Archive for December 2009

December 15, 2009 Well, we survived 2009. I guess this warrants a sentimental retrospective of what has made this year so awesome for SB, but I’ll leave it to the eager archive scrollers and search engine fiends to familiarize themselves with the oodles of fun we’ve had for the last twelve months. Instead, I want →

Men and women are different. Captain Obvious, right? I mean, everyone knows that. But what is it that makes us different? And why is it that we are different? And how do we define these differences? In fact, how to we define men and women? Sounds like I’m launching into a first-year gender studies class, →

Necessary Angel’s Hamlet, with its recent run at the Enwave Theatre as a part of Worldstage, might be the perfect example of why the world needs at least a ten year moratorium on everything Shakespeare. Don’t get me wrong, this production didn’t bring me to hate Shakespeare. It’s the quite opposite, as I am requesting →

My chilling legs stamping up and down along Sherbourne street, breathing the fresh new ghost out of my mouth into the cell phone. Devo was in Toronto tonight. I could not miss it, I’d be dishonouring myself and everyone who thinks they know me. I couldn’t deny it any longer, friends. I must come out, →

The Carlton theatre closed down. It surprised little, and the only thing that jostles is how immediately it came to fruition. Though to me less so. Maybe I’m cold, but see it from my angle. Even pre-recession I’ve been surrounded by closing theatres. Within walkable distance is what used to be The Capitol, The Eglinton →

Photos by Zach Hertzman // Through performance and body painting, Adrian Cohen-Gallant and Sophia Ilyniak have negotiated their relationship with several issues central to the artistic representation of sexuality and the gendered subject. The early successes of this artist couple are related to two tensions in their works. One tension is the conflict between the →

This weekend marked the seventh Spike TV VGAs, where Spike TV decided it would be up to them to decide what the best games of each year are. And by them they mean you, voting online, so in fact that really just makes them a glittery middle man betwe Viagra soft tab no prescription en →

Who says that snap judgments and prejudice aren’t a good thing? Not I, Daniel Bernstein that’s for sure. Every month I take a look at the movies that we the viewing audience are to be subjected to and give my often bitter, twisted thoughts about them. I don’t need to see them to know what →

I met Adrian Cohen-Gallant and Sophia Ilyniak at Gallery 1313. They were performing as part of a live Internet broadcast hosted by In My Bed Magazine. The artist couple has created a series of body paintings since their senior year at the Etobicoke School of the Arts (ESA). Together they position themselves on sheets of →

Owning records seems kind of redundant these days. Don’t get me wrong, I still collect albums and I prefer owning a record as opposed to just downloading it. I want to tell myself that the reasons for this extend beyond simple materialism. Yes, I enjoy my collection and I appreciate my records beyond their essential →

‘Tis the season where commercialism and tinsel take over the city and people who are usually sane become superficially pious and even more obnoxious. The season where society expects you to see your family, even the distant relatives you don’t like, and your mother expects you to do all this with a smile. What’s worse? →

It’s a given that any review is going to hand the reader a pair of expectacles to wear when sallying forth to view the object in question with their own eyes. It’s a rare thing to come across an object where that taint could make a significant difference in the experience—but so help me, the →

Every month Daniel Bernstein watches an old movie of questionable quality. Armed with the belief that there are lessons to be learned in all situations, he and another Steel Bananas columnist attempt to find meaning where maybe there isn’t any. This month, Daniel sits with Sarah Beaudin and examines the modern Christmas classic “Jingle all →

Before beginning the article proper, I feel obligated to turn your attention to a recent scandal much more important than whatever the hell Tiger Woods is up to. Canadian science fiction writer Dr. Peter Watts was recently beaten, pepper-sprayed, and arrested at the Canada-U.S. border by U.S. border guards when he was crossing back into Canada. The →

If there’s one thing I can really appreciate in music, it’s things that cannot be described easily. Musical projects that defy the classic Who-Meets-Who model and that cannot be tied down accurately without necessitating a lengthy explanation are likely to intrigue me the most. I suppose by that measure then, I must be totally flipping →

From the shadows of Detroit rises an electric dream. Musician Randolph Chabot had been crafting songs since his early teens, but now as his moniker, Deastro, he hits the world with an incredibly unique brand of synthetic sound. Light but powerful, and the vocal pipes to back it up, Chabot visited the city a little →

The seascape of this installment of Killin Food is ever a-changing. In the fish and chip scene in Toronto there have been some notable changes in the last few years: local Queen East favourite Wood Green has capsized permanently; Danforth and Broadview location Deep Blue has also abandoned ship, a location previously serving some of →

My name is Dani Crosby. I am a graduate of the Sheridan BAA Illustration program and am currently based in Oshawa Ontario. I put my personality, emotions, and twisted sense of humor directly into my work to create strong visual messages that words alone cannot convey. Through my work I love to make people from →

Q: How do you keep that pace up? Three solid hours! A: I don’t know, it must be…desperation or something. Bruce. For the past three volumes, it’s been the mandate of this column to shed light on the unrecognized, uncanonized albums of the past that, for whatever reason, have been excluded from critical praise, relegated →

Bet all you commuters to York University are feeling pretty smug these days. You, with your fancy new bus lane, bet you’re feeling on top of the world; or at least as on top of the world as you can be until your subway finally comes rolling in to pick you up from in front →

What is revolution? The question, I think, deserves to be asked now, when capitalism is at a crucial time in its history. The Western culture has turned the notion of revolution into something of a cliché, a reproduced image that circulates through various media outlets and as a result, is exhausted. The very idea of →

This is the second in a series of spotlight articles on authors and works of genre fiction.  In the first, I looked at Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and attempted to define genre fiction.  I failed, of course, as all endeavours to define ultimately do.  I promised this article on China Miéville for last →

As a reflection of the chaos going on in my own life, this month’s weird news installment has no theme. Sorry holiday-lovers, there are no stories of Christmas mishaps or fubar Hanukkahs here. Prepare yourselves for wacky news stories (as usual) and many poorly-written segues. In 2005, Texas made an amendment to their marriage clause →