Downtrodden and overworked, you head home with a stupefied look on your face after your last exam or paper is over with. You trudge up the stairs to your old bedroom at your parents’ house and sleep for 16 hours before finally coming to. You’ve killed 32 trees and suffered three nervous breakdowns with all the essays you’ve just written; you almost had a seizure on your kitchen table after having your sixth double espresso while cramming for your last exam. Christmas Break is looking pretty damn good because it gives you licence to do a whole lot of nothing.Continue...
While most of today’s indie rock bands record their latest album at an inconspicuous and less-than-glamorous studio or in their garage, such is not the case for up-and-coming band Here and There.
In fact, the locale of their recording studio—and the recording studio itself—is probably one of the most atypical things about the band. After all, not a great deal of today’s indie rock was created and recorded in a beach house on the isolated Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal.Continue...
Here’s the thing about Dave Eggers: his work is really hard to summarize, because in doing so you inevitably lose something that’s very, very important about it. As one of the 14 unique narrators in How We Are Hungry , Eggers’ new collection of short stories, puts it, “diagnosis would have made it all less interesting.”Continue...
The Ice Harvest is, at its core, a modern film noir. It has a twisted, convoluted plot filled with shady characters, greed, betrayal and murder. It also happens to be set at Christmas and is directed by Harold Ramis, one of the most successful comedic filmmakers of his generation.Continue...
If you’re looking for a play that will imbue you with that warm, joyful Christmas spirit, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues probably isn’t for you. However, if you’re unfazed by a description of a drunken Mrs. Claus attending a Christmas party dressed only in gold body paint, pasties, and a strategically placed elf, you might want to consider checking out this play.Continue...
“Well, there was this time on our way to Kingston to play the Modern Fuel sometime this June, and we were at that half-way point between Ottawa and K-town where there are no rest stops,” recounts Acorn frontman and chief songwriter Rolf Klausener when cornered and forced to divulge The Acorn’s most shocking road stories.Continue...
Jazz and wine sometimes get a bad rap. First off, they are commonly described as “acquired tastes”—hey, if you don’t believe me, then why do Michael Bolton albums and sticky-sweet “white” zinfandel fly off of the shelves so much faster than Charlie Parker and red Bordeaux? Couple that with the conjured images of business soirees, midtown dinner parties and urban snobbery, and people steer clear of Mingus and Shiraz whenever people aren’t watching.Continue...
There aren’t very many indie rockers out there who release their breakout album at age 37. Then again, Jason Collett has always been a bit of a quiet rebel.
A carpenter by trade with two teenage kids, the lanky troubadour—better known as the best-dressed member of Broken Social Scene—didn’t exactly follow a typical career path.Continue...
Since their establishment and first production, The Boyfriend , in 1969, Queen’s Musical Theatre has seen its fair share of musicals. This coming January, they will be adding a new show to their repertoire when they become the first university in Canada to produce the three-time Tony Award winner Urinetown .Continue...
Another year and Sarah Harmer—Queen’s alumna, Kingston rocker and one of Canada’s most esteemed singer-songwriters—has put out another album, I’m a Mountain .Continue...
Sometimes you’re in the mood for a little comedy. Sometimes, you’d like to watch a great tragedy unfold. Occasionally, you might find yourself in the mood to watch people eat lettuce. It’s only at a Vogt show, however, that you’ll ever get the chance to see it all in one night.Continue...
Three fine art students have come together in a new show called (Citations) out of a shared interest in exploring literature’s effects on a person’s life, with refreshingly original results. Artists Samantha Mogelonsky, Sarah Smith and Lisa Visser worked collaboratively, but also took their mutual concept and split into three different directions. Under the roof of the Union Gallery, the three artists meet to reveal their final products to each other and to the public.Continue...
On behalf of the department of Spanish and Italian, Prof. Donato Santeramo invited Tonya Lee Williams—actress, filmmaker and activist—to campus last Friday to deliver two lectures: “Acting: A Social-Political Perspective” and “Reel World: Promoting the Importance of Diversity in Canadian Filmmaking.” Toronto film festival Reel World, which Williams herself founded, is now in its sixth year.Continue...
The number of walking scenes in Roman Polanski’s film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist could rival Lord of the Rings. Although bordering on tedious at times, these scenes function well at emphasizing Oliver’s isolation and loneliness. The orphan is pictured several times on a lonely country road, struggling to put one foot in front of the other.Continue...
The living room-like atmosphere at The Grad Club had a different effect on Jill Barber on Tuesday night than it did on the opening band, The Blue Raincoats. While Barber was making the audience feel as comfortable as she was, the Raincoats didn’t seem to notice they had an audience.Continue...
Talent is in abundance in the drama department’s fall major production, with Queen’s graduate Daryl Cloran directing a modern adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters . During the remainder of the year, he serves as the artistic director of Toronto’s Theatrefront Company.Continue...
Recording can be tough, especially when you’re touring non-stop and can’t seem to find the time to get a nice, long studio session. Just ask Toronto-based Controller.Controller, who returned to The Grad Club last night for a highly anticipated, intimate performance. With their first full-length release, X-Amounts, having been on the shelves for less than a month, the album was certainly a long time in the making.Continue...
