OUR MAN IN TORONTO

Keeping That Montreal Trap Shut

Thumbnail image for Keeping That Montreal Trap Shut by Noah Richler
09.04.2009

Driving through Rosedale, Toronto’s tony district of CEOs and the like, our youngest, having declared that she’d like to be a socialist, sneered from the back seat as we passed the wide driveways of the lavish houses. “What’s up?” her mom asked. “They care more about cars than they do about people,” our daughter said. [...]

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ART

Painting as Pure Sensation

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CLAUDE TOUSIGNANT RETROSPECTIVE, Musée d’art contemporain

by Anne Dickens
08.04.2009

Quebec modernist Claude Tousignant’s retrospective at the Musée d’art contemporain is the largest solo show in the museum’s history. This chronological survey beginning in 1951 and ending with new work created especially for the exhibition bears witness to Tousignant’s life-long quest to push painting into the realm of pure sensation. Rather than a curator’s prescribed [...]

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FILM

Thriller Hides Moral Ambiguity

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VALKYRIE

by Arthur Kaptainis
07.04.2009

It might be only fitting that a film about a phenomenon as racked with ambiguities as the wartime resistance within the German high command is itself vexed (but not quite defeated) by its own paradoxes and problems. Valkyrie, dealing with a secret mobilization plan so named and an attempt to use it against the Nazis [...]

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FILM

Philosophy Takes It To The Streets

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EXAMINED LIFE, CINEMA DU PARC

by Sarah Fletcher
06.04.2009

There’s more than meets the eye in a typical New York street scene. At least, that’s what the NFB documentary Examined Life hopes to show. Aiming to pull viewers out of the everyday stupor of life, the film forces critical thought back into that very same day-to-day world. Director Astra Taylor accumulates interviews with an [...]

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BOOKS

A Little Book of Love for a Lovely Little City

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Montreal 24, by Bill Brownstein, Véhicule Press

by Richard Tseng
05.04.2009

For those who fall out of love with Montreal, Bill Brownstein can put the fire back into your relationship. You’re excused for wanting to leave this city mid-winter, but now that the snow has melted it’s the perfect time to go on vacation to Bill Brownstein’s Montreal 24. Because no matter how much you think [...]

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BOOKS

Beyond Clever

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THE IDLER'S GLOSSARY, by Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell, Biblioasis

by Maria Schamis Turner
04.04.2009

The Idler’s Glossary is a small book.  This is not a judgment on its contents (more on that later) — the actual book measures roughly four by six inches and is less than half an inch thick.  It is, thanks to its size and to the lovely design and illustrations by Seth (author of the [...]

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TV

Music Talk, Yes, But No Gossip, Please

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Spectacle: Elvis Costello With . . . , Bravo!, CTV

by Leonard Eichel
03.04.2009

The talk show is a venerable and long-standing TV content filler. The challenge for erstwhile hosts is to develop a theme, or a schtick, that rejuvenates the form so viewers turn their eyeballs in their direction. Johnny Carson had his sidekick and his stand-up comedy experience and it went on for a record run. David [...]

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FILM

A Depressive Triangle

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Two Lovers, Cinema Du Parc, AMC Forum 22

by David Homel
02.04.2009

A young man throws himself off a pier, into the icy waters off Brooklyn. So goes the beginning sequence of Two Lovers, opening tomorrow at Cinéma du Parc and AMC Forum 22. This is one of those “cry for help” suicide attempts, since the pier is crowded with passers-by. Leonard, the young man played by [...]

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THEATRE

In Pursuit of Erotical Freedoms

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AGE OF AROUSAL, CENTAUR

by Marianne Ackerman
01.04.2009

Some good plays hold you spellbound. Others make you want to freeze the action and scribble on the programme. Age of Arousal is the latter, a three-loop necklace strung with one verbal pearl after another, a bosom adornment worn by heady dames with nimble feet. This is Victoriana by way of Germaine Greer. The play [...]

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DANCE

Facing The Rite Music

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LES GRANDS BALLETS CANADIENS, Théâtre Maisonneuve

by Tao Fei
31.03.2009

The arrival of a new Rite of Spring inspires a kind of bloodlust among dance audiences.  Not for the maiden who we know is sacrificed in the end, but for the latest choreographer stepping up to the towering Goliath of Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 score, arguably the seminal scandal that defined twentieth century music. Now, Belgian [...]

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THEATRE

A Feckless D’Artagnan

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LE CODE NOIR, Black Theatre Workshop

by Arthur Kaptainis
30.03.2009

Everyone is aware, post-Amadeus, of the potential of great music as a subject for the stage. Black Theatre Workshop taps a little of this good karma in Le Code Noir, a 70-minute play at the Segal Centre about Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. But the fitful script by George Boyd only touches on the [...]

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BOOKS

News that Stays News

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PENNY DREADFUL Shannon Stewart, Signal Editions WHITE PORCUPINE Phil Hall, BookThug

by Brian Campbell
29.03.2009

With the momentous recent political and economic news, it may be all too easy to overlook what Ezra Pound called the “news that stays news.” Poetry has never pretended to be breaking news, but well executed, it can revive old verities with an immediacy that surpasses any reportage à la CNN.

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BOOKS

Closer to home…but not quite there yet

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Closer to Home: The Author and the Author Portrait By Terrence Byrnes, Véhicule Press

by Joseph Elfassi
28.03.2009

TERENCE BYRNES’ DESIRE TO SEE THE STORYTELLER, as well as the acknowledged paradox of trying to find authenticity in the posed portrait, are manifest in his book. Closer to Home: The Author and the Author Portrait, is his collection of portraits of Montréal authors.

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EVENTS

Art Without Apathy

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SUHEIR HAMMAD, Club Lambi

by Leila Marshy
27.03.2009

Suheir Hammad is a rising star in the world of spoken word. Her poetry is highly personal, caustic and political, co-mingling  Palestinian anger with American entitlement. Delivered with a heavy Brooklyn accent, it has won her a regular stint on HBO, three published books and CDs, and a busy touring schedule. Montrealers can meet Hammad [...]

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THEATRE

Un spectateur averti en vaut deux

LA CHARGE DE L’ORIGNAL ÉPORMYABLE Théâtre du Nouveau Monde

by Mélanie Grondin
26.03.2009

20 H. LONTIL-DÉPARAY (Éric Bernier) entre en scène, devant le rideau, et déclame des vers absurdes, montrant aux spectateurs ce à quoi ils doivent s’attendre lors de la représentation. 20 h 2. Le rideau se lève, Laura Pa (Céline Bonnier) pousse quatre longs cris stridents. Les deux heures quinze minutes sans entracte semblent déjà interminables; [...]

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