CanLit has the literary equivalent of the Y2K bug—it can’t flip over into this century When he delivers public lectures, editor and writer John Metcalf is fond of illustrating CanLit’s paradoxical obsession with tales of the rural past by describing the query letter he once received from a then-unheard-of Russell Smith. Metcalf claims that Smith […] More »
In choosing Veronica over Betty, Archie Andrews overturns 70 years’ worth of cultural expectations “Just a matter of skill, that’s all!” Archie Andrews’ first words (said as he stood precariously atop his bike) may have seemed spontaneous in 1941, but 70 years have imbued the line with more weight than a supersized chocolate malt. The […] More »
If you want a picture of camp, imagine a sneaker stamping on a human facefor a whole summer. How one middle-class kid not only survived the Orwellian experience of self-improvement camp, but lived to tell the tale
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From the godfather of punk to the underground's fairy gothmother, meet the leaders of a lifestyle revolution, whose style and attitude long ago transcend the mainstream More »
Digital technology is making it impossible to control the spread of intellectual property. So, how are artists supposed to make a living from their work? Give it away. More »
In downtown Winnipeg, a group of radicals is trying to create a different kind of café/bookstore. But as David Leibl finds out, even when there are no bosses, some things in the service industry never change. More »
When the Canadian government introduced Canadian Content rules for radio, listeners from coast to coast to coast were made to endure the strains of Gowan, Glass Tiger and Platinum Blonde. Today, many Canuck acts are critically acclaimed and commercially viable—hitting the Billboard charts on a regular basis. Could screen quotas do the same thing for our homegrown filmmakers? More »