Alex Norris has a great idea. During a panel discussion on the future of newspapers, namely The Gazette – currently bankrupt and for sale – the former journalist turned Mile End councillor called on wealthy citizens of Quebec to pool their resources and buy the damn thing. Rescue our community newspaper from the clutches of remote money-makers who have run it into the ground. [more]
Benjamin “Von Wong” is a dreamer. He sees more than what’s in front of him and is inspired by everything around him. His portraits skate the lines around surrealism, fantasy, gothic couture and robust masculinity. His first exhibit Von Wong, now showing at Café Pi, comprises 41 photos whose subject matter includes such things as firemen, a ballerina, himself and pumpkins. [more]
Nicolas Dickner is French Canada’s most promising novelist. His first novel, the bestselling Nikolski (2005), earned him a slew of awards. The English edition is competing in Canada Reads this year. Here he talks about his second novel, Tarmac, which was released last year. [more]
In a writing workshop, the American poet Ed Ochester once bellowed over one of my poems, “There is no philosophy in poetry.” Generally, I find such grand pronouncements about poetry perplexing and not very helpful, but I made a note of this one. Then I mostly forgot about it until, reading Kate Hall’s debut collection, The Certainty Dream, I wondered whether poems are written for the mind alone. [more]
For the record, a young Michel Tremblay never went stateside to track down the legendary beat writer Jack Kerouac, though watching George Rideout’s brilliant new play inspired by What if … you’ll be tempted to believe he did. Michel & ti-Jean’s invitation to suspend disbelief is easy to accept. [more]
Paradis PerduFollow the last human being on Earth as he tries to recreate the world in this musical spectacle playing at Place Des Arts through Feb. 19.
By Lev Bratishenko 05.02.10
My quarrelsome companion and I argued during the intermission of Michael Mackenzie’s Geometry in Venice. She claimed I was only interested in comparing the play with Henry James’ novella, on which it is based, and that this was ‘boring’. I claimed she was drunk. Of course, I was completely correct.
Later, her slurred invectives gave me [...]
By Lori Callaghan 03.02.10
The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal is busy setting up for the winter’s major exhibitions (Marcel Dzama, Etienne Zack and Luanne Martineau) that open on February 4th. Some rooms are closed to the public in preparation for the shows, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some great art to see now. Riopelle, Anselm Kiefer and [...]
By Lev Bratishenko 02.02.10
Tosca! The name has teeth for good reason. Puccini’s opera averages a death every 37 minutes. It includes 19th century Italian politics, the homicidal lusting of a Roman police chief, a jealous girlfriend, and a superfluity of hypocrites. This is distilled opera of few peers in the repertoire, and is often a final examination for [...]
By Leila Marshy 01.02.10
Memoirs are the new black. Like most trends, they are associated with the young and bankrolled by the old. Bypassing decades of wisdom and experience (boring!), we are guaranteed a raw slice of a trembling life. France’s current celebrity memoirist is Abdellah Taïa. Author of five books variously described as autobiographies, memoirs, autobiographical novels, etc., [...]
By Danijel Matijević 31.01.10
Quite accidentally, I met Mr. Lacoursière at Pointe-à-Callière Museum’s 18th century New France Public Market event, in which he was playing the role of an “historien.” Dressed in a wide-collared frock, waistcoat, breeches, and a smart tricorne hat, he stood close to a group of raucous fishermen from Gaspé who were quarreling with three soldiers [...]
By Marianne Ackerman 30.01.10
Whatever else can be said about The Gazette, she has proven herself a worthy muse. Brian Moore’s novel The Luck of Ginger Coffey and William Weintraub’s Why Rock the Boat? both pillaged newsroom antics for material in the early Sixties. Now a former copy editor has taken another kick at the old girl, on her imagined [...]
By Tao Fei 28.01.10
Auteur cinema does not put us in a resting, gaping state; beer commercials do. French-Austrian performance group Superamas explores the straight-to-the-bloodstream effects of mass media by producing a freshly-squeezed concentrate from the familiar pulp of romantic comedies, soap operas, commercials and music videos.
The company makes its Canadian debut at Usine C with their hour-long [...]
By Mélanie Grondin 27.01.10
Choir music, like any other kind of music, has different genres. Though Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 or Mozart’s Requiem may first come to mind when thinking of choir music, more contemporary pieces exist and are still composed today.
Some of these contemporary pieces — composed by Isaiah Ceccarelli and Karen Young — were premiered [...]
By Marvin Allen 26.01.10
With the success of the recent Batman movies, a new game based on The Dark Knight was inevitable. Batman: Arkham Asylum plays to caped crusaders’ strengths focusing on combat, stealth, and the hero’s detective abilities. A Who’s Who of Batman’s greatest foes has planned a party at the asylum and Batman is the guest of [...]
