Eye Weekly

I’m a loyal reader of Eye Weekly and have been through its many redesigns and reorganizations. For the most part, the columnists are consistently good and the bulk of the content speaks to what I’m personally interested in: local entertainment listings, fashion, some health and music.
Compared to NOW, which is far too politically whiny and polarizing for my tastes (talks about OCAP and the endless string of wrongdoings by
local politicians bore me), Eye is refreshing and more generally appealing to the average reader. Plus the writing is sassier.
Naturally, I trust almost none of their restaurant reviews — either we have completely opposite taste in restaurants or their one time visits were highly personalized/​catered to, paid for and pre-​announced to the owners. You tell me. Mostly they shower restaurants that I find underwhelming with major praise.
Great columnists:
* Kate Carraway. My Life, My Fault is consistently entertaining and the topics are always on point.
* Denise Benson. Best Bets. Denise always lets me in on the week’s hottest shows and DJ sets, and I love her for it. She’s also a really nice person!
* Joshua Ostroff. Funny and engaging TV column that always manages to hit the mark, even when it’s talking about a show I have no interest in or knowledge of.
* Sarah Liss. Street Spirit is hit and miss so I usually skim over it, but the writing is good. I believe this used to be written by a rotation of other columnists.
I also love the «My Place» feature that takes a look at a Toronto abode, its neighbourhood, décor, etc.
The only editorial sore spot is Chandler Levack — the topics she writes about are interesting, but her writing is typically dull or worse yet, gravely uninformed. It pains me because there’ve been several interesting cover stories but I can’t get past the writing sometimes. Ruthless editing is called for here.
NOTE: This week’s issue is only 21 pages long with hardly any advertising in it. A bit troubling, no?

I used to like Eye Weekly a lot. I dug their logo, their down-​to-​earth street-​style articles, and their relative sense of humour compared to Now.
What sold the magazine to me was my obsession with their live music chart, a comprehensive 7-​day chart listing of bands in the most popular live music venues. It still exists, which is good and bad at the same time — good because the chart’s still there, and bad because… well, its formula seems a bit stagnant. It doesn’t offer me anything more than it used to 10 years ago. Plus, the classifieds section has consistently been dismal, with barely any employment or accommodation listings. However, if you’re into adult escort services, the bold and colourful, picture-​heavy adult listings can make a good conversation piece. Just saying.
A little too thin on content for regular use. Okay, but I’d probably stick to Now for the more comprehensive weekly offering.