Friday, September 26, 2008

Looking for something to do this weekend?



September 28th is the last chance to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum's Andy Warhol just opened, too.

link to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

"The Best Mind of his Generation"

Cool-looking retrospect on David Foster Wallace in the Nytimes today.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

THE WORLD NEEDS MORE CANADA


How to write

The Guardian has this fun/insightful series going on wherein a few hot shot writers give their two cents on how to write well in various genres.

Should be good for all you aspiring members of the $23,000-a-year, aberrant elite out there (see prior post to get the reference).

Hat tip: Bookninja.com

"Ordinary folks don't care about arts: Harper"

From the Toronto Star:

"Under fire for his government's $45 million in cuts to arts and culture funding, the Conservative leader yesterday said average Canadians have no sympathy for "rich" artists who gather at galas to whine about their grants.
"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said in Saskatoon, where he was campaigning for the Oct. 14 election.

[...]

Rejecting Harper's suggestion artists are privileged, Dion said their average wage is $23,000 a year.
"Most of them need to rent their suit and beautiful dresses at these galas," he said. "We have a great arts and culture industry. We need to protect its freedom. This man wants to censor our movies."

Read the whole thing here.

As serious as this issue is, some of the things Dion is quoted here as saying gave us a good guffaw. Our favourite line: "Dion said that proves Conservatives are the party of censorship while Liberals are the party of fun." (Emphases ours).

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Honours Proposal Info Sessions

HONOURS ESSAY PROPOSALS
Department of English

* TWO INFORMATION SESSIONS:
“HOW TO WRITE A SUCCESSFULHONOURS ESSAY PROPOSAL”
OCTOBER 3, 12:30 PM, in ARTS 385
OCTOBER 3, 2:30 PM, in ARTS 385

* REMINDER: DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF HONOURS ESSAY PROPOSALS:
OCTOBER 24, 5:00 PM, ENGLISH DEPT. OFFICE (ARTS 155).

NB: PROPOSALS MUST BE SIGNED AND APPROVED BY ESSAY SUPERVISOR.

* “GUIDELINES” and SAMPLE PROPOSALS:
Students can find a sheet of “Guidelines for Honours Essay Proposals,” along with a file of previously-approved “model” essay proposals, in the English Department Office (Arts 155).

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Welcome to September!

HAPPY FALL EVERYONE

Let's be honest: our March post was really a false labour pain in the admittedly drawn-out gestation period for the DESA blog. Gestation over, it's my pleasure to officially start this thing off with a short description of what we intend to do with it.

This is where we hope you'll go to check (regularly!) on what English-y events are taking place on and off campus. Items featured on the listserve will likely also be featured here, but with some exceptions and greater promptness than is possible on said listserve. Consider this, then, a quasi-live feed of McGill's/Montreal's English-y news--DESA's cybernetic bundle of joy.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free to comment wherever.*

*Unless, that is, you are this guy.