Arts

Books Recently Seized or Detained by Canada Customs
"The past 20 years have shown Canadian censorship to be legal, durable, and popular. Canadian censors--whether government officials or common citizens-- have shown little confidence of the abilities of other people to think or behave responsibly after reading 'objectionable' books and magazines."

It was a chance I was happily willing to take. Apparently, so the story goes, Martin Tielli's close friends and acquaintances assured him that one cannot simply unload four albums of music on the listening public in one skull-cracking whump. Thus, it was decided to bleed out this music one record at a time. To help finance the project up front, subscriptions were sold; each subscriber would receive four albums over the course of one year. The project would be named Tielli 2003: a fitting tag for what looked to be an epic undertaking.
- by John Haney -

Recently a friend suggested I check out Paul Martin's online opinion survey about the Canadian definition of marriage. Also recently I saw an all-female production of The Taming of the Shrew performed in that Shakespearian Mecca, London's Globe Theatre. And perhaps oddly, these two things have quite a lot to say to each other.- by Jane Henderson -

After 17,000 years of accumulating examples of art, people are still asking, "But is it art... what is art?" Can't we answer that question by now? - by Max Liboiron -

Yes, you read the headline correctly, and no, I can't believe it either, but apparently scientists have invented a brain machine that dramatically enhances musical performance, thus paving the way for a new race of highly skilled super-musicians. According to the BBC, "the system - called neurofeedback - trains musicians to clear their minds and produce more creative brain waves. Research, to be published in the journal Neuroreport, indicates the technique helps musicians to improve by an average of 17%...

-by Matt Brennan -

In a world where crushed metal, urinals, and stripped paintings all parade under the banner of "fine art", many have cried out against the alienation of the viewer by contemporary art and art-systems. In reaction to this, a new type of art and art-viewing has arrived, based on the all-too-familiar behaviours of consumerism.- by Max Liboiron -

Canada's current Big Shots in the international art world, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, have brought credit, fame and funding to the previously "suspect" genre of sound art. Why? Because they're so dang good. An exhibit of "Recent Works" is running at the illustrious Whitechapel Gallery in London, June 7 to August 24, 2003.
- by Max Liboiron -

Canadian radio is like loveless sex. It's predictable, unimaginative and over in five minutes. With the exception of campus and community stations, we don't expect Canadian contemporary radio to broadcast sound art. It just doesn't fit into the rigidly formatted program schedule of the CBC, and it certainly isn't safe enough for commercial radio.
- by Janna Graham -

Generally I am not a person who plans elaborate activities of merriment on calendar holidays. But, once and a while, an opportunity to celebrate gives me that tingling feeling and I am compelled to go out and join the party. It was that kind of crazed motivation that got me out of bed at 3:15 a.m. on July 1 to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream on the wharf of Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax. - by Sylvia Nickerson -

Every year, Toronto's High Park hosts the Canadian Stage's Dream in High Park. This year, they presented Twelfth Night or What You Will. This is one of my favourite plays (Shakespeare or other), so it was with extra enthusiasm that I joined all of the glowing friends, lovers and families this Canada Day before dusk. - by Erin Brubacher -

There's nothing that makes the critics line up -- nothing that makes them side and spit -- like the publication of a new book of non-fiction by John Metcalf. In the Calgary weekly FFWD, Lee Shedden writes: 'The release ... should be a Canadian national holiday; there should be drunkenness, jubilation, public nudity, mariachi bands, streamers, confetti.' Meanwhile, in The Danforth Review, Gordon Phinn calls Metcalf a 'rabid bulldog', and threatens to do unsavoury things to his 'balls'. - by Amanda Jernigan -

Dan Snaith is a stinking thief, of that I'm sure. His 'Manitoba' alias might throw a few off his track, since he actually hails from Ontario, though I'm sure none of his cronies in London, UK, will ever notice. He lives there nowadays, and claims to be working on a PhD in pure mathematics. But don't let that fool you.

The unseasonably warm afternoon of April 26 of this year was the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Wayzgoose festival of the printing arts in Grimsby, Ontario. The Wayzgoose festival is a gathering for practitioners of all arts relating to the production of fine, small-editioned, usually hand-made books. - by John Haney -

In the months of March and April, it seemed that everywhere you turned there was a pop artist or activist complaining that dissenting voices were getting crushed by the powers above. Surely, you'd think, all the belly-aching was exaggerated -- but then again, you'd also think that if the Beastie Boys released much-anticipated new material, you might have had a chance of hearing it on the radio. - by Matt Brennan -

In a letter to the Irish critic and writer James Stern dated February 22, 1970, Australian novelist Patrick White (1912-1990) wrote the following astonishing pair of sentences: "How lucky the Irish are, and the American Jews, in having those rich tormented backgrounds to draw on; here we are, the bloody Australians, with nothing, having to conjure rabbits out of the air... - by J.P. Loosemore -

Devotees of Barry's work marvel at her remarkable ability to recall and create authentic details of modern North American childhood. Sometimes funny, sometimes hauntingly sad, sometimes frightening and often full of heartfelt joy, Barry's comics are masterful. - by Heather Meek -