The Tribune

John K. Samson has penned some impressive lyrics as the frontman for beloved folk-rockers the Weakerthans, but none may better capture the heart of his music than the simple refrain of “I hate Winnipeg.” It’s the half-joking lyrical crux of 2003’s “One Great City!” a song about Samson’s love-hate relationship[Read More…]

Ryan’s Top Ten Albums of 2011: 10. Adele—21 This isn’t even a guilty pleasure. 21 is a collection of well-written and incredibly catchy, soulful pop songs with lyrics at once intensely personal yet universally relatable. Sometimes it’s just that simple. More pop music like this, please. 9. The Luyas—Too Beautiful to Work The Luyas exist[Read More…]

This month, men have been wearing their charitable aspirations on their upper lips, sporting Movember ‘staches of all sizes and descriptions. Meanwhile, across the globe, a vast cohort of people have been letting their imaginations, rather then their facial hair, run wild. Less visible than sporting a ‘stache, but no[Read More…]

I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas music, but A Very She & Him Christmas has some renditions so refreshing and sweet they actually make me excited for a holiday I don’t celebrate. Zooey Deschanel’s charming voice is at the forefront accompanied by minimal instrumentation, mainly guitar and ukulele from[Read More…]

Usually the movies that come out during the holiday season fall into one of two categories: Big budget blockbuster flicks sure to draw in restless crowds emancipated from work and school, or last minute Oscar bids hoping to become critical darlings. Either way, December is a good month for movies.[Read More…]

Many of us would define success by how recognizable our face is. Imagine how puppeteers must feel, since their main responsibility is to stay entirely out of their audience’s eyesight. Kevin Clash, the innovator behind the world’s most popular puppet—Elmo—doesn’t seem to mind.  Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey documents Clash’s[Read More…]

Michael Bublé brings class to Christmas classics and Christmas is solid all the way through. It’s got charm, personality, and brings a new, fresh flavour to songs that get overplayed every holiday season. There are elements of jazz, some contemporary pop, a bit of swing, and even some big band-esque[Read More…]

At this point it’s a social obligation to scoff at any Justin Bieber release, but where’s the fun in that? Justin’s lyrical contributions, trite as they are, provide seven original tracks on his new holiday album. The other four are ‘classic’ holiday songs in which Bieber adds miniscule doses of[Read More…]

interviewmagazine.com Jeffrey Eugenides began his new novel, The Marriage Plot, with a single idea: his female protagonist, an English student at Brown University in the early 1980s, is discovering love while the postmodern theorists she reads in her classes are deconstructing the very concept. The book, as he conceived it,[Read More…]

Do you ever feel left out during the holiday season because you don’t celebrate Christmas? Why not cure this alienation with comedy? This was precisely the thought that sparked Kosher Jokes for the Halaladays, a comedy show intended as a Christmas present, if you will, for Jews and Muslims. Featuring[Read More…]