After yesterday's read of FASHION I needed something a little thicker to bite into, so naturally I grabbed a copy of Shift.

I've been a fan of this particular magazine since it debuted over a decade ago. Back then it was a literary zine. I remember the first copy I saw had a photo of novelist John Irving on the front. I snatched it up and haven't looked back since.

The magazine's most certainly had a rollercoaster career. It was spearheaded (in part) by techno-lit wunderkind Evan Solomon. Solomon's most certainly had an interesting career. He's now the host of Newsworld's Hot Type. Written a novel. Was the man of the media moment a few short years ago. And while currently he seems to be idling in the "where are they now files?" but I'm sure Solomon will be back.

Like Solomon, Shift's certainly experienced many highs and just as many lows. It's been bought and sold more times than a land flip and experienced just as many literary incarnations. After its early start as a literary publication, it it jumped on the techno wagon. While tech in focus, the earlier Shift was really more of a pop culture review vehicle that ran on snappy bits and hits. I loved the mag during this incarnation. It was a great magazine that had hip, thought-provoking articles, lots of reviews of books, flicks and music; as well as keeping its ear to the techno rail, alerting us of any change coming down the pike.

But that stopped and Shift turned its focus purely on technology. Entire issues were devoted to things like Cybersex or Technowork. And that's still pretty much the way things are, however the focus has been opened up a tad. I imagine I'm not the only one who missed the broad hits of the earlier version.

This month's edition features REM's Michael Stipe on the cover. Stipe yaks about digital film, cyber-culture and his own Internet movie venture. There's an underlying theme of love on the net, with Rawshift full of cool stats on l'amour in cyberspace. For instance, did you know that 61 per cent of single adults currently use the net to get a date? Whatever happened to yentls? They could use some yentls or better yet mail-order brides in Silicon Valley. The bachelors outnumber the bachelorettes by 5,400. Talk about slim pickings.

Freenet inventor Ian Clarke talks about taking on the recording industry. As usual there's a story on gaming. A handful of interesting CDs are reviewed, as well as Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier's latest cinematic venture). The Shift List features its monthly top 20 websites. These alone are lots of fun to visit.

One complaint about Shift is the "sex sells" look that's creeping into the publication. This is true. There is more of a "T & A" look to the magazine than existed in prior incarnations. Guess it comes down to age old maxim, "sex sells" and this Canadian magazine needs all the help it can get in the fiscal department.

Flesh or no, I say thumbs up to Shift. An added plus is a great on-line adjunct to the mag. While not updated as often as it used to be (again rumours of fiscal malaise proliferate), the site's got a great graphic presence. It's fun to navigate and chockful of interesting articles and sites to link to.

Wanda Koop: Last Saturday I was doing the gallery pilgrimage when I was stopped dead in my tracks by a fascinating show at the Leo Kamen Gallery. Wanda Koop's new exhibition, entitled Sightlines, contains some of the most arresting work I've seen in ages. So wonderful in fact, that I was pondering holding up a bank to see if I could get the nine grand I'd need for one of the paintings.

Sightlines is an exploration in the language of landscapes "and the way it is mediated through culture and technology." Koop has created a series of ethereal landscapes, quite reminiscent of peaceful Chinese watercolours, and then layered on bold two-dimensional cross-hairs or sight-lines on each pastoral image. It forces the viewer to stop and consider the geometrically interrupting agent and deal with it, before considering the beauty which lays beyond.

In many ways this exhibit addresses the bold distraction of technology on the natural order of the physical world. Sightlines is an incredible show and I encourage you to see it.

Fine Tuning: CBC Late Night's featuring an eight-part dramatic series tracking the life of Cecil Rhodes, the 19th century businessmen who "became the wealthiest man in the Western world." Find out how Rhodes went to South Africa, found gold and diamonds, and led the march of colonization. That's at 11:30 PM on CBC-TV