Topic: Reviews
Reviews of movies, TV shows,art and music.
"Ethical Oil" by Ezra Levant
Posted in Personal Miscellany
on September 4th, 2011 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
Politics,
Energy
This weekend I read the book Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands by Ezra Levant. I have complicated feelings about Ezra Levant, and I was certainly of two minds about buying this book. On one hand, it's an interesting topic. On the other hand, it's Ezra Levant, someone who I view as trying to inject the Canadian body politic with the same poison that's killing the United States an inch at a time à la Fox News, and that's not something I want to support financially. In Levant's favour, when it comes to the civil liberties and journalistic freedoms which make public dissent possible, Ezra is not just a cynical ideologue playing for his team first, last and only; he is the real deal, willing to stick up for anyone's rights, even people he doesn't agree with. What clinches it for me was the fact that he was the only person with a media outlet (when he ran the Western Standard magazine) who had the sheer balls to publish the Danish "Mohammed Cartoons." Furthermore, he was hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Commission as a consequence of doing so, winding up out of pocket something like a hundred grand to defend himself, and succeeded in staring them down. It is ultimately in honour of that swinging pair and that single, decisive act to defend freedom of speech in Canada from religious oppression that I threw a few bucks his way, and now a few links, too, via giving my impressions of his book.
Review: Django JavaScript Integration: AJAX and jQuery
Posted in Django
on April 16th, 2011 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
jQuery,
AJAX
A while back, I was asked to review the book Django JavaScript Integration: AJAX and jQuery, written by Jonathan Hayward, published by www.PacktPub.com. The company is looking for people who have blogged about the topic of the book to write reviews of it on their blogs - as this is a topic I have written about and I was very interested reading a book-length discussion on the topic for free, of course I agreed. If you would like a sampling from the book, a chapter is available for free online (Chapter No.10 - Tinkering Around: Bugfixes, Friendlier Password Input, and a Directory That Tells Local Time). I think this chapter is fairly characteristic of the book as a whole and will give you a good sense of what Hayward has to offer. I think some people would enjoy this book and get something out of it, but my personal reaction was more of disappointment. Overall, I'm glad I didn't pay good money for this book.
Reviewing a Book on jQuery and Django
Posted in Django
on March 21st, 2011 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
jQuery,
AJAX
I got asked to review the book Django JavaScript Integration: AJAX and jQuery from www.PacktPub.com. That constitutes work, and I'm already a busy guy. However, I am quite excited to do it, because it means that basically I get to read the book for free, and it looks really interesting. In the meantime you can follow this link to read a chapter from the book for free (Chapter No.10 - Tinkering Around: Bugfixes, Friendlier Password Input, and a Directory That Tells Local Time). I haven't really had a chance to start reading yet, but I plan to start soon. I'm really excited to see that someone is addressing this topic in depth because of what I see as its key importance to the future of Django.
Rum Runners: Run Away
Posted in Personal Miscellany
on July 24th, 2010 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
Food and Restaurants
Tonight we went to Rum Runners restaurant in Charlottetown, PEI to celebrate my step-brother's graduation from college. A lot of family were there and it was a very happy event. Regrettably, the restaurant itself was not one of the highlights of the evening. Rum Runners is a terrible restaurant and I would never recommend it to anyone.
The Avatar Phenomenon
Posted in Unfounded Speculation
on March 2nd, 2010 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
Movies
I meant to blog about this back a month or so ago when I first saw the movie Avatar (Wikipedia entry), but never got around to it. Then today, one of my co-workers told me about this clip on Youtube. Do yourself a favour and watch it - you need to see this. These people seem to be completely serious, including the dude having sex with a flower through his braid at the end of the clip. It is truly special. Yes, the special effects were amazing, and the 3D was remarkable. But I think that while most people I've talked to tend to claim they aren't as much into the story as they are into the effects, I think the popularity of the movie was actually rooted in the story and even more in the implicit ideology. Those willing to admit it, and those who go farther into the realm of farce like the LARP people are only the tip of the iceberg - something in this movie speaks to something fundamental in the collective psyche of our culture.
Hunter's: Food, And Lots Of It. Eventually.
Posted in Personal Miscellany
on August 11th, 2009 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Reviews,
Food and Restaurants
Hunter's Ale House in Charlottetown has the advertising catch phrase "Great food, great rock, and lots of it." Well, the rock is all right, but I'll definitely never go there for the food again.