Author: Brendan Stevens

RIGHT MINDED: The Case for “Tough-on-Crime”

Our justice system is meant to be a principled and morally upstanding approach to crimes committed against our fellow human beings. Being tough-on-crime isn’t just a game of political pandering, and criminal justice isn’t a game of bureaucratic tinkering to reduce costs.

CD REVIEW: Chemical Brothers- Further

Released earlier this year, the Chemical Brothers’ seventh effort, Further, can start to sound like a concert album after a few plays. Unlike many of the Brothers’ earlier releases, the album captures the raw intensity and structureless flow of a live set, filled with unexpected drops, blips, and volume shifts.

CD REVIEW: Sweet Thing- Sweet Thing

With their self-titled debut, it’s easy to see that Toronto’s Sweet Thing have Top 40 ambitions. Whether or not they’ll get there remains to be seen. The album certainly contains elements that suggest they will: the punchy guitars of “Gun,” the shimmering synths of “Lazy Susan,” and the soaring vocals of “A Change of Seasons” are all perfectly pop rock enough to satisfy any fan of the genre, but they still have a long way to go.

Summer Entertainment Report Cards: Concerts – NXNE 2010

This year’s North by Northeast music festival featured close to 650 bands on over 40 stages throughout Toronto. Often playing second fiddle to the similarly named, but unrelated, South by Southwest festival, 2010 seemed to be NXNE’s coming-of-age. From scoring big-name headliners like Iggy and The Stooges and De La Soul, as well as a good number of up-and-coming buzz bands like Surfer Blood and Avi Buffalo, this year’s line-up demanded attention.

Redmen show promise for upcoming season

For four decades, Redmen football victories against rival University of Toronto were treated like blue moons, solar eclipses and Maple Leafs’ Stanley Cup — they didn’t happen very often. McGill removed itself from that list Saturday as the team opened its gridiron season with a 40-17 win over the Varsity Blues in an exhibition contest at the Varsity Centre in Toronto.

THIRD MAN IN: Expecting the unexpected…and not getting it

Every few years, the stars will align to deliver the hard-core sports fan with an entire summer’s worth of quality entertainment. Of course, there are always specific dates in June, July, and August that are worth marking down, but only in the rarest of years can you justify to your parents, friends, or significant other the necessity of staying glued to a television or computer screen for 60 days straight.

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