Dorothy “Dot” Rhone, a quiet girl from Liverpool, England, was abused by her heavy drinker father.  She also had a very emotionally distant mother.  She grew up terribly shy, introverted and withdrawn and didn’t think she was at all pretty.  As she said, I never thought I was pretty at school because my sister always said my nose would spread […]

When John Lennon and Yoko Ono stepped into New York’s “The Hit Factory” on August 7, 1980, it was quite the occasion. John was returning to the music-making game after a five year absence. After being “under contract” since he was 21, John had walked away from making music in 1975 to become a “househusband”- instead of being a musician, […]

If you’ve ever sat around thinking, “What if Superman was a communist?”  (Who hasn’t, right?) Well, wonder no more. The answer was masterfully provided in Superman: Red Son written by famed comic book writer and member of the “Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, Mark Millar. The specific comic book in question was a mini-series (3 issues) published by […]

Among those who use recreational drugs, Bill Murray is something of an icon, having played several pot-smoking characters over the years, including the cannabis-loving sea captain Steve Zissou from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and noted drug user Hunter S. Thompson in Where the Buffalo Roam. So, was Bill Murray actually arrested for transporting Mary Jane, or was this story just […]

For as far back as we are able to look into the prehistory of the human race, music has been a crucial part of the life of humans.  Some scholars even speculate that human music may have come before language.  From the beginning, people living in little groups sang and danced to self-made music.  Drums and pipes were readily developed, […]

From a young age I was introduced to what are still two of my favourite movie franchises of all time – Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I suppose it was inevitable, really. With parents who named me after a Doctor Who character, I would expect them to continue being awesome as I grew up. You may notice that my last […]

Janet Jackson and wardrobe malfunction.  Peanut butter and jelly.  Sonny and Cher.  Some things just go together.  Sort of how I feel about Canadian-American actor Rick Moranis and the movies Honey, I Shrunk the Kids or Ghostbusters. Whenever I hear his name, I have immediate flashbacks of oversized Cheerios and milk splashing out of a giant bowl.  But what happened […]

It was March of 1960.  The teenagers of the world were rejoicing.  Why?  Because Elvis was getting out of the army. Yes, Elvis “The Pelvis” Presley, Rock ‘n’ Roll’s greatest rebel iconoclast, was finally leaving the U.S. Military and taking up his career as the sneering, hip-swiveling Rock ‘n’ Roller.  Elvis’ film career was foremost in the minds of his […]

Believe it or not, the history of Nintendo goes all the way back to 1889. And before you ask- no, they were not selling Mario figures carved from wood. Originally named “Nintendo Koppai”, the small business based in Kyoto started by Fusajiro Yamauchi produced Hanafuda Cards. For those unfamiliar, these are simple playing cards that are used to play multiple […]

Today I found out about the history of Where’s Wally (known in the US and Canada as Where’s Waldo). The iconic, elusive man in the red-and-white striped shirt was first hidden away in 1987 by British illustrator Martin Handford. Handford had been drawing since he was a boy, and was particularly fond of viewing and drawing crowd scenes. He felt […]

“The Brady Bunch” was a hugely successful sitcom which ran for 5 seasons (117 episodes) from 1969 to 1974.  One of the show’s stars was Robert Reed, a Shakespearean trained stage actor.  Previous to “The Brady Bunch”, Reed had also been a co-star of a very successful drama called “The Defenders” with E.G. Marshall in the early 1960s. Usually when […]