RuPaul's Drag Race: Frock the Vote

 Last week, Willam won the challenge, but was kicked off the show for "breaking a rule" of the show. We don't know what said rule was, but she is outta here. We won't find out what rule was broken until the reunion show, which is a damn shame. 

Art Matters
All Party Townhall on matters of Art
Tuesday, April 19, 6:30 – 8pm

Plan to attend this public forum at the Cube Gallery discussing and debating the role of art in our lives, our cities, our country.

Do the candidates in the upcoming federal election have a vision for the role of art in Canada? Do they understand how art enhances our communities, educates our minds and broadens our vistas?

...Come and join this lively debate with candidates from all of the politicial parties as they discuss where they stand on the arts.

Does art matter? Should we remove taxes on original art? Should Canadian theatre, music, and other cultural events be taxed? What would our lives, our communities, our workspaces be without art?

This will be an important opportunity for anyone involved in the arts community, including artists, audiences, academics, the people who work and play in our public spaces. Don't miss this opportunity to be heard.

Confirmed participants include:
• Paul Dewar (NDP, Ottawa Centre)
• Jen Hunter (Green, Ottawa Centre)
• Scott Bradley (Liberal, Ottawa Centre)
• Stuart Ryan (Communist, Ottawa Centre)

ABSENT from the Debate
• Damian Konstantinakos (Conservative, Ottawa Centre) (Although his campaign office is directly across the street he has declined our offer)

This forum will be free of charge. Open to the public and wheelchair accessible.

-----------------------------------------------

Cube Gallery
1285 Wellington St. W.  Ottawa, K1Y 3A8
613 728 1750   ~   613 728 2111
Cubegallery.ca
don@cubegallery.ca

Suze Rotolo passed away last week after a battle with lung cancer.  She was 67.

Rotolo was an activist, artist, writer and teacher. 

She was also, for a time, muse to the 20th century's greatest song writer, Bob Dylan. 

Perhaps inspired Stephen Harper rocking a Conservative Christmas party last week, (Cult)ure fav Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin crooned a rendition of "Blueberry Hill" at a star-studded fundraiser gala in St. Petersburg on Friday night. Is there anything that man won't do? Watch the video after the jump:

Adding to our list of specious shout outs is Rolling Stone's story that got General McChrystal fired. "The Runaway General"? Meet the Runaway issue.

As mentioned before, Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be in Ottawa on June 10, as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. The event coincides with the publication of her third book, "Nomad," which is primarily a charting of her alienation from the Muslim faith she grew up in. The Globe and Mail's reviewer, Theodore Dalrymple, is, on the whole, very positive and notes that she states her case "with both modesty and great eloquence." His sole caveat is that "the Enlightenment ideal that she espouses is rather too simple as an answer to the problems of human existence."

The latest issue of Brick magazine contains a series of three essays on the passing of Allan King, the versatile Canadian filmmaker most known for his powerful documentaries on social issues such as race, poverty, domestic abuse, and death. (Here is an insightful youtube clip incorporating an interview with King and footage from some of his films. It also has Orson Welles, smoking a cigar and saying that movie directing is "the only profession in the world where you can be incompetent and go on being successful for thirty years with nobody ever discovering.")

And Prairie Fire magazine contains an interview with Austin Clarke, the author of the Giller Prize-winning The Polished Hoe, in which he discusses race, immigration, and the concept of "home."

Excellent news, fang-bangers: TwiCon got booted from its location in downtown Toronto thanks to this little thing called the G20 summit, so they relocated to Landsdowne Park. Say, what? Yup, Ottawa was on the radar, and now it's the place to be June 25 to 27 for TwiHards, TwiMoms, and people who like Sam from True Blood. He's going to be here, and, as your ace vampire reporter, I'm going to have to be there. It's the least I can do. Just like showing you this photo from Eclipse.  You're welcome.

Losing Hope for the Future of Humankind Dept.:

http://www.slate.com/id/2244062/

http://www.slate.com/id/2243797/

Steve Yzerman announced Canada's mens hockey team roster at noon today.  

Too the disappointment (and horror) of people across Ottawa, beloved heart and soul Senator Mike Fisher didn't make the cut, while heartless goal-scorer Dany Heatley did.  

Heatley, who last summer made it clear he believes he is too good to represent the nation's capital as an Ottawa Senator, is apparently still willing to represent the nation itself at the Olypics.

I intend to cheer on team Canada with all of my heart, but Dany Heatley doesn't represent any part of the Canada I believe in.  Selfishness, arrogance, and a willingness to disparage the very communities that support us are traits that have nothing to do with my vision of this great nation.

The Olypics aren't just about going for gold.  They are about showing the world who we are as a country and a people.  Is Dany Heatley really the face we want to put on Canada for the rest of the world?  I don't think so.

Earlier this evening, Life of Pi author Yann Martel was present at the launch of his new book, What is Stephen Harper Reading? The event was organized by Octopus Books, and was held in the basement of a framing studio at the end of a torn-up Elm Street (off a torn-up Preston Street), and a large warehouse next to the O-train track. About 70 people managed to track down the Booker Prize winner.

 The book is based on Martel's project to  send the Prime Minister a book every two weeks, in an attempt to broaden his mind and to encourage "stillness" in our head of government. It consists of an introduction and a set of55 letters Martel has sent since April 2007, each discussing the merits (and, sometimes, the failings) of the books and asserting the importance of art and literature for the soul of both the individual and the nation. There are also two perfunctory responses from Harper's office acknowledging receipt of the packages.

 Martel has also set up a website where the letters can be read.

April is away on vacation, which is why we didn't have our usual "Weekend Viewing" blog feature on Friday.  I was going to write it up in her absence, but I figured why bother?  Given the near universally positive reviews District 9 received from critics, there really wasn't any question what all of us were going to see this weekend, right?  I mean, it was District 9 or nothing.

Well, now that we have all seen it, I can't help but ask... am I the only one who found it ploddingly pessimistic, nihilistic, and... um... what is the word for depicting a general disgust for mankind?

District 9 is about three years too late.  Despite the economic downturn, the election of Obama changed the cultural mood from despair to hope.  There is a reason Star Trek was the only hit this summer!  People want to feel optimism for mankind, not watch a depiction of just how ugly mankind can be.

Hey, remember Vladimir Putin's vigorous torso? You know, the one that made an appearance a while back while fishing? Well, everyone's favourite Russian Prime Minister is at it again! Head over to the Times (UK-style) to watch a video that includes shirtless horseback riding and the butterfly stroke. What's life without knowing what Putin was up to on his vacation?

There's something amazing that goes on when they make movie lists over at Foreign Policy. See, right there, the needle came off the record because what in the world does Foreign Policy have to do with cinema, and who in the world is reading Foreign Policy for their cinema advice? They actually got into a little scuffle with sister publication Slate some weeks back over international relations movies, I kid you not. Now they're at it again over The Top 10 Iranian Movies to Netflix This Weekend. I realize that they're being facetious on some level ("It was sarcasm, you guys. Geez!" "Ohhh."), but who is the audience for this list? Who is like, "I would like to better understand Iran, and I have absolutely no plans for this weekend, so I'll add a bunch of movies to my Netflix queue. Two years from now,* when they arrive, I'll be thrilled to learn more." Especially since the list already explains to you what you are supposed to get out of the movies. I hate to sound old fashioned and against my own section, but isn't there a book you could read?

*This is predicated on the idea of an obscenely long queue, much as my own Zip list. It makes whatever movies arrive a constant surprise, which is always fun. If you start out depressed, everything's sort of a pleasant surprise. 

As the class officially tips over the halfway mark, we move into darker subject matter. Last week we screened Battle Royale, the Japanese dystopian near-future film about school kids forced by adults to kill each other and tonight we're watching Elephant, part 2 of Gus Van Sant's 'Death' trilogy (the others are Gerry and Last Days). No students signed up to provide context for the film, which prompted me to conduct my own research on the film.

For those who have seen it, the film is Van Sant's 'take' on the 1999 Columbine Massacre, in which two students killed 13 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide. The Massacre is the fourth largest school shooting in history, but received unprecedented media coverage on news sites such as Fox News and CNN, including graphic footage from security tapes as well as images such as bloodied students trying to escape the library. The film itself is interesting for its position on the cause of the shootings; that is, it doesn't pretend to understand the factors that drove the two boys to kill, although they do play videogames and watch violent movies (both were factors blamed in real life). Researching school shootings was surprisingly inconclusive: academics seem generally divided between the effects of media and videogame violence. Some suggest that these media, paired with violent or satanic music, prompt responses in the brain associated with emotional responses (anger, loss of control). Others suggest that these studies are inconclusive or suggest that the correlations discovered should not imply causation. It's an interesting debate, one that I think I'll put to the students.

We'll turn our attention to censorship and the role of the bard in these kinds of violent tales on Thursday when we screen Tim Blake Nelson's long delayed adaptation, O.

Here are what I consider the best blogs to date (don't tell the students!):
http://mattrodrigues.wordpress.com
http://teenagekicksblog.blogspot.com/
http://sosayeththewatcher.wordpress.com/
http://iwastherebel.wordpress.com
http://editsuite99.wordpress.com/

Just when you thought Putin couldn't get any more ridicuawesome, he does it again. He's added magazine columnist to his résumé. His first piece? "Why is it hard to fire a person?" Is dioxin is on his list of suggestions? Sometimes I get the impression that Putin's got this George Plimpton-style joie de vivre that makes a person need to try everything he or she possibly could. Any day now we'll hear an announcement about Vladimir Putin: Master Chef or Vladimir Putin:  Skateboard Enthusiast or Vladimir Putin: X-Ray Vision. Anything's possible with him. 

 

(Cult)ure is at the Ottawa International Writers Festival, at the St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities, in the Byward Market, from April 22nd to May 2nd.

On Friday night, Michael Ignatieff discussed his new book, "True Patriot Love," with Adrian Harewood of CBC Radio. It was a great opportunity to learn more about a man who may one day become Prime Minister of our country.

Ignatieff was at pains to point out, though, that he had not written a political manifesto, nor a response to criticisms from political opponents - he had simply written a book, and had in fact started to think about it and write it while on a cross-country trip with his wife in 2000, long before he became involved in politics. Nevertheless, it was difficult to separate the discussion of his literary product with his current "day job," as Harewood put it, as the Leader of Canada's Official Opposition.