If you curl up quietly on the rocks somewhere along Maine’s rocky coast—maybe wear dark, camouflage clothing—and wait until the moon lights up the choppy water, you might see any number of fantastical sights. Mermaids, and selkies too. If you watched just about the spot where the waves hit the shore, you may see fairies flitting between the flecks of spray, each their own dynamic Venus. Ghosts...
Two Hollywood classics and a little reflection on life In the summer of ‘19, a few friends and I were making conversation on a patio—ice cold soda in tow. On impulse, one fellow recommended that we go shoot pool at a nearby dive. One thing led to another, and what followed was a summer of regular games and good times that’s become as sentimental as it gets. Two obsessions have lingered since then...
The 2024 Academy Awards are just around the corner, and somehow—between law school classes, summer job searches, and general late winter agony—I watched all ten films nominated for Best Picture. In my humble opinion, 2023 was a phenomenal year for movies. Many of my favourite films of the year weren’t even nominated for best picture, and I consider everything that did make the shortlist at least...
I remember when Taylor Swift’s 1989 album came out. After a couple of years of liking Swift’s music in secret, almost overnight, she became the new celebrity of the moment—it was now officially cool to listen to Taylor Swift. Many fans still ardently uphold 1989 as her best album—undoubtedly, it was the album with the most cultural influence, launching Swift from a country singer to a mainstream...
Obiter Dicta held a “found poetry” event on February 7, 2024, where attendees created blackout poetry. This is a form of poetry where words are selected from existing text (in this case, old published Obiter articles) and the rest are blacked out to create a new poem. Here are some of the fun creations from the event: Author: Grace Lawrence Men and women who live in a society as just...
Well, yes! With the highly anticipated release of Beyoncé’s country album, more folks are learning about the history of country music, with most Black folks—like myself—getting back into the genre. Beyoncé has received heavy backlash for the two country songs she has released from her new album, with folks calling her sound inauthentic (despite her being from the South) and criticizing her use of...
Last year, I wrote an article for Obiter Dicta about my now thirteen-year tradition of watching and ranking all of the films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. As previously explained, in 2023, I actively avoided watching films that received praise from critics or the film community at large. After the Academy releases the nomination...
An Angel’s Visit At night , an angel comes to me flying from moon. And behind the veil gives me a beautiful flower. Saying that it grew on the moon’s soil and now it belongs to me. Every night , on every petal of every flower , have I seen ; The reflection of your face and smelled the odor of your skin. ********************************************* When you sit beside me , I disconnect from...
Auston Matthews was the first player since Lightning forward Steven Stamkos in 2012 to score 60 goals a couple of seasons ago. The season that followed wasn’t the greatest with some nagging injuries taking away Matthews’ scoring touch which had Leafs fans worrying if they had seen the peak of his goal scoring magic. All of that has been put to rest in just the first half of this season. Leading...
From 16–18 February, the NBA descended upon Indianapolis, Indiana for the 73rd NBA All-Star Weekend. While the NBA has provided fans with iconic moments during the All-Star festivities, the past few iterations have been underwhelming at best. While the Three-Point Contest has been fantastic and the Skills Competition and Rising Stars Challenge enjoyable, the two marquee events—the Dunk Contest...
The social media sphere was shaken this week by the incendiary comments unleashed by ESPN NBA contributor JJ Redick against perennial choking Bucks coach Doc Rivers and the general NBA fandom. JJ first angrily called out Rivers for never taking accountability for his failures. This stemmed from Rivers’ comments during the All-Star Break regarding how he had told Kawhi Leonard that trading Shai...
#MMIW Artwork by Maddie Lamb (Courtesy: We R Native) The recent viral video revealing a disturbing scene at Winnipeg’s Marlborough Hotel has exposed the grim reality faced by Indigenous women in Canada. The footage displays an Indigenous woman with her hands zip-tied behind her, with workers trying to prevent her from leaving the hotel, hinting at a broader issue of violence, trafficking, and...
A board outside Ste. Louise Outreach of Peel food bank in Brampton that reads: “No international students!!” (Courtesy: CBC) On 22 January 2024, the Canadian government announced its intent to set new limits on study permits issued to international students in the year 2024. The government’s news release acknowledges that international students serve an important purpose and...
The demand for regulating Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prominent in Canada. Many people are concerned about the impact of AI and are calling for the government to take action. Experts such as Yoshua Bengio, founder and scientific director of Mila-Quebec AI Institute, are urging the government to establish legal provisions for AI. According to Bengio, all general-purpose...
I recently stumbled across a 2003 interview given to a German public television station by the late author of Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace. Though the entire interview is worth a watch, I found Wallace to be particularly insightful, as he lamented the inability of even the most intelligent of his friends to sit in silence and read a book. Even among my highly intelligent peers, it is...
“Sunny Ways,” Wilfrid Laurier’s famous words imagining a prosperous Canada, were repeated in Justin Trudeau’s 2015 victory speech. I remember being 14, excited for a Canadian transformation advancing Indigenous reconciliation, fighting climate change, and addressing growing inequalities. My naïve high school self quickly learned that politics is anything but ‘sunny.’ While I lack the space to...
This is a great recipe that requires minimal effort and dishes to show people that you can, indeed, bake! Particularly if you enjoy chocolate, and your sweet tooth craving is through the charts, I find that these brownies are the key to your perfect dessert. My brothers, who in combination are the pickiest and most annoying food critics, are always willing to break their diets because...
The following current fashion trends are perplexing to people who are not chronically online: babygirl men and mob wives. This movement is a continuation of TikTok cementing trends that are reminiscent of personas or characters which constantly change depending on what is popular on the algorithm and are packaged under labels deeply rooted in internet vernacular. Think cottagecore, Y2K, clean...
By now, we probably all know someone who has hopped on the film photography train. Whether it’s a friend, sibling, someone you follow on Instagram or even yourself, more and more people are starting to dive into the world of film photography—and I think it’s great. One of my favourite aspects of shooting with film is the imperfectness of it all. While it’s true that there’s a plethora...
If you are not versed in the modern rap drama, “stan” drama, or X (formerly known as Twitter) drama, you have probably not heard about the beef between Nicki Minaj and Meg Thee Stallion. The beef is rumored to have started 3.4 years ago due to Meg collaborating with Minaj’s long-time rap rival/enemy Cardi B on the smash hit “WAP.” With subtle wordplay and disses on different tracks, the simmering...
You know that feeling you get after you finish an exam or an assignment in which you had spent all your time and energy? A wave of relief. But when the relief and the exhaustion have passed (and you’ve cleaned up the chaos into which your living room inevitably devolved), you’re left with a deep sense of boredom. Yes, you could binge watch all twenty (and counting) seasons of Grey’s...
The Barbenheimer phenomenon resulted in an international craze this past summer. However, while occasional movie-watchers and cinephiles made their way to the theatres, beloved and well renowned actors approached picket lines. Streaming services and artificial intelligence technologies are rapidly changing the entire landscape of television and movie-watching. As a result, various media...
The defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs went into M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland as an underdog on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon. In order to reach his fourth Super Bowl in six years of starting at quarterback for the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes would have to beat the soon-to-be MVP Lamar Jackson and the number-one rated Baltimore Ravens defence in the NFL. Tensions were...
This article discusses sexual assault and may be triggering for some readers. 5 January 2018. Buffalo, New York. Team Sweden versus Team Canada. It’s the gold medal game of the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (World Juniors). A sea of red jerseys envelops the ice of the KeyBank Center. Carter Hart starts in the net for Canada. Dillon Dubé opens the scoring, it’s 1–0 Canada. Sweden...
The point of this article is to introduce a sport that could potentially take North America by storm in the coming years: rugby league (League). To many, rugby may seem like one entity with one set of rules but, I assure you, it is not. The rugby ecosystem consists of several variations, the most recognizable being the rugby union (Union). Rugby sevens has also gained international...