Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
Amir Bar-Lev made a documentary called My Kid Could Paint That, about a four-year-old in Binghamton, N.Y. who is supposedly an art prodigy. Bar-Lev set out to make a film supporting the kid, Marla Olmstead, and her family — who has been accused of helping her. But he came to believe that Marla might not [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Film, Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Toronto.ctv.ca has a story with photos showing the new ads that Toronto's Live with Culture campaign is running in some U.S. alt.weeklies. The campaign's purpose is presumably to reinforce the stereotype that our city's ad creators have bad judgment, a lack of vision and no ability to make people laugh. I'm a T.O. fan and I wouldn't visit [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
Kevin Wilson at Mack the Hackistan has a post saying that Toronto Sun ME Gord Walsh is the latest to be departing from 333 King St. E. (the Toronto Sun Family blog, which Kevin linked to, has the same thing). That can't be a particularly fun place to work these days (that's me — a [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
From A.O. Scott's take on Smokin' Aces in the NYT: “F.B.I.! F.B.I.!” Blam blam blam blam. “[Expletive]. [Expletive].” Blam blam blam. Spurt of blood. Plot twist. “F.B.I.! F.B.I.!” “[Expletive].” Blam blam blam blam blam. “[Expletive].” “F.B.I.!” “Hotel Security!” Blam. Exploding skull. Guy sits on a chain saw. Montage. [Expletive]. Plot twist. Roll credits. Yes, I [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Film, Main Page » Comments Off
A school district in Federal Way, Wash., got into hot water after putting a moratorium on the screening of the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth, which has been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. Here's why one parent opposed its screening. An excerpt from the Washington Post story: Frosty E. Hardison is [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page, Media » 4 Comments
Saw an amusing squib of an interview between U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN's The Situation Room, on The Daily Show on Thursday night. The actual interview occurred Wednesday. Here's the CNN story. The text of the clip The Daily Show used is in bold: An excerpt from the CNN transcript: [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Main Page, Media, politics » Comments Off
Daniel Kitts, a producer with TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, thinks there's enough evidence to suggest that human-influenced global warming is a reality. While there are parts of the climate-change issue worth debating, that reality isn't one of them. An excerpt from the commentary on globeandmail.com: There are certain things in society we don't [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
From the Washington Post: Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you. This delicious morsel about the “Meet the Press” host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Main Page, Media, politics » Comments Off
How bad reporting led to death threats for a scientist researching homosexuality in sheep. From the NYT story: The story of the gay sheep became a textbook example of the distortion and vituperation that can result when science meets the global news cycle. The news media storm reached its zenith last month, when The Sunday [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
In a commentary for the BBC, Mike Hulme — director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research — said the reality of climate change is bad enough without resorting to apocalyptic language. An excerpt: The language of catastrophe is not the language of science. It will not be visible in next year's global assessment [...]
Fri, January 26 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off