This is a 2005 chamber opera based on the 1888 play Miss Julie by August Strindberg. I have never read Strindberg, and I don’t know if I’ve read much naturalist literature or drama, so this was a new experience for me.
Tag: 2015
Do Not Vote for the Harper Conservatives: Good Reasons for conservatives to choose another party
Almost everything on Facebook is meme-y, which is why I am unlikely to ever post something here that I see on Faceebook. Memes – especially political memes – are almost inherently simplistic and, usually, unreliable. But every so often, there is something different, something that is actually worth sharing beyond the echo-chamber of my Facebook …
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Live at the Danforth Music Hall, Friday September 25, 2015
This was my second time seeing Godspeed You! Black Emperor in Toronto. The first time I had a terrible angle but was rather close to the stage (at Lee’s Palace). This time I had pretty great seats in the balcony of the Danforth Music Hall but they were quite far from the stage. I guess …
TIFF 2015: Demon (2015, Marcin Wrona)
This is the most unique horror comedy I’ve seen in some time. Whereas most horror comedies are ready to notify their intention to get you to laugh early on (and usually to laugh instead of scream or to laugh and only occasionally scream) this movie’s humour is rooted in the absurd dramedy of a cast …
TIFF 2015: The Clan (2015, Pablo Trapero)
Though I see a lot of movies – and I mean a lot of movies – and I can usually articulate what I like and don’t like in a particular film, there are always one or two where I feel like there is something wrong but I can’t articulate it, I just feel it. This …
TIFF 2015: The Club (2015, Pablo Larrain)
This is an extremely black comedy – as black as black comedies get – about a group of delinquent priests that have been forced to “retire” in a house in a small town in Chile. Unfortunately my experience of this film was affected by a couple things. First, I saw it with one of the …
TIFF 2015: The Return of the Atom (2015, Jussi Eerola, Mika Taanila)
This is an episodic and pretentious documentary about Finland’s newest nuclear power plant that manages to somehow both be hysterical – not “hysterical” as in “funny” but hysterical as in “insane” – and, somehow, extremely boring.
The Endorsement Test
This past weekend, Wayne Gretzky – in many people’s minds the Greatest Hockey Player Who Ever Lived – endorsed Stephen Harper for Prime Minister of Canada. (In Canada, we’re currently in the midst of our longest election campaign in 80 or 90 years…) This was weird for a few reasons:
Show Me a Hero (2015)
I have to say I sort of screwed myself here; my expectations were sky-high.
The 2015 Wolfe Island Music Festival August 7-8, 2015
The annual pilgrimage to Wolfe Island Music Festival (WIMF) got off to a bit of an uneven start but ended up being one of the better festivals I have attended over the last half decade or so.
Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 3 – Year of the Wooden Horse (2015) by Rabbit Rabbit
The third edition of Rabbit Rabbit Radio is different in conception than the first two. This time out, Kihlstedt and Bossi asked twelve guitarists to submit riffs to them, and then they’d build the songs. The results are significantly different than the first two outings. If Volume 2 was “Rabbit Rabbit Goes Pop” then this …
BBC Culture’s 100 Greatest American Films
So the BBC released a list of the 100 Greatest American Films (of the last 100 years, by the way) two months ago. It’s a pretty decent list, all things considered, but it’s hardly perfect, by any means. I am presenting the list below, with my thoughts:
The Physicists (1961) by Friedrich Durrenmatt, adapted by Michael Healy, live at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, July 25, 2015
This is a play about the social responsibility of scientists posing as a murder mystery-cum comedy, set in an insane asylum. The play uses comedy and the teensiest bit of mystery to dilute it’s otherwise very heavy-handed message. The play itself is so prescient (and so relevant to our time) that I am shocked I …
RIP EL Doctorow
I got into E.L. Doctorow because he was once one of my father’s favourite American novelists. Over the years I read eight of his twelve novels – though not his most famous, Ragtime – one of his two short story collections and his play. I haven’t read any of them recently. I feel like I …
Star Wars (2015) by Wilco
For just over a decade (between the mid ’90s and the mid ’00s) Wilco was one of the most interesting “indie” rock bands in the world – they changed their sound (nearly) every album, from roots rock to pop to post rock to classic rock revival. And then they got comfortable. For the last decade …
RIP Chris Squire
Among the “Big 6” prog bands, Yes was long my least favourite -though, as I age, ELP has taken their place very handily. I have always found their discography rather immense and, well, kind of repetitive – though I have not given it the time I have given King Crimson’s, for example. So, maybe how …
Does Andrei Kirilenko belong in the Hall of Fame?
Does Andrei Kirilenko belong in the Hall of Fame?
The Phil Kessel Trade
I never believed the Leafs would get the return for Kessel that the Bruins got for him from the Maple Leafs. But I hoped it would be something. When the Leafs traded for Kessel, I was upset. I was upset for the following reasons. On the side of what the Leafs gave up: It was …
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 …
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 …
Speed Sisters (2015, Amber Fares)
This is an entertaining and captivating documentary about the Palestinian women’s car racing team, who supply their own cars, who race against men (and each other) and who practice in empty parking lots and on local streets.
Your 2014-15 Toronto Raptors
Last year, as the Raptors neared setting a record for regular season wins in a season, I wondered which was the best Raptors team ever. A weeks later I concluded last year’s edition ranked among the best. But at the beginning of this calendar year, I was optimistic that we were seeing the best team …
Your 2014-15 Toronto Maple Leafs
I watched as little of the Leafs this year as I have since I was 16, more than half my life ago. I did this because Burke and then Nonis killed my passion for the team after JFJ made me more passionate, albeit passionate as to wanting him fired. I’m sort of kidding. I was …
2014-15 NHL Awards
I watched as little hockey this season as I have since I was 16 (i.e. half a lifetime ago) in part because Nonis was still in charge of the Maple Leafs until very recently and in part because basketball is slowly winning the battle of allegiances in my heart. So I’m not making any post-season …
Is Alex Ovechkin the Greatest Pure Goal Scorer of All Time?
A few weeks ago, Alex Ovechkin joined some elite company, he became only the fifth player in NHL history to score 30 goals per season in his first 10 seasons. More recently, he joined even more elite company, he became only the sixth player in NHL history to score 50 goals six times. Now while …
The Campaign to Fire Dave Nonis: Casey Bailey
The Leafs are continuing to sign amateur / international pro prospects to dry and find a diamond in the rough.
Does Steve Nash belong in the Basketball Hall of Fame?
Obviously the title of this post is redundant, as they often are when discussing the legacy of star players. Anyway, what do you say about the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time?
House of Cards (2013)
The following review contains major SPOILERS!!! Do not read it if you haven’t finished Season 3.
The Campaign to Fire Dave Nonis: Trade Deadline 2015
The Leafs didn’t make any major moves today – I for one am disappointed to see Bozak and Lupul still on this team – but they did make a couple.
Campaign to Fire Dave Nonis: The Clarkson Trade
YaaaaaaaaaaaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!