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Time Capsule: Brian Brennan meets Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry stopped talking to reporters after they wrote about him being jailed in America during the 1960s for transporting an under-age girl across U.S. state lines for “immoral purposes.” But he made an exception for  Arts columnist Brian Brennan. An excerpt of Brennan’s new Brief Encounters column, Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll: Chuck Berry (paywall): Chuck Berry was cranky. He hadn’t seen a contract for his scheduled nightclub appearance, and he wasn’t about to step out of the airport limo that had brought him to the club. The club had sold tickets for two dinner shows, but Berry wasn’t going to

Has a crack opened between North and South Korea?

After more than six decades of hostility – including the devastating 1950-53 civil war – is North Korea now serious about trying to improve relations with South Korea?  International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe examines the possibilities. An excerpt of his new column, Lightning-strike diplomacy opens crack between the Koreas (paywall*):   In a remarkable demonstration that may presage the end of one of the world’s most deeply embedded conflicts, three of North Korea’s most senior leaders have made a surprise visit to the South. The excuse for the unprecedented trip across the heavily-armed border that has divided the peninsular since the Second World War

Good Reads: From “Volcano Season” to Cookies

The Musical Travails of Duddy Kravitz: Mordecai Richler, by Brian Brennan (paywall) In 1974, Mordecai Richler’s great comic novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, about a young Jewish hustler from Montreal who connives, cheats and pushes his way to the top, had been turned into a movie that was a hit in Canada and the United States. And 10 years after that, it was being turned into a stage musical that the backers hoped would be a hit on Broadway. Montreal impresario Sam Gesser had so much faith in the musical, titled simply Duddy, that he was putting up $500,000 of his

Finding: Kenojuak Ashevak

Occasionally the Internet, sometimes as as wonderful as it is weird, stops you in your tracks. Google’s Doodle for October 3 transported me back to my teens in the Northwest Territories, where Dorset Prints like Kenojuak Ashevak’s Enchanted Owl were glued onto people’s beer fridges, shed doors and even, rarely, placed with respect on walls in picture frames. Google, through some mysterious algorithm in someone’s head, decided to plaster Ashevak on the Internet, and remind us that Inuit art has come a long way. It is now celebrated due to not only the talent of artists like Ashevak, but  the dedication of

Time capsule: Duddy, Mordecai Richler’s theatrical dud

Mordecai Richler had never written for the stage before but really wanted to see his adaptation of his beloved novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz make it to Broadway as a musical.  Arts columnist Brian Brennan reports in his new time capsule piece that the musical had a very rough ride. An excerpt of Brennan’s Brief Encounters column: The Musical Travails of Duddy Kravitz: Mordecai Richler (paywall): In 1974, Mordecai Richler’s great comic novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, about a young Jewish hustler from Montreal who connives, cheats and pushes his way to the top, had been turned into a movie

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