sophiek.com If comedians were meals, Hari Kondabolu would be the delicious, home-cooked variety. Other stand-up comics are frequently almost equally tasty, but often, I find myself enjoying a routine only to feel nauseous looking back at what I’ve tacitly endorsed with my laughter—exactly how I feel after eating McDonald’s. Following[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Kung fu film an action-packed epic
mymovies.ge It’s 690 B.C. in ancient China, on the eve of a coronation that will vest a woman with the power of emperor for the first time in China’s history. Looming in the background is a titanic Buddha, under construction as a tribute to the empress’ power and the witness[Read More…]
2011 Polaris Music Prize Preview
The Polaris Music Prize is awarded annually to the best full-length Canadian album released that year, independent of genre or commercial success. Loosely based on the UK’s Mercury Prize, the judges evaluate each year’s nominees based on their creativity, diversity, and artistic integrity. Past winners include Caribou, Fucked Up, and[Read More…]
Jeff Mangum breaks the silence
amoeba.com “There’s some bullshit idea that we’re not gonna sing along to my songs, like why the fuck’d I write them then, anyway?” So spoke Jeff Mangum, leader of influential ‘90s band Neutral Milk Hotel, trying to coax the hushed and sold-out audience at Toronto’s Trinity St. Paul’s to join[Read More…]
Planet of the Apes
thegate.ca Director Rupert Wyatt rebuilt the Planet of the Apes series entirely from scratch, making the original series and a one-off Mark Wahlberg remake entirely non-canon. The first movie in a planned reboot series, Rise of the Planet of the Apes introduces the ape Caesar, whose heightened cognition is the[Read More…]
Harry Potter
amctheatres.com I’m not sure which part of the highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Death Hallows: Part II was worse: Voldemort’s laugh, or the fact that there was more laughing in the theatre during the “protagonists-are-dying” scenes than proper sobbing. While the first half of the film delivers a well-rendered[Read More…]
Crazy, Stupid, Love
moviemarketingmadness.com The romcom has morphed into a formulaic genre so rife with well-worn clichés that there’s often little room for creativity, honesty, or genuine laughs. Crazy Stupid Love isn’t an entirely new story, but its clever script and a believable cast set it apart from the pack. Ryan Gosling plays[Read More…]
NXNE
musicvice.com Back for its 17th year, the annual North by Northeast (NXNE) festival and conference brought over 600 bands to Toronto over the course of five sweltering days in June. One of the most anticipated shows was Toronto’s own Fucked Up playing a free show at Yonge and Dundas Square,[Read More…]
Colin Stetson
David Irwin Unless you’re deep into experimental and avant-garde saxophone, chances are you’ve never heard anyone play quite like Michigan-born, Montreal-based Colin Stetson. Between using circular breathing (simultaneously breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth in order play continuously), the keys as percussion, and singing into his[Read More…]
The Pack a.d.
style.ritzgirl.com West-coast duo The Pack a.d. revisited Montreal this past summer with a powerful June 10 performance at Le Divan Orange. Guitarist and main vocalist Becky Black is disarmingly slight in person, given that the androgynous power of her voice captured on disc creates the impression of a giant. But[Read More…]
