A girl's own adventure

14 year-old girl fights child-welfare authorities
in quest to sail solo around the world
waves goodbye at age of 14

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No frabjous days, no frabjous nights:
Alice In Wonderland is no wonder at all

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A dance of slicey death
(with apologies to Eddie Campbell)

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It's 17:39 Eastern time.

• Looks like the Habs have had it and I don't have the strength to pretend my cheers can make a difference.


• I'm about to release a critical analysis of the movies, Kick-Ass and Chloe. Perhaps surprisingly, there are parallels to be drawn. And also, it will give me my first legitimate chance to post photos of bare breasts on ( Read more... )

Hard Candy is hard viewing - as it should be

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Star Trek: The first thirty minutes or,
Why I (almost) never go out to the movies anymore

More years ago than I care to count, the science fiction writer and editor Judith Merril taught me one of the only vital rules of writing.

"When you're editing your work, think about every word in every sentence of every paragraph. If anything doesn't have ( Read more... )

1985 saw me dabble in cinephilia. I spent a lot of time at the nearest repertory theatre (at least once, crutched down to Bloor from Saint-Claire and back again; but my Adventures With a Broken Leg are a matter for another day), mostly Hollywood's days of glorious black and white - Casablanca, The Petrified Forest, The Maltese Falcon and other ( Read more... )

... With A History of Violence, the notoriously weird and weirdly intense David Cronenberg has produced what may be one of the best films I've ever seen. Cronenberg has married his continuing interest in the grotesque and the violent with a clear, linear narrative thread that, for perhaps the first time since he made The Fly in 1986, is satisfying ( Read more... )

My period of sobriety lasted almost exactly half as long as scheduled.

In retrospect, my timing was lousy. Laura has been very busy, with school, with work, and with hanging out 'till all hours after working. I have found myself waiting up like some neurotic father while worry, jealousy and resentment played hideous, destructive tunes in my mind's ( Read more... )