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I See Dead People Great Moments in Corpse-Peeping "I’m a fan of wolf-men and conjoined twins; I’m fascinated by the weird things the body can do, whether it’s adapting to a prosthetic limb or a surrogate pregnancy; near-sightedness, neurological disorders, dwarfism."
Reflecting on Copenhagen A transplant finds a new way to look at his old new home "The weather is just an excuse. I have long since stopped seeing the city as I hurry to appointments, detached and distracted on my cell phone, preoccupied, daydreaming. Head down, wearing my nine-to-five blinders, Copenhagen became everyday life. "
Negotiating Hong Kong Diary of an Asylum-Seeker "I have been thinking hard all these hours, but I can’t understand my thoughts—they are all illusions of paradise. I am trapped in the “pipe-dream” world. I have been in this world many times and now I am addicted to it. It is like my home, and there is no way I can escape from it."
Five Ways to Run 5-K Going back and breaking the rules " Concerned I’ll never make it through the dinosaur room, past the Ming Tomb and into the lair of mummies, I channel the twelve-year-old track star in me, and, sporting terrycloth jogging shorts and matching wristbands, join 250 others in the museum lobby of the Royal Ontario Museum." TOPIC correspondent Amanda Miller recounts how breaking all the rules was all part of the run.
Prisoner 66445 The Troubles of Writing Fiction in Flashback Eight years ago, I lay on a concrete bench at seven o’clock on a bright May morning, with a bag filled with sweatpants, brown rubber shower shoes, a green plastic cup, and a copy of The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
The Indecisive Moment The sin of not noticing "It is wisdom that sees the ordinary with amazement." - Lao Tzu
Shutdown Day On buttons off, or else? Can you go just one day without a computer? Montreal-based Michael Tay and Denis Bystrov decided to find out. In late February, the duo proclaimed March 24th as national Shutdown Day, on which they encourage people across the globe to turn off their computers for the day. The video Tay and Bystrov made to support the project, which they posted on their Shutdown Day Web site, has been featured on the home pages of YouTube, MySpace and Digg.com, and has been viewed by over one million people. Topic’s Tiffany Jow spoke with Tay a few weeks before March 24th about utilizing the Internet to boycott computers and the dangers of using a laptop as a basketball.
The Winner of The Mole Dorothy Hui, on how to win a reality-TV game show In 2001, Dorothy Hui won The Mole 2, a reality game show in which players must identify the deceiver in their ranks. With Topic correspondent Nina Weiss, Hui picks the top ten tactics that brought her to victory.
Flying Feathers: All in All The Pillow Fight League's Scorecard In concluding her coverage of the Pillow Fight League, Margaret Eby lists some notable stats.
Flying Feathers, Part Two Following the pillow fighters on to New York
Flying Feathers Even pillow fighters can go pro Founded in 2004, Toronto's Pillow Fight League doesn't boast many rules – as long as a fighter's hands are firmly grasping a pillow, pretty much anything goes. But beneath their costumes, bravado and blackened eyes, the PFL ladies say they’re serious students of everything from jiu-jitsu to sword-fighting. Topic's Amanda Miller joins four league veterans for some locker-room talk and an inside peek at what the official PFL website calls the "new wave in sports entertainment."
Te Wo Agero! Put your hands up for Japanese rap, alive and well in Tokyo
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I have never been to Tokyo, and can’t imagine what Japanese rap sounds like. Hip-hop has evolved so much in American culture that it makes me wonder how the genre is faring in a nation without the street gangs and violence that many identify with Western rap music.” Topic correspondent Daisy Walsh finds out more about the world of Japanese hip-hop from her rapper cousin, Tad Sasaki.
