Posts by author:

Michael Mirolla

OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

We Wish You An Oblivious Christmas

Thumbnail image for We Wish You An Oblivious Christmas

You know the joke about Interrupting Cow. Here comes Interrupting Christmas.

by Michael Mirolla
29.12.2011

Don’t get me wrong. I like Christmas (or whatever the latest politically correct designation might be). I just don’t appreciate the fact it gets in the way. Difficult to put in 16-hour days with people waving bottles of fine wine, single malt, and five-star cognac under your nose. Even more difficult to keep up the jollity when you’re slipping further and further into the quagmire known as “the deadline” or “the pit of postmodern time.”

[...]

BOOKS

Imagine all the Pages

Thumbnail image for Imagine all the Pages

The Door to Lost Pages, by Claude Lalumière, Chizine Publications

by Michael Mirolla
18.07.2011

The bookstore turns out to be a portal or entry point for an alternate universe where gods (Green Blue and Brown God) and demons/nightmares (Yamesh-Lot) fight each other with Earth as the prize. And Aydee finds herself right in the middle of the battle.

[...]

BOOKS

Mission Impossible Meets MacGyver

Thumbnail image for Mission Impossible Meets MacGyver

Zero History, by William Gibson, G.P. Putnam’s Sons

by Michael Mirolla
22.11.2010

In Zero History, William Gibson creates a by-now-familiar elegant, sharply-etched, technologically-innovative piece of writing. Not a surprise for someone renowned for riding the avant-garde wave to its limits, pulling together disparate elements of our postmodern world. At the same time, the novel displays the fast pacing, coolness and plot buildup of a slick screenplay. This [...]

[...]

BOOKS

Stretching the Vampiric Envelope

Thumbnail image for Stretching the Vampiric Envelope

Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, ed. Nancy Kilpatrick, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing

by Michael Mirolla
16.05.2010

Gay vampires. Blues-playing vampires. Taboo-breaking vampires. Bureaucratic vampires. Family-oriented vampires. Oedipal vampires. Sick vampires. Vampires who appear on Oprah. Friendly. Vicious. Helpful. Hurtful. Nancy Kilpatrick has gathered them all in Evolve, a collection featuring twenty-four 100% red-blooded Canadian writers determined to stretch the vampiric envelope.

[...]

BOOKS

An Inspired Folly

Thumbnail image for An Inspired Folly

Guernica Editions

by Michael Mirolla
22.04.2010

At a time of life when most are contemplating retirement, I went out and bought a publishing house. Not just any publishing house, mind you, but Guernica Editions, which has been in existence for more than three decades, and has produced almost 500 books.

[...]

FILM

The Butterfly Effect

Thumbnail image for The Butterfly Effect

Bruco, Cinémathèque québécoise

by Michael Mirolla
14.01.2010

“A poet friend told me an artist is independent when no one is able to make money off of him. There is no way someone will ever make money with Bruco.” Those are the words of Antonio D’Alfonso, writer, editor, publisher, filmmaker and general all-around gadfly whose first feature-length movie, shown last fall at the [...]

[...]

EVENTS

Novel Renovations

Thumbnail image for Novel Renovations

The Fixer-Upper, Lorne Elliott book launch

by Michael Mirolla
10.12.2009

Hudson’s Lorne Elliott has toiled most of his adult life trying to make people laugh – and succeeding splendidly. Stand-up comic, writer/performer of satiric and impious songs, creator of landmark Quebec plays such as Culture Shock, producer of TV variety shows, and long-time host of CBC radio’s sadly missed Madly Off In All Directions, Elliott [...]

[...]

BOOKS

The Erotic Theology of the Fantastic

Thumbnail image for The Erotic Theology of the Fantastic

Objects of Worship, Claude Lalumière, ChiZine Publications

by Michael Mirolla
26.10.2009

Gods. Sea monsters. Symbiotes. Superheroes. Angels. Zombies. Shapeshifters.

[...]

THEATRE

No Thinking, Per Piacere

Thumbnail image for No Thinking, <em>Per Piacere</em>

In Piazza San Domenico, Centaur Theatre

by Michael Mirolla
07.10.2009

Steve Galluccio will forgive just about anything – except being bored. Ex-stand-up comic, fringe theatre actor-director-producer, TV and film script writer, and the man behind the mega-hit play and movie Mambo Italiano, Galluccio won’t put up with ennui. In fact, the writer whose In Piazza San Domenico is set to open at Centaur has been [...]

[...]

EVENTS

Letter to Lenny

Thumbnail image for Letter to Lenny

Tributes to Leonard Cohen, Westmount High & Atwater Library

by Michael Mirolla
16.09.2009

Hey, Lenny … may I call you “Lenny”? Did you hear your hometown is putting together several events, including a gala evening, to honour your 75th year on this earth? And launching a book in which 75 top-notch poets (including Margaret Atwood) tell us poetically how you’ve affected them? While celebrating your three-quarter-century mark is [...]

[...]

Boosting That Creative Spark

Thumbnail image for Boosting That Creative Spark

Streams of Consciousness, Creative Boost

by Michael Mirolla
31.08.2009

Ex-McGill Professor Norman Cornett is not a person to stand still. The man behind the Creative Boost concept, which encompasses a whole range of exhibitions, artists’ residencies, and arts and language courses, has put in motion his most ambitious project yet: the “Streams of Consciousness” literature, music and visual arts series designed to help stimulate [...]

[...]

EVENTS

Montreal’s Italians Get Literate

Thumbnail image for Montreal’s Italians Get Literate

Settimana Italiana Literary Activities, Little Italy

by Michael Mirolla
14.08.2009

The Settimana Italiana has been a tradition in Montreal for the last 16 years with activities ranging from folklore groups, orchestras, operas, sports events, comedians, automotive exhibits, photography and art exhibitions, a circus, and guided tours of Little Italy. For the second year running, the Settimana will also feature prose and poetry readings in three [...]

[...]

BOOKS

More Fantasy than Speculation

Thumbnail image for More Fantasy than Speculation

Tesseracts Twelve, edited by Claude Lalumière, Edge Publishing

by Michael Mirolla
07.06.2009

Partly in an effort to escape the genre “ghetto” and partly to reach out beyond the formula of the space opera, science fiction has reinvented itself to encompass more and more types of speculative writing — to the point where even “speculative fiction” is no longer able to act as a definitive umbrella. In Tesseracts [...]

[...]

OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Noah Richler Comes to Rover

by Michael Mirolla
13.03.2009

Noah Richler opens his Rover account with an appropriate comparison between his adopted city of Toronto and Montreal, the city where he grew up. Noah’s column will make a regular appearance on Rover and we’re proud to call him one of our own. No matter where he happens to reside. So check out his first [...]

[...]