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Leila Marshy

CRITICAL I

Into Canada’s Wild

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Canada Parks Project

by Leila Marshy
02.08.2011

I grew up camping. Two weeks every summer, rain or shine, we’d pack the trunk, pile the roof, and cram four carsick kids and two overwhelmed parents determined to “be Canadian.” We’d hit the road until we found a campsite that offered a wilderness experience — plus above ground pool, electrical outlets, laundry service, and bingo hall. If I had known the word “skanky” then, I might have used it.

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FILM

You Say Tree, Malick Says Universe

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The Tree of Life, directed by Terence Malick

by Leila Marshy
25.07.2011

Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life is so over the top, so grandiose, so keen, stretched and expansive that if I didn’t absolutely love it I would hate it. Or sleep through it, as my companion did.

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CRITICAL I

Walking Away

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Give it up for CTV Bureau Chief Kai Nagata

by Leila Marshy
12.07.2011

I’m reminded of Ursula K LeGuin when I read “Why I quit my job,” a blog post by Kai Nagata that’s currently making the facebook rounds and trending on Twitter. The former CTV Quebec City Bureau Chief, “master and commander of my own little outpost,” had it all. But, disillusioned with television news in particular and the media in general, he decided that the “ends no longer justified the means.”

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BOOKS

The Girl Next Door

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Rather Laugh Than Cry, by Malka Zipora, Véhicule Press

by Leila Marshy
06.07.2011

So, for some Hassidim, the particular practices of their faith represent a bulwark against the untrustworthy affairs of “civilized” societies. In which case, it can be argued, it’s a positively enlightened and progressive response to potential annihilation. Sounds good to me.

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VIDEO

Portrait: Adad Hannah

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Portrait of Adad Hannah, ELAN

by Leila Marshy
28.06.2011

Montreal artist Adad Hannah, as captured by the ELAN series “Recognizing Artists: Enfin Visibles!”

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CRITICAL I

Who’s Your Neighbour?

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Hutchison street referendum: The day after

by Leila Marshy
21.06.2011

The votes were counted and we now officially have more tolerance for the sex shop down the street than for an insular well-meaning community in our midst. Not to pit one against the other (talk about dirty fight), but at what point do we stop measuring “progress” by metres of fabric?

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CRITICAL I

Democracy has a Downside

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Hutchison street referendum, June 19th at the Bibliothèque du Mile End

by Leila Marshy
14.06.2011

A Swiss friend of mine participates in referendums a few times every year, responding sometimes to up to 50 separate questions. Deciding everything from the price of butter to revising employment insurance to membership in the UN, these votes call upon its citizens to partake in defining the shape of the country. When I asked [...]

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VIDEO

Tyrone Gets Off the Couch

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Portrait of Tyrone Benskin, ELAN

by Leila Marshy
30.05.2011

One of the constituencies trounced by fresh NDP blood was Jeanne-Le Ber – the riding that includes St Henri, Point St Charles, Little Burgundy and Cote St Paul. Liza Frulla made her career here; more recently it was Bloc territory, held by Thierry St Cyr. But the orange crush rolled in and now it belongs to Tyrone Benskin, the man formerly known as the director of the Black Theatre Workshop.

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VIDEO

Water Man’s Writer

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Emma Ruby-Sachs reading at Drawn & Quarterly

by Leila Marshy
29.05.2011

Emma Ruby-Sachs, young lawyer and first time author, reads from The Water Man’s Daughter. This first novel is based on her brief visits to Africa in 2003 and 2004 and weaves together the stories of three women, each of whom is struggling with decisions that will change the course of her life.

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VIDEO

Mashup Montréal

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Imagine Montréal, by Marianne Ackerman, Blue Metropolis

by Leila Marshy
10.05.2011

10 actors. 25 writers. 1 night in Montréal. The worlds of fiction, theatre, music – and now film – overlapped in Marianne Ackerman’s Imagine Montréal. Staged for the second time on at the Blue Metropolis, the words were culled from over two dozen works published since 2000. All set in Montreal, it portrays a city about to fall and about to fly. A contradiction we know all too well.

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VIDEO

Out of India

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On the Outside Looking Indian, by Rupinder Gill, McClelland & Stewart

by Leila Marshy
23.04.2011

At the age of 30, Rupinder Gill realized she never rode through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair. Ok, not exactly, but Disneyworld and summer camp were tied for a close second. On the Outside Looking Indian is Gill’s year of living dangerously, the year she decided to do [...]

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BOOKS

Travelling Light

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Three Deaths by Josip Novakovich, Snare Books

by Leila Marshy
10.04.2011

As for the money, the doctor has no intention of returning it. But such is life. A stray dog sniffs at the coffin and the father, grateful for its attention, decides to keep it.

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BOOKS

Those Pesky Billionaires

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The Trouble with Billionaires, by Linda McQuaig, Viking Canada

by Leila Marshy
21.02.2011

The years leading up to the market plunge were marked by deregulation and a financial frontier mentality. Bankers worked with politicians to ensure they had free rein in the markets. The rich not only paid the lowest proportion of tax in the US, the Federal Reserve paid back their taxes to the tune of $1.27 [...]

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BOOKS

Every Single Flute in Damascus

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The Pigeon Wars of Damascus, by Marius Kociejowski, Biblioasis Books

by Leila Marshy
02.01.2011

Something incredibly rich can happen when a writer lives in exile or seeks his inspiration from a foreign locale: Samuel Beckett in London, Gertrude Stein in Paris, Paul Bowles in Morocco, Marianne Ackerman in France. For Ontario-born longtime resident of London, Marius Kociejowski, the destination is Damascus.

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BOOKS

I, Blogius

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Unleashed, by Sina Queyras, BookThug

by Leila Marshy
20.09.2010

Weren’t blogs supposed to replace books? They were the kick-ass, democratic, cutting-edge younger siblings to their so-called elitist, shelf-hugging counterparts. Tell that to I Can Has Cheezburger, or Stuff White People Like, or Awkward Family Photos, just a few of the blogs that made it to Chapters and Indigo. “Julie & Julia” went even further, [...]

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