’ Choice 2021: Toronto’s best tech, apps and social media

    Best Dating App Bumble Toronto women seem to like making the first move. That’s the whole premise of Bumble (at least for straight daters) where...
    CultureTechnology
  • Readers’ Choice 2021: Toronto’s best music

    Best Blues/Jazz Bar The Rex Hotel While other music venues have been slow to return from the pandemic, the Rex has gone full force. After...
    The Rex
    CultureMusic