May 15th, 2009 Jesus Christ, I am tired and overworked. I'll be honest, I'm far too tired to write any personal anecdote about sunshine etc. because I'm tired. Life is beautiful, I am overworked from doing things I love, this issue has a shit-ton (to use the technical term) of awesome goodies - an interview with country troubadour Jon Rae-Fletcher, a peep into Hal Niedzviecki's new book The Peep Diaries, more Weird News, Nerdventures and Trailer Trashin', along with an exploration of sushi found at the back of a convenience store and a some stiff admonishments for lawn-owners from a pro-pesticide ban hippy - ...Read More
Do you ever find that when you try to do anything productive in your house, you always just end up reading arbitrary Wikipedia pages and back-articles from Pitchfork? Does the combination of rumbling roommates, a cat that's always doing something weird and having all of your personal belongings in one spot make accomplishing things a grotesque ordeal? Do you ever just need to get the fuck out of your pad? Well, if you live in a shit-hole in North York, this would definitely ring true. Living downtown, on the other hand, is a whole new bushel of apples, with all ...Read More
After that self-indulgent wankfest that I wrote last month on the Balconies, I’ve been hard-pressed to figure out what to do with myself in present and future articles. Even King Frankenstein, our esteemed Assistant Editor asked me how I planned to up the ante this time - and with great skepticism and apprehension I might add. I said then that I didn’t really know, and I suppose that I still don’t really know now, but I do know one thing for certain: I can’t go back. After making such magnificently arrogant statements as I did, I really don’t see any ...Read More
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (Multi, Pub: Atari, Dev: Starbreeze Studios, Rated M) Lowdown: ++ Even if you don’t like Vin Diesel this is still the best of Vin Diesel Vin Diesel’s professional role of being macho man pedal slammer to Disney movie hilariDad probably doesn’t fancy everyone, but if I had to choose just ooooone version of Vin to take home to Ma and Pa it would have to be Riddick. Sure, maybe Vin doesn’t pull any acting muscles as Richard B. Riddick but one can debate that Vin simply is Riddick. Minus you know, the killing and ...Read More
I remember being fifteen or so and watching some trivial music news segment where this guy interviewed a whole bunch of people on the street asking them who the most feared woman in music was. Courtney Love narrowly lost to Yoko Ono. I didn’t really know anything about Yoko Ono at the time. I just knew she was old, Japanese, John Lennon’s widow, and often accused of breaking up the Beatles. This hardly seemed more intimidating than the coked-up mess that was Courtney Love. I mean, at least Yoko was never a suspect in her late husband’s death. Five years later, ...Read More
I have a confession to make. Wait did I already start an article that way? Whatever shame makes for a decent opener. So I’ve been a baaAAaad nerd, it’s goddamn Dexter season two all over again. I miss one small episode of the story, get lazy fall behind and some unenthusiastic anchor has just keeps me back behind the forum posting pack with no immediate energy to catch up. I’m sorry comic books. I don’t know how Secret Invasion ended, hell, what the fuck is Dark Reign anyways? I know, I could blame my overtime school for caging me back ...Read More
I really wish I could have made it out to more of the HOT DOCS film festival. I managed to make it out to only one night of the Toronto Jewish Film Fest last month, and on my way out of the Q & A with the Director of Zrubavel, I was sure to tuck a HOT DOCS schedule under my arm as I was carried out in the throng of movie-goers flowing out of Bloor Cinema. As I perused the schedule, there were more than a few films that were worthy of attention: Big River Man, the story of ...Read More
How did the thought process work? “A monotonous green carpet would look great in front of my house… I’m so sick of these adorable yellow and purple flowers. I will stop at nothing to rid my yard of biodiversity.” “Yes I agree. Clearly, dangerous chemicals are the best idea." I bet it sounded better as an internal monologue. Are you using your lawn to tee off when playing neighbourhood golf? If you are, you’ve probably got bigger problems than lawn care. For one, your neighbours hate you. Last year I got fliers in the mail. I saw the trucks skulking around my neighbourhood. The ...Read More
The Beatles as Postmodernists As with most things Pop-related, the best place to start this madness is with – yeah – The Beatles. It is utterly impossible to escape the relentlessly extensive range of their mighty influence - and all the same, why would you want to? Opposed to the vast majority of the Pop Music sensations of today who shall remain nameless, I would consider it fairly safe to say that The Beatles were and, arguably, continue to be the world’s biggest band for a reason; their ongoing popularity is forever restoring my faith in the music industry and humanity ...Read More
Sure, Batman, Ironman, Watch... Men may be out there making superheroes and graphic novels look cool to the masses, but if anything it’s just making it harder for the comics that inspire these social phenomena to live up to the cool quota. Well, maybe for most, not for artist/writer, Paul Pope. He makes cool look easy. His rich style, both blazing with the inspirations of Kirby’s foundations while spiraling into its own vibrant urban look has made Pope impossible to ignore over the years he’s risen. And not only does his visual style turn heads but subject matters and ...Read More
Photo Credit: Stephanie Loftus We* have all come to the conclusion that most “classic” theatre from the old white males’ traditional canon is boring. Overdone. Uninspired and unimaginative. But what are we replacing it with? Not that Shakespeare is likely top be replaced, but alternative theatre is on the rise. Unfortunately not enough people are aware of this because it doesn’t happen on main stages- companies like Mirvish Productions aren’t keen on giving stage space to risky new shows. Even though the Toronto theatre makers have broken free of the new-theatre-isn’t-popular-or-affordable stigma, their audience has not. For the first time in years ...Read More
Born in Santiago, Chile in the magical 1980's, Rodrigo grew up in a loving environment where he was encouraged to express himself through the arts. He was even expelled from a grade school for drawing caricatures of the faculty. [caption id="attachment_1630" align="alignnone" width="353" caption="© Rodrigo Bravo"][/caption] Arriving in Canada in 1996 to join with the rest of his family in London, Ontario, Rodrigo attended H.B. Beal secondary and self published a comic book series called "The Sublimes." He studied and graduated from the Tra-digital Animation program at St Clair College and after some exploration and desert trekking in the Atacama valleys in 2005, landed a sweet job at Spin productions ...Read More
We are all hardwired to respond, emotionally and physically, to the cataclysmic times we are living in. Amidst global unrest, a recession, and the sickening capitalistic struggle for money and power, we are hardwired to live, to love, and to persevere. Perhaps because this is nothing new. It is, however, new to the stage. Early Seedling Development devised and presented Hardwired: a four-installment collective creation that explores issues of human response to unstable and typically traumatic situations, an inaugural production that physically portrays the theatre company’s mandate. This new theatre company focuses on environmentally embodied work, based in the urban playground ...Read More
As a lover of contemporary cultural theory, I've made myself entirely incapable of functioning properly as a well-oiled cog in the system. Don't get me wrong, I'm just as much of a cog as everyone else, with my Facebook profile and airborne seat in the Twittersphere. Hell, I run a webzine for god's sake. I buy new shoes. I go to the movie theater. I buy packaged meat. I'm just as much of a consumer of objects and images as everyone else - the only difference is that I've had the horrible privilege of having access to thinkers like Debord, ...Read More
The summer movie season has officially kicked off. After a bit of a whimper from Wolverine and an enormous bang from Star Trek, we now have an entire four months of cinema gold to look forward to. At least that’s what I am hoping – this next month of releases has some potentially lofty highs and some utterly depressing lows. Here they are for your enjoyment, my picks for what to see and what to staunchly avoid. Terminator: Salvation Coming up next in what I’ve dubbed “the Summer of Sci-Fi,” Director McG is spearheading another attempt at getting an old, dying franchise ...Read More
Convenience stores have only entered common usage relatively recently – since the 90s became the dubious decade that wholeheartedly embraced convenience, these stores have cropped up as a necessity that had never before seemed essential. According to the Canadian Government, there are three denominations of these stores: - Convenience Store: specializes in selling basic food items, a variety of small non-food items and often includes movie rentals. - Convenience Store/Gas Station: a convenience store combined with a place for supplying motor vehicles with gasoline, motor oil, water, etc. - Franchise: the privilege, often exclusive, of selling the products of a manufacturer or providing ...Read More
As someone planning to enter the legal profession, I hesitate to announce that I find crime and delinquency to be kneeslappingly hilarious. Well, when it goes wrong, that is. I can’t be the only one who loves vigilante justice or criminals who are terrible at committing crimes. You guys like Batman and Dexter, right? Who else was like “you go, girl – cut off his balls!” when Ellen Page was torturing that pedophile in Hard Candy? Well, if last month’s theme was good intentions with poor results, this month’s must be poor intentions with poor results. I’ll start you off with ...Read More
