It comes but once a year and everyone has one. Some people lie about how many they've had, but it's considered rude to ask anyway.

It's official and they're not afraid to tell you: on January 17th, the Dinosaur Bones will be turning one year old and everyone's invited to celebrate with them at the Horseshoe Tavern.

I met up with two members of the Toronto indie band at Spadina's cheap-eats joint, the Red Room, to have a beer. While Branko Scekic -bassist- waited for CAA to fetch his keys from his locked car, Ben Fox -vocals/guitar- and I went over what the band has been up to in its early stages.

The company behind Condo Guide magazine has just launched HomeTrader.ca, a new web site (still in beta) that becomes the latest in a long line of online efforts to try to help us find a home to buy, sell or rent in the Toronto area.

In the wake of the massive failure that is Realtor.ca (280 angry comments and counting), the market is still wide open for competitive offerings. But after giving HomeTrader a bit of a spin my initial take is that its shortcomings are consistent with what's plagued so many of the other sites - a lack of comprehensive data and bad usability.

Back again, with a summary of today's selected events. Happy Tuesday, all.

Repo! The Genetic Opera
If you didn't catch the crazy line-ups for Repo! in November, then here's your chance to jump on the cult bandwagon. If the opera song titles don't get you ("Happiness is Not a Warm Scalpel" and "Who Ordered Pizza?"), then maybe the blood, gore, or Paris Hilton might. Tonight only, discounts are available for cash-strapped U of T students and their friends with fake student cards. That's hot.
Bloor Cinema. 506 Bloor Street W, (416) 516-2331.
FILM / 9pm / $6 members, $9 non-members, $4 U of T students / website

Photo: "Light Commute In Overdrive" by sniderscion, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Can't we all just get along? Toronto's executive committee of city councillors attached some notable conditions on their support of the Yonge subway into York Region. Like $2.5 billion worth of notable conditions. The move also screams turf wars since the city is pushing its own Transit City plans in what inevitably will turn into petty bickering about who gets transit money first. Get ready for it: 416 versus 905 Transit Smackdown 2009!

April Fools! Oh, right, still January. Tell that to Thomas Noftall who appeared to win $135,000 on 4 Fruit Smash scratch-off lottery tickets, only to find out that the winning combos were a printing error... and he'll get nothing. I've got an uncle who gives scratch-offs with every present he ever gives and nobody ever wins, so much so OLG's gotta have enough to cut this guy a deal.

I Bike T.O. has the scoop on how to winterize your bike, but if studded tires aren't your thing Clayton Preddy is digging his Ktrack. Although the manufacturer is targeting the city's winter bicycle commuters (or perhaps the ones who put their bikes away for winter), before you know it there will be meetings of the Green Snowmobile Club. That'll be good... snowmobilers will be able to see the angry look cyclists usually reserve for drivers who get in their way.

As recently as a few months back, on the Eastern side of Toronto's Don River just North of Queen street, sat Don Mount Court. I actually happened upon this then-abandoned location tangentially while scouting an infamous derelict 'gentleman's club' to the South of the massive housing complex; the TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Corp.) structure was home to some 232 households, until severe structural damage to the late 1960's building was reported.

The Choreographer's Ball featured a wide variety of dance acts on stage at The Mod Club Theatre last night. There were hip-hoppers, an aerial dance troupe, modern and jazz groups and even a tap dance duo.

Briana Andrade Gomes, 11, and Kelly Lopes, 12 (pictured above), collectively known as Tha Spot performed a feisty number called Single Ladies to a capacity crowd of fellow dancers, choreographers, their friends and family.

This was the fifth anniversary of Toronto's Original Choreographer's Ball, a performance showcase of some of the city's finest youth dance artists, organized by Thamovement.

While the majority of dance performances seemed to imitate the moves seen in music videos of Britney or Beyonce, there was some original choreography performed as well.