Author: Ian Chadwick

Retired writer, editor, reviewer, media relations & communications consultant, municipal politician. Ukulele player. Aficionado of Shakespeare, Horace, Machiavelli, Chaucer, Cicero, Homer, socialism, science, Godzilla, ERB, & tequila. Curmudgeon, skeptic & cynic. Lay historian. Community volunteer. PC gamer. Avid reader. Woke socialist. Loving husband. Companion to one dog & three cats. Passionate about my small town. Perennially curious about everything. My writing is copyright © protected.

Shaolin: the film

I like Chinese films, particularly the epic wuxia films. They are often a refreshing change from the effects-driven/CGI monstrosities pumped out by Hollywood. They remind me of the westerns of the 1950s, usually with good and bad sides in stark relief. Subtitles don’t bother me (better them than dubbed). I’ve watched the Chinese film industry mature over the past three decades and the quality has become remarkable. Cinematography is sometimes breathtaking. One of the most appealing aspects is that they tend to do more with people than with special effects, which gives crowd scenes a more human, less manufactured feel. Gotta … click below for more ↓

The Consolation of Literature

2013-03-14 2013-03-14 Books & Reviews / Literary pretensions / My Writing / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

For Boethius, it was the Consolation of Philosophy*. For me, it’s literature. Not to write about it so much as to read it. Consolation from the act of reading. And read about literature. Sometimes literature is made more meaningful, brought into sharper focus by analysis and deconstruction. I started reading Shakespeare’s Shakespeare: How the Plays Were Made (John C Meagher, Continuum, New York, 2000) last night. He opens by saying: There are as many legitimate ways of reading Shakespeare’s plays as there are of having a conversation, making a meal, or rearing children. I suppose we assign meaning to whatever … click below for more ↓

To sleep, perchance to dream

2013-03-02 2013-03-02 Collingwood / Humour & Satire / My Writing / Personal Reminiscences / Pets & Animal BehaviourLeave a comment

Aye, there’s the rub. To sleep in, one weekend morning, when there are no pressures for meetings, work, deadlines. To roll away from the soft light that filters through the blinds and enjoy that delicious moment of closing your eyes and drifting back into a dream. Covers pulled up, the street quiet outside the widow, the furnace gently wheezing its warm air into the room; nothing is better in the world. But of course, there are others with different ideas. The real masters of the house brook no laziness, have no interest in our needs, in how much wine we … click below for more ↓

The Hobgoblins under the Lobbyist Bridge

2013-02-28 2013-02-28 Collingwood / Critical Thinking / Municipal Politics / US PoliticsLeave a comment

Lobbyist. For some, the word conjures frightening images of nefarious trolls and ogres in Armani suits lurking under the bridges and in the woods in the dark night, snatching unwary politicians and dragging them down to whatever hell the gullible and naive descend to (a hell cleverly paved with gold and champagne flutes). The very word itself is printed in bold and in colour in some comments, just in case you might miss it and the boogeyman-thrill the hiss of the word gives. Lobbyisssst… my precioussss…. That’s in part because the popular impression of lobbying derives from watching American TV … click below for more ↓

10,000 words too many

2013-02-23 2013-02-23 Arts / Books & Reviews / Internet & Social Media / My Writing / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

Been working the last two-and-a-half months on my latest book for Municipal World. A bit of a challenge, actually – trying to combine marketing, branding, advertising, public relations and communications topics into one coherent yet succinct package has been difficult. There are so many things to say, so many areas to cover, that brevity often escapes me (there are those that say it’s always that way with me…). I’ve been reading about three dozen books on the topics, and an unknown (but very high) number of websites and white papers on the same subjects. I have almost 2GB of PDF … click below for more ↓

Is it time for a Collingwood ukulele group?

2013-02-22 2013-02-22 Arts / Collingwood / Culture / Musical Instruments / Personal Reminiscences2 Comments

When a friend recently told me he had joined the new Guelph ukulele group, it made me somewhat envious. After all, having a local support-performance-practice-chat-socialize group for any hobby is always great. When your hobby is a passion that requires an audience to realize itself fully, a local group is de rigeur. You simply need others people to practice with to get better and share the joy. Uke groups have been springing up all over. The ukulele is currently the most popular musical instrument in the world. The Corktown Ukulele Jam is a weekly group get-together in Toronto that I’ve … click below for more ↓

Scaramouche

2013-02-18 2013-02-18 Arts / Books & Reviews / My Writing / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. That has to rank among the best opening lines in a novel, up there with Dickens’ “It was the best of times…” opening in A Tale of Two Cities. This line, however, is from Rafael Sabatini’s 1921 novel, Scaramouche. Yesterday, I was rummaging through my rather messy and erratic book collection, poking among books stacked upon books, and in piles on the floor, looking for a copy of Albert and the Lion that I wrote about recently. I didn’t find it, but I did find … click below for more ↓

On being a left wing pinko socialist

2013-02-16 2013-02-17 Critical Thinking / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / PoliticsLeave a comment

My left-wing, pro-union friends would be amused to hear me called a “leftie.” They generally think of me as right as Steven Harper. The only difference to them, I suppose, is my unwillingness to sell Canada to the highest corporate bidder (Chinese or American…). My right-wing friends think I’m somewhere between Karl Marx and the late Jack Layton. I’ve always thought of myself as a “political agnostic.” Probably due to years in the media where cynicism about politicians and politicians is rife. I pursue humanist goals,* not party goals. I simply have no faith in party politics. I don’t see this … click below for more ↓

Albert and the Lion

2013-02-16 2017-05-02 Books & Reviews / Literary pretensions / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

A recent comment on Facebook – “You just can’t resist poking the bear…”* made me remember a poem by Marriott Edgar that I enjoyed as a child in the 1950s: Albert and the Lion. I actually first heard it orally – we had a collection of old 78s and a wind-up gramophone in the basement. Among the musical treasures were several monologues by Stanley Holloway who read this and several other poems about Young Albert, accompanied by a piano that accented his words. There was a book, too, probably brought from England by my father when he came over in … click below for more ↓

ID’s deep roots in creationism

2013-02-15 2013-02-16 Atheism & Spirituality / Balderdash & Hoaxes / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Science & Technology / Social Order & Disorder5 Comments

Proponents of creationism often try to deny that “intelligent” design (ID) is merely creationism wrapped in a fake lab coat to make it look like it’s pals with science. It isn’t. They’re not buddies, didn’t go to school together, and don’t ‘like’ each others Facebook pages. ID is merely a tawdry, paper-thin attempt to hoodwink the gullible who can’t see past the plastic pocket protector that there’s a bible in the pocket. In part this is because the popular notion of what a theory is has devolved into a synonym for guess or an unproven assumption. But that’s not the … click below for more ↓