This is the first installment of what will be a weekly round-up of things and stuff that have been going on throughout the course of the week. A chance to reflect and remark. So here it is.

Film

Upcoming in film is Martin Scorsese’s new film, a thriller, called Shutter Island. It looks utterly terrifying and a thriller like this, in the hands of a capable director like Scorsese, it’s bound to be incredible. It comes out in Canada on February 19 and we’re just waiting. With Maria and I both not feeling great over the weekend, we also spent a lot of time laying around and watching movies. Look for a bunch of reviews over the next few days; I won’t give anything away just yet.

Music

On the encouragement of someone who’s musical tastes I sufficiently trust, I dug out The Decemberist’s most recent album The Hazards of Love to give it another go. When I originally heard it—and reviewed it—I wasn’t a fan. It felt disconnected and obnoxious. It’s a rock opera, after all. Giving it another shot though and it’s growing on me, a little bit. I think, perhaps, I was originally too quick to judge but we’ll see. One thing I can say for sure, is that The Talking Heads greatest hits record has been on rotation on my iTunes since Christmas, when I got it, and it ain’t go anywhere.

Television

On the television side of things, there isn’t really anything else to discuss, it’s LOST. So many questions to consider after last week’s episode, and you can believe I’ll have a huge review up here after this week’s installment. I guess the one real question is: what the heck is going on?! But I’m also wondering about Richard, last we saw he was being dragged into the jungle by Fake Locke. And where’s Ilana? What was her job exactly, because it certainly wasn’t to save Jacob, she didn’t even enter into the room under the statue with the rest of her group—where did she go? And, what’s going on?!

Last week I twittered through the episode, it was fun, and I’ll be there again this week if you care to follow.

OK, I think that’s all for this week’s round-up. I’m off to do some dishes and bake some brownies for a Superbowl party; now if I can only remember which teams are playing…

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes was an incredible ride, the whole way through.

As a die hard Sherlock Holmes fan, and not a fan of Diehard, I approached this movie with trepidation. Guy Ritchie is a skillful director, a master, in my opinion, but can be tasteless, violent and crude at times, too. I worried, as did the rest of Holmes’ devoted fans, what he might do once he got his hands on the franchise of the world’s greatest sleuth. In the end, I needn’t have worried, for Holmes was in very good hands.
Read the rest of this article »

The Gathering Storm (2002) and Into the Storm (2009) are the first and second parts of an HBO-produced made-for-television movie series on the life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While they’re two very separate movies, with entirely different casts, produced seven years apart I think a review of them, in contrast and comparison, is the best approach to take.
Read the rest of this article »

An incredible clip from the CBC archives featuring a young Lloyd Robertson interviewing a “street surfer” or “skurfer” in 1965.

If you’re a Lostie at all then you’ve been waiting for this event with unbridled anticipation: the 2-hour premiere of the final season of ABC’s LOST. In our own anticipation, Maria and I rewatched both Season 4 and 5 and mentally prepared ourselves for the journey that was to take place last night at 9.

We both knew that the biggest reveal was going to come in the very first seconds of the episode. That last season had ended with the explosion of a hydrogen bomb in an attempt to reset the events of the entire series thus far. We knew that if all went well at the end of Season 5, if the bomb went off (and it looked like it did), then all of the survivors would be back in the air, on their flight bound for Los Angeles Airport (LAX). Even those that died.

The fade in from white, after the obligatory recap, was painfully long, and intentionally so, the producers knew that had us in the palm of their hands, so to speak. Read the rest of this article »

My website, and blog, recently turned seven years old. The anniversary passed quietly, but not altogether unnoticed.

For the past week I’ve been working hard, behind the scenes, to bring back thecorch.com to it’s former glory, and then some. After wrestling with the purpose of having a blog, what I should and shouldn’t be writing about, and deep theological questions surrounding the meaning of life, I’m back.

Having a blog can be tricky. First of all, it’s a time commitment. Most blogs, according to the statistics, fall into disuse shortly after being created. Others last a bit longer before petering out. Mine was a on-again, off-again affair that was updated so sporadically its readership eventually fell to zero. In most of its previous incarnations, I lacked not necessarily the time, but the motivation: the drive to dedicate time to it. When my close friend Andrew recently launched a new, and innovative blog, he committed from the get-go to post a certain number of times—to commit to writing.

The second thing about a blog is figuring out what to write about, and what not to write about. As a teacher, and a public figure (in that way), I spent a lot of time thinking about my website. Sometimes I went to write something and thought, “Nah, that’s not something I want to share with the whole world.” Other times I didn’t know. Still, I even wondered about writing at all: who cares what I think about films I see, or music I listen to—who’s reading it anyway?

And that is to say that: We’re back in business.

Welcome to the new incarnation of thecorch.com. I’ve solved the first conundrum by deciding to write, and write often, and to commit wholeheartedly to it. And in terms of what I plan to write about I’ve decided, “Who cares!” and that my opinion on films, television, music, books and my mundane commentaries on life might not be interesting to everyone but if you’re reading them, then they’re interesting to you. After all, it’s good writing practice and that’s important too.

So here we go, on our own again. I hope y’all come along, too.