BANISHING BOREDOM
Bloggery on music, books, films, travel, wildlife and dark matters.
Ode to All the Unsung Editors
Editors are the goalkeepers of the publishing world, saving many a writer from making heinous mistakes, or unclogging the constipated flow of a story, but they get little attention from readers and a whole lotta flak from writers. Paul Dorsey was not only a veteran...
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Scribbling a Lament for a Guitar-Slinger Named Al Miller
Jim Algie pays tribute to his former bandmate, Al Miller, a kingpin of the Edmonton and Toronto indie music scenes, who taught him how to play the guitar solo in Teenage Kicks, among many other priceless favors. One of the hardest parts of aging is seeing my old...
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Why Old Thailand Expats Never Really Leave the Kingdom
Many Thailand expats leave the the country only to return later. Retired author and former Youtuber Steve Rosse is one of them. His series of autobiographical pieces, Leaving Thailand, elaborates on the kingdom´s many allures and the challenges of living there. It...
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Rewatching a Film Noir Classic for Noirvember
Noirvember is a grand time to rewatch some of my favorite film noir movies, like The Third Man, DOA and Woman on the Run, as well as unearth some other diamonds in the rough, like Cover Up, with its punchy tagline: It Takes More than a Kiss to Cover Up a Killing. To...
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Struggling to Put Food on the Table for Thanksgiving
Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, October 13, 2025 will be a more subdued affair this year with up to 25 percent of the country’s citizens suffering from food insecurity. Around the world food prices are surging while wages stagnate. For these belt-tightening...
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Swan Song for Jon
I originally wrote this as a tribute to Jon McDonald on Facebook shortly after his untimely passing in early 2019. I’m posting it here as a tribute to the enduring influence of a man who continues to mean so much to so many of us. During my early years of...
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