Who needs a BC arts council when we have the Liberals?
By Frank Moher
Jane Danzo, in her letter of resignation as Chair of the BC Arts Council and in various exit interviews that followed, has confirmed what most of us already suspected: that the Liberal government now sees itself as arbiter of all things cultural in the province. At last, we can begin to see the [...]
Am I on Blackett’s “crap” list?
By Brian Brennan
I applied to a provincial government agency – twice — to fund my next history book project, and was turned down, twice. Why? First, let me tell you the reason I applied for this money.
You don’t make big money writing history in this country. It is the sport of amateurs. Amateurs, that is, [...]
Calgary Jazz Festival plays itself off
By Brian Brennan
Chick Corea was supposed to play Calgary this Friday night, followed by Ben E. King on Saturday night. But that won’t happen now because C-Jazz, the local organizers of the Calgary Jazz Festival, have abruptly pulled the plug on the annual event.
Is it possible the shows will still go on? Likely not. [...]
Lindsay Blackett strays from the script
By Frank Moher
So, Lindsay Blackett was just performing a public service when, at the Banff World Television Festival, he called Canadian TV “shit”? Apparently so. As the Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit told the Calgary Herald earlier this week, his intention was to create “a national discussion” about Canadian TV’s crapitude. But I [...]
Betty White on Saturday Night Live: not cute
By Frank Moher
The show hasn’t reached my time zone yet, but by all Twitter accounts Betty White is killing it on “Saturday Night Live” tonight. But all this amazement that she can still do the job is a bit misplaced, no? For one thing, she’s only 88-years old. My buddy Antony Holland, whom some of [...]
Rescued from the scrapheap
THE LIFE & ART OF FRANK MOLNAR, JACK HARDMAN, LEROY JENSEN
By Eve Lazarus, Claudia Cornwall, Wendy Newbold Patterson
Mother Tongue Publishing
146 pp., $34.95
Review by Brian Brennan
Frank Molnar, Jack Hardman, and LeRoy Jensen were three dedicated and unfashionably tradition-based Vancouver artists of the 1960s who today are largely forgotten. Because they operated outside the confines of the [...]
By the book
WHAT THE FURIES BRING
By Kenneth Sherman
The Porcupine’s Quill
170 pages; $19.95
Review by Frank Moher
What does it mean to be an intellectual? Does it simply mean to think a lot, and vigorously, about something other than yourself? If so, some cab drivers I’ve had are among the most impressive intellectuals in my experience. Does it mean to [...]
Death on the homefront
THE DAY THE FALLS STOOD STILL
By Cathy Marie Buchanan
Harper Collins
307 pages, $22.99
Review by Frank Moher
Halfway through The Day the Falls Stood Still, a first novel by Toronto author Cathy Marie Buchanan, I thought it might be a worthy companion to Timothy Findley’s World War I novel, The Wars — a sort of distaff variation on [...]
Mmm. Bacon.
FISHING FOR BACON
By Michael Davie
NeWest Press
234 pages, $22.95
Review by Frank Moher
Coming-of-age novels are a lot like podcasts: there are too many of them, everyone thinks they can make one, and not everyone is right. They’re also like Twitter messages, predicated as they are on the assumption that just because an experience is universal — bad [...]
Atwood at her dystopic best
YEAR OF THE FLOOD
By Margaret Atwood
McClelland & Stewart
448 pp., $32.99
Review by Rachel Krueger
Margaret Atwood is at her haranguing best when she’s whipping up appalling futures for us all. She’s had several career missteps when her agenda has written cheques that her skills can’t cash, but The Year of the Flood recovers her dormant core [...]
