“At Dunder-Mifflin Scranton, we’re not just in the paper business—we’re in the people business.” So begins The Faces of Scranton, a short video made by Dunder-Mifflin manager Michael Scott. The film enjoyed its debut during Scott’s first meeting with the company’s new chief financial officer. Scott edited the film on his Mac. He was thinking […]
Arts & Culture
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Alt spirit awards
The end of the year is all about lists. People love ’em. They can be arbitrary, considered or ridiculous. You turn a list into a popularity contest, and you get awards. People love awards as much as they love lists. I’d like to subvert all that. Or, perhaps I’ll surreptitiously join what I can’t beat. […]
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Unaccompanied Minors
Child actors showcase stand-up comic personas in Unaccompanied Minors, a conceptual mish-mash of Home Alone and The Terminal. The movie opts away from seasonal feeling to be a live action cartoon. But it rises somewhere higher profile blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, X-Men: The Last Stand, Cars, V for Vendetta and The […]
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Ready, made, go!
The 13th Floor Pottery Lisa-Marie Campbell’s wares—toasting glasses, teapots and mugs, trays and bowls—draw on distant celebrations such as Day of the Dead, which she witnessed on trips south. “They had those incredible shrines all over the place and those absolutely bizarre little skeletons done up with flowers and hats,” Campbell says of sights and […]
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Life’s a sketch
It is 7:45pm on Sunday night and the buzz in the air is palpable. Ginger’s Tavern is close to capacity as groups of young adults stream up the stairs on a minute-by-minute basis. By the time 8pm rolls around, there isn’t an empty seat in the house. The audience has gathered not to see a […]
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Over the top
When your thumbs get tired from playing our top10 video games, read one of our picks for best book or graphic novel. Steeped. Click to see this year’s best: BOOKS by Sue Carter FlinnGRAPHIC NOVELS by Carsten KnoxVIDEO GAMES by Gerry Hubley
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Daisies chain
There is a crowd gathered on the side of Herring Cove Road, watching open-mouthed as smoke billows out of a soot-stained, green-roofed building. A fire engine is idling in the parking lot and several police officers are conferring officiously beside it. It looks as if the set of local writer/producer/director Chaz Thorne’s feature film Pushing […]
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Should, could, Deadwood
For those of you who have been busy panning for gold, it might behoove you to know seasons one and two of the HBO television series Deadwood are currently available for purchase. Why would this matter to the discerning holiday-gift buyer? Especially, say, someone who doesn’t regularly use or appreciate the term “cunt-licker” in daily […]
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Endless summer
Imagine, if you will, a film crew at Lawrencetown Beach. It’s mid-November and the shooting day starts around 5am. The film is a drama about surfers. Imagine them spending a great deal of time in the water, both the actors and the crew. “We had cameras in splash bags,” says producer Drew Hagen. “We sent […]
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Videodrome
We got your year-old gems and decades-old classics, your new and old television, your animation, your arena shows, your wild and weird—all here in our annual round-up of the best DVDs. >> Show me the list <<
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Déjà Vu
At its most evident, Déjà Vu is Minority Report’s premise in reverse. But it samples from a whole variety of science fiction films and police thrillers. The result is somewhat shapeless—troubling mainly because the movie rarely convinces that its makers have proofread their premise. Yet it’s delivered with an assured pacing and discovery where the […]
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Economy of scale
Scale works both ways on peoples’ awareness and experience of their surroundings: the small fascinates, the large looms. Cape Breton artist Carl Zimmerman uses both directions in scale in Landmarks of Industrial Britain, running until January 7 at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. His photographs of seemingly massive abandoned buildings from 19th century northern […]