BOOKS

Corpse Pose

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Suitable Precautions, by Laura Boudreau, Biblioasis

by Mark Paterson
11.03.2012

In his essay “The Monster Mash,” David Sedaris recalls, as a child, repeatedly exhuming the bodies of dead hamsters and guinea pigs. His motivation for grave-robbing? A genuine aesthetic interest in what his dead pets’ corpses looked like in various stages of decay. As gruesome that sounds, adolescent fascination with death is, as Sedaris points out, not all that uncommon. “At that age, death is something that happens only to animals and grandparents, and studying it is like a science project, the good kind that doesn’t involve homework.”

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ART

Hard Bargains

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Further Negotiations, Batatt Contemporary Gallery, until April 14

by Meaghan Thurston
10.03.2012

On a discreet street just north of Rue Jean-Talon, in that shapeless neighborhood between the borders of Little India and Little Italy, gallery Battat Contemporary hosts Further Negotiations by Kamrooz Aram.

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EVENTS

Animations and Attitudes

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Previewing AmérAsia's Artist Talk on Animation with filmmaker Jonathan Ng

by James Gartler
09.03.2012

As the AmérAsia Film Festival enters into its final weekend of screenings, a special panel tonight will bring the discussion back to the painstaking process called “animation” and the artists who remain captivated by its endless possibilities.  Among those attending will be local filmmaker/visionary Jonathan Ng, who offers ROVER a glimpse of what the evening has [...]

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FILM

Complicated Real Estate

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Talking with Eisha Marjara, director of House For Sale, screening at the AmerAsia Film Festival, March 11

by Matthew Hays
08.03.2012

“I’ve always been fascinated by the femme fatale archetype in cinema,” says Eisha Marjara, as she sits down to chat about her latest film, House for Sale. The short, which stars Montreal-based trans actor Atif Siddiqi, tells a complex story about a woman showing a gay man (Siddiqi) the house she wishes to sell, not realizing he’s had an on-again, off-again affair with her husband.

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THEATRE

There Was and There Was Not

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Our Story, Palestinian Theatre Group, UQAM, March 10

by Adam Bemma
06.03.2012

In a city where French, English and Yiddish language theatre draws huge crowds year-round, Montreal’s cultural scene is now home to a burgeoning, young, Arab theatre troupe paving the way for performances in their own language.

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MUSIC

The End is a Long Way Away

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Montreal indie rockers Plants and Animals build forward momentum with new album

by Lora Mathis
06.03.2012

Montreal-based indie rockers Plants and Animals have created an album that marks a significant step in their progression. The End of That is the band’s third studio album and features both their standard catchy guitar riffs and lyrics that are more honest than ever before. No doubt about it, this album is one that asks [...]

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BOOKS

Les soeurs de Nelly

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A look back at Nelly Arcan on the anniversary of her birth, March 5th

by Chloe Savoie-Bernard
05.03.2012

J’avais rencontré Nelly lorsque j’étais en troisième ou quatrième secondaire, dans le cadre du Festival de littérature Metropolis bleu. Quelque part dans mon vieux compte hotmail existe encore un courriel avec, en pièce attachée, une photo d’elle, de moi et de quelques uns de mes camarades de classe de l’époque. J’avais les cheveux rouges, je me rappelle que je portais une veste Miss Sixty, que je me savais relativement jolie, que ça ne me faisait pas plaisir. Je crois que j’étais la seule à avoir lu tous ses livres dans le petit atelier d’écriture, j’avais levé la main à de nombreuses reprises, je voulais que Nelly me voit, que Nelly m’entende.

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FILM

Assorted Overseas Offerings

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A look at this year’s AmérAsia Film Festival

by James Gartler
03.03.2012

Who knew the first two weekends in March could make for such a wild ride?  For the third year running, the AmérAsia Film Festival is continuing its mission of taking audiences on a journey through the world of Asian cinema, and this year’s program offers several memorable trips sure to stay with you long after [...]

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BOOKS

Gorilla in our Midst

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Silver, by Pablo Urbanyi, McNally Robinson

by Martyn Bryant
03.03.2012

“I had vague memories, from the days when I used to read National Geographic in an effort to find out who I was.” So narrates Silver, the highly intelligent gorilla from Africa with white fur-covered arms that “speckled with gleams of silver,” in the parody novel of the same name by Pablo Urbanyi.

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THEATRE

Devil in the Details

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History of the Devil, Title 66 Productions, Théâtre Rouge, until March 4

by Alex Woolcott
01.03.2012

Enthusiasm will only get you so far and if you need proof, visit Title 66’s current production of Clive Barker’s The History of the Devil. The young cast and crew contain more than a few stars of tomorrow; unfortunately, they’re saddled with Barker’s meandering script, a fairly unseaworthy vessel that the talented crew have to fight to bring to into harbour.

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FILM

Fantasy Falls Short

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Reviewing Studio Ghibli's latest animated oeuvre

by Shawn Stenhouse
29.02.2012

The Secret World of Arrietty delivers almost everything audiences have come to expect from Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli; a heart-warming coming-of-age tale with gorgeous animation and a superb score…yet it lacks that certain quality so unique to Ghibli films: the inimitable and imaginative storyline.

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THEATRE

Aimez-Vous les Uns les Autres

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Les maladies honteuses, au Théâtre de l'Opsis et au Théâtre Jean-Duceppe

by Mélanie Grondin
28.02.2012

Certaines maladies — surtout celles où notre corps nous trahit malgré toutes les précautions que nous pouvons prendre — sont nobles, tandis que d’autres sont honteuses. Du moins, selon le point de vue de certaines personnes proches du malade, voire du malade lui-même. Ces maladies et la honte associée sont le point central de Frères [...]

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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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BOOKS

A Touch of Gothic

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Tell it to the Trees, by Anita Rao Badami, Random House Canada

by Veena Gokhale
26.02.2012

Anita Rao Badami’s riveting novel Tell it to the Trees begins with a dead body. Anu, a tenant who lives in the summerhouse of the Dharma family at Merrit’s Point, a small town in Northern British Columbia, is found dead from exposure, during a bitterly cold winter. Not only is Merrit’s Point “at the end of the road,” the Dharma house is totally isolated and their nearest neighbour has boarded up and left.

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