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– Words by Susan Lundy Photography by Don Denton When former Oak Bay mayor Christopher Causton started walking to work at the municipal hall in the mid-’90s, he decided to take the route less travelled. Today, three decades later, Chris is certain he’s walked almost all of the municipality’s dozens of back alleys, pathways and walkways. Back in 2006, when an Oak Bay walking group asked Chris to host a back alley tour, he happily obliged, creating a route that started at the Oak Bay Recreation Centre. Expecting a group of about 25, he was stunned to see over 200...

Fashion trends come and go, but it seems like there are outfit variations that withstand the test of time. For example, a great pair of jeans and a colorful top will never go out of style. Denim jackets seem to come back year after year, and it seems like a pair of trendy nude heels will compliment just about anything. Of course, as we get older, it can become more difficult to find clothing items that fit and flatter while not making us look and feel ancient. Especially when we aren’t the same size we used to be. So with...

Kiel James Patrick If you missed yesterday's Oscar post, you might want to read it first. Well, the Oscars sounded like a hot mess - I'm glad I passed.I got a kick out of the fact that I posted yesterday on Sharon Stone's noteworthy Gap shirt and Vera Wang skirt at the 1998 Academy Awards, and everyone agrees that the Best Dressed at this year's Oscars was Zendaya in her white shirt and long skirt ensemble. Stunning. Zendaya CONTINUE READING »

Editor’s Note: For the first several months of 2022, we’ll be celebrating some of our favorite work from the last fourteen years in a series of “From the Archives” posts. In today’s feature, Rebecca Scherm reviews NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names. The review was originally published on June 3, 2013. Scherm’s new novel, A House Between Earth and the Moon, is out today from Penguin Random House.  NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names (Little, Brown), opens in Paradise, the Zimbabwe shantytown where Darling and her mother have lived since their house was bulldozed by the government....

Over the 2021 holiday season, I sat down to watch Disney’s latest animated film, Encanto. I laughed, I cried, I couldn’t stop thinking, “Daaaaamn, this adorable musical about intergenerational trauma got hands!” As the grandchild of a Latin American immigrant and as an older sister, I kept seeing myself in amazing and uncomfortable ways. Like if you want to have a good time, maybe watch Dumbo or something. The magic of Encanto flows like the river in the film: strong, ever-present, and able to be re-routed. Like many Disney films, Encanto can be categorized as a fantasy musical, but Encanto fits comfortably under the Magical Realism umbrella. What is Magical...