June 7, 2023 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Health & Self-help, Reviews
Can unconstrained caterwauling, deafening decibels, and a thoroughly nonconformist ethos provide a balm to soothe psychological woes? The answer is an emphatic yes, says Jason Schreurs, a long-time music journalist and lifelong punk rock ... Read More »
Hours after Kim Hancox learned that her husband, Toronto Detective Constable Bill Hancox, had been stabbed to death while on duty, reporters and camera crews began massing on her front lawn. They knocked on her ... Read More »
May 3, 2023 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Media, Memoir & Biography, Reviews
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition is currently touring event centres across Europe and North America (including a stop in Toronto this spring), promising a “life-size, up-close, never-before-seen perspective” of one of the world’s most celebrated ... Read More »
March 15, 2023 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, History, Memoir & Biography
Pop culture is powerful. Our shared experiences can foster a sense of collective belonging, while just as quickly isolate and traumatize. Consider the divisive social and political issues exposed by some of 2022’s biggest cultural ... Read More »
January 11, 2023 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Criticism & Essays, Memoir & Biography
While still an adolescent living in Israel, Moshe Safdie once received a report card in which his teacher wrote: “Moshe is unable to control his spirits.” Now, in his 80s, Safdie still cannot be contained, ... Read More »
November 22, 2022 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Memoir & Biography
When Rosalind M. Pepall began her career as a curator more than 30 years ago, her job title had a very specific institutional meaning. Curating was a specialized profession requiring a graduate degree and was ... Read More »
October 5, 2020 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews
There’s a chatty intimacy to Taken by the Muse, a series of vignettes focusing on adventures Canadian filmmaker Anne Wheeler has embarked on in her life. Wheeler, whose critically acclaimed career includes the feature films ... Read More »
August 24, 2020 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews
It’s not often I hear an author’s voice in my head while reading a book, but with On Nostalgia, I heard what I imagined to be David Berry’s roving documentary tones, bright and curious, not ... Read More »
August 13, 2020 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews
What do fairy tales tell us about who we think is less than whole? What do happy endings tell us about who we believe really has worth? And what would these narratives look like if ... Read More »
February 10, 2020 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Reviews
In her new book, art critic Amy Fung does what a lot of BIPOC thinkers, especially Indigenous ones, ask us to do: deliberately situate ourselves in our narratives, clearly positioning ourselves vis-à-vis colonialism and the ... Read More »
May 27, 2019 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, Criticism & Essays