Category Archives: Shameless Promotion

by | August 29, 2015 · 10:32 am

9 Unlikely Contenders For The Polaris Heritage Prize

Bob and Doug MacKenzie

Bob and Doug MacKenzie

My friends and employers at the Polaris Music Prize have introduced a new award — the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize — designed to honour Canadian classic albums from the before Polaris existed. Think of it as a legacy award.

Knowing my peers, I know they’ll nominate a lot of wonderful, timeless albums for Heritage Prize consideration. Also knowing my peers, I know there are certain types of albums — the weird, the crude, the hilarious — that they may not take seriously enough to consider nomination-worthy.

I fixed that problem for them.

To read how, head over to Aux to take a look at the list of unlikely Heritage Prize contenders I compiled.

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by | August 28, 2015 · 10:04 am

Karate Kid’s Real Villain

Karate Kid

Karate Kid

Y’know that film Karate Kid from 1984 with the wax on, wax off and the story of a plucky youngster named Daniel LaRusso overcoming his adversaries through karate?

It turns out Daniel was the bad guy and we’re only now just figuring it out.

Sarah wrote about why for Fightland.

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by | August 26, 2015 · 7:40 pm

Hot-Blooded Girls And The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s Illya Kuryakin

David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin

David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin

The return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. franchise has been a mixed blessing in the Risky Fuel household.

Particularly because one half of Team Fuel (Sarah) has a deep, borderline “problem” level crush on the original television show’s thoughtful, mysterious Russian spy character Illya Kuryakin, who was played by David McCallum.

In the film reboot Kuryakin is entirely different, a musclebound lurch played by Armie Hammer.

Sarah’s having a hard time accepting the new version of Illya, which may be putting her at odds with a whole new generation of U.N.C.L.E. fans.

She wrote about this quandary in her first piece for The A.V. Club.

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by | August 26, 2015 · 6:03 pm

I Saw $400 Worth Of Concerts Thanks To Ontario Taxpayers

The TORONTO sign as part of Panamania.

The TORONTO sign as part of Panamania.

As a person who a) appreciates high-level athleticism, but b) also understand that many international sporting organizations are amoral-to-outright evil, I knew that when the Pan Am Games came to Toronto this summer that regular citizens like myself would to a certain degree be fucked.

After all, I’m not part of some overtures-covered, politically-connected contractor circle jerk, so none of that grift was going to come my way.

Instead, knowing that as an Ontario taxpayer I was paying for this shit, I was going to have to earn back its value the hard way… by extracting personal entertainment from the whole thing.

Which is exactly what I did to the tune of about $400, mostly in the form of checking out the free Panamania concert schedule.

I explained all about how I came up with this number in a math-y article for AUX.

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by | August 26, 2015 · 4:26 pm

Maryna Moroz Is Fighting For Our Love

Maryna “The Iron Woman” Moroz

Maryna “The Iron Woman” Moroz

Fast-rising Ukrainian fighter Maryna Moroz didn’t win her match at UFC Fight Night Saskatoon last week, but the future’s still bright for the young Eastern European martial artist.

Sarah spoke to her about her career for Fightland.

To read the story go here.

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