Three Things that are making my life worth living at the moment

1. "Under Cover Darkness" By The Strokes

2. The Spanish Inquisition Sketch By Monty Python

3. The Last Waltz By Martin Scorsese and The Band

Top Ten Television Shows of all time

Over at Facebook, my friend Matt shared his thoughts on the greatest tv shows ever made. He told those few of us he tagged to share our lists, and since I have a blog and look for excuses to post something on it, I feel like I should share my list to the blogoverse.

1. The Simpsons Forget the fact that it should've gone off the air a few years ago. To me the first few years "The Simpsons" were on the air counted for the funniest television ever produced. The gags came a mile a minute, the stories had heart, it satirized everything. "The Simpsons" have lost their edge, I know it, you know it, but it can't erase the first half that this show was on the air was the gold.

2. Mad Men Easily my favorite show on right now, although I admit I don't watch a lot of television. If there is a debate that television has eclipsed film, I could hold "Mad Men" as an example to that. I intend to revisit the show and have a whole blog about it. I have watched episodes of this show and envied at the writing, how crisp and witty, and subtle it is. It's also a show with lots of style which I love, and the ongoing themes of identity, creativity, and basically gives us what I think is the most accurate portrayal of what the 1960s must've been like.

3. Cheers: This is in my mind the perfect example of the traditional sitcom. YEs it's episodic with a laughtrack, but it remained funny and clever without getting tiring for 11 seasons, even its spinoff "Frasier" seemed repetitive after its fifth season. But I must say the reason I love this show is in its characters, you wanna see what they're up to next. That's basically it.

4. Monty Python's Flying Circus: The greatest sketch comedy show ever produced, five british men and an animator. Basically Monty Python took comedy to weird, wild new territory. It hardly ever made sense, it stayed on the premise of being very silly. When I watch old footage of Saturday Night Live, it doesn't seem to hold up as well, but Monty Python has endured, the movies are pretty funny too.

5. Arrested Development If "Monty Python" were a sitcom, it would probably look a little like this show. The ultimate dysfuntional family, the Bluths left us too soon, we still pray for a movie that will probably never see the light of day. But really has there been a sitcom that has come along since to really surpass this? I didn't think so.

6. Dr. Who Because I'm a big kid, I love "Dr. Who". He along with Superman and Indiana Jones have the ability to make me feel like a ten year old boy when I'm watching them, because what they do is so amazing. David Tennant was the best Doctor in my opinion, however Matt Smith has taken the role on as his own and has done a great job. This is a british show, and over there it's described as a kid show, here it's a science fiction show, which just goes to show, British kids have cooler shows.

7. Extras: Ricky Gervais' second show after "The Office" I kinda liked a bit more. It's a satiric look at stardom, and fame with a lot of fun cameos from famous people, but it's really the story of friendship and the finale of this show was one of the most heartwarming finales I've ever experienced, very underrated in my opinion.

8. MASH: Much like "Cheers" at the top, this was another traditional sitcom which I watch just for the characters. This show went through many changes cast wise, but the constant was Alan Alda who to me made the show what it was in my opinion. MASH still has many emotional hitting episodes that have remained classic to this very day. Like "Cheers" it remained popular for 11 seasons and never really lost its edge. The series finale is still the highest rated program for any series anywhere, so that has to say something.

9. The West Wing Perhaps I have to revisit this show, but I do remember watching it when it was still on television, not wanting to miss a single episode, which is how I feel about "Mad Men" right now. I did stop watching it once Aaron Sorkin left the show, but came back for the last season to see the election with non-other than Alan Alda.

10. Twin Peaks: Who knows what this show could've been had David Lynch just been able to be left alone and do it his way, instead the bosses at ABC wanted him to reveal to the world who killed Laura Palmer, thus killing off one of the most intriguing series ever made. Once Laura Palmer's killer was revealed, everything afterward seemed very anti-climactic, David Lynch lost interest and it went into a creative funk. Still the first half of this series is brilliant, some of the best television I ever seen. In contrast, the last half is almost unwatchable, but fascinating just to see how much a show can derail once it loses its creative focus. Also watch David Lynch's feature film "Twin Peaks: Fire walk with me" which to me is vastly underrated.

Honorable mention: "The Office" (UK and US versions), "Lost", "Rocky and Bullwinkle" (It was "The Simpsons" of the 60s), "South Park", "ER", "Kids in the Hall", "The Muppet Show", "The Daily Show", "The Colbert Report", "How I Met Your Mother", "Columbo".

Just One more Thing: The Genius of Columbo

I was sad to hear about the passing of Peter Falk like most fans of the actor. Falk was a great actor, and his filmography should be seen by more people, not just "The Princess Bride" which he is known for.

But I just wanted to pause and mention Falk's great creation, "Columbo", the greatest detective in television history. I feel like I grew up with "Columbo", back before you could by any television series known to man, there was still this thing called re-runs, also television movies.

I'm not sure when I first watched "Columbo", my dad really liked it, he watched all the murdery mystery shows like "Murder She Wrote", right up to today's super sleuth "Monk", but even my dad will probably tell you, no one beats "Columbo".

"Columbo" had a unique premise which separated itself from other crime shows, it actually showed the murder being commited and who the cuprit was. The rest of the time, we got to see Columbo figure it all out.

Falk was able to make the detective endearing, you don't think much of him, he's a bit of a small guy, smoking a cigar, sometimes he would bring his hound dog with him, occasionally he would talk of his never seen Mrs. Columbo (Until she got her own show). But Columbo always came through, he would always surprise you.

My theory was Columbo always knew from the very beginning who the murderer was, but he just had to figure out how they did it before he could apprehend him. This usually meant unending questions to the suspect. "Just one more thing" or "just one more questions" would usually be his statements during his pleasant interrogation. Sometimes he would apologize for his excessive questions, he was always polite to the suspects.

The plots were usually ingenious, the first "Columbo" episode was directed by non-other than a young Steven Spielberg. Steven Bothco who created the series "Hillstreet Blues" and "NYPD Blue" wrote some episodes. But the magic really was with Falk's portrayal of the detective. To me as a kid, he was the epitome of what a great detective should be, yes even more than Bogart's depiction of Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. Columbo was just that kind of decent detective who seemed rough on the inside but was soft on the outside. He was able to play dumb, but he always got his man.

I loved "Columbo" growing up, I bought my dad some DVDs of the show for Christmas one year, as far as I know it's the only show he does watch regularly on DVD, it just goes to show you, somethings never show their age, I hope Columbo lives forever.

The Magic of Petula Clark

One of the most unabashedly romantic songs ever sung.

A New Life: Mad Men

There's something inherently romantic about leaving the life you knew behind and starting a new one. Not just a new one, but one which is more successful, you can actually change your name, you have a new persona. This is one of the things I find so interesting and fascinating with "Mad Men".

In its best episodes, "Mad Men" can be an escape, we can admire a man like Don Draper, who is the ironic twist of a self made man. In reality Don Draper was killed in Korea, but his name is taken from him by Dick Whitman (Jon Hamm), a man who takes it and starts a new and successful life for himself. With that name he's able to leave his poverty stricken farming family and become an ad man.

Dick has paid dearly for his double life, when the past comes back to haunt him, he turns into a coward, a nervous wreck, yet at his best, we can't help but admire the man. It's an interesting juxtaposition "Mad Men" explores, to me Don Draper shows the best and worst in human nature, he's a hero, and a villain all in the same package, he is perhaps one of the most complex figures in fictional television.

I will probably get into "Mad Men" a bit more when I revisit the series, which I recommend to everyone who hasn't seen it. I guess the point I'm trying to make is reassessing your life, finding the faults in it, the mistakes, the regrets, does everyone get like that? Don't you sometimes wish you could just up and leave your life behind and starting all over? It's easier said than done, it has to do with an escape. I suppose that's why I enjoy writing so much, it's something you have control over, you can figure out an ending which can be much more satisfying than in real life. The same could be said for acting as well, where you literally can become a different person, go through the motions of a different life, different circumstances, it can be very liberating, for me it can be invigorating.

Maybe it also has something to do with expressing yourself, who you really are. When I see Don Draper, I see a man who is able to express himself better in his made up persona, perhaps it's his real persona all along, but he can only channel it through his facade. I've been told by people who think I'm quiet, they think I become a different person on stage, that's not a conceit, what I think it is is I feel more myself onstage than I sometimes do in real life. I sometimes don't like it that way, I wish I could express myself more freely in real life, I could feel more comfortable in my own skin. I feel like what I'm trying to say is getting away from me, this is not one of my more comprehensive blog entries.

So here is what I'm trying to say, I think. Life is sometimes tough, it restricts us to be ourselves. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut, what better way to get out of that rut than to get up and be someone else, at least for awhile. Take that for what it is, perhaps these are the words of a man who rambles too much, or a man who tries to make sense of things that don't make sense to him right now. In conclusion, the world is a jigsaw puzzle, but I kinda like it that way, one mystery after another to unravel, one surprise after another. It's life really, let's get down to what it really is, life is so full of surprises, it's full of disappointments, it's full of pleasant things, I wouldn't give up life for anything.

So here's what I'm really saying, I had a bad day yesterday, things were not going my way when I thought they were, I walked home in the rain, I was feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to be Don Draper, I wanted to pack up and leave and become someone else, someone who I could be happy with and someone who people thought was a great guy. I sometimes look in the mirror, and I see someone who hasn't reached his full potential, I felt like my life was holding me back in some way. But I had some time to reflect, I've counted to ten and have calmed myself. We are what we make our life to be, we try to make sense of this giant jigsaw puzzle but it's really futile. I get frustrated sometimes because it is such a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, I feel like pieces are missing somewhere and I search for them everywhere I can, but I know it's part of what makes life so interesting, even if sometimes you just wish it go your way more often than not.

The Last Dickens

Moments ago, I finished "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" by Charles Dickens. It was Dickens last book, one he never finished for he died while he was in the middle of writing it. I have now read all of Dickens novels, it's a personal goal of mine I was both looking forward to and dreading. I was looking forward to it because it's been a personal goal for sometime and I wanted that feeling of accomplishment after you have finished something; but dreading it at the same time because I knew once I did accomplish it, there wouldn't be anymore new Dickens novels to enjoy.

I still remember when I first started reading "David Copperfield", the first book of Dickens that caught my eye. I had read "Hard Times" years before, but "David Copperfield" was the one that instigated my love of Dickens. I still remember reading that first line, still one of the best opening lines of any book I've ever read, suddenly I was grabbed. I was 22 or 23 at the time, I was a college student, I was still finding my own voice. I didn't really feel I got the chance to learn much in college, I took theatre, I was going into film school, but I was still feeling adrift.

I felt I had something to say and didn't quite know how do it yet, I was still learning who I was. Dickens came at the right moment, his books sort of steered me in the right direction. When I first read "David Copperfield" it was a difficult book, I kinda look at it as teaching myself how to read all over again. I knew how to read but I always struggled with classic literature. Scholars tell us we are suppose to appreciate these books yet I knew no one who really enjoyed them. Still there was something there with that first line of "David Copperfield" that intrigued me.

I enjoyed reading always, but I always found it difficult to concentrate on a book, I sometimes still do. Occasionally my mind would wonder as I would read and I wouldn't focus on the passages of the book and get lost in the story. I decided to kind of train myself to pay attention starting with "David Copperfield"; whenever there was a passage I didn't understand, I would go back and re-read it until it did make sense. Earlier on, I would read full chapters out loud thinking it would make more sense in my head; I did this until my voice would literally get hoarse. As I was doing this, I found myself enjoying the book more and understanding the way Dickens would write. It was as if a whole new world opened up to me, I soon could get lost in his language and his stories, it was no longer a chore.

"David Copperfield" took me about four months to finish, but afterwards I felt much more educated. Pretty soon I would go on to read "Oliver Twist" and simply fell in love with "Nicholas Nickleby". I became a convert almost over night, Dickens wasn't just an author to appreciate, he became a way of life for me. The way he saw the world, his attention to detail of London streets, or characters. He paid close attention to the way people spoke, he knew how real Londoners talked be they upper class or lower class, also depending on where they were from. There was warm humour in his books, sometimes he sentimentalized. His books had love stories in them, but rarely was that the focal point. The closest actual love story he did I would say was "Little Dorrit" which surprised me. His books usually contained a labyrinth of characters and plots, usually secrets were kept until the very end. His books were tremendously popular at the time, he gave people stories that they wanted. Sometimes that could hinder his writing. My two least favorite of his books were "Martin Chuzzlewit" and "The Old Curiosity Shop" both of which suffer from what seems to be Dickens trying to write for his audience rather than himself, yet despite there flaws, both books have wonderful passages in them.

Perhaps the one book by Dickens that had the biggest emotional effect on me was "A Tale of Two Cities". That book, which takes place during the french revolution had an ending so powerful, I can still remember how I felt when I first read it. It's the ultimate story of self-sacrifice and of one man who is able to find redemption through it. Perhaps it's old fashioned to think of values like these which I sometimes think are lost in today's world, but the book was very life affirming. It was like a spiritual awakening almost, I get that way when a piece of art moves me so much, it can have the power to change your perspective on things.

Years went by, I went through all of Dickens, "Bleak House", "A Christmas Carol", "Great Expectations" right up to "Our Mutual Friend", only "Edwin Drood" remained. It now seems a bit anti-climactic seeing how the book was never finished, and to end this journey of Dickens on such an incomplete note. Dickens has meant so much to me these past few years, I truly believe he was part of my life's education.

Today I consider myself a writer more than an actor, I like creating stories, making things up. Although I wouldn't say what I write is Dickensian in any way, I can feel his influence, mostly in my dialogue, I focus on trying to keep it as real as possible the way people really speak, that's from reading him. I hope someday perhaps to write something that could make someone feel the way I did when I read "A Tale of Two Cities", that emotional, life affirming essence that is only found with the most special of writers.

I look forward to revisiting my collection of Dickens books, I'd like to read "David Copperfield" again as it's the one I feel started this journey for me. Dickens is someone who will always be in my heart, I will never stop reading him, to me he represents what good writing is, he will never stop inspiring me and challenging me. Onward and upward.

Why I will never have an e-reader

I work at a Chapters book store, yet less and less people are coming in to buy books. Being an employee, I'm privy to some inside information, for instance, Chapters is no longer considered a bookstore, it is a retail store. This change in mandate came after a crisis with the Borders bookstore chain in America. That bookstore went belly-up because it failed to see the changing in tides with consumerism.

Borders was a bookstore which prided itself on selling only books, to my knowledge, it didn't have any other retail items. Last year, Boarders filed for bankruptcy, which sent out a message to other bookstore chains across North America: sell things other than books or suffer the same fate. Thus the Chapters retail store was born.

To keep up with the competition, Chapters has pulled out all the stops, along with books, we sell a plethora of gifts, electronics, toys, and games. We sometimes even sell t-shirts.

But the biggest draw to chapters is the Kobo Wireless e-reader, a machine which I fear will make the whole business of buying and selling books almost obsolete. The E-reader is a device which downloads books. It can store up to 1000 titles, it's small, easy to use with a built in wi-fi so it works anywhere with a wireless connection. How do I know all this? Because part of my job is to sell the Kobo E-reader.

I sometimes don't understand what I'm saying when I am selling this, I'm not computer savvy, yet I have read the manual and after saying the same speech in repetition, the words lose all there meaning anyway. Occasionally I get asked a question about the E-reader which I don't understand; whenever the word gigabytes is used, I track down a co-worker to finish up the sale.

Just recently the Kobo E-reader has upgraded to a touch-screen model, it has been so popular we have had trouble keeping them is stock. It's funny considering the original E-reader only came out a year ago, yet a majority of people who bought that are lining up to buy this new and improved one.

When I was first told of the Kobo E-reader, I was ignorant, I thought it would be popular but wouldn't catch on. Now I see many people with E-readers, either in cafes, on the bus, or on the street. I guess I was shocked by how many people are using it, shocked because of all the things that have succumbed to technology, books were the ones that I thought would endure in there traditional form.

Arguments can be made for music upgrading from record, to cassette, to disc, and now to downloads, or movies going from film to digital, but there's something about holding a book in your hands.

I'm a huge bookworm, I like collecting them, when I die, they will find a room filled with books, some of them probably will go untouched. It's almost a sacred thing when I open a book, I enjoy flipping through the pages before I start reading it. I like going back to passages I like, I rarely highlight in my books, although I know many people who love to do that. Sometimes I dog-ear my books, this is a controversial practice and I have been criticized many times for doing it, but it's that special relationship I have with the book, that sense of ownership I have that makes it okay.

There is also the love of seeing a used book, I could spend an afternoon in a used bookstore if I was granted the time just wondering, flipping through old books which used to belong to someone else. Sometimes you see passages underlined, the crease is bent, you could even make a story about the previous owner just by how the book looked.

As I am writing this, I've just finished a few chapters of the most recent book I'm reading, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" which was unfinished by Charles Dickens, he died before he could finish it. The book is lying beside me at this moment, sometimes I pick it up and look at it, I look at my shelve of books behind me to see which one I will read next, also I can see which ones I have still yet to read. There's a personal quality with owning physical books you can't get with an electronic one.

Reading a book from a screen seems almost soulless to me, imagine having every book in the world, look and feel the same, it would drive me crazy. Books should have there own personality, they should be aloud to invite you in to there unique little world.

Of the list of authors I have waiting for me in the wings, there are Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Victor Hugo, Mark Twain, Steve Martin, Raymond Chandler, Joseph Heller, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry David Thoreau, each person there,is an individual with a different voice, I'd much rather have the thrill of physically opening their books then click a button on a screen, there is an excitement to it, a romance, it has more to do with just reading the words, it's experiencing it in your own personal way, which to me is kinda special.