February 15, 2009 What can I say about February? It's one of those contentious months with staggered reading weeks so university students don't throw throw themselves off of the Bloor street viaduct, Valentine's Day meets love-holiday-haters everywhere (does anyone actually buy those cheesy Hallmark bears?) and Family Day touts its obvious holiday mandate of helping those stragglers beat the last residues of seasonal depression. February just seems to anticipate its own end in a sunnier Spring, and is always trying to make up for itself, for its own impossiblity: [caption id="attachment_5955" align="aligncenter" width="380" caption="Maira Kalman | From the NY Times"][/caption] Luckily for us ...Read More
Conceptualizing a local music scene in the contemporary cultural landscape is plausible, but it seems to romanticize days when local communities were actual physical communities. I don’t mean to say that the Internet is crushing all our hopes for face-to-face community interaction, but it is impossible to ignore the effect that digital interaction is having on popular music. It’s easy to get caught up in romanticizing places like Seattle, or CBGB’s, or Greenwich Village. These places were crucial in fostering particular attitudes specific to artists living within a particular space. Confining them to geographical locations often allowed these communities to ...Read More
Spoiler alert for them folks still preparing for An Education from Lone Scherfig. I shall spoil everything, just like the trailer. Let me throw it out right now that I have a thing with trailers: I can never make it to the end of them. Without any brain-blasting logic behind said rationale, here’s why: halfway through a trailer, if the film looks dumb, I close it and look for another. If I am SOLD (in which my viewing of the mentioned film is expected or appropriate), then continued viewing will only lead me to the inevitable condition wherein more images ...Read More
Pedestrian: Pe-des-tri-an (Puh-des-tree-uhn) 1. Walkers, jaywalkers, car-less wonders. Frequently mistaken for new-age hippies; this stems from the ecological aspect of their actions, though the aforementioned hippies are typically the cyclists of the city. 2. Pedestrian is a term referring to those who propel themselves forward on their own two legs, despite technological advances of vehicular support. Clenching their coffee cups and darting between traffic, the pedestrian commuter is at home in the urban jungle, and surprisingly they are not yet extinct. The reason for pedestrian behaviour is varied among practitioners; for some it is exercise, for others it’s simply a lack of car, ...Read More
Let’s face it: I love theory. I live for it, I crave it, and desire it. I’m a theory head. A theory junky. Yet there are some theories which are just plain idiotic and have no merit: I’m talking about conspiracy theories. What are conspiracy theories? How are they different from other theories? And perhaps the most important question of all: what constitutes a theory as credible? It’s interesting to note that there exists another branch of genuinely bad theory, and that is the recently new cultural phenomena of marketable ‘secret’ theories such as the Oprah Winfrey-backed The Secret and ...Read More
What this essay is about: Your life as a cinematic experience, narratives as emotional crutches. Question you may ask yourself halfway through this essay: How many times can a writer make reference to John Cusack while ostensibly reviewing a film starring Colin Firth? Relevant quotation from my notebook from a couple weeks back: Bitten by the wind, turned around fast, and punched in the face. A frozen moment in a sea of time. Legend: She/ Her=Ex-Girlfriend I spent Tuesday in shock. It was 6 PM when my driver’s training class started and I was sitting ignorantly in the corner of the ...Read More
Here is a fairly legitimate neo-blue-eyed--soul outfit coming out of Calgary. Growing up in the territory of that city's bitter hockey enemy, Edmonton, seventeen-year-old me would never have believed that anything worthwhile ever came out of Calgary. Hell, I would never have allowed it. Which of course isn't to say that Calgary is devoid of musical talent - it is after all home to one of Canada's most talented contemporary songwriters, Chad VanGaalen, in addition to being at least partially responsible for one Leslie Feist, who grew up there - just that, and I don't say this as hailing from ...Read More
Over the past year or so, Dirty Projectors have gotten their due and David Longstreth has quickly been recognized for his outrageous musical output over the last decade or so. Over the next little while the band will perform their gloriously weird album The Getty Address in its entirety with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at a few select shows. If you haven’t heard The Getty Address, it comes off as a sort of gospel hip-hop album that would be impossible to dance to most of the time. It’s an exhausting listen but the wonderful intricate craftsmanship makes it absolutely essential. So ...Read More
Since I first laid my hands on their initial release in 2009, baffled by the logistics of perfect binding books by hand, I've been intrigued by the spirit of the Ferno House micro-press. Comprised of Spencer Gordon, Matt (The Door) Laporte and Arnaud Brassard, Ferno House is a fledgling press in Toronto that has taken the art of bookmaking personally. Editing, designing, and producing all of their books in-house (literally in their house, where the three are roommates), Ferno House has created a niche for itself that borrows from the DIY aspect of chapbook presses, but packs the zeal for ...Read More
Gary Taxali and the team at Narwhal Art Projects have brought together a collection of original illustrations by Taxali. Hundreds of works are assembled in groupings that flow like a free form comic strip. Ranging over the generous displays is an experience that lends itself to playful associations amongst neighbouring illustrations, while demonstrating Taxali’s dexterity as a visual communicator; tracing themes throughout the exhibition is inevitable. Common visual tropes, such as the delicate tones of antique papers and the imperfections that come with Taxali’s screen-printing process, along with a crew of retro-Americana characters, carry a viewer along the busy walls. [caption ...Read More
Getting off the bus, we were pinned in between the sign that said ‘Welcome to Toronto’ and another that said ‘Welcome to Markham.’ Across the intersection’s two cold crosswalks was a mall. Now I know, Toronto has plenty malls. Dufferin, Eaton, Yorkdale, there’s plenty options of places to shop and overcrowd on Boxing Day. But there’s one mall that’s different, has an identity so to speak, which isn’t hard when you exclude a Banana Republic from your innards. It was a mall that me and handfuls of friends would venture to after the slower winter high school days. And despite ...Read More
Even those on the very periphery of the comic book landscape have heard of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen - it’s difficult to escape these two books. I can’t overstate the degree of influence the two have had on comics for better or worse since their debut in 1986. It almost feels silly to talk about them, but as there’s always someone new getting into comics (which is a group I want to encourage), how about I talk about these books a bit and get you guys up to speed? Both are deconstructions of the superhero comic, picking through ...Read More
“You know, we’re really like the coffee-and-cigarettes generation, when you think about it. You know what I mean? In the ‘40s it was the pie-and-coffee generation.” Tom Waits It was a dry and unseasonably warm February morning - though this is Canada, so unseasonable is a relative term - when I met Toronto author David Nickle in a café called the Tango Palace Coffee Company on Queen Street East. When thinking of how to describe said café, the word “cozy” comes to mind and sticks there hard and fast. Apparently they also do good business, as we learned competing over the buzz ...Read More
The history of The Band is easily one of the most fascinating in the canon of popular music. We all know the story: four Canadian dudes and another American dude form under the banner of being rockabilly mainstay Ronnie Hawkins’ back-up band, have a falling out with Hawkins, become Bob Dylan’s band, go off on their own to become one of the most critically acclaimed rock groups of the late sixties (all the while achieving middling commercial success) and cap off their illustrious career with one of the most famous rock concerts ever. No big deal or anything. I must admit, ...Read More
So… it was a weird month for the TTC. Off the bat I should point out that this piece slanders just about everyone involved in any recent TTC-related news, as well as a certain faction of TTC riders, and also the Toronto Star. The moral of this story: everybody sucks. Full disclosure: I suck too. I see you eyeing that ‘Back’ button. I know: some jackass on the Internet has an opinion about something. Hoo-Ray. Just hear me out, OK? OK. So, in chronological order, let’s start off with the first in the long string of unfortunate incidents: the McCowan station ticket collector debacle. Alright, yeah, ...Read More
Hi my name is Megan, and I'm a Toronto-based freelance illustrator. Having grown up in the city, I attended the Ontario College of Art and Design to eventually graduate with a Bachelor of Design in illustration. When not hunched over my drawing table, you can find me immersed in a book, playing with my ever-growing toy collection or zipping around the streets on my longboard. © Megan McKenzie © Megan McKenzie I tend to get sick of things quickly. This factor, in combination with a need to get my hands dirty, has led me to work in mixed media – everything from spray ...Read More
Sweet Shaddock | Photos by Madd Hattere The good captain Shaddock brought grapefruits to the sunny shores of Jamaica over one hundred years ago, and when Count Odet Phillippe planted the first Florida grove in 1823, he could not have foreseen the integral contribution the fruit would supply for the State infrastructure. With a number of varieties [Ruby Red, Pink, Thompson, Marsh and Duncan] and an absurd growing season that runs from October through to June, the Florida grapefruit company has a powerful impact on the residents of Florida; as an executive branch of State government, the Florida Department of Citrus ...Read More
How does one discuss sound in a medium that necessarily removes it? Listening to music is so easy these days. Everyone knows about everything. Sure, things can still be under or over rated, I suppose, but the point is that no matter what you want to listen to, it will be accessible almost whenever the whim strikes you. But so what? What does it all mean? What does this constant sonic picture blasting forth from every corner of the globe say about humanity? How can we discuss these things relationally when they all form a constant and unbreakable feedback loop of ...Read More
