I am an expert in reading last books in awesome series. You can tell this because at the time of writing this blog entry, I have no fewer than three on my shelf, bookmarks firmly ensconced. (For the curious, Dexter is Dead, Monsters of Men, and, of course, Ancillary Mercy.)…
Dear friends and family: so many of you are waiting for the next installment of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice saga. I can’t say that I feel your exact pain, since I’m not into Game of Thrones, but I do know the frustration of waiting…
Last week, when I was sharing some thoughts about Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, I mentioned that including diversity of sexual orientations in a story doesn’t necessarily mean including sexual acts. I’d like to expand on that. The place and profession where I’m most cognizant of…
When I was thirteen, there was a group of people on the Internet who were completely, objectively incorrect.
I’ve got nothing exciting to talk about this week because my brain is fried. Why, you might ask? Because acting will do that to ya. Don’t worry, your brain is in no permanent danger if you come to see Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters (Toronto, Red Sandcastle Theatre). But your funny bone might…
Coffee’s for closers (warning: bad language in linked video), and libraries are for last-pagers. You heard me.
Let’s get this out of the way: Elementary lacks a certain je-totally-sais-quoi compared to other contemporary Sherlock Holmes TV series. Its mysteries often make little sense ; the bad guy is almost always the only next-tier guest actor who is not a canonical character; and in one of its recent episodes,…
One thing — okay, one of the many things — that troubled me about J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is how it deals with murder. In the third book, we learn along with Harry that there are three Unforgiveable Curses: the Imperius Curse, which forces the caster’s will upon…
What do boy wizard Harry Potter and Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum have in common? Apart from messy black hair? Answer: another kid against whom competition feels personal. Someone competing at the same level but for the other side. Someone whose actions hike up the in-story tension. In short… a rival.
Labour Day is fast approaching, and with it the crisp weather and colourful foliage of fall. If, like me, you work in academia or education, the more intense part of your job is on the horizon (or already here, depending on whether, like me, you left all your planning for the end…