Black Swan
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller, is as captivating as it is unsettling; equal parts compelling viewing and terrifying discomfort. Unfolding within the physically and mentally demanding world of professional ballet, it carries echoes of the director’s previous effort – 2008’s excellent The Wrestler – with its gritty portrayal of the pressures endured by professional athletes, and the emotional cost of dedicating one’s life to an art.
What's Your LeVeL?
Why Levels? This was my first question to General Manager Darius Carmino...His vision? An ultra-trendy bar and lounge with a difference; funnily enough that difference has come to define Levels and it is frequently referred to as “the new sushi place”. Yup! Sushi – neither hot wings nor onion rings can be found in this bar, just beautifully crafted, intoxicatingly delicious sushi.
Thank Yeezy!
People are falling all over themselves for this album. Rolling Stone gave it a 5/5 - they last bestowed that honour on a new release in 2006. Pitchfork, that bastion of online music journalism, gave it a 10/10 - something it hadn’t done for a new album since 2002. Guys, I’ve got some bad news and some good news. Bad news: I’m not gonna be disagreeing with them. The good news: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the best album of 2010.
Out on Main Street
“Out on Main Street”, the first short fiction publication of Indo-Trinidadian-Canadian writer Shani Mootoo, is a collection of nine stories with origins that are both Caribbean and Canadian, diasporic and contintental, here and there. Work like this represents nothing so much as it does a bridge, symbolizing, representing and contextualizing histories and customs only guessed-at or generalized. Mootoo’s epigraph (unattributed, presumably her own quotation) to the collection admonishes gently against the broad sweep of nostalgic generalization:
