Katherine Brodsky

Are you a glass half-empty or half-full kind of person? Apparently, it really is the thought that counts.

There is a sense of gravitas and deliberateness as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra rehearses at the Orpheum Theatre under the dutiful watch of their new music director, Otto Tausk. “There’s a small coda here,” the Dutch conductor instructs the musicians. “We will not stop at the coda, but we do need to make it very clear.” Several pieces are rehearsed throughout the day, including Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child, sung by Nathalie Paulin. The soaring voice of the soloist is heard above an accord...

It was an unlikely friendship and business partnership that has outlasted most Hollywood marriages. Victor Loewy was born in Romania; Robert Lantos, pictured at left, came to Montreal from Hungary.
“Hungarians have a sense of superiority to Romanians,” says Lantos, dryly — it’s been a running joke between them for years. Yet, the two McGill students formed a bond. Lantos would hitchhike to school. Loewy picked him up.
Together, in the early 1970s, they had formed a tiny company named Vivafilm...

Recently, after seeing “Love, Simon,” filmmaker Xavier Dolan wrote on his Instagram page, “Let’s not discuss the movie itself, but rather focus on its existence, and the fact a major studio has released a film on a teen coming out. A door has opened, which has opened before, but this time, I can see the light pouring in.” He praised the film for being a huge step towards building narratives around LGBTQ protagonists instead of relinquishing them to comical supporting roles. When “Call Me by Y...

Adjacent to the Kamogawa River, the Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto is within easy reach of some of the liveliest areas in Kyoto, including the geisha district Gion, the restaurant-filled Pontocho alley, and the Kawaramachi shopping area—yet somehow manages to maintain an air of tranquil, almost ryokan-like seclusion. A true oasis that combines modern design with traditional Japanese culture, heritage, and motifs, the Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto transports its guests to another world. There are Zen gardens, a ca...

In Vancouver, wilderness adventure, stunning vistas and urban attractions all intersect in the same playground. The laid-back vibe, beaches, parks, seascapes and hiking trails provide the perfect backdrop for a rapidly expanding food scene, nightlife and shopping.
The past few years have seen plenty of new arrivals to Vancouver, most notably Parq Vancouver, a $640 million project built next to the B.C. Place Stadium. Check into one of its two hotels-the Douglas, an Autograph Collection Hotel,...

It’s easy to get lost in Tokyo. Home to massive skyscrapers, neon-lit signs, owl and maid cafes, anime shops, countless restaurants and karaoke bars, the city is always buzzing, always moving, and catching one’s breath requires some effort. But beneath the ultra-modern facade there are also old traditional neighbourhoods and shops, green spaces, and beautiful temples and shrines. Tokyo is a city of contrasts, where cutting edge modernity meets ancient Japanese culture.

With its glossy, bubble-gum, reality television exterior, UnReal was easy to dismiss when it premiered on Lifetime in 2015. But as audiences soon found out, this show had something much darker and meatier boiling beneath the surface.
UnReal takes viewers behind the scenes of a fictitious Bachelor-like dating reality show called Everlasting. Far more than a mere parody, UnReal, whose first season earned it a Peabody Award amongst other honours, uses this seemingly “low culture” platform to loo...

INDYGO
Kyoto guide: Where to eat, drink shop and stay in Japan’s temple-filled city
With its rich colours, tradition, history and culture, Kyoto is a city which allows visitors a glimpse into the past. The city embodies the Japanese aesthetic concept of “wabi-sabi” – the art of finding beauty in transience or imperfection. It also happens to have one of the world’s largest collections of Unesco World Heritage sites; it’s impossible to see them all, so focusing on a few is key. That leaves tim...

(CNN) — As soon as you touch down in Puerto Vallarta, in Mexico's Jalisco state on the Pacific Coast, you'll find yourself accosted by offers of "complimentary" tequila shots and greeters trying to sell you timeshares. But Puerto Vallarta was once a very different destination.
Known as Las Peñas in the 1800s, it was renamed after former state governor Ignacio Vallarta in the early 1900s. As a fishing town, Puerto Vallarta's main source of pesos, in addition to fishing, was agricultural export...

Imagine waking up each morning with a view of a vineyard and a gentle breeze to greet you as you take your breakfast on the patio of a charming little house. Blue Grouse House, which is nestled on a family-owned winery and vineyard in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, is just the spot to make that fantasy real. A beautifully appointed two-bedroom property surrounded by vines, this is the kind of place where Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine, would go to relax.
The Blue Grouse Estate Winer...

Summer Movie Release Schedule 2017 - The New York T...