TIFF: The Best (and the Rest) of the Fest
With the 34th Annual Toronto International Film Festival winding down, it strikes me as a good time to clear my head and unload a little …
Blog Archive
Dan Brown's Lost Art
Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol, which was launched Wednesday at midnight, sold more books in its first seconds than all the poetry books …
Pornography of the Puritan
Much of these past two months has been consumed by research into Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, its supposed author and the clergymen who perpetrated …
Kurt Cobain, The Beatles and the Past/Present/Future of Music Video Games
Out of context, it’s one of the strangest viral videos going right now: a digital avatar of Kurt Cobain not only singing tracks from Billy …
Lost in the Narrows
Barbara Kay and Lev Grossman seem cut from the same cloth. Both of them, in their own ways, disdain what they perceive as “difficult” novels. …
TIFF: How to Defend Antichrist as a Pro-Feminist Tract
The following is intended as a handy guide for first or second year undergrads in Cultural/Film/Women’s studies looking to put one over on their Prof …
City to City: Ban or Brand?
In the past couple of days, there’s been considerable kerfuffle regarding the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to spotlight Tel Aviv in its inaugural City …
Random House of Canada, M&S Do the Foreign Rights Shuffle
The Canadian publishing industry was scrambling yesterday to understand the implications behind the surprise announcement that two of the industry’s heaviest hitters – Random House …
Complete Physical
I have a book of medical poems coming out with the Porcupine’s Quill in the Spring of 2010. As usual, I had trouble coming up …
How to Draw Freedom
Toronto's Yarek Waszul discusses his illustration for Chris LaVigne's article on open-source software "Free For All," which appears in the Fall issue of Maisonneuve, due …
Why You Might As Well See You Might As Well Live
It's nice to see an Canadian comedy get a (relatively) major release. Opening at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto tomorrow is Simon Ennis's CanConCom You …
Capsule Commentary: Toronto After Dark, District 9, Inglourious Basterds
My eyes hurt. Between the 2009 Toronto After Dark Festival, getting caught up on recent releases, and sitting slack-jawed through Tarantino’s maybe-masterpiece, I feel like …
The Case for Mike Judge
Poor Mike Judge. The guy just can’t seem to catch a break. King of the Hill, admittedly in decline for the its past few seasons, …
Toronto: Get Spooked After Dark
Lately I feel like I’ve been acting like the Toronto International Film Festival is the only thing in the whole begotten universe worth getting excited …
The Sound of the Police in Montreal North
Last night’s Hoodstock in Montreal North was hardly “the entertainment equivalent of a time bomb”—more like a family affair with fuck-the-police sentiment. Kids played in …
RIP John Hughes (1950-2009)
While I may be a day late on this (after all, it does take an extra 24 hours for news to reach us up here …
Hetero Republican Affairs are a Gay Conspiracy
The biggest non-Glenn Beck joke in American political circles goes thusly: When a male Democrat has an affair it’s with a woman, and when a …
TIFF Update: Cody, Herzog, Romero and Moore
Two weeks ago I posted here about the first round of Toronto International Film Festival announcements. While the initial curtain call had plenty to get …
Who Cares if the Birthers are Right About Obama?
I am a Canadian-born American citizen. I can live and work in the United States, vote in American elections, and even, if I wished to …
Apatow Puts Some Less-than Funny People in His Sights
As the world lies in wait for Judd Apatow’s third feature, Funny People, to hit multiplexes nationwide this Friday, the film’s clever viral marketing campaign …
