Beast

By Christian Martius

The artist’s muse has always been served well by the trauma of disintegrating relationships, and DJ Champion Et Ses G-Strings singer Betty Bonifassi’s new trip-hop project with Jean-Phi Goncalves is a suitably aggressive take on the incompatibility of the sexes.

Blame Canada

By Christian Martius

Jacob Scheier's controversial Governor General's Literary Award win was not the product of conflicting interests between Canadian poets and judges, but a lack of critics

Forgive Them Father

By Christian Martius

The Vatican’s official newspaper has forgiven John Lennon for his “bigger than Jesus" quip. Maybe it’s time to give some other blasphemers a little Christian forgiveness?

Get together

By Christian Martius

The Ensemble, an international collective of Canadian and South African actors, perform Ubuntu (The Cape Town Project) at the Tarragon next week, a play concerning, both in form and in theme, the titular African philosophy of humanitarian connectivity (what Archbishop...

Heavyweight champs (and chumps)

Laughs by the Pound

By Neil Karassik and Christian Martius

By positioning himself in interviews in the grand tradition of funny fat guys, sitcom star Kevin James attempts to fill the big shoes of larger-than-life comedy heavyweights past with his role in Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

Holiday Record Guide: Electronic

By

Featuring The Fireman, The Rapture, Max Tundra, El Guincho and, uh, Good Charlotte

Holiday Record Guide: Hip-Hop

By

Featuring Ludacris, wordPEOPLE, Moka Only and more

I Can’t Think Straight

By Christian Martius

Shamim Sharif’s second romantic melodrama about a lesbian relationship challenged by the conventions of race, faith and family (after the recently-released The World Unseen) is as trite as its title. 

Jingle Bell Rock @ Sound Academy, Dec. 12

Featuring Metric, Tokyo Police Club, The Dears, Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains and DJ Mike Relm

By Christian Martius

Cross-Canada tour boasts a powerhouse line-up of domestic indie-rock — Metric, Tokyo Police Club, The Dears, Sebastien Grainger — but the real star is opening DJ Mike Relm.

Lunacy Cabaret

Fundraiser for Circus Without Borders. Feb 13. The Centre of Gravity, 1300 Gerard E.

By Christian Martius

If the word “vaudeville” originates from an idiom meaning “voice of the city,” this “no-holds-barred” circus-and-comedy-performance extravaganza at The Centre of Gravity managed to yell in an unforgivably scatological and ostentatious voice.