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1. Arson hits McMaster rez

   559 students in temporary housing

   10/23/08 by Emily Kellogg

   Most of the 559 residents of Brandon Hall at McMaster University in Hamilton awoke to a blaring fire alarm at approximately 4 a.m., Saturday Oct. 18, and stumbled into the cold autumn air in their pajamas. The few who didn’t woke up smelling smoke. “We heard the alarm, and thought that it was just some kind of prank, or a...

2. Crowdsourcing university

   10/27/08 by Emily Kellogg

   Even though Wikipedia will tell you anything you want to know, academics want to formalize online learning through the new Internet-only Peer 2 Peer University. The concept is simple enough—create an educational social networking site, in which members have access to teachers through Facebook-like profile pages. U of T’s Leslie Chan and Stian Haklev are among the team of nine...

3. Professor slain after death threats

   Colleagues want inquiry into RCMP conduct

   11/6/08 by Emily Kellogg

   The St. Thomas University campus in Fredericton, New Brunswick, was shut down today in memoriam of the late sociology Professor John McKendy who was murdered last Friday. McKendy died after he was struck with a blunt object. After a brief investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police closed the case after finding the prime suspect, Nicholas Wade Baker, dead in a...

4. Are profs overstaying their welcome?

   Retirement question hounded by pension worries and complaints of academic stagnation

   1/26/09 by Emily Kellogg

   Although the university has publicly attempted to assauge concerned professors, George Luste, the president of the University of Toronto Faculty Association has expressed his concerns over what he calls the “inconvenient truths” of the school’s pension plan, in his Information Report. “Thinking about your pension plans probably ranks right up there with thinking about your next visit to the dentist...

5. Freshly Pressed

   2/2/09 by

   Franz Ferdinand - Tonight (Domino) It’s been four years since their last studio release, and Franz Ferdinand have returned in fine form—the Scottish quartet’s latest effort, Tonight, is brimming with disco-inflected rhythms and infectious melodies. While the tracklist presents a marked change from their earlier albums, it’s reassuring to hear the Glaswegian boys doing what they do best at the...

6. French club prez to UTSU: J’accuse!

   Mongeau finds himself ousted from Clubs Committee half way through school year

   2/5/09 by Emily Kellogg

   On Jan. 29, Antonin Mongeau attended his last meeting of U of T Students’ Union’s Clubs Committee, the group responsible for the allocation of long- and short-term funds for over 100 student clubs on campus. At the meeting, Mongeau was ousted in a secret-ballot process. He was replaced by Natalie Orelana of the Current Affairs Exchange Forum, who was not...

7. Long and winding road

   For local indie rockers Sadie May Crash, Wavelength is the latest step on the path to success

   2/5/09 by Emily Kellogg

   “Everybody in the band is an avid dreamer,” says Alex Pulec, guitarist and songwriter of Sadie May Crash, whose kaleidoscopic sound is a mixture of theatrical pop and 60s rock ‘n’ roll. “We’re obsessed with things that are surreal…we get excited by things that are out of touch with reality—it’s what we do.” The members of Sadie May Crash played...

8. Money on my mind: G8

   2/12/09 by Emily Kellogg

   The G8 will likely focus less attention on Africa in the wake of the global financial crisis, announced the G8 live Research Group. On Feb. 11 the group presented its 2009 findings at the Munk Centre. The student-run analyst group is U of T student’s division of the G8 Research Group, which keeps tabs on how well G8 countries measure...

9. Feeling the music

   Fox Jaws headline Ryerson’s Concert for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

   3/5/09 by Emily Kellogg

   “It’s definitely a show that we’re going to remember,” says Fox Jaws guitarist and singer Daniel Allen. The band is set to showcase their diverse and intricate tunes tonight at Clinton’s Tavern, at a concert accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired. The concert, presented by Ryerson University’s Center of Learning Technology and the Science of Music Auditory Research and...

10. Freshly Pressed

    The Local and Unsigned Edition

    4/6/09 by

    Jeffrey Pinto - So It Is A Competition Jeffrey Pinto’s self-released EP, So It Is A Competition, is an auditory tease. A self-described multi-instrumentalist and frontman for Toronto-based My Shaky Jane, Pinto’s solo work experiments with arrangements, instruments, and styles creating a disjointed and nerve-wracking succession of songs. Though the ideas and the concepts are there, the execution is not....

11. Opera singers dominate Skule Idol

    10/15/09 by Emily Kellogg

    Though it was a grey and listless day, tension ran high at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Conservatory Theatre, where 35 contestants arrived throughout the afternoon last Friday to battle for the title of Skule Idol and the chance to sing a duet with Isabel Bayrakdarian, opera star and U of T alumn. The competition was open to engineering students,...

12. Haunted hardcore

    Fucked Up drummer Jonah Falco promises ‘war zone hat, slam skank, omega excessive enforcers, burning spirits, and a happy Halloween’ this weekend at Sneaky Dee’s

    10/29/09 by Emily Kellogg

    “Our first Halloween gig was at Wavelength six years ago,” explains Jonah Falco, the drummer for the bloody, hardcore, emotionally-charged, and Polaris Prize–winning band Fucked Up. “We didn’t think that we’d go over very well and just decided to be as ridiculous as possible. So we spent some time on my parents’ porch, carving pumpkins to put on our heads—we...

13. Strokes of imagination: Mark Kingwell

    U of T prof moonlighting as Glenn Gould biographer finds common ground between philosophy and music

    10/29/09 by Emily Kellogg

    Louis Armstrong’s crooning voice quietly drifts from behind philosopher, author, and professor Mark Kingwell’s paper-laden desk, echoing across a meticulously organized and half-empty corner office, like the ghostly strains of a party that’s happening down the street. The hushed quiet of the clean-cut space seems almost incomplete in Kingwell’s absence. A pair of tortoise shell Elwood wayfarers perches atop a...

14. Girls on stage

    Has the psychedelic San Francisco duo become a victim of its own hype?

    11/16/09 by Emily Kellogg

    Christopher Owens, front man for the San Franciscan duo Girls, slouches into a couch at El Mocambo. His eyelids flicker under a mass of long, dirty blonde hair and a plaid hunting cap. For the dynamic members of the group celebrated by Spin magazine as “the hottest band of 2009,” Owens and his bassist counterpart, JR White, look downright peaked....

15. Grecian dream

    Director Jeremy Hutton moves the action of A Midsummer’s Night Dream to turn-of-the-century Athens

    11/19/09 by Emily Kellogg

    “The way I see it, I’m directing Shakespeare for my 70-year-old dad,” laughs Jeremy Hutton, director of Hart House Theatre’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “My dad always falls asleep during movies, he always has, ever since I was a kid. So basically when I’m directing, I stage it as if I’m trying to keep my father awake...

16. Best poets' society

    Prof. Albert Moritz searched far and wide to create his new Canadian poetry anthology

    11/19/09 by Emily Kellogg

    “I don’t like the idea of characterizing my own poetry. I like sitting in the middle of it and thinking of it as being incomprehensibly vast and various.” Professor Albert Moritz speaks slowly, searching with determination for the perfect combination of words in conversation. As the poet, academic, and former journalist speaks about the written word, Moritz’s reverence for craft...

17. Living Arts: Contact Improv Dance

    When was the last time you tried something new? EMILY KELLOGG gave contact improvisation a shot—and was easily outperformed by sextagenarians

    11/26/09 by

    My hipbone digs into the shoulder of my contact improvisation dance partner. My trembling hands are extended towards the polished wooden floor, and as I tentatively extend my legs towards the ceiling I find myself balancing like a teeter-totter in what, to me, feels like an imminent state of freefall. Although realistically, I can’t be more than five feet from...

18. Arts! The Herald Angels Sing

    Make the most of your break by checking out these book fairs, concerts, and gallery shows

    12/3/09 by

    DJ Skating Parties at Nathan Philips Square On Dec. 12, Promise DJs will be spinning a set of the latest club-worthy dance hits for skatetastic bumping and grinding. On the 19th, DJ Misty Rock ’n’ Roll will be taking over with an alt-rock skate set. Both nights promise a healthy, wintry dose of good clean fun (whether or not you...

19. Let them see fakes!

    The ROM’s latest exhibit proves that even curators get it wrong sometimes

    Jan 11 by Emily Kellogg

    The $100 Canadian bills are identical. You look them over. Same brownish color, same blasé face staring from the centre of the bill. The Royal Ontario Museum tells you that one’s a counterfeit, and the other one’s real, so you look a little closer. And closer. And if your eyes are tearing up, and things are getting a little fuzzy,...

20. Choose your own adventure

    What if books were multimedia, able to link between ideas and possibilities? It might have helped EMILY KELLOGG decide whether fiction of the future was really her thing

    Jan 20 by

    We investigate interactive books through an interactive meta-essay