We do what we do here at Apt613 for two reasons: we have fun doing it, and we hope that it helps you connect with city in new and wonderful ways. For the most part we aren’t hard-nosed journalists, just people with day jobs and delusions of blogging grandure. We know we do somethings well, others less so (typos for example, although in our defense we’re pretty sure our spell-checker is possessed by a daemon). If you like what we do here, or if you don’t but – like a... | Continue reading article

Head over to Reddit today and ask Mayor Jim Watson anything. There were already a bunch of questions this morning and you can add yours to the list now. He’ll be online from 12-1pm, so you can spend you lunch hour checking out the answers.  Find it all in the /r/Ottawa subReddit.

There are a multitude of writers living in Ottawa, some professional, others who must sneak in a few lines of well-turned prose on their lunch break or before hitting the sack. The city is also home to a legion of readers who are as hungry for local literature as they would be for local beef or beer. Jam Jar – the brainchild of our very own Jared Davidson, an Apt613 contributor and editor – hopes to bring together these two groups. Jared’s goal is simple; to help showcase the city’s... | Continue reading article

The kitchen is arguably the most important room in a home. True, you may have more fun in the bedroom, and the living room is often the entertainment hub, but it’s in the kitchen where delicious magic is created to soothe the stomach and caress one’s taste buds.Numerous Ottawa bloggers agree that cooking is a wonderful thing to do, which is why this week’s round-up of local blogs focuses on recipes and the city’s culinary scene. To start things off, Barrhaven Bites offers an ode to the pistachio that contains an interesting... | Continue reading article

For the third year in a row we asked to you bare all in the name of pseudo science for the pleasure of your fellow citizens. Although you were slightly less forthcoming – 479 of you took this year’s survey, down from 716 the year before – there’s still enough juicy details to make for tantalizing reading. So to celebrate the season of  love and lust, we’re dishing all the dirty details. As always, please keep in mind that no actual statistics were harmed in the making of this survey. In fact, if this survey came... | Continue reading article

Welcome to the first ever Apt613 live panel. In honour of Valentine’s Day, we will be discussing sexuality and relationship issues in the national capital region with three of the city’s  sexperts: Nadine Thornhill is a sex educator and the program director for Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s Insight Theatre, as well as a playwright, poet, burlesque performer, partner and parent. She blogs about sex and relationship issues on her excellent blog, Adorkable Undies. She is also the author of our first two Big Sexy O-Town surveys. Shelley Taylor is the founder of Venus Envy, Ottawa’s favourite award-winning sex... | Continue reading article

Think you are up to date about local happenings? Test your knowledge with our local news quiz, five questions designed to test whether you’ve been paying attention. How to score: 5 out of 5: News stud! Can I have your number… 4 out of 5: You are officially in the know. 3 out of 5: Not bad, but a little quality google time may be in order. 2 out of 5: Newspapers are dying, but you should still try to pick one up once in a while. 1 out of... | Continue reading article

Greetings fellow blogophiles as we take another look at the impressive array of local bloggers. This week we focus on the visual arts, as we surf the numerous photo-blogs in our city. One excellent site is Ottawa Seen 365 Ways in 365 Days, where amateur photographer Christophe Ledent posts a different photo of the national capital region each day. (See Local Tourist Ottawa for more details on Christophe’s work). Another impressive blog is Singing Moon, which contains gorgeous snapshots of our region. If you enjoy live bands, Ottawa-based photographer and music lover Ming... | Continue reading article

Like a teenager alone with the  internet, Apartment613 editors tend to have only one thing on our mind around mid February. Not satisfied with our annual sex survey, we have decided to double down on our coverage of Ottawa’s sexual side with our first ever live panel.  From noon to  1pm this Valentine’s Day, Thursday February 14, we will be hosting a live panel on sexuality and relation issues in the national capital region with three of the city’s  experts: Nadine Thornhill is a sex educator and the program director for Planned... | Continue reading article

Welcome back to Apt613’s round-up of local blogs! Thanks to reader feedback from last week’s inaugural post, we’ve added a couple more web sites to our growing list of bloggers. This week’s highlights include entries on tattoos, poutine, self-parking cars and century-old images of the Glebe. Have tattoos become too popular? And will kids in the future reject tats in rebellion against their painted parents? Quebec City native turned Ottawa blogger Brenda, who self-describes as a belly-dancing accordion-playing librarian, shares some insightful thoughts on whether to ink … or not. Looking... | Continue reading article