The current Afghan war rug exhibit at the Textile Museum of Canada is astonishing. I had of course heard about war rugs when I was in Afghanistan, and seen some crude examples along Chicken Street (which, in better days, used to be the main tourist shopping boulevard), but it wasn’t until I spoke with curator Max Allen that I understand how thoroughly this newfangled form of rug weaving dovetails with my work on pop culture in the region. In some recent pieces, the war rugs have taken on the appearance of a television news broadcast, complete with ticker running under the “screen.” They’re a fascinating and heartbreaking example of how artisans practicing an ancient craft have dealt with over thirty years of consistent war and deprivation. I covered the exhibit for CBC; don’t miss it,

Recently, This Magazine asked me to write a speculative piece - a sort of DC Comics Alternative Universe thing - on Google crashing. Dystopian nightmare scenarios are not really my tour de force - I like to think that I practice happy journalism - but it didn’t turn out to be much of a challenge. Must be something in the zeitgeist. Here’s what I came up with.

Here’s a piece I recently wrote for CBC Arts Online, on Reality TV in the Arab world. I spent a lot of time in the Middle East flitting about studios in which flashy American Idol style productions were being filmed; plenty of this will be incorporated into The Sheikh’s Batmobile.