Tag Archives: Toronto

Al Purdy Was Here, So Have Another Beer

“I am a sensitive man. Would you believe I write poems?” After seeing his documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival, whenever I drink a beer or talk about poetry I sound like Al Purdy. Continue reading






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Café Mouffe: Astha Tamang-Maskey

Astha writes: “This new song is dedicated to the beautiful children of CWIN Balika Peace Home. I fell in love with these girls when I visited them for the first time in 2012. I am so happy to have finished this song for them this year. These young women have been through unimaginable struggles and seeing their positivity always inspires me to become a better person.”






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Lady Gaga & Maria Aragon Sing “Born This Way”

The first media consumed after pondering McLuhan’s enigmatic koan was this marvelous video clip of Lady Gaga and 10-year-old Maria Aragon performing Born This Way. Maria had recorded a cover of the song in her bedroom in Winnipeg; as of this morning, her cover has had 19,245,026 views on YouTube. She realized every fan’s wildest dream when she was invited to join Lady Gaga onstage at the Air Canada Center in Toronto on Thursday night. Call it fan culture, call it participatory culture, call it one medium absorbing another – the effect is wildly moving, transcending the boundaries of fan and superstar, performer and audience.






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How Stimulating Is Accessible Porn for the Blind?

Like many accessible technologies, it sounds like a clever concept but economies of scale put it beyond the reach of most blind people. A thousand sexy words are cheaper.






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Serbia Swoons For Canadian Actor Who Played Nick Savage. Nick Who?

In 1991 he portrayed the buff detective in a cheesy TV show called “Sweating Bullets” (aka “Tropical Heat”). Today he lives with his parents in Brampton, Ontario. Maybe his star faded in Tinsel Town, but he’s feted like a rock star in Belgrade, where his reruns earned rebellious cultural capital even after Canada helped NATO to bomb Serbia in 1999. Rob Stewart learned about his own legend from a Facebook fan page. So what’s an underemployed actor to do? Fly to Belgrade to heal Canadian-Serbian relations, of course, and make a documentary film about it.






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