Through the Looking Glass: The Culture of Conspiracy in JFK (Part 5)
By the end of the nineties, my obsession with conspiracies was being replaced by a greater sense of awareness in my own politics. I took an interest in current affairs, started watching The West Wing and followed with rapt disbelief the 2000 election victory of George W. Bush. Did I not see a conspiracy in…
Through the Looking Glass: The Culture of Conspiracy in JFK (Part 4)
In creating a counter-myth that would take down the sacred cow of the Warren Commission, Oliver Stone would also have to counter the sacred cows of filmmaking that had made him a darling of Hollywood. For the director, this meant that JFK would chart a course for the unknown and fundamentally change the way he…
Through the Looking Glass: The Culture of Conspiracy in JFK (Part 3)
My fascination with conspiracy theories would be accelerated by that other paranoid milestone of the 90s: The X-Files. I can still recall with absolute clarity that fateful Friday night in September of ‘93; a slow creeping revelation that I wasn’t just watching some sci-fi show about UFOs but something far deeper. The X-Files, and the…
Through the Looking Glass: The Culture of Conspiracy in JFK (Part 2)
It’s easy to look back on the last thirty years and dismiss paranoia-as-pop-culture as something that’s always been present. But it’s simply not the case. It owes a narrative debt to film like Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View and of course, All of the President’s Men. But there is no mistaking that…
Through the Looking Glass: The Culture of Conspiracy in JFK (Part 1)
There is a moment in the movie JFK (1991), Oliver Stone’s opus on the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy, where the film pauses from the pace of its narrative and points the attention of the protagonist squarely upon the viewer. Taking place mere moments before the credits roll, District Attorney Jim Garrison—played by…
Down Ontario Highways
This blog is taken from a Facebook post I wrote in reaction to the recent story of Greyhound Canada ceasing all operations. As you can see, it stirred up some memories. I am a child of the road. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, my family took regular road trips from Ottawa to Toronto…
Cotton Factory Writer-In-Residence
I’m taking a break from blogging about my geeky past to announce that I’ve been named the inaugural Writer-In-Residence at the Cotton Factory in Hamilton along with local writer Sally Cooper. Sponsored by the CoWork Space at The Cotton Factory, the Writer-in-Residence Program is a new opportunity that allows writers the time and space to build…
Fandom-fuelled youth
You might be wondering where it all began for me. Why this story? Why role-playing? Why vampires and wizards and LARP? As you already know, I’m a huge geek. And, as I said before, playing Dungeons and Dragons was in my blood from a very early age. Like most people I know, I started at…
Welcome to the shadows…
What if I told you there was an epic story being told entirely in the shadows? What if this story featured sinister vampires and devious wizards? And what if these supernatural creatures were also the people you knew or the people you loved? Real life is always stranger than fiction. Case in point, Live Action…
Steps on a Journey
By now, you’ve heard the story. The legend, really. Shakespeare wrote the masterpiece of King Lear at the height of the Black Plague. And, if you’re like me, this legend rang in your ear when the pandemic first began. So many of us (at least those with the privilege of doing so) were in the…
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Stephen Near Writer 