Sci-fi for the postmodern set
Go ahead. Tell me I’m a nerd. Break my glasses and take my milk money. But I maintain that the Sci-Fi Channel remake of Battlestar Galactica is among the best shows on TV right now. You should be justifiably skeptical of TV shows set on spaceships: they’re usually embarrassingly bad (The original Battlestar Galactica series, which ran just 22 episodes in 1978, was one such idiotically campy mess).
For those unfamiliar with the concept, the series begins as the human race is nearly wiped out by the malevolent Cylons, a race of machines that have turned on their human creators. A few thousand survivors flee in search of a mythical planet called Earth. Pretty geeky, at face value. But the sci-fi gimmickry never obscures the fact that, narratively and aesthetically, this is one of the most aggressively contemporaneous shows on TV right now. It is by turns a savage satire of the post-9/11 War on Terror, an earnest meditation on faith and the clash of religions, and a harrowing portrayal of a society unraveling amidst paranoia and fear.
Already it has deftly explored issues like the treatment of “enemy combatants,” rape as an instrument of torture, responses to genocide, religious fundamentalism, capital punishment, and the erosion of civil liberties. The whip-crack pace and handheld verité-style camerawork reinforce the concise inventiveness of the writing, which says more about 21st-century American society in an hour than CNN manages in a week. Season 2, which was a compact ten episodes last fall, is out on DVD now.
-GRAHAM F. SCOTT, Editor-in-Chief
A wizard of the stage bows out
In a year filled with exciting young talent in concert and onscreen, it so happened that the most significant event I witnessed was the final bit of magic from of one of Canada’s all-time stage greats, William Hutt.
Having previously seen Hutt (a Companion of the Order of Canada and the unofficial dean of Shakespearean theatre in this country) in a memorable turn as Vladimir in Soulpepper’s production of Waiting for Godot, I was quite excited to see him breathe life into his last Stratford role as the wizard Prospero in The Tempest.
Hutt’s Prospero had an authority that one would expect from a man still able to command the stage well into his 80s, but it was the actor’s quick wit and spot-on comic timing that left me marvelling. He took his leave with a wink and a smile, letting the audience see for the last time the genuine touch he brought to such diverse characters as King Lear and Lady Bracknell.
As we in the audience clapped to free Prospero from his art, we were really showing our appreciation for a man who truly knew what he was doing up there, and was thankfully able to share his craft with us for over 50 years. William Hutt spun another night of theatrical magic out of the Bard’s words, and experiences like that are too special not to celebrate.
-J.P. ANTONACCI, Comment Co-Editor
Hillside alive with the sound of music
It all began some 23 years ago, when a few motivated Guelphites started a day-long community folk jam featuring some local talent. Today, it’s a three-day, five-stage extravaganza that each summer draws some of the biggest names in Canadian music to a small island on Guelph Lake. But while the affair has become markedly more mainstream in recent years, the Hillside Festival has managed to stay true to its community-minded philosophy-it’s still a unique place where both musicians and fans feel at home equally. Hillside is truly an intimate event. On my way from the hand-drumming workshop to the spoken-word clinic, feta-burger in hand, I rubbed elbows with Andrew Whiteman of Apostle of Hustle, whom I had just seen on stage. And it was fitting when the Arcade Fire’s Win, Regine, and Co. unplugged their instruments and meandered single-file through the audience playing “Wake Up” to close their set, the audience singing along joyfully to the wordless chorus.
-MALCOLM JOHNSTON, Copy Editor
Just as the mainstream has caught up with indie music, it was only inevitable that local concertgoers would catch up to Hillside. And it’s about time. Though the sold-out crowds (all three days of the festival sold out well in advance for the first time in Hillside history) brought with them the kind of annoyances (long line-ups, litter, testy underage indie kids) Hillside had managed to avoid to date, the newbies were nonetheless thoroughly charmed by Guelph’s little secret, and will likely return for years to come. As a Hillside veteran, I’d been raving to friends about the festival for years, and finally managed to convince a whole lot of them to tag along this year, thanks to the killer lineup (of course, pointing out to them repeatedly on the ride up to Guelph that a certain buzz band from Montreal had played Hillside last year, long before most had ever heard of them). Saturday night, sitting on the grass under a clear sky full of stars, surrounded by pals beaming ear-to-ear while taking in the one-two punch of Stars and the Arcade Fire back-to-back as they bashed out their epic anthems of hope and beauty, one couldn’t help but wish that Hillside didn’t come but once a year.
-TABASSUM SIDDIQUI, Arts Editor
These were a few of his favourite things
GOYA. Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City. (Nov. 22, ’05- Mar. 3, ’06). 30 oil paintings plus all four series of Goya prints. What happens when the monsters that inhabit humanity take over our sense of reason? Few people have answered this question in such a sublime way as artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. After seeing his works, especially his disturbing and masterfully done series of prints, I couldn’t help but feel both ashamed and yet proud of being human.
Body Worlds 2. Ontario Science Centre. (Sept. 30, ’05 – Feb. 26, ’06. Disturbingly human.
Picasso and Ceramics. University of Toronto Art Centre (Sept. 29. ’04-Jan. 23, ’05.
Nobody Knows (film; directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu). Shockingly real.
MTV Europe Awards 2005. Amazing visual design and a very surreal and controversial host in Sacha Baron Cohen.
Hustle and Flow (film; directed by Craig Brewer).
March of the Penguins (documentary; directed by Luc Jacquet). Aesthetically beautiful.
The Concert for Bangladesh, George Harrison and friends (DVD).
-ROGELIO BRISEÑO, Production Manager
Whale of a tale
Director Noah Baumbach mined his own adolescent life to create an often painfully realistic portrait of his parents’ divorce in his film The Squid and the Whale, creating a new idiom of awkward humour in the process. Replete with the uncomfortable comic pauses that mark Wes Anderson’s films, but without their cosmic bizarreness (Baumbach co-wrote Anderson’s The Life Aquatic), The Squid and the Whale is funny, sad, and full of the regret you develop about your childhood after you grow up.
The cast all shine in their superbly dysfunctional roles, but Jeff Daniels is the biggest surprise, nailing his part as a pompous, insecure author-turned-high school teacher whose wife (Laura Linney) leaves him at the same time that her own writing is starting to get noticed. Their two sons accurately mimic their parents’ vanities, especially the eldest (Jesse Eisenberg), whose view of the world is coloured by his dad’s division between “artists” and “philistines.”
You get the feeling Baumbach became an expert on his own life for this film-he lovingly recreated Brooklyn in the early 80s, and every insensitive comment seems faithfully ripped whole from the past. He’s developed a strong, personal style in his fourth feature, which should deservedly move him out of pal Anderson’s considerable shadow.
-SARAH BARMAK, News Editor
A dirty joke worth telling
Sure, everyone thinks they too could be a standup comedian after watching the feeble intros to the Letterman show. But the one-joke movie The Aristocrats opened audiences’ eyes to the complexity, absurdity, and hierarchy of the standup underworld.
Aside from making all our dreams come true in finally hearing Bob “Full House” Saget indulge in fodder filthy enough to make those ‘penis enlargement’ spams seem like Dr. Seuss, the film also provided a unique glimpse into the legacy of a joke that’s intended for not for audiences, but to demonstrate one’s prowess to fellow comedians. It was raunchy, it was ridiculous, and it prompted five separate audience members to leave during the screening I was at. Plus, watching Phyllis Diller pass out due to shock from the joke’s premise is not to be missed.
-BRIANNA GOLDBERG, Comment Co-Editor
Not your average karaoke night
Seeing Machine Head in May at the Opera House was memorable because it wasn’t just your average kick-ass metal concert. Not by a long shot…
Devil Driver was the other major band on the bill, and they surprised me in a good way. Ol’ Dezzy and crew were in fine form, screaming their way through a 40-minute set which ended with a spirited cover of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.” They easily proved the theory that most bands sound better live than on disc.
The most exciting-and strangest-part of the evening came when Machine Head took the stage. After a rousing rendition of the seven-minute epic “Imperium,” the band informed the crowd that lead singer Robert Flynn had lost his voice and couldn’t sing much that night. But Machine Head pressed on-instead of cancelling the show, they got members of the audience to sing (and/or growl) while the band handled the instrumentals.
The night turned into one big Machine Head karaoke session and got the already-hyped crowd even more excited. It would have been nice to hear Flynn singing all night, but it’s cool to be able to say I’m one of few that got to experience ‘karaoke’ with the real band supplying the music.
-MATT SOMERS, Sports Editor
Dispatches from the techno underground
Aside from the usual indie fare, Australian drum+bass producers Pendulum earned plaudits from many. The trio released their first album (Hold your Colour) this past year to much critical acclaim. Some argue that Pendulum’s appeal stems from the fact that they seamlessly mix jungle’s many diverse sounds together. Though I tuned out on the genre in 2002, I was still pleasantly surprised by Pendulum’s formula-defying tracks and range of styles.
Another notable cultural development in 2005 was the coming of age of Facebook. Founded by three Harvard students in February 2004, the online social network now boasts more than six million users across the English-speaking world. Much more polished than competitors like MySpace.com, Facebook seems to have won its users’ trust. Many of them have no qualms posting private information, such as their cellphone numbers, in their profiles. Another anecdote is telling: at a booze-up this past weekend, a mysterious group of frosh made an appearance. It turned out they had heard about the event from a posting on Facebook.
-MIKE GHENU, Science Editor
