Nov 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead • There’s a school of thought that says authors should never be allowed to adapt their own books for the big screen. They are just too close to the source material to make the necessary cuts and re-mixing to make a book come alive on the big screen. In Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (opening November 2), Salman...

La Dolce Vita article and photo by Alastair Gregor • Grandpa always said, “When you do something, do it right.” In Abbotsford, BC, the ‘garden’ of Canada, there is a potato farmer who is a shining example of an eco-trailblazer. How is it that a person with a vision to make a difference actually dedicates their life to making it happen, walks their talk...

Oct 1, 2012

A new take on a Cockburn classic by Geoff Olson • If kvetching was an Olympic category, I’d be up there on the podium wearing a furrowed brow and bronze medal. I can think of at least two friends who would be next to me with the silver and gold. When a group of us get together for lunch to discuss current events, it’s game on. Not only is the glass...

Sep 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead In Bitter Seeds, Micha X. Peled reveals an appalling statistic: a farmer in India commits suicide every half-hour. The documentary, showing at the Vancouver International Film Festival (September 27-October 12), puts a human face on this ongoing tragedy with its intimate portrait of a poor farming community in India’s...

Aug 1, 2012

The best editorial cartoonists in Canada gather in Québec by Geoff Olson • Dave Rosen knows a thing or two about humour. In 2011, the Montreal-based satirist released The Stephen Harper Colouring & Activity Book. For five years, he wrote and produced a weekly comedy spot for CBC Radio called What Happened? For nine years, he was the regular editorial...

Aug 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead • It’s easy to forget that many Chinese teenagers know nothing about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989; just ask any young Chinese immigrant to Vancouver. Given China’s huge and fast-growing economic and military power, there’s ongoing pressure for it to open up, but as documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry...

Aug 1, 2012

La Dolce Vita article and photo by Alastair Gregor What would it be like if we didn’t have any choice about what to eat? It would be mundane. I think of my old dog ‘Brie’ try as I might to give her the best organic dog kibble, no matter what, she would look at it and push it out of the bowl with her nose in obvious disapproval, and she would lie there with...

Jun 1, 2012

La Dolce Vita by Alastair Gregor Summer time and the living is easy; it’s the time of year when the curious get out and seek new foods, explore what’s in season and experiment with the tastiest, freshest produce of the year. Good Eats is here to bring you La Dolce Vita – The Sweet Life – and we invite you to join us on a culinary...

Jun 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead   From Where Do We Go Now? Left to right: Roukoz (Ali Haidar) and Nassim (Kevin Abboud). Photo by Rudy Bou Chebel ©, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. Two foreign language comedies out this month give Hollywood a run for its money with feel-good crowd-pleasers. First to Paris. The Intouchables is a buddy...

May 1, 2012

Star phenomena? People aren’t looking up at the sky – they’re tracking celebrities • by Geoff Olson • There’s a great jpeg floating around the Internet that shows the star systems within range of Earth’s radio and television broadcasts. Aldebaran, a red giant, located about 65 light years away, is in the range of President...