I don’t have any idea if I was one of the first Zip.ca customers, but I was certainly an early one. The company was founded in 2004 and I was renting movies from them the autumn of that same year, which happened to be when I started my Master’s degree. If you’re unfamiliar with Zip.ca, …
Tag: Culture
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers (2018) by Michelle Gelfand
This is a fascinating book about how cultural norms impact our lives. You might not get that from the title, but I’d say ignore the title and look at the subtitle. (The title, to me, sounds like it’s some kind of business success book or something.)
Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) by Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a frustrating and maddening book that might be better called Old Man Yells at New Technology and About How Things Were Better Before He Was Born. It’s considered a classic examination of the problems of new technology, which I find odd given how shoddily the argument is made. If this …
The Peep Diaries (2009) by Hal Niedzviecki
This book is a relatively interesting and amusing book about how modern technology and modern culture have created a brave new world that we don’t really understand how to navigate – and which could have all sorts of unintended consequences for us. However, the book suffers from a number of problems which make it not …
Sandy Hook and Self-Censorship
The BBC informs me that Django Unchained‘s premiere has been canceled on account of the massacre in Newtown, CT. This is the second film to be delayed because of this tragedy – as far as I know – though it is certainly the more artistically significant of the two. I think this is a mistake. Let …
Crazy Italians: On the Cultural Disconnect Between Myself and Italian Cinema
Nearly a decade ago, when I was living in Australia, I went for a couple of organized tours of parts of the country I had never been too. One such tour occurred in the southwestern corner of Western Australia, an area that is one of the most beautiful I have ever been to in my …
Bollywood
Last night I went to a house warming party and drank a bit too much red wine. (Which is hilarious given that I haven’t gotten drunk off wine in what feels like years.) Given the time of year the subject of TIFF naturally came up and we eventually got on to Slumdog, a film I …
The Culture of Fear
This culture of fear is ridiculous. On Thursday, I was on my home, and at the James-Main intersection. I wanted to cross it a particular way because, on Thursday, the new View comes out. It is located in a box on the southeast corner. So I want to go to that corner, rather than the …