Author: Kevin Bourne

This past weekend marked the 2018 edition of Ottawa Comiccon, the premiere pop culture fan event in Canada’s capital. Over 40,000 visitors attended the event, now in its seventh year, to take in the best of comics, movies, TV horror sci-fi, video games toys and manga in over 120,000 square feet of space at the EY Centre. Not typically known as a celebrity hotspot, Ottawa attracted an impressive list of celebrity guests including Justice League, Game of Thrones and Conan The Barbarian star Jason Momoa, and Finn Jones of Iron Fist and Game of Thrones, Matt Smith of Dr. Who, Brent…

Belinda “Kamshuka” Barrocks recently had the opportunity to sit down with designer Shanté Renee Roline, founder of Vanity Couture, a luxury swimsuit line that recently made its mark at Fashion Art Toronto. Here’s what she had to say. Kamshuka: What initially drew you into the fashion industry? Shanté Renee Roline: My sister and I had a dress up box growing up full of all my mom’s old vintage clothing, lace accessories and even heels far too big for us to be wearing. We used to have the time of our lives with that thing. Dress up transcended into dressing up…

Joyner Lucas, who’s been building some momentum with his remixes and Chris Brown collabs, performed at The Bourbon Room in Ottawa after performances in Montreal and Toronto for the Canadian leg of his I’m Kind of a Big Deal tour. Ottawa is used to getting passed over by artists so it’s always good to have a stop in the capital. This is a show that was on my radar for a while. After a few years of “mumble rap” dominating the scene, artists like Joyner Lucas are making lyricism hot again as the pendulum slowly swings back to the East Coast.…

Donald Glover just had one of the most important weekends of his career. He hosted SNL as Donald Glover and performed two new songs under his musical persona Childish Gambino. Although this was a rare moment in Saturday Night Live history (hosts rarely ever double as musical guest; such is Glover’s brilliance), the best part of the last few days was the release of possibly the most important music video in our current socio-political climate- This is America. This is a genius creative project put together by one of the greatest creative masterminds of our generation (peep the label “creative…

Sunandini Verma is one of those people that radiates confidence and draws you right in. From a very young age, her parents instilled in her she could do absolutely anything she put her mind to. Business and entrepreneurship has been a part of her life for as long as she could remember. Sunandini shares her journey from working in the corporate world and realizing it just wasn’t for her; she felt unfulfilled. Her strong will and determination led her to set out and do something she knew would make her happy, and AMREV Media was born. Her company offers a…

This weekend I attended the ALSO Arts Law Conference where artists learned about the legal side of their industries. They covered topics like Labour and Employment law, Succession Planning, and Tax Issues for artists and included panels made up of industry vets in music, film and the fine arts. The conference was hosted by the Artists’ Legal Services Ottawa, also known as ALSO, a group of volunteer lawyers, artists and arts industry professionals dedicated to connecting Ottawa-area artists with legal information and resources. Many creators, including me, underestimate the value of understanding the law, but it’s very important. As a creator you…

So I finally had the opportunity to check out the much anticipated Netflix premiere of The Carter Effect which released this past weekend. It’s a sports documentary directed by Sean Menard and produced by Lebron James and his longtime business partner Maverick Carter’s Uninterrupted Media. The film chronicles the rise of current NBA player Vince Carter and his cultural impact on the game of basketball in the city of Toronto. The film debuted at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and tickets sold out fast for obvious reasons. Carter is still seen as a god by some basketball fans here…

Sponsored post When you google “SHIFTER” you immediately see “SHIFTER Magazine – Business. Art. Film. Music. Fashion.” If you are an artist who sees their film, music, or fashion work as a business…then keep reading. On Saturday, May 5, 2018, the first annual ALSO Arts Law Conference is taking place at Arts Court (2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa). What’s ALSO? Artists’ Legal Services Ottawa is an organization that for the last five years has organized legal panels featuring local lawyers and artist professionals sharing legal tips and ideas on topics ranging from contracts to copyright, tax to labour law issues. Five (of the…

Mazz Amini, also known as Grillzbymazz, is one of Toronto’s top custom grill makers and high-end hip-hop jewellers. Mazz shares his story of how he came up in the industry with little to no knowledge, and how he learned very quickly that he would need to learn the tricks of the trade on his own. With having a business degree, Mazz was already one step ahead of the game and used that to his advantage to create a successful jewellery business. His client list consists of many well-known Toronto favourites to international artists. Jae and Trey from 4YallEntertainment, model Winnie…

After endless teasers, a decade of setup and all the fan theories, we’ve come to this moment. The wait for Thanos is over. And right out the gate we see that the threat he poses to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is real. Following immediately after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, Thanos easily captures Thor and shows the Hulk he’s no mere puny god. From that moment on there’s no doubt that Josh Brolin as Thanos will be the one driving this film. And what’s in store for us is undoubtedly the end times for the MCU. *Spoilers ahead. Let’s get…

This weekend, one of the most highly anticipated projects in Canada’s capital was unveiled- the new Ottawa Art Gallery. This project was years in the making and it didn’t disappoint. The new art gallery spans six floors and includes more than 55,000 square feet of programmable space, including an an art studio and rotating galleries for historical, contemporary and touring exhibitions. The weekend’s festivities opened with a gala reception on Friday night where the who’s who of the city came out to get a first look at the gallery. Aside from the Ottawa Art Gallery’s vast collection of art, the gala…

Over the past 24 hours, Kanye West has released two new songs, probably from his upcoming albums. The song that’s getting some people riled up is “Ye vs. the People” so let’s focus on that. Before we go into the message of the song, let’s just talk about the music. There’s nobody out there that samples like Kanye. Like we’ve seen on Otis, Kanye doesn’t just sample high hats and baselines, he samples vocals with lots of soul, so what we end up with is a very soulful record. “Ye vs. the People” follows that formula sampling legendary Motown group The…