Author: Michael Murray

Today, my column in The Ottawa Citizen was on the Super Bowl, (http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Entertainment/Shock+Bowl/1238844/story.html) or more truthfully, why I’ve never been much of a fan of Football. The gist of it is that it was never any fun to play as a kid, as you spent more time policing the game than actually playing it. I…

This is kind of hard to explain, but for a variety of reasons, I was invited down to the Much Music building on Queen Street to experience the Dream Machine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamachine) This device was invented by some surrealist beatnik, and through stroboscopic visual stimuli– whatever the hell that means—was supposed to inspire mystical visions in…

Vuarnet sunglasses remind me of the unattainable and effortlessly beautiful girls of high school. They came from Rockliffe Park, these girls, and they could all stroke a backhand with confidence and ease. They’d been to Europe and never seemed to need braces. They applied Aveda moisturizing lotion to their skin instead of Clearasil and Acnomel,…

Like most news show, City News in Toronto has a feature called “Athlete of the Week.” On this short video segment, some high school or college kid is celebrated for being able to skate quickly or dive into water. Big deal. Although I might not be “coordinated” or “fit” or “determined” or “courageous” I am…

I was assigned a prison pen pal who goes by the handle “MotherTrucker.” When I signed up for the program– in which you correspond with an inmate– I had kind of hoped to get somebody fascinating and terrifying, like maybe a serial killer or a dying Nazi. I thought that would be cool, but I…

I was taking the dog for a walk today and decided to stop in at the Annex Hodgepodge up on Dupont and pick up some lunch. Chili. A chili kind of day, a chili kind of season, in fact. An Indian woman of about 50 came in after me. She had long salt and pepper…