An unstoppable sociopathic killer is chasing a man across New Mexico. Why must the man die? He stumbled upon mob money. Llewelyn Moss died for his sins. Alternately Charley Varrick dances on the head of a pin. “When he runs out of dumb luck he always has genius to fall back on!”
I rented Varrick [...]
I used to read books like Tom Mangold’s The Tunnels of Chu Chi when I was a kid. Not great literature, but the right mix of history and thrills — for a teenager. I haven’t read a book like it since. I had no interest. That is until the Globe and Mail reviewed Blackwater: The [...]
There are numerous scenes in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three where the characters respond with disbelief to the news of the train hijacking. At first it is beyond their understanding and then later, mystery turns to riddle — the subway tunnel is a closed loop — how will the hijackers get away? [...]
This just came over the wire. Greenpeace is looking for publicity. I am giving it to them. It seems a rather random selection of targets. The press release doesn’t elaborate as to why these retailers were chosen. Four of the retailers have stores at Yonge and Dundas, so I am speculating that mere convenience [...]
Inspired by Twitter asking “What are you doing?”
Here is an idea for Indigo Books (and maybe Magnet Mobile Inc.) — setup a “Book Ping Machine”. A consumer can ask “What should I read next?” via sms shortcode, the server would then ping the customer back with a single book recommendation. A new recommendation is delivered [...]
I merchandised the front page of the chapters.indigo.ca website a long time ago. We used to change the story on the front door several times a day. They still do. When I asked my boss why we went to all the effort, especially when most customers were sidelinking in from Google, she responded “we have [...]
Communicate.com buys startup, change name to Live Current Media (TechCrunch).
Brando stars in the West Side Wild Ones: A Dystopia…
Top 10 Most Depressing Quotes from Orwell’s 1984
I have been on a heist film kick lately. I tracked down Grand Slam — a 1967 Italian caper movie. The embedded trailer is super corny but it samples one of the remarkable things about this movie — the Ennio Morricone score. The second remarkable thing is Janet Leigh — particularly at the end. [...]
I have been looking to Warner Brother Records — and Warner’s Ethan Kaplan specifically — for prognostications on the new order in label/artist relations. Their move with iLike is particularly well played. The Facebook interface is my lesson for the day.