Makoto Shinkai’s ‘Your Name’ Animated Film Review for Enthuse.ca

Your Name

Over on Enthuse.ca, I’ve got a review of Makoto Shinkai’s latest film, Your Name.

Your Name deserves the historic commercial success it’s enjoying — It takes the strongest points from director Makoto Shinkai’s earlier films and focuses them into a palatable, coherent experience that’s filled with human emotion.

High school students Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) mysteriously find themselves swapping bodies with each other, despite living in different parts of Japan and having never met. Read more

I’m having a lot of fun working with the Enthuse.ca team this week. You can anticipate a podcast talking more about the film, a series review of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, and a recap of four of the best anime to watch from winter 2017.

Needles Twirling: Edmonton Knitting Circle Feature for the Nook

Knitting Circle (10 of 11)

As part of the Nook, a startup Edmonton hobbyist website I helped run this semester, I wrote a deep dive on three Edmonton women and their knitting circle.

In through the front, and a wrap around the back. That’s the repetitious trajectory of it. The yarn ebbs and flows, weaving in and out of itself, guided by years of trial and error and two methodically twirling needles held by calm hands. And for some Edmonton hobbyists, it’s one of the best parts of their week.

Moving to a big city from a smaller community can be challenging in a number of ways. So to help curate their social life and fill their free time with fulfilling sense of productivity, three women that now call Edmonton home joined with their friends and formed a knitting circle.

Katherine McFatridge, Katia Reid, and Angela Johnston, come together every seven days to talk about their week and coach each other on their latest knitted creations. And They’ve been doing so for almost a decade. Read more

It was a joy hearing the three self-described introverts open up to me about how important knitting is in their lives. And more broadly speaking, making similar discoveries with the Nook over the last few months was a fun experience.

BalletBoyz’s ‘Life’ Preview for Vue Weekly

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This week I previewed a contemplative ballet called Life from  London-based company BalletBoyz. The preview just went live this morning on Vue Weekly.

The 10-member, all-male BalletBoyz company comes to entertain this weekend with physical questions about what it means to be alive.

The company’s 80-minute performance, Life, is split into two halves, separately choreographed by Swedish artist Pontus Lidberg and Venezuelan Javier de Frutos. Edmonton marks the last stop on the North American leg of its current international tour. Read more

The company is putting on two performances on Friday and Saturday at the Northern Jubilee Auditorium, organized by Alberta Ballet. You can snag tickets on their site.