NEIGHBOURHOOD

Civilized Servant

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Fighting the good fight over a cup of coffee

by Zeshaun Saleem
27.04.2013

Forest Gump’s legendary “life is like a box of chocolates” maxim can be applied to random meetings at cafés. You never never know what you’re gonna get. Paul Richard, for example. First impressions lie as he is not your typical wealthy and wise elderly man. His wealth isn’t from his scarce savings account, nor is his wisdom from the seven decades that he’s been around. But an impromptu chitchat at his frequented Second Cup café at du Parc and Milton reveals a particular earnestness underneath his jovial cover. “I like my coffee strong,” he says, sipping it black .

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DANCE

Three Dances, Two Hands

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Danse Danse, Usine C and Danse Carpe Diem

by Cerys Wilson
26.04.2013

With only a few performances left in its run, Michele Anne de Mey and Jaco van Dormael’s spectacular Kiss and Cry at Usine C is not to be missed. De Mey has worked frequently with fellow Belgian choreographer and dancer Anne Teresa de Keesmaeker, who performed in Montreal last spring during the FTA festival. Here, the full range of de Mey’s fluency, elegance and wit is concentrated in her hands, and in the hands of fellow performer Gregory Grosjean, the four acting out the work’s five love stories on a set of Playmobil dollhouses and toy train sets.

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Remembering Books by Their Covers

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Vintage style

by Ashley Opheim
26.04.2013

I started a text-based blog late last year to capture the myriad ways text is being used and re-appropriated online. Here is a selection of vintage book covers I’ve compiled.

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FILM

Under Water

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Dolphin Boy, Cinema Guzzo Megaplex Sphèretech, April 25

by Oksana Cueva
25.04.2013

The 9th consecutive edition of Israel Film Festival takes a bow today, leaving behind an array of world-class features and documentaries, many of which are premieres: a Canadian premier: Rock The Casbah (2013) and three Montreal premiers: The World is Funny (2012), Epilogue (2012) and Out in the Dark (2012).

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BOOKS

She’s Having a Book Baby!

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And as soon as the memory fades, she's going to have another one

by Veena Gokhale
25.04.2013

Publishing a book is like having a baby. We’ve all heard that one, right? Do you recall where? I don’t. It’s an omniscient statement like don’t get wet in the rain, you’ll catch a chill. Or, don’t get involved with a married man, he’ll never leave his wife (not sure what they say for married [...]

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BOOKS

Passage to Bombay

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Bombay Wali and Other Stories, by Veena Gokhale, Guernica Editions

by Heather Leighton
24.04.2013

A former Bombay journalist, Veena Gokhale has penned her first collection of 12 short stories set almost entirely in India. While her stories impart a genuine taste and flavour of India familiar to Indophiles, there is a definite departure from tradition in this collection, giving the reader a sense that considerable change is in the [...]

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BLOGGING THE BLUE

Fluorescent Blue

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Blue Metropolis, April 22-28

by Rover Staff
23.04.2013

The 15th edition of Blue Met, Montreal’s multilingual literary festival, got off to a promising start this week with a packed opening reception at Hotel 10, festival HQ at 10 Sherbrooke St. West. Hotel 10 at 10 Sherbrooke St. West is festival HQ. But festival star Colm Tobin will appear Thursday at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

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THEATRE

A Multimedia Gem

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Gold Mountain, Théâtre aux Écuries, to April 27

by Byron Toben
23.04.2013

On the heels of Brian McKenna’s important documentary, The Secret World of Gold, about gold wheeling and dealing, comes this little gem, via Liverpool, wherein the mythical Gold Mountain has long been a dream for generations of poor Chinese labourers.

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POLITICS

How Many Muslims?

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Start counting.... and don't stop

by Eman El Husseini
22.04.2013

No matter what religious affiliation you are, everyone knows Muslims do it the worst. Why is that? It’s math – we invented it. We’re a billion. I love being Muslim for so many reasons. I’m so proud on so many levels. But my favourite? We tan so well. What works against us at the airport is a blessing in the sun.

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BOOKS

Hail Mary

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The Testament of Mary, by Colm Tóibín, McClelland & Stewart

by Elise Moser
21.04.2013

Some stories are told countless times, like threads woven into the fabric of a culture. At first they are retold because they have such imaginative power that people want to be engaged by them. After a while, they acquire a ritual power and people want to be bound by the threads – to their places in the world, to each other, to certainty. Eventually, it requires an enormous act of imagination to haul a story out of the deep grooves of ritual and back into the riskier realm of human emotion. Leave it to Colm Tóibín to unearth for reconsideration the tale of Mary, mother of Jesus.

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BOOKS

Dinner is Served

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The Dinner by Herman Koch, Hogarth Press

by Marianne Ackerman
21.04.2013

The sales potential of crime fiction, thrillers and potboilers is a situation only the monastic writer can ignore. But one wonders, can the calculations and techniques of genre writing ever produce a work of literature? By which I mean one that defines not just the mass hunger, but the spirit of our times?

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BLOGGING THE BLUE

Make Art, Not War

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Israeli author Etgar Keret at Blue Metropolis April 21

by Brenda Keesal
20.04.2013

I could be the only Montreal Jew I know who has avoided ‘going home’ to Israel, despite dangling freebie trips and subsidized holocaust-to-the-holy-land tours. It’s true I was a crack child-fundraiser for the Israeli dream, but I didn’t want to fall for a soldier (let alone be one) and burn my fire in the pit of uber-nationalism, no matter the crazy-making history that inspired it. Instead, I dedicated myself to the creation of art, diving into the fear and glory of the human heart. I am far from alone.

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The Formality of Simile and Common Parlance

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Interview with Klara du Plessis

by Ashley Opheim
19.04.2013

I know of Klara through her work with the Résonance Reading Series, a new monthly that she curates and hosts. Klara studied English literature at McGill University, focusing on 20th century poetry. Her writing practice includes what she calls ‘visual stanzas,’ which are taken from experiments in photography, collage and projection.

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THEATRE

À l’ombre du soleil

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Le diable rouge, Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, jusqu’au 18 mai

by Mélanie Grondin
18.04.2013

Je crois pouvoir affirmer, sans trop me tromper, que presque tout le monde connaît le nom du cardinal de Richelieu, et ce, grâce au livre Les Trois Mousquetaires ou à l’une de ses nombreuses adaptations cinématographiques.

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STAGE

The Importance of Being Palestinian

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Because everything is political whether you like it or not

by Eman El Husseini
17.04.2013

“Palestinian is that a religion?” “Palestinian? That’s Jewish right?” “You’re really funny for an Arab! Heck you’re even funny for a woman.” These are some of the hilarious comments I get in my career as a stand-up comic. As a Palestinian woman in comedy, I’ve landed some opportunities I didn’t necessarily deserve. I also didn’t get gigs I did deserve. And, what do you know, I’ve gotten gigs just on the merit of being funny.

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