Posting on hold for a while

August 2, 2010 — peter

I’ve got a family crisis that’s taking up a lot of my time and mental stamina, as well as a baby that tries to smother himself every time I turn around, so I need to take a break from posting here while I get things sorted out. I’ll keep on with the updates at peterdarbyshire.com and hopefully get back to posting here when life returns to normal.

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CanCult uncut

Extremely Bad Advice: Harassment Resources July 29, 2010

Dear Steve, Like most people in office environments, I am forced to work in close proximity to a person with no concept office decorum. This work neighbour is a passive-aggressive know-it-all who indiscreetly eavesdrops while watching CPAC on his computer with the sound blasting. His personal hygiene is questionable and perhaps worst of all, he hoards suppli […]

Steve Murray

what are 3 million books worth? July 27, 2010

That's a question the framers of Canada's Bill C-32 are going to have to ask themselves after a recent Federal Court of Appeal decision to support a 2009 tariff certified by the Copyright Board of Canada. The tariff was under review at the request of all provincial Ministers of Education (except Quebec's) and a number of individual school boar […]

John

U.S. Developments Demonstrate Canada's C-32 Digital Lock Rules More Restrictive Than DMCA July 26, 2010

Since the introduction of Bill C-32, I have consistently argued that the digital lock provisions are far more restrictive than what is required under the WIPO Internet treaties. Now two recent developments in the U.S. demonstrate that the Canadian proposal is also considerably more restrictive than what is found in the U.S. First, a significant new appellat […]

Michael Geist

Trevor Herriot: Why the Saskatchewan literary community is so strong July 23, 2010

The Love, Saskatchewan festival takes place at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto this weekend. All this week, authors from the prairie province will be guest editing The Afterword. Today, we hear from Trevor Herriot, the award-winning author of River in a Dry Land, which was short-listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award, and Jacob’s Wound, which wa […]

Special to the National Post

Scott Pilgrim July 21, 2010

Hat tip to Torontoist: a wonderfully thorough map, made by U of T geography PhD candidate Ben Spigel, of identifiable Toronto locations in the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels, all cross-referenced to Google Street View. It includes oddball locations like the Ossington railway bridge, and specific houses on Marchmount (near Shaw and Davenport) and [... […]

(author unknown)

Eight Covers for Arcade Fire’s new album revealed July 15, 2010

via Consequence of SoundEight covers will be available for purchase with the release of Arcade Fire's new album 'The Suburbs' The eight album covers for The Suburbs have been unveiled and Arcade Fire is staying true to their suburban theme. Each cover reflects a different point of view from an unnamed suburban neighbourhood with everything fro […]

Liem Vu

NOW magazine hosts North American alt-weekly conference in Toronto July 15, 2010

NOW magazine and the City of Toronto today begin hosting a three-day conference of the Asssociation of Alternative Newsweeklies conference. The association represents 130 alt-news organizations from across North America, with a combined weekly circulation of over 6.6 million and 17 million in print readership. The keynote speaker today is Maher Arar, and a r […]

D. B. Scott

Extremely Bad Advice: Dead End Boyfriend July 15, 2010

Dear Steve, I am 24 years old and live with my boyfriend of four years. I have a good, full-time job and am going to law school every night. My boyfriend also works for the same company, so we get to spend some time together each day. But ever since we began working together last year, I’ve noticed something: He’s a complete slacker. Every morning for months […]

Steve Murray

Quick Hitters:: Kathryn Calder July 14, 2010

As is the case for many music fans, I stumbled onto Kathryn Calder because of her talents as a collaborator. I think the first time I heard her was playing with Carl Newman on his solo tour @ Lee’s Palace, but since then I’ve seen her fill out melodies and hooks for The New Porns & The Immaculate Machine. As talented as she was – and is – never did I t […]

ack

Tour Dates:: Tom Fun Orchestra July 14, 2010

Call it fate, or kismet if you will, but it’s quite a coincidence that the very same week I post an OSM related to Miles Davis, the Tom Fun Orchestra releases a new song entitled Miles Davis. I know, right, how crazy is that? Well, not that crazy at all really. But it does provide a handy little seque into this post, and an opportunity to post Tom Fun’s new […]

naedoo

Andrew Nikiforuk Is Tyee's First Writer in Residence (in News) July 15, 2010

An interview with the expert tar sands journalist who will be writing here about 'Energy and Equity.'

David Beers

The Proust Questionnaire, with Shane Neilson July 12, 2010

Shane Neilson is the author of Complete Physical (The Porcupine's Quill). In his answers to the Proust Questionnaire, he tells us his dream of happiness, his chief characteristic, his principal fault and more. The Proust Questionnaire was not invented by Marcel Proust, but it was a much loved game by the French author and many of his contemporaries. The […]

clelia

Chloe director Atom Egoyan on how film festivals have reshaped independent cinema July 12, 2010

Atom Egoyan is looking at a picture of himself standing next to Sonny Bono, and reminiscing. The flashback is not pharmacology-related. Egoyan is thinking about the bizarre connections and friendships you make on the festival circuit, an increasingly focused group of filmmakers who are finding themselves pushed to the fringes once again.

(author unknown)

And All The Tigers is all that July 5, 2010

Judging by And All The Tigers, The Hoof and The Heel don't yet quite know who they want to be as a band. Over the course of just seven songs, they go from bouncy synth-pop ("Let's Hangout"),to tender ballads ("King Finds Out" and "Fall Apart"), to moody, acoustic rock ("Save Us From"), to...well, something th […]

nospam@example.com (matthew)

Minister James Moore Lied July 5, 2010

I pirated this image I posted a suggestion to Heritage Minister James Moore the other day in response to him calling copyright reformers “radical extremists”. The name calling didn’t shock me at the time because I had heard similar rhetoric from a CEO of a major Canadian publishing house. But what I didn’t realize last week when I floated my suggestions to t […]

DJ Champion has leukemia July 5, 2010

Quebec's DJ darling Maxime Morin has publicly revealed he has leukemia, a form of blood cancer.

(author unknown)

12 or 20 questions: Sarah Selecky July 5, 2010

Sarah Selecky's stories have been published in Geist Magazine, Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, Event and The Journey Prize Anthology. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and has been teaching creative writing workshops in her living room for the past ten years. Her short story collection, This Cake Is for the Pa […]

rob mclennan

Not just idyll chatter; Toronto poet seeks to teach strangers the value of verse July 5, 2010

By Lia Grainger, National Post I think a large proportion of the general public assumes poetry is boring,” Toronto poet Katherine Leyton says. “That, or they’re afraid of it.” She’s sitting in Plaza Flamingo restaurant on College Street, where an hour earlier Spain’s 2-0 World Cup victory over Honduras prompted the herd of red jerseys congregated around TV s […]

Special to the National Post

CRTC Extends Net Neutrality Rules to Wireless Data Services July 5, 2010

It did not attract much attention, but last week the CRTC ruled that it is extending its Internet Traffic Management Practices framework to wireless data services. The ITMP framework address some net neutrality concerns. The CRTC had previously indicated that it expected wireless companies to comply with the framework, but the decision (which is effective […]

Michael Geist

John Metcalf is not the enemy July 3, 2010

By Jeet Heer Imagine an essay on the global economic crisis that described our dire prospects and then zeroed in on villain Fred Witherspoon, a banker in Winnipeg who is a bit too reluctant to hand out loans. Such an article would be laughed at for its inherent implausibility, but as an argument it would be no different than André Alexis’s essay in the curre […]

Special to the National Post