The Mumpsimus Blog

Idiot lights on the highway

22 octubre 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in What I'm reading now, Social values, technology

Drove to Thornbury and back last night: a beautiful, clear fall night, dry and cool. A lot of traffic was on the road along Highway 26, many of them with their idiot lights* angrily blazing at oncoming traffic.

For those who might not be familiar with the changing nature of North American slang, or perhaps...

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Tags: empathy, manners, driving, civility, idiots 3 Comments

Jesse James, myth-making and pop culture

10 septiembre 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in What I'm reading now, Book & film reviews, Social values

In the 2007 movie, The Assassination of Jesse James, we get to see a nascent American pop culture in a collision between its pop star (James) and a displaced fan (Ford), in an episode eerily similar to the fatal collision of John Lennon and Mark David Chapman. The difference, aside from the century between events, is that, for a while anyway, Ford...

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Tags: Jesse James, heroes, myths, movies 0 Comments

Updated software for blog

27 agosto 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in technology, What I'm reading now

Just a quick note: the blog software was updated yesterday. The display is a little different and it has a few new features. Invision's blogging package is not as good as that offered by other companies like Wordpress, but I stick to it because I don't believe I can port the contents from this package to another. I might start a new blog one day...

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Tags: technology, blog, Invision 0 Comments

A reflection on AMO's 2011 convention

25 agosto 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in What I'm reading now, Provincial folly, Collingwood's municipal m...

Spent most of this week at the annual AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) convention. This year it was held in London, ON, and around 2,600 municipal politicians and staff from across the province attended. As always, it's a combination of information, networking, schmoozing, politics, workshops and ideas. I've always enjoyed...

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Tags: Collingwood, AMO, convention 0 Comments

Myth, storytelling and modern writing

25 julio 2011

Posted by Ian Chadwick in What I'm reading now, art, culture and reviews, Book & film reviews, Personal reminisence, Language use and abuse, Social values

Back in 1949, Joseph Campbell, a follower of Carl Jung, wrote a book called The Hero With a Thousand Faces. It traced the story of the 'hero's journey' through the world's mythology, showing how every major tale, regardless of culture, shared common elements and archetypes. It detailled 17 quintessential steps along the mythic...

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