Gifted Typist

… Stealing from the information rich and giving to the information poor. Whether WikiLeaks founder goes down as a hero or a villain has yet to be seen. But he has lifted the lid on Pandora’s Box. And it will be hard to screw it back down again, even if Julian Assange is thrown in [...]

This typist recently had the opportunity to visit the Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern art gallery in London. Paul Gauguin’s paintings have interested me for his use of bold colour  and his depiction of  ”Other” in the figures of his Tahitian women. So I was looking forward to seeing this collection of his life’s [...]

Just when you thought the evil estheticians have gone far enough by making the full Brazilian a bodily “must have,” now comes vajazzling. Yes people, it’s no longer enough to have your downstairs region hot waxed, defoliated, tattooed and pierced. Now you need crystals “down there.” For more on this development,  link to my column [...]

See my column here. The frenzy seems to start earlier each year: November, October, September. It’s spreading like a bad mould across the calendar. Why not just leave the silly decorations up all year round. That way, we’d save the bother of having to put them up and take them down again. Too much Christmas [...]

Gather the kids. Get the hot chocolate. Set off the fireworks! We’re going to burn an effigy tonight. That’s what they do in England on this day. Effigy-buring is a real family affair and community event. I was invited to several backyard burnings in my time there and always marveled at the fun-loving approach they [...]

I recently penned a letter, a real live paper-and-ink letter with the date on top and a *Dear…* opener. It’s part of the Artful Penpals project started by Shelagh of Alice in Paris. The project is designed to revive the art of letter writing. It works like this: people send a short bio to Shelagh [...]

… and like Princess Diana, we’ll probably remember where we were when we heard the news of the King of Pop’s death. There are similarities: both were staging a come-back, both were global celebrities and both died too soon. And everyone was shocked. Of course, Jacko was deeply troubled and far more *out there* than [...]

There’s a petition going around asking Pixar to make more animated movies with girls who are not princesses. In a letter to Pixar Linda Holmes points out: Of the ten movies you’ve released so far, ten of them have central characters who are boys or men, or who are anthropomorphized animals or robots or bugs [...]

By scanning the reviews, I knew the flick Up would be good, but I must say it came as a surprise when the story of this grieving old man and his plumb eight-year old sidekick found its way into the heart of this crusty typist. Let’s just say tissues were needed in the same way [...]

There’s smoke in the air. The sky is buzzing with the sound of water bombers. Over a thousand people have been evaculated. Homes have been destroyed. Narrow escapes are being reported on radio, people running with kids, pet rats and computers. The fire started as a brush fire yesterday afternoon. Last night the city skyline [...]

Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s cute or funny. Don’t be lulled into going to this flick because you liked Monsters Inc. Don’t drag your family to this see this badly-made flick. I’m telling you this because I did all these things on Easter Sunday. And I regretted seeing Monsters vs Aliens almost from [...]

Tell you more when I get back.  Meanwhile here is the link. In the meantime here is the GT podcast I’ve been secretly working on the past little while. You can find it here on iTunes. Haven’t got the WordPress plug-in working to listen directly here, but online casinothis link should get you to there. [...]

… and at 63, Neil Young ain’t old. This was one of those concerts where you hardly knew where to direct your awe. Was it the fact that this 63-year old was bent over an electric guitar, face pinched in concentration, ripping out chords and tunes that went straight into your bones? Or was it [...]

There’s nothing like a holiday to kick off the summer. There’s beer, barbeques and fireworks, if the weather permits. People know how to do Canada Day when they’re in their own backyard, but when it comes to public celebrations, Canada Day always seems a little awkward to me.* The trouble is that Canadians aren’t flag-wavers [...]

I’m not normally one to make a hero out of someone, but if I ever had a hero, this guy would be it. He died 25 April at 86. And somehow I missed his passing. I must have been busy that week and didn’t tune into BBC Radio 4 as I normally do. But when [...]