Photo courtesy of Jasper Savage/Smokebomb I remember the day I booked the now-hit web series Carmilla like it was yesterday. I was so ecstatic I performed an awkward little happy dance to the dust bunnies in my bedroom when I received the call from my talent agent. I had never wanted to land a part so […] More »

Dundas Square, at 5:10 p.m., hundreds of protesters marched, outraged. Voices crying, “Shame!” Signs questioning, “Who will protect us from our protectors?” Bodies wearing office clothes, casual clothing, work out gear. Megaphones amplify chants, drums create unison, bagpipes mourn. Minds on Sammy Yatim, the 18-year-old boy fatally shot by police last Saturday.He never made it […] More »

When 13-year-old McKenna Pope went to buy an Easy Bake Oven for her little brother (who requested one from Santa), she was appalled to discover that the Hasbro toy only featured females on its packaging, and was only offered in the stereotypically female colours of pink and purple. But instead of settling for an unfairly […] More »

After the sheer surprise of Vancouver’s Stanley Cup riots had dissipated, Canadian commentators tried to figure out what it all meant. Most beat their usual political drums—months later we’re blaming the pinko anarchists, capitalist pigs, and beer companies for making their products so darn tasty and portable. But this being 2011, many who broke windows […] 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 »

In 1999, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission took a hard look at the then-burgeoning internet. They then did what many Canadians would consider a very un-CRTC-like thing: they decided not to regulate it. That may come as something of a surprise, as we tend to think that if the CRTC has a thing, it’s […] More »

In the latest edition of Listen to This I interviewed Nadja Sayej and Krzysztof Pospieszynski, the onscreen and offscreen personalities, respectively, behind ArtStars*, an online video magazine that bills itself as “the TMZ of the Toronto art scene.” What that means in practice is that host, interviewer, and provocateur-in-chief Nadja crashes gallery openings, parties, and other […] 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 »

Last night, I wondered whether it was worth writing about Ann Coulter. When I think of her at all — which isn’t too often, actually — I think of her as being a deeply vile but mostly irrelevant self-promoter. (It would be going too far to call her an ideologue, because that would imply ideas, […] More »

As the internet becomes a global battlefield, a clutch of Canadian programmers are subverting oppressive regimes, aiding online dissidents, and mapping the murky new world of digital geopolitics The Dalai Lama is charged with watching over Buddhist tradition, but on March 29, 2009 The New York Times revealed a shadowy presence was secretly watching him, […] 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 »