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Happy Holidays! See you in 2013!
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Racism or condescension: The Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas problem
Race has been at the centre of some debate surrounding the Wachowski Starship’s latest cinematic offering, Cloud Atlas. Assigning their ensemble cast to a variety of characters each, across six different storylines, Lana and Andy Wachowski use facial prosthetics and post-production touch ups to transform the racial and sexual orientations of their actors. The result…
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Man-boy fury: A review of Tim and Eric’s The Comedy
Reviewed in this essay: The Comedy, written by Rick Alverson, Robert Donne, and Colm O’leary. Directed by Rick Alverson. Starring Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and James Murphy. Running Time: 94 minutes. Available for Download on Itunes immediately. Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are the two most interesting comedians working in America today. Best known for their sketch…
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Public books: What Torontonians are reading at Union Station
As a recognized National Historical Site, a testament to Canadian urban beaux-arts style, and a committed travel hub, Toronto’s Union Station is an iconic public place. Despite said accolades, it is humble and mysterious, transformed day and night by its inhabitants, as a book is transformed by its beholders’ imaginations. As such, Union Station is…
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Top book lists, Little Libraries, and book cart drill teams: Bookishness, Dec. 17, 2012
If this is weird, I don’t wanna be normal Poetry makes you weird. The best best Distilling ALL OF THE top book lists. Grinches “In what can only be described as a fairly dick move, the town of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, has decided to ban Little Free Libraries, the most adorable manifestation of libraries to date.” I…
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TRB Podcast: John Ernest on the Misreading of Nineteenth-Century African American Literature
On November 9th, as part of the 2012 Editing Early African American Literature Conference, Dr. John Ernest gave a talk entitled “Artless Stories, Simple Facts: Editorial Practices and the Misreading of Nineteenth-Century African American Literature.” Listen and enjoy! [audio:2012.12/Ernest.mp3] John Ernest is a professor of English at the University of Delaware and is the author or…
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Record Store Review: Play de Record
Play de Record, at 357 Yonge Street, is a paragon of adaptation. Opened in 1990, behind a convenience store and with only records and tapes for sale, it has since taken over the front of the building and gone on to become the primo destination for seasoned DJs in need of the latest equipment, as well…
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Danger Music: On the Intimacy of Screaming
Reviewed in this Essay: Dick Higgins’s “Danger Music #17” performed by Jenn Cole and Didier Morelli for The Future of Cage: Credo conference at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto, Oct. 26, 2012 Didier Morelli said that when he plunged his head into his kitchen sink to recite Dante’s Inferno,…
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Book sculptures, Dickens, and 10 rules for writing: Bookishness for Dec. 10, 2012
2012’s most looked up words Capitalism and socialism. Five new works Edinburgh’s mysterious (and delightful) book sculptor is back. 10. Hear what everyone has to say but don’t listen to anyone (except him). “Just as nobody can really teach you how you like your coffee, so nobody can really teach you how to write.” 10…
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TRB Podcast: Naveen Joshi on South Asian Canadians Finding Marriage Online
On September 29, Humber College presented the 2012 Liberal Arts and Sciences Interdisciplinary Conference, at which Professor Naveen Joshi presented his paper “It’s About the Parents: Second-generation Indo-Canadians and an Online Matrimonial.” Professor Joshi’s talk draws on interviews with 30 second-generation Indo-Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area, examining why they use Shaadi.com, the world’s largest…
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A brief literary history of cocktails: The Mint Julep
Since the time of Homeric libation rituals and Plato’s wine-soaked Dionysian revels, alcohol has been an abiding fixture in the works and lives of many of our greatest writers, poets and philosophers. Their liquid inspiration and sustenance—to say nothing of ruin—has played a surprisingly major role in the development of literary history. Our new series…
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Sex, Bugs, and Schizophrenia: A review of Poison Shy
Reviewed in this essay: Poison Shy by Stacey Madden. ECW Press, 2012. Sex, bugs, and schizophrenia form an unlikely trinity, it is true. And yet they converge with surprising semblance in Stacey Madden’s first novel, Poison Shy. Told through first-person retrospective narration, Poison Shy is the story of a love triangle between two heavy-drinking late…