After Macklemore & Ryan Lewis partnered up to bring us the acclaimed The VS. EP in late 2009, some fans feared a sophomore slump. Instead, the duo’s latest release, titled The Heist, plays like a veteran rapper’s ‘best-of’ compilation. In a surprising turn for a rap album, The Heist provides[Read More…]
Author: Ilia Blinderman
Mellowhype: Numbers
Unless you’re a well-versed hip-hop fan, it’s possible that your familiarity with rappers Left Brain and Hodgy Beats only stems from their frequently cited Odd Future involvement. The pair of artists, however, also make up the separate rap group Mellowhype, which recently released their third studio album, Numbers. In comparison[Read More…]
Wintersleep: Hello Hum
Although the Juno award-winning Wintersleep has been lauded as having released ‘the album of their career’ with Hello Hum, not much has changed from their previous work. The band brought producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips; MGMT) aboard for their fifth full-length album, although his presence is not especially noticeable. With[Read More…]
Horrors of war still hit close to home
The premise is intriguing enough: Jacqueline, a female combat officer who served in Afghanistan, wakes up in a dark hospital cell complaining of a phantom pain in her amputated leg. What follows, however, is more phantasmagoric—the brilliant Zach Fraser enters the stage as Jacqueline’s French-Canadian great-grandfather, who was unjustly shot[Read More…]
Allocation of international fees must be considered in context
On Oct. 19, McGill Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum spoke at an event hosted by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, and called for Quebec to increase international student enrollment. In her speech, which also highlighted the advantages international students bring to Quebec, Munroe-Blum brought attention to the the way[Read More…]
Who is responsible for making the GA more relevant to students?
On Oct. 23, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) released the results of the online ratification for its fall General Assembly (GA). The online vote ratified two motions—one to rename SSMU’s Breakout Room, the other to build a rock climbing wall in the SSMU building. Compared to the disappointing[Read More…]
The faults—and merits—of anonymity in ‘hacktivism’
A hacking group calling itself Team Ghostshell recently unveiled “ProjectWestWind,” a leak of 120,000 files taken from the servers of post-secondary schools globally. The list of 100 institutions whose servers were compromised included the University of British Columbia and McMaster University. The group posted the leaked files alongside a statement[Read More…]
Democracy’s weakest link: uninformed voters
As the presidential election campaign in the United States reaches the home stretch, one thing has become abundantly clear—barring any truly egregious mistakes by either campaign, this election is going to be particularly close. Thanks to the quirks of the Electoral College, the results in what are popularly known as[Read More…]
A viewpoint on language politics in Quebec
Two weeks ago, the Canadian Press reported on the Parti Québécois’ controversial educational reforms. These have centered on plans to extend the provisions of Bill 101, Quebec’s legislative piece regarding its language policy. The PQ’s Education Minister, Marie Malavoy, wants to hold off on the Liberal plan to implement intensive[Read More…]
Global Food Conference opens with price volatility lecture
The fifth McGill Conference on Global Food Security opened on Oct. 16 with Jean Lebel’s keynote speech on price volatility. Lebel, the Vice-President of the Programs and Partnerships Branch of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), spoke about the challenges created by the unpredictability of food prices, and how to[Read More…]
