Category: Fall 2005

When a big-budget film about the life of Johnny Cash was released in November, Eye Weekly film reviewer Jason Anderson was disappointed. “As a biopic, Walk the Line is riddled with familiar problems,” he wrote. “Director James Mangold’s movie is based largely on Cash’s own frank memoirs so the issue is not that Mangold whitewashes… Continue reading Condition Critical

“Have you used the Internet?” asks Michael Pereira. Of course I’ve used the Internet, but the question is not actually as odd as it seems. Pereira is a volunteer with Wireless Toronto, a non-profit group dedicated to bringing free wireless Internet access to the city. We’re sitting in the café at 401 Richmond, an arts… Continue reading Make That a Double Latté With Internet Topping

Thank God for the union! These stalwart guardians of labour rights are often the only defense against The Man and his ruthless march towards higher profit and increased shareholder value. While it’s hard to imagine Canadian journalists as soot-stained workers streaming out of a coal mine or steel mill, they still have to deal with… Continue reading If You Build It, Will They Come?

An email went around the Saturday Night magazine offices on Tuesday, October 18, announcing that a meeting had been scheduled for Thursday. The email listed a time, but no agenda. There was a mood of suspicion in the windowless boardroom on the morning of the 20th, as a dozen editorial and art staff mulled over… Continue reading The Mourning After

I’m giggling to the Howard Stern Show on 92.9 JACK FM during my Tuesday morning drive to the School of Journalism at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto. It’s one of Stern’s last programs on the Buffalo station, just before he makes his much-publicized jump to Sirius Satellite Radio. That’s when Canadians living near the U.S.… Continue reading A Constellation of Problems