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Leila Marshy

NEIGHBOURHOOD

Tree Hugging Anonymous

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A new kind of exotic tree in Mile End

by Leila Marshy
27.04.2012

Tree hugging is serious business. Given that the average tree lives for over a hundred years, I can’t imagine that the occasional quickie hug does much to make the tree feel special. Where’s the commitment? The other alternative is to chain yourself to a tree, but that’s only one tree. You just know the others will feel left out. Trixi Rittenhouse solved this conundrum by stationing a cadre of permanent huggers on the 14 trees that line her Mile End block.

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BLUE MET

L’arriviste

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Ahdaf Soueif, Reality TV, and Newfoundland at the Blue Met

by Leila Marshy
21.04.2012

The Blue Metropolis has experimented with venues through the years, with none ever quite sticking. Which is a blessing. Sadly, the converging highways at the Delta Hotel were more comatose inducing than inspiring. And the only thing going for the Holiday Inn in Chinatown was, well, Chinatown.

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VIDEO

Putting Kids to Work Since 1994

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My Quebec Roots contest

by Leila Marshy
26.03.2012

When I was a kid, having a parent from an unpronounceable country – in those days that just meant it was made up of letters not in the word order C-A-N-A-D-A – was like a sin worse than bad hair or fake runners. Yes. Unpardonable. Certainly, no one ever asked me to make a 2 to 3 minute short video about “my Quebec roots” and then, just to make it all surreal and completely unbelievable, offered me an iPad for my efforts.

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THEATRE

Not the Tickle Trunk

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Traffik Femme, Segal Centre, to March 24

by Leila Marshy
17.03.2012

About half way through, I noticed a bruise on the actress’ thigh. I wondered if she had forgotten to cover it with theatrical make-up. Then I realized it had erupted during the course of the play. Traffik Femme may be a one woman show, but the brutality actress Nico Lagarde channels is very real.

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BOOKS

Storm Watch

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Road to Thunder Hill, by Connie Barnes Rose, Inanna Publications

by Leila Marshy
27.02.2012

In 1997, Connie Barnes Rose published Getting Out of Town. A collection of searing stories set in small town Nova Scotia, they were the antithesis to my mother-goose-in-a-condo life. Still, Rose’s stories of boredom, desperation and misfit love felt like my own. I didn’t need to revisit the bars of my youth or shoot more pool; I could just read Connie Barnes Rose.

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TV

Never say Never

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Neverbloomers: The Search for Grownuphood, directed by Sharon Hyman, CBC documentary channel, Monday 27 February, 8pm

by Leila Marshy
26.02.2012

Over a decade ago I read Robert Bly’s The Sibling Society and thought, damn, I better grow up. Around that same time, Sharon Hyman put her camera on a tripod, stared into the lens, and asked the very legitimate question: What does it mean to grow up and why aren’t I doing it? Never married, childless, with no discernable career, still renting, she possessed none of the conventional “markers” of adulthood. She was the arrivist who never quite got there. As she says at one point to the camera, “There are early bloomers, there are late bloomers, and then there are the never bloomers.”

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CRITICAL I

Twelve Days of Occupy

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Rover begins a holiday series looking at how we can rethink Christmas.

by Leila Marshy
19.12.2011

A little over a year ago, a 26 year old street seller in Tunisia set himself on fire. The breadwinner for a family of six siblings, Mohammed Bouazizi worked so his sisters could go to university. Harassed daily by police and the municipality, on December 17th he had reached his limit. With his produce and scales confiscated yet again, he stood outside the governor’s office shouting, “how do you expect me to make a living?” Then he doused himself with gasoline and lit a match.

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VIDEO

Art for Art’s Sake

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Rover's Art Fair, December 1-4

by Leila Marshy
06.12.2011

You came to the party. You saw the art. Now catch the video.

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ART

Know the Warning Signs

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Art. Not a pretty sight.

by Leila Marshy
30.11.2011

Rover would like to take this opportunity to warn you that Art can be very bad for your child’s health. This handy illustration will help you keep track of the warning signs. If you have reason to suspect that Art has entered the sanctity of your household or that your child is being pushed towards Art by either peer pressure or surreptitious Art viewing, please know that you are not alone.

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FILM

République of Change

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République: Un abécédaire populaire, Cinéma du Parc, to Nov. 3

by Leila Marshy
29.10.2011

Every now and then a film comes along that is a game changer. Michael Moore’s Roger and Me was that in 1989. His guerrilla filmmaking anticipated the collapse of industrial America as well as the rise of the next wave of people power. Last night I sat in a packed Cinéma du Parc and thought, this is it. Hugo Latulippe’s Republique: un abécédaire populaire is the next game changer.

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SPORT

Hockey Night in Newfoundland

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St John's has a new AHL team, the IceCaps

by Leila Marshy
24.10.2011

Inside the Mile One Centre in downtown St John’s, the sight lines are great no matter where you sit. The pregame entertainment is simple – two grown men smiling like 6 year olds bounce onto the ice and take their place at a row of pucks as an MC in a sweatshirt encourages them to aim for the net. Their success rate is about 2%. The crowd roars.

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FILM

Gone Down the Road

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Rover turns up at the St John's International Women's Film Festival

by Leila Marshy
20.10.2011

In 1970, when the term “Canadian cinema” was very much an oxymoron, Don Shebib made a film called Goin’ Down the Road. About two hard scrabble Maritimers who seek their fortune – well, minimum wage jobs – in Toronto, it doesn’t end well. Dreams are dashed and Joey and Peter, two fish out of water, turn to desperate measures.

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CRITICAL I

Loving Jack

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Jack Layton, 1950-2011

by Leila Marshy
24.08.2011

Everyone’s saying Jack Layton was a warrior. But while war metaphors make good homage and headlines, they feel paltry and rote in the wake of his death. Okay, he fought the good fight, he fought cancer, he fought for a better country. But what endeared Layton to Canadians, especially Quebecers, was not that he was a warrior. Maybe we’ve had enough of warriors and tough talkers in this province. Maybe what people saw was that Jack was a lover.

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NEIGHBOURHOOD

The Lady is a Tramp

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Empress Theatre, NDG

by Leila Marshy
15.08.2011

I pretty much came of age in the Empress Theatre. It was Cinema V in the 1980s, one of many busy repertory cinemas in the city, and I sold popcorn while putting myself through university. I also – working alone I swear – undercounted popcorn cups, let friends in for free, watched the audience through the screen, and was introduced to more drugs than you can find at Jean Coutu. Oh, and watched a few movies too.

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CRITICAL I

Correct Spelling of Hoe

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Montreal's outdoor neighbourhood markets

by Leila Marshy
09.08.2011

“Cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, mesclin, green peas…. and corn!” Laurence Chediak of Café Zigoto on ave du Parc buys her fixings twice a week at the Marché Fermier on St Dominique and St Joseph. Originally an initiative of the Maison de l’Amitié on Duluth, the Marché Fermier is now just one of dozens of city-wide outdoor markets.

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