Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
The Forgotten Rebels out of Hamilton were a great Canadian punk band (saw them perform at Edmonton’s Ambassador Hotel circa 1985. Probably still have the gig pictures somewheres). Here they are performing one of their classic tunes, Surfin’ on Heroin: Here’s the studio version, taken from the band’s MySpace page. I think I like the [...]
Mon, October 25 2010 » Main Page, Music Monday et al, multimedia » Comments Off
On no particular theme: The White Stripes, “Offend in Every Way” -http://tinysong.com/hXo7 Muse, “City of Delusion” - http://tinysong.com/7zRA Luna, “Friendly Advice” -http://tinysong.com/gY7H
Sun, October 24 2010 » Main Page, Music Monday et al » Comments Off
Saw the monster Martin Scorsese movie Taxi Driver tonight at the Bell Light Box. It’s unquestionably one of the great films of the 1970s (it’s number 45 on TIFF’s list of the 100 essential films), and I love the way it captures the street life of Manhattan during that period of urban decay in the Big [...]
Sun, October 24 2010 » Film, Main Page, multimedia » Comments Off
I wrote a Saturday feature for ctvtoronto.ca: Economic cracks show in Toronto as election looms. The basic thrust is that Toronto’s economic recovery since the recession has been very uneven. If you were a blue-collar goods-producing worker, you may have lost your job. If you found one again, it’s probably a much-lower-paying gig in the [...]
Sat, October 23 2010 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
The Toronto Star ran a photo of convicted murderer Russell Williams in a young girl’s underwear, juxtaposed with a photo of him in the dress military garb he once wore as commander of CFB Trenton. Kathy English, the Star’s public editor, thinks the paper made the right call, despite the outcry.
Sat, October 23 2010 » Main Page, Media » 1 Comment
The Toronto Star’s Antonia Zerbias has her own take on the challenges of covering gruesome court cases with new tools such as Twitter. Mine came on Oct. 20: Covering the unthinkable in a social media age Here’s a quote from Zerbisias’s piece. The source is Joanna Smith, the Ottawa-based Star reporter who covered the Russell [...]
Sat, October 23 2010 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
From The Globe and Mail: The Supreme Court of Canada has granted journalists in Quebec the right to protect confidential sources provided they can show it is in the public interest.
Fri, October 22 2010 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Globe and Mail editor-in-chief John Stackhouse spoke at length on Thursday about the editorial vision for the national newspaper institution, one that involves a transformation of newsroom culture and building communities of interest around journalistic content.
Thu, October 21 2010 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
As I approached work Tuesday, I read the tweets of the Toronto Star’s Joanna Smith who is covering the Col. Russell Williams sentencing hearing. I sent her the following: @smithjoanna Great tweets, but you’re breaking my heart. :( What a tragic story. #ColRW Didn’t get a response, but she did tweet the following late Tuesday: Debate tonight [...]
Wed, October 20 2010 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page, Media » 3 Comments
This is what you see when you approach the Niagara River in the Glen: I think it’s a pretty awesome sight. My fishing excursion took me a few hundred metres south of that site to an eddy above the rapids. I could see plenty of evidence of salmon present, but they had no interest in indulging me. One clip captures [...]
Mon, October 18 2010 » Main Page, Minutiae, multimedia, photos » Comments Off