How does a drama student escape from the “Queen’s bubble” to make forays into the Kingston theatre community and beyond?
After their performance in a production by Open Minds, a community theatre group, Queen’s students Mandy Doherty, ArtSci ’06, and Keith Bennie, ArtSci ’07, said it isn’t as hard as it seems.
Doherty and Bennie just finished a three-show run of Swedish playwright August Steinberg’s bizarre and passionate Miss Julie, in a new translation.

At Queen’s Orientation Week six years ago, Bedouin Soundclash bassist Eon Sinclair thought he had everything figured out.
Two albums, a Zellers commercial, international tours and a 2006 Juno Award for Best New Group later, things have turned out a little bit differently.
Sinclair, singer/guitarist Jay Malinowski and drummer Pat Pengelly met in their first year at Queen’s and bonded over a shared appreciation of reggae. The band originally included Brett Dunlop on hand percussion.

It’s difficult to get through My Most Secret Desire in one sitting. Montreal-based cartoonist Julie Doucet is best known for the details of her drawings, and her new book delivers on this front. In My Most Secret Desire, Doucet draws detailed and vivid images of her dreams, exploring her subconscious and interrogating her sexuality.

You don’t have to be a subatomic physicist to enjoy Neutrinos They Are Very Small, a collection of works inspired by research into the mysterious titular particle. But luckily for those of us lacking advanced science degrees, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre is offering guided tours four times a week to give visitors a crash course on the neutrino, and just what exactly it has to do with art, anyway.

Just one dark, creepy alleyway removed from Lee’s Palace in Toronto, Fat Robot are drinking beer in a parking lot and reflecting on the fact that they, along with fellow campus acts The Radical Dudez and Khaki Snack, have now played on the same stage as Kurt Cobain. It’s not a particularly glamourous scene, but neither is heroin addiction, and everyone’s got to start somewhere.

By most accounts, this year’s NXNE was something of a disappointment. The annual Toronto music festival seemed to scramble at the last minute to bring bigger ticket and independently booked shows with greater interest under its umbrella. Still, many of NXNE weekend’s most notable bills—including the Paper Bag Records showcase and the Six Shooter Records afternoon barbeque—weren’t technically part of the festival. Special recognition is due to the festival’s best band name: Adam Puddington and the Proof.

After four years heading up local concert booking company Rock Crew Productions, Chris Morris retires from the rock and roll lifestyle for real estate.

Terry Zwigoff’s Art School Confidential is “dragged down by a pair of conventional and predictable subplots that never quite fit,” says Phil Brown.

Almost every rock show I’ve attended in Kingston has been cut from the same cloth: a couple openers of variable quality, and a tightly-packed, sweaty audience. The crowds are usually a patchwork: true believers yelling every lyric, slightly bemused friends along for the ride, disinterested conversationalists looking to pick up and all-too-enthusiastic dancers …

Opening this week at the Wellington Street Theatre, The Gospel According to Saint Mark is not a wittily titled story about the life and opinions of a guy named Mark. At least, not really. It’s the Bible. Yes, really. The Gospel According to Saint Mark is just that, the gospel, performed as a one-man tour de force by local actor Matthew Gibson. And it’s good.

As I glanced at the cover of Vol. 4, I knew I was going to enjoy writing this review. Not that I judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you just know. The cover art, an inkjet print by Chin-Chien titled “Lumina souvenir,” is a stark image of an older-middle-aged woman in a white ribbed sweater, holding a Christmas ornament in each hand. The contrast between the delicate features of the feminine ornaments and the vacant stare of the woman holding them is gripping. I couldn’t wait to see what was inside.

The surprisingly unapologetic mastermind behind Final Fantasy—the singing violinist’s beautiful solo project—responded to whether he’s worried about disappointing fans of his first solo record, Has A Good Home, with the upcoming release of his sophomore album. Pallett readily admits that the bizarrely titled He Poos Clouds—out on May 9—marks a significant departure from Final Fantasy’s debut.

This past weekend, a group of Queen’s drama students performed their production of Fen, in association with Knockabout Theatre Company and The Single Thread Theatre Company.
Fen, written by English playwright Caryl Churchill, is a story of a community of farmers and their complex relationships with each other, as well as the conflicts within themselves.

An excited buzz filled the air outside of Grant Hall this past weekend as people began to line up for this year’s thirteenth annual Vogue Charity Fashion Show. The show brought a full house, and some of those waiting in line were aptly wearing their most fashionable attire, while others seemed to have come straight from studying.