test blog 5

Time to change things up. I've (finally) gotten tired of my silly movie award categories , and need a change. I decided to go with a conventional one-to-five rating scale. But I wanted to use a good symbol, something other than stars (too common), thumbs-up (too cliched) or a maple leaf (too patriotic). I'm using a symbol that's very meaningful to me. (To be honest, it was between ☮ and this , but I could only get the peace sign to work in Blogger.) Here are the movies and series I watched between the end of the 2018 World Series and 2019 Opening Day, alphabetically, rated on a scale of five. 45 Years ☮☮☮ This drama featured truly great acting, and a certain amount of tension. Ultimately, though, I didn't buy the premise. Would a lifetime marriage really founder on a revelation about feelings that occurred before the couple even met? It strained credulity. 8th Grade ☮☮☮☮ This movie perfectly captured what it feels like to be in 8th grade and an outsider, struggling to s...

The list of movies I want to see gets longer and longer, as I watch more series and fewer films. Even so, the 2017-18 list is impressive. First, the annual recap: - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13) - cheese (I'm getting desperate!) (2013-14) - types of travels (2014-15) -  famous people who died  plus  famous people who died, part 2  (2015-16), and last year: the picket line (2016-17). This year, we go meta with movie awards organized by movies. (Thanks to Allan for the idea.) I've made no attempt to survey all the movies I've seen and find the perfect headliner. I just found films that, for me, represent the level of the award. Annie Hall Woody Allen's 1977 classic is one of my favourite movies of all time. ...

I'm actually getting to the annual wmtc movie awards while the baseball season is still young -- a sign that I have a bit more time to myself, as our new local ticks along under the guidance of an awesome team. First, the annual recap: - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13) - cheese (I'm getting desperate!) (2013-14) - types of travels (2014-15) and last year I reprised  famous people who died , plus there is  famous people who died, part 2 . the picket line This year's theme was a no-brainer for me. In late 2015 and through 2016, I piloted my union through contract negotiations and a strike. It was the first strike for the Mississauga Library Workers, and the first strike against the City of Mississauga! We were out ...

From the I Have Too Much Going On, Systems Are Breaking Down department, this year's  we move to canada awards omitted a big chunk of viewing. I was very surprised -- and a bit disturbed -- to discover this! Leaving aside questions about my mental competence, I'm reviewing the omitted films and series here, and I'll also update the main post. I'm also using this as an opportunity to move some of my binge watching to the main categories. In the  Muhammad Ali  category: The Duke of Burgundy -- This darkly erotic love story is kind of the anti- Blue Is the Warmest Colour: crackling with sexual tension, and not a bit of skin exposed. A tender love story about love that is not tender. In the David Bowie  category: Angel -- I was skeptical about this Buffy spinoff, but ended up liking it more than Buffy -- the characters are more varied, the interplay and overlap of good and evil is even more complex. It's also funnier. Great stuff, with huge thanks to my Facebook friend...

I'm posting my annual movie awards later and later every year. I'm also watching fewer movies, because I'm watching more TV shows. When I come home on Friday or Saturday, exhausted and needing total downtime, sometimes even a movie is too much mental effort; binge-watching a series is somehow easier. So I end up with a ton of movies on the List, unwatched, year after year. But no matter. Here's what I did watch, and what I thought. First, the annual recap. - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13) - cheese (I'm getting desperate!) (2013-14) - and last year (2014-15) types of travels . This year I've recycling a theme from a few years back. It was a bad year for the deaths of famous people, and it's only go...

Thanks to everything-on-demand media, and no thanks to my schedule that doesn't permit me nearly enough time for baseball, Movie Season now runs all year, at least marginally. These annual awards now document the movies and TV series we've seen from Opening Day to Opening Day. To recap my silly rating systems: - Canadian musicians and comedians (2006-07 and 2007-08) - my beverage of choice (2008-09) - famous people who died during the past year (2009-10) - where I'd like to be (2010-11) - vegetables (2011-12) (I was out of ideas!) - Big Life Events in a year full of Big Life Changes (2012-13), - and last year (2013-14), cheese ! This year's ratings revolve around my favourite pastime, the moments I live for: travel. We can loosely call this theme types of holidays and vacations. I have always dreamed of traveling for an extended period of time - life on the road. My dream of extended travel probably dates back to reading Travels with Charley when I was 12. But ev...