Reduce, reuse, recycle; so the old adage goes, but must we subject ourselves to recycled films as well as cans and bottles? Year after year, Hollywood subjects moviegoers new movies spilling over with old content, and this summer theatres were littered with recycled material from Hollywood’s blue bin.
There was not one, but two Snow White story adaptations, another remake of Spiderman and adaptations of both Total Recall and Prometheus. Not to mention the countless sequels, such as Madagascar 3, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Men in Black 3, which are the same formulas as the first few films, but with a fresh coat of paint thrown on to make them look new again.
Summer has always shown a propensity for re-hashed films, mainly because they are the movie industry’s highest earning releases and summer is when most studios release films that are aspiring for Blockbuster status.
According to Box Office Mojo’s yearly box office results, re-hashed and sequential films released this summer were among the top ten highest grossing films of the year thus far. The Dark Knight Rises, ranked number two in worldwide gross, Ice Age: The Continental Drift ranked third, The Amazing Spiderman ranked fourth, MIB 3 and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted ranked sixth and seventh and Snow White and the Huntsmen brought up the rear in ninth place.
Recycled films beat out even very popular films such as The Hunger Games, which ranked fifth in worldwide gross behind The Dark Knight Rises, Ice Age and The Amazing Spiderman. Last summer The Hangover: Part II brought in $581.5 million dollars worldwide, beating out the original comedy Bridesmaids.
The Hunger Games and Bridesmaids were both well received by critics and yet they could not overcome the popularity of these re-hashed films. Among this summer’s highest grossing films worldwide only two of the top ten films, (Brave and The Intouchables), did not originate from a previous movie conception. This would seem to illustrate that more people will pay to see a film they are already familiar with, rather than one that is relatively new to them, even when it gets rave reviews.
Therefore, by all evidence, movies that have been re-made from old, adapted from fairy tales or are part of a sequence, are much better received financially than more original films. Proving that for Hollywood, a summer of the re-hashed pays off, and we viewers don’t mind one bit.
Available for $14.95 online at kasinihouseartshop.com/magazine
Available for $14.95 online at kasinihouseartshop.com
It’s the crack of noon, so roll yourself out of bed, brew a cup of extra strong tea and settle in with the philosophically melancholy characters featured in Guillaume Morissette’s debut collection of stories and poems, I Am My Own Betrayal.
Comprised of five short stories and ten poems, the Concordia student’s first collection is beautifully written but thematically stale. The main characters featured in each piece, are all obsessed with themselves, they wax poetically and philosophically on the staleness that is their day to day, moaning about their relationships or lack thereof.
Although anyone who’s ever suffered from perpetual or occasional depression will be able to relate to these sentiments, the novelty of Morissette’s crafted observational insight into melancholy and anxiety wears thin with repetition.
The writing is of high literary quality. Morissette is a master of the clever metaphor and visual metonymy, offering a unique take on the everyday. He astutely comments on everything from beer cans to the bustling metropolis of Montreal with candor and wit.
“We bought beer earlier and the beer we bought seems to have awarded itself a blue ribbon, for prettiest beer maybe,” writes Morissette.
In Vaster emptiness achieved, a story about a friendship carried out mainly through email, it is punctuated by one liners, reminiscent of facebook status updates. The narrator and his friend Anika, write to each other in beautifully insightful, melodious style, which is fun to read, but makes you wonder whether there are real people who talk this way, or if Morissette has taken literary license in appropriating dialogue to fit his style of writing.
It is Morissette’s style of writing that makes the collection worth reading. He crafts wonderfully vivid and interesting descriptions, such as how the world looks when you’re tipsy from drinking too large a pitcher of beer.
“The room is slowly starting to go diagonal, zig-zags. it comes at you, leaves and then comes at you again, like a game of ball-in-a-cup in which the ball is the room.” This excerpt comes from the story Banhood, which again plays with the theme of a young person feeling inadequate and generally despondent.
Concordia student and author Guillaume Morissette,
Morissette’s poems also play with this theme: in the poem I hate myself, he writes “a purpose is a person but backwards; if there’s a place where I belong I have already ruined it.”
The only poem where the narrator gives a concrete reason for being depressed is Poems are for no one, very long poems are for themselves, where the narrator is lamenting over a failed relationship. Morissette brings freshness to the classic poetry theme by appropriating the narrator’s feelings of longing to the bed.
my bed is a mess, it misses you. it’s been
having nightmares about being suffocated to
death with a red pillow. to calm the bed down
I have read the bed a bedtime story of printed-out
e-zine articles on ways to overcome a heartbreak.
I Am My Own Betrayal, is a collection that clearly demonstrates Morissette’s literary talent, but could use a little thematic variation and maybe a few more rays of sunshine.
Amanda Durepos graduated from Concordia this June from the Art History and Studio Art program. The Concordian sat down with Durepos to discuss her new art exhibit and the inspiration behind her fascinating work.
Q. (A.S) What did you take away from your time at Concordia?
A. (A.D) I learned to allow myself to be vulnerable and to worry less about a finished piece and more about paying attention to the process and experimentation. I initially felt pressure to have a coherent and established style but soon realized that I was (and still am) undergoing a lot of self-discovery.
Q. (A.S) When or where did the inspiration for this project begin?
A. (A.D) I’ve always had a bit of an interest in technology, and a few months ago I began reading a lot about Google and how the company has completely changed the way we distribute and receive information. I also was surprised by the results that came up when I Googled my own name and spent a long time disabling and cancelling accounts on various websites; accounts which were long dormant and no longer representative of who I am today.
Q. (A.S) In your statement you say that your practice often deals with “the paradoxes introduced in our lives through technology”, can you specify what some of these paradoxes are?
Oh, my ears and whiskers! Collage, 2012.
A. (A.D) It seems to me that recent history has been marked by a widespread adoption of technology in everyday life. Our increasingly symbiotic relationship with technology yields a paradoxical influence both on the way experience interpersonal relationships and the ways in which we access and process information.
For example, I am thrilled that the internet enables me to connect to my faraway family members. Although I have only met my newborn niece twice, my frequent video chatting with her has brought me closer into her life than would otherwise be possible. Conversely, some days I get home from work and can spend hours browsing forums, Reddit or countless other black holes of content and in the process completely neglect my boyfriend. In this sense, technology has the potential to bring us closer together from a distance, but can simultaneously alienate us from our immediate surroundings.
The Fallow Deer, framed print, 2012.
In my collage Dürer’s Rhinoceros, I am referencing a woodcut from the 16th century by Albrecht Dürer. Despite never having seen a rhinoceros himself, Dürer worked from a written description of someone else to create the woodcut. The interesting thing about the woodcut is that although it vaguely looks like a rhinoceros, there are a many incorrect or invented anatomical features. Nonetheless, the woodcut was very popular in Europe, was used in encyclopaedias, copied frequently and considered for centuries by Westerners as being a true representation of a rhinoceros. Today, we access information from a multiplicity of sources on the web and tend to think of the internet as providing democratic and more accurate and immediately accessible access to information. What we sometimes don’t address is the fact that the way this wealth of information is sorted is not always ideal. When one Google searches a subject to learn about it, the result that rises to the top is not necessarily the most accurate but the most popular, which reminded me a lot of Durer’s woodcut. Could it be that even in an age where we have access to many different standpoints, we could still be exposed to inaccurate information?
Q. (A.S) Could you tell me about how the ‘profile’ or, way we represent ourselves online is represented in the exhibit?
A. (A.D) My boyfriend and I met on a picture rating website when we were 15 years old. Because the history of the forum is stored chronologically, I discovered that I could time travel backwards in the forums and read interactions between us before we had met. It was fascinating for me to see the formal way in which we addressed one another, and how this differs drastically from who we are today and the ways that we interact. In this way, I have found that my self from 7 years ago has left quite a trace online. What is notable (and embarrassing) about it is the fact that I can go back and see quite tangibly who I was at that time. Before the internet, our memories of our old selves or old friends are pieced together perhaps through photos or home videos. When we were 15, we all said things we would be embarrassed about today, but I have the misfortune of having that dialogue in a public cyberspace. And as I have discovered, erasing a blog can be more difficult than the ridding of a diary book!
To have an online profile is to define something static about a self that is always in flux. Although we can update our profiles to match the changes that take place in our lives, some aspects remain, concretized in cyberspace. Anyone who has ever Googled themselves can see that there are sometimes things that you wish were not there.
Alter Egos (series), prints, 2012.
As an artist, I sometimes feel pressure to establish an online presence, and to plan for exhibits to showcase what I am working on. However, just as I am constantly growing and changing, so is my work. Collage is very playful and when I work with it, I am without intent. It is a very stream-of-consciousness process, very much like living life or breathing. It becomes complicated when I have to frame it or define it.
Q. (A.S) I found the Alter egos series to be particularly striking because it was done with computer technology and all your other pieces were done by hand, a literal cut and paste. Why is this? What made you choose to do this series differently?
A. (A.D) A struggle I face in wanting to work with original vintage material is that it is difficult to come across very large source material. The initial collages for the Alter Egos series were 4 x 6” and were done manually. It is interesting to me, that upon enlarging them and thereby converting them to a digital equivalent, they are likely to last longer. That is to say, my collages are created with source material which is already mouldy and yellowed, and are likely to have a much shorter life, like a fleeting memory. These prints have been digitalized and are therefore immortal!
Q. (A.S) I noticed that the pieces were displayed with little polish, some of the pieces coming off from their backgrounds, curling etc. Was this intentional, if so why?
A. (A.D) Creating a collage is very spontaneous for me and I can work very swiftly. I do not like to revisit collages I make and do not “touch them up”. Additionally, I like the character of curled and yellow paper and want people to be able to see the pieces as more than just flat images, but rather as objects on paper, wherein the paper is an important aspect. I have fun when I create my collages and I do not want them to be seen as precious images.
Q. (A.S) Can you talk about Slowness Japanese bound-book? Slowness, Japanese-bound book, 2012.
A. (A.D) The book was created as an assignment for a drawing class at Concordia. I was thinking about the way the internet affects the way we absorb and process information. Before the internet, one would have no choice but to go to the library, take out an encyclopaedia and read it in a linear fashion, and then condense the information later. Linear, and slow appreciation of text seems to be falling out of fashion.
For my piece Slowness, I cut up Milan Kundera’s novel Slowness, using words from the novel itself to piece together the Wikipedia article. I was taking this idea to an extreme and envisioning a hypothetical time in which even pleasure reading (which is necessarily slow and linear by definition) is fractured, a victim of instant gratification. I chose this book in particular because Kundera suggests in it that speed is linked to forgetting and only slow, uninterrupted appreciation can submit something to memory.
This interview has been edited for length.
Amanda Durepos’ exhibit Cut and Paste is on display at Papeterie Nota Bene 3416 Du Parc until June 1, with a vernissage taking place May 31 from 5-8pm.
Gorilla Beach by Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi (Gallery Books) - $28.99 at Amazon.ca
How do you judge a book? We’re told not to judge a book by its cover, but what about judging a book by its author?
When I heard that Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of Jersey Shore fame had written a fiction novel, I was skeptical to say the least. I then learned that Gorilla Beach, was not her first but her second novel and third book overall. Her first novel, A Shore Thing, which I’d assumed, based on the photo of herself on the cover, was an autobiography, is a novel about two guidette cousins living it up in Seaside Heights. The two guidettes, Giovanna “Gia” Spumanti and Isabelle “Bella” Rizzoli, are idealized versions of Snooki and cast-mate Jenni ‘JWOWW’ Farley.
Gorilla Beach begins with the girls returning after a winter in Brooklyn, to vacation in Seaside Heights and attend the wedding of their friend Maria. Things, however, are not as they left them the previous summer. Maria has undergone a complete makeover and now associates with fur wearing mafiosas, who throw her a bachelorette party in a tacky cowboy themed club owned by Fredo, the son of one of the mafiosas. The girls aren’t impressed, especially when they find Fredo with his pants down in the ladies room and the lights off so he doesn’t have to look at his own poo.
Things go from slightly crummy to crummier when they discover their summer digs are less than stellar. When Gia gets into a fight at Maria’s wedding she and Bella are forced to leave Seaside. Lucky for them Fredo is there to save the day. He whisks them off to Atlantic City in his Cadillac and sets them up in the premier suite.
Things just keep on getting better and better as the girls dine in luxury, admire the beach’s “gorillas” (aka guys with a lot of muscles and tans) and fall in love. Unfortunately, their happiness doesn’t last and a bit of actual drama is introduced when the sleazy, toupee wearing casino owner suspects they’re cheating at roulette and sets his spies on them. Things get really hairy for the girls when their winnings are stolen and the casino kicks them out, taking Fredo’s cadillac in compensation for the damage they caused when they drunkenly kidnap the owner’s crocodiles and set them loose in the spa. How will the girls get themselves out of this pickle? With pluck and candor of course. Or so we’re supposed to believe.
Gia and Bella aren’t exactly the deepest characters in the world. Unfortunately, vital information is given to the reader without much literary style, plunked down in places where it’s convenient or is needed to give credit to the plot. Not that the plot is very credible, it seems to rely on a lot of coincidences and lucky breaks and no effort on the part of its characters. No matter what, they’re always able to maintain the lifestyle and looks they’ve become accustomed to and someone (usually a man) is always there to get them out of a jam.
Bella is supposed to be the smart one and Gia the ditzy one and yet Bella never once does anything with her intellect to help them out and then it’s Gia who comes up with a scheme for revenge on the casino owner and grifter who stole their winnings. Gia is clearly the character Snooki imagines herself to be, so it’s no coincidence that Gia is loved by everyone, is an endearing ditz and super generous. To be fair, Snooki is generous when it comes to giving JWOWW’s character equal polish; Bella is smart, tall, athletic, sexy and suffers from caregiver syndrome (i.e. she loves to care for people too much).
However, you can’t fault the novel for being what it is, it’s a light read, sometimes funny and definitely appealing to fans of Jersey Shore and readers who like their books fluffy pink. Not everyone is a reader of deep, introspective fiction and there is nothing wrong with liking your books on the lighter side. Snooki wrote this book for those people. The book is not pretending to be anything other than what it is.
That being said, even light, ‘beach reads’ need to be held to the same professional standard as every other publication. The editing of this book was horrendous. Snooki credits Lauren McKenna as her editor, but it doesn’t seem like there was any editing done at all. The novel is riddled with typos, spelling errors and grammar mistakes. As a student of English it was a real shame to see something go to print in such terrible condition. When you’re expected to pay nearly thirty dollars for a book it should be perfect.
All things considered, Gorilla Beach, was not as bad as I expected it to be, based on my opinion of its author. There were some creative metaphors, funny quips and I have to admit it was a fairly entertaining read. So if you’re going to the beach this summer or want to pretend that you are, Gorilla Beach might just be worth taking along.
Marvel Comics’ The Avengers opened this past weekend to the tune of 200 million dollars in revenue. But were moviegoers shelling out for a box office hit or a Hollywood bust?
The Avengers combines characters from four previous Marvel Comics films and begins where the last movie, Thor, left off. For those who have never seen Thor (and I don’t recommend that you do), Thor’s brother Loki rules their home world of Askgard in Thor’s absence (he’s banished to Earth). When Thor is redeemed and returns to Askgard, Loki is made to give up the throne.
The premise of The Avengers is thus, that Loki wants revenge for losing the throne and so he teams up with a colony of bloodthirsty aliens, the Chitauri, with the purpose of enslaving humanity. His plan is to bring the Chitauri army to Earth, but the portal he uses to travel between worlds won’t transport an entire army. What he needs is the object known as the Tesseract, currently in the possession of the U.S. government agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. In the opening scenes, Loki successfully steals the Tesseract from the S.H.I.E.L.D facility, prompting leader Nick Fury to recruit the Marvel superheroes, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America. Uninvited, Thor arrives to dissuade Loki and joins up with the other superheroes to save Earth.
Action packed and peppered with biting one-liners and physical comedy, The Avengers brings together the best of the previous five Marvel superhero films. Not all the previous movies in this series were successful, but director Joss Whedon manages to take what worked best for each of the individual films and have them coalesce as a whole.
Avengers heroes Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans) headlined their own comic-to-movie adaptations in 2011
The action sequences are set up so that there are several fight scenes happening at once and the camera cuts from one to the other and back again. In this way the different plots and storylines are able to happen simultaneously without any unnecessary breaks in the action. There is very little wasted time in this film, something the other movies suffered from; spending more time on character than on plot. Whedon, however, gives enough character information so that first time Marvel superhero movie-goers will understand the action, but not so much that veterans are bored or plot time is wasted.
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man gets the best one liners, as is the nature of his character, but it’s the ease in which he plays his character, demonstrating the growth Stark has gone through since first becoming Iron Man that is most impressive and he stands out as one of the more well-rounded characters. Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk also gets his share of laughs, playing off of Downey’s witticisms in his own smart-aleck way, while also indicating a deeply troubled inner life that draws focus to his character more than any other.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor is exactly as he was in the first movie, with his signature accent, reliance on stern facial expressions and Yoda-like lines of wisdom to convey character. Chris Evans is Captain America/Steve Rogers who is still adjusting to 21st century life, which is perhaps why he only ever seems to be half present. Secondary characters, like Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johanson) are indications of movies to come. The story continually hints of a deep dark past for both of them, which we never fully learn about but helps to qualify them, somewhat, for inclusion in The Avenger team picture.
Overall, if you’re looking to treat yourself to a night at the movies, this is the picture to shell out the money for, at least for this week.
So, you’re a university student who loves the free time summer brings. You’re looking forward to sitting on a beach blanket with a good book. But you’ve got so many choices, so many things you could read. You don’t want something too dense, too heavy or too serious. It’s summer; summer books are meant to be light, easy reads, that give your brain a rest from all the academia you’ve subjected it to for the past eight months. But you’re not the kind of person who reads chick lit, romance or cozy mysteries that are the typical beach reads. No, you’re the kind of reader who wants a book with substance, but that’s still light enough to enjoy in the sun and short enough to read in between tanning sets. You’re looking for an alternative summer read.
Graphic novels
Never tried a graphic novel? Well, summer is the perfect time to try a new genre. Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series are not only great graphic novels, but also perfect for summer. Averaging around 200 pages per novel, the series follows the life of Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and part-time musician who must battle Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes. A quick read, with plenty of video game references, absurdity and comedy, these novels are sophisticated enough to keep your brain from wilting, but light enough to read on the beach.
Magazines
Magazines are great reading material for the summer because they’re so portable and you don’t have to worry about them getting ruined by water or sand. If you’re looking for something with more substance than People or InStyle to read by the pool, try a literary magazine such as SubTerrain or Asimov’s Science Fiction. These magazines provide all the advantages of the magazine style, with more substance and stories. SubTerrain is a Canadian literary magazine out of Vancouver, which provides a combination of poetry and short fiction to feed your hunger for literature all summer long. Asimov’s Science Fiction features writing from the best writers of the genre, and it’s digestible in one sitting so you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy other activities in the sun.
Fiction
The best summer fiction is the kind that you don’t need to focus hard on to understand, but rather something that will keep you entertained. And what’s more entertaining than comedy? Christopher Moore is a talented comedic writer and any of his books would make for excellent summer reads. Try Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, the story of Christ retold like the Bible has never seen it before. The perfect alternative to church camp.
Non-fiction
If non-fiction is your bag, then you may want to check out the work of Bill Bryson. Well-written and informative, his narrative style is easy to read and will make you laugh. He has a wide range of books from travel, to Shakespeare, to biography. Try The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir or Notes from a Small Island.
You can find these books at any fine book retailer or alternatively, you can try digging through one of Montreal’s excellent used bookstores. Happy Reading!
“We met online.” Maybe you’ve said this or maybe you’ve heard one of your friends say it. Maybe you’re a veteran of dating sites, maybe you’re a beginner or maybe you’re just curious to know what it’s all about. As a self-proclaimed veteran of Internet dating, I learned the rules the hard way and I’ve dealt with the stigma on a daily basis.
Internet dating has seen a huge increase in popularity in the last few years. As of 2011, according to Leger Marketing, 36 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 34 have tried dating online. Nonetheless, a stigma still exists about people who find dates through the Internet. But it is gradually lessening.
“[When] I see clients who are single and have a hard time finding a mate, I will absolutely guide them towards online dating,” said Montreal therapist and doctorate candidate Stine Linden-Andersen. “Some people have a stigma, but we know from research that the stigma is incorrect. I think people used to think that people who go online, they would call themselves losers or socially inept, but we found through research that those who date [online] are more sociable than those who do not date online. So I think we really do need to revisit that stigma.”
The research Linden-Andersen refers to is that of Online Dating Magazine, which found that the majority of online daters are more confident than offline daters. Also, online daters are reportedly getting married faster with 72 per cent marrying within the first year compared to 36 per cent of offline daters.
In the past, Linden-Andersen has dealt with couples who made up entire stories about how they met that were not true, in order to bypass the perceived negative reactions from friends and family. As our society becomes more technologically involved, this stigma is changing, as exemplified by the growing number of people who use online dating sites and find success there.
Internet dating is not without its difficulties, but just like conventional dating, knowing the ropes is a key to success. Online dating is “an easier way to get into the whole dating scene and start finding out what your preferences are,” noted Linden-Andersen. “It gives you access to a lot more people than you would otherwise meet through connections or friends of friends.”
This is not to say that you should go out with every person who expresses an interest in you online or every profile you come across.
A profile is the first interaction you will have with potential dates. Most dating websites are set up in this way; your profile contains information about your height, weight, age and type of relationship you’re looking for, as well as information about your interests, what you’re looking for and your personal beliefs.
When writing a description of yourself, plentyoffish.com recommends that you include information about what you like, what you dislike, your passions, your fears, your personal beliefs and your personality traits. It also suggests thinking up creative first date ideas as this will reveal a lot about your personality, such as whether you’re sporty, romantic or adventurous.
Most dating websites will allow you to restrict your search to members who share the same interests as you, but those search restrictions are usually pretty generic. It’s important when reading profiles that you consider the profile as a whole, “finding love online means not just reading a lot of profiles but reading between the lines of a lot of profiles,” according to lookbetteronline.com.
Some people will write too much and some people will write too little, but it’s not about quantity, it’s about the quality of what they’re saying and what they’re not saying in their profile that is important.
It’s true what they say, a picture can say a thousand words, which is why it’s important that your profile include a photo. You don’t want a photo that shows you too made up, you want one that shows you as how you normally look. This photo is what will catch an individual’s eye and make them look at your profile, but you don’t want to misrepresent yourself. Despite what we tell ourselves, looks do matter. The truth is we are attracted to people initially, based on their looks.
“Ask five people what they find attractive, and you’ll get a lesson in human variability: girls with ears that stick out; guys with soulful eyes,” said Carlin Flora, a former editor and writer for Psychology Today, as quoted in the article “Fast Forces of Attraction.” We all have physical preferences when it comes to potential mates and it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Lastly, but most importantly, is communication. In my experience, this is initially established through email or an instant messaging application provided by the website. However, the rules are the same when trying to open the doors of communication. There’s no need to reiterate the basic facts about yourself as you’ve already done that in your profile. Therefore, it’s a good idea, according to plentyoffish.com, to talk about a common interest you both share because this shows that you were interested enough to read their whole profile.
It can be overwhelming to search for a date online, but it can also be a great and fun experience. The most important thing, however, says Linden-Andersen, is “that when you’re looking for someone online, don’t look for that one and only. [It’s important that] you’re looking for someone who you might consider a friend […] and then sort of meet and see where it goes.” In other words, take a gander, it can’t hurt, and you never know who you’ll find waiting for you online.
How to search for a safe relationship online
In my experience, if you are seeking a relationship, you should avoid anyone who mentions sex either in their profile or in your initial email or conversation.
As well, you should not mention sex unless you are looking for a purely sexual relationship.
If a person does not have a profile picture, ask them to provide one. In this day and age, taking a picture of oneself is easy, so there should be no excuses.
Consider the kind of picture a person uses in their profile. Blurry, distorted or badly taken photographs are a sign that this person doesn’t care that much.
It’s sometimes hard to tell what a person looks like based on their photos, so don’t judge a person too harshly. I’ve gone on several dates where the person didn’t look at all like their photo, but usually we had established a good rapport before then so it wasn’t a big deal (and sometimes it was a nice surprise).
My most important piece of advice is don’t be afraid to tell someone you’re not interested in meeting them. Never feel pressured to meet someone just because you’ve been chatting online.
I like to play it safe, so I always tell someone where I’m going to be and I never get in a guy’s car if it’s our first meeting.
“You’re the kind of guy who falls in love after one date,” begins Doug Harris’ first novel, YOU Comma Idiot. What follows is a list of other things you might be interested to know about Lee Goodstone. Like how he often rehearses conversations in his head, only to screw them up in real life. Or how he washes his hair three times before a date and then gets caught in the rain. He tells you he’s the kind of guy who feels sorry for himself, but even without him having told you, it’s not that hard to figure out.
Lee Goodstone feels like his cards have been dealt unfairly. He feels that, because of his appearance, he’s always having to settle for second best. Take his friend Johnny for example. Johnny is traditionally handsome and all the girls fall for him, including Honey, who Lee fantasizes about constantly. But she chose Johnny, like all the other girls do, until one day Honey chooses him. And, like a row of dominoes, things in Lee’s life get hinky.
Not only has he just screwed his best friend’s girl, but his friend Henry is being looked at by the cops. Lee’s buddy is muscling in on his dope business and when his dealer sees him on TV shooting his mouth off about Henry being innocent, he’s none too happy, making things even harder on poor Lee.
Set in Montreal, with easily recognizable references and landmarks for anyone familiar with the city, YOU Comma Idiot floats us through the daily life of Lee’s slacker lifestyle.
Readers are quickly absorbed into his inner monologue of appearance obsession, moral dilemmas and smartassery. He feels himself to be pretty smart and makes many a disdainful observation about his friends and associates. Lee is the kind of character everyone’s met at least once in their lives. A slacker to the max, who sells dope, gets drunk on a daily basis and still acts like he’s 19 despite being almost 30. Nevertheless, he’s moronically charming and you can’t help but like him just a little. You’d even date him, maybe.
Written in the second person, the book shifts the onus of Lee’s narrative onto the reader. Since the novel addresses the reader as “you” and the point of view is that of Lee’s, in theory, the reader is Lee. This choice of narrative is particularly effective as it forces the reader to adopt Lee’s ideology without passing judgement. Although Lee makes some rather idiotic choices and occasionally does some less than desirable things, we can’t help sympathizing with him, because he’s us.
Although the novel is written from Lee’s point of view, we have limited access to his past and are kept solely in the present. There’s no intervening narrator to fill you in, which is actually kind of nice. The reader experiences things as they happen to Lee and only discovers key bits of information as they would naturally come out in situations where both parties are aware of what’s happened in the past.
In this way, information is sometimes only hinted at and the reader must make his or her own assumptions. This little ruse makes it especially delightful when the full information is revealed and the reader is proven right or wrong. However, the reader does spend a good part of the novel with many questions, such as: Why is this person important to the story? Who is this person, how does Lee know them? The reader may find themselves skipping back several pages to see if they missed anything.
The dialogue, for the most part, is entirely believable. Whether it’s Honey and Lee’s flirty banter or Henry’s off-kilter replies, it’s easy to picture these characters existing in real life. Harris does an admirable job in capturing the tone of 20-nearly-30-somethings of this day and age.
Launched initially in hardcover in 2010 by Goose Lane Editions, YOU Comma Idiot was re-released in paperback March 23 at Drawn & Quarterly. On its initial release, YOU Comma Idiot was a finalist for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan prize for fiction and the QWF First Book prize.
YOU Comma Idiot is available at fine book retailers everywhere.
All year long, students in English are busy writing essays and students in creative writing are cooped up composing works of poetry and fiction. However, once a year they have the opportunity to turn that essay or creative piece into more than just a grade.
The Excellence in Studies of English Literature and Creative Writing awards gift students with a monetary prize in return for their best work on the essay topics of English literary studies, literature written in English before 1700, literature written in English from the 18th century to the present and in the categories of poetry and fiction.
Submissions are usually due at the beginning of February and outstanding works in each of these categories are shortlisted, with the winners being announced at a ceremony dedicated to the finalists. This year’s ceremony will be held on March 23 in LB-646 on the SGW campus.
The 2012 finalists for the A.G. Hooper Prize awarded for the best essay on the topic of literature written before 1700 are Marta Barnes, Veronica Belafi, John Casey and Dylan Sargent. Casey was last year’s recipient of this award. His essay on Viola’s identity in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was said to have been chosen because the judges were keen to debate the arguments of his essay with him.
Along with the cash prize, Casey said the award “afforded a great opportunity to get together with my peers, other people that had similar interests to mine after the award ceremony. It was just a nice opportunity to hand in a paper to be read outside the classroom.”
The Irving Layton award, a tribute to the late author, is awarded for excellence in the writing of poetry and fiction. Professor Mary di Michele was this year’s judge for the poetry section of the award and described the shortlisted works as “beautiful pieces and very varied in terms of what they were about.”
One poem, for example, is a cycle of sonnets about working as a deck hand in Labrador while another is a celebration of pinball. This year’s shortlisted poets are Michael Chaulk, Stefano Faustini, Emma Healey and Domenica Martinello.
For Heather Davidson, last year’s recipient of the Irving Layton award for fiction, receiving the honour was about more than just the monetary reward. “I was nervous about graduating, so the award meant a huge boost. Keep doing this crazy writing thing,” she said. “It was the beginning of everything fortunate and literary that’s come after. The Irving Layton award represented all the great people at Concordia who believed in me while I was still trying to believe in myself.” The finalists for the Irving Layton award for fiction this year are Michael Chaulk, Alex Manley, Tyler Morency and Dylan Sargent.
The Compton-Lamb Memorial Scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic excellence as well as the submission of an essay about English literary studies. Finalists for this year’s scholarship are Robin Graham and Matthew Dunleavy. Finalists for the MacGuigan Prize, which is awarded on the merit of an essay written about a work of English literature written between the 18th century and the present, are Veronica Belafi, Danielle Bird, John Casey, Paula Wilson and Kevin Yildirim.
Winners of the Excellence in Studies of English Literature and Creative Writing awards will be announced on March 23 during a ceremony in LB-646 at 2 p.m. All faculty, staff and students are invited to attend.
“Five years ago, I was ready to kill myself or join the army,” said Concordia creative writing student Ian Truman. Today, he’s a self-published author, celebrating the success of the MainLine Gala for Student Drama’s second year and is getting ready to receive his degree this fall.
“It’s not just hard work and luck. I changed my life around. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs, I stay healthy,” said Truman. Hard work may be an understatement however, as Truman has had a lot more to handle than the average creative writing student.
Shortly after being accepted into the creative writing program, Truman’s wife gave birth to a baby girl. Although this was a blessing, it did complicate things. “We actually ended up baby swapping in Concordia,” he recalled. “I would need to get out of class five minutes early because her class was starting when mine finished. I’d run down the stairs, we’d meet in the Hall building and switch the baby.”
While in school, Truman continued to work as much as possible, but finances were still tight.“We got lucky. At one point I was considering dropping out because we were out of cash,” he said. “My wife wasn’t working that much because she was still a student and when you go on parental leave you can’t be a student. So what happened was she applied for a bursary and I ended up taking parental leave [from my work]. She got the bursary and it was enough to make it.”
On top of his studies, working and being a father, Truman was trying to write. Before attending Concordia, Truman worked at a number of factory jobs that inspired his first novel, The Factory Line. While on the job, he would jot down the things he observed, collecting little memos that would eventually fuel the novel’s plot.
“The Factory Line, I wrote on the job. It’s all true, well true-ish, it’s a tall tale,” he said. “I tried to capture how people talk in factories and the kind of situations that they live every day. Some of them are really nice people, some of them are insane and you get to deal with both.”
Turning these notes into a narrative wasn’t an easy task. A lot of what he’d written took place
over the span of two years and came from moments at multiple factories. Furthermore, Truman had to overcome a language barrier.
“How you do dialogue in French is different than in English, so I did dialogue in French but with English words, which doesn’t work. People gave me a break because I’m francophone and English is my second language, but you need to step up and it’s a steep hill,” he explained. “My English is okay for everyday life, but I wanted to be a writer so I needed to go back to grammar and grind those hours rewriting and learning to do dialogue in English.”
The novel did eventually come together and after finishing his classes at Concordia, Truman began looking for ways to publish it. He sent his manuscript to several publishers in Canada and the United States, but there were no takers.
Unwilling to give up, Truman decided to self-publish; he created a blog, started working the social media scene and hooked up with e-book providers. He hired an editor and a graphic designer to finesse the finished product and will be printing several copies of the novel to distribute at book fairs and zine fests. Sales have yet to pick up, but Truman isn’t too worried. He’s currently putting the finishing touches on a second novel, Tales of Lust, Hate and Despair, due out in late June, and has already begun writing a third novel. Truman hopes that by having three novels out and circulating, buzz will pick up and sales will increase.
Truman continues to work full-time and care for his daughter, writing whenever and wherever he can—before work, on the bus on the way to work, during work and in brief periods after his daughter has gone to bed.
“If you’re going to be a writer, you need to write. I try to write at least 800 words a day,” he said. “If I don’t work an hour a day on writing-related stuff, it’s not going to work out in the end.”
It’s this sort of discipline and hard work that Truman says accounts for his success, but he concedes it was also a bit of luck as well. “If we didn’t get that bursary two and a half years ago, we wouldn’t have done it, me and my wife.”
Check out Ian Truman’s blog at iantruman.wordpress.com and look for his book The Factory Line on Amazon.
If you subscribe to early ‘90s gender theory, men and women hail from different planets (Mars and Venus, respectively). But when it comes to leaving their mark in the arts, there’s no disputing that the recognition goes two ways. Whether it’s Clara Bow gracing the silver screen in her cupid-lipped glory, or the works left by Sylvia Plath—which, after the oven debacle, made her the first poet to win a Pulitzer posthumously—women have, through history, shaped the arts in ways that are embedded in our subconscious. They are the reason why we can’t look at a subway grate without also picturing a white dress (Marilyn Monroe), have a single name at our lips at the sight of a unibrow (Frida Kahlo), or look at a cone-shaped bra and not complete the image with astoundingly toned arms (Madonna). Immortalized through their works and achievements, the women below took Helen Reddy’s words (“I am woman, hear me roar”) to heart and for this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8, we are honouring them.
Orlan
An artist among artists, Orlan considers the operating room her studio. She deconstructs our ideas of beauty by serving herself up as the canvas—having volunteered her body for many unnatural alterations. A self-described neo-feminist, she had nine plastic surgeries
in the early ‘90s, which referenced beauty in traditional western art. Some of her alterations include implants to mimic the Mona Lisa’s protruding forehead, changing her mouth to look like François Boucher’s The Rape of Europa, and modifying her chin to look like The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Born in 1947 in Saint-Étienne, Loire, Orlan first engaged in this form of surgery-art when she was preparing to speak at a symposium in 1978 but had to be rushed to hospital. She almost died because of an ectopic pregnancy (where the fetus is outside the womb and cannot survive), but while the surgeons were removing the fetus to save Orlan’s life, she insisted that she remain conscious and that the film crew she brought with her be able to film it. The images on film inspired her career. Orlan is a well-known multimedia artist in France and her work questions whether what we project is a reflection of our real selves, or a fabrication based on what is seen in the media. Her interest in cosmetic surgery has seen her labeled as anti-feminist by some, but the unique product of her alterations are clearly only cosmetic in name.
– Elysha Del Giusto-Enos
Patsy Montana
Patsy Montana was the first woman in country music to sell a million records with her 1935 single “I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” But, with that face and that yodeling, who wouldn’t want to be her sweetheart? The single also became a mainstay on the National Barn Dance on Chicago radio station WLS for many years, station of which she was a cast member in the early ‘30s. She was influenced by the music of “America’s Blue Yodeler” Jimmie Rodgers, and as a child she learned to yodel and play organ, guitar and violin. Montana was also a star of the stage; she appeared in numerous western films, including one with the “Singing Cowboy” Gene Autry. Her success in the music and film industry encouraged the traditionally male-oriented country music business to welcome and respect the female performers that followed her. She was known for making extensive tours and played many radio engagements during the ‘40s. Women in those days weren’t supposed to travel alone without their husbands or a male family member, but this was not going to stop this cutie from moving forward. She did it anyway and broke some ground by doing this. Yes, she was that badass. Montana’s intricate yodeling inspired many other female singers throughout the years and she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, the year she passed away and became a yodeling angel.
– Giselle MacDonald
Phoebe Greenberg
Phoebe Greenberg is an innovative force behind the arts in Montreal. Not only has she founded the DHC Gallery, the theatre company Diving Horse Creations and the PHI Centre, but she is also a film producer, most notably working on the 2010 Oscar-nominated Incendies. Greenberg studied theatre at Concordia University before moving to Paris to study under Jacques Lecoq and work with LEM (Laboratoire Étude du Mouvement). On her return to Montreal in 1990, she started Diving Horse Creations, which offers parody-based theatre that is quite unique, integrating visual art, theatre and the great classics into original productions. She founded the DHC Gallery in 2007 and it has since become, according to tourism website The Montreal Buzz, one of the city’s go-to destinations for contemporary art. The gallery aims to provide a platform for young Canadian artists, but also attracts works by world-renowned artists such as Marc Quinn and Jenny Holzer. Greenberg’s current project is the PHI Centre, which will open its doors in the spring of 2012. The PHI Centre’s purpose is dedicated to fostering, producing, promoting and distributing original, artist-driven projects. Greenberg’s passion and dedication to serving all of the different facets of Montreal’s artist community make her a true woman of the arts.
– Amanda L. Shore
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren’s life makes the scandals and achievements of modern-day stars pale in comparison. After all, how can a coke-induced breakdown compete with being involved in a bigamy scandal, rejecting a marriage proposal from Cary Grant and racking up 50 international awards for your acting in the process? Breaking out in the ‘50s, Loren quickly became the most famous Italian actress in the world, making heads in Hollywood turn with her wit and exotic beauty (in her earlier films, her name appeared as Sofia Lazzaro because people said her looks could raise Lazarus from the dead). Her strong chemistry with actor Marcello Mastroianni gave way to 14 films together, making them one of the most realistic couplings ever captured on camera. Yet she was devoted to her husband, film producer Carlo Ponti, who was 22 years her senior—they met when she was 14 and he was a judge in a beauty pageant she’d entered—and whom she married twice because of the aforementioned bigamy situation. She stayed with him until he died. If the names of her contemporaries are delicately written in the history of cinema, Loren’s is positively gouged in. Whether she’s portraying a prostitute to Mastroianni’s commitment-phobe player in Marriage Italian Style, a protective mother in the harrowing Two Women, or a countess in Charlie Chaplin’s last film, A Countess from Hong Kong, Loren’s screen presence is powerful and unforgettable, with her fierce gaze practically being seared into your mind. After all, what else could you expect from the woman who famously credited her body to spaghetti?
– Sofia Gay
Brie Neilson
The lovely and talented singer-songwriter and painter Brie Neilson does not have to do much to make an impact on the musical community as her creamy alto voice does it for her. One lady with a guitar is not a new musical formula, though Neilson has managed to make it a category of her own. Unlike the angst that can sometimes accompany a woman going solo, Neilson’s music resonates with thoughtful lyrics and beautiful melodies that allow the listener to enjoy her music without feeling obliged. Beyond her solo work, which you can now hear backed by her band, Brie Neilson and Her Other Men, Neilson also lends her voice to the 10-man gypsy-circus-folk band (never ordinary!) The Unsettlers. It was her friend B.W. Brandes, the frontman of The Unsettlers who, long before the band had come to be, encouraged Neilson to nurture her songwriting talent. But why stop at voice? Neilson is also a talented painter. Her interest in art began during childhood after finding she was not as adept at sports as she would have liked. Expressing herself in other activities such as finger painting and choir, the artist inside had begun to bloom. After attending the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, she supported herself by selling oil paintings of flowers for a commission. Never one to be ordinary, Neilson’s floral paintings go beyond what the average eye sees in a flower: “My interest in taking familiar objects and examining them in a new way, allowing the viewer to re-encounter them—close up, out of context and re-framed—is an ongoing objective in my painting.”
– Sara King-Abadi
Gertrude Stein
To the American ex-pats living in Paris in the ‘20s and ‘30s, she was an editor and a mentor; to emerging and innovative painters like Picasso and Matisse, she was a midwife who helped to shape and guide their artistic ventures; to those across the globe who read her works and were intrigued or disgusted by her non-linear, non-grammatical experimentation with the English language, she was a literary curiosity. Pop history might venture to call Gertrude Stein something akin to a “tastemaker” for a generation, but although the modernist works she produced and encouraged are now part of widespread taste and considered classics, Stein is perhaps best described as someone who helped the artists around her realize their capacity to move forward into a new moment in art, take risks and explore the limits of their self-expression. Working from her Paris salon, where she bought Picasso and Matisse pieces long before they were worth millions of dollars, she edited and mentored such greats as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. With her partner, Alice B. Toklas, she amassed an art collection that showcased the best of modern art, and which will be shown in an upcoming exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, entitled The Steins Collect. She was an artist in her own right as well, penning, among others, the poem Tender Buttons, the experimental written style that plays on the musicality and tonality of language, as well The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written from Alice’s perspective, but providing invaluable insight into the history of one of the most exciting moments in 20th century art and literature history. Although editors of her anthologies often joke about the pervasiveness of “Steinese” in modern artistic expression (think of sayings like “a rose is a rose is a rose”), the truth is that Gertrude Stein shaped the art of a generation, and the tastes, attitudes and culture which arose with and after it.
– Rebecca Ugolini
Mayim Bialik
Actor, writer, neuroscientist, spokesperson, mother, certified lactation educator counsellor, co-founder and chair of the youth branch of the Jewish Free Loan Association are just a few of the labels Mayim Bialik can be headed under. Best known for starring as Blossom in the 1990s sitcom of the same name and currently as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, Bialik is a highly regarded member of the arts community. Her first book comes out March 6, and when she’s not busy writing or acting, she’s taking care of her two boys. The horrible tales of what happens to child actors after their shows end have been assuaged slightly by Bialik’s amazing success story. Not only is she an exceptional actor, but she represents the myriad of possibilities available to women, proving that you don’t have to stay within a label, and that you can do virtually anything you want. Bialik currently holds a PhD in neuroscience and is consistently getting involved in new projects. She represents a woman who not only wears many hats, but excels in everything she’s involved in.
– Amanda L. Shore
Patti Smith
Where does one begin to describe Patti Smith? You could list the many endeavours she’s taken on—artist, poet, singer, playwright, author, actress, music critic—or maybe name drop the famous individuals she’s rubbed elbows with, including Salvador Dali, Jimi Hendrix, Allen Ginsberg, Janis Joplin, Sam Shepard and dozens more. But even that wouldn’t quite cover it. Smith’s story is riveting, from her exodus to New York City in the ‘60s after giving up her child for adoption and promising Joan of Arc’s statue in Philadelphia that she’d make something of herself, to touring the world with her band as The Patti Smith Group, earning the moniker “Godmother of Punk” for her unique hybrid of poetry and rock. She had an intense relationship with controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe—which she recounted in 2010’s Just Kids—and was a presence in legendary ‘70s New York City landmarks, such as the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel and CBGB. An artist through and through, her decades-long career led her to an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the title of Commander from the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honour France bestows to artists. Her debut album Horses—for which Mapplethorpe photographed the iconic cover—has been featured prominently in many “greatest albums of all time” lists, including Time magazine and Rolling Stone. Perhaps what makes Smith such a remarkable artist is her dedication. The ‘80s saw her with a husband and kids, away from the spotlight. But when she came back, she did so by touring with Bob Dylan, putting out more albums and scribing more poetry. Needless to say, Joan of Arc would be proud.
– Sofia Gay
Aretha Franklin
You’d be wise not to mess with Aretha Franklin. She demanded R-E-S-P-E-C-T in the ‘60s, a less-than-idyllic era for African Americans. Poet Nikki Giovanni called Franklin “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of Black America.” “Respect” remains her biggest hit and solidified her spot as the original sassy sister. She was the first woman to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987; she is the winner of 18 Grammy Awards and the recipient of two honorary Grammys, the Legend and the Lifetime Achievement. Forty-five of her singles have reached the Top 40. Her influence on the industry and artists who have followed in her pioneering footsteps cannot be ignored. There would not have been a Whitney, a Mariah, a Mary J., to name a few, if it weren’t for Aretha. In the No. 9 spot, she is the highest-ranked female on Rolling Stone’s 100 greatest artists of all time list (the next woman on the list is Madonna at No. 36). What makes Aretha a super special woman, though, is that her career started as a girl at age 14 in 1956. She is pushing 70 and released an album in 2011 through her own record company, Aretha Records, which she launched in 2004. In the immortal words of Ms. Franklin herself, sisters are certainly doin’ it for themselves.
Erasing memories, pregnant nuns, dead babies and disenfranchised youths are just a few of the themes being played with at this semester’s SIPA (Student Initiated Production Assignment) Short Works Festival.
“You have all these projects that are directed, written or performed by students and so it’s really just a way to see where the students are and what they’re doing,” explained SIPA writer and performer Josh Williams.
The Concordia festival takes place once a semester, in the fall and winter. This semester’s event runs from March 8 to 11, showcasing four student productions, Naomi in the Living Room, In Memorium, Anonymous Sin and Greedy Graffiti. All but Naomi in the Living Room are student-written shows that run between 20 and 50 minutes.
Naomi in the Living Room was written by Christopher Durang, but is being re-staged by third-year performance and theatre student Kendall Savage. Savage plays Naomi who, along with her family, is struggling to cope with the death of five children. It’s a dark comedy, but one that Savage hopes will shed light on the healing power of laughter.
“I decided to do the play as a part of my healing process.The show itself is about a family who has gone mad due to the death of children and I myself lost a baby last year and I’ve been struggling with it,” she said.
In Memorium is written and performed by third-year theatre students Josh Williams and Vanessa Nostbakken. Based on a fictional procedure called “neuro-synaptic rearrangement,” which can erase your most terrible memories, In Memorium follows the encounter between procedure enthusiast Aries and dissident newcomer Nemo. Aries tries to convince Nemo that the procedure is a positive thing, while Nemo takes the opposite stance. The crux of this piece stems from exploring what kind of world would result from having this procedure available.
Anonymous Sin is written and performed by Charles-Smith Métellus, a fourth-year theatre student. The play tells the story of a pregnant nun who gives up her baby and what happens when 18 years later, that baby finds out the truth. Inspired by a friend’s anecdote about a man who dressed up as a pregnant nun for Halloween, Métellus plays both the nun and her son at age 18.
“I am approaching multiple roles—both roles.They are very contrasting, especially when it comes to a pregnant woman, but I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by an exclusively female production team, so they gave me some input in regard to a woman’s body language, especially that of a pregnant woman. I was also fortunate in my psychology class, to have lectures given by a woman who is about to give birth. So I was able to observe her during the lectures,” said Métellus.
Greedy Graffiti is written and directed by fourth-year theatre student Ariel Lefkowitz, and tells the story of several disenfranchised 16-year-olds who find support in one another’s company. Lefkowitz, who hosts a radio show on CJLO by the same name, is the only director to have cast members from outside the theatre department. The cast members come from the departments of music, history, finance, and marketing, making her show the first cross-department SIPA show.
This show is also the longest of the four, but speaks directly to the Concordia community. It attempts to spread the message about the importance of art and how it’s crucial get out of your comfort zone in order to get your art noticed.
The SIPA/Short Works Festival runs from March 8 to 11. Tickets are $2. Visit theatre.concordia.ca for the full schedule.
