Arts and Culture is proud to announce the first-ever Mars’ Hill short fiction contest.
Interested writers: please submit one thoroughly edited and/or workshopped short fiction story. There is no particular theme - subject matter is the choice of the author - but content must fall under the mission statement and purpose of Mars’ Hill, and will be subject to the discretion of the editors. Stories must be between 750 and 1000 words.
Stories must be emailed as a word document attachment to ed.artsandculture@marshillonline.com by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006. Winners will be published with the Dec. 6, 2006 issue of Mars’ Hill, and first place will be awarded a special prize.

Download the song: here

The future will always be just beyond our grasp, uncertain and unknowable. It is possible only to know what is likely to happen, what is probable. Important decisions are usually made after much thought and careful consideration, but even then we are still blind, unable to see the outcome until it actually arrives. Nevertheless, every day countless decisions must be made. And despite the effort we may put into “big” decisions, sometimes the most insignificant-seeming decisions can have far-reaching consequences.

The spring of my sophomore year was bleak. It was a season of excess: I had too much work, apprehension, and materialism to perform like a 20-year-old university student. In the midst of these abundances, I desperately sought escape and solace.

After reading obscure self-help books to no avail, I found solace in re-reading the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Although the books didn’t give me an instant reprieve, they were a tremendous asset for restoring my joy, faith, and sense of wonder. The books gave me an escape and drew me into the story.

Filled with Victorian romance, mistaken identities, and crazy characters, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest opens the 2006-2007 season for theatre at Trinity Western University.

The play is often considered the wittiest modern script in the English language. It has been performed numerous times in educational, community, and professional productions since its debut in 1895, and is a part of required reading for many of TWU’s English 104 classes. But this production is probably a little bit different than what is often seen.

Meet Dan, Craig, Pat, Sandy, and Andrew. Alone, they are just five teenagers. Throw them together in a room with some instruments and they become the musical powerhouse that is Ten Second Epic. Get used to the name, because it’s one you’ll be sure to hear a lot of before the end of the year. With a Canadian tour that just kicked off and a new CD entitled Count Yourself In that hit shelves on October 10, and a new single, “Suck it up Princess,” blowing up on MuchMusic, TSE is set to explode. Their sound will infest your head, and you’ll like it. Mars’ Hill recently caught up with front man Andrew Usenik for an interview.

Director Michel Gondry returns to the world of sub-psyche hallucinations that he first presented in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with his new film, The Science of Sleep. But this time around, there are more oversized stuffed animals running around and less of a sense of overall direction.

Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) has had his dreams and reality mixed up since he was a little boy. After his father’s dies, he moves from Mexico to France and his visions gain some interesting new characters. Stephane’s escape into fantasy is likely a response to his poor social skills. This results in pathetic attempts at a love life because he finds it easier to converse with the characters amidst his child-like land of cellophane water, cardboard towns, and textile animals where he has control of his surroundings, than to face the grim reality of Paris’ streets.

Name one Martin Scorsese film. I bet you said Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, or Raging Bull. I bet you didn’t say any recent films like Bringing out the Dead, Gangs of New York, or The Aviator. Why? Because they sucked. America’s best-known director without an Oscar win (but 5 nominations), has been in a bit of a slump, but with The Departed he has finally broken the spell.