When St. Patrick set foot in Ireland in the fifth century, he had no idea that March 17 would turn into one of the most raucous, debaucherous and beloved holidays of all time. Despite a predominantly Scottish ancestry (ok, with just a smidge of County Derry), I’ve spent my whole life looking forward to St. Paddy’s each year.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’d take to successfully design and market a Quizno’s sub, then look no further than the winners of the Queen’s Apprentice Quizno’s Sub Challenge, Team Cream.
In the sixth instalment of the Queen’s Apprentice Boardroom, held at Alfie’s this past Tuesday, each team prepared their sub to be judged by “the Johnald”—School of Business professor John Pliniussen.

For the most part, Ultraviolet Magazine provided an interesting and quality look at the talents of campus artists. But a lack of vision, printing quality and stringent submission guidelines have watered down their 10th anniversary edition.

Festivals such as the KCFF are important because they give Canadians a chance to see movies produced in our own country rather than the latest zany romantic comedy from Hollywood. Unfortunately, these viewing opportunities tend to be few and far between.

When was the last time something really moved you? When have you had an experience so powerful that it gave you goosebumps, or made your hair stand on end?

March 10, 2006

Oh, spring—that wonderful season of warmer sunshine, melting snow and blossoming flowers, when nature begins to renew itself. In keeping with the theme of the season, it is also the time to make some serious changes to last year’s spring wardrobe. Although it may not look or feel like spring quite yet, it’s the perfect time to get a headstart on the trends of spring 2006.

There are a lot of different ways to spend your weekend. Sometimes you need to study, sometimes you’ve got a date, and sometimes you want to drink until your forget your own last name. But on occasion, all you really want to do is hear someone play a little music. The word is still out on how Craig Cardiff feels about drinking, but he’d love to sing and play guitar for everyone—as long as you sit down and shut up.

The purpose of the Queen’s Feminist Review, according to its introduction, is to “present literary and artistic pieces that are challenging, provocative, personal and political in order to represent the multiplicity of voices and perspectives of the feminist experience.” Those are lofty ambitions for a 64-page anthology, which makes the accomplishment of the contributors and editors of the Queen’s Feminist Review even more impressive.

The city is playing host to Canadian filmmakers extraordinaire this weekend as the Kingston Canadian Film Fest hits our humble streets for its sixth year running. Featuring Canadian-only content, the festival has a line-up of 20 feature-length films this year.

Welcome to Heterotopia. “Where?” you ask. Heterotopia is a place and a play its dramatist and scientist creators describe as “What happens when you lose track of time …” It’s a shared moment of consciousness, a question about time and a coming together of the lost minds of seven confused characters.

“I think seventy per cent of the people don’t know what’s going on, thirty per cent of the people kind of know what’s going on, and that includes us as well—we’re not entirely sure what’s going on,” said Liane Fong, ArtSci ’06, regarding her experiences with the Japanada party series.

The story is as old as time—boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy can’t be with girl because he is damned to be chained to a rock with birds pecking at his insides for eternity. Or at least such is the twist on the Greek myth of Prometheus in the production of B at the Exposure Arts Festival.

March 3, 2006

While many students dread the month of March, with essay deadlines, thesis projects and of course the haunting thought of final exams just around the corner, I’m one of those girls that eagerly awaits its arrival every year. It’s the time of year when we’re finally given a preview of this year’s spring fashion.

When The Weakerthans and The Constantines brought their Rolling Tundra Revue tour into Kingston last April, hardly anyone knew what to expect when the virtually unknown opening act, The Hylozoists, a rag-tag indie orchestra dressed entirely in virgin white, took to the stage.

On Monday, the men of el Torpedo, guided by their fearless leader Matt Mays, were in Charlottetown where they won four East Coast Music Awards and played their hit “Cocaine Cowgirl” to close out the show. By Wednesday, Matt Mays and el Torpedo were at the Ale House, where they proved to everyone present exactly why each and every award they received was fully deserved.

Someone in the audience watching the University Wits’ production of The Taming of the Shrew might notice something odd about the characters. Katherine is about a foot taller than her suitor, Petrucchio, who seems unusually buxom. And the bit of Bianca’s shin visible to the audience is quite hairy.

Sitting in the comfy—if not a little cramped—apartment/practice space of the Diableros, on the outskirts of Toronto’s Kensington Market, drinking echinacea-laced tea with four of the six band members, you’d never know that the unassuming sextet are the city’s current critical darlings, nor that their debut album, You Can’t Break the Strings in Our Olympic Hearts (which can be streamed in its entirety on their website, thediableros.tv) was just released across the country only a few days earlier.

White, white, white was the colour scheme of choice at Tuesday night’s Metric show at Grant Hall. Appropriate perhaps, given the icy winds and occasional blusters of snow outside.

There must be something about Queen’s University and writers. From Robertson Davies, our illustrious grandfather of fiction, to contemporary aces like Russell Smith and Steven Heighton, Queen’s hovers like a proud, invisible godmother at bookstores around the world. In 2004, Robert McGill, ArtSci ’99, took up the literary torch with his stunning debut novel, The Mysteries.

February 17, 2006

Not everyone can claim that they make a living by forcing their best friend to eat his own vomit, but that’s exactly the path that Kenny Hotz’s life has taken. It’s certainly a detour for the Toronto native who began his career as a photographer.

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