“Clothes make the man,” Mark Twain once quipped, “naked people have little or no influence on society.” Shirts, shoes and other accoutrements play an important role in our culture by passing along visual cues on a person’s status, conformity to social norms, activities and even their taste in music. To quote another dead white man (Sir Francis Bacon), “fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living form and social intercourse.” Whether you subscribe to Vogue or deride the latest styles as a capitalists plot, you are in fact... | Continue reading article

This post by Justin Beach of NXEW.ca is reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons license agreement. Make sure to check North by East West, it’s an awesome Canadian music blog. I (heart) Music is based out of Ottawa, they put on great shows and we want to see them continue to exist and grow. This why I am sharing this with you. It would appear that, through tremendous support from readers, musicians, bloggers and others that I (Heart) Music will continue. Through a combination of donations of money and... | Continue reading article

Our little stand at the corner of O’Connor and Second Avenue raised $215 Saturday. We say “raised” because the money is going to our bandwidth fund. We met lots of friendly people and our apartments are now slightly less crowded. We worked our sales pitches: “buy a knife, settle your domestic disputes;” “support Stéphane Dion, buy a ‘green shift’ baseball cap;” and of course, our 613 pitches. Among the highlights of our sale: our waffle iron was purchased (no more brunches for us); got rid of StarWars figurines (but no... | Continue reading article

Guest post from Kym Shumsky, an Ottawa writer shares her thoughts and pictures of things she likes on her blog at Relishing.ca. This post is part one of a three-part series on Fitness in the Capital Region. Ottawa Raceday is upon us.  As thousands of local residents prepare to slog around the capital, it seemed a good time to commiserate with the well-intentioned but just-not-into-it crowd.  The never-a-thoners.  The cheer section.  I hear you, people. Let’s face it; Ottawa is a running city, and for good reason.  I am a... | Continue reading article

This post by Justin Beach of NXEW.ca is reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons license agreement. Make sure to check North by East West, it’s an awesome Canadian music blog. I (heart) Music is based out of Ottawa, they put on great shows and we want to see them continue to exist and grow. This why I am sharing this with you. Sometimes, ok most of the time, I think that SOCAN exists for the good of SOCAN and not for the good of music, musicians or songwriters. The... | Continue reading article

Guest post courtesy of the fashionista mastermind behind Relishing.ca. The Capital Clothing Sale runs today until 5 and Sunday until 4. Check out Relishing.ca for more insight on style in the City. Let’s keep this all in perspective.  If you show up with a coupon, this is a $5 dollar affair. But if taking a trip down to Carleton is too risky without good reason, here’s the rundown;  They fill the space well — probably about 50 booths of vintage collections (not retrofit; just old clothes) right up to your... | Continue reading article

For a year now, The Moose and Pussy has been Carleton University’s best (and only) sex magazine. The magazine, which just published its third edition, features short stories and poetry about that most taboo of subjects: sex! Jeremy Hanson-Finger, one of the Moose and Pussy’s editors, has given us permission to re-publish a story from the latest issue. Here is Leah Mol’s raunchy short story, “Absurdities.” Warning: This post contains some strong (and explicit) language after the break. If you find that sort of thing offensive it’s best not to... | Continue reading article

Times are tough out there – and design work doesn’t come cheap. The NAC is asking you to do your part to design the cover of their program for the 2009 season. You can work in photography, paint, drawing, digital image or sculpture. You can submit up to five pieces of artwork and the winner will get recognition in press, on the NAC’s website and a display at the NAC. We’ll sweeten the deal and say that we’ll also feature the artist here on Apartment613 once the NAC lets us... | Continue reading article

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Jane’s Walk Ottawa is a weekend of free walking tours that celebrate the life and philosophy of urban scholar and activist Jane Jacobs. In the spirit of Ms Jacobs, Apartment613 hosted a walk to help people get to know the personalities behind Ottawa’s newest enclave of cool – Dalhousie Street. It was a beautiful, sunny and cool day – some would say it’s the perfect weather to walk around the city. A crowd of about 50 folks from old to young joined us for our “not... | Continue reading article

If you were to open up a dictionary from oh, let’s say 15 years ago, and look up the word ‘cool’, you would probably find a picture of John Travolta. That was of course the year he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s now classic Pulp Fiction. But what made him so cool in that film? Some would argue that it was his laid back attitude, his suit, the fact that he happened to be a hitman, or even his haircut. Of course, any respectable authority on cool would tell... | Continue reading article