Oscar nominations are out! In keeping with the spirit of the event, I would like to personally thank the Academy for its inclusion of the powerful and timely Persepolis, which has been nominated in the Best Animated Feature category. The hand-drawn cartoon, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, is adapted from Satrapi’s graphic novel […] More »

Earlier this month the Library of Congress partnered up with photosharing site Flickr. They’ve put up thousands of images to be tagged by the online community. Boing Boing found this amazing image that could have very easily inspired the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster of the 1940s. If you love archival photos be sure to […] More »

Dave Bidini first made his name as a member of the seminal Canadian band Rheostatics, but since then has carved out an impressive career as an author–he bears witness to all things music, hockey and politics, infusing his observations with reflections on how regular Joes and Janes fit in the grand scheme of this crazy […] More »

Tata motors of India has developed world’s cheapest car, revving engines in news-land. Retailing for $2,500, the tiny, amenity-less car is being compared to the Volkswagen for putting poor folks in the driver’s seat. While the vehicles are supposed to be lower-emission than North American cars, the price means there will be millions more polluters […] More »

The Economist has this piece about the decline of American shopping malls. Some of the problems: oversaturation, changing demographics (suburbs are getting poorer or becoming more diverse), online shopping. Some culture jammers are lopping off the heads of plastic mascots and photos in ads. I’d like to think this is a culture jam, but it […] More »

How long will it take the country’s top 100 CEOs to make as much as the average Canadian does in a year? Whoops, it’s already happened. According to research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, “Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs make the average Canadian wage by 10:33 am January 2.” And that’s the average. […] More »

We ran into this great roundup of drinks inspired by Charles Dickens novels on the Guardian’s book blog. Perfect for those year end parties. Cheers guv’ner. Toronto ad company Taxi are creating coats for the homeless which will be distributed across North America in 2008. From Torontoist: The waterproof, windproof, and plentily-pocketed coat serves as […] More »

With most of Toronto paralyzed by a doozy of a winter storm I’m bringing you an extra large package of links this week: While, most of us probably aren’t thinking about cycling right now, Ontarians are getting a bit of a break when they buy bike stuff. Queen’s Park has removed the 8% PST on […] More »

If you’re reading this on Monday, you’re likely able to check out live coverage of Amnesty International’s Global Write-a-thon in association with the brand new rabble endeavour, rabbletv. Wrongly accused Canadian Maher Arar will be among those speaking during the day’s events. To mark International Human Rights Day, AI is hosting letter-writing events in Ottawa […] More »

Advertising is a pretty ubiquitous part of modern life sometimes it’s good: Like this artist who took the subject lines from spam e-mails and turned them into some pretty gorgeous art. Sometimes it’s ugly: Like when advertisers invade your head space. And other times it’s just plain funny. Like when Greenpeace reminds you that sunlight […] More »

This Magazine’s December Film Club Newsletter is now up here. This month’s edition includes a chance to win a copy of the new book “Reel Asian: Asian Canada on Screen.” It’s a collection (with lots of pictures) examining East and Southeast Asian Canadian contributions to independent film and video. December film highlights include two highly […] More »