Recent Articles

Advice
Ask Miss Smartypants - February 8, 2010
Ask Miss Smartypants - February 8, 2010
Art: Nina Charest Dear Miss Smartypants, Do I have to do something with my partner for Valentine's Day? My boyfriend and I have been together for about six months now. I've never liked Valentine's Day, and having a boyfriend doesn't make me any more inclined to do something for it than I was before. He's marginally more romantic than I am, so I'm worried that the day means more to him than it does to me (we're both more the type to be moved by someone remembering your favourite kind o...
By Miss Smartypants, 8 Feb 2010
Art
"Everybody Can Be Creative."
"Everybody Can Be Creative."
(Cult)ure talks to Canadian artist and activist Kim Ondaatje at Blueroof Farm, her definitive work.
By Brendan Blom, 5 Feb 2010
Culture
The Word Is Out! The Cube’s Cultural Salons Are Not To Be Missed
The Word Is Out! The Cube’s Cultural Salons Are Not To Be Missed
(Cult)ure's theatre man keeps up to date with the latest offerings from the Cube gallery's multi-format salon series.
By Wayne Current, 4 Feb 2010
Politics
Harper's Report Card
Harper's Report Card
Have the first four years of conservative rule under Stephen Harper served as a foundation for a full term majority government?
By Kendall R. Giberson, 3 Feb 2010
Cinema
Enter 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
Enter 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
Is Heath Ledger's final film worth seeing?
By Christine Seabrook, 2 Feb 2010
Advice
Ask Miss Smartypants - February 1, 2010
Ask Miss Smartypants - February 1, 2010
Art: Nina Charest Dear Miss Smartypants, About six months ago, I started my first permanent job. Through university and since graduation, I've been living pretty hand to mouth. Fortunately, I don't have any big debts to pay off (monthly credit card bill, but that's about it). What I'm wondering is, should I budget? I'm making enough money that I can pay my bills and still have a little left over at the end of the month, but there's nothing I'm really striving for. Should I enjoy this l...
By Miss Smartypants, 1 Feb 2010
Music
Bringing us Country, Cross-Country: The Deric Ruttan Interview
Bringing us Country, Cross-Country: The Deric Ruttan Interview
With his third album out in stores this month and a 20-city tour on the go, Deric Ruttan is just what the Canadian country music scene needs.
By Agnes Cadieux, 29 Jan 2010
Theatre
Getting Bash’d! At The Opera
Getting Bash’d! At The Opera
A decidedly modern take on Romeo & Juliet finds its place at GCTC.
By Joe Lipsett, 28 Jan 2010
Music
Will Hoge's The Wreckage, a Post-MVA Masterpiece
Will Hoge's The Wreckage, a Post-MVA Masterpiece
After facing his own mortality, Will Hoge brings us a compelling and impassioned album full of songs that are sure to move.
By Agnes Cadieux, 27 Jan 2010
Music
Now, Right Now, Your Love is Liberation
Now, Right Now, Your Love is Liberation
Mike Cullen examines an undervalued Pet Shop Boys song that just might be his personal favourite.
By Mike Cullen, 26 Jan 2010

Note From the Editors

A foundation is usually thought of as something that is solid and stable, a firm, functional base upon which to build a more elegant structure. But in Isaac Asimov's famous trilogy, the Foundation is a secret organization that preserves the best of human knowledge and culture while working to bring down the hegemonic, corrupt Galactic Empire from within. A foundation can also be a renegade outlier, a last bastion of independence, creativity and morality against a tide of banal mediocrity.

A foundation can, paradoxically, be profoundly unsettling, threatening, even dangerous. The Arabic term al-qaeda translates into English as "the foundation." (There is some speculation that Osama bin Laden may have read and been influenced Asimov's work during his westernized youth, either in English, or in a long out-of-print 1951 Arabic translation. Clearly, he skipped over the part that said violence "is the last refuge of the incompetent.")

At (Cult)ure, we don't like to threaten; but we do like to unsettle and challenge received opinion and mainstream thought. We hope this 'Foundation' issue does just that.

Past Issues, Sept. '07 - Jan. '10:

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Canada Council for the Arts

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 20,1 millions de dollars l'an dernier dans les lettres et l'édition à travers le Canada.

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