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Literature

Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story by Robyn Doolittle

Sigh. I kinda feel sorry for Robyn Doolittle. She’s an excellent reporter for the Toronto Star, but sadly her name is most associated with Rob Ford. Crazy Town is a book about our mayor, his family, and his problems. Crazy Town at times is extremely hard to read. We’ve lived through this drama for the past three years (longer, if you include his time as councillor). We’ve seen the insanity. Reliving it is not something you really want to do. However, Doolittle does add some interesting new revelations into her book that make it quite interesting. For non-Torontonians, I think it is a must-read. Anyone outside this city who has seen… Read More »Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story by Robyn Doolittle

Born Standing Up and The Jerk

I decided to read Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up. The book focuses on Martin’s career as a stand up comedian. It’s a strange thing to think of when it comes to Steve Martin, as he stopped performing stand up comedy before I was born. The book starts at his young days learning the craft while working at Disney Land in the magic shop, and slowing follows his career. The book is more than just a plain telling of his story, one that I don’t think had been told before, but instead Martin is writing a how-to for stand up comedians. Martin began, not as a comedian, but an entertainer,… Read More »Born Standing Up and The Jerk

In Review

Going through my old blog posts to see how it looks with the new theme. It all seems to be working well, but I came across a lot of posts that are a month in review. I had set up a goal for how much media I’d consume in that year and tracked it. I liked that. I’m going to start doing that for the rest of the year. So here are my goals from July 9-December 31… Books I’ll read (5): Films I’ll see (20): Albums I’ll buy (20): Concerts I’ll attend (15): Plays I’ll attend (3):

Bond 01: Casino Royale vs. Bond 21: Casino Royale

I’ve decided to slowly read all the James Bond novels, then rewatch the film, review the two. The first James Bond novel is “Casino Royale,” while there are numerous films based on this novel, I’m going to focus on the Daniel Craig one. The novel isn’t very good. It’s a quick read, that’s certainly positive, however the negatives are great in this book, such as numerous chapters devoted to informing the reader how to play baccarat, something that’s never interested me. To the point that when I think of baccarat, I think of the scene in A Hard Day’s Night where Paul’s grandfather steal’s Ringo’s casino invite. The book’s portrayal of… Read More »Bond 01: Casino Royale vs. Bond 21: Casino Royale

Sherlock Holmes

A new Sherlock Holmes film comes to theatres, and since I hadn’t seen the original of Guy Ritchie’s variant of Sherlock Holmes, I figured time had to come to watch it. It’s hard not to compare it to Sherlock, the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch, but it’s also stupid to resist it. Both are reimaginings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary character, and they’re both completely different in every way. While Sherlock is modernized, Sherlock Holmes are contemporary to the book. Sherlock is about Holmes’ mind, and Sherlock Holmes is an action film. I cannot dismiss Sherlock Holmes as simply an action film, however. There’s a lot more to the Holmes character than just running… Read More »Sherlock Holmes

You Are A Cat

There’s this awesome dude named Sherwin Tjia who throws awesome events in Toronto and Montreal (sometimes in Ottawa). He’s organized slow dances, and crowd karaoke, and strip spelling bees, and cardboard fort building nights. The last might have been my favourite, because of who I met there, though the spelling bees have boobies. This weekend he launched his new book called You Are A Cat. It’s a sendup of the Choose Your Own Adventure books all ’80s children knew and loved. However, it’s different than the ’80s books from what I remember. As a child I don’t remember those books having much in the way of heavy subject matters, but… Read More »You Are A Cat

#Rocktober 30 volume 23: Canzine

This month I turn 30. To mark such a remarkable event, I’m spending every day of October drenched in awesome-sauce. Went to Canzine. It was fun. Got a copy of Static Zine volume 2, and bought one of Aviva’s killer cookie stuffed cookies. I also bought a present for Violet.

#Rocktober 30 volume 14: Rob Benvie, Matt Murphy, Different Skeletons, and Queen’s Park

This month I turn 30. To mark such a remarkable event, I’m spending every day of October drenched in awesome-sauce. Last night I went to a weird alley in Kensington which in turn led to a staircase up to a strange bar I’ve never been in.  It was a packed house where Rob Benvie of Thrush Hermit fame was to be reading from his new novel. I didn’t quite understand why the place was so packed, but I quickly found Natalia and Tim and hung out with those two for a while. After hanging around for a while, we spotted Val, in the audience, and chatted with her. Turns out… Read More »#Rocktober 30 volume 14: Rob Benvie, Matt Murphy, Different Skeletons, and Queen’s Park

A novel roundup

It’s been a month since I last posted (other than yesterday’s debate review), but I’ve read a lot of books in that time. Bossypants by Tina Fey I learned a lot about Tina Fey’s life, for one, I learned that she has a big scar on her face. When she first started discussing it, I assumed she was joking, apparently she actually has a big scar on her face. Definitely a lot of laughs in this book, but also a lot of insight into Fey’s mind. This was the first book I read on an iPad, as such I highlighted some of my favourite text. Donna was an enigma wrapped… Read More »A novel roundup

Bible Camp Bloodbath

Last night I read Joey Comeau’s Bible Camp Bloodbath, a tale of murder and death. I’ve long been a fan of Comeau’s work with Emily Horne called A Softer World, but I’ve also enjoyed two of his novels, Overqualified and One Bloody Thing After Another. One of my favourite parts of this novel, is the blurb on the back, which reads: Bible Camp Bloodbath is a story about a boy named Martin. Martin is going to Bible Camp, and he’s going to make a lot of new friends. He’s excited, too, but that’s probably because nobody told him what the book is called. The book isn’t as funny as his… Read More »Bible Camp Bloodbath