This is a strange, but certainly unique Christmas “horror” film. I use the term horror loosely because there isn’t a lot of horror in it by our standards, it’s more of a Christmas fantasy film. SPOILERS
Category: 2019
Knives Out (2019, Rian Johnson)
For someone like me, there are few things more pleasing than a really well-done genre film. But genre conventions can be pretty tired, so that one thing that is more pleasing than that, is a genre crossover that really works. For me, comedy is often the most reliable genre to mashup. (I am a big …
Bundyville
This is an excellent podcast, initially about the Bundys, a ranching family in the American West, and more generally about the so-called “patriot movement”.
Republic of Lies (2019, Anna Merlan)
This is a survey of contemporary American conspiracy theories and the extent to which some of them can be found in mouths of the powerful in America. It is well-written, engaging and sometimes quite funny. But if you’ve read anything about American conspiracy theories before, there isn’t much new here.
Don Cherry
Many years ago I got in an argument with some family members about whether or not Canadian NHL players “wanted it” (the Stanley Cup) more than other (i.e. European) players. (Funnily enough, “other” didn’t seem to include Americans…)
Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up (2019, Dave Meslin)
Full disclosure: I live in Toronto. I have met the author, Dave Meslin, at least once and possibly up to three times. Moreover, I used to volunteer for a group he founded (but no longer ran when I was a volunteer). So that both makes me likely biased in favour of his ideas and part …
On Trying to Publish My Fourth Book
I published my first book in 2011. I worked for five years on it and made a lot of stupid decisions, particularly with regard to the publisher. But in the next couple years I pumped out two other books, on some kind of crazy roll. All three were basically self-published, though my first book was …
Turandot live at the Four Seasons Centre October 27, 2019
I’ve seen a number of operas in my life, but I’ve listened to far more on CD or digitally. This is the first time, that I can recall that I have seen an opera I’ve listened to much ahead of time or at least, one I’ve listened to as many times as Turandot. So this …
Riley Goes to Vietnam
So I’ve been in Vietnam (and Cambodia) for the past three weeks. It was my first trip to that part of the world and basically my first time in Asia if you don’t count Asia Minor.
Riley Returns From Vietnam Day 21: Friday October 11, 2019 The Longest Day
In my mind, I had it that our flight was in the early afternoon. But it was in the morning. So we had to wake up early in Hanoi for the first time since we got to this hotel. It was a good thing because a large, inevitably noisy, Chinese family had joined us on …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 20: Hanoi Thursday October 10, 2019
In addition to the buffet this morning I had some pho. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best. My general experience with the Vietnamese food at these buffets is that it isn’t as good as on the street, but I was still very glad it was an option.
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 19: Hanoi Wednesday October 9, 2019
For some reason I wrote that breakfast wasn’t as good today. I think it must have been the non-buffet part of it. This might have been the day I ordered French Toast, which wasn’t good. (Also, no maple syrup or peanut butter. Sad face emoji.)
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 18: Hanoi Tuesday October 8, 2019
The hotel we were staying at in Hanoi was very, very nice, though perhaps not quite as nice as its “sister” hotel that we stayed at before the Ha Long cruise. But the one weird thing about it was that our room had no windows. Technically there was a window, but it was to an …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 17: Ha Long Bay Monday October 7, 2019
The breakfast announcement had us up early again. The breakfast buffet was the one time the meals repeated.
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 16: Ha Long Bay Sunday October 16, 2019
I think this is as good a time as ever to mention that the A/C in hotels in Vietnam is totally insane. Each room has its own, just like here, only the temperature on the A/C appears to have no relation to the temperature in the room. (This was particularly true in the first hotel …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 15: Ha Long Bay Saturday October 5, 2019
We woke up super early this morning but apparently not early enough. As we were getting ready we were told that our ride was there. But before that we had the breakfast buffet, which was smaller but the staff at this hotel were extremely attentive, more so than basically any hotel I’ve ever been to …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 14: Ninh Binh and Hanoi Friday October 4, 2019
Despite the lack of a duvet and a hard mattress – or maybe because of the hard mattress – I had perhaps my best sleep of the trip so far.
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 13: Ninh Binh Thursday October 3, 2019
I’m happy to report that train sleep is a lot better than plane sleep.
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 12: Hue Wednesday October 2, 2019
Breakfast this morning was a cross between a buffet and a meal, as they prepared food for you but there was also a continental-style buffet. If I didn’t mention before, this was among the nicest hotels we stayed at, the only thing wrong with it being there was no pool. It certainly had the best …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 11: The Central Coast Tuesday October 1, 2019
Breakfast was far less busy today, which was nice. This was one of the more elaborate buffets we encountered so it was nice to peruse when it wasn’t so busy.
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 10: Hoi An Monday September 30, 2019
The night before was the first night I slept through the night. This past night I slept through the night again. With just one dose of the medication I already started to feel better, which could have something to do with the fact that I was taking three pills, two of which (at minimum) would …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 9: Hoi An Sunday September 29, 2019
If I didn’t mention it, our hotel in Cambodia was one of only two we stayed at which didn’t have a breakfast buffet, though I just ate up that congee. Well this hotel had a pretty large buffet and it was once again quite good. One of the things we appreciated about the hotel breakfast …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 8: Riley Goes Back to Vietnam from Cambodia Saturday September 28, 2019
I might have slept even worse this night as I woke up at 2 or 3, I think, and never went back to sleep. Fortunately once again I was able to eat congee for breakfast, which seems like basically the best thing to eat when you don’t sleep and you have a cold.
Riley Goes to Cambodia Day 2 (Vietnam Trip Day 7): Angkor Wat Friday September 27, 2019
I slept horribly. I think I was up at 2 or 3 but I didn’t check. My cold was in full force by this point and I think I even worried I had a fever at some point. I didn’t manage to get back to sleep and I felt better once Jenn woke up, but …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 6: Riley Goes to Cambodia Thursday September 26
Our last day in Saigon, I have a note saying that the hotel buffet was really good. I guess I forgot because basically all the hotel buffets were really good.
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 4: Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday September 24, 2019
It all blends together at this point, but I know I didn’t sleep well during the night. This might have been the night I was up in the middle of the night for an hour or two but managed to get back to sleep. But the jet lag hit me hard over the next week …
Riley goes to Vietnam Day 3: Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City Monday September 23, 2019
We woke up early but not as early as we would on subsequent days. We went down to breakfast and found an elaborate breakfast buffet, which would become a theme of our trip, as only one hotel we stayed at wouldn’t have one. I had noodles as well because, in my jet lagged state, I …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 2: Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon Sunday September 22, 2019
We landed in Hong Kong very early in the morning, just in time for sunrise. The Hong Kong airport is gigantic and also quite nice. Not a ton of stuff was open because it was so early, but at least we could walk around. And it’s all glass so the views on one side are …
Riley Goes to Vietnam Day 1: Saturday September 21, 2019
We left on the last flight from the airport (or at least the terminal) for Friday, leaving at 1:45AM. I didn’t know flights were allowed to leave that late and on the way to my airport my mom and I had a conversation about how we thought there was a bylaw preventing flights from leaving …
The Panama Papers (2018, Alex Winter)
This is a rather workmanlike documentary about the infamous “Panama Papers” which exposed a Panamanian bank’s tax evasion services for the super rich and for politicians. I watched it on a plane three weeks ago so I am not 100% sure of my comments.