If you saw Cats (2019), a pending class action lawsuit may affect you Are you a lover of film, musical theatre, cats, or Jason Derulo? Do you love them all and spend your days seeking an amalgamation that will quench your aching thirst for all four? Are you simply a lover of decency, good taste, and well-rendered CGI? If you or a loved one was exposed to CATS (2019, dir. Tom Hooper)...
Editor’s Note: Manny, our Satire Editor, has written another great non-satirical concert review. That’s right: you are to take the following quite literally. Returning to Toronto to perform at Generator, the science expo/TEDTalk/variety show created by Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield on January 10th, TWRP headlined at the Opera House with Rich Aucoin on January 11th before starting their...
As all of my Osgoode classmates have now come to know, musicals have defined much of my life. I mean, how fun is it to just burst into a song and dance to explore a big moment or dilemma in your life? Although not a realistic route to conflict resolution, song and dance have been integrated into much of my life since I was a young child. I began my passion for performance as a competitive...
So, what exactly is Eataly? A quick Google search will tell you that Eataly is a fusion of two words: eat and Italy. This snazzy name is used to describe an eatery that combines fresh ingredients, grocery-store style, with various hot tables and restaurant spaces. You could be walking down an aisle of fresh produce or finding yourself mesmerised by the deli and cheese counters. Then, you turn...
A few of the albums that defined 2019, in a non-exhaustive, unranked list Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride Having completed a trilogy of sorts with the release of Modern Vampires of the City in 2013, Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig confessed to needing a break from music. Amongst other things, Koenig wrote an animated show for Netflix called Neo Yokio that starred Jaden Smith and Jude Law...
Over the holiday break I had the unique pleasure of reviving a long-dead friendship. My friend and his family live an hour north of Toronto in a cozy, quaint town. Our interactions evolved in the natural way: beginning with typical, childish generalities before maturing and taking on an idiosyncratic friendship replete with ridiculous noise-gags and inside jokes. There was no predicting the...
A few great pieces of cinema from a year full of them 2019 was a wondrous year for film. The following list is meant to highlight a few of my favourites rather than be an exhaustive one. Uncut Gems is obviously one of the best of the year, but a review will come in the following issue. Little Women Fresh off the success of Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig continues her burgeoning directorial career...
On October 9th, the Meridian Arts Centre opened a new exhibition called “Mandela: Struggle to Freedom” in partnership with the Canadian Human Rights Museum and the Apartheid Museum in South Africa, and curated by Karen Carter. The first floor of the exhibition begins with a portrayal of what apartheid looked like. The room is dark and it features signage posted at washrooms and benches...
Taiwanese-Australian violinist at Koerner Hall with pianist Julio Elizalde The classical world finds itself in an odd predicament right now: it has a dearth of young audience members and a surfeit of young performers. Every now and then, we read op-eds pronouncing the imminent collapse of the industry, inevitable because of the greying of the consumer class. The malaise is attributed to various...
It’s becoming less and less common for 25-year-olds to say that they grew up listening to Bob Dylan. And that makes a lot of sense—he’s definitely not been as prolific in recent years as he was in the prime of his career, but his music and poetry shaped the generation preceding ours. For some of us, his gravelly voice was the soundtrack to our childhood. My dad was a touring musician before he...
DIANA (I Knew You When We Were Fourteen) is a play about two young people, Diana and Michael, who went to school together until suddenly, and very mysteriously, Diana goes missing in their early years of high school. Though they never really spoke, and would never be considered friends, Michael becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. Many years later, he travels from his...
Jesus Is King — Kanye West One could say that Kanye West is now working with the largest backing cohort he’s ever had as the newfound leader of his Sunday Service gospel group congregation. With this weekly concert series, West has taken pains to distance himself from the troubled figure he cut on the promotional cycle for his last solo full-length album, ye. What ye signalled with its rushed...
Another Spot to Add to Your Ever-Growing Toronto Restaurant List Imagine yourself walking past a busy restaurant, after having just eaten elsewhere, and being jealous of the packed tables and wafting smell of churros. You know in your soul that you were destined to eat there one day. I too have faced this scenario.. Except, last week, I was finally able to fulfill my destiny – I ate at Milagro on...
In celebration of the Facebook group “Lawl Memes for Aspiring Justice Supremes” recently reaching their 10,000-member milestone this month, I sat down with Shayyan Malik, co-founder of the group, to talk about how he turned a vision into reality and how he handles being an internet celebrity. Mariam (M): Hi Shayyan, thanks for letting me interview you. Shayyan (S): Thank you for doing this...
Following its win of the Palme d’Or in the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Bong Joon-Ho’s new film Parasite (Gi-saeng-choong) has succeeded in gaining the approval of movie fans and critics alike, reflected in its impressive ‘99% fresh’ Rotten Tomatoes rating. The first fully South Korean-produced film – with Bong as director and writer – in ten years, this highly acclaimed black-comedy is now playing...
An Interview with the Co-Founder of Lawl Memes for Apiring Justice Supremes In celebration of the Facebook group “Lawl Memes for Aspiring Justice Supremes” recently reaching their 10,000-member milestone this month, I sat down with Shayyan Malik, co-founder of the group, to talk about how he turned a vision into reality and how he handles being an internet celebrity. Mariam (M): Hi Shayyan...
Accompanying heavy metal giant Kamelot on their 2019 North America Tour, Battle Beast and Sonata Arctica performed at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on September 18th offering attendees a night of loud, furious fun. Starting off the show with a bang were Battle Beast. A pitch-black room is filled with the sound of tense orchestral music. Suspense rises as the music swells, and a pair of lights...
This time last year, I was fortunate enough to be living in Paris. One of my favourite things to do was to wander the streets with my friends from morning until night, enjoying everything the city had to offer. What is la joie de vivre? The French live by this motto and it translates to the joy of living, where simplicity is key. Since many of you are on exchange, and many 1Ls are thinking about...
We Conclude our Series from Last Issue Jetfuel Free of the pretension normally associated with cafes, Jetfuel thrives in its cozy Cabbagetown alcove. As soothing as minimalist decor is, it’s nice to appreciate a space with a lived-in feel and Jetfuel has that in boatloads. It’s one of Toronto’s oldest coffee shops, but also one that has a multi-faceted feel due to its deep roots in the cycling...
A Reflection In mid-November 2017, I was at my friend’s apartment in Manhattan’s East Village. The path that had brought him to that apartment at the corner of 13th and 3rd Avenues was, to my outside view, flawlessly executed. A gifted musician and instrumentalist from early childhood, he and his piano, microphone, saxophone, and guitar were inseparable. In 2013, his passion became a bona fide...
Matthew Rankin’s Comedy is the Kind for Film Festivals The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has wrapped up and I hope some of you were able to take some time out of your busy schedules to check out a film or at least walk along King Street just to take it all in. One of the most talked about Canadian films that premiered at the festival was “The Twentieth Century” and I had a...
Jesse Eisenber’s Latest Act as a Leading Man Challenges Conventional Notions of Masculinity Writer/director Riley Stearn’s The Art of Self-Defense opens in hilarious fashion, with Casey Davies (Jesse Eisenberg) getting eviscerated by a pair of French tourists stopping for food at a nondescript diner somewhere in what is probably a flyover state. In a conversation that they think Eisenberg...
Four Books on Hong Kong My original intention was to do a follow-up piece to “A Modern China Reader”, which appeared on the back page of our January 22, 2019 issue. In that article, I recommended five books that I thought were good gateways into modern Chinese — that is, mainland Chinese — history and politics: Jonathan Spence’s The Search for Modern China (3rd ed.), Julia Lovell’s The Opium War...
A Two Part Series Living in a major city like Toronto has many perks, one of which is that coffee is never far away. If simply getting caffeinated is your jam, then there’s a plenitude of Tim Hortons or Starbucks on almost every street corner to scratch that particular itch. But if you’re a coffee aficionado who seeks out third-wave cafés that offer something other than the scorched, chocolatey...
One of my favourite throwaway bits from The Sopranos is the Michael Corleone impression that Tony enlists from Silvio to cheer him up during a card game. Ever the showman and always eager to please the boss, Silvio rises to the occasion and proclaims, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” with noticeably more gusto in both his delivery and hand gestures than Al Pacino mustered in...