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Bookishness: Week of February 6, 2012
Tumblr: good for more than just Ryan Gosling memes Stuck as to what Tumblr might be good for aside from Ryan Gosling memes and finding pictures of cute haircuts? The Millions has broken tumblr down from a bookish perspective in their guide to literary tumblrs. A scientifically foolproof approach to love among bookworms Assuming we’ve…
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The Homophone Hordes
Is your interest peaked by the free reign given to a rampaging hoard of homophones? Do you pour over newspapers looking for them? In the past decade or so, I’ve noticed misplaced homophones creep ever more readily into newspapers and magazines. Given two words that are spelled differently but sound alike, professional writers are using…
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As Store or Play, Kim’s Convenience is Canonically Canadian
Reviewed in this essay: Kim’s Convenience, from Soulpepper Theatre Company. Written by Ins Choi and directed by Weyni Mengesha. Until February 11th at Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street, Building 49, Toronto. Reopens May 17–June 9, 2012. 416-866-8666 or www.soulpepper.ca. Building a play around a racial stereotype is risky business, especially when…
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Kate Beaton: Canada’s Cartoonist
Reviewed in this essay: Hark, a Vagrant, by Kate Beaton. Drawn and Quarterly, 2011. On the web at harkavagrant.com. If you haven’t heard of Kate Beaton until lately you’re a little late to the party. Since Drawn and Quarterly released a collection of her work last fall, the cartoonist has exploded in popularity: a book…
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It’s A Man’s World: Alumnae Theatre Company Presents MacEwen’s Masterful Adaptation of The Trojan Women
Reviewed in this essay: The Trojan Women, from Alumnae Theatre Company. Translated and adapted by Gwendolyn MacEwen. Directed by Alexandra Seay. Produced by PJ Hammond & Tabitha Keast. Until February 4th at Alumnae Theatre, 70 Berkeley Street, Toronto. 416-364-4170 or http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/tickets.html. In Gwendolyn MacEwen’s adaptation of The Trojan Women, the world of men is defined…
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Bookishness: Week of January 30, 2012
Mister Lonelyhearts Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) recently took over the Huffington Post Books twitter feed to dole out relationship advice in support of his latest book, Why We Broke Up. As one might expect, the resulting advice is clever and wry, but it’s also, in many cases, pretty bang on. Example: Q: “How do you go from being just…
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Where’s the Beer? And Jamie Fitzpatrick’s You Could Believe in Nothing
Reviewed in this essay: You Could Believe in Nothing, by Jamie Fitzpatrick. Nimbus Publishing, 2011. Until a few weeks ago, I thought I knew hockey culture. Like many Canadians, I grew up playing the game, and put in my time watching Don Cherry in the 80s and 90s. And, like Derek in Jamie Fitzpatrick’s fine…
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On Reading Fast and Slow
Some people count the number of books they read in a year. I only kept track once, in 2006, my final year as an undergraduate in English at the University of Toronto, and did so only out of curiosity. I wanted to know how many works of literature my professors had tried to stuff into…
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Have We Dreamed so Big?: A Review of Rebecca Rosenblum’s The Big Dream
Reviewed in this essay: The Big Dream, by Rebecca Rosenblum. Biblioasis, 2011. Have we dreamed so big, only to awake small, suburban and fragile? Rosenblum’s collection of linked short stories is a chronicle of the disappointments of waking/growing up, only to find that the golden palace of your dream is a squat, square low-rise commercial…
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Bookishness: Week of January 23, 2012
Fewer cardigans than one might expect, but a fair number of spectacles The latest in the Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project: Librarians. CanLit is Sexy Not convinced? Let the CanLit is Sexy tumblr sweet talk its way into your heart (or elsewhere). Definitely safe for work, sadly. Books on film TIFF’s Books on Film returns in February for a second season, featuring Eleanor Wachtel…
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TRB Podcast: The Master Critic and the Review – Robert Cushman at York University
On October 18, 2011, renowned critic Robert Cushman spoke on “The Master Critic and the Review” at York University: the TRB is delighted to be able to bring you his lecture. [audio:cushman.mp3] Cushman’s bio on the York event page is as follows: Born in London and educated at Cambridge University, worked for the BBC’s radio…
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Ecce Homo Theatre’s Loving the Stranger… Examines the War that Never Ends
Reviewed in this essay: Loving the Stranger or How to Recognize an Invert, from Ecce Homo Theatre. Written and directed by Alistair Newton. Until January 15th at Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto. Part of The Toronto Fringe’s NextStage Festival. 416-966-1062 or www.fringetix.ca. One of the final slides projected onto the screen hanging onstage during…