Queen Amaranthine Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I post here so infrequently anymore that I feel like I'm crashing a party.... However, this is where I get some of the best recommendations for this work/community project! Every year this project, for which I'm a committee member, studies a different country, and later this year it's Canada! What movies, literature, nonfiction, art, music, etc. do you know of by Canadians and/or about Canada? Do you know of any that deal specifically with Canadian life or issues? Last year was Germany, and I loved the films VCers recommended, especially The Edukators and Goodbye, Lenin. I now count those as two of my favorite films. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Griddles Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Look at Broken Social Scene, and all the associated bands, there are about 20 people in the band and they all do side projects as well. Feist is probably their best known member. I also really like David Francey. He was born in Scotland, but has lived mostly in Canada. He is a really good musician in my personal opinion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yermom Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 There's always Leonard Cohen too. That covers literature and music. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
explodo Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Neil Young is pretty okay. You may have heard of him. As for authors, Saul Bellow (technically) and Alice Munro? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I seem to remember William Gibson being from Canada? (could be wrong). And Farley Mowat of "Never cry wolf" fame? As far as music, you have to go with "The Band"! For film, I only know "Porky's" and that Bob and Doug McKenzie thing. And SCTV of course! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamin' Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I seem to remember William Gibson being from Canada? (could be wrong).William Gibson was born in the US, but lives in Vancouver now. I've run into him around town a few times. He's really tall and slightly stooped over, so he's easy to spot in a crowd. The last time I saw him was at the Vancouver Folk Festival. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Movies: Last Night, The Decline of the American Empire, Hard Core Logo, Goin' Down the Road, Mon oncle Antoine, The Sweet Hereafter, Atanarjuat, Waydowntown, early David Cronenberg, My Winnipeg or other Guy Maddin films, Something with Sarah Polley or Molly Parker in it... Art: Group of Seven (Lawren Harris is my favorite of the 7), Tom Thompson. Music: The Weakerthans, Tragically Hip, Sloan, Joel Plaskett, Ron Sexsmith, Stompin' Tom Connors, Blue Rodeo, Kathleen Edwards, Fred Eaglesmith, Hawksley Workman, Sarah Harmer, Hayden, of course: Joni, Neil, Leonard, Rush, The Band Authors: Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Farley Mowat, Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, Mordecai Richler TV: The Kids in the Hall, SCTV, The Beachcombers, Corner Gas, The King of Kensington, Degrassi... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamin' Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Canadiana 101* (off the top of my head) Politics: Tommy Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, Pop Culture: Douglas Coupland's Souvenir of Canada booksSong: "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" by Gordon LightfootAuthors: Carol Shields, Barbara Gowdy, Yann Martel, Douglas Coupland, Michael Ondaatje, LM Montgomery, Pierre BertonAuteurs: Don McKellar, Atom Egoyan, Bruce McDonald, David Cronenberg TV: Twitch City, Hockey Night in Canada, Canada: A People's HistoryHero: Terry FoxBest use of tax dollars: universal health care, , the CBC, NFB animated short filmsChildren's Lit: The Secret World of Og, Anne of Green GablesArt: Emily Carr, Alex Colville, Mary Pratt, Maude Lewis, the guy who scratched the Book of Revelations into the paint of a Trans-AmInventions: the zipper, insulin, standard time, more *This reflects a Eurocentric, Anglophone POV. I cannot do justice to the First Nations or Quebecois. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
c.lo Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 my friend just saw the movie "One Week" with Joshua Jackson, this from IMDb:Chronicles the motorcycle trip of Ben Tyler as he rides from Toronto to Tofino, British Columbia. Ben stops at landmarks that are both iconic and idiosyncratic on his quest to find meaning in his life. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dondoboy Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I'd put The National, CBC's newscast, up there as way better than American reporting. A great Canadian institution. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamin' Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I'd put The National, CBC's newscast, up there as way better than American reporting. A great Canadian institution.I watch it nightly after the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Love Rex Murphy and the "At Issue" panel. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dondoboy Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I watch it nightly after the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Love Rex Murphy and the "At Issue" panel.For those of us on the American side of the border, those broadcasts make our national news look like Entertainment Tonight or something. The National is as good as Newshour on PBS or the BBC World News. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Preferred B Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Best use of tax dollars: universal health care, Children's Books: The Secret World of Og, Anne of Green Gables *This reflects a Eurocentric, Anglophone POV.Well, I'd expect that from you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Nobody's mentioned the sitcom "Little Mosque On The Prairie." I don't watch it, but it's about a fictional Muslim community in Canada. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bobfrombob Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 http://www.stompintom.com/index.htm Born in Saint John, New BrunswickFebruary 9, 1936 An imagination taller than the Rocky Mountains. A wanderlust that has taken him further than a Northern Ontario bush pilot. A guitar, a pair of boots, and a knack for writing songs about Canada can only begin to describe the man that Canada has come to know and love as Stompin' Tom Connors. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Tom's youngest years were spent living hand-to-mouth with his mother, until he was taken from her and placed in the care of the Children's Aid. From there, he was adopted into the Aylward family of Skinner's Pond, PEI, where he lived until he began his hitchhiking career at the age of 15. Tom traveled to almost every corner of Canada throughout the next 13 years - from the rocky coastline of Newfoundland to the arctic desolation of the Yukon - and a hundred thousand points in between. He could rarely be found without his guitar; even when he had a "real" job (which never lasted long), he would still write and sing songs about the people he met and the places he visited. Money was a scarcity for Tom during this period in the 1950's and early 1960's; it may also have been his big "break", when he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins, Ontario. The bartender, Gaet Lepine, agreed to give Tom a beer if he would play a few songs. These few songs turned into a 13-month contract to play at the hotel, a weekly spot on the CKGB radio station in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors. Tom's recording career picked up in 1969 when he signed with Dominion Records; over the next two years, he released 6 original albums, a compilation album, and a 5-album set of traditional music. He subsequently left Dominion Records to help form Boot Records - a company that would see 10 more original albums by Tom and a myriad of recordings from many other Canadian artists. The album "Gumboot Cloggeroo", released in 1979, would be Tom's last. In a fit of frustration and disappointment, Tom returned all six of his Juno Awards, as a statement of protest against the Americanization of the Canadian music industry. This began Tom's self-imposed exile from the music industry - a music industry that would not embrace his homespun and fiercely patriotic brand of music. Tom has never been a quitter; his dogged persistence and spirit to succeed rose in 1986 with his formation of A-C-T Records - a new label that would record and promote Canadian music. Tom began touring and releasing records again in 1988, and his signing with EMI Canada would eventually allow for the complete re-release of his entire catalogue of music. Tom would also receive the Order of Canada, an Honourary Doctorate of Laws from St. Thomas University, the key to the city of Peterborough, Ontario, and countless other honors. To date, Tom has put out 20 albums of original material, several children's books, an autobiography (with a second-one coming), a movie, a television series, and countless memories for the Canadians that he has touched with his verses of Canada. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamin' Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 And if you're ever in Skinners Pond, PEI, be sure to visit the Stompin' Tom Museum! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lizish Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Adding to and repeating the list: Movies - Le Confessional, The Fast Runner, Goin' Down the Road, Mon Oncle Antione; 32 Short Stories about Glenn Gould; Highway 61; Barbarian Invasions; Exotica; Sweet Hereafter; Decline of the American Empire; ; Red Violin; Away From Her (partially Filmed at my old camp in Muskoka); The Dead Zone; A History of Violence; my tax credit fav - Hedwig and the Angry Inch; anything on the National Film Board website ieMy tax dollars at work http://www.nfb.ca/film/carts_of_darkness/ Yay! TV - Second City, Kids in the Hall; Davinci's Inquest; Intelligence; Twitch City; The Newsroom; Theartre - ANYTHING THAT ROBERT LEPAGE, ATOM EGOYAN or DON MCKELLAR TOUCHES; Cirque de Soleil Books - In The Skin of the lion - Michael Ondatjee; The Watch That Ends The Night- Hugh MacLennan. (probably THE great Canadian novel), Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood; Solomon Gursky was Here - Mordecai Richler Architecture - Frank Ghery and the new AGO; The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa (I say this because the nice, bright cheery old version burnt down in the brutal war-winter of 1915, replaced by the post WW1 dudgeon that is there now. It's like this massive downer of a building that is the national government seat); BCE Place; Old Montreal and old Quebec; and massive congrats to my friend's nephew who just won award for 'cascade house' here: http://awards.collabra.ca/ Music - McGarrigle Sisters and kin; Corb 'Fucking' Lund (who just got signed to New West); Old Man Luedecke; Ruth Minnekin; Basia Bulat; Wolf Parade; almost all of BC is in a band; Deadly Snakes; $100; Jon Rae Fletcher.... I could go on and on. Art - Greg Curnoe; Murray Favro; and tons more,,, and lastly - the Defranco Family! and lastly lastly Nickleback! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
petemoss Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Books - In The Skin of the lion - Michael Ondatjee; The Watch That Ends The Night- Hugh MacLennan. (probably THE great Canadian novel), Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood; Solomon Gursky was Here - Mordecai Richler Agreed Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Azzurri Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 David Adams Richards is a great Canadian novelist, considered one of the best by many critics. He writes old fashioned and melancholic stories set in the Mirimachi region, usually focusing on the poor and uneducated. Try the novels Mercy Among Children and Friends of Meager Fortune...the former won the Giller Prize, Canada's top literary award. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dreamin' Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Movies - Le Confessional, The Fast Runner, Goin' Down the Road, Mon Oncle Antione; 32 Short Stories about Glenn Gould; Highway 61; Barbarian Invasions; Exotica; Sweet Hereafter; Decline of the American Empire; ; Red Violin; Away From Her (partially Filmed at my old camp in Muskoka); The Dead Zone; A History of Violence; my tax credit fav - Hedwig and the Angry Inch; anything on the National Film Board websiteYes! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
petemoss Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Yes! Those movies are all awesome!I would like to add Maurice Richard/The Rocket, an awesome film. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stagerug Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Kids in the Hall and the New Pornographers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Beltmann Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Lots of great stuff mentioned; I'll just reiterate the collected works of Guy Maddin, David Cronenberg, and Atom Egoyan, and say that Atanarjuat is a universal myth set in the everyday, an exhilarating tall tale of the ordinary. I'll also add The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Ginger Snaps, The Snow Walker, and a few short films: When the Day Breaks; The Man Who Planted Trees; Ryan. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Papillon Parade Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Movies - C.R.A.Z.Y. This is one of my top ten fave movies. Soundtrack includes Patsy Cline, Pink Floyd and David Bowie. Bon Cop, Bad Cop was also good. Music - Definitely check out Joel Plaskett. He's fantastic. Also, Elliott Brood from Toronto is great as is Sam Roberts from Montreal. Local hero Matt Mays is worth checking out and if you can see Hawksley Workman live, do it. TV - The Hour with my tv boyfriend George Strombolopolis. Marketplace and The Fifth Estate are favourites of mine too. Eh. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
letsgodowntogether Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 The Tragically Hip are the best and the most Canadian band. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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