A university lecture or a book club: By way of discussion, both bring the personal act of reading into an academic or social realm. However, these cultural spaces don’t necessarily motivate the same types of discussion. Barring other factors, like contextual formality or accessibility, an individual moves through these spaces[Read More…]
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
Where do I begin?: Vaporwave
Sounds and images from the era of Windows 95 and peak mall culture manipulated to a degree that is both recognizable of its past roots yet remarkably separate from its source material; this is the spirit of the internet-born subculture, vaporwave. The aesthetics of vaporwave revolve mainly around the popular[Read More…]
Soviet life on Mars
For as long as humans have looked to the stars, we have wondered what lies beyond the scope of our stratosphere. This wonder particularly piqued the imagination of artists and writers in Soviet Russia. On Feb. 20, a crowd gathered in the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) to hear Asif[Read More…]
Heartbreak Museum brings some warmth on a cold Valentine’s Day
As the sun set on a cold February evening, a dim glow warmed the room in Building 21 where McSWAY Poetry Collective hosted their second annual “Heartbreak Museum.” The exhibit featured poems and artifacts from past relationships, revealing a challenging portrait of heartbreak and young love, and explored both the[Read More…]
‘Medea’ perfectly blends classical tragedy with the contemporary
Continuing its acclaimed annual tradition, the McGill Department of History and Classical Studies held its McGill Classics Play, Medea from Feb. 5-8 at the Mainline Theatre. This classical text, written by Euripides, is a sequel to Jason and the Argonauts—the Ancient Greek myth where he finds the golden fleece. This time,[Read More…]
Gilbert and Sullivan remain fresh in ‘The Gondoliers’
Gilbert and Sullivan are ubiquitous in the theatre world and beyond. Their songs appear in television shows both in their original form and in parody, in shows like Star Trek and Family Guy. Yet while other productions play with their time period, projecting plot and characters into modern scenarios, much of the charm[Read More…]
Tame Impala time travels in ‘The Slow Rush’
If Tame Impala’s third album, Currents, is the outset of an interstellar psychedelic sugar-pop trip, then their fourth full-length release, The Slow Rush, released on Feb. 14, is that trip’s arrival. In his most recent offering, Kevin Parker, the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist behind the band’s music, has delivered another[Read More…]
‘Miss Americana’ is a shallow depiction of stardom
Taylor Swift—renowned singer-songwriter, multi-millionaire, 35-time Grammy award nominee, 10-time Grammy award winner, one-time Kendrick Lamar collaborator, two-time Kanye clasher, and attempted Pennsylvania political reformer—sits on her couch in tears because her then-recent album, Reputation, was not nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. This devastating moment occurs about[Read More…]
Apocalypse is at the centre of Centaur Theatre’s ‘The Tropic of X’
At first glance, Caridad Svich’s The Tropic of X seems like an ordinary science fiction play depicting a dystopian future. However, it is clear that Svich grounded this political drama in reality. Criticizing North American colonialism, capitalism, and consumerism, the narrative becomes a commentary on the negative conditions that such structures[Read More…]
‘The Circle’ offers an innovative twist on the reality TV drama
In the age of daytime cable television, reality shows permeated every network: Food Network had MasterChef, MTV had Jersey Shore, TLC had Dance Moms, and the list went on with every change of the channel. While the genre has dominated television since the turn of the millenium, it is quickly[Read More…]
