Billy Elliot’s big-city jive
By Frank Moher
Best Tony Awards telecast in years last night. (You did watch, didn’t you? I’m not the only Canadian who watches the Tony Awards, am I? I am? Thought so.)
That said, allow me to gripe about Billy Elliot, which danced away with 10 awards, including Best Musical. Actually, my gripe is with the original [...]
Arthur Erickson, 1924 – 2009
By Frank Moher
Arthur Erickson, the great architect who died in Vancouver yesterday at age 84, was an artist who became great by remaining where he was. This was in marked contrast to many other western Canadian artists and thinkers, who achieved fame and success by moving away — or at least thought they needed to. [...]
Arthur Erickson: The Lost Interview
In 1964, the Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson, who died on May 19th at age 84, spoke with an unknown interviewer about the ideas that would eventually make him internationally-renowned. At the time, he was completing work on Simon Fraser University, the campus in Burnaby, B.C., designed with partner Geoffrey Massey, that brought him world attention [...]
Arthur Erickson: The Lost Interview (Part 2)
Continued from page 1
Interviewer: Are you angry?
AE: Consistently.
Interviewer: Is there a pride in the city?
AE: No . . . I don’t think people take pride in this city. I think this is one of the reasons people don’t give money to the city or to the university beyond a token few, who do more than [...]
Arthur Erickson: The Lost Interview (Part 3)
Continued from page 2
Interviewer: What do you think of the women in Vancouver?
AE: They are rather fashionless. I don’t think they take advantage of their beauty. I think in general they are handsome, but they look dowdy and ill-kempt as though they just got out of bed. The men appear to lack adventure in their [...]
Not so fast, Google
By Brian Brennan
The CBC called. Would I like to go on the radio and talk to Donna about the Google book settlement? Hey people, you’re talking to an Irishman here. Of course, I would like to go on the radio and talk about the Google book settlement. I would like to go on the radio [...]
Desire amidst holocaust
THE DISAPPEAREDBy Kim EchlinHamish Hamilton Canada224 pp, $29.00
Review by Frank Moher
The first of the trials for genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia commenced on March 30th, fully 13 years after the establishment of the U.N.-assisted tribunal, and fully 30 years after the end of the four-year period during which an estimated 1.7 million [...]
Y’all come out west, Billy Bob
By Frank Moher
You have to give Jian Ghomeshi credit for the way he handled Billy Boob Thornton’s meltdown on his radio program “Q” on Wednesday morning.
Respeck, too, to his long-suffering bandmates, who have obviously become practised in the fine art of prima-donna handling. At least they understood they were there to try and get an [...]
Fiercely funny
FIERCEBy Hannah HolbornMcClelland & Stewart230 pp, $22.99
Review by Frank Moher
Hannah Holborn’s debut story collection, Fierce, mines one of the most pervasive memes in literature, the dysfunctional family. Whether that strikes you as good news or bad probably depends on your tolerance for the traditional — not to mention how dysfunctional your own family is, misery [...]
