Most often, when I come across an advice column, the words of wisdom promise to help the reader become more “successful” in some way.  If you follow these suggestions, the implication goes, you will become wealthier / achieve higher grades / improve your job prospects / lose weight / gain more energy / reduce stress/… Read more »

The Magnificent Seven.  None of us knew what we wanted to do after high school.  We were the bad kids, the misfits, the guttersnipes and vagabonds.  We made some money from working the line at the Waffle House and the Tomahawk Grill, and a little bit extra from selling belt buckles and lighters and weed… Read more »

Have you ever felt as though you were born in the wrong time period? I thought so! Me too. From my taste in music, fashion, and architecture to my views on political correctness, there are any number of ways in which I feel I am struggling upstream against the prevailing temporal currents.  I have an… Read more »

I’m writing this late on a Saturday morning, drinking Irish coffee, still dressed in my fake-silk chinoiserie bathrobe, the one that’s decorated with orchids and small blue dragons.  It’s a cloudy day, but every now and then the clouds part, and sunlight comes pouring through my window, like the visual equivalent of condensed milk flowing… Read more »

To me, the beginning of December through to New Year’s is the only time of year when I actually look forward to socializing. For the rest of the year, I’m about as approachable as a Gila monster, and have little interest in hosting gatherings of any kind. In the springtime, I prefer to spend my… Read more »

My favourite people are always those who are among the dreamers, romantics, hedonists, sensualists, surrealists—those with large appetites for life.  I have had the pleasure of knowing a great many of these types, from all walks of life.  Sometimes their appetites lead them astray.  They eat too much, laugh too much, smoke too much, love… Read more »

When I was younger, I was very much drawn to classic slasher-horror films, such as the Friday the 13, Hallowe’en, and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises.  The reasons for this, I guess, were pretty typical.  For one thing, it was escapist entertainment for a troubled, angst-ridden teen; after all, my life may have felt pretty… Read more »

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill When I was twelve years old, I dreamed of being abducted by aliens.  On a few warm nights that summer, I would lay in my sleeping bag in the backyard, pointing my flashlight up at the stars and planets, in the hope that “they” would… Read more »

It’s been many years since Marcus and I shared a pitcher in the beer parlor of the Astoria Hotel on Vancouver’s East Hastings Street.  I can’t remember which mutual friend or acquaintance had introduced us, but I have never forgotten sitting across from him in the smoky, gloomy room, with its permanent funk of tobacco,… Read more »

Recently, suffering from a flu bug, I watched Melancholia, a 2011 psychological sci-fi drama film by the controversial Danish director Lars von Trier.  The film revolves around  a soon-to-be-married couple and a group of their guests who gather at an elegant country estate to celebrate the wedding, just as a rogue planet (named “Melancholia,” giving… Read more »