This Magazine articles from January 2007

This Magazine archives from January 2007

Pick a card, any card.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... It's not often that I go from old school to hip in a matter of seconds ("Hipster PDA," November/December). Having lived many years without a phone (prompting a colleague to query: "Isn't that illegal?") and only recently acquiring a...

Censorship concerns.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... As an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto in the 1980s, I once gave a presentation on South African poetry in my English class. I displayed the poems both in their original form as well as the form in which some of them arrived...

This mag shines.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... I have just discovered your magazine and am so glad. No longer able to endure the likes of Mark Steyn and the right-wing swing of Maclean's, I had simply quit buying it. But I missed having a magazine to browse through at my leisure. So I am...

Out of sight, out of mind?(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... So "crony capitalism" is on your forbidden words list (November/ December)? No wonder there are so few articles about Alberta politics. Following this logic, with Harper and his Alberta friends calling the tune in Ottawa, soon there will be...

Where are the women?(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... My 10-year-old daughter and I were looking at the 40 essential songs of resistance and loving it... until my daughter noticed that hardly any were by female artists. OK, there were some groups that included females, but the only clearly female...

Enough already.(Editorial)
January 1, 2007... "CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING EQUAL!" MY FRIEND SHARMEEN EXCLAIMS during a late-night chat, when I mention this issue's cover feature is a retrospective of Stephen Harper's first year in power. The Conservatives had just announced their intention...

Greening the farm: Montreal housing complex goes social and sustainable.(THIS & THAT)(Benny Farm)
January 1, 2007... AMID THE BLEAK CONCRETE STREETS of a rapidly changing city, Alex Hill is managing an oasis--or at least its energy needs. Getting the green light to "go green" last year, Benny Farm, a unique housing project in Montreal's west end, has been...

Girls gone Lulu: a clothing chain's promotion leaves the ladies cold.(THIS & THAT)(Lululemon Athletica's advertisement)
January 1, 2007... WHEN LULULEMON ATHLETICA OPENED A NEW STORE in Kingston, Ontario, a year ago, the high-end outfitter of the new yoga army entreated its customers to salute the sun in a whole new way. Its storefront was decorated with slogans from the company's...

Harper index.(THIS & THAT)(Prime minister Stephen Harper)
January 1, 2007... Stephen Harper's government didn't consult with opposition parties before unveiling its environmental plan last fall that featured long-term "intensity-based" greenhouse gas emissions targets. The Clean Air Act was panned by critics for its...

The virtuous Valentine's guide: how to be good to your sweetie--and the rest of the world--on February 14.(dating)
January 1, 2007... NO ONE CAN SAY FOR SURE WHY CUPID TEDDY BEARS POPULATE STORE shelves in February. Is it because this is when, according to one legend, a priest named Valentine was executed for defying a Roman law that forbade young men from marrying,...

Couchsurf's up: when the popular site wiped out, its members didn't.(THIS & THAT)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... WHEN COUCHSURFING.COM, A WEBSITE THAT HELPS travellers link up with locals for free places to stay, suffered a massive crash last summer, users sprang to action. After hearing that most of the site's data had been lost, they took it upon...

Progressive detective: investigating the politics behind everyday things.(THIS & THAT)(waste management of Computer hardware)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Q I have a computer graveyard in my basement. What is the best way to safely dispose of my old technology? A With regular and rapid changes in computing technology, machines commonly become "obsolete" within a couple of years. The...

Meet HAL: a Montreal collective's "digital jukebox" project.(THIS & THAT)(Montreal Wireless Group)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... MONTREAL WIRELESS GROUP ILE SANS FIL HAS A NEW WAY TO SHOWCASE LOCAL music and media. The collective's latest project, Hub d'Artistes Locaux (HAL), is a sort of digital jukebox of independent media, bringing together music and video, including...

Blog log: if blogging has let aspiring writers and journalists get their scribbling read, then podcasts have given A/V geeks and ambitious broadcasters a chance to play.(THIS & THAT)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... With a microphone, a computer and some free software, almost anyone can make a downloadable radio-style program. There are many, many types of podcasts, and finding them can be overwhelming. A good place to start is CanadaPodcasts.ca, a...

Freedom 85? Why working longer may be good for everyone but you.(ECONOMICS)
January 1, 2007... "Hi--my name is Lucky!!" I kid you not: "Lucky" was the name on the tag of the guy bagging my groceries. Lucky certainly appeared to be far past "Freedom 55." "Servitude 70" is more like it. Sure, some seniors want to work longer. But late...

Hook, line and singer: the Canadian Coalition of Music Creators has new ideas about the old issue of copyright.(MEDIA)
January 1, 2007... Steven Page says it's because they're musicians that it took them so long to get organized. The Barenaked Ladies' singer, and spokesperson for the recently formed Canadian Music Creators Coalition (CMCC), says the group should have been around...

Minority report: in their first year in power, Stephen Harper's Conservatives managed to undo years of work that came before--rejecting the Kelowna Accord, scrapping the national daycare program and turning their backs on Kyoto. Lest we forget, here are eight reasons to turf the Tories the next chance we get.(Cover story)
January 1, 2007... "The West is in," trumpeted the Calgary Herald after Election Day 2006, when Canadians gave the Harper Conservatives a trial run in government, a slim minority to punish the scandal-plagued Liberals. It was heralded as a new era in Canadian...

Better red than dead: why compassionate conservatism will never go to its grave.
January 1, 2007... "I am their leader. I must follow them."--Andrew Bonar Law, Britain's sole Canadian-born prime minister (1922-23) How often have I heard the wistful lament from left-wing friends: "Whatever became of the Red Tories? I never thought I'd say...

Native theatre's curtain call? Twenty years later, the medium is set for a new stage.
January 1, 2007... It was a little over 20 years ago today that Tomson Highway taught the band to play. In those scant two decades, a lot has changed, and it does seem as if native theatre has been going in and out of style. It all began way back in 1986. Most...

A Matter of Letting Go.(Fiction & Poetry)(Short story)
January 1, 2007... Even as he watches it unfold, he pictures his decision with the clearest image of what he should have done, and didn't. But he continues to watch, because it is easier and he has no effort left in him, no will to decide. He regrets already what...

Two poems.(Poem)
January 1, 2007... THE HEART, the real heart, is ugly Nothing here can break or be broken; and nothing, nothing can come from it but blood THERMOMETER, A DIAGRAM OF The human body is marked ...

Capturing the senses: what happens when documentary meets travel research.(ARTS & IDEAS)
January 1, 2007... LAST MAY, A PIPE ORGAN IN THE GERMAN CITY OF Halberstadt changed notes. As a musical experiment, the organ is playing a slowed-down, 639-year-long version of avant-garde composer John Cage's As Slow as Possible--notes can, and do, last years....

Pac-Man it ain't: homeless game gives insight into life on the street.(ARTS & IDEAS)(Homeless: It's No Game, video game)
January 1, 2007... VIDEO GAMES AREN'T GENERALLY HAILED for their social conscience, but Vancouver grad student Terry Lavender has designed a game that tackles a crucial social issue head-on. "Homeless: It's No Game" (www.homelessgame.net) was created to educate...

Putting the "art" in apartment: buzz 312 for Mark Prier's home movies.(ARTS & IDEAS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... MARK PRIER IN APARTMENT 312 IS A good host. Two years ago, the 26-year-old began welcoming visitors into his apartment to watch video art. "When it came right down to it, I really couldn't afford to rent a commercial space, but our...

"Got it. Got it. Want it": Artist Trading Cards are one of a kind.(ARTS & IDEAS)
January 1, 2007... MARINA DEMPSTER'S BINDER LOOKS AS IF IT'S FILLED WITH baseball cards, but upon closer inspection, the Torontonian's cards are actually mini-masterpieces--photographs, paintings or sketches adorn the spots that sports heroes usually occupy. ...

Poetic Justice: Satirical Verse from The Globe and Mail.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... POETRY Poetic Justice: Satirical Verse from The Globe and Mail, by John Allemang (Firefly) You like your poetry subject heavy? On Trudeau, Pitt, the New Orleans levee? You like it rhyming ("sprinter's pee/Holy See") In...

This Will All End in Tears.(Book review)
January 1, 2007... FICTION This Will All End in Tears, by Joe Ollmann (Insomniac Press) Much has been written on the rise of the graphic novel, but less attention has been paid to illustrated short stories. Montreal cartoonist Joe Ollmann's new collection,...

The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... NON-FICTION The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit, by Margaret Somerville (House of Anansi) The Ethical Imagination is at once a forward-looking and deeply conservative book. Some of Margaret Somerville's views have...

The Cape May rises again: Calgary trio leaves behind the curse and the cult with its new release.(Glass Mountain Roads)
January 1, 2007... WHEN THE CAPE MAY RELEASED ITS FIRSTALBUM, Central City May Rise Again, in 2005, a series of unfortunate incidents befell the band. They lost a guitarist, freak injuries made members look more like hockey players than musicians and, in a...

Essay of Borat and Sarah Silverman for make benefit of cultural learnings about racism: to get the joke we have to comprehend the context.(ARTS ARGUMENTS)
January 1, 2007... Most celebrities simply walk down the red carpet of the Toronto International Film Festival. Not so Borat Sagdiyev: At his feature film debut, the "Kazakh reporter" (played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) arrived in an ox cart pulled by...

Can you hear me now? It may be hard to remember, but before everyone and their dog owned a mobile (the PetsCell hit shelves late last year), phones had to be transported in cars, bags and bricks. Here's a look back.(THEN & NOW)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... 1940s In 1842, Samuel Morse sent the first electrical message unconnected by wires, but it wasn't until 1946 that the technology went mobile. The first car phones--small in neither size nor price--offered regular disconnections, static and...