AltWeeklies Wire
'Extract' Star Jason Bateman Plays it Straightnew
After working in the film and television industry for almost three decades, Jason Bateman has finally become a leading man. He says that Extract director Mike Judge saw similarities between Arrested Development's Michael Bluth and Joel and felt that he would be believable in the role.
The Georgia Straight |
Ian Caddell |
08-31-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Stories in 'Woman From Shanghai' Survey Mao's Prison Systemnew
Woman From Shanghai: Tales of Survival from a Chinese Labor Camp is Xianhui Yang's first book translated into English and a record of the extremities endured by Mao Zedong's prisoners at Jiabiangou.
The Georgia Straight |
David Chau |
08-31-2009 |
Nonfiction
Lisbeth Salander Makes a Blazing Return in 'The Girl Who Played With Fire'new
The late Stieg Larsson's follow-up to the sprawling, expertly plotted crime novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is in most ways as gripping as the previous one.
The Georgia Straight |
Brian Lynch |
08-31-2009 |
Fiction
Education Generation's Microfinancing Funds Students Around the Globenew
While Facebook and other social-networking sites have taken off as a mostly recreational way for people to connect with each other, a Vancouver-based charity is using the technology to change people's lives.
The Georgia Straight |
Karen Pinchin |
08-31-2009 |
Education
'One Day You'll Understand' Employs a Steely Form of Thoughtfulnessnew

In adapting Jerome Clement's book for the screen, Israeli director Amos Gitai is fully aware of the amount of restraint, denial, and dissociation that must be employed to survive a trauma the size of the Holocaust.
The Georgia Straight |
Mark Harris |
08-18-2009 |
Reviews
Canada's Harmonized Sales Tax Will Hurt Alternative Healthnew
Peter Wood, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, is just one of many B.C. health professionals who are going to have to start charging the 12-percent harmonized sales tax when it comes into effect next July.
The Georgia Straight |
Gail Johnson |
08-18-2009 |
Science
Open Web Advocates Say Social Media Needs Reformnew
A question that's increasingly being raised is: Who should control all of the data shared through social media sites -- the user or the service?
The Georgia Straight |
Jeffery Simpson |
08-18-2009 |
Tech
Hello Local, Goodbye Global: Relocalization Movement Gains Momentumnew
A burgeoning relocalization movement has the potential to revolutionize the way we eat, shop, work, and vacation. The movement's proponents argue that it's an essential response to climate change and peak oil, which both threaten to transform agriculture around the world
The Georgia Straight |
Charlie Smith |
07-27-2009 |
Economy
Sonic Youth Gets Better With Agenew
The almost unanimous verdict on The Eternal is not only that Sonic Youth sounds more energized than in years, but that the long-running alt-rock icons have come damn close to recapturing the form that made them legends in the first place.
The Georgia Straight |
Mike Usinger |
07-27-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
With 'Fantasies,' Metric Has Assumed Control of its Own Destinynew
Without by-the-book label executives to answer to, or an out-of-touch A&R department breathing down its back, Metric revelled in the opportunity to be more daring in its musical choices this time around.
The Georgia Straight |
Jenny Charlesworth |
07-27-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Take a Pass on Back Surgery and Decompress Your Spine Insteadnew
Spinal decompression, a procedure what involves computer-assisted application of "distraction forces" may provide relief for individuals with chronic back problems. However, critics feel that laypeople may be forking over large amounts of cash for a treatment that hasn't been scientifically proven to work.
The Georgia Straight |
Gail Johnson |
07-27-2009 |
Science
Eduardo Galeano's 'Mirrors' Rewrites Human Historynew
It's hard to think of another living author who would have the nerve to consider writing a book like Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. But for Uruguay's Eduardo Galeano, this collection of vignettes, covering the breadth of human history, was a natural fit.
The Georgia Straight |
Derrick O'Keefe |
07-27-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Crazy for the Storm' is a Wild-Hearted Story of Risk and Survivalnew
How to capture the spirit of a father and son’s relationship? Norman Ollestad, the son in this equation, does it grippingly and gorgeously in Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival.
The Georgia Straight |
Patty Jones |
07-27-2009 |
Nonfiction
Big Brother is Watching You With RFID Microchipsnew

Consumer-privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht advises people to resist RFID. "There are certainly things you can do with RFID that might be cool, but the costs of introducing this technology into our society so vastly outweigh the benefits, the technology shouldn’t be deployed at all," she says.
The Georgia Straight |
Erin Millar |
07-27-2009 |
Civil Liberties
War Resister Brad McCall Has Gone into Hidingnew

Fearing arrest by the Mounties and deportation to the United States, former American soldier Brad McCall fled his East Vancouver home and is living on the lam.
The Georgia Straight |
Charlie Smith |
07-10-2009 |
War