Category Entertainment

Skywalker Rising

I liked the ending. Somehow it seemed fitting. I could have done with a little less action though – it seemed like one light-sabre battle after another, to the point they all seemed the same. And, spoiler alert, you know the good guys are going to win. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brings to […]

First Hand Experience

Four years ago I wrote a post I called “Climate Change For Dummies,” my thoughts on environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio’s hysterical reaction to living through a Chinook, a climate phenomenon I only knew from books. This week though I was in Calgary, Alberta, and more or less experienced a Chinook.  I say more or less […]

Stopping The Puck

Maybe it was the subject matter. Maybe they wanted too much money. Maybe they don’t want to celebrate the past. For whatever reason, it was absence that struck me most about Goalie, the Terry Sawchuk biopic I watched on a flight this week. Absent from the film were any mention of National Hockey League team […]

The Irishman

When there is a lot of fuss surrounding a film, I sometimes feel it is imperative to watch, rather than fall completely out of touch with the culture. Which is why I sat through Martin Scorsese’s latest, The Irishman, which hit theatres briefly last month. While reviewers suggested this is a film better seen on […]

Not Just Nostalgia

Led Zeppelin is dead. Robert Plant rocks on. Sunday night at Cityfolk the former Zepp vocalist performed a delicate balancing act, giving the fans the old songs from the seventies that they craved while showcasing his newer material. Songs like “The May Queen” and the title track to his latest work, “Carry Fire,” were blended […]

Friday Night Rocked

I missed most of the music on the nineties. When you lived in Pembroke, Ontario, there wasn’t much choice. The local radio played (as I remember it) country music. Which means, in those pre-internet days, all I knew about the band Live was what I read. I could perhaps have named you a tune or […]

A Whole Lotta Love

Cityfolk starts today, Ottawa’s annual folk music extravaganza. For me it’s a trip down memory lane, as Robert Plant will close the festival Sunday night. You may not think of the former Led Zeppelin frontman as a folk artist, but the “folk” in Cityfolk has some elasticity. After all, the last time I saw Plant […]

Tripping Down Memory Lane

It was billed as John Fogarty’s 50-year trip. It lived up to its billing. Since April the former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman has been criss-crossing America, sharing his memories and his music. The Woodstock Festival was 50 years ago this month. CCR were headliners. Nostalgia is in full bloom. One thing you didn’t see at […]

Free Trip To Egypt

  It sounded like a scam, which explains why there were so few takers. Maybe as soon as you  arrived in Cairo you would be kidnapped, held for ransom or beheaded. Free Trip To Egypt  wasn’t a scam, but an idea from filmmaker Tarek Mounib ( a fellow Carleton University grad). Take a group of […]

Time To Party!

  Who knew this day would come? It certainly wasn’t something I planned for. On Sunday July 8, 1979, my only thought for the future was next week. Forty years later I look back and realize that my life and that of many others changed that day. Which is a good reason to celebrate. Feel […]