GOTSTYLE

Since we lost a day of business during the G20, we decided to stay open on Canada Day from 12 – 5pm.

It’s only fitting I’d make a post on this, considering I turned 30 alongside Pride!

Pride Toronto is celebrating its 30th year, promoting diversity and equality in Canada.

Starting June 25th until July 4th, you can expect to see a lot of the events really kick it up a notch on Wednesday, June 30th.

The week and weekend is full of great free events, catered to everyone. Expect to see some amazing free concerts from Dragonette, Cindy Lauper, and a ton of other great musicians and performance artists. You can also catch many shows with drag queens, comedians, and both local and international musical talent.

Pride week in Toronto is the largest in North America and one of the biggest worldwide. One of the main event planners are Prism Events – the famous Aqua Party is back this Saturday, complete with waterguns and bathing suits, and located conveniently downtown. On the roster for the week from Prism are Ultra Nate, Amannda, Peter Rauhofer, DJ Tony Moran, Suzanne Palmer, and the international performance artist, Lena Love.

The parties continue with the return of the Babylon Party, Revival, and new entries, titled the Epic Weekend, that feature beach ball at Hammond’s Point and a foam party.

See if you can get up onto one of the roofs of Yonge St – not only is it a great spot to watch the parade, but it’s the best place to soak people on the streets! Also, one of the best places to experience Pride is at one of the amazing beer gardens, featuring local DJs and performances artists. Word of advice: lineups get very long, so go early. But don’t leave once you’re in.

You can view all of the events for Pride on the Pride Toronto website.

Gotstyle is looking forward to celebrate with everyone – have a safe and happy pride!

We really wanted to be open this weekend, we were open on Saturday then we saw what was going down the street on King, then on Queen so we decided to close early at 5.

On Sunday we did open in the morning but were told that there would be more protests and seeing as it took my staff hours to get home on Saturday, we made the decision to close. Most of the businesses on King were closed, even the Starbucks as far away as the Libery Village was closed on Sunday.

As a business owner, the G20 was a day of lost business. Saturday we did half of what we normally would have done and my staff lost their wages for the day. If you multiply that by the number of businesses that had to shut down this weekend, or were empty because people were afraid to go out (most of the bars on King closed early on Sat), then add on the property damage costs, I would say that Toronto business owners lost millions. The governement, however, spent a billion dollars and the main thing we got out of it is a happy Harper and an agreement to reduce the world’s deficit, that I’m sure all the nations are going to adhere to… kind of like the Kyoto Agreement.

World Cup Bracket (As of June 26, 2010 - 12:15pm)

Uruguay just completed a 2-1 upset of South Korea, so I pulled Joa aside to get his take on the major upcoming matches on the upcoming Round of 16.


The knockout round is here! Lets take a look at some of the must-watch games this week:

USA vs Ghana
While the USA may not be the first team that many people have as a favourite, if you’re Canadian, lets try to support them. In the grand scheme of things, if they win, it’s great for both Canadian and North American soccer. With greater support for the sport, who knows.. we might get a shot at the World Cup in 10 years time. At the same time we might completely forget about the Leafs and make TFC the new Toronto powerhouse!


Germany vs England
The bars will still be packed for this game, despite the G20 protests. Germans and the English are known for their beer loving nature so you can’t expect them not to be out! Although it might be because you should expect a boring game (although I might be wrong). Germany is the slight favour, but for some reason my gut feeling says England will take it. Hopefully Wayne Rooney will provide the spark for his team.


Mexico vs Argentina
Good luck if you don’t get dizzy, because it’s gonna be Speedy Gonzales vs. the Flash. This match will be exciting to watch and will be at a really fast pace. And if you look at their lineups, they look like they had a few shots before the game too! Expect lots of goals and prepare to be entertained. I want Mexico to go through for one reason: if you’re Brazilian, there are two teams you have to cheer for: (1) Brazil and (2) whoever plays Argentina. My wish? Giovanni do Santos scores a nice goal, runs to the Argentinian bench to celebrate and yells at Diego Maradona to shut up!


Portugal vs Spain
What a classic game! There won’t be a favourite, even though people are picking Spain, Portugal still looks like a very strong team. The only downside is if Portugal wins, you won’t get a day or two of regular sleep in the west end area of Toronto. Expect a good amount of goals as David Villa is on fire!


Cristiano Ronaldo Stats against Spain
Passes: 13
Shots on goal: 8
Dribbles: 9
Checking himself out on the big screen: 253 times.