Author: Admin

BASiC hosts Lander and Huh at annual Ampersand Conference

The Bachelor of Arts & Science Integrative Council hosted the second annual Ampersand Conference last week, which focussed on creativity in the digital age. The four-day event featured addresses by Christian Lander, the founder of the popular blog Stuff White People Like, and Ben Huh, the internet entrepreneur who popularized Lolcats, as well as workshops on digitial innovation.

MUSIC: Keeping the Klezmer beat

In 1980, when Dr. Hy Goldman first brought Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band to Montreal, not many people believed that the near-forgotten musical tradition of Klezmer could be revived. Roughly defined as the music of Eastern European Jewry, Klezmer had all but disappeared after the Second World War.

FEATURE: The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire…

It would only have taken a single spark on the wooden fire escape for an entire block in downtown Sackville, New Brunswick, to go up in flames. A primarily student-inhabited apartment building near Mount Allison, Canada’s leading liberal-arts University, burned for over 24 hours on Friday, Aug 11, 2006.

Debating Union wins nationals

The McGill Debating Union had its most successful performance on the national stage in years, winning the 2010 Canadian National Debating Championships in Edmonton just over a week ago. Half of the quarterfinalists, three-quarters of the semifinalists, and both of the finalists were McGill teams.

CAMPUS: Ants in tenants’ pants

Ant poison was applied to Greenbriar apartments last Wednesday after three weeks of ant infestations. The Student Housing Office decided to apply ant poison to every room of the residence, one of two apartment-style dormitories McGill University offers students.

CD REVIEWS: Seabear: We Built a Fire

Björk and Sigur Rós may have put Iceland on the musical map. But Seabear – the seven-person collective that just released their sophomore album and made their North American debut at South by Southwest – have proved themselves to be the most promising new Icelandic indie export.

MY POINT … AND I DO HAVE ONE: Crazy like a fox

Thanks to the great privilege afforded to me by living north of the 49th parallel, I find the American right really funny. The Bill O’Reillys, the “These Colours Don’t Run” American-flag T-shirts, and everything Fox News has to offer are far more entertaining and, frankly, far less disingenuous than the earnest approach to conservative ideas put forward by the “liberals” of the Democratic Party or our own Conservative Party of Canada.

JOKE ISSUE: Snoop D-O-double-G-P-S

Owners of the TomTom GPS navigation system can now choose to “roll down the street, sippin’ on gin and juice” with rap superstar Snoop Dogg (who does not, in any way, advocate drinking and driving) as their guide. The voiceskin is available for purchase from TomTom for $12.

REVIEWS

Ray Lamontagne – Till the Sun Turns Black. Lamontagne’s mesmerizing debut, Trouble, was one of the most critically lauded sleeper hits of 2004, landing spots on a variety of film and TV soundtracks and rocketing him into folk-rock stardom. Since then, Lamontagne has been on a seemingly ceaseless tour schedule-dropping by Montreal three times in the past year.

SPORTS BRIEFS

Martlets chalk up another win McGill’s rugby women got the regular season off on the right foot on Sunday, crushing Bishop’s 55-0. Centre Laura Belvedere led the team with four tries, while prop Valerie Evans and fullback Julianne Zussman each scoring twice.

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