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Thief Takes 6K Worth of Art from Vancouver Church

Thief Takes 6K Worth of Art from #Vancouver Church

Thief Takes 6K Worth of Art from Vancouver Church – Artist Karen Johnson and Katie Stein Sather discovered nine quilts were missing when they arrived to the Vancouver Unitarian Church for the public display of their art that had been in the works for weeks. CBC reports the art works, which take an average of 100 hours to complete per piece, had been stolen easily from the walls. The Artists…

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The Secret Path: Gord Downie's Most Powerful Project

Try and think of the name of one of the African-Americans victims of police brutality in America. Who comes to mind? Trayvon Martin? Eric Garner? Michael Brown? Maybe Philando Castile? Now, name one of the missing Indigenous women. Better yet, can you name one reserve, or even one residential school? Go on. Try. Just one. Thought so. Along with our battered hockey sticks, and decadent little…

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The 5 Most Practical Self Improvement Books

The 5 Most Practical Self Improvement #Books For Positive, Practical Change.

Sometimes in life, you just want to take action. Skip the abstraction and the theorising, skip the metaphysical self analysis, and get some good old practical advice. While there are many great self improvement books out there, if you lean towards hands-on real world application, this list is for you. In no particular order here are my top 5 self improvement books for positive practical change.

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Dream Serenade returns to Massey Hall in Toronto for its 3rd successful edition on Saturday, October 22, 2016. This year’s star-studded charity concert event continues to support services for children with developmental disabilities, and also to celebrate their parents, caregivers, teachers and tireless volunteers. The artist lineup features Broken Social Scene, Barenaked Ladies, Amy Millan, Hayden, Lou Canon, The Persuasions, as well as two-time Juno Award winning alternative rock musician/songwriter/vocalist Dan Mangan from Vancouver, British Columbia. Mangan also writes contributing articles for The Guardian’s Arts section, Montecristo Maganzine, and Huffington Post Canada. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Born in Smithers, British Columbia, Dan’s family constantly moved all over Ontario and British Columbia. Since childhood, his musical influences were Nick Drake and The Fab Four! At sixteen, Dan and his classmates started a band called Basement Suite. When he was only 20 in 2003, Mangan debuted an EP of acoustic tunes titled All At Once. In 2005, he released an independent full album Postcards & Daydreaming. American label ABC/Warner decided to re-release that same album with one addition song, ‘Ash Babe’, across Australia in 2007. His second full album Nice, Nice, Very Nice was recorded in Toronto during 2009. At that time, many considered Dan Mangan’s sound similar to Bon Iver. The songs ‘Robots’ and ‘Road Regrets’  received numerous airplay on local and satellite radio stations in Vancouver at the time. Currently, Mangan’s thoughtful music can be heard not only in Canada, but throughout Europe and Australia. His genres of music are considered indie & experimental rock, folk, as well as alternative. In 2012, Dan earned two accolade prizes from the coveted Canadian Juno Awards for his solo effects on the album ‘Oh Fortune’. His fourth album ‘Club Med’ was released on January 13, 2015. Dan not only composes and sings on the albums, but also accompanies the tunes with piano, keyboards and keyboard rifts.

For 33-year-old Mangan, his music career has evolved from a humble beginning of singing old classic Beatles tunes as a youngster; to solo folksy open-mic gigs during his university years; to his latest poignant, soulful, weighty, social conscious melodies that also express his emotional attractions to new-found fatherhood, charity and nostalgic disconnections. Mangan believes that his music can enhance,  change and influence the world around his new born son.  Nothing expresses better than his recent surprise EP album — UNMAKE  in summer 2016. Notably, it features five songs including 1) ‘Whistleblower‘, 2) ‘Hang With Me’ (Robyn Cover), 3) ‘Race To The Bottom’, 4) ‘Forgetery Redux’ (Featuring Tegan Quin), and 5) ‘Kitsch Redux’.

Dan has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Australia. He has collaborated with recording artists such as Tegan and Sara, Lucius, The Walkmen, Japandroids, Mumford & Sons, Metric, Arlo Guthrie, Stars, Sarah Harmer, Vampire Weekend, Hey Rosetta! and Macklemore. In 2011, he was also seen on national television performing for Prince William and Duchess Kate on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during Canada Day Celebrations.

Just last weekend, Dan Mangan was in Calgary to perform a free concert as part of SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology)’s 100th anniversary celebrations. Hundreds of fans braved the chilly dipping evening weather to watched Dan and his quartet on stage showcasing their unforgettable anthems. He also told the crowd that a huge sized poster of his first live performance at SAIT’s Gateway campus bar some four years ago remains hanging on the wall of his parents’ home. #gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Dan Mangan performed live on stage in Calgary on Oct. 16. Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Photo by Ben Tsui.

Dan Mangan performing a free concert at the 100th anniversary of SAIT in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 16. Photo by Ben Tsui.

Dan Mangan + Blacksmith Quartet will be on tour again to New York, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston immediately after the upcoming Dream Serenade concert this weekend.

You May Also Like: [ess_grid alias=”music”]

Dan Mangan Highlights Toronto’s Dream Serenade Charity Concert Dream Serenade returns to Massey Hall in Toronto for its 3rd successful edition on Saturday, October 22, 2016.

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GoNNER Review - A Simple and Colorful Indie Game

GoNNER Review - A Simple and Colorful Indie Game | #VideoGames

GoNNER runs true with the spirit of the indie game. It is a simple, almost minimalistic interpretation of a roguelike platformer shooter with little else but its gameplay. It makes good on its fundamentals of providing a fun little game borrowing ideas from its forbearers and even throws in a few novel ideas, but ultimately lacks the refinement which would elevate it. The bare necessity of a…

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Live Music in Ottawa: 10 Ottawa-Based Bands Playing Locally You Can't Miss

Live #Music in #Ottawa : 10 Ottawa-Based Bands Playing Locally You Can't Miss

Music is always essential in bringing life to a city, so naturally, Canada’s capital would be teeming with bands. You have the big concerts throughout the year (and the tickets are very expensive) – and then you have local artists performing in cafes, pubs, restaurants, bars, and clubs. It’s a small entry fee (and sometimes it’s even free!). Musicians bring life into a city, and in return, your…

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Bob Dylan Surprisingly Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Bob Dylan is the second lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in literature

Bob Dylan Surprisingly Wins Nobel Prize in Literature – After this past Thursday’s announcement, the Nobel Prize committee assured the western world that they would always be able to name at least one Nobel Literature laureate. Better yet, most people even have some level of familiarity with his work, or at least his name. A quality that is practically unheard of for this award. However, when…

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Outlast 2 Demo Impressions – Caution: Play with an empty bladder – Outlast II takes the terrifying “found footage” formula from the 2013 original and moves it from an isolated psychiatric hospital in Colorado to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Outlast II follows investigative journalist Blake Langermann as he and his wife Lynn investigate the “seemingly impossible” death of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe. The trail of clues they follow lead them to an area in Arizona not accessible by land vehicles, so they take a chopper in. This is where the recently released demo, available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, begins. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The demo confirms that, despite the change of setting, this is still very much an Outlast game. Which is to say it is an absolutely terrifying experience. The team at Red Barrels– the developers of the Outlast games, are masters of their craft to be sure. They use everything at their disposal to make you feel real, primal, fear.

The demo starts with the chopper Blake and Lynn are riding in mysteriously crashing, and Blake blacking out. The player can take control of Blake once he wakes up and takes a tumble down a rocky hillside. During this sequence Blake’s glasses actually fall off his face, causing the players view of the world to become very blurry and distorted until he picks them up and puts them back on. It remains to be seen if this can actually happen during the game proper, either in a scripted event or as an overall mechanic, but if it does it will certainly make for some tense, possibly overly frustrating, segments. #gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Outlast 2 demo: Blurry View

Outlast 2 demo: Clear view

Once Blake is up and on his feet with his glasses on and camcorder at the ready, the demo begins for real as players make their way through an isolated village in a wooded area in the dead of night. The audio and sound design are top notch– especially if you are wearing headphones. While exploring the village near the start of the demo you can hear telltale sounds of you being followed; footsteps that aren’t yours, snapping twigs, faint voices and whispers, etc. Scanning the treeline while you have your night-vision enabled will reveal a glowing set of eyes just inside the treeline. Someone standing there, watching you, before turning around and disappearing into the woods. Very unsettling to say the least—and it only gets worse from there.

The demo, and presumably the entire game, is rife with twisted religious/catholic imagery, including a “St. Peter’s Cross” in the games logo. There are crosses everywhere, from crude wooden ones driven into the dirt on the side of the trail the player travels to a cross shaped hole carved in the ceiling of an underground chamber, using the moonlight to cast a cross on the ground…on top of a massive pile of what appear to be dead children. The room prior to this contains a wooden cradle stuffed with hay– much like the one that appears in artwork depicting the birth of Christ, covered in blood and sitting before an altar with a book about ritual sacrifice. Much like the first game, Outlast II is not for the weak of heart…or stomach.

Outlast 2 demo screenshot.

Outlast II doesn’t shy away from the supernatural either; one section of the demo sees the player exploring a well-lit section of a catholic school, after being sucked down a well by some sort of demon and waking up in the school’s ventilation system. As the player tries to escape the school they will be assailed by creatures best described as demonic black tendrils while a deep, wicked laughter emanates from places unknown. The locker doors in the school’s hallways begin to open and slam shut while the lights flicker and the laughter grows. After a few more scares the player sees a young girl hanging from a noose in the ceiling, whom Blake seems to know, sucked up through the ceiling by the same demonic entity that deposited Blake in the school to begin with.

Outlast 2 Demo gif. via Alpha Beta Gamer.

After finally emerging from the school the player will find themselves fleeing from the murderous cultists/villagers. There are a surprising amount of options in this sequence; the player can simply run from the flashlight and knife wielding psychopaths, using the roads and trails in between massive cornfields and buildings; or they can take a slower and stealthier approach by diving in to the cornfields to break line of sight then creep around the demented cultists as their flashlight beams scan the fields and their leader yells nasty things like “God rejoices in the spilling of wicked blood!” on a loudspeaker. There are barrels to hide in, and even a pool of water that the player can submerge themselves in briefly as they try to escape a horrifying and excruciating end. Like the first game, what elevates Outlast II from extremely scary to outright terrifying is the player’s inability to fight back in any way, shape or form. You’re a journalist, not a fighter. You run, you hide, or you die screaming. There are no other options.

Eventually, no matter what the player decides to do, they will run smack dab into a hideous, demonic looking woman who wields a ghastly looking axe. She drives the axe straight down into the fallen Blake’s crotch, and drags it out. Blake briefly looks down at the gory crevice where his genitals used to be before the woman winds up again, swinging the axe at Blake’s head, ending the demo.

From start to finish the demo takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes to complete, but it does an excellent job of demonstrating the variety of ways that Outlast II will scare you despite it’s short length, and also does a great job introducing players to the game’s story. There is probably much more going on in the Sonoran Desert than just a twisted Christian cult of maniacs; and players will be able to get to the bottom of it, or die trying, in the first quarter of 2017.

[ess_grid alias=”games”]

Outlast 2 Demo Impressions: Caution, Terrifying Experience Ahead | #VideoGames Outlast 2 Demo Impressions - Caution: Play with an empty bladder - Outlast II takes the terrifying “found footage” formula from the 2013 original and moves it from an isolated psychiatric hospital in Colorado to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

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Millar and Capullo's Reborn #1 | ONE SHOTS

This Week in ONE SHOTS: Discover Reborn #1 - a cross between sci-fi, fantasy and mystery | #ComicBooks

If you read one comic this week, make it… REBORN #1 Credit: Capullo, Glapion and Plascencia via Image Comics. Mark Millar is at it again with Reborn, yet another series through his Image Comics imprint, Millarworld. This guy seems to publish almost every idea he’s ever had, although I’m sure he’s forgotten more than most writers have put to paper. It is undeniable that Millar is one of the most…

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30 Days, 30 Songs: Artists Against Donald Trump

30 Days, 30 Songs: Artists Against Donald Trump | #Music

30 Days 30 Songs: Artists Against Trump – In less than 30 days our neighbours down south will finally swear in a new president. Yes, its hard to believe, but the feeble light at the end of the tunnel may actually be visible. From a Canadian’s viewpoint, this process has been perplexing, entertaining, and at times legitimately disturbing. Despite coming off a lengthy election of our own (clocking…

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Pure 2016: Edmonton's Night in White Holds Its 7th Year

Pure 2016: Edmonton's Night in White Holds Its 7th Year | Music

On Sunday, October 9, Boodang Music Canada hosted its 7th annual white event, Pure. The evening began promptly at 9 pm and those who could make it partied all the way until 6 am on Thanksgiving morning. The event is one of the biggest in Edmonton and as per usual sold out in 2016. Previous years have also included a Calgary date, but unfortunately no such date was added for the city in 2016. Eac…

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How Frieze London Gets the Art Fair Scene Right

How #Frieze London Gets the Art Fair Scene Right

Frieze London 2016: How Frieze Gets the Art Fair Scene Right – It’s pretty fair to say that when thinking of London, or the United Kingdom in general really, the words beautiful, silly, sexy, and thrilling are probably not the ones that come to mind. Perhaps you imagine a dull damp grey landscape? Or a group of overdressed older men crowded around a stuffy fireplace, smoking cigars? To be fair,…

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Unravelling Fast Fashion: Why Current Fast Fashion Practices Need to Change

Zara’s recent launch of a sustainable collection leaves the conscious consumer as skeptical as ever. Zara, H & M and Topshop are billion dollar brands known for a quick turnover rate. In a bid to ramp up demand they increase the supply of novel trends using a concept known as fast fashion. It turns out that churning out poorly made clothing at a low price creates a booming market. Shoppers…

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Is South Park Losing Its Edge?

Is South Park Losing Its Edge? | #TVShows

Is South Park Losing Its Edge? – There is no more of an appropriate fashion for the South Park of today to introduce itself than by satirizing Colin Kaepernick’s protest in its first frames. For the most irreverent and relevant TV show on the airwaves, no sacred cow will be spared, and this season is no different. Racial tensions, the unending torrent of remakes, social media and Internet…

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Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Review – Peculiar, In a Good Way

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Review – Peculiar, In a Good Way | #Movies

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Review – Peculiar, In a Good Way – Directed by Tim Burton, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children does not disappoint. Fans of Tim Burton’s past works such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands or Sleepy Hollow will fall in love with Burton’s intriguing cast of characters based on the book of the same name by Ransom Riggs. However, the film tries to…

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Green Valley #1 | ONE SHOTS

This Week in ONE SHOTS: Discover Green Valley #1 & Moonshine #1 | #ComicBooks

If you read one comic this week, make it… GREEN VALLEY #1 I enjoy medieval fantasy stories with fraternal bands of knights, lavish kingdoms, barbarous invaders and tales of dragons, but I rarely seem to find one that reads or views freshly. Everything is iterative of something else, pulling ideas from this and that until it’s sort of different but also the same old story. That’s boring. But Green…

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World of Final Fantasy Preview

Get to know the upcoming World of Final Fantasy game - Preview | #VideoGames

World of Final Fantasy Preview – Announced during the same conference as the forthcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake, and releasing within a month of the long awaited Final Fantasy XV, World of Final Fantasy has always been in the shadows of it’s blockbuster counter-parts. At first glance it would be easy to dismiss World of Final Fantasy as a cutsie, fan service-y side project; but it may very well…