By Janice Tran
From the band that brought the edgy screamo/hardcore genre to the suburban living rooms of Canadian teens comes a whole new brand of eardrum-pounding awesome. Crisis is more aggressive and less poppy than their best-selling sophomore release, Watch Out, but still features the same chaotic screams of George Petit and melodic vocals of Dallas Green.… Continue reading Spun: Alexisonfire
Move over Jessica Simpson–there’s yet another useless blonde wailing away, but thankfully, this one has yet to catch her big break. With tired lyrics and re-used beats, this Venezuelan-born beauty has little to offer, which is probably why she’s virtually unheard of. Though Gerina’s music falls under the rock genre, her lyrics are all too… Continue reading Spun: Gerina Di Marco
By Paul Jarvey
Ammoncontact’s latest is a wet canvas painted with a dark, heavy brush. A force that shifts phase in a blur of colour the instant you make out what it is you’re looking at. His virtuoso West Coast production disregards genres altogether like a Quebecois slurs crude language into one undebateable and indefinable streak. Where With… Continue reading Spun: Ammoncontact
By Kenzie Love
One has to feel sympathy for the Goo Goo Dolls. Their songs–reportedly based on personal experience–are rife with tales of distant lovers and doomed romances, they lost out to Celine Dion at the 1999 Grammies and lead singer Johnny Rzeznik was orphaned as a teenager. With their tenth release Let Love In, they offer up… Continue reading Spun: The Goo Goo Dolls
By Jon Roe
It’s hard to imagine being truly alone. For the most part, even though most people have some degree of independence, most rely on someone or something to help them live their lives. But if we were alone, and didn’t know it, would we feel lonely? Ronnie Burkett answers this question with his new play Ten… Continue reading Pulling Ronnie Burkett’s strings
The words “final fantasy” usually conjure images of some guy with huge boots and impossibly spiky hair using his enormous sword to shoot fireballs at a bunch of woodland creatures in order to stop another guy with big hair from tainting the power of love. Or something. This description is, of course, the plot of… Continue reading The Ultimate Fantasy
By Sarah Malik
One critic called his writing an “exciting collision–like poetry and technology smashing into each other.” Another called the drama that unfurled over the pages “raw and savage.” They’re talking about 17 Tomatoes, a thin little book that helped land Jaspreet Singh this years’ University of Calgary Markin-Flanagan residency. The writer will bring something very unique… Continue reading Fighting a war with a pen
By Kyle Francis
Five screens. Ten days. An assload of movies. Starting up at the end of the month, the Calgary International Film Festival roars proudly into it’s seventh year. Starting out in 1999 as a barely-notable blip on the scene for film nerds, the CIFF has since evolved into the fourth largest film fest in the country.… Continue reading Seven years of international film
Back in the good ol’ days, men in leather chaps with husky voices were cause for admiration, every child would emulate them, playing with plastic guns just like their idols,’ and willingly dress in fringed vests. Nowadays, even in Calgary, cowboys have lost the once-inherent respect of the populace: university students are more likely to… Continue reading Cowboy culture shock
By Ryan Pike
While some students spent their summers working minimum wage jobs or visiting relatives in Vulcan, four local filmmakers spent it honing their craft in NUTV’s Documentary School. The program was spearheaded three years ago by NUTV producer and program director Tinu Sinha, and run this year by local filmmaker Smita Acharyya. “It teaches you how… Continue reading NUTV goes back to school