I pride myself on being a good traveller. I’ve got just-a-carryon packing down to a science and the dance of airport security is muscle memory. I usually travel alone and I know what works for me- how I like to prioritize my spending, what I’m listening to, how many pairs of shoes I need, how […]
Content warning: This piece contains mentions of emotional/psychological manipulation, trauma, and suicide…
It took me 18 months and three weeks. Nearly 19 months is a long time, a tough pill to swallow for a girl nominally understood to be “one of the smart kids” (though, if we’re being honest with ourselves, that label is far too liberally applied to any decently organized non-athlete unafraid of raising their […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about Grey’s Anatomy lately. That show,…
Reboot culture as the go-to MO of our modern television landscape is, to say the very least, uninspiring. My head spins at the thought of the original ideas unexplored because some executive would rather reboot Dynasty than greenlight the next Dynasty. There must be hundreds of them, thousands probably, TV shows that never got made […]
15 years ago, Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman adapted for the stage a novel by Gregory Maguire that was itself an adaptation, or perhaps more accurately a revision, of The Wizard of Oz. The novel was dark and strange and long, full of deeply unlikeable characters and bleak allegorical observations about a world more real […]
In my lifetime, I don’t think I can remember a bigger Bollywood news story than Padmaavat. And that’s not just because I don’t care for the majority of the Indian film industry. From production day one to critical reception after release, this movie got attention to a level that rivaled the 2016 American presidential election. […]
I can’t stay awake at the theatre if I don’t eat first but it’s sometimes hard to figure out where to go, especially if you’re not super familiar with the area the theatre is in. So I headed to Taste of Toronto over the summer to get the lay of the local culinary land and […]
Stop telling me I can draw. I’ve always been that person who insists that “anyone can sing” if they learn correctly. But, after my latest exercise in attempting to draw, I’m wondering if I’m only saying that because I can sing and I’m projecting my own experience of the world onto others, just like those […]
We’re starting to see how the show runs, now that the set-up is done and I’m pleased…
Party Today (Panic Tomorrow) is an apt name for The Second City Toronto’s silliest and least political mainstage show in a few cycles. There are moments when the bold political humour that made the last revue so impactful shows back up (Brandon Hackett makes a police brutality joke out of nowhere and its lack of […]
Click Here to read previous instalments of Skinner Box Storytelling. My new show is open so I’ve got a bit more time to play games. Here’s what I’ve dipped into this week. These aren’t reviews, as I’ve only had a few hours with each one, but little snapshots of what I think. If I continue with […]
Click Here to read all of our coverage from 2017 San Diego Comic-Con I was sitting in a slightly overpriced, but breezy coffee shop just west of the Convention Centre, typing up my notes from Day One: “You have to be absolutely cut-throat about what you want to see and willing to sacrifice anything else […]
Click Here to read all of our coverage from 2017 San Diego Comic-Con This year, DC Comics is attempting one of the hardest games in comics: inventing new heroes. This happens all the time in comic books, shows, and films, but it seldom sticks the way characters did back in the Golden Age of Comics […]
Click Here to read all of our coverage from 2017 San Diego Comic-Con First, a confession: I didn’t have much interest in this panel. One of the best/worst things about Comic Con is that unlike Toronto’s Fan Expo, they don’t clear the hall after each panel. This is a clever bit of crowd control, as […]
Click Here to read all of our coverage from 2017 San Diego Comic-Con Size matters (during scheduling) So, this probably goes without saying, but Comic Con is big. Fucking big. Fan Expo in Toronto has grown steadily over the years, but it pales in comparison to the sheer size, scale, and scope of Comic Con. […]
Click Here to read all of our coverage from 2017 San Diego Comic-Con One of my earliest memories is Ghostbusters. To this day, I can’t tell you when I first encountered the film or the cartoon (The Real Ghostbusters, none of that Gorilla with a net nonsense from Ghostbusters), but pretty well since I can […]
It’s Comic-Con Time Again! Managing Editor Kelly Bedard and Staff Writer Tom McGee are on the scene to bring you tons of coverage from the con floor, the panels, the press rooms, the screenings, the parties and more. Check back here for all our articles, videos and podcasts throughout the con. And make sure to […]
Despite falling to the Washington Capitals in six games, the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans aren’t feeling the sting of elimination. A sensational season driven by a core of rookies that exploded onto the NHL stage has ignited the feeling that this franchise might soon have what it takes to be a perennial contender […]
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Zelda: Breath of the Wild but its portrayal of women is really brutal. With few exceptions, women in Hyrule are presented as meek, giddy, fashion-obsessed idiots who can’t get over how attractive Link is. I’ve encountered three different characters, across three different species, that need time to psych themselves up before […]
I was introduced to playing Dungeons & Dragons in the early 90s – specifically the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As fate would have it, I wouldn’t participate in an ongoing roleplaying game campaign with any sort of frequency for another twenty years. That didn’t stop me, however, from giving non-board-based tabletop games […]
This is not a review. The Company Theatre’s production of John– a dense, complex, hilarious personal epic by celebrated playwright Annie Baker- is extraordinary on a hundred different levels and every single person who has seen it (or certainly written about it) has said pretty much the same thing. I’m usually skeptical of consensus but […]
*spoiler alerts for those of you who haven’t seen the musical, but I haven’t even seen the movie* To start, I understand that Legally Blonde is a comedy. Much of this article reads like someone deliberately missing the joke to discuss a hot-button issue. But remember: any production, before it reaches opening night, goes through […]
There’s a lot to love about this series. The way it deals with society’s criminalization of clothing, of black culture and black people. The heavy stylizing of Harlem and the characters who inhabit it, going past caricature and into something deeper, into what it means to be black. But I think my favorite part of […]
Trayvon Martin’s death marks one of the most significant moments in the history of the hooded sweatshirt (henceforth referred to as a hoodie). The hoodie has been made to seem synonymous with Black American culture, but it’s also lent its stylings to thug culture, criminal culture, “badassery” culture and anonymizing culture. As an item of […]
Click Here to read previous instalments of Skinner Box Storytelling. Everything I’m playing right now is an MMO in some form or another. From the one great success of the genre, World of Warcraft, to the only shooter hybrid to really work, Destiny, and the licensed mega properties of Star Trek and Star Wars. Star […]