Leonard Cohen’s Church of Montreal
Something mythic hangs in the air over Montreal.
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Month: November 2017
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band: Adios Señor Pussycat
Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band Adios Señor Pussycat Violette Records, 2017 Michael Head is another one of Liverpool’s long line of brilliant musicians who went nowhere (seriously, the NME once put him on the cover and called him a genius). And more’s the pity. Back in the early 80s, he fronted The Pale Fountains. Formed in 1980, the Fountains weren’t exactly what you would expect to be coming out of the dying industrial cities of England’s north. It wasn’t punk. The Fountains were influenced by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. Despite landing a record deal, they didn’t...
Read MoreThe True North Strong and Free
Last week, Canadian Governor General Julie Payette gave a speech at what the Canadian Broadcast Corporation calls ‘a science conference‘ in Ottawa. There, she expressed incredulity in creationism and climate change denial, and called for a greater acceptance of scientific fact in Canada. Payette is a former astronaut, holds an MSc in computer engineering, and has worked in the field of Artificial Intelligence. In other words, when she speaks on this matter, we should listen. Her comments ignited a storm of controversy in Canada. Some people are upset at her comments. Some people are upset the Governor General has an opinion on something. With respect to the first, Payette spoke to scientific fact. Full stop. Not opinion. Fact. With respect to the second, Governors General and opinions, I will point out that our former Governor General, David Johnston, also freely expressed his opinions. But, oddly, this did not lead to massive controversy. What is the difference between Payette and Johnston? I’ll let one of my tweeps, author Shireen Jeejeebhoy answer: Personally I cldnt care less. Our prev *male* GG was pointed on some of *his* views.Did anyone give a damn? No. Sexism lives in #cdnpoli MSM https://t.co/2QascyfVAj — Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) November 3, 2017 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js But then I found a particularly interesting tweet. The tweet claimed that for the very reason that Canada has the monarchy, the country cannot...
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An Incomplete History of Protest at the Whitney Museum of American Art
The power of the artist, according to Herbert Marcuse, is to “to name the otherwise unnameable.” An Incomplete History of Protest, currently on exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, is a powerful reminder of that for our dark times. Drawing on its own collections, the Whitney has assembled an extensive survey of American political art from the 1940s to the present that addresses the question of how generations of American artists have confronted issues of injustice and oppression and named the unnameable. The answer seems to be “with rage, hope, grief, commitment and, above...
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Quebec Shows its Colors
(On 18 October 2017, the provincial legislature of Quebec, the National Assembly, passed Bill 62, a law that prohibits “the wearing of face coverings for people giving or receiving a service from the state..” Specifically, the new law allows the provincial government, and providers of government services, from medical care to public transportation, to deny services to veiled Muslim women. The law has been enormously controversial, and has laid bare the contradictions in Quebec’s multiculturalism policies. Greg Horn is the editor of Iorì:wase, the weekly newspaper serving the community of Kahnawake.) The Quebec Government showed the world what its true colours are,...
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