The Bi-weekly Gamer: Inside the industryMillions of people around the globe watch people play video games. To many, watching someone play a virtual game seems unhealthy, unproductive, unusual. To those of us who watch these games, however, it’s something we relate to. The beauty of esports is that although each game is different, the core draw is the same. Let’s […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: Crumb a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigmaCrumb (1994) 5/5 The world of Robert Crumb, the reclusive and reluctant counter-culture comic visionary of the 1960s and ’70s, is a fiercely fascinating microcosm of idiosyncrasies including sordid perversion, familial dysfunction, and the pressures of unwanted fame. Crumb (1994) is the microscope that documents it all, and in doing so it shows us the […] Continue Reading |
Calculated Thought: New mortgage regulations may impact rental marketNew federal mortgage stress-test regulations could increase the cost of rental housing. In reaction to the worrying levels of rising household debt in Canada, finance minister Bill Morneau has cooked up a way to slow the debt buffet. As of October 16, buyers are evaluated on their ability to pay their mortgage based on the […] Continue Reading |
The Bi-weekly Gamer: From one worlds to the nextGame developers Blizzard recently hosted their annual convention, Blizzcon. By far the most noticeable event at the otherwise boring convention was their Overwatch world cup tournament. I talked about Overwatch in this column a couple of months ago, when the game was first released. In seemingly no time at all, it has fully flourished into […] Continue Reading |
Lit Matters: The genre-busting fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it,” wrote Ursula K. Le Guin, one of the 20th century’s most successful world-hopping novelists. Because many of her novels and stories take place on other planets or in times far removed from our own, […] Continue Reading |
Lit Matters: The mythologies of Leonard CohenThere has been a lot of ink spilt over the songwriting-versus-literature debate since Bob Dylan was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. Some critics, even while they accept that lyrics can be literature, question the specific choice of Dylan. In a year with zero women laureates, why not Joni Mitchell? At […] Continue Reading |
The Bi-weekly Gamer: Slugfest at Staples CenterWell, they did it: SK Telecom T1 (SKT) claimed their third championship in four years. This marks the end of the League of Legends World Championships for 2016 and, boy, was it a show to remember. Facing off in the finals against SKT were Korean league rivals Samsung Galaxy, a team that was rebuilt from […] Continue Reading |
Calculated Thought: Matters of interest, part deuxLast issue I voiced an ominous warning to not celebrate low interest rates, as they can be a sign of wobbling economies grasping for growth. And at such extreme lows, rates generally have only one direction to go. If interest rates rise, it shows that there’s confidence in our economy, which hopefully means wage increases […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: Adaptation is a modern masterpieceAdaptation (2002) 5/5 “Do I have an original thought in my head?” This is the first line of the Charlie Kaufman-written, Spike Jonze-directed Adaptation (2002), and from there the film sets about exploring the depths of its own question, proving itself to be one of the most fascinating, inventive, and oddly universal plumbings of the […] Continue Reading |
To See or Not to See: Fitzcarraldo fearsomely and fantastically unfalteringFitzcarraldo (1982) 5/5 Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982) is a film so bizarre that there are scenes that, in retrospect, I feel I must have dreamed. There is an untenable wild—a musty creeping of fortune and disaster—at the heart of this film. There’s an omnipresent sense of dread and unease that captures the viewer and slowly […] Continue Reading |
