Category Archives: PopCulture

Friday Fun Link – Inside Out (Without the “Inside” Parts)

Recent Academy Award “Best Animated Feature” winner, Pixar’s “Inside Out” was one of the best movies released last year.  Part of the appeal was how it used cartoonish illustrations to show the interplay of emotions within a person’s head. But what happens if you take away the “inside” parts?  You still end up with a pretty […]

Music Monday – “Some other way/There’s got to be another way/We all are scientists who will not be afraid/I’m not saying that there’s no hope for this/And you have tried to change my mind But we all know, our system’s broken/And I, I’ll never vote again”

I’ve had this blog since 2006 but perhaps surprisingly, I’ve never really acknowledged Leap Years even though I’ve been blogging for two of them in 2008 and 2012. So let’s continue that trend by ignoring February 29, 2016 completely in favour of a song inspired by tomorrow’s Super Tuesday vote in the United States… “Vote” […]

Can You Find the Oscar Statue In This Picture?

FTRW 2016 – Day Seven – Saturday Snap – Freedom to Read in Cuba?

Below are a couple photos I took in Havana during our 2011 trip to Cuba. This was a street vendor stall selling books (which is good!) but most here (and in our hotel’s gift shop or anywhere else we found books) were heavily propagandistic (bad!). Cuba isn’t commercialized with billboards selling blue jeans and soda but in its […]

FTRW 2016 – Day Six – Friday Fun Link – A Wide & Varied Selection of Some of the Most Offensive Jokes Ever

Watch this… Then take your pick of these… Did any of the jokes above offend you? If so, watch this (ffwd to 3:20 if the link doesn’t start at the right place for you)… Still offended?  Watch this one too…

#FTRW 2016 – Day Two – Music Monday – Most Controversial Music Videos of All-Time

Take your pick. Here’s #1 on the list which was pretty controversial (by design) at the time back in 1989 but seems relatively tame now…    

FTRW 2016 – Day One – Violent Video Games

It’s the most wonderful time of the (fucking) year!  😉 Yes, it’s Freedom to Read Week again, a holiday celebrated by librarians, writers, book lovers, artists, filmmakers and anyone else interested in the issue of censorship and free expression. As usual, I’m planning to do a week of posts on different topics to do with […]

Kids React To The Beatles

I am pleasantly surprised at the majority of the reactions these kids have to clips of the Beatles at various points in their history…

Music Monday – “Spread your tiny wings and fly away/And take the snow back with you/Where it came from on that day/The one I love forever is untrue/And if I could you know that I would/Fly away with you”

It’s weird the things you remember from your childhood. I’ve already written about a grade two teacher I had who was the nicest teacher I ever had (which makes it even more surprising and sad that she committed suicide later in life after she’d retired.) I have no idea if teachers in other communities did […]

Music Monday – “Buddy’s real talent was beating people up/His heart wasn’t in it but the crowd ate it up”

Following up on yesterday’s post, John Scott capped an amazing run that, if it was a movie script, would be rejected as too unbelievable – starting as a joke write-in candidate for the NHL all-star game, getting traded and demoted, his all-star berth in doubt, fighting back against the powers that be, both directly and with […]