Bingo and other weekend fun in #Toronto May 24-26, 2013

The 2nd Floor has a Midnight MRKT on Friday, May 24 and a grooving BINGO night on Sunday, May 26 (I love their poster, at top). See details below.

Midnight MRKT: A pop-up night market pairing music, drinks, street style and food, local retailers and DJs Johnny Hockin and Lucie Tic from 8pm-2am. Friday, May 24 from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. 2nd Floor Events, 461 King St. W. Vendors include: Shoppalu, Vitaly Design, AKS Artworks + Saloon, SCREVVFACE, Spontaneous Reality, CMP Originals , BE Chic Jewelry, Diptych, Alex Davey Illustrations , Bird at the Window, Worn Journal, Hillary&Denise,Novology, NAVA and more to be announced.

2nd Floor Sunday Bingo from 3-7pm and $5 for 5 cards, with an awesome throwback/lazy Sunday prize extravaganza. "Eat food. Drink drinks. Play bingo. Share a lazy Sunday afternoon with new friends, the thrill of the bingo board filling up, cool prizes, DJ's spinning, cocktails and more!"

Anime North starts Friday at the Congress Centre, DesiFest is Saturday, May 25th at Yonge-Dundas Square, the Spring Bird Festival at Colonel Samuel Smith Park is also on Saturday and Doors Open Toronto is Saturday and Sunday.

#Toronto @BlueJays Autograph Session

The mighty boys in blue were recently at the Eaton Centre to sign autographs for fans. Baseball players Casey Janssen and Darren Oliver were at the Yonge-Dundas Sears Jays Shop location on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 during the lunch hour to meet their fans and sign memorabilia – only one item per fan was allowed. The fans were issued wrist bands and waited patiently for the professional ball players to show up at the scheduled time.

#HondaMotoretta Scooter Boutique

Canada's first Honda dealer to specialize in scooters launched at @Motoretta in #Toronto. The store is in the heart of Little Italy at 554 College Street, just west of Bathurst and I found the place because of the array of cool scooters parked out front. The city was made for scooters - except maybe in the winter!

The party started early in the evening of Wednesday, May 22, 2013 with tasty treats and a few cocktails and finished with Dave Gardiner, Honda Canada VP of Sales and Marketing, handing over keys to a brand new scooter to a lucky driver.

The variety of Honda scooters was pretty impressive. "Easy to ride, easy to park, easy fuel bill. Scooters are made to get around town with fun, not fuss -- all with the convenience of an automatic transmission."

#Toronto Spiderman battles mini-foes

The web slinger draws a crowd with young children amazed at the poses shown by the superhero.

Jewish Music Week in #Toronto

May 19-26, 2013 brings a full schedule of music during the 3rd year of the annual music festival with concerts, recitals and other musical events to our city. During the Victoria Day weekend there was a music marathon in Nathan Phillips Square featuring Klezkonnection, Resa's Pieces Concert Band and the University of Toronto's Jewish a cappella choir.

The program includes morning, mid-day and evening concerts and events.

"Jewish Music Week in Toronto is an exciting week of concerts, recitals and musical events throughout the GTA. 2013 marks the third year of this festival that celebrates Jewish music, as well as the Jewish contribution to genres of music not generally thought of as Jewish. Our programs include Sephardic and Klezmer, Holocaust music and Israeli pop, Broadway and Hollywood, Chassidic Nigunim and Yiddish Theatre, Jazz and Big Band, Cantorial, folk, gospel and more!

Jewish Music Week in Toronto is jointly hosted by many Toronto organizations for the benefit of the entire community. Most daytime events are free, and each Gala Evening Concert benefits a different Toronto synagogue. With performances all over town, you won't have to travel far to enjoy a spectacular musical event."

@IndyCar's Tagliani and Hinchcliffe in #Toronto

Canadian IndyCar drivers Alex @Tagliani and the Mayor of @HinchTown, James Hinchcliffe, take a break during the run up to the 97th Indy 500 to return to Canada to meet the media. The Victoria Day meetup, ahead of our summer Honda Indy Toronto race, took place along the Queen's Quay waterfront beside the new Amsterdam BrewHouse (which will hold the Official Driver's Party in July). Honda Indy Toronto President Charlie Johnstone provided introductions and moderated the question and answer period.

Honda Indy Toronto President Charlie Johnstone

After one week with the final qualifying sessions and bump day at the world famous Indianapolis raceway Indy 500, the drivers can look forward to next weekend's Sunday, May 26, 2013 race. After the Indy 500 the teams return to the Detroit Belle Island course for their first doubleheader of the season, then onto Texas, Wisconsin, Iowa and Pennsylvania and then from July 12-14 it's the Honda Indy Toronto doubleheader.

IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe

Ontario native James Hinchcliffe moved from Indy Lights to IndyCar in spring of 2011, since then he has steadily climbed in rankings and popularity, especially when he slipped into Danica Patrick's seat and took over the Andretti Autosport team, Go Daddy, vibrant green #27 car in 2012. This year he has already won two races (St Petersburg March 24 and Sao Paulo on May 5) and sits in 4th place in the overall standings with 112 points. He will start the Indy 500 in row 3. Talking about Toronto he noted that street races really beat up a driver and hoped that the fans respond positively to the two individual IndyCar races because it is extremely difficult for the driver and race teams. James only spent a little time in the last Indy car version, but much prefers the new car with its better downforce.

IndyCar driver Alex Tagliani

As Victoria Day is the unofficial start to summer it was a perfect time for the release of the Summer of Tag which is Alex Tagliani's new educational program. The Quebec born driver of the Barracuda #98 car is helping to spread knowledge of allergies to schools and the public while still having an impressive string of race finishes early in the 2013 season. Alex will start in the 4th row of the Indy 500 race. Later in the season Alex will partner with D.J. Kennington for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres, Aug 9-11. The driver talked of his preference for the new Indy car and of the importance of help and financial support from friends, family and sponsors. He noted that early drivers that want to continue racing required 90% hard work obtaining funds and only 10% driving - which is the fun part. The double headers are hard work for the teams, but good for fans and hopes that people will be able to see at least one race in the city.

Relaxing on the Muskoka chairs

Talking about superstitions Alex said he only has one, he has to get int he car on the left hand side, while James likes to change things so he is always doing something different, this way he knows his result is on how he drives, not on how he puts on his boots.

Several up and coming local kart racing stars, pictured below, also met with the drivers and posed for photos with the two professional drivers. James Hinchcliffe jokingly told the young drivers to pick up golf clubs before they become too good at racing and take over their jobs!

Our summer blockbuster race weekend starts Friday, July 12 and continues on Saturday, July 13 with a full race and onto Sunday, July 14 with another full race. Toronto race President Charlie Johnstone says "As a direct result of our consumer survey, race week festival and race weekend activities have come to the forefront of priority for our team this year. We are expanding the off-track programming schedule, in an effort to ensure that we offer something for the entire family, you and your buddies, race fan or not. We have tasked our team with building out an-off-track event schedule as detailed and packed full as the on-track schedule already is."

Auto racing media statesmen; reporters Dean McNulty from the Toronto Sun and Norris McDonald from the Toronto Star are just some of the media personalities attending the event

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

The weekend Victoria Day SpeedFest racing at @CTMPOfficial had plenty of excitement and burning rubber as the 2.459 mile road course schedule was jammed with the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, The Canadian Touring Car Championship and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. The park itself was full of RVs, campers and parking lots full of racing fans checking out the new and improved facilities of the Bowmanville, Ontario race park.

Jeff Lapcevich, Louis-Phillipe Dumoulin and Jason Hathaway

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series stock cars battled for the Pinty's presents the Vortex Brake Pads 200 on Sunday, May 19. Driver J.R. Fitzpatrick earned the pole position but mechanical problems kept him out of contention while Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin took the checkered flag with his first career series win. Rounding out the top three were Jeff Lapcevich and Jason Hathaway. Defending series champion D.J. Kennington finished 4th and Robin Buck ended up number 5.

Jason Hathaway with the Rockstar ladies

J.R. Fitzpatrick in the pole position prior to driver introductions

Kerry Micks, Scott Steckly and Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin

J.R. Fitzpatrick

D.J. Kennington and Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin

Martin Roy's #90 car has a little engine fire

Racing at turn 1

Winner Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin sprays his team with champagne

@HarbourfrontTO #Toronto International Circus Festival

A free weekend of activities by @harbourKIDS with acrobats, daredevils, clowns and buskers fills the May 18-20 Victoria Day long weekend at Harbourfront Centre.

You can find fun activities for children of all ages at The Circus Academy, Zacada Circus, Silver Strings Marionettes, Morro & Jasp, Natrel Tumble n' Swing Workshops, Elephant Thoughts Human Gyroscope, the Clownification Station and Wizard of Oz Face Painting and many more thrills wait for you down at the waterfront attraction.

See more of the circus after the jump.

City view by the waterfront

 The #Toronto skyline rises high from the waters of Lake Ontario. 

Actor Vincent Walsh stars in Played

Vincent relaxes in between takes during filming for the new CTV series "Played" on site at Roundhouse Park on Friday, May 18, 2013. I had run into the actor recently during filming at Yonge-Dundas Square. The 13 episode, scripted drama series will air in one hour shows in the upcoming season. Vincent Walsh plays undercover police officer John Moreland.

#Toronto Strip Show at Steam Whistle Brewing

Comics and collages from artists featured at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival were hanging from the walls of the brewery as a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the festival.