ISSUE#58 [Of The Month] Ghostbusters, Gomorrah, Douglas Coupland and Dollhouse

Youtube, Twitter, Facebook
By now you know probably know about our Twitter and Facebook accounts. But did you know we now have a Youtube channel? Yes, it’s ridiculous. We are masters of all social media. Check out our Youtube channel to see a behind the scenes look of our cover shoot with Patrick Wolf. Sadly, the chair that fell on our Fashion Editor’s head at the shoot wasn’t captured on tape.
www.twitter.com/ionmagazine
www.facebook.com/ionmagazine
www.youtube.com/user/ionmagazine

DVD — Gomorrah
What do garbage disposal, high-end fashion and drug dealing have in common? Besides being the focus of next month’s Ion Magazine, all are trades linked to the Italian crime group the Camorra, the subject of last year’s critically acclaimed Italian film Gomorrah. Based on the controversial book of the same name (whose author, Roberto Saviano, has been granted permanent police protection after receiving numerous high-level death threats), the film shows how entrenched the Camorra has become in and around Naples through five separate storylines. From garment manufacturing to toxic waste management and cocaine trafficking, the Camorra spreads its net wide and each of the characters of Gomorrah are each in their own way caught in it. The film is at once a compelling human drama and a gritty crime story with a European flavour. Stripped of all the romance and over-the-top excess that tend to characterize its U.S. cousins, Gomorrah manages to be both authentic and, dare we say it, even more gangster than the Ed Hardy sequined hat and shirt combo we got sent in the mail this month. Strongly recommended. – Steven Evans

DVD — Dollhouse Season 1
No vampire slaying going in this new Joss Whedon series. Instead, you have Faith (Eliza Dushku) from Buffy starring as Echo, a hot waif who has her memory wiped by a secret underground laboratory called The Dollhouse. For a hefty price, you can have her body, a doll, implanted with any skills and memories you want. Example: say you’re really into adventure sports. You can make Echo really good at white water rafting and rock climbing. After the two of you go down a river, scale a mountain and have sex in your tent… you can then hunt her down with a bow and arrow for sport (spoiler alert: don’t, she’ll end up killing you if you do this). After this, her memory is wiped blank until the next assignment. Through the first season Echo becomes a brainwashed cult member, a bodyguard, a cat burglar and a sex slave. Everything is going great until Echo starts to become aware of what’s going on and a mysterious ex-doll tries to take the place down. Totally addictive.

Game — Ghostbusters
Okay, you’ve have been waiting 20 years for another Ghostbusters movie. Maybe it’s time to move on. But if you still refuse to let go, this is the game for you. It’s written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd and features their voice acting (as well as Bill Murray’s). So really, even if this game sucked, how could you not play it? So charge up the proton packs and capture a variety of ghoulish specters around New York City. Oh yeah, and you get to toast the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. How awesome is that?

Pet — Sunday Girl
Sunday Girl is the resident cat at the 107 Shaw Gallery in Toronto. Show up to say hi to her any day at any hour (the later the better). Might we suggest popping by on August 20th and you can catch Cody Cochrane’s show, who we featured in the last issue of ION. Send cute pictures to pet@ionmagazine.ca to have your pet immortalized in print.

Tough Economic Times Tips
This is a really simple way to make some quick scratch here. Start a magazine and bust your ass to keep it afloat. After a couple years, PR companies will start to send you a lot of cheap promotional crap and maybe a few DVDs if you’re lucky. By the time you hit year six, PR companies will sporadically start sending you really expensive crap that you can then sell on Craigslist or eBay.

Book — Generation A by Douglas Coupland
What the hell is a book doing in this magazine? Believe it or not, sometimes the ION crew put away our laptops and iPhones to enjoy a little summer reading. Douglas Coupland’s much-awaited follow up to Generation X takes place in the future where bees are extinct and consequently, most plant life is also extinct (turns out we need bees to pollinate stuff!). Most of the world is indifferent because they’re all strung out on a drug called Solon. Global apathy is put on hold when five people from different parts of the world are all stung by bees, making them overnight celebrities. It’s written in Douglas Coupland’s easy to read and amusing writing style, so you’ll feel smart as you breeze through this witty examination of the Youtube/Facebook/Twitter crowd.
Buy it here