By Zoe Grams When NBC’s dreadful soap-musical “Smash” is the only representation of theatre artists in mainstream culture, you know there’s a problem (for theatre artists, at any rate). So it’s no wonder there has been an online flutter over the potential relaunch of the Canadian comedy “Slings and Arrows.” Creator Bob Martin tells the […]
Arts and Books
Inside Read: Doom — Love Poems for Supervillains
Inside Read is our sampler of new Canadian books we think merit your attention. InDOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains, Toronto poet and music journalist Natalie Zina Walschots brings a distinctly erotic edge to her examination of comic book evildoers. Says her publisher: “DOOM addresses the results of abuses of power and presents a case study […]
Dziekanski flies like a bird in opera
The tragic story of Robert Dziekanski has become an opera, opening on Thursday in Halifax. Composer John Plant and author J.A. Wainwright have put music and lyrics together to tell the tale of the Polish immigrant who died in 2007 after being tasered multiple times by RCMP at Vancouver International Airport. Wainwright says that watching the […]
The Bard for MBAs
By Mark Leiren-Young Whether t’is nobler to study the Bard or to learn to balance your chequebook, that is the question posed by the Financial Post business section. Although the article by Fabio Campanella, CA, CFP, CIM is a partner at Campanella McDonald LLP never actually suggests ditching English Lit in favour of watching your […]
Paul Gross walked the plank on “Battleship”
A BoB short: Paul Gross tells The Calgary Herald he was fired as screenwriter from the Hollywood mega-film Battleship, which opened in North America last weekend to generally lousy reviews and even worse box-office. “Alongside fellow Albertan scribe John Krizanc, Gross took a run at revising a screenplay originally written by Jon and Erich Hoeber,” […]
Vancouver’s chalk-it list
A BoB short: What would you say if someone asked you to complete the phrase, “Before I die . . .”? And who would you tell? Friends? Family? Or . . . a giant blackboard? Vancouverites are being invited to publicly share their bucket lists on a blackboard the length of a city block. The […]
Harper: The Nudes Collection
Editor’s note: Google tells us their ads can’t appear on the same page as “non-family safe content,” such as the images on this page. We think that’s unfair to our former PM — true, not all Canadians cared for Mr. Harper, but “non-family safe”? Come now. Nevertheless, we have obscured the images as instructed. If you’d like to […]
Leonard Cohen repays Canada Council, and then some
A BoB short: Canadian literature and music legend Leonard Cohen, awarded the Glenn Gould Prize in Toronto last night, has chosen to donate the $50,000 that comes with it to the Canada Council for the Arts. The Montreal native is the ninth winner of the honour that has been called “The Nobel Prize of the […]
Inside Read: The Opening Act
Our Inside Read feature presents excerpts from new Canadian books we think you might want to dip into further. In The Opening Act, author Susan McNicoll offers a lively history of Canadian theatre post WW II, including the following account of Vancouver’s 1953 Tobacco Road “fiasco.” Published by kind permission of Ronsdale Press. “The police […]
Train tour inspired by 70’s Festival Express
A BoB short: A motley of young electronic musicians led by Grammy-winning dubstep artist Skrillex, who is arguably more known for his half-shaved hairstyle, will be touring Canada via private train this summer. Accompanying Skrillex, whose real name is Sonny Moore, is indie pop maven and former Vancouverite Grimes, and American artists DJ Diplo and […]
