Preloved Perseveres!

Less than a week after a tenacious fire tore through Queen West, Preloved is back in business. As of tomorrow a temporary store will open at 24 Ryerson Ave, in the basement suite, to showcase the spring styles that fortunately survived the blaze. Opening hours are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 12-6pm.

Recently I visited the (now destroyed) store on Queen to take some pictures and ended up walking away with a reconstructed tie-up blazer in a beautiful forest green. The price tag was high - about $150 - but I knew I was going to have a one of a kind piece in my wardrobe. One of a kind style is what Preloved does best.

Queen Street Fire Photos

Queen St Fire
Originally uploaded by taxing

Flickr might be the top place to dig up photos of the six-alarm scorcher that tore though several historic Queen West buildings this morning.

The photo here by taxing is one of the best I've found from the early morning. If you're filled with intrigue too check some other flickites' sites like JL 1967, Johnny Mad or xarq.

Word is that firefighters have now gained control of the inferno though smoke continues to spread for several blocks. I can still taste it despite being over four blocks away. Riders beware - subways have been experiencing issues with lack of air circulation as well.

Six-Alarm Fire Still Burning on Queen West

A fire that broke out this morning at 5AM continues to burn on Queen Street West at Portland between Spadina and Bathurst. All residents were evacuated and no one was injured but damage to this historic stretch has spead to at least 15 businesses including Duke's Cycle, Preloved, Suspect Video, a headshop called Jupiter and Pizzaiolo. It is so bad these buildings can not likely be salvaged. Firefighters, who are still working hard to contain the blaze, revealled that there is some explosive material within one of the buildings but will not comment on what that material might be. Surrounding streets are closed to traffic.

Photo by aardvark.

Update: More photos available through fourONEsixSTYLE.

A Night at Caren's with Gondry

gondry
Originally uploaded by 416style

I messed up previously laid plans when I was offered preview passes to Mos Def and Jack Black's new flick Be Kind Rewind. The clincher was the Q&A with director Michel Gondry. Gondry's well-known in film for directing The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but it's his unique style directing music videos for the White Stripes and Bjork that gets my attention. Bad news is I got to the screening (right on time) and all the seats were filled (yeah, apparently there's a disclaimer you're supposed to read) so my friends and I had to change course. We headed to Caren's Wine Bar across the street (158 Cumberland) since I'd heard they had some swish mac and cheese and a tasty fondue too.

We sunk into our seats upstairs and I noticed that Richard Crouse, the easily recognizable host of Rogers Television's Reel to Real, was seated near to us. Hmmm...I wonder who he's dining with in Yorkville. Sure enough it's Michel Gondry, having a glass of red before ducking into the theatre to begin a round of questioning.

I wanted to give him my two cents too, tell him that my photo of him is used in his wikipedia profile, but best we could do was "So you couldn't get into the movie either?" He seemed rushed and faked a laugh, but he seemed to be doing that a dinner with his guests too. Solemn and reserved; not at all what I'd expect. Shouldn't you be a people person as an accomplished director? Maybe not. This is the guy, after all, that developed what's now called "the bullet technique", made famous by The Matrix. Oh well, I guess he's a technical guy. I can appreciate that.

We missed our chance with him and we missed the Q&A, instead we sat at Caren's waiting forever for food and drinks to have overly formal staff bring us overly mediocre food. (And, hey, shouldn't you have a decent selection of wines if you want to call yourself a wine bar?)

Besides good company the night was a bust - but hey, I did get another movie pass, to try and get into the movie another time.