A grande dame of American acting died earlier this week. Celeste Holm, New York born and bred, was best known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman’s Agreement*, her memorable (and Oscar-nominated) role alongside Bette Davis in All About Eve, and for originating the role of Ado Annie in Oklahoma!.
Continue readingTag: what i’m watching
wmtc: follow-up: i still ♥ roku and a question about gaming
A few months ago, I blogged about our Roku streaming device. We now only use streaming or DVDs – no more cable – and it’s been great. Shorter wmtc: I love it. Roku is now available in Canada. If you don’t already have a gaming system that allows you to
Continue readingwmtc: we movie to canada: annual wmtc movie awards, 2011-12 edition
Our 2011-12 Movie Season was a strange one, as we’re gravitating towards watching more series and fewer films. I also didn’t have a good source for quality movies on DVD for a while. But we did see several good movies and even better series. A special shout-out to our friends
Continue readingwmtc: i ♥ roku
I am absolutely gaga over Roku. This was exactly the missing piece we needed. And it all started with getting rid of Rogers cable. In February, I asked for help with my movie season problem. We had been getting special treatment from Zip, but once that ended, Zip became useless
Continue readingwmtc: follow-up: dumping zip and dumping rogers!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent “help me get rid of zip” discussion, both on wmtc and by email. And thanks to CNET, for this video! I started out asking about movies, but ended up with so much more. Goodbye, Rogers! Whoo-hoo! So many friends and readers
Continue readingwmtc: help me get rid of zip
When we lived in NYC, I was hugely into Netflix. The selection and convenience were terrific, and for frequent movie watching, the flat monthly fee was a great value. After moving to Canada, we joined Zip… and thus began the saga. Zip (now owned by media giant Rogers) has a
Continue readingwmtc: belafonte on obama: "a dagger in our sense of justice"
On a recommendation from a friend, I watched Harry Belafonte interviewed by Charlie Rose in New York City. Belafonte – musician, actor, social-justice activist, radical – is a joy to hear, and his life story is a march through history. Here’s one terrific thing I learned. Belafonte was still searching
Continue readingwmtc: the iron lady was an enemy of the people and should not be celebrated as a hero
This week, the movie “The Iron Lady” opens, a big-budget biopic starring Meryl Streep as former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. No technical or directorial skills, nor the inevitable genius of Streep’s performance, could justify my seeing this movie. Its very existence as a myth-making celebration of a dangerous, war-mongering,
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m watching: old timey tv and old timey ads
One of my favourite comedies has always been “The Burns and Allen Show,” the old TV vehicle for the comedy team of Gracie Allen and George Burns. The show’s entire run (1950-1958) was finished before I was born, but in my days as an insomniac teenager and young adult, I
Continue readingwmtc: how can we live without polar bears? bbc’s planet earth gets political
In October, I blogged about my impressions of the BBC nature series “Planet Earth”. I loved the show, but criticized the producers for making it completely apolitical. There was not a single mention of habitat conservation, climate change or any human-caused environmental disruption, which struck me as a terrible missed
Continue readingwmtc: early dispatches from movie season
Last year I mentioned I had never seen a single Pixar movie, including any Toy Story movie. Many wmtc readers recommended I watch all three Toy Story movies, which seemed excessive to me, but I thought it was time to at least see one. I’m watching “Toy…
Continue readingwmtc: suggestions for movie season now being accepted, she says sadly
We now have an answer to the burning question: can a baseball team that wins seven games in September play in the postseason? The Red Sox walked the razor’s edge all week. Last night, a night of incredible baseball tension, we clung to hope, following …
Continue readingwmtc: heroic white people, "i am not a racist," and other thoughts on some old news
I recently read a few unrelated items that dealt with racism, equality and civil rights in the US, which raised some thoughts I want to share. This time I’m purposely burying the lede, putting the easy stuff up front.In this essay and review, author an…
Continue readingwmtc: more pupdate, more where i’ve been
I hate being away from wmtc for so long! Between Tala and my mom’s visit, it’s been quite the week.Yesterday we went back to the OVC in Guelph for a consult with a neurologist. He feels the most likely diagnosis is degenerative disc disease, which seco…
Continue readingwmtc: at the break
As we baseball fans say, we are “at the break”. The All Star Break begins today: three days without real baseball, plus this year an extra day off for our Red Sox. Although the actual halfway point of the season came last week, the All Star Break is a …
Continue readingwmtc: this week on tvo: "war of the mind", canadian documentary on ptsd
This Wednesday, July 6 TVO, Ontario’s public television station, will broadcast “War in the Mind,” a Canadian documentary about post-traumatic stress, depression and the rising suicide rate among soldiers and veterans. “War in the Mind,” by British Col…
Continue readingwmtc: "just another cog in the machine" or maybe not
Please enjoy three minutes of inspired filmmaking.
“Just another cog in the machine,” produced and directed by John Wood (UK, 2009). Thanks to Kim_in_TO and CLiFF for showing us this.
Continue readingwmtc: secret trial 5: crowd-funded canadian documentary-to-be
THE SECRET TRIAL 5 INTRO VIDEO from The Secret Trial 5 on Vimeo.
Last night’s Marxism Conference programme ended with three excellent short films from the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF). More about CLiFF when I write about Marxism…
wmtc: we movie to canada: annual wmtc movie awards, 2010-11 edition
My annual Movie Season post is appearing later and later every year, but at long last, I’ve carved out the time to write it. We started out with TV serieses and comedies this year, especially a massive Larry Sanders Show binge. But once baseball spring…
Continue reading