Wondering how best to pay tribute to a musician who recently died? Just say no to holograms—please I beg of you—and instead enlist some adorable children to help you with your tribute. That’s what Portland filmmaker James Winters did. Winters got his kids and nephew to reenact the Beastie Boys 1994 video for “Sabotage” (directed […] More »
This week the Green Party launched an anti-attack ad criticizing other parties for their sensational advertisements. The meta attack ad aims to benefit from Canadians’ supposed distaste for ad hominem vilification and mudslinging. It’s commonly believed that the first attack ad was the iconic 1964 “Daisy Girl” commericial, which threatens American voters with the prospect of nuclear war […] More »
By far the most significant video of the weekend was this one, shot by Meghann Millard from her third floor office on Queen St. West, in which the protesters sing the national anthem, and are then charged by a line of police in riot gear. This video received an extra boost when no less than […] More »
Last night we had a great turnout for the Speak the F**k Up! panel talk we put on in partnership with rabble.ca. Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties — no internet access — that made streaming the video live impossible. But the brave souls at RabbleTV pressed on and recorded the talk for posterity, so we […] More »
Free at last. After three years and nine months thwarting a deportation order in the sanctuary of a Montreal church, Abdelkader Belaouni became a Canadian citizen in October 2009. Belaouni was one of the refugees I spoke to for my article “Gimme Shelter” in This Magazine’s July-August 2009 issue. At the time, he was living […] More »
With all this hand-wringing over firebombs and security perimeters, perhaps it’s time to put our hands to better use. I’m talking, of course, about getting creative when the G8/G20 rolls into the province next month. John Greyson, filmmaker and York University professor, posted this short film on his Vimeo site a few days ago. Greyson’s […] More »
Whoever’s pulling the strings at one major tampon-maker has had it with euphemisms. It’s Kotex-ploitation! Finally, an ad about tampons spoofs stupid ad lingo—”down there,” “sanitary napkins,” “that time of the month”—and dares to actually say the word vagina (you know, where it goes) in a television commercial. The run-down: “How do I feel about […] More »
The distinction of “all time favourite song,” more often than not, is something reserved for the teenage years. For some, whose musical tastes stall with the arrival of adulthood, that all time favourite song might last a lifetime. For others, it simply becomes a reminder of those years when every new discovery carried significant emotional […] More »
Most videos on YouTube are total fiascos, but at least they’re entertaining fiascos. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s debut on YouTube—in which he responded with carefully prepared talking points to carefully screened video questions in a carefully pre-taped appearance—was dull because there was nothing at stake. It was like watching a man walk a tightrope across his […] More »
One of the great redeeming aspects of big, multi-day, city-wide music festivals like Canadian Music Week/Fest is the opportunity for discovery. It’s very rare these days that one gets the opportunity to hear something truly great, for the first time, in a live setting. Generally, if I’m going to a show where I’m unfamiliar with […] More »
After six years as an online-only webseries, Pure Pwnage — that’s “ownage”, or “supreme dominance of anyone in anything” in square-talk — invades real television tonight when it premieres on cable channel Showcase. A mockumentary-style series about an obsessive Toronto gamer and his entourage of equally oddball friends that began its run in 2004, Pure Pwnage bears […] More »