Sometimes I feel like Sirk is the Norman Rockwell of old Hollywood: everything is so hyper-idealized. But I guess Winslow Homer is a better comparison, everything looks good, but things are lurking. The colours are all so intense and lightning is so dramatic. I know some people love Sirk for his sets and costumes and …
Does Shawn Marion Belong in the Basketball Hall of Fame?
Shawn Marion is retiring apparently. So, does he belong in the Hall of Fame? As usual, all data from Basketball Reference.
Workingman’s Dead (1970) by the Grateful Dead
If you had been aware of the Dead in Spring 1970 but you didn’t live in San Francisco, you would have no way of knowing the band was birthed by a folk band in the mid ’60s. If you caught them live, you would have been familiar with how they were the first ever jam …
Tonight’s the Night (1973, 1975) by Neil Young
Neil Young was a star for the first time in 1973. And yet even though he was star, and he was expected to pump out further “Heart of Gold” style hits, his life was a mess. Whether or not he may acknowledge it now, he had drug issues. And within a rather short span of …
Emotional Rescue (1980) by the Rolling Stones
I don’t know what to do with my first impressions. I’ve learned to distrust them. I give every album I review a minimum of three listens in order to defeat my initial prejudice. I adopted this approach, I think, because I wanted to be fair, but also because sometimes my initial impression did not jive …
2015 NBA Finals MVP Bull Shit
In hockey, there is a rare but time-tested tradition of awarding the playoff* MVP to the best player on the team that loses the finals if he excels so much that the Professional Hockey Writers Association thinks he deserves it, i.e. he drags a team to the finals. (*In the NHL, the award is for …
All Fall Down (1962, John Frankenheimer)
This film is one of those over-baked Tennessee Williams-esque portraits of a family barely keeping it together, with an over-bearing mother (naturally), a drunk father (naturally) and a golden boy who isn’t quite so golden (naturally). We’ve seen this before, even if the story isn’t quite the same.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010, Michael Apted)
Apted’s surer hand makes this possibly the best entry in the series – it’s obvious from the opening shot that a better director is involved.
The Alchemy Index: Volume III and Volume IV – Air and Earth (2007) by Thrice
Unfortunately “Volume III” takes the brief moments of Volume II that alluded to a sort of Post Grunge / “Modern” rock style and takes them to the logical conclusion. I guess some people would consider these songs “stronger” – they’re certainly catchier – but why neuter what your band does well? At least the rhythm …
Watchmen (2009, Zack Snyder)
This is an admirable, ambitious attempt to adapt what is, for many people, The Greatest Comic of All Time. (I know others prefer some other comics, but I know that this was the first comic given serious treatment as literature by non-comic book fans.) I was mostly impressed by the attempts at fidelity and the …
The Worldly Philosophers (1953, 1999) by Robert L. Heilbroner
The Worldly Philosophers is an impressive and engaging summary of the lives and ideas of the major economists from Adam Smith through Joseph Schumpeter, covering both the people you would expect (Ricardo, Keynes) and some people you would not. Heilbroner is a refreshing guide because he both has a historical sense of economics and he …
An Open Letter to His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston
Your Excellency, I don’t need to tell you that as the Queen’s representative in Canada you are essentially our Head of State. Regardless of the massive changes that have occurred since the position of Governor General was created, you remain in a position of actual authority even if the weight of the office has diminished …
Alice Adams (1935, George Stevens)
I haven’t read this particular Tarkington novel but I’ve read another and I can’t say I liked it. If the book was effective, the filmmakers messed up.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006, Jonathan Levine)
I watched the first 30-35 minutes of this maybe a year ago (in pieces) while someone else was watching it. I figured I should watch it all the way through, even given my reservations. My reservations were a few: I didn’t go to a school like this. I guess there were one or two girls …
RIP Ornette Coleman
I am not the man to write an obituary about Ornette Coleman, but what the hell, I’ll try to tell you what he meant to me anyway. If you don’t know him, Ornette Coleman ostensibly invented free jazz, that is the style of jazz that abandoned the previous rules of jazz and embraced free improvisation …
Brothers in Arms (1985) by Dire Straits
Ten years ago I wrote the following: This might not be so bad if they had actually hired a producer. It’s like Knopfler put a big stamp on this record saying “This album was recorded in the ’80s!” Knopfler’s production is the aural equivalent of those ’50s sci-fi films that imagined the “futuristic” ’70s and …
AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990) by Ice Cube
What the hell do I do with this? Well, here goes…
Peter Gabriel [Melt] (1980)
On December 31, 2008, I wrote the following: This may sound stupid, but this sounds little too much like 1980. They had a good thing going, those Genesis guys… and while I know that version of the band could never have topped The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, neither Gabriel nor the rest of the …
Abolish the Canadian Senate?
A lot of people are calling for the abolition of the Canadian Senate lately (spring of 2015), and these calls will increase if the chamber dose what everyone expects, and passes C-51 this week; C-51 being the anti-terrorism legislation that basically every legal expert in the country is opposed to. At the same time, the …
Blood Diamond (2006, Edward Zwick)
This is film feels like an attempt to cross an adventure movie with a war movie with a Hollywood message movie. At times it succeeds rather well but at other times it’s borderline terrible.
The Adjustment Bureau (2011, George Nolfi)
I guess there are some SPOILERS!
Gone Girl (2014, David Fincher)
This review contains some fairly serious SPOILERS. Before I get to talking about this excellent film, which I liked very much, I suppose I have to address the thing that must be addressed, namely the apparent misogyny. Had this movie been released 20 or even 10 years ago, I suspect nobody would have said anything. …
My Message to Senator Yonah Martin
Dear Ms. Martin, I would like to express my deep disappointment with you and your fellow Senators regarding Bill C-51, a bill that is unconstitutional – and will be found so, I have no doubt. The idea of the Senate is that is a place to reevaluate government legislation. Ostensibly this duty should be above …
A Game of Thrones (1996) by George RR Martin
I have never liked fantasy novels and usually only enjoy fantasy movies for their cheesiness and predictability – though there are exceptions. However, the TV show won me over due to its drastic differences from most fantasy I am familiar with. As a fan of the show, I really felt no need to read the …
Do the Work (2011) by Steven Pressfield
If you struggle with completing things on time, or completing things at all, this is a book for you. (When I say things, I mean creative endeavours.) However, you really only need to read Pressfield’s The War of Art, as this book repeats many of the themes discussed there. This book is helpful to me, …
Winterland [Highlights] (2011) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
This is the “highlights” disc taken from the Box Set documenting three Experience shows at the Winterland in October of 1968.
Miami Pop Festival (2013) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
This is an Experience concert from the 1968 Miami Pop Festival (obviously) containing remarkably little music from either Axis or Ladyland – which they had already begun recording. Actually I don’t think there’s a single song from the latter. It’s a strong set and it shows off the Experience as a great live band, which …
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
It’s been years since I’ve seen the original trilogy in any kind of thorough way – since Thunderdome used to be on TV all the time, I’ve seen parts of it more than the other two – and I have to say I wasn’t keen on this movie. I hate remakes / reboots in principle …
Fargo – Season 1 (2014)
I normally review a TV series after I’ve watched all the seasons. However, given that the second season of Fargo will consist of an entirely new cast and plot, I am reviewing them separately. Needless to say, SPOILERS!!! I was really, really skeptical of this idea, not only because I was once a gigantic Coen …
People, Hell and Angels (2013) by Jimi Hendrix
This is apparently the “final” official rarities collection we will get from the Hendrix vaults. These are the last previously unreleased studio tracks. It only took 40 years.