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CanLit Canon Review #12: Harold Innis’s Empire and Communications
In an attempt to make himself a better Canadian, Craig MacBride is reading and reviewing the books that shaped this country. What is most remarkable about Harold Innis is his consistency through the years. Whether it’s his first book, The Fur Trade in Canada or, 20 years later, his last book, Empire and Communications, Innis is…
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DNA poetry, thinking like Sherlock, and defining Toronto: Bookishness, Jan. 14, 2013
The little questions “What does Toronto even mean? What kind of city is it? What kind of place do we want it to be? That’s the big question, isn’t it?” – Edward Keenan, Some Great Idea. While you think about how you might answer the big question, try your hand at answering some little questions…
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Dr. Pamela Palmater To Speak at U of T’s Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives
Dr. Pamela Palmater, a Mi’kmaw lawyer and Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University, will be speaking at the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives Hart House (7 Hart House Circle, in the 2nd floor Debates Room) at the University of Toronto on January 17, 2013 at 2pm. Dr. Palmater will be speaking on…
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TRB Podcast: James Danky on the Future of Print
On November 15, the Toronto Centre for the Book and the Centre for the Study of the United States invited Professor James Danky to deliver his lecture entitled “Protest on the Page and the Future of Print, Lecture in Two Parts.” Listen and enjoy! [audio:2013.01/Danky.mp3] In this talk, presented at the University of Toronto’s Munk…
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Record Store Review: Grasshopper Records
Enveloped in a neck-protecting aura of Wu-tang posters, busted amps, Star Wars figurines, and portraits, the vinyl-only Grasshopper Records (1167 Dundas St. West) feels like your coolest friend’s apartment if everything in it went up for sale. Decked out with two black pleather couches and a club chair with armrests wide enough to hold your…
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Slavery, cinema, and sensitivity: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained
Reviewed in this essay: Django Unchained. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Running time 165 minutes. Now playing in Toronto theaters. In recent weeks, moviegoers have been treated to two radically different films about American slavery, each of them trying to unpack the burden of that violent…
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The AGO’s “Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting”: Something for everyone
Let’s face the obvious first. Surrealism isn’t everyone’s bag, especially in its more nightmarish forms. And if that’s true of you, if the darker Dalis make you cringe and the chilling Ernsts give you the sweats, taking in the work of Frida Kahlo may not be the optimal way to spend an afternoon. Kahlo’s art,…
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Reading in 2013, pennies, and the physics of getting James’s peach airborne: Bookishness for Jan. 7
New Year’s Read-olutions Everyone around seems to be setting reading goals for 2013. I’m aiming for what now seems like a measly 100 books, held in comparison to Jeff Ryan’s 366 books in 2012. Alternatively, you might resolve to read less. The best Canadian designs ever From The Canadian Design Resource, a list of the top 100 Canadian…
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Go Home Print has a Message for TRB Readers
With their new quarterly magazine, Go Home Print collaborators Emma Sharpe, Shanley Maguire and Rhodi Iliadou say they “want to create a beautiful printed object that you can hold in your hands.” Sounds good to us. Here’s their message to TRB readers: Our first issue of Go Home Magazine, which launched in November 2012, had a niche feeling to it, focusing…
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Forgoing truth for drama: Kathryn Bigelow’s not-so-true story Zero Dark Thirty
Reviewed in this essay: Zero Dark Thirty, written by Mark Boal. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, and Kyle Chandler. Running Time: 157 minutes. Opening in Toronto Jan. 11. Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award-winning The Hurt Locker (2009) succeeded as a straightforward study of military bomb disarmers. Although the film was set during the…
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History, true and fictional: A review of poet Kate Cayley’s “When This World Comes to an End”
When This World Comes to an End By Kate Cayley Brick Books, February 2013 $20 A first book of poems is a beautiful thing. But while this is Kate Cayley’s first poetry volume, she is no newcomer to writing. Her short stories and poems have appeared in journals across the country, she has authored a young adult novel, The Hangman…