The Walrus Magazine

May Letters by The Walrus Readers

2008-03-18T10:18+00:00

Justify the Means I realize that the intent of The Walrus is to provide an alternative point of view to so-called mainstream media. In doing so, it has made itself welcome in our admittedly...

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Tonto Takes Charge by Kent Monkman

2008-03-18T11:09+00:00

Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: a portrait.

“In the Romantic period, we were painted out of the narratives, and in Modernism it was further ensured that aboriginal narratives wouldn’t enter the canon, by deconstructing...

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Kim Jong Il: The Script Notes by John Reardon

2008-03-18T11:40+00:00

Kim Jong Il: Lover, dictator, bon vivant... movie star?

“[Kim Jong Il’s] infatuation with film is obvious from the museum’s first room, where an entire wall is covered with a massive list of every occasion when Mr. Kim gave an order to...

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Fight Nicknames by Jeremy Keehn and Jan Dutkiewicz

2008-03-31T11:39+00:00

Prospective nicknames for future fighters.

Kid Presentable Gentleman Jill The Nine-Finger Ninja The Three-Beer Drunk The Punch-Drunk Lover The Drunk Punch-Lover The Drink Punch Lover Chalky Bones Death by...

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May 2008 Solutions by Fraser Simpson & Craig Kasper

2008-03-18T12:07+00:00

...

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The Saddest Music, Part 2 by The Walrus

2008-04-17T73:03+00:00

Joni Mitchell, The Communards, Patsy Cline, Billie Holliday, Kermit the Frog

6. Joni Mitchell, “River”...

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Je vous attends by Lynn Xu

2008-03-27T13:28+00:00

For Louise Bourgeois At first I made figures without any freedom at all. Then tiny windows started to appear. In a relation between two figures what, when one succeeds? Gradually...

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The Saddest Music, Part 6 by The Walrus

2008-04-17T84:21+00:00

BJ Thomas, Gravediggaz, The Smiths, Miserable vs. Sad

28. BJ Thomas, theme song from Growing Pains...

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The Saddest Music, Part 4 by The Walrus

2008-04-17T83:40+00:00

17. Mahalia Jackson, “Trouble of the World”...

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The Saddest Music, Part 5 by The Walrus

2008-04-17T83:41+00:00

Judy Garland, Notorious BIG, Strawberry Switchblade, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins

22. Judy Garland, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”...

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The Saddest Music, Part 3 by The Walrus

2008-04-17T73:94+00:00

The Boss, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Sinead O’Connor, Buffalo Tom

11. Dolly Parton, “Down From Dover”...

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Primary Colours by Ken Alexander

2008-03-18T10:43+00:00

The US primaries’ moronic inferno: Why can’t Canada have this much fun?

In terms of creative output and sheer entertainment, nothing in recent memory quite rivals the US primaries. News of “Ballot Bowl ‘08” spills endlessly from cnn and its Situation...

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Minor Keys by Moira Farr

2008-03-18T11:49+00:00

What makes sad music sad?

...

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The Spy Who Blogged Me by Hal Niedzviecki

2008-03-18T11:36+00:00

How we learned to stop worrying and love surveillance

Read more of Hal Niedzvicki’s thoughts about surveillance and society at his blog, peephal.com/blogRead Walrus blogger...

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Grounds To Pound by Jan Dutkiewicz and Jeremy Keehn

2008-03-18T11:06+00:00

Mixed martial arts fights for legitimacy

Visit walrusmagazine.com/more to see video of Mixed Martial arts fighter Nick Denis. And read The Walrus bloggers on MMA...

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Femmes Fatales by Marianne Ackerman

2008-03-18T11:44+00:00

For a new generation of Quebec writers, sex is about everything but pleasure

Montreal is one of the North American capitals of prostitution and Internet pornography. Once confined to flophouses around St. Catherine and the Main, brothels today are more likely to be apartments...

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Techno Tuesday by Andy Rementer

2008-03-18T12:24+00:00

Does the Internet make you want to kill yourself? Cartoons can help

...

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Politics as Unusual: Sanity Found by Barry Campbell

2008-03-24T13:39+00:00

The rapture and regret of leaving Ottawa

Previously: Read part two of Barry Campbell’s political memoirs here. * * * 1997. “So, what’s it...

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It’s Hard to be a Saint in Sao Paulo by Carlos Cazalis

2008-03-27T13:55+00:00

Stories and scenes from Brazil’s largest city

Founded by Jesuits in 1554 on a vast, fertile plateau near the Atlantic coast, São Paulo has historically drawn large numbers of opportunity seekers. In the nineteenth century, Italians, Spaniards,...

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The Saddest Music In the World by The Walrus

2008-04-01T14:09+00:00

From The Kinks to Kermit the Frog, we chose our 30 favourite sad songs. What are yours?

With reference to “Minor Keys,” Moira Farr’s May 2008 article on music and depression, The Walrus asked several writers and music critics for...

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Ten Essential Korean Oddities by Joel McConvey

2008-04-11T95:83+00:00

Our blogger in South Korea on deer antler liquor and the national obsession with poop

...

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Photo Exclusive: Burtysnky at the Theatre by Edward Burtynsky

2008-04-29T14:56+00:00

Edward Burtynsky photographs the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto

Robert Brockhouse’s new book, The Royal Alexandra Theatre: A Celebration of 100 Years, is as much a history of a famous building as it is an account of a century of Toronto’s cultural...

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Coca Si, Cocaina No by Ruxandra Guidi & Bear Guerra

2008-05-05T13:29+00:00

Plants, politics, and cocaine in Bolivia. An exclusive audio slideshow

...

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Hag by Ali Riley

2008-04-09T12:09+00:00

An expanded version of Ali Riley’s award-winning story, excerpted in the May 2008 issue

Purple City My first wedding was on the grade five playground. Lance was being dragged toward me. I knew we’d be friends. He had on an orange shirt, a purple tie, and Beatle boots. A Fuddle...

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In The Tank by George Fetherling

2008-03-18T11:43+00:00

How think tanks are muddling our democracy

Opinion is divided about the importance of Canadian think tanks, those private sector “institutes,” most of them funded by large corporations, that seek to influence governments in...

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Food, Sex, and Salmonella by Nora Underwood

2008-03-18T11:24+00:00

David Waltner-Toews gets down and dirty

Food, Sex, and Salmonella by David Waltner-Toews Greystone Books (2008), 248 pp. When you’ve been out for dinner at a fabulous restaurant and hours later you find yourself sweating, shaking,...

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Girls Fall Down by Danielle Groen

2008-03-18T11:16+00:00

Review of Maggie Helwig’s new novel

Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig Coach House Books (2008), 272 pp On a crowded Toronto subway car, two girls slide to the floor. They’ve smelled something strange — it may have been...

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The Other Side of the Coin by Jan Dutkiewicz

2008-03-18T11:21+00:00

David Orrell challenges neoclassical economics

The Other Side of the Coin by David Orrell Key Porter (2008), 344 pp. Even as it was gaining adherents in nineteenth-century England, neoclassical economics was dubbed a “dismal...

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Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Ken Alexander

2008-03-18T12:02+00:00

Julian Barnes memoir is quite an attention grabber

Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes Random House Canada (2008), 250 pp. It is early yet, but Julian Barnes’s Nothing to Be Frightened Of might just be the best book I’ve read...

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Free Delivery by Jon Evans

2008-03-18T12:36+00:00

Birth in the Americas’ poorest country

port-au-prince—There are babies everywhere, babies like tribbles, babies galore. Nine exhausted mothers and their wrinkled newborns lie sprawled across the eight cots of the recovery room. In...

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All In The Famiglia by Bruce Livesey

2008-03-18T12:37+00:00

Cracking omertà in Calabria

san luca—Rocco Romeo carries his silver-plated pistol in a leather holster, stowed in a glove compartment within arm’s reach of the driver’s seat. It’s a wise precaution,...

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When Guns Are Silenced by Shyam Selvadurai

2008-03-18T12:55+00:00

A mourning mother’s peace mission

kandy—The drive to Aniwatte, a suburb of Sri Lanka’s hill capital, takes me by way of a tunnel blasted through a rock. I leave behind the noise and chaos of downtown and emerge among...

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A Proper Schooling by Larry Krotz

2008-03-18T12:52+00:00

Canada’s shame through a foreign lens

portage la prairie—“They’re comfortable in front of the camera,” says Wanda Daniels. In short order, the administrator of the embryonic Indian Residential School Museum of...

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Merchant Scientists by Ann Silversides

2008-03-27T10:54+00:00

How commercialization is changing research in Canada

Jean Gariépy stands just to the right of the screen and points to different-coloured globs that look like bunches of grapes or pieces of coral. He is wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans, and with his...

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War Child: Q&A by Daniel Aldana Cohen

2008-04-11T92:14+00:00

An interview with Samantha Nutt, founder of War Child Canada

...

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Latrine Graffiti, Kuwait and Afghanistan by Steve Featherstone

2008-04-11T95:25+00:00

American soldiers’ restroom graffiti in Afghanistan and Kuwait

...

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Failure to Fail by Jay Teitel

2008-04-11T11:10+00:00

Why are students no longer flunking university? Is it their brains, or their wallets?

...

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The Earthship Has Landed by Chris Turner

2008-03-27T12:01+00:00

Michael Reynolds’ quest for sustainable structures

For a fleeting moment in November 1989, the staid campus of Ohio State University was the centre of the architectural universe. The occasion was the gala unveiling of the school’s Wexner Center...

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Fight Video by Jeremy Keehn and Jan Dutkiewicz

2008-04-02T85:23+00:00

Video of Mixed Martial Arts fighter Nick Denis: three rounds in the ring.

Also: Read Jeremy Keehn and Jan Dutkiewicz’s feature on Canadian Mixed Martial Arts. * * * “The Ninja of Love,” Nick Denis, of Ottawa, versus...

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