By STEPHANIE CARMODY Art By MAGIC SUN One of my favorite movie quotes is from the cinematic masterpiece Sing Street. Set in the 1990s, a coming-of-age Irish schoolboy runs into a mysterious, older girl who he’s immediately struck by. Their first run-in prompts him to write a song about her titled “The Riddle of the Model.” … Continue reading
Tag Archives: spring 2018 issue
Food for Thought: fish are food, not friends
By SESHA KAMMULA Art By ANNIKA BJERKE When I was younger, the only movie my family owned on DVD was Finding Nemo. I’ve probably accumulated days of time where I was glued to the screen, internalizing three key messages: 1. Just keep swimming 2. P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney 3. Fish are friends, not food … Continue reading
My Life with Body Horror
By NATHAN CHAZAN Art By LEO LEVY I’ve long been taken with body horror as a subgenre of cult filmmaking. I grew up in Toronto, the home of David Cronenberg and brutalist architecture, so a lot of movies and works that might have been obscure and obtuse elsewhere were readily accessible for me. I had the … Continue reading
Mainstream Eating Habits As Self-Imposed Theocracies: Thoughts from an Unorthodox Sinner
By LUBY KIRIAKIDI Art By ANNIKA BJERKE Food. If we’re not talking about the weather, we’re talking about food. To eat is to live. Food is culture. Food is family. Food is love, faith, hope. Food is self. You are what you eat. So how do you identify? Food is a secular religion. The Ancient Greek … Continue reading
Beef Rap: how beef between rap artists undermines their activism
By KRISTEN WALSH Tupac vs. Biggie. Meek Mill vs. Drake. Jay-Z vs. Nas. “Beef” has been a prevalent trend in rap history. The notion of “beef” has been a big commercial pull in hip hop; consumers feed on drama. The media loves to cover petty feuds in the industry, but their tendency to highlight fights … Continue reading
12 and A Die-hard PETA Supporter: my first misguided foray into PETA’s online activism and vegetarianism
By KATHIE JIANG I’m about to describe a strange chapter of my life: when I was 12 years old with Internet access and a strong sense of righteousness, I chose to abruptly adopt a vegetarian diet. I was raised on an omnivorous diet of Chinese cooking from my first-generation immigrant parents and American restaurant food … Continue reading
Tonya Harding: a shining American star
By JESSICA BROFSKY Art By MANON ELISE GROS “There’s no such thing as truth,” says Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya. “Everyone has their own truth.” Twenty-three years after “the whack heard round the world,” when Shane Stant bashed Harding’s rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan with a collapsible baton slightly above her … Continue reading
Not so Black and White: chess and gender politics
By JACK JONES Art By OLIVIA BONO Chess first came to me in the same way that Legos and Playmobil sets did: a group of characters, familiar and reassuring in their clear, hierarchical order. When I played with my parents’ chessboard, I made up stories about the pieces just like I did with those other … Continue reading
The Morals of Meat: reconciling cultural symbolism with environmental awareness
By ERIN LYNCH Art By ANNIKA BJERKE “Where’s the beef?” Meat… You’re right in liking it.” “Indispensable in every household.” “The yardstick of protein foods.” Meat advertisements in the 1950s solidified the role of beef as a staple food constituting an integral part of the American identity. During World War II, the USDA promoted rationing and … Continue reading