hi everyone some profesh news: i'm back writing and editing over at SOCAN. music writing! my first love! i'll be posting contributor stuff soon but for any PR folks who want to send me canadian music pls my inbox is ready for you at sarah.macdonald@socan.com

Cops keep showing up to arts events about Palestine. What can organizers do? Toronto police showed up at a comedy fundraiser and at a film screening on the same night in April. Organizers describe how this fits into a broader pattern and what can be done to protect community…

On April 4, TPS entered the lobby of Comedy Bar moments before the start of a fundraising event for Gaza.

That same night, cops entered a theatre at TIFF Lightbox midway through a screening of 'Palestine 36.'

I dug into this concerning trend for @thegrindto.bsky.social.

The Internet's Most Powerful Archiving Tool Is in Peril As major news outlets cut off the Wayback Machine, journalists and advocacy groups are rallying to protect the Internet Archive’s vast collection of web pages.

Journalists know that losing the Wayback Machine would be a nightmare: www.wired.com/story/the-in...

lol I definitely don't think this is what Netflix had in mind when they offered me this interview

A Conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates On the Black and Palestinian experiences, the aftermath of the US election, the boycott movement and more.

We don't normally publish on a Tuesday, but this is a special one-off: A big interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates where we cover the aftermath of the 2024 election, the boycott movement, Black and Palestinian experiences in the US and more www.thekeymagazine.com/p/ta-nehisi-...

We were stoked to have some face time with the Japanese-American actor, but his schedule prevented it. So, we opted for e-mail correspondence. A list of queries was sent his way, and we waited. The silence continued until it was quickly replaced by a ticking clock as deadlines loomed. We had the photospread, but nothing directly uttered by the 29-year-old. With a driving need for a feature, we had to be inventive. Harnessing our creative license, we pulled his verbatim from previous interviews and fed them through an AI programme to formulate new responses. Are these the words we expect from Mackenyu? Or are they just replies from an echo chamber of celebrity-hood that we want to believe is from him? With the absence of information, can new insights be gained? Nature abhors a vacuum, and in its place, a story fills the hollow. The following interview was produced with Claude, Copilot, and edited by humans.

cover of esquire singapore featuring a photo of the guy they didn't interview

Esquire Singapore posted a cover story interview that

***did not interview the subject***

***but instead***

***generated the entire interview using AI***

jfc wtaf gtfo

A thumb brace has let me play games pain-free for the first time in years Finally, I have achieved my fitness goals. My thumbs grow buffer by the day.

these super low profile thumb braces are the reason i can play video games again and i did a lot of searching to find them. no provider recommended them to me for video games! none of them really knew what to do about gaming. i don't want to gatekeep!
www.mothership.blog/a-thumb-brac...

Sinners’ cinematographer wants you to feel the Mississippi Delta’s vastness For Autumn Durald Arkapaw, going “full bananas” was the ideal way to bring Sinners to life.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman to ever win an Academy Award for best cinematography. @charlespulliam.bsky.social talked to her about bringing Sinners to life by focusing on the big picture.

I'm going to go out on a ledge and suggest: Because Michael B Jordan won it? I'm willing to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure once that happened, Mr. Chalamet was no longer able to win. Why, were there other conditions he failed to meet?

Ryan Coogler accepts his first-ever Oscar to a standing ovation

“To my parents who are here, thank you for making me believe in myself… Memories are all we have. I hope we give you some great ones.”

Michael b Jordan

MICHAEL BEST ACTOR JORDAN!!!!!!!

Ms Rachel has shifted from advocating for children killed by bombs that our taxes pay for, to advocating for children that our government is imprisoning without cause, which our taxes also pay for.
This isn’t what a kid’s entertainer should feel the need to do, but since we’re here, more ppl should.

The Oscars Needs Sinners More than Ryan Coogler’s movie needs 16 Academy Award nominations or a Best Picture win.

@angelicabastien.bsky.social and i answer the question of the moment: "what does "sinners" record-breaking oscar nomination haul mean?"

for the academy? everything.
for the future of black film? history tells us it won't change much.

for @vulture.com.

The Tyee is proud to have published this important investigation by @rachelgilmore.bsky.social. We condemn this egregious harassment of a journalist for doing her job, and have offered support as she deals with this disturbing situation.

Global News’ Ben Mulroney Shared a Video of Airstrikes. The Footage is Actually from a Video Game. The host of Global News’ West Block gets lost in a misinformation-driven fog of war as American and Israeli forces strike Iran

NEW FROM ME:

While US and Israeli forces launched strikes against Iran this weekend, Global News' The West Block host Ben Mulroney reposted video of fighter jets that had been miscaptioned as American F-15s attacking Iran

I double-checked. Ben was actually sharing footage from a video game

For Mark Carney, the leader of a democratic country, to back a war his counterpart Trump started without the approval of the United States government, should raise serious questions for Canadians about the value our own Prime Minister places on our democratic process.

A White House Staffer Appears to Run Massive Pro-Trump X Account A popular right-wing account that called a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes "a masterpiece" appears to be run by a White House staffer, according to records reviewed by WIRED.

While the Trump admin works with right-wing creators, a White House staffer moonlighting as an anonymous MAGA influencer makes it nearly impossible to distinguish official government messaging from 'organic' online support.

More here:
www.wired.com/story/a-whit...

Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson says Bafta told him ‘any swearing would be edited out of the broadcast’ Davidson said he ‘can’t begin to explain how upset and distraught I have been’ over slurs he shouted during the award ceremony

*been* betting it was bullshit that bafta and bbc did anything to accommodate anybody involved and possibly quite the opposite and there it is www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Warner Bros. Complained About BAFTA Racial Slur Incident & Requested It Be Cut From BBC Broadcast Warner Bros. raised concerns about involuntary racial slur directed at 'Sinners' stars during the BAFTA Film Awards, requesting a cut to BBC show.

hhhhMMMMMmmmmm deadline.com/2026/02/warn...

‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Bringing New Fans to Hockey. Does the Sport Deserve Them? Obsession over a show about two closeted hockey players has brought new fandom to the sport just ahead of the Olympics. But men's hockey's lack of support for LGBTQ+ players and fans is notable.

A lot of people are sharing that clip of the US men's hockey team laughing about the women's team with Trump/Kash Patel. A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how, despite the Heated Rivalry effect, hockey culture still sucks: www.wired.com/story/winter...

knowing that nobody at the BAFTAs spoke to Delroy or Michael, that apparently there was a 'sorry if you were offended' apology, and the fact that the BBC took time to edit "free palestine" and not the slurs has made an already ugly no win situation much worse

Over the past couple years, a common refrain among Canadian authors who didn't support the Giller Prize boycott was that the campaign had a point, but was unlikely to 'make a difference.'

Scotiabank had a $368-million (US) stake in Elbit at the end of 2022. Now it's $0.

Today is the first anniversary of this post. I'm still looking for more work/a new job. If anyone here is looking for a culture journalist with deep experience in reporting, critical analysis, cover stories, etc, let's connect. Highlights of my work are below. Full portfolio and email are in my bio.

<___<

Toronto-born musician Nathan Micay is making his mark on HBO’s Industry Micay’s compositions translate financial power and personal pressures into music that moves beneath the dialogue

industry hive assemble for @noelransome.bsky.social's great profile of the man behind the music

Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women | Essence New labor data shows Black women accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses across 2025, especially in federal, education, and care-sector roles.

Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women www.essence.com/news/money-c...

image from today's hearing

Epstein survivors raise their hands to signal they've been ignored by Trump's DOJ as AG Pam Bondi refuses to look at them

(Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty)

I'm hardly the first person to note this, but it's enormously instructive that our President and his followers saw the message "THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE" and understood it, correctly, as an attack on them

where you can go online

An Engineer Was Fired After Speaking Out for Palestine. Now He’s Suing His Former Employer Palestinian-Canadian Amjad Ramadan is seeking nearly $400,000 in damages after he was abruptly terminated by NTN Canada, the manufacturing company he’d worked at for 15 years. He was fired soon after…

New story in The Grind.

Amjad Ramadan, a 52-year-old Palestinian-Canadian, is suing his former employer for wrongful dismissal after he was abruptly terminated for speaking out for Palestine.

"There is a campaign to silence us," he told me.

@thegrindto.bsky.social