In Makeup

I just got back to my desk after spending the morning in the studios of JoyTV for a taping of the show Perspectives with my friend Randall Mark (a.k.a. Peg).

I've always said that one of the things I like best about being a writer is that when the phone rings anything can happen. Which is how I ended up sitting in front of the camera next to Peg, (in makeup for the second time in ten months), pontificating about the likely outcome of the Oscars, sharing my picks for Best Actor (a toss up between Micky Rourke and Sean Penn), Best Picture (Slumdog Millionaire is a lock) and how my perspective as a person of faith affects the work I do.

All in, like, six minutes.

The show airs the Monday before the 81st annual Academy Awards, which would be February 16th. Channel 11 in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, channel 10 in Winnipeg.

There are a million stories in the naked city...

The population of New York City has grown significantly since those immortal words were uttered in the film noir The Naked City.

One In 8 Million is an interactive feature which gives a few of New York's characters a chance to tell their stories. The latest entry, Joel Carp: The Corner Druggist, is outstanding. This is why I love the New York Times. It's also why I love New York, and old neighbourhoods like the one we live in in Vancouver, where there seems to be a story on every corner, a character on every park bench. The kind of place where the man behind the deli counter knows everyone who's lived in your house since the day it was first occupied in 1945.