Suicide Blonde by Darcey Steinke
In yesterday's post on Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, I asked a question which I never answered: "And can we make anything more of it [the Tropic
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Bob Lake
Posted on September 3, 2010 by David Barker
Who is Bob? Remember the crazy killer named Bob on Twin Peaks? Maybe the lake was named after him. Or maybe it was named for someone even more insane, my uncle Bob Barker, the guy who loved to kiss women and talk about the price of refrigerators and what was behind his doors. Whatever the so
Lake Catchacoma
Posted on September 3, 2010 by David Barker
By the end of the summer in southern Ontario, there's enough daytime temperature variation that you'll get a misty condensation above the water in the early morning. If you're lucky, you'll get a photographic orgasm, as I did, on Sunday morning looking east across Lake Catchacoma in the Kawartha L
Ghostbusters – a privatization propaganda film?
Posted on July 27, 2010 by David Barker
On planet Dave, there is a special governmental agency called the Department of Epidemiology and Immigration. I've come to regard these two disciplines as sub-specialties of the same concern. One worries about foreign bodies that are microscopic; the other worries about foreign bodies that are h
Poem: Magic
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur C. Clarke [ti_audio media="4815"] I don't know how things work.
Reading Tropic of Cancer for the first time
Why has it taken me so long to read Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer? And now that I've read it, what am I to make of it? The expat Yank living in
Review: The Light of Day, by Graham Swift
Graham Swift's The Light of Day opens with all the promise of a standard detective potboiler. We meet an ex-cop private investigator named George We
Morty the Juice Cat
This is another of my shaggy dog stories from a growing collection I'm tentatively calling "Terrors of the 21st Century." The plan is that one day I
10 Images that would get your Apple App Banned
With Apple's refusal to approve apps which display even a smidgen of nudity, I got to thinking about what kinds of images would get your app excluded
World’s Oldest Shoe Discovered in Armenian Cave
Scientists excavating in an Armenian cave discovered a size 7 right shoe that is 5,500 years old. The New York Times reports that the shoe was fou
Review: Making An Elephant, by Graham Swift
One of the things I don't like about writing websites is that they're about writing. There are all kinds of sites out there that offer tips about wr
Ulysses Unseen or How Apple got into the Censorship Business
Remember Apple's "1984" commercial -- the one where the woman smashes the giant video screen while thousands of blank-eyed automatons look on, and the
America’s Next Top Stick Person
Apparently there's this show on TV, hosted by Tyra Banks, which celebrates eating disorders in America. I'd love to watch it sometime, but it's on
Helen Thomas crash and burn
Poor Helen Thomas -- and I mean that most sincerely. I hate to see a long and distinguished career come to a crashing end as the result of an inju
Queering Pride Toronto
One of the worst things that can happen to a marginalized group is to go mainstream. When the revolutionaries become the ruling party, you know you'
