Arts

Metric
Ottawa Civic Centre
October 19, 2009

4/5 Stars

“Steph, Kevin wants to know if you’ll marry him.”

After The Stills vocalist Tim Fletcher made that announcement to a pair of soon-to-be newlyweds in the audience, you knew there was magic in the air.

Starting and finishing their show with two Oceans Will Rise tracks in “I’m With You” and the radio hit “Being Here,” The Stills proved to be a worthy opener.

Sainthood
Tegan and Sara
Warner Music

4/5

The new album Sainthood from Canadian twin duo Tegan and Sara is an excellent collection of synthesizer-driven songs predominantly about troubled love.

The album is a natural progression from their previous album, The Con, in that the apparent mood is different but the style and music is essentially very similar.

Many of the songs seem to have a more positive and upbeat sound than the sad melodies found in many songs on The Con.

Ottawa-Gatineau’s first-ever annual tattoo expo was held at the Palais des congrès Oct. 23-25, featuring live rock bands, beers and burgers, and tattoo artists from across Canada. 

Walking around the many booths representing tattoo shops from as far as Moose Jaw, Sask. to Vancouver, the buzz of tattoo machines was omnipresent.

The crowd was largely made up of the kind of people you’d expect to be attracted to such an event: some scantily clad women, long-bearded bikers, university girls with that deviously artistic streak.

Tim Hecker heard the driver say, “It sounded like being born anew, or cleansed of one’s sin,” when describing Nite Ride.

Hecker is one of the two artists who have put together pieces for Nite Ride, a luxury bus tour that incorporates audio works with the scenery of the Gatineau Hills.

Nite Ride was the brainchild of Ryan Stec, co-curator of Artengine, a non-profit artist-run organization for visual and media art.

Where the Wild Things Are
Spike Jonze
Warner Bros. Pictures

4/5
 
As far as film adaptations of beloved children’s books go, Where the Wild Things Are may be the most raw, most daring and most unusual of the bunch.

It is also one of the finest.