Remember the recession? That is, the Great Recession of 2008-2009, otherwise known as The Great Downturn, The Great Slump, and The Worst Economic Crisis Since the 1930s? Those of you who were there know it was a difficult time — there were layoffs and plant closures across the board, job sharing and wage clawbacks became the norm. We watched, helpless, as whole industries — automotive manufacture, banking, pornography — teetered on the edge of collapse.

It may be hard to imagine, in these heady post-recession days, but the very culture changed. Elaborate travel plans got downgraded to “staycations,” luxury items were suddenly seen as, well, luxuries. To keep warm, musicians and hipsters were forced to grow beards that would have shamed a Russian novelist. Things got so tense, even music video award ceremonies were interrupted by cries of  “injustice!”

But those days are, thankfully, behind us…

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“You know what happens to diminutive film directors who sleep with 13-year-old girls, don’t you? Huh? Wanna know? No? Okay. They lose their noses get arrested in Switzerland!”

Well, eventually. Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor 32 years ago, but took off for France before he could be put in jail. He’s been keeping out of the U.S. ever since, though he kept on making movies and visiting various European countries, and it looked like that was going to go on forever until he was nabbed in Zurich last week. They are holding him there, awaiting an extradition request from the U.S.

Now a group of artists and filmmakers, including Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Asia Argento, Darren Aronofsky, Harmony Korinne, and Wim Wenders have signed a petition calling for his release. A number of film and cultural organizations have signed on, as well.

Others have been vocal in their support of the 76-year-old Polanski, as well. His teenage victim, now 45, who successfully sued the director, has called for the charges to be dropped.

Not everyone is donning a “Free Roman” button just yet, though.

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Eight years after 9/11, the tributes to thousands who died in what was the worst act of terrorism on North American soil have (thankfully) become a little less overblown, a little less cynical/sentimental, and much more thoughtful. At little less of this, in other words, and more things like “Twin Towers Once Stood,” a photographic exhibit running now until Oct. 15 at Manhattan’s SB D Gallery.

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Sept. 12, Quebec City — Unless they mark the appearance of a big-name author, or are part of one of Canada’s many big-time book festivals, public readings tend to fly under the mainstream radar. In fact, the majority of readings are fairly dour, unremarkable, and under-attended affairs.

The upcoming Moulin a paroles (or “chatterbox”) event being held in Quebec City this coming weekend to mark the 250th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham will be anything but. Put together after Quebec nationalists scotched the idea of a full-on reenactment of the battle in which British forces defeated the French and thus became rulers of what would eventually be Canada, the event is a 24-hour reading of a few hundred texts, all of which purport to say something about Quebec, past and present.

The one text that has a lot of people up in arms, though, is the manifesto of the radical separatist group the Front de libération du Québec, or the FLQ, the grouped that sparked the October Crisis of 1970.

Even if readings aren’t your thing, this one promises to be a helluva show.

(And if you can’t make it, here’s the manifesto in question.)

A close friend of mine who grew up in Owen Sound, Ontario (a smallish town about 2 1/2 hours northwest of Toronto), has occasionally recounted the many times she was dragged as a schoolkid to the Billy Bishop museum there. (Bishop, as you probably already know, was Canada’s most decorated  flying ace during WWI.) The remembered tedium of those visits — it not being the most exciting repeat destination for a second-grader, whatever else its merits — is such that she involuntarily rolls her eyes and sighs heavily whenever she hears the man’s name. Read More

It sounds unbelievable, but numerous news outlets are reporting that Michael Bryant, who recently resigned his job as Ontario’s Minister as Economic Development and served for a number of years as the province’s Attorney General (he banned pit bulls, remember?), is in custody after the fatal hit-and run of a cyclist last night near Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood. Read More

Lock ‘em out.

That’s a political tactic that seems to be having a moment in vogue right about now. Are you a government that wants to make some kind of political statement? Then why not find some vauguely important foreigner who is planning a visit to your country — one who could be seen to symbolise views you oppose – and simply deny them entry.

Even better, approve their entry in advance, and then revoke it at the last minute.

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On pages 24-26 of DRIVEN’s Comedy Issue you will find Elizabeth Walker’s entirely fictitious tale of a flirtatious writer and a mentally well-endowed professor-type discussing the seductive power of funny men.

To prepare that piece, Ms. Walker spoke to Dr. Pat Barclay, a researcher in evolutionary psychology at Cornell University. You will find an excerpt from their actual conversation below.

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Rumours of vampires on campus sent Boston Latin School into a fright this past week, reports the Boston Globe. What is stranger is that the school’s administration actually issued a notice assuring the staff, students and their parents that “rumours involving vampires” were nothing more than just that. Headmaster Lynne Mooney Teta declared that there were no vampires at the school, and adamantly offered assurances that no one at the school had been hurt, arrested—or bitten. The rumours of such bloodlust were reported to be causing anxiety and disruption among the students.

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