Columns

Music Review – Bat House

Artist: Bat House Album: Bat House Bat House, a Boston based psych/math rock quartet has started off strong with their self-titled debut album. Featuring Emmet Hayes as bassist and vocalist, Ally Juleen and Shane Blank as guitarists and Pompy as drummer. Bat House uses strong synth elements to create deep, and sometimes eerie, soundscapes, while… Read more »

The Creative Spark! – Grow a Shakespearean Beard

Do you dream of writing like Shakespeare on uppers? I’d like to write with a multiple personality disorder: a circle of Edgar Allen Poe, James Patterson, and, by necessity, me. Writing can be like music, I was told, even if someone can clunk out the basic chords, there’s something more to being a virtuoso. And… Read more »

The Fit Student – Cherish Your Scars

Would you delight in a facial scar or a missing eye? Some people do. Consider war veterans whose scars merit valor. These veterans take pride in telling the tales behind the bullets. Yet, we all have wounds, whether they pierce our hearts or our bodies. When I took a graduate teaching assistant training course, a… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Running Away from Home

Sometimes a person just needs to turn his back, avert her eyes, throw caution out the window, and just jump in the car and rip out of the yard with tires squealing. Forget the acres of grain still, God help us, lying in swaths that are now under water. Forget the flowerbed prep that never… Read more »

Dear Barb – Mind the Gap

Dear Barb: I just graduated high school and I’m not sure what I want to do next. My parents are supportive of whatever my choice is. Most of my friends are going to college or university, but I’m not sure which program I want to go into. I don’t want to waste my money on… Read more »

The Creative Spark! – A Chihuahua on Steroids

When you fire up the blender, do you hear screams, baby gurgles, or mere whirls? Whichever, movie makers plan on you hearing subliminal sounds. Horror filmmakers add screams to creaking floors. Romance movie-makers slip-in moans to nightlife scenes. Most filmmakers add telling conversations you can’t quite hear. But, this stuff happens every day?in real life…. Read more »

Music Review – The Sole Pursuit

Artist: The Sole Pursuit Album: Flower City After Dusk Ontario based rock band, The Sole Pursuit, pours their heart and soul into their album Flower City After Dusk. Written by Kyle Dawe, the lead vocalist, it focuses on the experience that he had living in the suburbs of Brampton. Kyle isn’t the only creative force… Read more »

The Fit Student – No-Regret Success

What would you-at-your-best do? Would you flash smiles to lift spirits? Would you build networks of chums who serve as secret Santas at Christmas? Or would you spend your life-savings on Botox and a plastic chest? You don’t need to look like Wonder Woman to flourish. Author Maxwell Maltz says seek out your most genuine… Read more »