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Stephin Merritt is amazing

Stephin Merritt at one point wrote for Time Out New York. They recently posted all his works online. Aluminum Tunes is not a new Stereolab album but two CDs of B-sides and outtakes and such. Three or four years ago, Stereolab was an indie-rock group with intentionally unintelligible singing, obscure words drawn from Marxist tracts, really long songs consisting of one chord, Velvet Underground shtick, lackluster playing skills and plenty of charm. Nowadays, it still has the charm part, but indie rock is dead—Stereolab helped kill it. Now its music is much better. Stephin reviews Stereolab. That has to be the greatest summary of Stereolab I’ve ever read.1 Merritt also… Read More »Stephin Merritt is amazing

Mayor Staypuft

Okay, so Toronto chose the worst possible option for its mayor. I propose two things. 1) We, the people, the ones who own this city, the ones who invest our lives in it, we band together and make it the best possible city it can fuckin’ be! Whether that be creating amazing art spaces for the community, working towards a greener Toronto, escalating guerilla urban planning1, anything! Let’s make this the best possible city, despite Ford. 2) 2014 is coming soon. Who do we want to run our city. We have three million possible contenders. We need to figure out who that person is, and convince them they want the… Read More »Mayor Staypuft

Why Joey Trousers is getting my vote…

This is a pretty bad election for Toronto. We’re faced with three name candidates. A city councillor from Etobicoke who has been making Council a living hell for those who try to make legislation; the former Deputy Premier of Ontario, who as Minister of Health fucked up beyond belief; and the Deputy Mayor. During this campaign, all three candidates are looking backwards, rather than forwards. Not a single one of them is providing a vision for Toronto, their campaigns are focused on Mayor David Miller, not Toronto. While Ford and Smitherman’s campaigns are about how Miller did everything wrong, Pantalone’s campaign has been to say that David Miller did no… Read More »Why Joey Trousers is getting my vote…

Isobel(le, sans Sebastian)

Isobel Campbell seems to hate Toronto. In 1999, her then-band Belle & Sebastian were scheduled to play a show here, but she got sick, and the band had to cancel what was to be their first Toronto show. The next time they came around to Toronto, they played at one of the city’s worst venues, The Kool Haus. She didn’t seem to be too happy up on stage, and lo and behold, she left the band the next day. Since then Belle & Sebastian have been without a cellist1 and they seem happy about it. A few years later, Campbell was on tour supporting her new record, an album she… Read More »Isobel(le, sans Sebastian)

Cassettes and Paper

I’m reading zines of old. I came across some zines that were sent to me by a couple of women who played an important part of my teenage years. Nothing like that! You see, back in the ’90s I found for the first time in my life “modern music” which I enjoyed. Before that I was listening exclusively to music of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, a lot of which I still love and listen to, but I found a band who were contemporary that got me going. Through that band I met many great people, and I still continue to meet people because of them. Back in the the… Read More »Cassettes and Paper

Jésus de Montréal

Denys Arcand’s 1989 film Jésus de Montréal is a classic Canadian film about an actor who is hired by a church to put on a play about the life of Jesus Christ. Daniel (Lothaire Bluteau) plays the role of Christ in the play, he doesn’t stick to the story of Christ that the Church wishes to be told, and instead attempts for more historical accuracy. Daniel’s story follows that of Christ, from the beginning of the film, until the end. Arcand outdid himself with a film that is a masterpiece. Lothaire Bluteau is wonderful as Daniel, even if you don’t understand a single word he utters. This is an essential… Read More »Jésus de Montréal

I Never Liked You by Chester Brown

After having read Chester Brown’s fabulous biography of Louis Riel, I thought I should read more of his work. My choices at the Toronto Public Library was limited to his autobiographical I Never Liked You. The book is about growing up in the suburbs, bullied, unsure of yourself and how to approach women. I read this book on a beach on Toronto Island on a sunny Saturday, and I finished the book too quickly. Brown’s adolescence is dramatized and draws the reader in, as he gets bullied, deals with issues around love, whether familial love or romantic love. Brown faces the horrors of his mother’s mental health issues, and his… Read More »I Never Liked You by Chester Brown