By Nathaniel Moher All right, truth time, when my editor finally got ahold of me, I was about half-way through a case of Jim Beam. It turns out, just because the American government has decided it doesn’t need to work, doesn’t mean I get to skip work and drink like it’s literally the end of […]
Oil sands doc is on key
By Rod Mickleburgh A guy walks into a bar . . . That’s pretty much how film-maker Charles Wilkinson came to make his seductive documentary, Oil Sands Karaoke, about, of all things, a karaoke contest in the heart of you-know-what country, Fort McMurray. After being distinctly underwhelmed by two earlier forays during the Vancouver International Film […]
No reporters allowed (speaking of STFU)
By Alison@Creekside At his last Con caucus meeting and presser five months ago, Harper so disliked the grilling he got from media about Nigel Wright’s cheque to Senator Mike Duffy and what Steve knew about it — see above — that today he decided to allow only cameras into his pre-throne speech caucus meeting without […]
Why I am a disappointment to J. Kelly Nestruck
By Frank Moher I had an interesting conversation with the critic J. Kelly Nestruck recently, if an exchange on twitter can be called a conversation. I am in the habit, on September 11th of each year, of posting to facebook and twitter a message along the lines of: The best way to honour the victims […]
The Alice Munro effect
Alice Munro has won the Nobel Prize for literature. In the Sept. 15, 2001 edition of Saturday Night magazine, Frank Moher, backofthebook.ca’s editor, wrote with tongue only-slightly-in-cheek about the great volume of short story collections published in Canada, perhaps inspired by having the great Ms. Munro among us. His suggestion for a short-story moratorium did […]
The Video: John and Tarek say hi
CSEC and Brazil: “Whose interests are being served”?
By Alison@Creekside Amusing to see both NaPo and the G&M hosting remarks from former CSIS deputy director Ray Boisvert dismissing the recent Snowden/Greenwald docs which revealed CSEC spied on Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry. Snowden was present at the Five Eyes conference where the CSEC presentation on their Olympia spying program on Brazil took place. Boisvert in both papers: […]
Canadian Comedy Awards: Who knew?
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten The Canadian Comedy Awards came and went again this past weekend. You’re probably thinking, or saying out loud (maybe you talk to yourself, I don’t presume anything), “Those exist? I’ve never heard of ’em.” And I would respond (out loud, because I do talk to myself), “That’s no surprise. They’ve only been […]
A Streetcar Named Disaster
By TJ Dawe Blue Jasmine, this year’s Woody Allen movie, is a pretty blatant reworking of A Streetcar Named Desire, but with a vital difference: the Blanche character doesn’t represent Tennessee Williams and his artistic sensitivity — she’s the personification of America, before and after the financial collapse. Here’s her story, in bullet points — […]
A Modest Opinion – Celebrating 100 articles of being right 100% of the time
By Nathaniel Moher Dear loyal readers, I’m sure most of you would like to thank me for all one hundred of the articles I’ve written over the last four years, and so you should. Assuming you just did, I’d like to say, “You’re welcome!” One hundred articles ago, if you had asked me if I’d […]
