the end of the book, the rise of the ebook?
i've been skeptical about the whole kindle excitement, thinking the limitations of the format - you can't lend an ebook, you have to carry a multi-hundred dollar piece of equipment with you whether you're reading on the bus or in the bath - but this article i wrote for today's metro canada opened my eyes. suddenly, it makes a lot of sense - at least in this academic setting. blyth academy has a huge ad on the back of today's globe & mail, showing they have a lot of faith in this project. it's cheaper, lighter and greener than traditional text books, and presumably can be upd

amelia vanishes in new movie
amelia earhart famously disappeared in the middle of her round-the-world flight and half way through the new amelia movie, i was hoping it would likewise disappear. it's a sickly, thin movie populated by exactly one real person, and a handful of cartoons. i

no great mischief makes even me weep for cape breton
let me be frank: when i heard neptune was running a play about a guy from rural cape breton who leaves town to follow his big city dreams, then returns home to confront the ghosts that haunt him, i shuddered, then groaned, then laid down for

back to africville/in praise of librarians
the hermit of africville is moving along nicely. that's the working title i've given my in-progress bio of africville protester eddie carvery. when i first met him, he told me he was illiterate. then i started noticing the books sta

this is it! mj's last dance
i went to this is it last night expecting to see either a hagiography praising the perfect personage of michael jackson or a britney spears-style train wreck, a broken puppet of a man being jerked around stage to make money for his masters.what i saw was a fierce dancer working hard to realize his artistic vision. mj comes across as clear-headed, focused, and very definitely in charge. he's constantly stopping his dancers and musicians, telling them to slow it down, like they're 'bathing in the moonlight' or to speed it up, because his jacket's so hot it's going to catch fire - purely in a pretend, non-pepsi way, i should add.the movie is made by those w