Recent Posts

• December 01, 2024

  Strangers on a Train (1951)

  Newly armed with a Criterion Channel subscription for the year, it’s back to the Hitchcock mines. I’ve seen most of the big hits (including Notorious twice without realising until a bit into the second time) but the guy made a lot of movies. Strangers on a Train has a killer premise, what if two people had a murder they wanted done, with no connection to each other, and they decided to swap murders to leave behind no connection and no motive. The only risk really is that one of the people doesn’t actually want to do it, and the other is such a remorseless psycho that he basically does it same day.

• October 20, 2024

  Heart of Darkness

  I bought the paperback of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness something like twenty years ago. It has followed me around multiple countries since then, unread. I don’t know specifically why I picked it up now, I’m in the rare position of picking through my bookshelf trying to find things I haven’t actually read and there it was with one shining advantage: it’s really short. One hundred pages, plus a few more for fun. I also am probably willing to go on record saying Apocalypse Now is my favourite film, so I really should get around to it.

• October 03, 2024

  David Copperfield

  I’ve read some Dickens in the past, pretty sure I read Hard Times, since I remember a bunch of character names, if not what actually happened. I definitely read A Tale of Two Cities, which had a very silly twist ending. But mainly, I read contemporary reviews of Demon Copperhead, and it sounded interesting, so I wanted to get in on the ground floor.

• June 10, 2024

  Ireland Doesn't Get Earthquakes

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• May 06, 2024

  Toronto Marathon 2024

  My alarm went off at 5:30am. I could hear the rain outside. Both cats and one child sprung awake immediately because I, their servant, had moved and therefore was ready to do tasks for them. Auspicious.