Columns

From Where I Sit – That’s Just Not Nice

Roy and I left January 3 for a week in the sun at San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. Our window of opportunity for a warm getaway was closing quickly because of his county responsibilities and a rapidly filling meeting schedule. For me, it was a case of now or never as my contract work on… Read more »

Write Stuff – Off the Charts

?Taste has no system and no proofs,? wrote Susan Sontag. She may have been right in theory, but the reality is that the system for controlling popular taste has been happily chugging along for decades now. Whether It’s major studios green-lighting film scripts or music execs choosing the next big thing, books, movies, and songs… Read more »

The Mindful Bard – Winter’s Bone

DVD: Winter’s Bone (2010) Director: Debra Granik Screenwriters: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey The Sweet Dignity of Human Anguish ?In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, ?Make us your slaves, but feed us.?? Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov The… Read more »

AUSU Update – Convocation 2010; AUSU Executive Election

Convocation 2010 AUSU wishes to congratulate this year’s graduates, whether attending Convocation in person or by distance. We wish you the best of luck in your future pursuits. You are an inspiration to all AU students! AUSU Executive Election AUSU has recently held its internal election for the Executive. We wish to congratulate Barbara Rielly… Read more »

Write Stuff – Whitewash

It’s no surprise that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum contains offensive literary material. On their website, along with the propaganda posters, there are even anti-Semitic schoolbooks and colouring books. These words, preserved in their original form, serve as unflinching reminders of the past, and to sanitize them for modern sensibilities would diminish that impact…. Read more »

From Where I Sit – What a Story!

This column originally appeared September 3, 2010, in issue 1835. Allow me to retell a story told to us this afternoon by a salesman named Allan. A quick and dirty analysis reveals a story arc, tension, interesting characters, humour, climax, and resolution. But how much of a story’s appeal comes from the teller and the… Read more »

Write Stuff – The Deep

This column originally appeared December 17, 2010, in issue 1850. You know that niggling feeling you get when You’re sure that you’ve misplaced something but can’t think what it might be? Or that there’s something really important You’re supposed to remember and It’s just outside your mental grasp, flitting like an elusive moth among the… Read more »