By Christian Martiusí‚  

Fred Herzogí¢â‚¬â„¢s photography exhibition is extensive, almost excessive. But this arrangement of overabundance traverses the visual spectrum.It often depicts images of overcrowded streets, jammed full of bright neon and gaudy advertisements, or shop windows teeming with row upon row of similar products, priced and hung like carcasses, waiting to be plucked. The unifying theme that gathers these pictures together is the sense of a city shaped by its economy, dominated by its impact and divided by its effects.

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I can tell you the exact date and time I first watched the cult classic Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. I can tell you how I felt the first time I read The Curse of Lono, a book describing gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompsoní¢â‚¬â„¢s two trips to Hawaii in 1980. I can tell you where I was the day I found out that Thompson, one of the most iconic writers of the last one hundred years, committed suicide. If I can tell you all that, imagine what Ralph Steadman has to say.

Everything below here is from the Flux Issue, put out in March 2007.

The struggle for the authority of authorship has entered new terrain. Upset with the í¢â‚¬Ëœanti-American, anti-Christian biasí¢â‚¬â„¢ of on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia (hereby known as the Wikis), a group of conservative Christians based in the U.S have founded a counter-reference. Behold Conservapedia (hereby referred to as the Cons): an on-line encyclopedia that lies politically to the right of Genghis Kahn and philosophically lock-stepped with the í¢â‚¬ËœAdam and Eve were at risk of being stepped on by a T-rexí¢â‚¬â„¢ school of thinkers.

When Barack Obama announced he would be the keynote speaker at last weekí¢â‚¬â„¢s commemorative march in Selma, Alabama, to mark the 42nd anniversary of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march, a key moment in the struggle for civil rights in the southern United States, it was only a matter of time before rival Democratic hopeful Hilary Clinton countered with a keynote speech of her own.

I wake up and glance at the calendar; ití¢â‚¬â„¢s Monday. Usually, thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s cause for everyone to pull the covers over their heads and go back to sleep dreaming of Tuesday. But not for me: I spend Mondays with a smile on my face secure in the knowledge that in a few hours Ií¢â‚¬â„¢ll be watching another episode of my favourite show, 24.

Capitalmag's Megan Cole interviews Sol Guy, host of 4REAL, highlighting how young people around the world are using art and culture to deal with pressing social issues. Sol discusses the participation of celebrities including Joaquim Pheonix, K'naan, Sam Roberts and Mos Def.

4REAL will be airing this fall on MTV Canada. They are also planning an interactive web component that will allow the audience to have their opinions voiced and heard about the issues covered on the show. For more information, check out Direct Current Media.

Everything below here is from the Fictions issue, which Capital uploaded in early february...

In Sierra Leone, the lines that are supposed to lie between rebel and civilian, sister and enemy, child and combatant, have, in this small countryí¢â‚¬â„¢s tumultuous history, become difficult to identify with any certainty. The country continually manages to slip through the dichotomous í¢â‚¬Ëœwar and peaceí¢â‚¬â„¢ categories with which the international community attempts to define it with. Most often, it feels as though this patch of land exists in a space in-between.

Much like any encyclopaedic endeavour, Wikipedia.org has the best of intentions. Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s the peopleí¢â‚¬â„¢s resource, edited by people for other people to debate over. This isní¢â‚¬â„¢t necessarily a bad thing, as it forces readers to re-evaluate and question the accuracy of the facts they are presented with. No matter how solid the information seems, nothing found in Wikipedia is beyond dispute. Just sign up for an account and you too can have a say in defining the world around you í¢â‚¬“ though you will probably find yourself battling with other devoted users.