Dear Journal, what can I say? He drove a cool car, remarks a certain 13-year-old boy by the name of Augusten Burroughs in the new movie adaptation of the memoir Running With Scissors. Having read Burroughs’ reminiscences of a homosexual boy with a 35-year-old boyfriend growing up in western Massachusetts in the late 70s, I was readily expecting golden phrases such as the former in the film’s adaptation.
Author: Oliver Gingell
FILM: A new Versailles
Audiences have been eagerly awaiting Sofia Coppola’s new film since her last offering, the critically acclaimed Lost in Translation debuted. Unexpectedly, Coppola brings us from the neon lights of the streets of Tokyo to the glittering hallways of Versailles.
FILM: Scorsese scores (finally)
All things considered, Martin Scorsese hasn’t made a decent feature film in over a decade. Gangs of New York seemed excessively brutal and utterly pointless, Bringing out the Dead sank like a stone and The Aviator, for all the accolades draped over it, hardly served its biographical purposes adequately and was a remarkably boring film.
FEATURES: The e-death of the novel?
It’s likely that the average McGill student reads more words per day off of a computer screen than from in his or her books. Material for essays, labs and other class work are readily available on a number of databases – the most useful of which are even paid for by McGill.
FEATURES: Shh…trashy books no longer a dirty little secret
When the Beatles sang about “the dirty story of a dirty man,” who longs to be a “Paperback Writer,” they accurately depicted the stereotypes that still surround popular genre fiction. You know the type; you might even know it intimately. Trashy romance novels, fantastical sci-fi, horror stories, detective mysteries, even the more highly acclaimed chick lit and dick lit genres fit into this category.
EDITORIAL: The wrong McMann for the job
After what can only be called an absolute debacle in 2005, 2006 was supposed to be different for the McGill football program. With their off-field issues supposedly behind them and a strong nucleus of veterans on offence, Head Coach Chuck McMann set the second round of the playoffs as the team’s goal.
Former Prime Minister Joe Clark weighs in on new job
Former Prime Minister Joe Clark started his political career as editor of his student newspaper and after a successful career in politics, he’s returned to the campus. We sat down with the former Prime Minister to talk about his latest initiative. Drawing from your federal experience, can you tell us what are some of the major themes that you learned throughout your time in and out of political office? Well, a couple I think.
FEATURES: It’s sexier to write in Montreal
Writing is like sex. There’s that playing around with ideas before hand, the ejaculation of ideas on paper, and in one sweeping moment of inspiration the climax (of the story) comes, bringing everything to an end soon after. So why is it so much better to “do it” in Montreal? What is it about this city that makes it a great place for writers? After all, The Quebec Writers’ Federation dubbed Montreal the World Book Capital in 2005.
FEATURES: Reaching literary climax in Montreal
Do you use your extra spending money to buy books you may never get around to reading? Can you envision yourself 40 years from now spending three fourths of the day in your lavish mahogany library? Do you stroll along bookstore shelves just to “browse” and end up buying three unnecessary items? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have a clinical obsession with books.
FEATURES: Advice from a former starving artist
Force your foot in the door, says Alex Grossi, and while she could be talking about any job, she is referring to television screenwriting. A lucrative and highly interesting position, screenwriting for TV has taken off in the past decade as the number of channels looking for the next “hit show” has expanded exponentially.
