If I have learned one thing from immersing myself in too many true crime podcasts, TV series and movies, it’s this: most police detectives have never been taught to think. There seems to be an obsession with relying on instinct and (supposed) “known knowns” and nothing else; no rigorous investigation techniques, no awareness of the …
Tag: 2016
The Tragically Hip Live at the K-Rock Centre, August 20, 2016
I wasn’t going to watch this show. The cynic in me found the sudden outpouring of interest in The Hip weird. I felt like people I’d never heard mention this band previously were now obsessed with getting tickets to shows, all because someone (Canadian) famous is dying of cancer. Instead, I was going to watch …
Is Trump the Greatest Con Man in American History?
Sorry for the clickbaity headline. What I really mean to ask is “Is Donald Trump trying to become the Greatest American Con Man of All Time?” because only if he wins the Presidential election will he achieve this feat.
Tickled (2016, David Farrier, Dylan reeve)
It’s rare for me to see a movie that shocks me, that leaves me unable to process what I’ve seen for hours afterward. But this is one such movie. The GF and I kept having parts of conversations for hours afterward where we attempted and failed to process what we had seen. You should see …
Initial Reactions to the Raptos’ 2016 Draft
I saw a CBC story that claimed Raptors fans (on twitter) were not happy with Toronto’s #9 pick. Some twitter users were unfamiliar with Poeltl because they apparently do not follow college basketball or NBA mock drafts or…maybe they aren’t even actually Raptors fans (but just play them on twitter)?
The Witness (2016, James D. Solomon)
We’ve all heard the story of the woman who was murdered in New York City in sight of thirty eight people who did nothing, a story that told us all of the moral degradation of modern urban society. I thought the story was apocryphal. Well, this movie is about her brother, his quest to find …
Your 2015-2016 Toronto Raptors
Putting aside any disappointments we may feel about those last two games, it must be acknowledged that, by nearly any standard, this was the Greatest Team in Franchise History; the most regular season wins, the most home wins, the most road wins, the most playoff wins… I may have had my expectations raised too high …
Conn Smythe Watch 2016
I am watching more playoff hockey this spring than I have probably since the last time the Leafs were in the playoffs. That’s still not as much as I used to watch, but it’s a lot more than than I was watching more recently. And so, for the hell of it, I wanted to see …
In the Shadow of the Hill (2016, Dan Jackson)
This is a thorough, engrossing and, for its subject matter, pretty to look at film about a favela in Rio and the problems that have occurred since the police “pacified” it in the lead up to the 2014 World Cup of Soccer. There is a lot here of interest and the film is quite well …
Chasing Asylum (2016, Eva Orner)
When I lived in Australia well over a decade ago, the Australian government would take the “boat people” – refugees coming illegally by boat to Northern Australia, Western Australian Queensland and some Australian islands – who made it ashore and throw them in jails in the middle of nowhere in the Outback. The boat people …
Missy Higgins: Oh Canada (2016, Nicholas Kallincos, Natasha Pincus)
I saw this music video posing as a short film at Hot Docs last night. It’s an animated film about Alan Kurdi. It includes pictures drawn by refugees but most of it was professionally animated (even though it is given the look of a child’s picture).
2015-16 NBA Awards
MVP Curry is
2015-16 NHL Awards
For the second time in as many years, I watched barely any hockey. But that won’t stop me from deciding who was good! I can’t decide whether I am doing this as some kind of self-parody, or just because, really, I want to know who was good, so that I can do better on Sporcle …
The Just by Albert Camus, live at the Michael Young Theatre, March 9, 2016
This is a new translation of Les Justes that appears to have been written in light of what’s currently going on in the Middle East.
RIP George Martin
George Martin was the most innovative producer of the 1960s and, given what happened in the 1960s, perhaps the most innovative producer in the history of rock music. As someone who grew up with The Beatles (long story), his music had a massive impact on my life. Martin is, of course, most known for producing …
Trailers
I hate most movie trailers nowadays. The teasers are more along the lines of what good trailers should be like, but those teasers are released months, sometimes years, before the movie comes out and, inevitably, trailers that follow reveal the vast majority of the plot. Why can’t trailers give us just the basic gist of …
Deadpool (2016, Tim Miller)
I think it’s safe to say that this is the best Marvel film outside of one or two of the X-Men sequels – the recent ones have been shockingly good. This film is funny – it’s not just mildly amusing, like Guardians of the Galaxy – and it manages to preserve the rather elliptical nature …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 13 – February 22, 2016
It was cool again this morning, probably as cool as the day before (so, relatively cool). The hotel had a large breakfast buffet, probably the biggest we’d seen. It was quite nice, although it wasn’t particularly Colombian. We took a cab and got to the airport relatively quickly, despite it being a weekday. I looked …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 12 – February 21, 2016
It rained today, the first time it rained on our trip. And that was kind of funny because it was supposed to rain the entire time we were in Medellin and I think a few other times. Anyway, it was just sprinkling too. We took a cab to the bus stop and had to wait …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 11 – February 20, 2016
This morning we headed to the northern bus terminal, one stop farther on the metro than the northern gondola. We were able to find our bus counter rather easily and our bus. We were early, which was good, and sat on the bus for a bit before it took off. It’s a 2 hour so …
RIP Umberto Eco
I only ever read two books by the man – one fiction, one non-fictiojn – but I felt his presence in my life in many ways. Ever since I first saw (the awfully cast) film version of his The Name of the Rose, I was intrigued, I felt like there was something there. The movie …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 10 – February 19, 2016
I woke up feeling much, much better. I would still have some minor digestive issues over the next few days, and it would take rather a while before I felt completely myself again, but I was able to enjoy our holiday once more. I don’t know whether that’s just the thing that happens with stuff …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 9 – February 18, 2016
Everything goes to shit…literally Please know that the following may not be something you want to read so if you’re grossed out, maybe wait for Day 10. NSFW as they say.
Riley goes to Colombia Day 8 – February 17, 2016
This morning we had a flight to Medellin. We were sitting in the airport wondering why everyone was lined up for their flight 2 hours too early. We decided “well, I guess that’s what they do here” and got in line. Only once we were in line did we realize it was for the earlier …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 7 – February 16, 2016
This morning we went to Playa Blanca. There was more than a little confusion: Nobody picked us up despite the pledge yesterday that we would be picked up. We could have walked four times before we finally got in a cab. First, our hotel called them and they said they were on their way. Then …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 6 – February 15, 2016
The day before, we were hoping to figure out how to get to a beach, but we had contacted a tour group but had not heard anything. (The beach situation: beaches a few miles away in Bocagrande, on the same peninsula – rendered an “island” by a canal – but in a Miami Beach-type setting. …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 5 – February 14, 2016
Valentine’s Day. One of the cool things about this hotel was the breakfasts. Every morning we had a choice of “American” or local breakfast, and I ate the local every day: empanadas, arepas, a local sausage and limes. Plus, fresh fruit juice! Good stuff. This morning we walked over to Castillo de San Felipe, which …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 4 – February 13, 2016
The first two mornings at the hotel, we’d had regular food for breakfast: eggs, waffles. But today we got tamales! They were pretty good. We had a super fast ride to the airport, as it was a Saturday morning and apparently the awful traffic virtually disappears on the weekends. So we got to the Bogota …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 3 – February 12, 2016
This morning we took a cab ride to Monserrate, a mountain that overlooks Bogota. For the first few minutes of the cab ride, we worried he was driving us up the mountain, as we had to go up high to get on a beltway that runs along the hills. The cabbie took us to the …
Riley Goes to Colombia Day 2 – February 11, 2016
After breakfast, we took another long cab ride to a mall, where we met Loon, our guide, for a tour of one of Bogota’s big food markets. We tried the following over the course of the morning: 1.Breakfast Sancocho de pescado Fish soup made with plantain, yuca and potatoes. Arepa de queso – Colombian arepa filled …