Fittingly, this year Canada’s capital is at the forefront, with three films homegrown by Ottawans being shown on the ByTowne and Mayfair’s screens. From a darkly funny cancer dramedy, to a moving musical documentary, to a wartime fairy tale, there’s a rainbow of variety from Ottawa’s filmmakers at OCAN this year.

Et maintenant? / What Now? by Jocelyn Forgues
Friday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. | French with English subtitles | 100 min.

Et maintenant?. Poster provided.

If Et maintenant? sounds familiar to you, that’s because it opened up the International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO) earlier this year. If you missed it then, OCAN is giving you a second chance to catch it. Shot right here in Ottawa, the film follows Vincent, a folk artist in his thirties who laughs off a tongue cancer diagnosis, convinced he’ll beat it in no time.

But as gruelling treatments slowly take away his autonomy, he’s forced to rely on Renée, a scatterbrained volunteer driver who never stops flapping their gums, and Mike, a home care nurse who tends to lack some tact. What starts as a bit of an odd arrangement turns into a genuine friendship that helps Vincent find new meaning in his life.

Forgues has spent nearly two decades writing and directing films across the country, and Et maintenant? marks his second feature film backed by Telefilm Canada. He describes it as inspiring but also troubling, dosing it with both optimism and humour.

Songs for Murdered Sisters by Kyle Megill and John Kealey
Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:30 a.m. | 30 min.

Songs for Murdered Sisters. Poster provided.

On Sept. 22, 2015, three women were murdered by one man in a single morning in Renfrew County: Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam. Warmerdam’s brother, baritone Joshua Hopkins, took the approach of turning his grief into something lasting. Together with composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood, he created Songs for Murdered Sisters, a song cycle dedicated to those lost to femicide. The work took on its biggest form at an orchestral world premiere at the National Arts Centre.

Megill and Kealey’s documentary follows the emotional lead-up to that very performance. It’s a personal portrait of a brother searching for meaning but also a call to confront gender-based violence. The two Ottawa filmmakers have been working side-by-side for more than a decade and co-founded the production company no hands inc. in 2015, dedicated to telling stories focused squarely on the human experience.

The Pavilion by Pixie Cram
Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 p.m. | 15 min.

The Pavilion. Poster provided.

Rounding out the local lineup is a stop-motion historical drama set in Ontario at the end of the Second World War. With their father serving overseas and their mother stricken with tuberculosis, two sisters are sent off to live with their aunt and uncle. Armed with a magical storybook, they set off across the countryside and escape into a world where the book’s characters spring off the pages and guide them back to their mother.

Cram, who is based in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, works across fiction, stop-motion animation, and analogue 16mm documentaries. Her short films have been screened at festivals and galleries across the world, but also teaches screenwriting at Carleton University. After the stop-motion gems I caught at the OIAF this year, I’m especially looking forward to seeing what a local animator brings to a wartime fairy tale.

Ten years in, OCAN is proving that some of the world’s best films are being made right here at home. Whether you’re in the mood to laugh, reflect, or be transported to another world, this year’s lineup should have you covered.

The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival runs from November 6-8 at the ByTowne Cinema and Mayfair Theatre. For schedule and ticket information, head to OCAN’s website.

Moo Shu has built a reputation on high quality products, creative flavour profiles, and a business model that prioritizes a living wage for its employees. 

I sat down with owner, founder, and ice cream virtuoso Liz Mok to talk about the new location on Wellington St West, what is next for the legendary ice cream shop, and how in the world her vegan ice cream tastes so darn good! Her responses might shock you.

This whole adventure started when Mok bought an ice cream maker for her sister as a joke. 

After playing around with the machine for fun, she realized how much she actually enjoyed the process, and took on ice cream making as a hobby and eventual side hustle, selling artisanal scoops at farmers’ markets while holding a full time desk job.

When they made the jump to their first brick and mortar location on Bank Street, she still didn’t see the full potential of the business — “This isn’t going to be popular. It’s like, weird ice cream. It’s going to be very niche.” She could not have been more wrong. 

Photo: Audrey Pridham.

For the first two years, Mok developed each recipe from scratch, relying on her passion and natural aptitude for flavours, without any formal training. When she eventually attended the popular Ice Cream Technology course at Guelph University, in an attempt to hone her skills to drive her business further, she realized that she was already doing things differently compared to the majority of commercial ice cream makers. Her instructor even claimed that developing each recipe from scratch without relying on a neutral base was not sustainable.

Ten years later, her unconventional methods are the reason why our city is blessed with consistently delicious and innovative ice creams. 

While experimentation is a key component to Mok’s creative process, her recipes are often grounded in a desire to support local growers.

“Because we started at the farmers’ market, we built relationships with local farmers. And it’s really fun when they text me and they say ‘I have this, do you want it?’ And I’m like, sure!” she said.

This is how ice creams featuring produce like Nordic Kiwis, shiso, and sea buckthorn make their way onto the rotating scooping menu.

Photo: Audrey Pridham.

With flavours like Hong Kong Milk Tea, Bay Leaf & Grape, and Black Olive Ganache, Moo Shu is already outdoing themselves on a regular basis. But to this humble foodie, their vegan ice cream is their greatest achievement. Always creamy, rich, and deeply flavoured, the vegan selection is equally creative to the dairy-based options, in a way that seems impossible in comparison to other vegan options out there.

When I asked Mok how that is possible, I wasn’t prepared to find out that they are making their own rice and oat milk in house in order to have “direct control over how much protein, starch, and water content there is.” Each recipe is built from scratch, and Mok relies on her full-time team members to undertake the R&D phase through the winter, when it comes to building new flavours.

“It’s really intuitive from a chef culinary perspective, but that means if you take that philosophy to every single different ice cream flavour that you have, it makes all of your recipes totally different. Which means, now, you need actual pastry chefs who know what they’re doing to adjust recipes and develop new flavours.”

Photo: Kiersten Vuorimaki.

She also claims that making the vegan ice creams is one of her favourite things, because each new flavour presents a whole new set of exciting challenges, including, apparently, the way it melts. The vegan fats that are used have “different melt profiles,” she explains, and often matter more than the flavour.

“Some of them melt right away and some of them take a long time to melt, and you have to mash them together to create the exact same profile as butter. Because if it melts too fast, you think it’s too goopy. If it melts too slow, it feels like, ‘why is this ice cream so warm even though it’s supposed to be cold?’”

Two years ago, Moo Shu made the decision to move to their new space on Wellington St West, a major gamble for a small business, but one that offered more room to grow all year round.

The welcoming, expansive space has given Mok the opportunity to experiment even more, including a foray into high quality steeped teas and their growing matcha program, inspired by Mok’s connection to fourth-generation tea purveyor Reina Sakao, a matcha expert and educator.

“We are taking that same seriousness of water temperature control, dosage, storage. All of that we bring to matcha, and then bringing that to steeped tea as well.”

 

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Expanding beyond ice cream, they initially began offering savoury lunch options, beginning with the hugely popular scallion pancakes that proved to be unsustainable in the long term, but directly influenced the production of their current shao bing wraps. The tofu option is fresh and punchy, while the classic ham, egg & cheese with chili oil makes for an incredible, portable brunch.

The coffee selection continues to grow with new seasonal offerings and experiments all the time, and the baked goods range from a salted duck egg cream tart to an incredible banana chocolate chip and pretzel crumble muffin.

Mok claims that every new item comes from her or someone on her staff wanting to try something new, and make something they love to eat.

“I think that what makes our ice cream great is a food philosophy that carries on to our hot food, to coffee, to baked goods. We’re still making everything from scratch. And it’s hard to hire people that have specific ice cream experiences, so we’re hiring a lot of baristas to scoop our ice cream, and we’re hiring pastry chefs and even line chefs to make the ice cream,” she says.

 

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“So we have all of these skill sets that we’re only now just tapping into. And I think my hope is that — yes, I want you to come for ice cream, but I want you to not be surprised that the other stuff is gonna be good too.”

“Good” might be the understatement of the year, as Mok brings the same intentional focus to every new element they bring into the shop, from the vanilla lemongrass cold foam, to the locally sourced apple cider. 

What is next for Liz and her team at Moo Shu?

Whatever she wants. We’ll be there.

For more information, check out Moo Shu online, or visit their shop at 1130 Wellington St W.

Upstart & Crow, a literary arts studio based in British Columbia, is opening a new location in Ottawa on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 541 Sussex Dr. It will be located in the historic former home of the Geological Survey of Canada.

Since opening their first location in 2020, co-founders Zoe Grams and Ian Gill have centred their focus on supporting independent presses and emerging artists by creating space for a creative community. The revenue from their book sales funds their nonprofit programming, such as hosting events and workshops or offering paid writer residencies.

“People keep asking us, ‘Why Ottawa?’ Well, we know that Ottawa has a thriving literary and artistic community and we’re confident we can add something unique to a flourishing cultural scene here,” Gill said in a press release.

“Ottawa is a vibrant city and our new studio seeks to add a little literary magic to the mix,” — Ian Gill, co-founder of Upstart & Crow

Gill describes Upstart & Crow as more than a bookstore, calling it “a literary arts studio,” and explains that it’s “basically a place for the sharing of ideas and the bringing together of community around new ideas.”

Upstart and Crow Ottawa. Photo: Sarah Scott.

He says he hopes that the studio can serve as a way to bring attention to people whose voices aren’t heard in popular media or in the halls of power.

“Our respective work is taking us to Ottawa more and more,” said Grams. “We felt that it was time to broaden our impact and Ottawa — at least from our lens — seems like a deeply creative, thoughtful, intellectual hub that doesn’t necessarily have this specific resource that we’re offering. And so we saw it as maybe an under-discovered, in a way, community of writers and thinkers that we could potentially support.”

Gill explains that they want to cater their programming to the unique wants and needs of the city rather than simply replicating what worked in Vancouver. For instance, he mentions that people might have shorter stays in Ottawa because they are coming to the city for work.

“We want to build a community, and be a place of inspiration and excitement and possibility for the folks who call Ottawa home.”

Upstart and Crow Ottawa. Photo: Sarah Scott.

Grams recognizes the work that existing independent bookstores in the city are already doing, and says they hope to be part of that community and be able to support and uplift the work of other independent booksellers.

Upstart Ottawa will host a limited number of events this November and December, before programming begins in earnest in 2027.

Current programming at Upstart & Crow includes paid writer residencies across Climate, BIPOC, Non-Fiction, Translation, Parent and Poetry pillars. In Vancouver, Upstart also provides micro-grants for emerging poets; Literature in Translation discovery events; donations to an Indigenous-owned community library in BC; partnerships with printing studios and artists; and Long Table dinners for solutions-oriented discussions — some of which will continue in the Ottawa studio, with other, city-specific programming envisioned in the months to come.

Upstart & Crow Literary Arts Studio opens on Nov. 7 at 541 Sussex Dr at 10am.

On opening day, guests can enjoy perks including: 10% off for the first 50 customers; a free Upstart & Crow tote for spends over $150; games and lucky dips; and personalized book recommendations (available always!).

You can find more information on their website, and/or by subscribing to their newsletter here.

All Weekend

613flea launches a new two-day format at its new fall and winter home. The market will remain in Lansdowne Park but will relocate to the Horticulture Building with the next edition taking place on Friday, Nov. 6 from 5pm until 9pm and Saturday, Nov. 7 from 10am until 4pm.

As we approach Remembrance Day, the Royal Canadian Legion’s Poppy Drop projects thousands of poppies onto the Senate of Canada Building in memory of Canada’s fallen veterans. From Nov. 5-11, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum is hosting special activities during Remembrance Week.

The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival has expanded to include 4 screenings from Nov. 6-8 with 19 short films and two features.

 

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Join in the celebration of the 53rd anniversary of the Nepean Sportsplex Christmas Craft Show from Thursday to Sunday. This annual show gives local and Canadian vendors the chance to showcase their hand-crafted products including clothing and accessories, jewelry, wood products, artworks, leather goods and more! Entry is $7 for adults and $5 for youth and seniors.

One World Bazaar continues Nov. 6-8 in Manotick.

ChromaQueer Film + Arts Festival will hold its second edition Nov. 6 to 8 at Arts Court. The program is available online and features art, storytelling, drawing, film, and more.

Cleaning up from Halloween? On Saturday, launch your pumpkin with a giant slingshot while supporting Cystic Fibrosis research at the Squash CF Pumpkin Launch. You can also bring your pumpkins to Pumpkins for the Planet‘s PumpkinFest on Sunday at Ernie Calcutt Park.

Ottawa New Music Festival is back with two days of music and sound. As part of the festival, you’re invited to try a new instrument at the Ottawa Art Gallery’s Art Crush Discovery Zone. The hands-on experience is for anyone ages 5+.

Friday

9th Hour Theatre Company’s Gleanings is a forum for nuanced discussion about complex ideas and issues relating to arts and culture, theology, and the social sciences. Rounding out their Heroes & Villains series is a dramatic staged reading of excerpts from the classic novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo at 7pm at Saint Paul University (223 Main Street).

The Windsor Spitfire play the Ottawa 67’s at 7pm at TD Place.

Saturday

Cuisine for a Cause is a masterclass cuisine demonstrated by Chef Joe Thottungal, founder of Coconut Lagoon and Thali Ottawa in support of Cornerstone Housing for Women.

There’s a new bookstore in town! Upstart & Crow is opening their doors this Saturday at 10:30am in the ByWard Market.

 

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The Northern Super League’s semi-final takes over TD Place this Saturday as the Ottawa Rapid FC take on AFC Toronto. Tickets are available online.

New Brunswick trio Jessica Rhaye, Bill Preeper and Sandy MacKay (together known as Preeper Rhaye MacKay) bring their show to Red Bird this Saturday. Tickets available online.

Get Cozy for a Cause in a fall market supporting Operation Come Home, an Ottawa organization that assists youth experiencing homelessness.

 

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The Metcalfe Christmas Market has two locations with over 80 vendors between both.

Night Oat (Oat Couture’s evening alter-ego) is hosting Cuban Jazz Night with the Miguel de Armas Trio. Snag your ticket online.

Run Ottawa is hosting Frost Country, a fall cross country race at Mooney’s Bay. Register online for the 6km race.

Sunday

The East Pointers are at the National Arts Centre’s Babs Asper Theatre this Sunday. Tickets are available online.

Join other artists in a free meetup at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Bring your own supplies to the Artawa Artist Meetup Sunday from 2:30-5pm. Admission to the OAG is (always) free!

The Ottawa Dog Film Festival kicks off Sunday with Isle of Dogs at the Mayfair. Dogs get in free with their ticket-holding human. Funds raised from the festival will help three different dog organizations.

For more of what’s happening in Ottawa, stay tuned to @apt613 on social media. Out snapping photos? Tag us on Instagram @apt613 for a chance to be featured on our feed. Be sure to use the hashtag #Apt613 so we can share your photos!

“I’m very thrilled with the reception of it,” she says her debut album, which came out on Oct. 16. That reception includes not only positive press coverage, but also a coveted slot on Spotify’s Indie All Stars playlist.

Quraishi got her start in music when she moved to Ottawa from Montreal. She started singing in a friend’s band, First of the Last Stars, which released a few songs in 2023. In addition to singing other people’s songs, aroud COVID-19, she turned to meditation to process some large life changes, and after developing a meditation process, “songs started bubbling out of me,” she says.

“At the time, I thought it was a one-off,” she says. “It’s happening through sadness and difficult times, and I’ll never be able to write again unless I go through hard times. But the music just kept coming. I realized that when I’m connected to myself and in balance, I can write music.”

Eau the Music. Photo by Max Parent.

While singing in her friend’s group, she started looking for the “external edges” of her creativity; she decided to push herself and get to know herself creatively through her 0wn project—Eau the Music.

With demos in hand, and time off from her day job as a lawyer, Quraishi learned how to mix and produce her own music. Quickly, Eau the Music went from recording “garage rock” demos to producing a mixed-and-mastered, fully realized album, and the project garnered comparisons to the Cocteau Twins (though her all-time favourite bands growing up were Radiohead and the Pixies).

Her first single, and the first song where she practiced her new sound, was “In this Silence.” During the process of recording a song from scratch, adding layer upon layer and creating that “ethereal” sound, she found her niche as an “indie rock dream pop” singer-songwriter.

In the studio, Eau the Music is a solo project. Her upcoming show at Club SAW, supported by Spectrasonic, will be her third live show with a band.

“I totally did it the opposite way,” she says. “I was inspired to play live because I had experience in the other band playing live a little bit, and I thought wouldn’t it be amazing to translate this album into a live sound.” And true to the shoegaze feel, there are indeed plenty of guitar pedals.

The band consists of Jorge Moreno and Jensen Grant on guitar, Declan Kinghorn on bass, Connor Peacock on drums, and synths played by Steve Morrison.

In addition to the album release party at Club SAW—where Eau the Music will be selling coloured vinyls of the album—she will be heading to Toronto to play an indie showcase night at the legendary El Mocambo. And after Toronto, who knows what’s next? The world?

But the Ottawa scene is close to her heart. “It’s been really great. I feel like there’s a lot of support in the community. Everyone seems to know everyone, and people at all levels seem to be interested in supporting artists, and especially self-released artists.”

The album’s enveloping sound might be moody, but Eau the Music describes herself as an optimistic person, and the lyrics brim with hope mixed with introspection—the fuzzy guitars and synth over top it all might encourage you to look inwards, but hopefully you’ll find something to be optimistic about. The album’s title comes from a song she wrote inspired by a moment with her newborn baby.

“I’m a very optimistic and hopeful person. So within what I was living, because I was also raising a baby and there’s new life in the world, there was a lot of contrast within what I was living, and I think that came out in the music: light and dark, hard things and beautiful things.

“That song is about remembering a moment I had with my newborn and I remembered just looking through her eyes and it felt like I was looking into a universal knowledge, incredible wisdom. So it’s fitting that the the album name would be Light in the Dark as well, given the nature of the sounds, the contrasts, the sonic contrasts. I think that’s the main thread that weaves through the whole album.”

You can stream Eau the Music’s debut album Light in the Dark on all platforms. She’ll be playing the album at Club SAW on Nov. 12. Don’t forget to pick up your copy on vinyl at the album release party.

But, the best part of Capital Music Awards is getting to discover new artists who you may have not been super familiar with! That’s why Apt613 was at the red carpet before the ceremony to meet and chat with some of this year’s nominees.

Here are a few of the nominated artists that you should be keeping a pulse on, Ottawa!

 J3M

J3M (pronounced “gem”) is the solo project by disco-pop party-starter Jemuel Roberts. Born in Ottawa to a Guyanese family, he is an award-winning singer-songwriter and pianist. He was also the opening performer for the Capital Music Awards, kicking off this special evening by singing “G.Y.S.T” and creating an upbeat experience that was palpable for the audience. 

J3M won Video of the Year for “G.Y.S.T”, which brought together J3M’s disco party vibes with colourful and unique visuals. The music video follows J3M as he drives house to house, saving all of his friends from their crappy relationships.

“Somehow instead of driving a car it turned into a van, then a cube truck with a full dance floor,” J3M told us. 

This idea was a great fit for the message behind the song, which asks what you want and need from your relationships, and “never feeling like you are ever too much for wanting that.”

J3M also said that participating in an event like Capital Music Awards that celebrates local talent felt amazing. “Ottawa is a beautiful, tight-knit community that is very supportive and always willing to lend a hand.” 

Céleste Lévis

Céleste Lévis is a Francophone singer-songwriter from Timmins, in Northern Ontario. Music came into her life later when she put her studies at the University of Ottawa on hold to pursue her dream of sharing her music. 

While this was not her first time being nominated for the Capital Music Awards, she said that she is pretty lucky and worked hard to be where she is. She was nominated for Songwriter of the Year for her song “Promis, juré,” along with Best Production and Arrangements for “Dans tes yeux.” 

“The fact that it is for a new album, that just released a couple of weeks ago, it feels amazing that people are connecting to my stories and the way that I choose to tell them,” Lévis told us.

As a Francophone artist, she said it’s a good feeling to be always included in these events. 

She said that in the music industry, there is a variety of styles of music in different languages, and that can create a sort of separation within the music community. But, they must come together. “It’s music, it’s universal,” she said. 

Satellite Birdhouse 

The folk-duo led by Troy Huizinga and Stacy DuBois were amongst the Capital Week Awards nominees this year. Their wonderful discography had earned them a Capital Music Award in 2025 for Newcomer of the Year. Now, a year later, they were nominated again for Group of the Year. 

They first found out they were nominated this year while they were on their way to a sound-check rehearsal for a show. “We were like ‘WHAT?’ It was so exciting, and it was already an exciting day,” DuBois said.  

For them, it was quite special to be nominated again.“We’ve been so well received by Ottawa.”

Since their debut this past summer at Bluesfest, they have made quite an impression in the local music scene with their heartening tunes. Having some sort of recognition from anyone as a local artist is quite meaningful for the duo, as they think these awards are “great for visibility” for local artists in the music scene. 

There are many great minds and talent in the Ottawa music scene, and for Satellite Birdhouse, the appreciation they have for the community being reflected back at them has been a great thing to experience.

The New Hires

The indie-rock band has been making strides across many venues lately, most notably at Ottawa’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino as part of Capital Music Week’s takeover there. This year, they were nominated for both Group of the Year and Single of the Year for their track “Where the Sun Sets,” which was released last July.

“I felt humbled and I think it’s great to feel seen by the scene. It’s a great feeling,” lead singer Max Trepanier told Apt613.

“Where the Sun Sets” was born during a jam session in a basement, with a base line created by guitarist Aidan Morris. After building the rest of the song together and recording it, the group “knew” they had a fun song, with lyrics all about “learning through repetition, making mistakes, and always trying to find your next sunset,” they told us. After it was released, they did not expect it to connect with so many fans, and today, the track has racked up over 30,000 streams on Spotify.

When it comes to their rapport as a band, they say that if they’re having fun while performing, then the audience will also have fun. Their main mantra they follow is if they stay true to what they set out to do, they will organically begin to feel joy while performing.

Outside of the recording studio, the New Hires are always planning their next songs and collaborate together on all parts of the process. Since the awards ceremony, they’ve released their newest EP Writing on the Windows, featuring many of their hit releases that came out earlier this year.

Malia Rogers

After being nominated for three awards this year (in which she felt “triple-shocked”), Rogers took home two Capital Music Awards for Solo Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for her track “I Could Barely Drive.”

“It’s a song about looking at your past with wiser eyes and acknowledging how people hurt you, and how you hurt people, and forgiving both,” she told us about her award-winning song.

The Nova Scotia-born singer-songwriter released her debut EP Chameleon last year, and is also a member of the Canadiana-folk trio, Jessica Pearson & The East Wind, who took home the award for Group of the Year.

Although she’s been writing and performing for a long time, she wanted to expand her scope beyond her family and friends. “It’s just amazing and affirming to have this recognition from my adoptive music community,” she said.

You can also listen to Rogers’ latest release Live from the Arboretum, containing a collection of songs performed live at Ottawa’s beautiful natural landscape.

Genna Giampaolo

Nominated for Newcomer of the Year, Genna Giampaolo is a triple-threat star who specializes in singing, dancing, and acting. She’s previously performed at the NAC with her trio for vintage-inspired cabarets, and released her debut album Genna with a G back in March.

“We made the choice in 2025 to make some big changes and take some big risks, and it got recognized and paid off. So that’s the dream situation when you get to actually do that and someone sees it,” she told us on the red carpet.

Giampaolo has always been a fan of all things retro, especially music that crossed between jazz and musical theatre during the Old Hollywood era. She incorporates this style not only into each of her songs, but also her style and performance flair.

“I find that we reflect the brand and the idea that I have around Genna with a G in all of that,” she said. “It’s just a ‘fall in love’ era.”

She also teased that there is a new album already in the books, as well as another holiday cabaret performance.

Capital Music Week took place between Oct. 2 – 10, 2026. Visit their website for more information.

Her novel, Mercutio, imagines the character’s life before Romeo and Juliet, bringing him together with poet Dante Alighieri in an unexpected friendship shaped by supernatural encounters. It’s a story Heartfield had been thinking about for years and one she now calls one of her favourite books.

For Heartfield, the fascination began long before she became a published novelist. As a teenager, she watched Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet over and over. Mercutio caught her attention, particularly during his famed “Queen Mab speech,” when a fantastical description of a fairy’s visits to sleeping people takes a darker turn.

Both that film’s portrayal and Harold Perrineau’s performance in the 1966 adaptation left her wondering what lay hidden beneath the character’s humour.

“They were played by actors as if there was a backstory and a reason why,” Heartfield says.

For years, the question persisted until Dante came along.

While reading about the poet, Heartfield came across connections between his writing and the Italian families whose names would become familiar to Shakespeare’s audiences. A duo began to form: what if Mercutio and Dante met?

Initially, Dante was only meant to have a brief appearance.

“Dante was originally just going to be a cameo character at the beginning, and he kind of took over and became one of the central characters of the book,” she says.

The two meet in the opening chapter, and their friendship becomes one of the driving forces of the novel.

Bringing them together seemed like a natural choice for Heartfield, and it allowed her to explore connections between Romeo and Juliet and Dante’s Divine Comedy. Despite all their differences, she found that both texts offered ways to think about love in many forms.

 

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Readers who are already familiar with these texts will have a different experience reading this novel; however, Heartfield wanted the novel to work for someone who hasn’t opened Romeo and Juliet since high school or ever.

“A lot of my books send people to Wikipedia after reading them,” she says. “This is one of them as well.”

Reviewers of the book seem to agree with this sentiment. Several reviews on Heartfield’s website note that it echoes with familiarity.

“It’s an extraordinary piece of writing, imbued with impeccable research. Yet the novel wears history lightly; you don’t need to be versed in the past or the play to enjoy this book,” Kate Story writes.

Authors Aimee Ogden called it “a secret insiders’ guide to what shaped the best character in Romeo and Juliet,” and Julie Czerneda says “you’ll never see Mercutio the same again.”

You can find Mercutio anywhere you buy books (Indigo, Amazon, etc.)

Share a job posting or call for artists: Please send a link to <ottjobs@apt613.ca> and be sure to mention the closing date. Ottawa-Gatineau-based opportunities only.

The weather’s getting slightly colder here in Ottawa, but the fresh beats keep dropping one after another. Our #ottmusic playlist this month is stacked with plenty of fun new releases to keep you grooving as the days become shorter this season.

Plus, quite a few of the artists featured are planning to hit the stage soon – get out there and catch a live show if they’re performing near you! Live music should help cure the winter blues, after all.

[Indie Rock] “Lake Ontario Deep” by Area Resident

The latest release by multi-instrumentalist Doug Hempstead is inspired by the decision to attempt renaming Lake Ontario, with a great build-up of drums, synth, and guitar, along with the repeating chorus “don’t reach out.” While not “an earnest rallying cry,” the song is both “topical and poignant” as it addresses political themes.

“Lake Ontario Deep” is the second single ahead of Area Resident’s new album Secrets, coming soon!

[Experimental Pop] “Waiting for Something” by Boyhood

From the indie pop solo-project of Caylie Runciman comes her newest album I’ll Dream InStead, a whimsical and eerie collection of synth/experimental pop that is perfect for when you’re lying in bed late at night and want to shut the world out. Boyhood had previously dropped two singles for the album earlier this year, and we were immediately obsessed with the new sound!

If you want to hear the album live, Boyhood will be performing at Ottawa’s FONO HiFi Lounge on Nov. 5 as part of her I’ll Dream InStead Tour. Tickets are available here.

[Country Pop] “Take it Back” by Raphaela

Lebanese-Canadian artist Raphaela’s newest track “Take it Back” is all about what it feels like to “look back at a love that once felt effortless while confronting how different it has become.” The song was originally conceived during a writing session in Nashville, and took inspiration from an old vinyl she found for Dolly Parton’s song “I Wish I Felt This Way at Home.” The joyful yet reflective guitar with strings, along with Raphaela’s lyricism, will make you feel like you’re in a coming-of-age movie and be overcome with a rush of nostalgia for what could’ve been.

Raphaela will be performing as part of Ottawa’s Indie Week showcase on Nov. 14.

[Jazz Funk] “Call of the Monkey Skull” by Smelloship

It’s time to get funky with Ottawa’s Smelloship, as they bring you a new song filled with some jungle-inspired rhythms, and plenty of groovy saxophone. This song serves as the opening track to their newest album EP III: Journey to the Armpit of the Sun (out on Dec. 4), and takes inspiration from the “slow burn build” from electronic music, according to their Instagram.

Be sure to catch them live on Dec. 5 at Minotaure for their album release show.

[Punk] “Melon” by Doll

Time to turn things up a notch with Ottawa punk band Doll, as their newest release “Melon” offers a “refreshing and deeply personal look at the realities of everyday life.” With authentic lyrics, powerful vocals by Christina Kasper, and some electric guitar shreds, we’re excited to see more releases from the group following their last EP Better Days, Different Times. Screaming along with the lyrics is highly encouraged and will give you a much needed boost of energy.

Think your track is hot? Submit to us at editors@apt613.ca. Like and follow the #ottmusic monthly playlist on Spotify.

This was the second time I’ve seen Daniel Greaves open for Big Wreck, and just like the previous occasion, it was Greaves alone at a keyboard, with a selection of songs stripped bare, presented in a way that highlighted not only the beauty and strength of his voice, but also the beauty and strength of the songs. A perfect example of this was The Watchmen track “Holiday (Slow It Down),” which is my favourite of their catalogue, and to hear it presented this way was enough to give me goosebumps. He played a couple of new songs as well, including one called “Lemonade,” before closing out the set with “Stereo,” one of The Watchmen’s biggest hits.

Big Wreck kicked things off with a bit of a twist – by opening with one of their biggest hits, and previous show-closer, “The Oaf,” from the 1997 album In Loving Memory Of. They followed it up with “Locomotive” and “Bombs Away,” so there was no easing into it. It was all business and in your face from the start, with Ian Thornley’s fiery guitar work alongside guitarist Chris Caddell, and punishing low end from bassist Dave McMillan and recently added drummer, Brett Haggarty.

The rest of the set pulled from various eras of big Wreck’s 30+ year career, and some of founder/frontman Ian Thornley’s solo hits, such as “So Far So Good” and “Come Again,” which continues to be a show highlight due to the soaring singalong chorus, and extended guitar solo which peaks with Thornley and guitarist Chris Caddell ripping through intense guitar harmonies.

Big Wreck is set to issue a 25th anniversary edition of their sophomore album The Pleasure and the Greed on Nov. 6, which will feature remixed/remastered versions of the songs as well as bonus material, so it was fitting that the set included “Ladylike” and “Inhale,” both of which were singles from that album.

Following that album, the band disbanded for several years until the release of 2012’s comeback album, Albatross, whose title track was a #1 Canadian rock charts single. The song continues to be a mainstay in the live set, and there’s no mistaking why. It is both adored by fans and breathtaking to see performed live. It’s a beautiful song, with well-crafted lyrics and gorgeous jangly guitar chords that resonate through the air before Ian comes in with, “One last cup of starlight before I wake and start my day. A past so filled with promise before I lost, I lost my way.” But to hear it live is to see a total mastery of the guitar, as Thornley plays incredible slide guitar throughout, including an extended solo where he taps harmonics onto the higher strings before sending the slide into the stratosphere. The song fades out with the line, “And because I know I’m alright,” a slight relief or release to the emotional intensity of the song.

Those who know, know. Ian Thornley is a triple threat of songwriting, vocals and unmatched prowess on the guitar. Big Wreck has always been one of those bands that many people consider to be underrated. From YouTube music guru Rick Beato, Guitar World Magazine, to Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang, people are finally taking notice of what’s been obvious to die hard fans for years, and the band is developing an increasing following in the U.S. thanks to touring opportunities American acts like Wolfgang’s band Mammoth, and an upcoming tour with Alter Bridge.

The set ended with “Ghosts” and “That Song,” the former featuring a musical detour into The Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Running” with Caddell taking lead vocals, before humorously veering into the theme song to the show Law and Order.

Big Wreck returned to the stage for the encore, which was “Blown Wide Open,” a single from the first album, which is always a fan favourite, and had the crowd singing along to the powerful chorus, before spilling back out into the hustle and bustle of the Hard Rock Casino.

Big Wreck hits the road next week with Alter Bridge for a U.S. tour. Daniel Greaves will be back in Ottawa at Red Bird on Jan. 22/23, 2027.