Riding on the success of their newest self-titled EP, New York indie band, Interpol strolled into Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern in September 2001. Hailed as the “next big thing,” several newspapers in Toronto decided to send reviewers to cover the show. The Toronto Star music critic Ben Rayner attended, as did NOW magazine’s music critic Sarah… Continue reading The subjectivity of objective music criticism
So You Want To Be A Restaurant Critic?
If we’re not being vilified as grim reapers with the despotic power to make or break a business, we are mocked as culinary dilettantes who couldn’t poach our way out of a papillote. Aw, you cluck. Those poor gluttons, force-fed with foie gras and truffles night after night. What hardships they endure! Okay, I’ll admit… Continue reading So You Want To Be A Restaurant Critic?
The Immigrant Experience
It’s three in the morning on a sweet April day in 2003, and Naeem “Nick” Noorani wakes up in his Vancouver home. Despite having left Dubai five years earlier with his family, he still finds something strange about this country. “Everyone says Canada is a country of immigrants,” he says. “There are magazines on wilting… Continue reading The Immigrant Experience
5 Reasons to Love Service Journalism
For years, Lise Ravary had practiced a version of her short speech, so it was hardly impromptu. After a quarter-century of involvement with the National Magazine Awards as both judge and board member, the thought had become too difficult to ignore. Yet again, women’s service magazines had been bypassed in favour of more “respected” magazines. Maclean’s, Toronto… Continue reading 5 Reasons to Love Service Journalism
The Russian Enigma
This hostile, icy metropolis is exhausting. Every stereotype—the constant military presence, the babushkas begging in the crowded Metro, real fur, stray dogs, dirty slush, the Christmas trees next to statues of Lenin—overwhelms the senses almost instantly upon arrival. Many Moscow buildings carry plaques: this or that historical figure lived here. This land explodes with stories… Continue reading The Russian Enigma
