Arts & Entertainment

Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.

RADIO: Strangeness appears on the night shift

A woman is calling in to talk about “some teeth that some men found.” “One of them was six inches and one of them was seven inches,” she reports. “They were some great big teeth.” The topic tonight is cryptozoology with guest Loren Coleman, who is a member of the International Society of Cryptozoology, the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club and the author of 17 books and more than 300 articles.

FILM: LIttle trailer park called home

Canada’s favourite foul-mouthed trio hit the big screen last Friday after an excruciatingly long period of anticipation for fanatical devotees. The film, surprisingly, did not disappoint. The “surprisingly” modifier is used hesitantly because, let’s face it, 90-plus minutes of rampant alcoholism, recreational drug use, petty criminality and enough vulgarity to make Lenny Bruce blush has the potential to get old fast.

MUSIC: Sout (out out out out) like it’s a dance party

Well before Shout Out Out Out Out even stepped on stage Thursday night, their presence was felt among the crowd. Flocks of college kids gathered outside the venue and later filled the moderately sized La Tulipe to the brim. The level of excitement was palpable, setting the bar of expectation for the evening very high.

TELEVISION: My superpowers trump your superpowers

The newest and most highly anticipated show from NBC’s fall lineup premiered Monday night. Heroes enacts everybody’s dream fantasy – to wake up in the morning and discover an amazing superpower. Along the lines of a televised X-Men, the show follows nine characters around the globe who find themselves in just that situation.

POP RHETORIC: My opinion is better than your opinion

It’s a conversation we’ve all had before. You’re sitting with one of your indie, Mile-End hipster friends at Bagel’s Etc. finishing off the remainder of your baked potatoes and, misfortunate as you are to be hung-over, you make the cognitively unsound decision to utter aloud, “Dude… Leonard Cohen’s music fucking sucks.

POP RHETORIC: “NEXTED” GENERATION

Chatroulette is a website that connects you with a random person somewhere in the world via webcam. Users have the option to connect to a new person at any time, leaving their current conversation partner behind (the somewhat demoralizing concept of being “nexted”).

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.

Can-Lit chronicle picks the best

Part anthology of summaries and essays, part intro to Can-Lit survey, and part ode to reading, T.F. Rigelhof’s Hooked on Canadian Books is a tribute to English-language Canadian fiction writing since 1984. At first, the introduction and much of the tone of the book seems self-indulgent and self-important.

CD REVIEWS: She & Him: Volume 2

She & Him’s Volume 2 makes a slight departure from 2008’s Volume 1. Actress Zooey Deschanel and singer-songwriter M. Ward’s second album is full of Beach Boys-inspired harmonies and twangy California guitar, maintaining the duo’s penchant for a retro sound.

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