Posts by Derek Hogue
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Web Features
Playlist: Shauna de Cartier
As president of Toronto-based independent music label Six Shooter Records, Shauna de Cartier is one of very few women players in the male world of music management. “I’ve never been intimidated,” she says. “I’ve always thought that I could do anything.” With a roster of artists including Juno-nominated bands Shout Out Out Out Out and Elliot Brood, de Cartier works with some of Canada’s fastest-rising indie stars. These are some of her favourite tunes. Aimee Mann, … READ MORE
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Web Features
Letter from the Editors (Issue 2)
People always ask us for advice on starting a magazine. Usually, they want tips on how to hook up with a distributor, find an affordable printer or recruit writers and artists. As far as we’re concerned, those are the easy parts. Since it’s our last issue as co-editors of Shameless, we’d like to share some of the other lessons we’ve learned along the way—lessons we’re pretty sure will stick with us for life. “Let’s do lunch” … READ MORE
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Web Features
Geek Chic: Who was that masked mechanatrix?
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to present to you a powerful hidden force of our time. I speak of a silent sisterhood, an ineffable affinity, a culture shrouded in a mystery wrapped in an enigma, so secret that the members themselves may not be aware of who they are. I speak, of course, of the camouflaged chix0r, the masked mechanatrix — the geek in disguise. Oh yes, they are all around us, and always have been. … READ MORE
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Web Features
Letter from the Editors (Issue 10)
We always laugh when people ask us where Shameless HQ is located. Though we get a kick out of mentioning our headquarters in the magazine, the truth is, Shameless HQ doesn’t exist. As an independent magazine funded entirely by subscriptions, newsstand sales and limited advertising, we’ve simply never had the budget for an office. Over the past few years, we’ve worked in dozens of bedrooms, kitchens, post offices and coffee shops—and have been chased out of … READ MORE
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Web Features
Body Politics: Preventing HPV
Pop quiz: what is HPV and what can it do to your body? If you don’t know, you’re not alone. Only one in five Canadian teens between 14 and 17 years of age have heard of HPV, and of those who have, close to half (45 percent) don’t know about the potential health consequences. So listen up. Human papilloma virus is the cause of both genital warts and cervical, anal and penile cancer. This virus is … READ MORE
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Web Features
Letter from the Editors (Issue 9)
In our very first letter in the very first issue of Shameless, published in the summer of 2004, we wrote, “Welcome to Shameless, the magazine we hope will give teen media a serious kick in the ass.” So we think it’s fitting that the cover of our second anniversary issue features a boxer — a symbol of guts, glory and fearlessness. After all, publishing an independent, grassroots magazine on volunteer power alone requires many of … READ MORE
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Web Features
Woman on the Job: Journalist
Flashing a press pass to get backstage may seem like a dream job, but it’s not all free swag and celebrity interviews. Journalists face looming deadlines, newsroom pressure and hours hunched over the computer. Yet Ashante Infantry, a 37-year-old entertainment reporter for the Toronto Star, wouldn’t have it any other way. The job: I started at the Star as a general assignment entertainment reporter. Now I mostly specialize as a jazz and urban music writer, but … READ MORE
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Web Features
Advice: My boss is a creep!
I work for a married couple at a small restaurant. The wife is great but her husband is intolerable. He makes inappropriate comments and I’m extremely uncomfortable when I have to work alone with him. He offers me shoulder rubs and goes out of his way to talk about sex. I laugh at his jokes because I need to keep my job, but listening to him makes me sick. I don’t know how to tell … READ MORE
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Web Features
Sporting Goods: Stepping into the ring
Picture this: you’ve spent the last hour skipping relentlessly, burning your way through sets of push-ups and lifts of the medicine ball, slugging 200-pound leather bags as if your life depended on it, and now you’re in the ring for a round of sparring. You feel a combination of electrified and bone-tired; you’re alert but it’s hard to hold up your hands. Your opponent is driven and is stalking you like prey. She backs you … READ MORE
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Web Features
Mix Tape: Nirmala Basnayake
Nirmala Basnayake is the vocalist for death-disco band Controller.Controller. She’s always happy when you dance to her music, but is much more concerned about dancing to yours. Here’s her commentary on the mix CD she made for our Summer 2006 issue. Says Basnayake: “Making a Top 10 list of any sort is a difficult task! I have so much trouble eliminating entries and even more trouble staying firm. I’m constantly changing my mind, shifting things around, so … READ MORE
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Web Features
Letter from the Editors (Issue 8)
Greetings shameless friends! After an unseasonably warm Canadian winter spent working on this issue, we’re happy to bring you some sassy spring reading material. It’s been an accolade-filled few months for Team Shameless. In October, Shameless was named Best Magazine by Toronto alt-weekly NOW and, in January, we won an Utne Independent Press Award for Personal Life Coverage. We’d like to thank both of these fine publications for their support, our contributors for their hard … READ MORE
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Web Features
Stir it Up: The Dirt on Corporate Organics
What comes to mind when you think of organic food? Fruit pocked with holes and wormy veggies? Food grown on small farms in a way that’s closer to the earth? Though this may have been the reality at one point, it’s now only partially true. Nearly half of the products stocking the shelves of your average natural food store are now produced by large American-owned corporations. It’s their new niche market. Organic foods are being mass … READ MORE
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Web Features
DIY: Hanging Lamp
Homemade lamps are a cheap way to personalize any space and add colour to rooms that are only temporary quarters or that you aren’t allowed to paint. My mother taught me this technique when I was an impoverished student. I can afford to buy lamps now, but I still find it more satisfying to make them. Although it’s easy to do, wiring a lamp will make you feel impressively handy. And lamps make good gifts! WHAT … READ MORE
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Web Features
Letter from the Editors (Issue 7)
We bet you think it’s party time all year round at Shameless HQ. Well, you’re partially right. Allow us to bring you up to speed on how we spent our summer vacation, as we scrub the cake stains out of our carpet. In June, we held our first birthday party and celebrated the launch of the summer issue with two flavours of birthday cake and a dance party that left us exhausted for weeks. By July, we … READ MORE
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Web Features
Sporting Goods: Catching a Wave
I turn my head and look back over my shoulder at the frothy white wall of water rushing up behind me. I paddle harder, picking up speed and looking forward now, over the pink-and-blue nose of my surfboard. I feel the wave catch me and the surge of energy lift the board. The sound of water crashing into itself grows louder; the fizz of a million bursting bubbles fills my ears. One. I straighten my arms, … READ MORE
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Web Features
DIY: Record Bowls
If you aren’t a vinyl collector yourself, chances are your parents have a box of unused and outdated hits on vinyl rotting away in the basement. There may only be a few gems in that treasure box, but don’t let the rest go to waste. Record bowls are a fun and easy way to reuse old vinyl. They look great in your room and make excellent gifts. Plus, they’re easy to make: all the tools … READ MORE
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Web Features
Letter from the Editors (Issue 6)
Happy birthday to us! This issue marks a full year of publishing for Shameless. We’ll only have the chance to celebrate our very first birthday once, and we’re glad you’re coming along for the ride. In this issue, we meet five women who are shaking up the comics industry. From Montreal’s Leanne Franson, who publishes her indie comic (Liliane, Bi-Dyke) online, to Vancouver’s Pia Guerra, who draws Y-The Last Man for DC Comics, these women are … READ MORE
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Web Features
And in This Corner…: The Hot Fat Girl Manifesto
When I was in high school, I was part of the problem. I didn’t join in the chorus of guffaws when classmates teased the fat girl, but I didn’t say anything in her defence. I tried to pretend I didn’t care as she shrank against the puke green locker-room walls. When I ran into her at the bus stop, I was friendly, but not too friendly. Meanwhile, I drank coffee for breakfast, ate green apples … READ MORE
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Web Features
Sporting Goods: Fancy footwork
The room sweats with the body heat of about 50 guys, many shirtless, and two women. Camille Surovy is one of those women and an organizer of this event, Toronto’s first freestyle footbag competition: the Great Lakes Area Shred Symposium (GLASS). Surovy hops and jumps, twisting her limbs around the airborne bean-filled bag, catching it on top of her shoe and kicking it up into another trick. It looks like a cross between Riverdance and juggling … READ MORE
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Web Features
Severn Saves the World: Meet Severn Cullis-Suzuki, activist extraordinaire.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki has a natural instinct when it comes to caring about where she lives. Her global heart and mind have made the 25-year-old one of Canada’s most well-known environmental and social justice youth activists. At the age of nine, Vancouver-born Cullis-Suzuki and some friends started the Environmental Children’s Organization to educate themselves and their peers about environmental issues. In 1992, when she was 12 years old, Cullis-Suzuki delivered a powerful address to political representatives at … READ MORE
