Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
This was one of my favourite TIFF films from last year. Here's the Now review (John Harkness gives it three stars). Unfortunately, the only place it's screening is at the Kennedy Commons. What a terrible place to screen a fine movie like that (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift should be playing on every screen [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Film, Main Page » Comments Off
WASHINGTON, DC—A team of leading historians and psychiatrists issued a report Wednesday claiming that the United States was likely the victim of abuse by its founding fathers and motherland when it was a young colony. The War of 1812, an example of early abuse by the motherland. ”In its adulthood, the U.S. displays all the [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
Russia's President Vladimir Putin explains to the BBC why he kissed a young boy on the stomach the other day. From the Beeb: Mr Putin described the boy as “very sweet” Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his controversial kissing of a boy on the stomach was just a spontaneous gesture of affection. Mr Putin [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
A snippet of an interview with Malian singer Salif Keita, playing at Harbourfront tonight: Keita, 56, recalls listening to James Brown's 1962 Live at the Apollo album “over and over — I didn't even try to understand the words, just the sounds,” he says with the intermittent aid of a French translator, on the phone [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
Here's Tuesday's BBC headline: 'No request' for Afghan back-up And here's today's: UK considers bigger Afghan force An excerpt from the Thursday story: The possibility of sending more UK troops to Afghanistan is being considered “as a matter of urgency”, the defence secretary has said. Des Browne said he had received advice on additional deployments and [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
During the current frenzy of Bush administration invective against the NYT and other news organizations, journalist Mark Goodman asks how life might be different today had newspapers printed the truth about the First World War as it was happening. An excerpt from the Salon article: … There is ample historical precedent to provide cover for the [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
A number of major broadcasters are ready to begin offering news programming in Arabic. But will it help, or make matters worse? (DING! DING! DING! This is this blog's 3,000th post!!) From the NYT story: The potential risks were apparent last week when about 500 Iraqi followers of a radical Shiite cleric attacked the Iranian [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
The Beeb reports that Islamist gunmen burst in on a cinema in central Somalia that was showing a banned World Cup game. When the shooting stopped, two people were dead. An excerpt: The cinema owner and a young girl were reportedly killed by militia loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts, who seized control of [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
For whatever reason, a number of marketeers have been emailing me lately. Here's some sample messages. Hello Bill My name is Yvonne. I spent some time reading your blog today and enjoyedyour post on the World Cup. I work for a word of mouth marketing company called (snip) and I’mlooking to give away brand new [...]
Thu, July 6 2006 » Main Page, Minutiae » 4 Comments
Taking the street car eastbound on College this evening, an armada of cars — at least three — bearing French flags honked their way westward (“You Portuguese swine: I fart in your general direction!”). Not one Citroen or Peugot in the bunch. :) As we approach my stop, I mention to the operator that this [...]