Monthly Archives: August 2016

Confused Case: What Happened on “The Night Of”?

by Leave a comment

To say a criminal investigation sometimes goes after useless leads or trips into dead ends, is to state the obvious. Sometimes cases fail altogether. The hope of course is that the detective or lawyer or crime lab tech can reverse course, retrace their steps, and continue down the correct path towards a just conclusion. To tune into the first couple of episodes of HBO’s The Night Of was to feel secure in the hands of a pair of veteran investigators, two guys who knew exactly how to get us from the inciting incident to the proper verdict. But now, at the end, we wonder: did it get stranded in a narrative cul-de-sac somewhere along the way?

Read Article →

The Grant Rant: The Blue Jays’ Potential Playoff Roster

by 2 Comments

It’s August 30th, and the Toronto Blue Jays have a widening, but still ‘post-movie popcorn’ like grip on first place in the American League East. It’ll be a dog fight to the end, with the eleven games remaining against Baltimore and Boston looking more and more like they’ll directly determine who will win the division, and who will be stuck battling it out in the one game Wild Card playoff on October 4th. The series opening win over the Orioles last night was a nice start.

Read Article →

Brothers in Arms: A “Hell or High Water” Review

by Leave a comment

It takes some doing to surprise in a bank heist movie. We’ve seen it all before — films that avoid showing the heist entirely or build to it as a climax, films where the heist turns out well or goes poorly, films with every permutation in between. There’s a lack of new ground to map out there, is my point. Hell or High Water, the latest from director David Mackenzie, makes clear from the start it knows all of this; what’s more, it knows we know it too.

Read Article →

Oh, The Places You’ll Pokémon Go!

by Leave a comment

One month and over 30,000,000 downloads since its July 6 release, there’s little left to say about Pokémon Go. The basic premise has been covered exhaustively (wander your city looking for all available Pokémon, compete against other trainers at area gyms); stories of players finding dead bodies or being lured into armed robberies have already passed into urban legend. In the two weeks following its official Canadian rollout (though enterprising players found ways to skirt regional restrictions long before), the sheer volume of players to be found on Toronto’s streets boggled the mind. If you passed someone with their phone out while walking, it was all but a given they were playing this game.

Read Article →

The Grant Rant: Shapiro & Atkins Are Doing Just Fine

by 8 Comments

With the news that the Blue Jays have made some relatively major front office changes this past week, firing amateur scouting director Brian Parker, national crosschecker Blake Davis and minor league field co-ordinator Doug Davis, the Mark Shapiro/Ross Atkins imprint on the Toronto organization is becoming more and more visible. Not that it wasn’t already, despite what many fans seem to believe.

Read Article →

“Lo and Behold” as Werner Herzog Wanders Into the Future

by Leave a comment

First you have to wonder: Does director Werner Herzog find these perfect anecdotes and images or do they find him? Early on in his new documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, we are taken on a tour of a room housing the first Internet-capable computer. It’s a solid hunk of metal at rest in the corner of a quaint little room. Dr. Leonard Kleinrock of UCLA explains how it sent this first message; but it’s a story that ends with the perfect Herzog-ian flourish.

Read Article →

25 Deep: The Blue Jays’ Abnormal August

by Leave a comment

In this monthly feature (an homage to the great Jonah Keri), intrepid Blue Jays fan Dan Grant takes a look at the current team roster and ranks what he finds within. An important distinction to make is that this set of rankings is not one designed to judge overall talent, current skill, potential upside or even strength of character. It is one simply designed to reflect how important the performance of the ranked players are to the success of the team, both in the recent past and near future. From top to bottom, who’s hot, and who’s not? And more importantly still, who needs to be?

Read Article →

SP Mix: Clams Casino Stakes Territory on His Own Sound

by 1 Comment

Trap was still sprouting at this time, an offshoot of late 90’s trip hop, which was being molded and changed by west coast producers like Flying Lotus. The next direction of trap was popularized by Lil B’s music, where the kick drums and hi-hats were buried in ambience, bass and reverb. The most prolific creator of this “cloud rap” sound was New Jersey producer Michael Volpe, better known as Clams Casino.

Read Article →