Lit Matters: Going gonzo with Hunter S. Thompson“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me,” Hunter S. Thompson, the father of gonzo journalism, once said. Thompson first gained notoriety as the writer of Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, a book he researched by spending a year […] Continue Reading |
Calculated Thought: Student tax changes afootStudents who are inclined to save will feel the crunch from recent changes to federal student benefits. The education and textbook tax credits save working students up to $558 per year. Analysts argue that this doesn’t help students who may not be able to afford the up-front costs of post-secondary education (you have to wait […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: The World’s End wide awake and wonderfulThe World’s End (2013) 4/5 Edgar Wright has made a name for himself by making razor-sharp, tightly wound comedies that do what most comedies of late don’t do: make us laugh. (And, at the risk of being branded an old fogey, I’ll say that Wright achieves this in a much cleaner, more civilized manner than […] Continue Reading |
Lit Matters: The golden touch of Annabel LyonWhen she received news that her novel The Golden Mean was nominated for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction award, Annabel Lyon was delighted. The award is given for “redundant or egregious sex scenes in a novel that’s otherwise quite good,” and both Lyon’s reaction and her inclusion on what is actually a prestigious […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: Fantastic Mr. Fox fundamental fall filmFantastic Mr. Fox (2009) 4.5/5 Fall is upon us, and while we wait for the tail-end summer movie dregs to drain out of the theatres, we turn to a film that is surely the embodiment of fall, a film that has the warmth of a home and the beauty of the pastel-autumn landscape: Fantastic Mr. […] Continue Reading |
The Bi-weekly Gamer: Climbing out of the bloodbath2016 is a milestone year for professional North American League of Legends teams. With the world championships just around the corner, the 16 teams qualified to attend this prestigious tournament have been locked into their groups’ brackets. All three of the North American teams this year show tremendous skill and improvement compared to previous years, […] Continue Reading |
Lit Matters: Existentialism in the woods with Per Petterson“You decide when it will hurt,” chides a father to his son in Per Petterson’s novel Out Stealing Horses. The novel, set in the Norwegian forest in both the present day and in 1948, is a tender look at human relationships and the forces that determine how we, as individuals, are defined. Petterson has become […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: Kubo and the Two Strings plucks a heartfelt chordKubo and the Two Strings 4/5 I grew up watching movies. Every Friday night my sister and I would settle into the couch as my parents popped a flick into the VCR. It was a time to be truly at ease; there was no school worry, no chores to be done. It was a cathartic […] Continue Reading |
The Bi-weekly Gamer: Is No Man’s Sky a fraud or just unfinished?Recently released PS4 and PC game No Man’s Sky has generated a lot of controversy since it came out. The procedural-generated space explorer said to have a world the size of the actual universe was incredibly hyped and anticipated leading up to its release on August 9. Initially slated to be released in July, buyers […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: The 400 Blows and the beauty it gives backThe 400 Blows 5/5 François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) is not a film for those just getting home from a night of debauchery; if you’re reading this while you sip gingerly on a cup of coffee, I advise that you turn to the hangover’s best friend, Netflix. This isn’t a film for a casual […] Continue Reading |
