Blog Post: To Cast a By-election Ballot in Toronto

I just voted in the advance polling for the riding of University-Rosedale.

Danielle Martin... X marked the spot!

To be able to cast a vote in such a free country is awesome.

Postscript: Here in Canada, three by-elections will be held on Monday, April 13th. The three ridings up for grabs are: Terrabonne (Quebec); Scarborough Southwest (Toronto, Ontario); and, of course, University-Rosedale (Toronto).

Paramount Pictures "Stage M" & Elmer Bernstein Too

In a piece I wrote on December 7, 2024, I mentioned a 'famous' film studio's music recording stage: Paramount Pictures' Stage M.  Many scores were recorded there, including those for: Sunset Boulevard; Psycho; Breakfast at Tiffany's; Out of Africa; The Hunt for Red October; Goodwill Hunting; Road to Perdition; The Bourne Identity; 2 Fast 2 Furious; The Island; Nacho Libre; and WALL-E. Music for Paramount television shows was recorded there, too, including episode background cues for now-classic programmes such as Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.

Recordings were not limited to instrumental parts. "White Christmas", "Mona Lisa", "Que Sera, Sera", and "Moon River" are some famous motion picture songs laid down at Stage M, by artists such as Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Doris Day.

That storied recording studio is now gone, having been closed in 2006, but through all the men and women who followed the batons of music men such as Victor Young, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, John Barry, and Jerry Goldsmith, its acoustical memories live on.

___

The late great film composer Elmer Bernstein recorded his classic score for The Ten Commandments at "M". (He replaced Victor Young when the veteran composer fell ill.) The film itself doesn't deserve, but needs, this brilliant work.

Happy Easter!

Elmer Bernstein conducts a cue for The Ten Commandments (1956).

Photos reproduced with permission by The Bernstein Family Trust

Flatscreen Tonight: Annie Hall (1977)

What a wonderful film.

I saw Annie Hall when it was first released. While I was young at the time, just sixteen, for the most part I got the flick's main theme... even if I didn't know at the time who Marshall McLuhan was. (His moment got a big laugh from the audience that night). Tonight's viewing reminded me why this film turned out to be my favourite of 1977. For me, Annie Hall is one of Woody Allen's best pictures.

Picturing: To the Polls! (University-Rosedale)

While grabbing my Tim Hortons coffee this morning I was reminded that advance polls opened today for three important byelections here in Canada. As a citizen of this beautiful and free country, I have a job to do... besides taking the above advance picture.

My riding of "University-Rosedale" is a Liberal fortress. Danielle Martin is new — replacing Chrystia Freeland — but she is expected to win. From Tony Ianno to Chrystia Freeland to....

Monday, April 13th will be a big day.

Picturing: On the Ferry from England to France

Looking down the stern into English Channel waters churning.

Picturing: Eastern Arm — Port of Dover

Returning from France: late afternoon sun as we enter the Port of Dover.

Artemis II and a Book About the Great Apollo 8

Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8

― The First Manned Flight to Another World ―

by

Robert Zimmerman

Dell Publishing

1998

With the Artemis II mission scheduled to start today, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at Apollo 8, a mission I remember well. To this then seven-year-old, watching the Saturn V rocket light up for the first time was exciting.

There is one important difference between the Artemis II and Apollo 8 flights: Today's launch will, hopefully, lead to a free-return trajectory; a swing about our moon then back to Earth. In December of 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft entered lunar orbit, and after 10 rings around the moon, its service module engine lit up to bring the command module's astronauts, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, back home.

Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 is an absorbing read. Author Robert Zimmerman goes into great detail about the politics, engineering, and humanity of a daring lunar mission... one paving the way for the manned lunar landings, starting with Apollo 11.

Perhaps there will be a book written one day with the straightforward title: "Back Around the Moon - The Story of the Artemis II Moon Flight"

If there are no delays, Artemis II should lift off at 6:24pm (EDT) today.

Today's astronauts are: NASA's Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist), and the CSA’s Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist).

Godspeed to them all!

Blog Post: I Was a Fool!

Okay! I can no longer keep up this charade. Posing as a Liberal all these years has been painful, and has taxed my constitution to unbearable heights — elbows up! I'm really a Conservative, one who hoped could change meatheaded, granola-crunching, cappuccino-sucking Liberals.

Cognitive-freedom, at last!