Spoiler Alert: Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic is a parody of Harry Potter. If you have avoided learning the major plot details of Harry Potter, congratulations, you are like a unicorn who made it to December 25 without hearing any Christmas music! Be aware that this […]
2015 was an incredible year of reading for me. I read as many books as I could get through and was fortunate enough to meet several of my writing idols—David Mitchell (for the second time), Junot Díaz, Elizabeth Gilbert, and John Hodgman. As December’s calendar pages fly off the wall all too readily, I’d like […]
It’s unfortunate that so few magicians receive the funding or programming support to perform regularly in Toronto. Rather than a rich landscape of illusionists within which, like in any performance genre, there are some great and some not-so-great performers, all we really have on this theatrical level is David Ben. In a technical sense, that’s […]
As is the case with many who count the 2003 film Elf, as one of the best Christmas films out there and a staple of the holiday season, its musical iteration has been anticipated by many in the run-up to its recent opening at the Dominion Theatre. Such excitement has manifested itself in not just […]
From the Malian countryside to Brooklyn, Amsterdam to Tokyo to Toronto and back, here are seven of the releases that stuck in my head this year – in chronological order. Tokyo Ska Paradise – Ska Me Forever (Nacional Records – February 10, 2015) 2015 marked the 25th anniversary of Tokyo Ska Paradise and they celebrated […]
With the festive season fully in swing, it is unsurprising to find a number of plays in London which are adaptations of children’s novels, particularly of those set during the Second World War. There is something about the war-time spirit that appeals at Christmas. Perhaps it’s the feelings of togetherness and shared effort that characterize […]
It is my humble opinion that, when it comes to a cultural landmark movie like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, even opinions and critical consensus constitute a spoiler. For that reason, I’ll throw up a great, big SPOILER WARNING right here, even though I am going to make a concerted effort not to ACTUALLY spoil […]
Minor spoilers from the TV series to follow, primarily up to the end of Season 3 (specifically, the ‘Red Wedding’ event). Following on from the success of the excellent The Walking Dead series, Game of Thrones is one of the latest franchises to be given the cell-shaded, decisions-based treatment from Telltale Games. Overall, the decisions […]