Day 761: Deconstructing The King Of The Con Men

originally published January 30, 2014 We live in the age of the celebrated antihero. A villainous protagonist like Tony Soprano or Walter White may vanquish our moral resistance, but those are fictional lawbreakers; in reality we want our deviants either behind bars or tucked snugly into the niche of the Robin Hood villain, should such a notion actually exist. Perhaps our […]

Day 760: The Classic Kings Of Edmonton

originally published January 29, 2014 Having spent all but three weird months of my life in Edmonton, a portion of my available fascination is perpetually woven into the snug threads of the city’s storied history. Admittedly, when the frigid fingernails of a late November cold spell are scraping bone through skin I will occasionally entertain a baffled […]

Day 759: The Scar Tissue Of The Elite

originally published January 28, 2014 They tell me that chicks dig scars. I’ve got one permanent battle etching upon my exterior, and when I was single it did nothing to improve my social life. Sure, it’s just a 1½-inch tic across two of my left knuckles from when I was dissecting a large clam in […]

Day 758: Who Buried Paul?

originally published January 27, 2014 It was a cold November night in 1966 – or maybe it was January of ‘67, depending on whose account you choose to believe – when a car crash fatality forever changed the course of popular music. Or did it? Okay, there’s no real mystery here. The reality is that […]

Day 757: Best Care Anywhere – 23 Things I Didn’t Know About MAS*H

originally published January 26, 2014 Up until the recent spate of Platinum-Age television brilliance forced me to redefine the parameters of small-screen excellence, I had always placed M*A*S*H upon a mighty khaki pedestal. The show wasn’t perfect, but it blended riotous comedy with deeply human drama and did so often within the same scene. As recently as last week […]

Day 756: The Little Town That Probably Wasn’t

originally published January 25, 2014 Apart from a couple of quick overnighters in nearby Calgary and a 4-day excursion to my in-laws’ place in Kamloops last summer, I have not left the confines of my city since beginning this project. But while the burden of fiscal asphyxiation may have formed a tether around my proverbial ankle, I […]

Day 755: I Before E, The Extended 12″ Remix Version

originally published January 24, 2014 Those who know me know that I love mnemonics. I recite them often in an instructional way, which is why those who know me try not to spend a lot of time around me. Mnemonics – in particular those little rhymes that assist in remembering grammar and spelling – should be […]

Day 754: Getting Both Jiggy And All That With My Lost 90s Fads

originally published January 23, 2014 I’ll never forget the day I finally learned how to see the 3D image in those Magic Eye posters. I’ll never forget it because that day was today. I’m not joking – after over twenty years of trying to gaze “through” those colorful posters of blurs, shapes and pixels, I […]

Day 753: Rampart’s Black & Blue Glare

originally published January 22, 2014 In 1973, long before the rise of crack cocaine and the ensuing (and ongoing) gangsta-chic branch of popular culture, the Los Angeles Police Department threw together a group they called TRASH: Total Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The nickname suggested a smidgen of inherent bias, so the unit was renamed CRASH, with […]

Day 752: Mother Of Mercy, Is This The End Of Rico?

originally published January 21, 2014 Back before Luca Brasi slept with the fishes, before Tommy DeVito shot Spider in the foot while trying to make him dance, and long before Frank Costello tossed Oliver Queenan off a rooftop, the Hollywood gangster splattered onto screens at the birth of the genre, walking the floss-thin tightrope between […]