Mixing art and technology IF YOU HAVE no idea what an art and technology festival is, now is the time to find out. Electric Fields is a biennial festival run by Artengine, a non-profit, artist-run centre in Ottawa that focuses on creating, presenting, and promoting art concerned with technological experimentation. Although 2011 was a break …
Arts
Tower Heist 3/5 It’s the movie where the 99 per cent get angry and take back what they rightfully deserve. Don’t worry, Tower Heist is not some boring Occupy-the-world documentary, but rather an enjoyable action-adventure heist film. Ben Stiller stars as Josh Kovacs, a recently fired building manager for a posh, uptown New York City …
Through the lens ALL OF THE media frenzy surrounding Kim Kardashian these days does not come as a surprise. The multi-millionaire socialite and “entrepreneur” recently split from her NBA-star husband, Kris Humphries. While the breakup may not come as a surprise to anyone—did you really think they’d make it past 72 days?—the amount of attention …
THE UNSETTLERS IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a journey of mysterious musicality, Montreal’s The Unsettlers can certainly take you there. An eclectic multi-instrumental group, which even features a contortionist, The Unsettlers present polkas, waltzes, and lullabies with a dark underbelly that makes you feel like you’re in an underground bar on a rainy Friday. Since their …
Illustration by Brennan Bova Campus club offers a different movie-going experience TIRED OF PAYING $10 for not-so-good blockbusters at the movies? Sick of Hollywood recycling content and actors to create the usual crappy comedy, romance, or drama? Well, a club at the University of Ottawa might just solve your problems. Cinema Academica is a group on campus that allows students …
Sugary cereal connects artists with music lovers and industry experts THE POST FOOD Company has a sweet tooth for indie tunes. It’s the founder of The First 15, a grant project that mixes social media and industry expertise to help unknown artists get their big break. Hoping to get more Canadian independent music into the iPods of music lovers is just one of the …
ANOTHER REMEMBRANCE DAY is about to come and go. As Canadians get ready to remember previous wars fought and current ones ongoing, some U of O students decided to take this time to write poems inspired by this special day. Whether it’s images of Flander’s Fields or visions of the war in Afghanistan, the writers were inspired by what remembering means to them. Are …
Canadian environmental artist reacts to tour interference WHILE FRANKE JAMES has been a visual artist her whole life, in 2006 the focus of her work turned to climate change. James never thought her work on the environment would end up blacklisted by the Harper government. “We did an energy audit on our house because we were renovating, and at that …
Annual United Way benefit show to take the stage ALREADY IN ITS 11th year, the Resident’s Life United Way Benefit Show is not slowing down anytime soon. On Nov. 16, the spectacle, which will feature performances from students at the University of Ottawa, is all about providing entertainment for a good cause. All of the show’s proceeds go to the United Way Ottawa …
Canadian artist to perform live music for train passengers TRAVELLING BETWEEN SHOWS is often a nuisance for Canadian musicians. The sheer size of our country usually means a national tour will require dozens of idle hours spent on the road. Anna Atkinson, a Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, is booked to play shows at several …
New study shows correlation between video games and weight gain Chaput and his collaborators invited 22 healthy, normal-weight boys between ages 15 and 19 into the lab. The night before the experiment, the boys were instructed not to eat. They …
Online dating gets student-specific TORONTO (CUP)—A NEW ONLINE dating website, Datemyschool.com, may soon be making its way to Canada. Created by Columbia Business School students Jean Meyer and Balazs Alexa, the website currently allows students enrolled at over 350 American universities to meet people online who are exclusively within their academic circle of choice. Currently, …
Great Canadian Theatre Company Rating: 3/5 IT’S 1987 IN East Berlin. Under Soviet rule, the wall that divides Germany is still intact. This is the setting for Canadian playwright Richard Sanger’s Whispering Pines. The play, which debuted at the Great Canadian Theatre Company on Oct. 28, sets themes of betrayal, pain, and espionage against the …
The Fashist AS THE SEMESTER slowly trudges along and the temperature continues to drop, it’s easy to get stuck in a vortex of study, essay, exam, repeat. With our minds set on the short-but-sweet winter vacation only a couple months away, it’s easy to let our wardrobe suffer and become as dull as the weather. …
Jane’s Addiction The Great Escape Artist Capitol Los Angeles band Jane’s Addiction’s fourth studio release might satisfy die-hard fans looking for the same old sound that garnered the group initial fame, but it’s not likely to entice any new listeners. The 10-track album is full of songs we’ve already heard before—standard Jane’s Addiction, with …
November is the month to take on a novel HAVE YOU EVER dreamt of becoming a modern-day Agatha Christie? Or how about the next J.K. Rowling? Well, aspiring novelists don’t have to look any further to make that dream a reality. With the 48-Hour Novella-Writing contest and the National Novel-Writing Month happening this month, …
National Gallery of Canada unveils early works of French artists AFTER THE STRESS of assignments and midterms, it may not be a bad idea chilling out by National Gallery of Canada’s new exhibit Drawn to Art running until Jan. 2. It turns out that many of France’s famous artists, whose works are presented in the …
Drive 3.5/5 DRIVE IS SURE to surprise and confuse most movie-goers, since the trailers and TV spots released paint it as a high-octane action-thriller when that is just not the case. Instead, director Nicolas Winding Refn takes what could have been a generic, by-the-numbers affair and injects it with healthy dose of eccentric images …
Sloan’s Jay Ferguson talks TWENTY YEARS. TEN albums. One hundred and seventy-five songs. Not a single change to the band’s lineup. For a band, this alone is a triumph. For Sloan, the Toronto-based alternative rock quartet of Jay Ferguson, Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, and Andrew Scott, it’s just the latest marker of a career that’s …
New vendor event debuts in Ottawa THE COMPULSION TO buy something unique made by a skillful set of hands is not new, but the making and purchasing of crafts are becoming more popular in Ottawa. Instead of wasting time scouring Etsy looking for goods over the web, people now have the option to buy crafted …
BABETTE HAYWARD THE SOULFUL MUSIC of Babette Hayward can be described as the perfect lullaby. Her soft, sweet voice, soothing melodies, and blooming arrangements are as calming as watching a sunset on a warm summer’s eve. The Maritime folk singer says her inspiration comes from her surroundings, namely the lush landscapes of New Brunswick where …
Nightmare on Elm Street, 3/5 REVOLTINGLY GORY, VIOLENT, and disturbing, the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street is sure to frighten the socks off the most avid horror-flick lover. This adaptation of the 1984 original stays relatively true to the original story line—Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley), a child killer who was burned …
Three-day event to honour the café FROM THIS THURSDAY until Oct. 22, students will have the chance to sit back and enjoy good music at Café Nostalgica. While this is not an unusual occurrence at the small restaurant and bar run by the Graduate Students Association (GSAÉD) of the University of Ottawa, the three-day event, …
Harvest Noir hits Ottawa IT WAS A secret that 700 people could keep. Last Saturday saw hundreds of people attend a picnic near the Museum of Civilization. Oragnized by the Mysterious Event Company, Harvest Noir was no ordinary picnic, mirroringsimilar international pop-up picnics, featuring circus performances, a fashion show, and immaculately dressed participants. “Harvest Noir …
Through the lens WHAT HAPPENS WHEN you gather over 700 hundred people to a picnic? Although organizers of Harvest Noir would disagree, you just get a really large picnic. Harvest Noir was a grand-scale, black-tie, secret event. Tickets cost a steep $37 plus tax and participants were only informed of the time and place a …
