Next Saturday, Toronto Poetry Slam brings you the last slam of the season, with some of the city’s brightest and wordiest battling it out for the last remaining place in the semi finals. Finalists will have a shot at the 2008 Toronto Poetry Slam Team, which competes at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and the US National Poetry Slam (this year to be held in Madison, Wisconsin). This month’s event also features a guest......

For a Monday night show at the Horseshoe, there was quite a bit of enthusiasm for the excellent bill of The Rosebuds and Land of Talk. Even though the attendance was a little lacklustre, both bands gave inspired performances that provided for a strong double-bill of energetic rock that got the week off to a good start. As much as their fans are pining for a follow-up to the Applause Cheer Boo Hiss EP, it’s......

Lt. Frank Drebin, Police Squad. Jerry Zucker, Hudson's Bay? Is the director of Ghost and the Naked Gun series buying up North America's oldest company? The Hudson's Bay Company, born in 1670, is being bought up by a North Carolina business type called Jerry Zucker. If the Zucker completes the takeover, with his astounding $1 billion ALL-CASH offer, questions as to how he'll proceed with the retailer arise: Perhaps get ethical with wages? Revamp the......

Though they live deep in the heart of the "Red States," Raleigh, North Carolina's The Nein are making a habit of visiting the country described as "essentially Honduras." Signed to Hamilton's Sonic Unyon, the art-punk trio (and sometimes quatro) don't seem to mind Canada's progressive values and rampant dogsledding, as they play the Wavelength concert series this Sunday night at Sneaky Dee's and Tuesday at the Horseshoe. Catch the post-post punk band before they become......

When Jeremy Hinzman signed up for the United States Army, it seems it did not occur to him that may have to go to war. Hinzman, 26, came to Toronto from the 82d Airborne Regiment in North Carolina after being deployed to Iraq. He served in Afghanistan as a military cook, but decided not to join the invasion of Iraq, calling it "unlawful." Hinzman filed for "conscientious objector," but the US government entirely disagreed with......