It’s been a rough start to 2020, and everyone knows it. It’s easy to feel hopeless right now, you know, with that nasty germ that’s going around and everything. But there are things to look forward to. There is some fantastic music on the menu for this year. Here’s a short list of the releases that I’m most excited about. Some are confirmed (although no dates yet) and some are speculative, but all are a reason to get excited. Spillage Village It’s been confirmed, Spill Vill’s 4th album is coming in 2020. Spillage Village is a music collective made up

When in doubt, pedal it out! Biking season is just around the corner. Spring has sprung and what better way to enjoy it than to get outside on a bicycle. Toronto has an impressive bike scene with several diverse trails spread all around the city. Throughout the downtown core there are a number of great roads with wide, safe bike lanes for your daily commute.  Biking is a great way to add some more activity into your lifestyle. Who needs to go to the gym when you can bike to where you need to go! Not to mention that it

Do you like Hot Priest from Fleabag or Jude Law in The Young Pope? Well, this film isn’t exactly that, but it is about a priest. Kind of.  Corpus Christi, while the title of the film is a city in Texas, is a Polish film. The film was Poland’s entry for the 92nd Academy Awards, which did end up being nominated for Best International Film Feature. Directed by Jan Komasa, the film follows the story of a young man named Daniel, played by Bartosz Bielenia, in a juvenile detention centre. After spending time in the detention centre, he experiences a

During the stressful time of worrying about major assignments and finals, it can be really easy to fall off track with your diet.  Normally, we seek comfort in food and tend to eat more than usual and more junk than usual – there’s no shame in this, it’s only human nature!  But given the circumstances that we are currently in, it’s even more tempting to reach for our favourite sugary snacks. Since most of us aren’t being very active (we don’t have much of a choice), these actions can really take a toll on our bodies. Since we have more

(Image credit: Konami) As you’ll recall from my last article, horror fans all across Twitter have been channeling their Sherlock Holmes’ deduction skills to decipher the cryptic clues Hideo Kojima has been leaving about a potential reboot of the infamous Silent Hills series. While Kojima Productions has yet to make any official announcements regarding these claims, a reputable gaming publication has leaked information stating that a revival is in the works by Sony.  Rely On Horror is a horror gaming coverage site, dedicated to covering the best major and indie horror games of our time. On March 12th, they published

Here are the steps to create your own filters on Instagram Step 1: Download Spark AR Studio Spark AR Studio is a free software that anyone can download onto their laptops, and then simply log in with your Facebook account to start creating filters. A great thing about Spark AR is that it has a partnership with both Facebook and Instagram, so you can decide which social media platform you want to launch your filters on. Step 2: Brainstorm Filter Ideas Spark AR is a simple software that simplifies most of the steps of creating a camera filter, but what

This isn’t the usual article you get to read from me. Typically, I would be going out to concerts, interviewing local bands, reviewing new albums, but right now is not the time. Like many others, I’ve been staying in the comfort of my home, social distancing and not leaving the house unless it’s to go to the grocery store or for a solo walk by the waterfront. It’s an unprecedented time that we’re living in.  Though the dread that is the COVID-19 pandemic is constantly hanging over our heads, the Canadian music community has never rallied stronger to bring some

Five years ago, Kendrick Lamar released what would eventually become the most impactful creative work that I have ever experienced – To Pimp a Butterfly. To Pimp a Butterfly is an empowering project about race, fame, social economics, and as I have gone on to truly understand and empathize with most recently, reflection of self. The album’s sound is a combination of hip-hop, old school west-coast funk, and jazz, which was a departure from his modern-sounding previous work. I have casually listened to this album countless times since its release, but before yesterday, I hadn’t given it a really thoughtful,

I’ve been following Andy Shauf for quite some time now and I’m always fascinated and surprised by how much I’m sucked into the worlds he creates. Starting with his previous albums The Party and The Bearer of Bad News, I was captured not only by his music, but by the characters he makes that inhabit some very real places and perspectives. A Canadian coming from small-town Saskatchewan and now living in Toronto, Andy always writes his songs from the places he has lived and people he has known. And with his new album, The Neon Skyline, things are no different.

The day before Valentines Day, Netflix released the first few episodes of new reality show Love Is Blind, showing they are in fact moving into the reality streaming space. February 13th was also the day that a large part of the population lost their collective minds.  If you haven’t seen it, the premise of Love Is Blind is insane: 13 men and women spend 16-hour days in isolated pods talking to each other on the other side of a wall, one of which they will eventually choose to marry. The idea is an emotional connection will be formed, which is

“There’s a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost… the ship has sailed and only a fool would continue. Truth is… I’ve always been a fool.” -Edward Bloom, Big Fish (2003) Big Fish is one of my favourite movies. The dynamics of the father-son duo at the heart of the film remind me of my own relationship with my father. It’s a story about stories, which are the things that bring me the most joy in this world – reading them, watching them, listening to them and

Looking for affordable lunch spots close to campus? Here are some inexpensive restaurants near Ryerson that you should visit if you haven’t already. They’re listed in order of closest to furthest from campus. Pizza Shab Pizza Shab’s downtown location opens at 11:30AM, is right on campus (113 Bond Street) and they serve what they call rollings pizza. Essentially its giant pizza pocket, with pizza dough enclosing cheese, veggies, and meat, then covered in sauce. It’s $14 for one of these, which is cut into five slices, more than enough to share between two people. The rollings pizza was so good,

The popular breakfast chain Eggspectation has opened their newest location on Carlton Street, just across from the Mattamy Athletic Centre. It’s a pretty big space with a casual open plan layout, combining an eclectic mishmash of design styles ranging from modern industrial elements to mid twentieth century touches, and it doesn’t have the light and airy feeling you’d expect from a breakfast restaurant of this size. Walking past it, it’s hard to tell that it’s even open, since there’s rarely more than a few patrons there at a time. So, is it worth a visit?  The price tags on its

Hot on the heels of Death Stranding, Kojima Productions tweeted on February 28th what seems to be a teaser for their next game. Despite the lack of official news, fans across Twitter were in a frenzy speculating that the project could be Silent Hills. Pictured above is Aki Saito, the head of communications of Kojima Productions, writing on a post-it note. While seemingly a simple photo, the super sleuths of social media have pointed out a bunch of clues that may be nods to Silent Hill. (Pepe Silvia meme. Know Your Meme, Literally Media, 2018, knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia.) Perhaps the most obvious

As many of you know, I like finding new bands, bugging them for an interview and then writing about them for this blog. But if you thought I would run out of groups to write about at this point, you’re wrong. I have another one: Burger Vacuum. Burger Vacuum is a (now) trio consisting of Ryerson students Joseph on drums and vocals and Rob on guitar, synth, and vocals, and Jefferey LeFort on bass. This past December, I had a chance to sit down with what was then the duo that made Burger Vacuum, Joseph and Rob. The two met