This summer’s reality shows lacked complexity, and tended to favour one overblown storyline over a more cohesive selection. Jersey Shore’s Miami revamp is no exception. The silly idea-turned-cultural-phenomenon has primarily focused on the on-again/off-again relationship between last season’s only serious couple: Ronnie and Sammi.
Search Results for author "Kyle Carpenter"
Summer Entertainment Report Cards: TV Shows – The Real World: New Orleans
Despite wavering in popularity, The Real World is to reality TV what Columbus is to accidentally finding continents. Call it an innovator, call it an institution-either way, the franchise has produced 23 seasons, not including their latest, The Real World: New Orleans.
CD REVIEWS: Hunter Valentine: Lessons From The Late Night
Hunter Valentine are a three-piece all-girl rock band from Toronto who will release their second full-length album, Lessons From The Late Night, on April 17. With seven songs totalling 22 minutes, it’s a slight step above an EP, though you probably won’t be disappointed that there isn’t more.
CD REVIEWS: Cancer Bats: Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones
I’ve had a soft spot for Cancer Bats since high school, watching them open many Alexisonfire shows in Toronto. I’ve endured the dirty looks received for wearing a shirt with “cancer” written on it, and for many other people their first two albums are too much to handle.
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”).
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).
John le Carré: the spy who loved fiction
The 2010 International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal kicks off on March 18, featuring 230 films from 23 countries. Shortlisted from this group are a competitive selection of 43 films from 14 countries (including eight entries from Quebec). Buzzed films from the competitive group include Je M’Appelle Denis Gagnon, a documentary about the Quebec fashion designer who made quite an impression at Montreal Fashion Week; The Real World of Peter Gabriel, on the Genesis lead singer; and perhaps most intriguing, King of Spies: John le Carré, a documentary about the life’s work of a spy-turned-fiction writer.
CD REVIEWS: Jay Malinowski: Bright Lights & Bruises
Jay Malinowski is best known as the singer/lead guitarist for Bedouin Soundclash, but his solo album, Bright Lights & Bruises, shows that he can stand on his own. It conspicuously lacks the reggae feel of Bedouin Soundclash’s repertoire, but for non-reggae fans this is all the more reason to give Bright Lights & Bruises a chance.
