Tag Archives: Canadian

The Anti-Oscars

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Welp, it’s that season again. No, I don’t mean the lingering frigid temperatures and precipitation of February. I mean award season. Is it just me or do The Oscars nominees seem particularly far removed and uninteresting in comparison to what us plebs are actually watching? I’m intrigued by The Brutalist, now being heralded as Adrien Brody’s greatest work since The Pianist, but I have a feeling my interest in architecture won’t be enough to keep me in my seat for over three and a half hours. Do you ever get the feeling that the teams behind these often bloated, slow-moving marathon pieces are in some kind of secret competition to make the longest movie possible? Whenever a film exceeds two and a half hours, I generally wish the editor had stepped in with their metaphorical (and anachronistic) scissors to cut large swaths of unnecessary film from the picture. If you’re like me, and you look for award competitions that honour plucky, underdog ventures, look no further. I found some awards that have applauded what I’ve actually been watching and what I hope you’ve been watching too! In the tradition of anti-proms, I hereby dub this the Anti-Oscars. Last year around this time, I introduced you dear readers to the Dorian Awards — a competition run by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. Read more about the Dorians here, but suffice it to say, there are traditional award categories like Film of the Year, and there are also ones you don’t see everyday, like LGBTQ Film of the Year and Visually Striking Film of the Year. This time around, more than one of the nominations for Unsung Film of the Year are movies I’ve seen and very much enjoyed. Let me tell you a bit about them.

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One Library Gal’s Obsession with Jeopardy

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It’s hard to say exactly when I became a die-hard fan of Jeopardy. Growing up, I dabbled here and there. Catching an episode with my parents, flexing my general knowledge skills for the family (there’s a reason why my specialty here at VPL is general services). It turns out there are some benefits to a liberal arts degree after all. In all seriousness, I love the approach the show takes to trivia, which mirrors the general trivia ethos, if you will. The questions can be about almost anything, covering wide swathes of subjects, time periods, historical movements, cultures, and geographies. The value is in knowing a bit about many things, versus doing a deep dive into one limited area. Somewhere along the way (and I think COVID had something to do with this), we started recording every single episode. Now, there is a cache of riches just waiting for us in our PVR all the time. The goal is to watch an episode every day, but sometimes things get in the way: illness, vacations, plans, etc. Most days, I like to turn it on just as we’re sitting down to supper. It’s a lovely accompaniment to a nice piece of salmon or a tofu stir fry. During the lockdown, we watched daily. I remember tracing the trajectory of Alex Trebek’s illness. From the moment he disclosed his diagnosis and the fact that he would be undergoing aggressive treatment, to the minuscule changes in his appearance that would appear from one episode to the next. It was heartbreaking, of course, but there he was hosting the show nonetheless. Such an impressive individual in so many ways. My dream is to be on the show as a contestant. That would be everything to me, but who knows? There’s a test you have to take online called the “Anytime test.” One of these days, I’ll get that call from the Jeopardy producers, and they’ll fly me to New York or some place glamorous for the final interview. I will wow them with my dazzling intellect, and the rest will be history. It turns out, we have a fair number of items related to Jeopardy in our catalogue. A couple of autobiographies from key figures, a non-fiction book about Jeopardy history, and of course trivia for you to brush up before the big test. I hope there’s something here that tickles your Jeopardy fancy!

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The Booker Prize 2024

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Greetings from incredibly busy Libraryland. Population: me. Do you ever feel like everything that could possibly be happening is actually happening? Well, I do. I know that’s not strictly the case, but it certainly feels like it. Before this devolves into “Dear Diary” territory, let’s move on to the subject of this blog post, which is the Booker Prize. The longlist was announced in the summer, followed by the shortlist in September, and last Tuesday the grand champion of them all was crowned victorious. Before we get into that, however, let’s go through the shortlist. I will highlight some of the more intriguing finalists (according to moi). They are all available in our collection, apart from one. First, a little backstory. The Booker Prize is awarded to fictional works written in English and published in the United Kingdom and/or Ireland. Its origins are tied to the Booker family, who have a long history of involvement in plantations and enslavement in Guyana. The Booker Prize website says that the current prize and its associated monetary award have no “financial” associations with the “Booker Group.” There is now a foundation that manages the contest, with the prize money sourced from a charity foundation called Crankstart, of all things. Despite the history of the award’s longtime sponsors, The Booker Prize has remained a fixture on the global literary scene, although particularly in the UK. Speculation about who will be on the longlist, who will be shortlisted, and who will take home the great and final trophy (I don’t know if there’s actually a trophy, I mean more in a figurative sense) occupies a big part of the media about literature there. One of my favourite YouTubers, Jen Campbell, usually posts a vlog (video blog) of her experience reading the longlist each year. An author herself, she crafts long, calming sojourns into her reading life in video format. Here’s this year’s video. I encourage you all to check her out, especially if you like watching vlogs. I myself am a big fan of the format and catching glimpses into other people’s lives. The authenticity of vloggers, as they’re called, is an illusion, that much one must know is true. However, there are degrees to artifice. The creators with the smallest degrees of noticeable artifice are the ones I certainly gravitate toward. Jen Campbell’s artifice in these vlogs must be negligible. It just has to be. But, without further adieu. The shortlist for 2024. For those curious about the longlist, you can find it here.

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