My wife, Maria, and I got together with some friends over the weekend to enjoy a meal, some games, and to chat. The chats were enlightening—except for my contributions, of course—and, like conversations all across this country, the topic of the long-form census came up. Now I know everyone who’s been writing about the census keeps bringing up the fact that it’s so dog-gone strange to be talking about such an obscure topic in the heat of the summer but, really, it is worth saying. Here we are, in the middle of the summer, talking about our national survey. Who would’ve thought. But the fact that the topic is still so talked about—that it isn’t going away—is particularly interesting to me.

My friends and I are from a particular segment of society. We’re young. We are, as one of my friends pointed out, “highly-educated” compared to most standards. Some of us were raised in a conservative tradition, others more liberal, and all of us are involved in the life of our local communities in some way. All of us agreed that scraping the long-form census was a very bad idea but beyond that, as the conversation evolved, it became clear that we also harboured a deep-seeded worry as well.

The worry that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives might one day win a majority.

This is the worry, and I know we’re not alone.

“What would he do with a majority?” a friend asked, “look what he’s doing under a minority government when his power is restricted.”

Indeed, it’s something to be concerned about.

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I don’t know if there’s really such a thing as a perfect song but if there is Canada’s Patrick Watson has surely hit upon it.

Watson is an immensely talented and creative performer who’s music is just nothing short of enchanting. This song is no different, but on track lists full of lots of other incredible music, it surely stands out. It’s simple, super-simple, but Watson’s voice over the gentle ebb and flow of the piano creates some kind of other-worldly bliss. With overly complicating things he captures some kind of raw emotion and, for me at least, it resonates big time. Performed live, as you’ll hear, this song is just breath-taking.

The Great Escape

I am in no way affiliated with the Petcetera chain of pet stores but I must say, their Petcetera Plus membership is something I swear by.

The Petcetera chain of stores went under a while back. They had all kinds of going-out-of-business sales, which were pretty good, and then closed shop. To my surprised, our location in Kitchener opened up again a few months later. As it turns out, a bunch of the retail stores were bought back out of bankruptcy and opened up again. Same stores, same logo, but new Petcetera, they say.

I signed up for a Petcetera Plus membership when I first got Lewis, my cat. At the time, it didn’t seem to really be worth anything. I got “points,” I think, and that was about it. I never heard about any exclusive membership deals and I didn’t shop their very much since their prices, for food and litter, were considerably higher than a department or grocery store. But when the chain closed and then reopened their stores they also relaunched the membership program, in a serious way. The number of really good sales and coupons that the Petcetera Plus membership has been giving out since the chain’s reopening has been incredible. One week it’s all cat and dog toys, half-price. The next week it’s half off all carriers and crates. And this week, I got a $20 off coupon just for being a member, good for anything in the store as long as you spend $50. That meant that a bag of dog food for Penny, normally $55, was only $35. That’s like free money, people!

Truly, I’m not an advert for Petcetera but if you’ve got a pet, and live close to a Petcetera, it’s worth checking out. If you become a member you receive maximum 2 e-mails per week and those e-mails only serve to tip you off to the great sales that they seem to always have. I’m not a member of a lot of things, but being a Petcetera Plus member is something that I genuinely swear by!

I stumbled across the new BBC series Sherlock by accident. Frankly, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about it earlier. Both Maria and I are huge Sherlock Holmes fans, and huge mystery fans in general, but somehow this slipped passed our radar.

For as long as there have been moving pictures, there have been adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Some have been brilliant. Some have been otherwise. Some have depicted Holmes as rather tame and mild-mannered. Others, like Guy Ritchie’s interpretation, have picked up on Holmes’ lesser savoury habits and tendencies. But the BBC’s Sherlock depicts the famous detective, and his affable partner, in an entirely new way.

Sherlock is an adaptation of the classic Holmes franchise set in modern-day London.

Of course, upon first hearing the premise—a modern day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes—you might scoff, I know I did, but after giving it a chance I found that I would be more than rebuffed. This series, in fact, is brilliant.

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I’ll tell you why I loved Inception.

Sitting in the theatre, Inception is an absolutely mind-throttling movie. It makes you think, harder then you may have ever thought before, to try and piece together it’s complicated puzzle of a plot line. But—and this is the brilliance of Christopher Nolan—it isn’t too complicated that you grow frustrated or bored with it (although it does run a bit long). It’s deep, and gets deeper, as layer is heaped upon layer. It’s a great thinking movie, and a great action movie. Like The Dark Knight, another gem from Nolan, Inception’s action is intelligent, interesting and innovative. Nolan isn’t satisfied with stock footage, he pushes the limits of an action film, and it works.

But what’s really got me sold on Inception is the feeling that I had after I left the theatre. I felt inspired. I felt creative. And I think it’s a direct result of the film.

See, Inception absolutely pushes the limits of the creative imagination. Watching Inception I’m not allowed to take the role of passive observer, instead I’m pulled in and completely engaged with the film, the characters, and the whole world that Nolan’s created. It’s an absolute imagination-stretching film and when I left the theatre, my imagination continued to race, continued to create, the odometer in my brain kept on clicking. I think that’s a hallmark of an incredible movie: not that it’s so good that you talk about it for days after, but that it’s so creative and imaginative, that you keep creating—keep imagining—even after it’s done.  Truly, if there’s ever a cure for writer’s block it’s Inception and in an industry full of creative films, I think that says a lot.

This favourite track is brought to you by the highly eclectic, highly danceable Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

I don’t think I need to say anything more, either you love them or you hate them. I love them, and this is one of my favourite tracks.

The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

For me, a band like Wintersleep is kind of hit or miss. Unfortunately, I find I have to strike down their newest album, New Inheritors, on the miss side.

When I reviewed Wintersleep’s 2007 record, Welcome to the Night Sky, I had both a lot of high praise for it, and some concerns. I remember writing about the album’s first half, the opening five songs, or so. I remember not being able to get passed them—they were so good. But that was also a fault I found in the album: the top-half was incredible, the songs were well-crafted, well-written and extremely interesting to listen to. Songs like Weighty Ghost, which I count among my favourite songs of all time. But the latter part of the record was a bit dry and a lot less interesting in comparison to the first bit.

What it seemed like to me was that we’d hit upon a band that could write some really great material, but not all the time. A band that had all the elements in place to make great music, but sometimes weren’t putting in all the effort, or mustering up all the creativity or whatever to really make it happen.

I’m not entirely convinced that New Inheritors is the result of the kind of mustering and effort that I’m talking about. I’m just not sure.

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