This past week, I had to express mail something to South Africa. On my way to the post office in La Cite, past experience made me think that no matter how much I paid, there was no chance in hell my package would arrive by November. I trudged over to[Read More…]
Author: Admin
Literary launch lacks laughs
Local literati were out in full blazered regalia on October 5 for the re-launch of Montreal humourist Jonathan Goldstein’s first novel, Lenny Bruce is Dead, originally published by Coach House Books in 2001. The 41-year-old Goldstein, author of two books, contributor to Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life, and host[Read More…]
Dan Mangan is nice, nice, very nice
bcscene.ca It’s challenging to listen to Dan Mangan’s song “Robots” without singing along with the refrain: “Robots need love, too / They want to be loved by you.” Those words may or may not be true, but you believe them when you hear them. Perhaps Mangan, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from[Read More…]
Sufjan Stevens: not half as enslaved
Sufjan Stevens is a master designer of atmospheres. You would want to be a Jim Carrey-type character in a world of his design, and at the end of the movie you would ultimately choose not to escape through the hidden door. At will, and in bizarre, repeating cycles, he lulls[Read More…]
Leaping and soaring to Chopin
I have only experienced a few perception-altering performances in my life, and Friday night’s National Ballet performance of Marie Chouinard’s 24 Preludes by Chopin and Crystal Pite’s Emergence was one of them. Prior to the performance, I was certain I was not a person who could enjoy contemporary ballet. I[Read More…]
Professors you definitely want to run into on campus
Professors tend to be known for their intellect: the books and articles they’ve written, the research they’ve conducted, or the number of letters that come after their name (B.A., M.A., M.Sc, PhD, etc.) are important. But profs can be hot, too. Even if they haven’t been endowed with the right[Read More…]
Eight-inch burgers at Copoli
Alison Bailey There’s a place in Westmount that claims to serve eight-inch burgers. Burgers the size of my hand, a small pizza, or a cabbage. Intrigued, I decided to find out if I was up to this gastronomic challenge. I didn’t eat all day and after going for a run,[Read More…]
Michael Franti & Spearhead: The Sound of Sunshine
Michael Franti & Spearhead is best known for its frontman’s vocal politics. On The Sound of Sunshine —Spearhead’s seventh studio album—Franti continues to preach, spreading a message of positive change through his music. Issues of world peace and social justice aren’t as prominent on this album as on previous ones,[Read More…]
The Postelles : The Postelles
The Postelles are an English accent and a few cheeky lyrics away from being a full-fledged Arctic Monkeys knockoff, but unfortunately their debut lacks the complexity of a Monkeys tune. Instead, it’s pretty straight pop. The instrumentation is minimalist at best (though not at it’s best when it’s minimal), with[Read More…]
Beauty and its discontents
Adam Scotti “I like what I got, and I’m gonna protect that. Wouldn’t you?” After Steph finds out that her boyfriend Greg has just called her face “regular,” she delivers the play’s first monologue, in which she explains why, though still clearly in love with Greg, she had to go[Read More…]