Walter Lewis Robbins, 1926-2012 Long may he run!

Walter Lewis Robbins died on Wednesday, July 18 2012 in a Kingston, Ontario hospice. He was lovingly surrounded by his family.

Walter was my father-in-law. I admire him hugely. Walter was an unrepentant social democrat, a wondrous fiddler, an environmentalist, husband, father and grandfather.

Walt and the family moved to Canada from Washington D.C. after the election of Richard Nixon. He had served as a civil servant in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. In Winnipeg, he first put his War on Poverty experience to work for the NDP government of Ed Schreyer. Walter Robbins was among those gifted, left-leaning Americans of conscience who came to Canada during the Nixon and Vietnam war eras. He made a significant contribution to Canada where he lived for 40 years.

He was a wonderful father-in-law to me. Thank-you, Walter. Peace and love.

Robbie Robertson "how to become clairvoyant"

Overdue, but what the heck, good music always deserves a nod:

Regarding Robbie Robertson’s CD from last year, “how to become clairvoyant” – after a careful listening or six, what’s revealed, to me, at least: “When The Night Was Young” just might be his best post-Band song; “Tango for Django” is great. I wish he’d make an instrumental album! At the same time, it must be said that his singing throughout is often quite affecting, even just right. For those who grew up with the tremendous vocal solo work by his mates and harmonization in The Band, who knew? Finally, I’m delighted to report that Robertson finally nixed the gauze-like production value that mars some of his earlier solo work. I can hear his guitars!!!! Pick on Robbie, pick on!

Commander in chief Obama

This week’s stunning new from Los Angeles Times (www. latimes.com) about American military personnel apparently posing for ‘zombie’ photos with the body parts of dead Afghan insurgents is part of a sad pattern. That being the consistent abuse of power by various branches of the American military and intelligence community under Obama’s watch.

In the summer of 2010, Rolling Stone exposed the weirdly derisive and even disloyal behaviour of then American commander in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal. That cost McChrystal his job and ended his military career after a brief, unpleasant tete a tete with the President.

In the last number of months, there have been further stories of American military and intelligence malfeasance: urinating on bodies and burning Korans in Afghanistan…Secret Service types allegedly caught with prostitutes in Colombia.

Barack Obama has striven mightily to counter the false perception that his Democrats are soft on foreign policy and America’s military stance. A 30,000 person surge in Afghanistan, a massive expansion of drone attacks on ‘terrorist hideouts’ as well as the killing of Osama bin Laden in allied Pakistan all attest to that. However, what is striking, and perhaps harmful to Obama’s on-going re-election campaign, is this disturbing pattern of misbehavior.  One wonders if it is causing some long nights and misgivings among Obama’s campaign team.

An Open Letter to Loaf Fans

Item:  Toronto Maple Loafs fail to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the 7th consecutive year.

Memo to Loaf fans in the so-called ‘Loaf Nation’: it is SERIOUSLY time to get a life. Believe this: the team will not win a Stanley Cup in your lifetimes; heck, it might not even make the playoffs. A proposed cure – anytime you want to root for the Loafs think of 300 pound+ Toronto Mayor Rob Ford naked. Then move on.

PS If you are a self confessed member of Loaf Nation and you voted for Ford, there is probably no hope for your recovery.

UPDATE: Toronto the Ugly

So Mayor Rob Ford got a lesson from city council about public transit that he didn’t like: it’s impossible to have anything approaching a twenty-first century system relying exclusively on subway expansion. The Mayor wants roads for cars alone.

Having been taught a lesson, Ford lashed back with a political lynching. Top public transit civil servant Gary Webster was ousted by Ford acolytes in an absolutely unseemly procedure. This after Ford deemed council’s view on transit “irrelevant”.

Toronto is now a city in which bullying and intimidation of loyal, effective civil servants is politically acceptable. That means dark days indeed for democracy .

Toronto: Year of the Bully

Rob Ford has been mayor of the city I live in for over a year now. It’s an odd experience.  You see I am convinced that Rob Ford doesn’t even like Toronto.

When he’s not insulting his opponents for being “left of Stalin”, Ford simply lets his brother pile on the dirt.  Can you think of another city in North America, in which the mayor’s henchman, in this case, his brother Doug, would gratuitously goad a leading cultural figure such as Margaret Atwood? Wouldn’t a writer of Atwood’s stature be part of the Toronto brand to any sensible mayor?

In recent days, Ford has insisted he’s restricting development of public transit to the building of subways. This in opposition to any credible analysis of Toronto gridlock and even, recently, to the dismay of some of his own followers on city council as well as the head of the Toronto Transit Commission. Some even believe the mayor overstepped his legal authority in signing a death warrant for a long negotiated transit plan that sat on his desk when he assumed power.

As he travels into work from the western edge of the city in Etobicoke in his now famous van, Ford must be blind to the prevailing situation. In his warped perception, the answer to too many cars is… more cars.

Ford knows his constituency: a  largely suburban based pocket of resentments about taxes and elites that’s an approximation of the American ‘Tea Party’. Yes, the city requires better management. It also requires a twenty-first century system of public transit. It also cries out for a political discourse based on more than posturing and bullying.

A lot can be learned about politicians by observing how they address their own. Ford uses The Toronto Sun newspaper and right-leaning talk radio to deliver the raw meat to his true believers. His self congratulatory year end interview to the Sun (Dec. 18, 2011) and the infamous Stalin comparison on AM640 in Toronto are classics of a kind.

Some commentators, like the Star’s Chris Hume, believe that the bully has had his day and that his powers will be circumscribed by council. I’m not so sure. His cringe worthy public weight loss campaign is a publicity master stroke.  And, above all, let’s not forget that this is the city that elected Mr. Ford in late October 2010.

What I do know is when Toronto’s competitors are getting in stride with a human agenda for the twenty-first century, our mayor is determined to go backwards. Ford’s election was an embarrassment to progressives in 2010. He shows no signs of changing his stripes even as he gets leaner.

Top Docs

In recent days, I had occasion to see both “Surviving Progress” and “Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie.” Both films rail against unbridled development and warn of the possibility of ecological catastrophe.

“Progress…” is based on ideas in a book and series of lectures by Ronald Wright. It’s a BIG IDEAS film which is threaded neatly with stunning visuals and provocative commentary from Wright and the likes of Margaret Atwood and the aforementioned Suzuki, among other deep thinkers.

Suzuki will be well known to Canadian readers – he’s been the leading figure in Canadian environmental and scientific broadcast journalism for decades. The film sprouts evocatively from clips from a ‘legacy’ lecture Suzuki delivered as he reached his 70s and began to scale back his public life. Like “Progress…”, this film, superbly directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, also touches on  ideas about the folly of limitless growth and the arrogance of contemporary economics.

The Suzuki film is remarkable for its intelligence, intimacy and sensitivity in revealing private aspects of a very public man. The film follows the arc of Suzuki’s life from forced removals of Japanese Canadian citizens during World War II, to the legacy of the nuclear bomb at Hiroshima, the American civil rights movement and aboriginal protests in Canada.

The Pulitzer Goes To...

If you are interested in hockey, player safety and a lamentable silence in most Canadian journalism, rush to read The New York Times brilliant and disturbing series, “Punched Out: The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer”, about Derek Boogaard.

Writer John Branch and a team of  ‘New Media’ story tellers have spun a profound tale about the ill-fated, late NHL ‘enforcer’ Boogaard. Many Canadian sports journalists, and seemingly all broadcasting entities in the country, led lamentably by the  juvenile Hockey Night broadcasts on the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,  condone fighting in the NHL.  It’s past time to read a deep account of how one hockey player’s life was ruined by the absurdist, lethal culture of fighting in hockey.

Jack Layton - Long May He Run

Canada awoke on Monday to very sad news indeed. What had been feared when a physically diminished Jack Layton appeared at a press conference last month to announce a temporary health absence was, in fact, true: the man was deathly ill.  Now he’s gone.

I did not know Layton well, but,  as his constituent in Toronto and frequent supporter, I chatted and exchanged e-mails with him off and on for about a decade. I enjoyed his exuberance and admired his intelligence, energy and tenacity.

Politically Jack Layton was right about a couple of very important matters. First, he did not apologize for wanting to be Prime Minister.  In a world where grown up countries regularly elect social democrats, and in a country with a history of competent NDP provincial governments, this should not have come as a surprise.  Sadly, it was only at the tail-end of what would be his final, extraordinarily courageous and effective election campaign last spring, that Canadians seemed finally to weigh the proposition in earnest. The centerpiece of that  success in making his party the Official Opposition in parliament reveals Layton’s other singular achievement as a party leader – Layton brought the NDP to Quebec, where he was born. In policy terms, this was an evident match waiting to happen – social democrats in Quebec were convinced by Layton to support his federalist party. That’s a credit to his sympathetic attitude to Quebec nationalism, his effective embrace of the French language and many years of persistent political effort. If the next NDP leader consolidates that link while continuing growth west of Quebec, Canada might yet see an NDP prime minister. If that were to happen, Layton’s historic legacy would be profoundly affirmed.

Ultimately, Layton successfully brought a left-leaning commitment to social and economic justice, to peace, to national reconciliation with Quebec and aboriginal peoples to the forefront of national politics. He made the NDP impossible to ignore.

Canadian Election: Aftermath

We sure blew out the doughnut.  We are officially CONSERVATIVE.  No surprise here that ‘English’ Canadians value entrepreneurial spirit, the opportunity to create wealth and personal security over environmentalism and academic discussions about democratic practice in a parliamentary system.  Harper gets it. Big time. While Grits and left-libs grind their teeth, one must recognize that Harper built a multi-ethnic, bilingual coalition from coast to coast to coast.  He had a plan and he stuck to it.

Harper’s victory means Canada will take on an increasingly American Republican character. Once again, this is no surprise. The vast majority of Canadians live along a 50 kilometer wide strip along the American border.  They buy American products, consume American culture and ape American values.  Colonies are like that. And, if any of my Torontonian friends are still feeling smug, don’t forget that Steve won his majority in Ontario.

Harper is smart enough to burnish the matters Canadians feel separate them from the USA – hockey, doughnuts, ‘universal’ health care and a significantly greater measure of gun control. Harper respects, and evidently enjoys, the French fact of Canada in a way that many of his left and centrist opponents do not, many being simply incapable of doing so because of their inexplicable uni-lingualism.

The good news?  Canada has its first Green member of Parliament. Kudos to Elizabeth May.  The New Democratic Party’s breakthrough was achieved largely in Quebec. It is a most welcome development in our politics. The mainstream media will chew on its Gainseburger over youthful, inexperienced sometimes maladroit NDP M.P.s. When that passes, Jack Layton, Thomas Mulcair and other experienced NDP members may well rise to the challenge of forming an effective opposition. But make no mistake, it’s Steve’s show for the next four years plus. Finally on the positive ledger, if nothing else, the election shattered the illusion that the Liberal Party was a legitimate, electorally ready progressive remedy to Conservative rule. Michael Ignatieff’s massive failure is one of the greatest in the history of Canadian politics. Let some new flowers bloom!

The day after in Toronto Danforth

For the record, this was my predication on the morning of the election:

CONS 152

NDP 77

LIBS 34

BQ 32

OTH 1 (I assumed independent Andre Arthur would be re-elected in Quebec.)

So…I, like everyone else, failed to grasp the entirety of the Bloc collapse, which of course moved en masse to the NDP.

Kickstarter: funding a film about John Fahey

Dear Readers,

As you may have noticed earlier on this blog, I am directing and producing a film about the wondrous guitarist, composer and provocateur John Fahey.

http://www.johnfaheyfilm.com

I am delighted to report that our project is now up on Kickstarter – a very cool, successful on-line financing tool for artistic endeavours. We seek completion financing for this worthy documentary film project.

Please check this link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/963556219/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahe

Consider your options. Please alert friends, music lovers and any relations who support the arts. We have until Bastille Day to raise US$25k

Ciao,

James Cullingham, president, Tamarack Productions

He Did Not Drool

Political debates are funny things.  It’s not so much who won, but whose team spins best.

Immediately following the event, everyone seemed to agree that the NDP’s Jack Layton had done very well and that the PM Steve Harper had more than held his own.

No one that I know or heard from in any way who saw the English language debate thought that Liberal Michael Ignatieff “won” the debate last night. No, he did not drool.  In that way, The Igster absolutely overwhelmed the expectations of anyone dim enough to have wholeheartedly imbibed the Tory character assassination by attack ad that preceded the election by many months.

Twenty-fours later, Layton is basically no longer part of the conversation in the English Canadian mainstream media.  Ignatieff, apparently, scored through the repetitive use of mind numbingly short sound bytes that have, sure enough, been repeated over and over as clips since the debate ended.

So…minutes away from the French language debate, English Canada seems programmed for the exhausted polarity of the past: Tory vs. Grit.

Perhaps en francais Monsieur Layton will claim and cling to  a seat with the grown ups. He and independantiste Gilles Duceppe can still play decisive roles in this election in a place called Canada.

Canadian Election: The Igster & Steve Take Over

One week down and just over four to go in Canada’s federal election.  Some quick thoughts: while the ‘mainstream media’ expresses universal surprise and admiration at The Igster’s start out of the blocks, nothing has really changed in the polls.  Steve’s Conservatives are still perched at a near majority with a small increase in their 144 seats predicted. Monsieur Layton, leader of Canada’s kinda democratic socialists, on the other hand, may have reason to worry.  One must concede that The Igster and his team have made some inroads in framing the election, in ‘English Canada’, as a choice between the Grits and Steve’s hellcats.

Meanwhile, le suave Gilles is on cruise control in Quebec.  Barring a Grit breakthrough, the BQ will win 50+ seats on May 2. The Quebec independence movement is dead you say?  Just couple that result with a likely PQ victory over the decaying Jean Charest in Quebec’s next provincial election. Then, we’ll talk.

If you ever wondered just how dead environmentalism actually is in Canada witness the lack of collective moral outrage over the exclusion of Elizabeth May from the planned leaders’ debate. The Greens are officially a political non-entity on the federal scene. If they ever win a seat, we’ll talk.

Finally, regarding the debate: that will be The Igster’s one real chance.  Basically, all he needs to do is stand there and not drool in order to belie the Tories’ devastatingly brilliant caricature. If, in addition, the Harvard prof turns Pierre Trudeau for 90 minutes or so in both English and French – that is, an intellectual Canadians can stomach and admire, he could catch lightning in a bottle.  Very slim odds, but a possibility.

Failing the above, Canadian political junkies will spend the night of May 2 counting to 155.

Young Guns Over Libya

So NATO is “saving” Libya.  Doesn’t that seem kinda 19th or even 16th century to anyone?  An enlightened West which knows best will now impose order in a North African country.  Buena suerte.

It’s clear that French President Nicolas Sarkozy sees domestic advantage in projecting French power abroad.  He’s running for re-election next year. Sarkozy’s big threat is to his right. Re-inventing France’s mission civilisatrice could well sell to the voters Nic needs to save his rear-end.

What’s less predictable, and even more discouraging, is the bellicose enthusiasm of British PM David Cameron and America’s inexperienced President Barack Obama.  Obama declared war on a trip to Brazil. At least it appeared he understood some of the domestic political risks, and the fretting abroad that might arise from an overt appearance of American dominance in the mission.  Cameron’s performance in the early days was sadly risible (unless you were under a British bomb). He strutted out under full TV lighting to a designated spot in front of 10 Downing Street to announce in a lame Churchill-like manner that British forces were in combat in the skies over Libya.  Puh-leez!

Of course, Cameron faces serious street protests over his attrition budget.  Perhaps like Sarkozy, he hopes that appearing to save the world will gain him favour at home. Obama just seems confused. As Niall Ferguson has argued, Obama seems to be making foreign policy up as he goes along – in Libya, as in Egypt, and, as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  His only foreign policy certitude, it appears, was to ramp up the war in Afghanistan.  How’s that working out?

As for Canada?  We joined NATO’s bombing party without discussion or debate. Apparently  matters such as going to war are not even worth discussing in Parliament. I hope the doughnuts arrive safely. Given that we are now in an election campaign, that’s the last Canadians will hear of the matter until at least May 2. Why discuss something substantive in election campaign? That would be downright non-Canadian.

So…favoured nations, you’ve made your priorities clear.  At a time when Japan is suffering unspeakably, you’d rather use your war toys in North Africa.  What’s next? Syria anyone? How about Gaza?  Yemen?

Fare-thee-Well Owsley Stanley

One of the twentieth century’s great social revolutionaries died last week in Australia.  Owsley Stanley, sometimes called Bear, the chemical enthusiast who turned LSD into an affordable commodity in synch with San Francisco’s ‘Summer of Love’ period, fatally crashed his vehicle in a remote region of the country.

‘Owsley’, as he was known to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people whose lives were marked by ‘acid’, charted a bizarre, bumpy course as psychic traveling companion to the likes of author Ken Kesey and members of the Grateful Dead. His was a remarkably American journey – a product of wealth and the military who mastered dance, reinvented the staging of live rock ‘n’ roll along with his buddies in The Dead, unleashed a chemical torrent and, got, at least temporarily, rich in the process.

The waves emanating from San Francisco, almost half century ago, traveled through time and space.  They splashed upon drowsy Toronto where even high school students at a private Catholic school heard of the legendary Bear and might have means to sample the sort of chemical wares that traveled eastward.

Jerry Garcia, the aforementioned Kesey, John Lennon, the journalists Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson are but a few of the lives that Owsley Stanley affected deeply. His death – far, far from the locale of his dizzying rise to musical and pharmaceutical influence – is truly a milestone in the cultural history of our times.

The man who helped create the unparalleled Grateful Dead sound and image archive was responsible for compiling a Grateful Dead release during the band’s early prime.  I listened to Bear’s Choice (1970) yesterday. Made as a showcase for the Dead’s original organist/vocalist, the late blues shouter Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan, the album now serves as a fitting memento to both McKernan and Owsley Stanley.  Side One is acoustic. At a time when it was hardly predictable or safely cool for a full-on ‘psychedelic’ band to go ‘unplugged’, The Dead had begun doing traditional blues and Appalachian tunes during their opening sets.  Side Two is strictly classic electric Chicago style blues featuring ‘Pigpen’s’ astonishing vocal and harmonica chops.  It’s a charming, very odd, idiosyncratic selection from a band which was then renowned for playing 3-4 hour fast-paced, electric and sometimes highly improvisational shows.

Mr. Stanley, tip of the hat! Yours was indeed a long, strange trip.

Recommended listening:  Bear’s Choice and Anthem of the Sun, the Grateful Dead.

John Fahey - In Search of Blind Joe Death

John Fahey (1939-2001) is one of the world’s great guitarists. The father of ‘American primitive guitar’, a unique blending of classic guitar styles with Delta Blues and Appalachian influences, Fahey is a transformational figure in modern music.  He’s the subject of Tamarack Productions’ latest film “In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey.” The film will be released this autumn, 2011.

Musicians such as Pete Townshend of The Who, Joey Burns of Calexico, the pianist George Winston and Chris Funk of The Decemberists pay tribute to Fahey’s influence in our documentary.  We follow Fahey’s trail from his beginnings in Takoma Park, a Washington D.C. suburb, to California where he recorded some of his most memorable music, and to Oregon, where Fahey spent the last twenty years of his life.

John Fahey was a trickster, a raconteur, a wonderful writer, a self taught naturalist (with a particular interest in turtles!), a fount of knowledge about American and other musics, and, above all, a brilliant composer and guitar player.

My own saga with John Fahey began in 1982 with a radio documentary I produced about him for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  Ever since, I’ve been inspired by his music, comforted by his bent humour and fascinated by his ever rippling artistic legacy. This labour of love will be completed this autumn – I can’t wait for you to see it.

Thanks to the John Fahey Trust, Oregon Public Television, Executive Producer JoAnn McCaig of Calgary, the School of Communication Arts of Seneca College in Toronto and American consulting producer Doug Whyte of Portland, Oregon for their invaluable assistance in bringing this dream ever closer to light.

Please follow the ongoing production of the film at

http://www.johnfaheyfilm.com

and

on the “In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey” page on that ‘social network’ we’re all aware of.

We are seeking completion financing for the film. So if you have a few $$$ to spare, please contribute to the production through PayPal at james.tamarack@rogers.com

We will also be launching a Kickstarter fund raising campaign shortly.

Stay tuned!

James Cullingham, Director/Producer, “In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey“

...and The Oscar goes to...

It’s almost Oscar night.  Accordingly, here are this filmmaker’s final thoughts in the run-up. These entirely subjective predilections – how could they be anything but? – are also somewhat selective.  I proffer my assessment based on categories in which I watched a majority of nominated films. Vamonos!

Black Swan, The King’s Speech, True Grit and Winter’s Bone are all highly commendable. Winter’s Bone is the best,  but it won’t win because it’s about the unspeakable – poverty and ignorance in America – it’s damn sad and almost no one saw it. I go with the worthy Black Swan by default.

Best Director:  tough call, but Darren Aronofsky gets the nod for visualizing artistry, horror, psychological trauma and sexuality in Black Swan.

I’d have never believed anyone but Natalie Portman should win Oscar for Best Actress out of Black Swan.  Then I saw Winter’s Bone.  Please, oh puh-leeez! Give this award to Jennifer Lawrence for her jaw-dropping, intense, yet nuanced, performance.

Colin Firth is wonderful in The King’s Speech.  Jeff Bridges is an American original, as much and as great as Clint Eastwood or Brian Wilson. Bridges proved it again in True Grit. However, Javier Bardem is incandescent inBiutiful.  Bardem deserves the Oscar.

Best Supporting Actress: the then thirteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit. It’s the wrong category because her character carries the narrative of the film, but this is one Steinfeld can actually win.  You go, girl!

Best Supporting Actor: Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech. Caveat – I say this without having seen Christian Bale’s performance in The Fighter. People I respect greatly tell me that Bale is a deserving winner. However, Oscar would not go wrong with the extraordinary Man from Oz.

Incendies, directed by Quebecois filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, is perhaps the best film of all. I hope it wins the Best Foreign Language Film category. It would put Villeneuve in the deserved company of Quebec film making greats like Denys Arcand, Claude Jutra and Jean-Claude Lauzon.  Further, as the Middle East blows up and transforms before our eyes, Incendies, likeWinter’s Bone, in its gaze into modern tribalism, is the most timely of fictional films. From the same category, Biutiful may have confounded the critics, but Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu remains one of the world’s great filmmakers. His latest film was, in my view, underrated. However, give the statue to Villeneuve. Right now!

Best adapted screenplay:  While I hate to deny Winter’s Bone anything, I give the nod to Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for having the genitalia and creativity to re-adapt, in an entirely different way, a work that had already won an Oscar for a previous version starring John Wayne.  That’s chutzpa.

Best cinematography: Matthew Libatique, Black Swan

Best Film Editing: Andrew Weisblum, Black Swan

Final thoughts:

1. The Social Network is widely nominated.  To me, as I’ve written earlier in this blog, that picture is a television movie-of-the-week in disguise. I don’t get it, but I know I’m in a small minority.  The film will win in at least one category. That will be me cringing.

2. A few years back, Clint Eastwood could do no wrong. He was on a deserved Oscar roll. In 2010, he released Hereafter, one of that great filmmakers most original works. Hmmm…I guess even Clint gets a slap now and again. I’d encourage you to  see Hereafter and judge for yourself whether it was worthy of Oscar nominations. I surely think so.

3. The Town, directed by Ben Affleck, also deserved a better fate.  If Affleck keeps working at that level, it won’t be long before Oscar notices.

Talkin' Loafs and 'Head Shots'

Hey! It’s been TOO long since we gazed at the Toronto Maple Loafs and their addled fans.

As I write, the Loafs hold a one goal lead over the Islanders, one of four teams in the thirty team NHL with a worse record than Toronto’s. Plan the Stanley Cup parade, girls ‘n’ boys!!!

There must be something in the water in these parts.  Loaf fans have convinced themselves that their team is making a late season playoff run.  Somehow the message escaped resident genius Brian Burke who traded away two starting defense men for prospects in the past few weeks.

From the ridiculous to good old hockey psychosis NHL style: everyone’s talkin’ ‘head shots’ and Sid the Kid’s concussion. Sports ‘journalists’ are wearing out their Blackberry digits wonderin’ jes wat the league is gonna do.  Bottom line, oh dear humans: as long as the NHL and its broadcasting partners (almost exclusively in Canada – led in the first instance on Saturday nights, by what passes for a public broadcaster) promote fist fighting as part of the game, all talk about concussions and better protecting players is sheer hypocrisy and nonsense.

P.S. 25.02.11 Son-of-a-moose!  The Loafs beat les Canadiens last night looking something like a legitimate team.  Hmmmm… 4 points out of the playoffs.  Are they preparing ‘the Leaf Nation’ for an extremely painful season ending, or will they prove me wrong, wrong, wrong? Stay tuned.

P.S. Denis Villeneuve

What’s up with the message to Leonard Cohen in the tail credits of Incendies?  Please call me.

Ciao, James

Denis Villeneuve's Incendies

Greetings Oscar aficionados…  this past week I saw Incendies by Quebecois filmmaker Denis Villeneuve which is nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Incendies is about a couple of Palestinian-Canadian twins who return to the Middle East following the death of their mother to unearth some family secrets. It’s a film  about memory, multiculturalism, family, revenge and global conflict, set against a backdrop of twenty-first century Quebec and Lebanon. It’s a beautiful, tough-minded, lyrical film.

Villenueve’s previous effort, POLYTECHNIQUE, tackled the horrendous subject of the ‘Montreal massacre’ of female engineering students with both candour and subtlety. Incendies offers an even more unsparing and frank gaze at the human condition.

With Incendies, Villenueve joins Claude Jutra, Denys Arcand and other Quebec filmmakers at the highest level in a universal language of cinema.