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(These are excerpts—click on the title to view the whole piece!)
Unreliable Memory
(Spotlight Runner-Up!)
My school days as a little gay boy at the dawning of the Canadian '70s were not collegial. I was avoided on good days and mocked or abused on bad ones, so Saturday-at-the-Martin's was a lovely change. I think the main thing I took from it was that rich people were classy on the outside but messy and chaotic on the inside, in a fun way.
Andrew Tibbetts
The Bad Guy Problem: Examining Cinema's Most Convenient Excuse
Pulp Fiction has more defenders than Boondock Saints or True Romance because it's a better movie, but perceived quality shouldn't be an excuse to avoid discussion. Remember: calling a movie "good" is entirely subjective—there's no agreed-upon criteria for what makes something "good" or "bad," and I don't think "good" movies should receive less critical analysis than "bad" ones. Quite the opposite: I think "good" movies should inspire more criticism because if they're considered "good," that means they're representative of what we like to watch, and can therefore tell us something about our culture. Do you think these "good" movies wouldn't be as good if they didn't contain slurs?
Gregg Maxwell Parker
Every day in summer he brings roses to you from the shrubs someone planted in your yard long ago. Last night he played Neil Young "Unplugged," which pried you away from the computer and into unfettered, untutored dancing. Years ago someone watched you and your husband dancing together at a party and told you, "Everybody should see you two dancing."
Judith Day
Had Konnie's mother and father tearfully hugged him goodbye before he boarded the ship that would take him to a new life in the US? Or had they perished in a Nazi forced labor camp? Did he have brothers and sisters and cousins and friends who survived? Did he dream in Ukrainian? Did he try to replicate the meals his mother once cooked for him, only they never tasted quite the same?
Mary Zelinka
