The current issue of This features Andrew Webster’s profile of Canada’s independent videogame scene, which came to mind recently when I stumbled across Lose/Lose, a video-game/conceptual-art-project that adds some real risk to the normally consequence-free world of blowing up aliens. When you play Lose/Lose, the alien attackers are stand-ins for actual files on your computer. […] More »

In an age when CNN can get away with quoting Twitter as “a source” in its coverage of Iran’s high-stakes political bedlam, it’s more than fair to assume that as a society, we’re still ironing out the kinks in our relationship with interactive media. For some of us that might mean, say, late-night microblogging about […] More »

Girls are expected to behave a certain way. While I’m not exactly sure what that means, I do know that I was once chastised by one of my high school drama teachers for what she diagnosed as “this stupid Goth thing you’re going for”: referring—albeit inaccurately—to my self-styled uniform of inky dyed hair, Salvation Army […] More »

It’s only fair that the 11-day Celebrate Canada! festival should kick off with National Aboriginal Day. After all, what better way to commemorate this crazy multicultural mosaic of a country than by launching its celebration in honour of the first people to make it awesome? We’ve compiled a list of things to see and do […] More »

Space Dogdeball about to begin after last week’s satellite crash. Wind energy gets its hands dirty. Offshore oil rigs may provide the ideal spot for turbines. Google buys a Finish paper mill and turns it into a data center. A sign of times to come? Darwin turns 200!!! SCIENCE IS FUN! More »

My next couple of entries will offer a book review of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest #6. If you want to read along and offer your more insightful comments, the journal is available for free online (but it's also very nice in print). More »

Whew. What a year it’s been. The U.S. made history, Canada almost did and gas prices dropped to their lowest since I got my driver’s license. Toronto finished off 2008 with three bank robberies and began 2009 with three new babies and the GTA’s first homicide, which, tragically, pales in comparison to the bloodbath that […] More »

I frequently bemoan the fact that my mom gave me a name that is both incredibly common for my age group, as well as (apparently) impossible to spell. As of this moment, however, I will cease complaining and be grateful that she did not name me Adolf Hitler. Little Adolf Hitler Campbell ran into trouble […] More »

Two things that have come through my life recently have me thinking about problems and solutions. The first is an incredibly well-presented online video and website called The Story of Stuff. In it, activist Annie Leonard describes her years-long investigation of the lifetime of consumer goods: where they come from, how they get in our […] More »

(book image courtesy Amazon.ca) I’m just back from a courtroom on University Avenue in Toronto where a judge in the Robert Baltovich re-pre-trial threw out a subpoena demanding a local writer hand over his research materials. It’s a very good day for a free press in Canada. Derek Finkle, former editor of TORO Magazine, succeeded […] More »

Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait (image courtesy The Telegraph) On a day when even the stodgiest of media crews, the CTV television folks, covered the Toronto Pride parade like Santa Claus might show up at any minute, I enjoyed a few hours touring the closet. I happened to be in Buffalo, New York (great town, everyone should […] More »