Where would Jimi Hendrix fit into today’s music scene? Seasoned but pushing into the mainstream like Eric Clapton? Playing Super Bowl halftime shows like Pete Townsend and The Who? The release of Valleys of Neptune, a posthumous follow up to 1968’s Electric Ladyland, may convince you that Hendrix was simply too much of a psychedelic, blues-thumping, break-through-the-boundaries-of-your-brain invention to ever escape the “27 Club.
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
The Canadian War on Queers tells personal accounts of prejudice
Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile’s The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation discusses the under-the-radar – and sometimes officially sanctioned – targeting of gays and lesbians as security threats from the 1950s to the 1990s. Written from – and told through – a series of first-hand accounts combined with documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, Kinsman and Gentile discuss the history of queer Canadians in a way that is passionate and personal.
CD REVIEWS: Aidan Knight: Versicolour
Until now, if the name Aidan Knight sounded familiar, it’s likely because of his numerous backing contributions to bands in the Victoria/Vancouver music scene. But take a few listens to his debut Versicolour and it’s hard to imagine Knight backing up any musician other than himself.
Not even a transplant could save this half-hearted action film
Getting your car or house repossessed is one thing, but getting your new liver repossessed is quite another. In the dark, not-so-distant future of Repo Men, medical advances have led to a manufactured organs market – which is great news, but only if you omit the price tag, of course.
McGill holds stand-up auditions
Montreal is Canada’s home for comedy. Over the years, the Just For Laughs comedy festival has featured some of the world’s greatest comic icons, while also providing an outlet for local talent to perform. Within that home-grown talent is Jeff Schouela, a six-year stand-up comedy veteran who is holding auditions for McGill students to compete in a series of amateur stand-up competitions.
CD REVIEWS: Scott Lanaway: Mergers and Acquisitions
I’m not one to judge a book by it’s cover, but I will decide what to read based on what the back cover says; a song called “Oprah, God Wants You To Have A Private Jet” was more than enough to entice me to listen to Scott Lanaway’s Mergers and Acquistions. The album is full of spacey electro-folk, one of those new, hard-to-classify sounds your iTunes gives up on and calls “alternative and punk.
CD REVIEWS: Gorillaz: Plastic Beach
Gorillaz’s highly anticipated third album Plastic Beach definitely sounds like a Gorillaz album, but it lacks the flare of their sophomore release, Demon Days. Plastic Beach feels like a concept album, but it’s difficult to tell what the concept is (but it’s certainly not a pinball wizard).
Caravaggio vs. Michelangelo
Although art historians and casual tourists probably won’t stop peering up at the brilliance of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, the 16th-century Italian Renaissance man may find himself looking up at another art world rival as the top Italian artist in history, according to one renowned art historian.
POP RHETORIC: Burton’s formula
Tim Burton has a distinct, dark, and quirky style that puts him in a cinematic class apart from any other director. The problem is that after creating so many successful films, his new projects are always going to be compared to his earlier “glory days.” The empire he has created is subject to unwarranted, faulty criticism merely because of the expectations that he’s planted in viewers’ minds.
The Bald Soprano has some playgoers scratching their heads
Director Julien Naggar’s production of The Bald Soprano transports the audience into an absurd world that nonetheless seems strangely familiar. Playing this week at the TNC Theatre in Morrice Hall, The Bald Soprano brings TNC’s 2009-2010 season to a climactic finish with its parlour-room madness, reshaping expectations and challenging presumptions.
